What is a blog and how can it help family historians? This is a two-part presentation given to the Ku-Ring-Gai Historical Society in May 2011. Some sites shown may look different now.

1. Blogs and other social media
for family history
and people with families!
Carole Riley
Ku-ring-gai Historical Society
18 May 2011

2. What is social media?
Social media is any internet-based method of
interacting with others:
– Communication
– Sharing
– Collaboration
Social networking uses a specifically-designed
website to build and support a community of
people with similar interests
- Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_Networking)
© Carole Riley 2011 2

3. Why use social media?
• Social contact
• Find people – friends, relatives, shared interests
• Find organisations that have what you want
• Find information – family history, resources, new
records
• Sharing – photos, videos, family trees
• Community belonging
• Cross-generational – communicate with younger
family members where they are
© Carole Riley 2011 3

4. Some social media sites
• Blogs
– Other people and organisations
– Build your own – eg. Blogger, WordPress
• Microblogs
– eg. Twitter
• Sharing
– Photos eg. Flickr
– Videos eg. YouTube
• Social Networking
– eg. Facebook
© Carole Riley 2011 4

5. Blogs
• What is a blog
• Why read blogs
• Some good blogs
• How to find blogs
• How to keep up to date
• Why write a blog
• How to create your own blog
© Carole Riley 2011 5

6. What is a blog?
A blog ("web log") is a type of website, usually
maintained by an individual with regular
entries of commentary, descriptions of
events, or other material such as graphics or
video.
"Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to
maintain or add content to a blog.
- Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog)
© Carole Riley 2011 6

7. Why read blogs?
• Enormous amount of interesting and useful
information is published in blogs
• All major players have at least one blog
– libraries, archives, genealogy record companies
• Some smaller ones do too
– family history societies, individual researchers
• Short and immediate
• Hear from other readers through comments
• You might find relatives
© Carole Riley 2011 7

8. Types of blogs
Personal blogs
• Diary or journal
• Share news, knowledge, discoveries, photos
• Access may be restricted
Corporate or organisational blogs
• News, information, new
developments, educational
• Companies and organisations such as:
– Ancestry
– FamilySearch
– National Library of Australia, State Records NSW
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17. Commercial and Organisational Blogs
• Trying to get you involved or sell you
something
• Information on products, services, etc
• May give educational information, case
studies, tips and tricks
• Many organisations have one, or will soon
• Google search
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29. How to Find Blogs
Lists of blogs
• Genealogy Blog Finder
• Geneabloggers
• Libraries Interact
• Cyndi’s List
Search for blogs
• Google Blogs
• Blogger - followers
• Bookmarking sites
– Delicious
– Technorati
Don’t forget general search engines such as Google
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36. How to keep up to date
A blog reader collects all the new posts from your
favourite blogs in one place
Web-based blog readers
• Google Reader
• Bloglines
Desktop blog readers
• FeedReader
• Outlook 2007-2010
Some blogs publish via email, eg Dick Eastman’s
© Carole Riley 2011 36

37. Blog readers
A blog reader collects all the new posts from
your favourite blogs in one place
Blog Feed Reader
Website creates Program that can
‘feed’ when new pick up these feeds
content published and display them
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38. How blog readers work
Blog Feed Reader
Website creates Program that can
‘feed’ when new pick up these feeds
content published and display them
MS
Blog Email
Outlook
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43. Reasons to start your own blog
• Share stories and victories
• Get family interested
• Get support from other family history bloggers
• Practice writing skills
• Find the holes in your research
• Write that book a bit at a time
• Searchable into the future
• Quick and easy
© Carole Riley 2011 43

44. How to start your own blog
• Find a host
• Create an account
• Name your blog
• Set security
• Write something about yourself in the profile
• Select template
• Start writing!
© Carole Riley 2011 44

45. Find a host
Free hosting
• Blogger – owned by Google
• Wordpress
• Tumblr
• Posterous
• there are many others
Use your own domain name if you have one
eg. caroleriley.id.au
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49. Security
You decide
• What you publish
• Who can write posts
• Who can read it
• Whether comments are allowed
• Whether comments must be approved
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52. Why start a blog?
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53. Some rules
• Don’t write about living people without
permission, even if access is restricted
• Don’t include birthdates of living people
• Don’t use copyrighted text or images without
permission and acknowledgement
• Anything on the web is copyright, so don’t just
cut-and-paste
• Don’t write anything you wouldn’t want your
mother or next-door-neighbour to read
© Carole Riley 2011 53

54. Blogging Tips
• No need to be formal, or too long
• Add pictures for more interest
• Create categories for different
topics, families, etc
• Allow comments without ‘signup’, but
moderate them before they are published
• Citing of sources is not mandatory
• It should be fun!
© Carole Riley 2011 54

55. Questions?
© Carole Riley 2011 55

56. Some social media sites
• Blogs
– Other people and organisations
– Build your own – eg. Blogger, WordPress
• Microblogs
– eg. Twitter
• Sharing
– Photos eg. Flickr
– Videos eg. YouTube
• Social Networking
– eg. Facebook
© Carole Riley 2011 56

57. Twitter
• A microblog is a type of website blog that
allows short, quick posts
– Share news, pictures
– Share links to websites and blogs
– Ask questions, get answers
– Hold a conversation
– Search
• A tweet can be a maximum of 140 characters.
• Tweets are viewable, and searchable, by
everyone unless you restrict your account
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62. Flickr
• Photo-sharing website
• Can restrict access to some or all photos
• Can give title, description and tags that allow
others to find them
• Can upload them to Picture Australia (National
Library of Australia)
© Carole Riley 2011 62

63. Flickr
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64. Flickr
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65. YouTube
• Owned by Google
• Search and view videos
• Upload your own and share with a few people
or with everyone
• Find how-to videos
• Find historical film footage
• Find TV shows from the ABC and others
• Find recommendations based on your ratings
and favourites
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70. Facebook
• Find friends (old & new), family & people with
the same interests
• Get news and updates from organisations by
liking their pages
• Share news, photos, videos
• Hold conversations
• Play social games
• It’s all about connecting with others
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74. Facebook Privacy
• Originally designed for people who don’t see
the need for privacy
• You MUST change the privacy settings from
the defaults
• Check periodically as they change every few
months
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80. What are the risks?
• Sharing too much about yourself
• Sharing too much about others
• Believing too much
• Using an easily guessable password
• Scams and hoaxes
• Advertisements
• Breaching copyright
• Social media overload!
© Carole Riley 2011 80

81. Keep safe – some simple rules
• Don’t put personal information in your ID or
password
• Make sure your password can’t be guessed by
anyone
• Change your password regularly
• Check the privacy settings regularly
• Use the secure browsing option
© Carole Riley 2011 81

82. Keep safe – some simple rules
• Don’t share too much
– Personal information
– Photos and names of young relatives
– When you’re not at home
– Home address
• If in doubt, don’t click on it
– Links to websites
– Advertisements
© Carole Riley 2011 82

83. Web addresses can be found on my blog
www.socialmediagen.com
© Carole Riley 2011 83

84. Now go out and do it!
Flickr Photo courtesy of The Library of Congress
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