You are hereSocial Media News

Social Media News


Social media News - Using social media can help you to communicate more widely and to listen to your community. Follow Pete on Twitter @iictpete or find me on LinkedIn

Social media workshops and seminars are a popular feature of many conferences and meetings in the voluntary and community sector.

Why?

I suspect the answer lies in the intuitive understanding that volunteering and community involvement is one of the traditional social networks. Modern social media provides new tools for developing communities of interest that extends beyond the confines of geography.
The growth of social media allows these networks to extend and expand. The networks are largely based on the notion of friendship and shared interest and this means that it allows organisations and individuals to talk from a trusted position. This means that within the network people can promote ideas, exchange information and recommendations and provide opportunities for some great opportunities.

A free audio book on the use of Twitter for voluntary sector and community organisations.

ipadioipadioRecently I have been working with a few groups who want to capture peoples thoughts about the services they use and what could be done to improve these services.

The concern is that using on-line surveys and traditional paper based tools self excludes many people who do not feel confident with the internet and/or reading and writing.

Social media, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and podcasts are created and used by organisations in the voluntary sector to influence people. You may wish to influence their attitudes, their actions and their donations. By understanding the how you can influence people you can improve the effectiveness of your use of social media.

who said thatwho said thatKnowing what people are saying about your organisation is important.

The speed of communication and the growth of social media means that a misunderstanding or genuine grievance can have a massive impact on your organisation's on-line reputation.

You can also miss out on potential supporters who are making positive statements about you, or the work you are doing.

google adwordsgoogle adwords

Where do you look for information?

  • Local Newspapers?
  • Yellow pages?
  • Search Engines?
  • Or do you ask people on Twitter?

More and more people are using on=line tools to find information, find suppliers and to market their project.

They want to

TMGTMGPutting Twitter onto your website is easy, once you have decided what you want to do. There are essentially four ways of adding a Twitter feed and each has its own purpose and each has its own Widget.

  1. Profile Widget - this will publish the tweets from a specific profile onto your site. This could be your own profile but can in fact be anyone's account (except protected accounts)
  2. Search Widget - publishes the tweets from a specific search on Twitter, so if you are running a conference or event and you have decided on a hash tag then your website can track the conference

Social Media is a growing part of the communication options available to groups and individuals working in communities in the UK.

graphgraphThe statistics suggest that around a third of people in the uk are already registered on at least one Social Network and facebook is currently the most popular.

Facebooks age profile is increasingly balanced across the population with a growing number of people over the age of 65 getting involved.

Developing the skills, knowledge and expertise to get the most from computers can be difficult and time consuming.  Pete Read has developed a range of services that are aimed at helping you get the most from your IT.

Training at illuminateTraining at illuminateThis site has a wealth of articles and links to get you started.  Pete has also developed a comprehensive range of traiing events and workshops that can be tailored to your specific needs.  here are a few examples

  • Short session for Trustees/directors on the potential of social media,
  • Staff Away day workshops on collaborative tools
  • Closed company sessions

Ask what your website can do for your audience

The aim of a website is often to increase the voice of the organisation. The first question that is asked, therefore, is who you are talking too. Failing to define the audience you wish to address can result in missed opportunities, confused people and wasted resources.
So start by listing the people you would expect to visit your website.

[login] Website developed in association with Illuminate ICT