Thinking about your online social and professional identity

Posted on December 30, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

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The sharing of images online through social media sites has become increasingly easy to do. Many of us can now take a photo using our mobile phone and share almost instantly via our digital social channels such as Facebook and Twitter. However what is sometimes forgotten is how easy it can be for others to re-share your images. In many cases you may be quite happy for this to happen, however there may be photos you only want to share with certain people. Being aware of the security settings on the social sites you use is very important. These tend to change periodically (Facebook being one to confuse many including Mark Zuckerberg’s own sister!). Continue reading →

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Different ways to organise and bookmark your favourite weblinks

Posted on December 28, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

organised_postitThere are a number of different tools you can use to organise and bookmark the social media sites, websites and blogs you visit most. The likes of Diigo and Delicious enable you to save, sort, and search through your own personal collection of links. Others such as Pageflakes and Netvibes allow you to access all your social media and online apps, read all your news and blog feeds, all from one page. However one dashboard I’ve just re-discovered is Symbaloo where I’ve created my personal webmix. Continue reading →

Posted in Social Media, Tips | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Social Media Jargon: What are all these new words and abbreviations?!

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

The Social Media Jargon JarOn my Twitter page I have listed some of the words and abbreviations associated with Twitter and tweeting. These include:

RT or Retweet – this is when a message is reused and the originator is acknowledged

MT or Modified Tweet – a retweet that has been modified slightly (often to reduce the character count but sometimes to add emphasis)

DM or Direct Message – this is where you can send or receive a private message (providing both parties follow each other)

HT or Hat Tip – to acknowledge finding another person’s tweet or link interesting. Continue reading →

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Posted on December 9, 2012 by Sue Beckingham
Alternative Communication Channels for Educators: The TweetChat

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The Social Media Revolution 2013 by @equalman

Posted on December 8, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

Erik Qualman is a leading speaker on the use of social media, providing statistics and clear evidence of the phenomenal growth of social media. He is author of two excellent books which have gone on to be translated into many languages.

  1. Socialnomics: How social media transforms the way we live and do business
  2. Digital Leader: 5 simple keys to success and influence

socialnomics

Digital_Leader

Continue reading →

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There’s more to YouTube than videos about cats (entertaining as they may be!)

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

YouTubeYouTube continues to provide a social forum that entertains us through videos uploaded by individuals all over the world. In it’s 7th year (yes prior to 2005 there was no YouTube!) is now owned by Google. Three hours of video is uploaded from mobile phones alone. Here are few more statistics:

  • Over 800 million unique users visit YouTube each month
  • Over 4 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube
  • 72 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
  • 70% of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
  • YouTube is localized in 43 countries and across 60 languages
  • More than 20% of global YouTube views come from mobile devices

But beyond the funny videos we all enjoy viewing and sharing or maybe even creating and uploading ourselves, there are a wide range of educational videos. You can search for how to guides to help you learn new tasks and also follow YouTube channels where you can bookmark a series of videos on a given topic. Continue reading →

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Developing your own Professional Online Presence

Posted on November 29, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

It goes without saying that the exponential growth of social media is impacting on our lives today in ways we had never experienced 10 years ago. In fact many of the tools we are now using didn’t exist prior to 2004. The infographic below gives an insight into the volume of use.

Continue reading →

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Twitter #hashtags explained

Posted on October 27, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

The use of a # hashtag (US pound sign) was introduced by Chris Messina in 2007 as a way to group tweet conversations. Little did he know then how much they would go on to be used!

The famous tweet is also preserved as a photo on Chris’s Flickr account.

Continue reading →

Posted in Twitter | Tagged | 4 Comments

A blueprint plan to achieving a complete LinkedIn profile

Posted on September 23, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

LinkedIn

To achieve a 100% complete profile in the eyes of LinkedIn they say it must contain the following:

  • Industry and postal code
  • A current position with description
  • Two more positions
  • Education
  • At least 5 skills
  • Profile photo
  • At least 50 connections
  • A summary

Prior to completing these areas you will see your profile completeness score on your profile page along with recommendations of how you can improve this. Continue reading →

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Getting started on Twitter? Help is at hand

Posted on August 17, 2012 by Sue Beckingham

Twitter egg

If you have just joined Twitter welcome to the Twittersphere! Rest assured that whilst it may seem a bit daunting to start with, once you start to follow people that interest you (this is important) you will start to engage in very interesting conversations. If you prefer you can initially simply follow others who are doing so and this is fine. As you add people you wish to follow, you will see that their tweets provide you with links to websites, photos and videos on topics of interest you share. In the event someone is not interesting unfollow them. In the event you are followed by someone you don’t like you can block them.

Twitter follow button

You can find more information about using Twitter by going to the Twitter tab at the top of this page or via this link: https://socialmedia4us.wordpress.com/twitter/

Everyone has a Twitter name or handle. Mine is @suebecks.

It is helpful to others when choosing your handle to keep it succinct so it will be easy for your followers to remember. Continue reading →

Posted in Personal Learning Network, Twitter | Tagged , | 5 Comments