Social Media Literacy

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+ Broward County Library 4 months ago
Looks very nice, hope you have fun with the day!

BOB

Notes on slide 1

All of the links for the pages we are looking at today and more are listed with tags on my Delicious page (Give location of web and email).

In this session we will explore the characteristics of online social media websites. In addition, we will look at some specific examples of social media and discuss some of their uses in a library setting. At the end we will take a brief look at some tools for aggregating this information and what the future holds. We have a lot of material to cover in 45 minutes, but I will leave at least a few minutes at the end for questions.

Let’s start with a quick overview of the characteristics, then we will explore each of these characteristics individually. The 7 characteristics we will explore today are free, multidirectional, user content, group think, frequent updates, friending, and no boundaries.

Starting first with free. Most social media sites do not charge fees and are open to anyone to use. It is usually free to create and view content. This means the companies operating the sites depend on advertising for generating revenue. This open access is important because it allows anyone to use the sites and become part of the conversation, regardless of income.

Social media often involves user-generated material. Many sites are composed exclusively of items written or uploaded by users. Blogs, which are like online journals, are good examples of user generated content.

Online communication has changed from being a megaphone to a telephone. Social media means a conversation of content going in multiple directions. Users can post comments on articles to give authors feedback or provide additional information.

We can harness the multidirectional nature of online social media and pool resources across continents like never before. People now use tools such as wikis and web-based applications such as Google Docs to collaborate on projects and share information.

Back in the 90’s when the World Wide Web was launched, most pages were static and rarely updated. Now, social media gives us pages that are updated continuously. Blogs and microblogs have changes user expectations on what is viewed as timely. A newspaper article can be out of date minutes after it is published, but a blog can report events as they happen.

Friending is changing the way we connect and communicate with others. Friending also means exponential growth in online social media. Although it’s called different things on different web sites, “friending” is a powerful component of social media.

CEOs can now communicate directly with customers. Friends and family can stay in touch no matter where they are located. The border between friends, family, colleagues, and classmates are being blurred. My coworkers can see who my friends are and vice versa. My classmates I lost touch with 20 years ago can now reconnect easier than ever before. Cell phones like the iPhone and Blackberry are also smashing boundaries. Many users access social media sites using these devices rather than use a computer.

Let’s take a more detailed look at each of these social media characteristics and see some specific examples.

Google Docs is an example of open access. Google offers 1 login to access all of their services. With this login, users can create and share word processing documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and wikis. These materials can be shared with the world or with a select group of friends or colleagues. A group of friends could plan an itinerary together, students could work on a group project, and a group of librarians could compile a presentation using Google Docs. Google documents do not live on your hard drive, they live in a “data cloud.” However, when finished, these can be downloaded to Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF. (Look at Google Docs and Spreadsheet example).

There are a wide variety of blog subjects and styles. Some blogs are created by known journalists for their online publications, but most are created by ordinary people from around the world. This diversity of authors means a diversity of topics as well. Here are just a couple of examples. Cheap Healthy Good, Lifehacker, and Google Blog Search, Blogger).

The feedback we get from reader comments can add valuable insight to a story such as opposing viewpoints, personal experiences, corrections, and additional content. Let’s look at some comment and tagging examples. Flickr is a photo sharing service where users can view, comment, and tag one another's images. The Library of Congress has several beautiful collections of vintage photos on Flickr and invites user comments. (Look at examples).

Another example of multidirectional social media is Digg. Users post links to stories they find interesting, and other users vote for the story by “digging” it and can make comments on the story. Digg is a good way to find out what news stories are important to people over the past 24 hours, past week, and past month. The technology section, in particular, is helpful. (Take a brief look at Digg)

On the topic of Group Think I want to recommend a book called Wikinomics. Wikinomics is written by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. In addition to talking about the history and significance of Wikipedia, the book details global collaboration success stories from Procter & Gamble, BMW, Lego, and even the Human Genome Project.

Wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia which is an online encyclopedia covering almost any topic you can imagine including current events. The thing that sets Wikipedia apart is that absolutely anyone can edit it with no credentials whatsoever. This is its greatest strength and weakness. People from all over the world are editing Wikipedia entries, so you will find inaccuracies. Inaccuracies that YOU can correct, if you wish. I recommend thinking of Wikipedia as a great pathfinder for research. Imagine a research pathfinder created by hundreds or thousands of people working together. That’s what we have here. (Show wikipedia examples).

Of course, Wikipedia is not the only wiki in town. There are countless wikis on a number of specialized topics. Some are open to the public and some are private wikis that have restricted access. Library Success is a best practices wiki open for everyone to read and edit. All you have to do is set up a user name and password. (Look at Library Success wiki: Weeding, Keeping up with profession).

If you want to create your own collaborative project online that will be ongoing, I highly recommend using either Google Sites which allows you to build a collaborative web site without the need to know any HMTL. Google sites can be set up as public or private. (Show Google sites, classroom example and project example).

