1. +
Social Media for Personal
Use
Monday 30 June 2014

2. +
Recap last two sessions
 Social media is all about making connections and sharing content.
 It can be used for personal use to make new friends, or for business
use to promote goods or causes.
 It can also be used to share news.
 One of the best ways to share content is to create it yourself and post
it on a blog.
 Wordpress is a particularly powerful form of blogging as it combines
a blog platform with a database.
 You’ve added at least two blog posts and had comments returned
from my self

3. +
This Session
 Introduction to Social Media for Personal Use
 Introduction to Twitter
 We’ll have a break at 11am, and wrap things up around 1:15pm, to
give us time to recap the session.

4. +
Social Media for Personal Use
 Social media is a great way to connect with others.
 In this session, we’re going to concentrate on using it for personal
use.
 This means using it to connect with like-minded people, sharing
interests, learning new skills or keeping in contact with friends and
family.
 Twitter and Facebook are the two most obvious examples for personal
social media, although many use Pinterest, YouTube, Flickr,
Instagram, Snapchat or Google + for non-work related purposes.

5. +
Social Media for Personal Use
 You can use tools such as Facebook and Twitter to;
 Share interesting content that you find online, such as useful articles,
humourous images or new music
 Find people to talk to when you’re having a rough day
 Catch up with friends and family
 Keep up with the activities of a club or group you’re in
 You can engage with others on Facebook by posting images, sharing
links, commenting on the images and statuses of others, and
participating in groups.
 You can engage with others on Twitter by posting pictures, retweeting
the tweets of others, sharing links, replying to other people, and
sending direct messages.

6. +
Social Media for Personal Use
 Some people start using social media and get discouraged when they
don’t get much interaction. Sometimes we feel like we’re putting a lot
in and getting little out.
 We can’t always be sure who is doing what with what we share.
 Some users enjoy the anonymity of the internet to pick on others, or
they become more aggressive than they might be in person. This can
make users afraid to express opinions for fear of disagreements.
 This shouldn’t stop us from enjoying social media!

7. +
TASK
 Create a new blog post and write a list of bullet points,
describing how you might use social media
to engage with other users on a personal
level.
 Save as draft but, don’t publish just yet, as we’ll be adding to this
post later!

8. +
What is Twitter?
 Twitter is a form of social networking that will help you:
 Share ideas.
 Connect with like-minded people or just new friends.
 Promote your work or share an interest.
 You can use Twitter to find links to great content.
 The internet is awash with lots of useful ideas and advice, and much of it is
available for free.
 If someone whose opinion you trust tweets a link to an article or video etc.,
then chances are it’ll be good content.
 You can then share this content with your own followers, and pass on the
info, or the laughs, to your friends!

9. +
Why should I use Twitter?
 Twitter is a great way to find people in your local area by searching
for tweets local to you.
 It’s also a good way to make contacts further afield.
 It’s an easy way to keep abreast of the news, either generally or in a
specialist field.
 You can connect with public figures that you like, who share useful
content themselves, like Nigella Lawson or Stephen Fry.
 You can even use the search box for terms such as “looking for a
___” to see if anyone has tweeted any job opportunities.

10. + How should I use Twitter?
 People join Twitter to connect to other people so;
 Don’t simply post links – include comments as to why you think the link is
worth visiting.
 Be yourself! There is nothing wrong with letting your personality shine
through.
 But remember that Twitter is PUBLIC.
 Ryan Giggs and Imogen Thomas
 Complaints and complements
 The wrong Phil Neville …
 Try to avoid starting arguments – if you wouldn’t say it in person,
don’t say it on Twitter. A lot of celebrities fall foul of this.
 Tweets can be deleted but other users may take screenshots so be
aware that people are reading what you say!

11. +
Basic Jargon
 Tweet – a short message of 140 characters. A tweet is both the
message itself, as well as a verb – e.g. to tweet.
 Retweet – aka ‘RT’. Sharing a tweet by another user with your
followers.
 @ reply – replying to another user, designated by their @name – e.g.
@ladygaga.
 Follow – subscribing to the tweets of a specific user.
 Hashtag – anything tagged with a # (i.e. #ADE2103) will show up in
a special feed dedicated to that tag.

12. +
Getting Started
 Go to http://twitter.com.
 Enter your full name, your email address and a password, and click
‘Sign Me Up.
 On the next page, double-check your details and choose a username (
think of sensible name!).
 If everything looks okay, click ‘Create my account’.

