Caroline Barfoot visited the club to give a talk on social media – which followed on nicely from a recent short course taken by about 12 members at Fareham College; you can find her profile on Solent University staff page at this link, on Facebook here, on Twitter here, on LinkedIn here and on Pinterest here!
She gave a quick overview of the main social media applications, hoping to show their scope and power for good. She explained that each had their own particular slant on enabling communication: whether sharing what we like, what we think, what we work as or what hobbies we have.
• Facebook is for what and who you like, and to get a message out to the world (e.g. David Cameron, or Heinz soup);
• Twitter forces you to be concise, to say what you think in less than 140 characters (e.g. BBC breaking news, and the ubiquitous Stephen Fry!);
• YouTube is a place to share videos, so can be a great place to search for tutorials, whether on cooking, quilting or professional topics;
• Pinterest is like an online scrapbook, for whatever subject you want, such as garden design, crafts or films;
• LinkedIn is the network for professionals, and a good source of job vacancies and internship opportunities as well as connections within your particular industry.
“Man is by nature a social animal”, Aristotle.
The explosion of social media, and there are hundreds more than the main ones mentioned, may reinvigorate our psychological need to be a member of a tribe. It is certainly having an effect culturally, with the impetus for the Arab Spring attributed to this form of communication, as it enables people to get together, talk and organise themselves. Taken to extreme, there is a baby named Facebook in honour of the part played by the site in the Egyptian revolution!
There are dangers too, as recent stories about security and privacy have shown. As a lecturer to students in advertising, Caroline stressed the need to ‘market’ yourself as a brand, building a profile with only the information you want to be seen. You’d be surprised: test this out by going to Google yourself…!