Social Media Is The New Small Town (Tarleton Tip Thursday #6)

Welcome back to Tarleton Tip Thursdays, where every week we give you tips to help you harness the power of social media.  Cathy Wilterding, a Tarleton State University librarian who is also an alumnus and a native of Granbury, Texas, recently shared with TSMRI how some of the guidelines she grew up with for living in a small town also apply to social media.

This image was used with permission from the Cross Timbers Historical Images Project.

• Be careful of the company you keep. In Facebook and Google+, you can corral your contacts with lists and circles, but don’t allow anyone in your social media circle that you wouldn’t want in your “real” circle.
•  Mind your manners. Once you say it, you can’t take it back. Yes, you can delete posts and clean up your social media presence, but you may have already affected a relationship.
• Don’t gossip. People love to pass on info. News travels fast…especially bad and revealing news. What used to be a phone call to parents/bosses from a neighbor or fodder for school hallways is now more quickly spread through tweets, Facebook and blog posts, and emails – often with pictures.
• Don’t expose your dirty laundry. Some things do NOT need to be cataloged in social media.  When in doubt, don’t.
• Don’t accidentally leave your diary out where others can read it. And don’t leave your social media accounts open on a shared computer! New entries might appear.

With Facebook’s Timeline rolling out, we urge you to remember some of those small-town sayings and manage your online reputation. Don’t let it manage you and your future.

Dr. Maben is a communication professor at Tarleton State University, and a co-director of the Texas Social Media Research Institute.

Social Media in the Classroom

Social media   can serve as a powerful tool to improve communication and collaboration while still ensuring proper boundaries of privacy between teacher and student. A recent post via Mashable Social Media suggests instructors find out what social media platforms your students use most and integrate them into your course.  Dan Klamm, Marketing & Communications Coordinator at Syracuse University Career Services, says, “Social media is a way to enhance student learning and grow discussions.”

Facebook:  Group Pages
One example of using social media in the classroom would be to establish a class page or private group. This can be a great tool for group discussions or idea exchanges. For example, in one of my classes, my professor, Dr. Sarah Maben, established a private group page on Facebook. Students use this page to post ideas and other content related to our class objectives. Maben says, “Students can exchange real-world examples of what they are learning in class and from readings.” It’s a great way for students to comment on the different ideas that are posted.

"As instructor, using Facebook helps provide examples that mean something to my students. I can find examples, but the ones they find are often better and more interesting to them. The searching for items to post on our shared space also keeps class materials in students' minds for longer than just our face-to-face meeting,” says Maben.

Twitter:  Discussion Tweets
In another class, my professor utilized Twitter for a class assignment. Many students had not used Twitter, so this assignment gave them the opportunity to learn how to use the social media platform. Students exchanged messages, known as Tweets, about class discussions or other class information by using a common hashtag (#). A hashtag (#) is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. The image below is an example of a Tweet using a hashtag.

(Image via Twitter Help Center: http://support.twitter.com/entries/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols)

Tweets are categorized by the hashtag keywords or topics, which allows Twitter users to easily search by the hashtag to see all relevant Tweets. This feature can be very beneficial in tracking classroom related Tweets.

Google:  Docs for Collaboration
Another social media tool that can be used is Google Docs. Google Docs is a group of products, such as word processing documents, spreadsheets and presentations that allows multiple users to create and edit the documents. This suite of products can serve as very useful tools in the classroom.  For example, in one of my classes, we used Google Docs to create a research paper. Members of the group were able to contribute on an individual basis, but also to collaboratively edit the project. The document feature also allows users to add comments and track all changes made. This helps students communicate about the tasks assigned and also teaches them how to collaborate in the virtual world.

As Klamm says, “By being mindful of your students’ comfort levels, encouraging group discussion on official class pages and being clear about your boundaries, you will create lively and extremely useful communication channels for your students.”

Tarleton Tip Thursday #5 (G+): Understanding (and Using) Google's Search Plus

 Welcome back to Tarleton Tip Thursdays, where every week we give you tips to help you harness the power of social media. 

UNDERSTANDING GOOGLE'S SEARCH PLUS

What is “Search Plus?”

It seems like every day we hear about Google’s growth and the changes being made. Most recently, you may have heard about “Search Plus.”  Officially called “Search plus Your World” (SPYW), it encompasses search results from your Google+ networks and related profiles in addition to the public information traditionally returned via the search engine.

When did this happen?

Google announced the launch of SPYW in January; however, it is actually not new to the social media world. CNET News explains that social searches, such as Google’s SPYW, have been slowly evolving over the last five years or so. Other tech companies like Microsoft (via its Bing search engine) and Facebook have also launched their versions of social search products.

What does this mean for you?

Up until the creation of social search and particularly SPYW, search engines returned results based chiefly on how many other pages linked to that page. SPYW assumes that you want to first see results related to your Google Circles. In this screen shot, the top search results are labeled “personal results.”

(Image via The Official Google Blog: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/search-plus-your-world.html)

What About Facebook and Twitter?

It’s important to understand that SPYW does not pull social data from sites like Facebook and Twitter, which did not go unnoticed by the social networking giants.  Instead, it uses its own Google Circles network to highlight posts from your Google Circles that are relevant to your search.  Google touts that “Search is simply better with your world in it.”

Tips

SPYW only works if you are signed into Google+. It also has a toggle feature that allows you to turn it off and on. Turning it off allows you to search the “old school” way, returning public results from across the web.

