Tarleton Tip Thursday: Pinteresting Secrets

Pinterest announced their secret boards back in November 2012.  While this was
some exciting news for Pinterest lovers, a question does come into mind. What
should be your Pinterest secrets be?

Maybe you are a teacher who likes the school craft projects you come across. Perhaps you'd rather not have co-workers who follow you re-pin your project and get to it before you do. Or maybe you'd like to plan a surprise party for a colleague or a loved one.

Would you like to have a wedding board?

Perhaps you haven't created one yet because you want to avoid the embarrassment of one of your followers posting an e-card like the one below to your account.

See more at someecards.com

 There's a secret board for that. No one will ever know, except YOU the creator (unless you invite someone to it).

A secret board can be anything you want. Having them is like your very own
Pinterest diary.

How to find, create & select a secret board

1. Log into Pinterest, and click on the link to your profile (on the top right of the screen) where all your boards are showing on the page (see below).

This is my Pinterest profile and a list of my boards.

2. Scroll all the way down and, et voila! You'll see a space for your secret boards (you can have up to three).

Click on this area to create a secret board.

3. Create your board before you search for pins by clicking on Create a board under Secret Boards. The secret board title will look like your other board titles, except that it will have a lock icon. When you find pins you'd like to keep secret, click on your secret board after you click Repin.

No one can see your secret board except for you.

Happy Pinning!

Becca Escobar is a junior Broadcast/Journalism major at Tarleton State University and an intern for TSMRI. You can find her on Twitter @Beccaescobar87.

Locked Up in Twitter Jail

Did you know that if you break certain Twitter rules, that you could end up in "jail"?

The purpose of Twitter Jail is to ensure that the network is not crowded and to, help  make Twitter

"a nice place for everyone.” If you tweet too many times in a single day, you may find your account disabled. Twitter Jail has also become a way of identifying accounts created for spamming purposes.

Photo Credit: M.I.C Gadget via Compfight cc

To stay out of Twitter Jail, there are a few policies that Twitter asks users to follow. The Twitter Help Center lists all of these policies. First, you can only send 250 Direct Messages per day. Second, you can only send 1,000 tweets per day. This includes re-tweets and original tweets. Also, one can only make four changes to their account email per hour. As for following other Twitter users, one may only follow 1,000 per day, although there are more specific policies in place regarding this rule. However, the number of followers you can have has no limit. And do not be fooled; these limits are calculated and/ or monitored from all devices- from computers to smart devices.

If an account goes over any of these limits, they will receive an error message. Some limits are time-based and will give you a specific amount of time in which you are not allowed to tweet. Users say thetime in which you can not tweet could be from an hour to a few hours per infraction.

Remember to watch your tweeting habits and keep your Twitter account from behind bars!

Bree Kingston is the Head Coordinator Intern for the TexasSocial Media Research Institute and a graduate assistant for Tarleton State University’s Department of Agricultural and Consumer Sciences. You can find her on Twitter @Bree_Kingston.

Google+ on its way to #1?

Most of the world’s population uses the social network of Facebook. Facebook has more than a billion active users as of October 2012. Google+ and Twitter come in behind with both having about the same amount of users. Yet, Google plus has become the second largest social networking site. This surpasses Twitter but not by much.Google now owns the rights to YouTube and statistics show that even YouTube is above Twitter.

Photo Courtesy: Globalwebindex via ZDNET.com

With the new ownership, you now have to be connected with Google in order to have a YouTube account. The account is set up through Gmail, and without it you are not able to upload videos to YouTube, unless you had a preexisting account. The Social Times said, "Combined with Google+, 46 percent of the population is now actively using a Google product for social networking." The company has a large proportion of social media now in its grasp with the takeover of YouTube.

The argument is that the numbers are not accurate considering a person has to sign in to Google for any access of their networks.  . Many people believe that Google’s numbers are incorrect with the real amount of users for Google+ being less than what the facts are giving. The disagreements are about the services that Google offers, and when is it actually using Google+ and not just YouTube, or another Google product.

What is accurate?
 It boils down to what reason the account holder has for using the network. For many,  it’s a social platform to connect with friends and family, and then others use it for business. So therefore, would the account holder be using Google+, YouTube, or Hangouts?

Who is using Google+?
“Turns out the US, India and Brazil are leading the pack. Google Plus users are also more likely to be students, developers, engineers, designers, and photographers,” socialfresh.com stated. The map shows the locations of the top 4 million profiles on Google+.

                                                                             
Photo Courtesy: CircleCount via SocialFresh.com

I believe that Google+ is growing, quickly. Scalableintimacy.com also agrees and here is a small prediction of what they believe will happen in the future.

Photo Courtesy: miketrap via Scalableintimacy.com

I’m not exactly caught up on all of what Google has to offer but I am slowly using it more and more each day. At some point we might all be using Google+, but everyone still could be just as oblivious as they are now, and not even now they are using a Google product.

What are your opinions on the rising of Google+?

Meagan Lofton is an Agriculture Communications major at Tarleton State University and a TSMRI intern. You can follow her on Twitter as @Meagannnn10.