Blogs are an example of a social media that should be updated regularly. What is “regular” varies depending on the author. Some bloggers write daily, weekly, or whenever the urge strikes. I am more the last type of blogger. I will make several entries, take a month or 2 off, and then blog again. It’s best, of course, to update regularly to build an audience. Many people set up blogs and forget about them. The out of date blog sits there as a nagging reminder for the author and everyone who visits it. In this busy world, sometimes we just don’t have time for blogging.

Enter the world of microblogging, most commonly known as Twitter. Sure, it has a funny name and may sound like a silly fad. However, Twitter is changing the way many people, companies, and organizations market, research and communicate.

Twitter messages, known as “tweets,” are limited to 140 characters, so the idea is to send out short bursts of information. This encourages users to send frequent updates as it is much faster than writing an entire blog entry. Timeliness, then, is one of Twitter’s great strengths. Messages can include just text, but they often also include a link to a photo or a hyperlink to a web site or news story.

Twitter is meant to be a conversation and that echoes back to the multidirectional nature of social media we discussed earlier. Users sometimes reply to one another’s messages. If you wish, you can view Twitter pages without logging in, registering, or tweeting. This is good if you decide you do not want to publish any information on Twitter, but you want to see what is being said about a particular topic. Let’s start with some examples of how you can participate just as an observer on Twitter. Here are some people who use Twitter. (Show my twitter page, Obama, and Oprah).

Of course, it’s not just individuals on Twitter. Organizations and companies are tweeting as well. (Show examples CNN, Red Cross, Library).

Searching for topics is a bit easier than searching for specific people. I recommend starting your shift at the reference desk by taking a quick look at http://search.twitter.com/ and take a look at the trending topics to see what is being discussed. If you see a “#” sound in front of a topic, that is a hashtag. A hashtag is simply a subject that several people are writing about and agree to tag their posts with the same tag. This makes it easier for people to find posts dealing with the topic. (Look at examples on Twitter Search)

ALA09 was the hashtag ALA chose for attendees of the ALA 2009 conference. Twitter is changing the way people experience seminars and conferences as attendees now tweet live from their individual classes and report about the experience on Twitter. You can now get some value from a conference even if you cannot attend it. (Search for ALA09 and SEFLIN09 hashtags).

Twitter has its own vocabulary. Here are some tweet components you will want to be familiar with. (Explain each item).

Twitter is meant to be a conversation and that echoes back to the multidirectional nature of social media we discussed earlier. Users sometimes reply to one another’s messages. If you want to participate in the Twitter discussion, all you need to do is decide on a user name, password and your email address. If you give it permission, Twitter will then look through your email addresses to find current Twitter users so that you can follow one another. You can opt out of this though, if you choose. (Demonstrate sending a tweet). (Demonstrate sending a long link with tinyurl)

When you first sign up for a social media account, you usually connect with just a handful of friends or colleagues you know who use the service. Many sites also offer to look through your email contacts for current subscribers so you can connect. Although it’s called different things on different web sites, “friending” is a powerful component of social media. Friending makes it easy for people to connect with one another and it causes tremendous growth in usership for these websites. Friending is responsible for tremendous growth in the number of people using these services.

Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn are social networking sites for microblogging, photo sharing, link sharing, and messaging. Facebook and MySpace are used more for social reasons, where LinkedIn is intended for professional networking. Facebook is currently the fastest growing of these services, but MySpace is still quite popular among teens.

Friending goes by different names on the services. (Explain the differences)

Friending is also becoming the new way to exchange contact information when you meet someone at a party or business function. Perhaps you meet a new contact a party or seminar and decide you want to stay in touch. Rather than write down contact information, you just give them your name and say, “I’m on Facebook” or “I’m on Linkedin.” Once one of you has friended the other, you can stay in touch through that site’s messaging service.

Services like Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn also allow you to see who your friends are friends with. Chances are you will find people in common that you know and will find even more people to friend. Before long, old classmates will find you on Facebook, perhaps relatives you have not seen in years will contact you, and sometimes even total strangers will ask to connect with you. I had one gentleman connect with me on Facebook because we just happen to have the same exact name: Stephen Kent Grubb. Being contacted by total strangers happens much more on MySpace to me than Facebook. That is just one of the many reasons I prefer Facebook to Myspace. (Show Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, & Twitter Friending).

Twitter made the news recently as protesters in Iran were using the tool to organize protests and share news with the outside world. The Iranian government put up firewalls in attempt to block access to the service. Back in the 60’s college students used mimeographs and phone trees to organize war protests in the U.S. In the 80’s, underground newspapers in Poland were produced using carbon paper 6 copies at a time. Today with tools like Twitter, 1,000s of people can be reached and organized in a matter of seconds.

Devices like the iPhone and Blackberry are also smashing barriers as people access social media using phone applications. Using their phone, people can connect with their social network anywhere they have reception. There are more than 30 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices. People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active on Facebook than non-mobile users.

The 7 characteristics we looked at show the power of online social media. We are talking about a LOT of information and content. Since 1997, the amount of content on the web has grown 100,000%. There are now more than 50 million blogs on the web. If you are trying to process and organize all of this information, you may want to consider using some special tools.