So, what do you say?

Do you like the idea of social searches? Is this the game changer Google has been waiting for to thrust them ahead of Facebook? How will this impact Facebook?

Tell us what you think!

Deana Coan is a communications major at Tarleton State University and an intern on the Social Media Committee of the Texas Social Media Research Institute.  You can follow her on Twitter as @DeanaCoan.

Tarleton Tip Thursday # 4 Social Media (Facebook) or, Does your past ever really go away?

Welcome back to Tarleton Tip Thursdays, where every week we give you tips to help you harness the power of social media.  And now the question of the day:

Do you have embarrassing pictures on Facebook that misrepresent you? 
 

We've all been there.  Your friend posts that picture of you at a party or attempting the Dougie (or, well, worse) when you think no one is looking. You quickly get the picture removed, but where does it go from there? Is it really and truly gone?

According to a recent mashable.com post (with video) describing a story originally reported by Ars Technica, Facebook still has "deleted" pictures on its servers. You can't help but wonder who truly has access to it and if you will ever see it floating around on Google somewhere. Mashable.com also stated that "Facebook said it's working to fix flaws allowing deleted photos to hibernate on various data servers." 

You may want to think again before you take that picture with your favorite adult beverage in your hand and upload it to Facebook. For better or worse, that image may well linger on as an imprint on your social media reputation.

PUSO Dance Crew.  Image by JEprox17 on Flickr.com

Do you worry about employers (and others) checking your Facebook profile?* Or do you think it's no big deal?  Let us know in the comments!  And don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.


*If you're concerned about your Facebook profile in general, you may want to read our previous post on Socioclean, a service that promises to clean up your social media profiles.

Brooke King is a communications major at Tarleton State University and a Social Media Committee intern at the Texas Social Media Research Institute. 

Facebook Timeline: What It Means to the Average User

Lately there has been some chatter about Facebook implementing the Timeline feature on all user accounts. When Facebook first launched the Timeline feature late last year, it was introduced as an optional feature for Facebook users. Recently, Facebook announced it will be rolling out the Timeline feature for all users.

 Can you opt out?
So, what does this mean to the average user?

If you elected to switch to the Timeline profile format when it was optional, it probably doesn’t mean anything to you, except of course, now you will get to see everyone else’s Timeline profile.

But, if you are like me, and opted not to switch…now you don’t have a choice. Ok, so this isn’t the first time Facebook has made a change and gave users no choice. But this feature seems to bring additional concerns about privacy so I wanted to do some research to find out for myself.
 
Timeline and Privacy
According to their blog update on January 24, users will get the new timeline “over the next few weeks”.

Once you get it, and you’ll know this when you have “an announcement at the top of your profile”, you will only have seven days to edit your content before everyone else can see it.   Why is this important, you ask? Older posts that were posted prior to the permission settings will default as public. If there is content in these older posts that you may not want the world to see, you have to change the settings one by one.

As I searched for information on the Timeline feature, I found an informative post, "12 Things You Should Know About Facebook Timeline" by Jill Duffy of PCMag.com. This article does a great job of summarizing the top things you need to know about the new changes.

Get informed
You should also check out the Facebook Timeline page to become completely informed about how Timeline works, how it will look, how to share or hide stories and how to control privacy settings.

I must admit, when I first heard all the buzz - privacy concerns, etc. - about Facebook Timeline I was a little concerned. But now, after I’ve researched it more, I think I might like it even better. One thing I know for sure, change is inevitable and it’s coming to your Facebook page soon!


Tell us what you think!


Do you have Timeline already? Do you like it? 

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter and share your comments.


Deana Coan is a communications major at Tarleton State University and an intern on the Social Media Committee of the Texas Social Media Research Institute.  You can follow her on Twitter as @DeanaCoan.

Tarleton Tip Thursday # 3 (Blogging)

Welcome back to Tarleton Tip Thursdays, where every week we give you tips to help you harness the power of social media. If you are an avid follower of the TSMRI blog (and we certainly hope you are!) then you probably read last week's post: Social Media 101: Blogging for College Students. If this is your first visit to the TSMRI blog…Welcome! Be sure to check out the post above. It discusses  how blogging can help your job search.

Finding Inspiration
Now that we have you thinking about starting a blog, your next question may be “Where can I get ideas for my blog?” When I get an idea or I'm inspired by something I have read, I make a quick entry on my handy iPhone Note app. If I’m at my desk, I’ll grab some Post-Its. Later, when I have time and feeling more creative, I use these notes to start fleshing out my blog posts. Use whatever works best for you, but write the ideas down as they come.

Screenshot of iPhone Note app

Here are a few other sources for blog ideas:
•    Conversations you have with friends or business colleagues – Was there a particular topic that seemed to create discussion? This is a great opportunity to further develop the topic, share your thoughts and get feedback from your followers.

•    Things you hear people saying – Ever overhear conversations about your industry or field of interest and wished you could interrupt and set the record straight? Instead of jumping into someone else’s conversation, just take the topic to your blog and create your own conversation with your followers.

•    Random things – Ever have random thoughts or see something a little odd that totally surprised you? It’s amazing how different environments can trigger your imagination.

What’s your favorite source of information? Share your ideas below. You never know whom you might inspire!


Deana Coan is a communications major at Tarleton State University and an intern on the Social Media Committee of the Texas Social Media Research Institute.  You can follow her on Twitter as @DeanaCoan.