13. +
Edit your profile
 Click on the ‘cog’ icon in the
top right-hand corner.
 You’ll see your name, and
‘Edit Profile’.
 Click on that.
 Top Twitter tips

14. +
You can fill in your
location, your website
(maybe your blog address)
and a short bio that explains
who you are.
You can add a user photo,
which makes your profile
look more ‘human’.
 You can add a header image to add
visual interest to your profile.
Edit your profile

15. +
TASK
 In the blog post you started earlier,
copy and paste the link of your Twitter profile
 Write a short list of keywords or interests you want to use to find
people to connect with.
 This may be hobbies, locations, favourite films – anything
you can think of.

16. +
Now what?
 You’ll get the most out of Twitter by following other people – this
allows you to see their updates as they post them.
 If you follow someone, they may follow you in return, allowing them
to see your updates – and really, you want people to see your updates
so you can interact!
 Bigger names or ‘authorities’ may not follow you back, but it gives
you a good opportunity to join a conversation and get your name
known. Retweet their posts or comment on something they’ve said.
They may also post valuable content.
 Now we’re going to have a look at how to find people!

17. +
How do I find people to follow?
 The authors of the blogs you’ve found might be on Twitter.
 If their writers have Twitter accounts, follow them.
 Follow the blogs themselves – e.g. @weburbanist or @CreativeBloq.
 Connect with each other!
 You can always add each other.
 Add your friends and family.
 Use the search function to look for keywords. It’ll bring up a
combination of relevant people, and tweets including the search. You can
have a look at people tweeting about those topics.

18. +
 Suggestions will
look at the keyword
in the tweet.
 It will also show
people who have the
keyword in their
bio.
 And then it will
show those tweets
that contain the
keyword as a
hashtag.

19. +
How do I find people to follow?
 Check out ‘recommended follows’.
 Some users recommend their followers check out a specific user. If you
trust their judgment, have a look at the user’s feed. You might want to
follow them too.
 Remember to post your own ‘follows’.
 Twitter also makes suggestions within the main window – have a look at
these people and see what they’re like.
 If you can’t think what search terms to use, think about the kinds
of film you like, or what your hobbies are outside of work.

20. +
Sending messages
 There are two ways to connect with people.
 If someone tweets something, click reply. Compose your tweet and
click send!
 Alternatively, add an @ symbol before a username and the message
will go to that user. It will appear in your Twitter feed but only those
people who follow both of you will see it.
 If someone follows you, you can send them a direct message that is
private between the two of you.
Note : You can’t send a direct message to someone who doesn’t
follow you.

21. +

22. + TASK
 Spend some time looking for people to follow.
Remember this is for personal use!
 Try to think about people you would want to talk to in person. You’re
not selling anything, or trying to promote anything – you just want to
talk to like-minded people.
 Take a screenshot of your Twitter profile and upload it to your blog.
On your keyboard, press Command + Shift + 4 and then
release all keys
(position the sight top left of what you want to screen shot of and hold down the (left)
mouse button and move to bottom right and then release)
 On your blog post, name five people you have followed and why.
 Describe which users you have responded to, and how.
 Publish this post!

23. +
Hashtags
 Hashtags are a really powerful aspect of Twitter.
 Check out the hashtags – think of a keyword and add a # symbol to see if
others are tweeting about it too.
 Some users use a hashtag in order to have a conversation.
 For example, between 8 and 9pm on a Tuesday night, Welsh Educators
chatand share ideas under #addcymru see what they have been discussing
this week by searching the hash tag.
 Clicking on the hashtag opens a separate stream of tweets just filtered
using that term (they act like search terms within Twitter as a whole).

24. + How you appear to others …

25. +
Lists
 Once you start tweeting regularly, and you have more and more
followers, you might want to start dividing your followers up into
lists.
 That way, it will filter what you see so that you can see content at a
glance.
 You might create lists according to your interests, or how well you
know a person.
 Lists make it easier to screen tweets out and concentrate on the
content you really want to see.

26. +
TASK
 Using all of the information we’ve covered in the session, start
conducting conversations with people that you find on Twitter. If you
have a conversation, expand the conversation, take a screenshot and
upload it to your blog.
 Post a link to the blog post you wrote in this session on to your twitter
account.
 Check one of the blogs that we started following on Wordpress last
week, and consider tweeting a link to one of the posts.
 Enter a keyword to find an interest and reply to someone who is
talking about it.