This document provides an overview of social networking tools for communicating and problem-solving. It introduces common social media platforms like blogs, podcasts, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook and discusses their advantages and disadvantages. The key objectives are to provide background on social media usage, examples of how these tools have worked for organizations, and help readers choose appropriate tools for their audience and goals. It cautions that security and privacy should be considered when using any third-party social media sites.

1. Communicating and Problem-
Solving…
With Social Networking Tools

4. • Engage
• Form Relationships
• Share content
• Social media may be a new term, but the theories
and fundamentals are not.

5. Guess what. Social media is not new
• In a recent blog, Alexandar Blom wrote: There was a
time when the Internet did not exist. People sent letters
to each other. Telephones and telegrams came to
prominence. People spoke in small gatherings. They
communicated. They made friends. They formed
relationships. They engaged. Sound familiar?
• Social media is people communicating and collaborating
online.

6. Today’s Objectives
• Background numbers—Video
• Introduce you to social media platforms; learn
pros and cons of each
• Examples – our social media services and how
these technologies have worked for us
• Help you pick tools appropriate for your
audience and goals

7. Social Networking Advantages
• FREE!
• Easily accessible
▫ Anyone can sign up
▫ Updated in real time and accessible on YOUR
schedule
• Community-oriented

8. Blogs
• Many uses:
▫ Platform for posting information, reports,
resources, links
▫ Or, can serve as all-purpose website—maybe the
only one you need

9. Blogs—Examples
• 4-H Arts in Wisconsin
• News from Cooperative Extension
• Updates from the Dean

10. Blogs—Advantages
• WordPress is supported by CE IT
• Customizable templates
• Good for multimedia
▫ Post: videos, audio, pictures
• Great platform for long posts
▫ Articles, documents
• Internal blog advantage – great for archiving
materials

11. Blogs—Disadvantages
• Not great for facilitating conversation
• If audience doesn’t use an RSS reader, blogs can
be hard to follow
▫ Readers have to navigate to the site to see updates

12. Podcasts and YouTube
• Multimedia supplements that can be combined
with other social media platforms
▫ Great way to incorporate interactive content
• While audio and video production aren’t too
hard, they do require a little skill, as well as
software and equipment

13. Twitter
• Micro-blogging service
▫ Messages are limited to 140 characters
• Twitter users “follow” each other to receive
updates

14. Twitter—Examples
• CNN Breaking News
• UW-Extension ANRE
• UW-Madison

15. Twitter—Advantages
• Great for sharing quick thoughts
• Good for reposting articles from other sources
• Can build large networks of similar
organizations to share ideas and information
• Mobile-accessible (cell phones, PDAs)
• Desktop and web-based applications
▫ Ex: HootSuite, TweetDeck, many more

16. Twitter—Disadvantages
• Message size limit
• Cannot share documents, just links
• Two-way conversations can be exclusionary for
other followers
• Distracting!

17. Facebook
• Social network
• Groups vs. pages vs. profiles
• More than 500 million active users
• Members can join networks and communities

18. Facebook—Examples
• American Red Cross
• UW-Extension Family Living Programs
• UW-Extension ANRE
• UW-Extension CNRED

19. Facebook—Advantages
• Multimedia-capable
▫ Video, photos
• Good for community input
▫ The wall-post structure encourages back-and-
forth communication
• Potential to reach large audiences – and
strategic audiences
▫ Facebook advertising is customized for every user
based on personal profile keywords

20. Facebook—Disadvantages
• Not good for posting documents
• Personal profiles
▫ Need to have a profile to access pages, but some
may be uncomfortable with creating a personal
profile
• Access
▫ Many county offices block Facebook and other
social networking sites

21. Cautions
• Security
▫ With any third-party site, using emails and
passwords can be a weak spot. Big security
incidents are rare, but do sometimes happen.
• Privacy
▫ Remember that anything online may be seen by
others—only post what you’re comfortable with.

22. Social Media & Strategy
• Social media is just part of a larger
communication plan
• Hopefully one—or more—of these platforms can
be a valuable supplement to your
communications.