We need tools to help us efficiently retrieve information from online social media sites. Addictomatic is a great way to aggregate information from a variety of social media sites on a particular topic. It is also a good way to learn about and explore other social media sites. TweetDeck is free software you download that can help you more efficiently use Twitter and Facebook. RSS feeds are a good way to keep on top of news stories, blogs, and subjects on social media. There is a link on my Delicious list to learn more about RSS. Let’s take a quick look at Addictomatic (Ask for example)

Whenever we share information on the internet, we want need to take certain precautions. Do not write anything about yourself that you would not want to appear in a newspaper. Unless you are specifically authorized to speak for or about your employer, do not. Also, for your safety, I do not recommend sending out regular updates about your specific location.

We have looked at several social media sites today. Social media is young and dynamic. While it is important to learn about the current tools, it is a good idea to keep an eye on the horizon to see what is ahead. Chances are, the sites and services we use 5 years from now will be completely different. For example, Google has a new product it is working on called Wave that blurs the line between email, instant messaging, and wikis. Google Wave will allow us to collaborate live and communicate on a new level. Products like Google wave will continue to blur the lines between social media and software platform. Email is becoming out of date as more immediate forms of online communication are created.

All of the links for the pages we are looking at today and more are listed with tags on my Delicious page (Give location of web and email).

Favorites, Groups & Events

Social Media Literacy - Presentation Transcript

Social Media Literacy http://www.stephengrubb.com
Social Media
- Characteristics
- Examples
- Aggregating
- Future
- Questions
Flickr: Dan Taylor
Characteristics Free User Content Multidirectional Group Think Frequent Updates Friending No Boundaries
Free
- Open to public
- Create
- View
- Advertising
Flickr: 1pictureaday
User Content
- Anyone can post
- Blogs
Flickr: Olivander
Multidirectional
- Comments
- Feedback
- Additional information
Flickr: Un ragazzo chiamato Bi
Group Think
- Collaboration
- Shared resources
Flickr: linh.ngân
Frequent Updates
- Blogs
- Microblogs
- Timely
Flickr: ToniVC
Friending
- Friends
- Friends of friends
- Family
- Colleagues
- Similar interests
Flickr: imma-ty-grr
No Boundaries
- Power silos
- Geography
- Relationships
- Time
- Cell phones
Flickr: Frozenchipmunk
Characteristics Free User Content Multidirectional Group Think Frequent Updates Friending No Boundaries
Free
- Shared Documents
- Data cloud
- Downloaded
http://docs.google.com http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pPEpGcA-QAQgrJqglDa_SOg Flickr: 1pictureaday
User Content
- Anyone can post
- Blogs
Flickr: Olivander
Multidirectional
- Comments
- Feedback
- Additional information
Flickr: Un ragazzo chiamato Bi
Multidirectional
- Comments
- Feedback
- Additional information
Group Think
- Collaboration
- Shared resources
Group Think
- Collaborative encyclopedia
- Pathfinder for research
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banff_National_Park
Flickr: linh.ngân
Group Think
- Library Success Wiki
- Best practices
Flickr: jmsmytaste
Group Think
- Collaborative web site
- No HTML
- Public or private
http://www.sites.google.com http://sites.google.com/a/googleclassrooms.org/mrs-richau/Home https://sites.google.com/a/altostrat.com/project-eggplant/Home Flickr: jmsmytaste
Frequent Updates
- Blogs
- Updated “regularly”
Flickr: ToniVC
Frequent Updates
- Microblogs
- Timely
Frequent Updates
- Tweets
- 140 characters
- Links
- Participate in the conversation or
- Just view
Frequent Updates
- http://www.twitter.com/stephenkg
- http://twitter.com/BARACKOBAMA
Frequent Updates
- People
- Organizations
- Companies
Frequent Updates
- Searching topics
- Trends
- Hashtags
Frequent Updates
- Conferences
- Sharing experience
Frequent Updates
- @blahblahblah
- #hashtags
- Direct Messages
- Following
- Followers
- RT (Retweets)
Frequent Updates
- User name & password
- Email address
- Email search
- tinyurl
Friending
- Friends
- Friends of friends
- Family
- Colleagues
- Similar interests
Flickr: imma-ty-grr
Friending
- Friends
- Friends of friends
- Family
- Colleagues
- Similar interests
Friending
- Twitter: Follower & Following
- Facebook & Myspace: Friend
- LinkedIn: Connection
Friending
- Virtual business card
- Business
- Personal
Friending
- Friends of friends
- Expanding your network
No Boundaries
- Organizing
- Communicating
Flickr: imma-ty-grr
No Boundaries
- iPhones
- Blackberries
Flickr: shapeshift
Characteristics Free User Content Multidirectional Group Think Frequent Updates Friending No Boundaries
Social Media Tools
- Addictomatic.com (Make sure to use 2 “d”s)
- TweetDeck
- RSS Feeds & Reader
http://www.addictomatic.com
Social Media Tips
- Newspaper rule
- Do not speak for or about your employer
- Do not give regular updates about your location
Flickr: Picture Perfect Pose
Future of Social Media
Questions Flickr: lecates
Social Media Literacy http://www.stephengrubb.com stephengrubb@gmail.com