Blogs:
These are probably the most well known form of social media. Blogs are often used as online journals.
Many organisations now use blogging platforms to manage the content on their website, even if they aren’t blogging. (Wordpress has become widely used by many organisations) Most are free to use, easy and quick to set up and no technicial knowledge is needed to produce an effective simple website.
Other online web 2.0 services can be implemented and inserted easily into blogs, such as YouTube videos, flickr photo’s, and sharing of bookmarks.
Some organisations also share their stories and good work by blogging. It can be a useful way to create a relationship with supporters and funders and other stakeholders and help bring a static website to life.
Wikis:
These websites allow people to add content to or edit the information on them, acting as a communal document. The most famous wiki is Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia. Organisations or partnerships can easily use wiki’s as an easy way to create a website with content being provided by many authors, or to manage collaborative working to plan an event for example or as a platform to help develop and deliver training.
Podcasts:
These are audio and video files that are available by subscription, through services like Apple’s iTunes and RSS readers. When a new podcast is posted to the internet, all the subscribers’ podcast services (such as iTunes) are automatically notified and download the programme to their computer’s hard drive or feedreader. The podcast can then be either listened to on the computer or downloaded onto an MP3 player, such as an iPod. Podcasts have become popular as the media is portable and can be listened to at the convenience and timing of the user.
Organisations use podcasts to produce news updates for their organisations or share stories of their work.
Social networks:
These sites allow people to build personal profile pages and then connect with ‘friends’ to share content and communications. The big well known social networks are MySpace, Facebook and Bebo. You can also create your own social networks with Ning and Virb to enable and
manage your own online community. Most social networks allow you to add video’s, pictures, and content.
Organisations can use bigger social networks to keep friends and supporters up to date with developments or campaigns, and networks such as Ning could be used for example in a local area to connect similar workers together to discuss topics or issues. Social networks are more ‘friendly and personal’ than traditional email lists, as each user can create a personal/organisational profile.
Forums:
These are areas for online discussion and easier for participation than email lists alone, and are often around specific topics and interests. Forums have been around for many years before the term ‘social media’ was commonly used and have been well used by online communities.
Many organisations set up forums for their users and supporters. Forums often need regular management and promotion to sustain interest.
Collective content communities:
These are social networking communities which organise and share particular kinds of content. The most popular
content communities tend to form around photos (Flickr), bookmarked website links (del.icio.us, ma.gnolia, stumbleupon and digg) and videos (YouTube). With Flickr, for example, members upload their photos to the site and choose whether to make them public or just share with family and friends in their network or join and participate in a thematic interest group on the network (Ma.gnolia and Flickr are excellent examples of this). Organisations can use flickr to keep collections of their events and work in one place, insert flickr galleries onto their websites, or use special tags for example for friends and supporters to be able to pool photographs on a theme (ie - volunteering) in a certain topic area or for a competition.
Microblogging:
This is social networking combined with bite-sized blogging, where small amounts of content (updates) are distributed online, via websites, instant messaging, desktop applications or widgets and mobile phone SMS services.
Twitter and Jaiku are popular forms of microblogging. For example, Twitter can be used by organisations to help manage an event for example or to promote a campaign to connected friends and supporters, or for personal usage to connect quickly and link with other like minded people and
organisations.
Examples in the wild:
Links to examples coming soon!
In this guide:
- What is Social Media?
- What can it be used for?
- What makes if different from traditional media?
- The main types of social media
- How to keep people up to date
- How to get it right for your groups needs
- Inclusion for all and accessibility
- How was it for you - monitoring and evaluation
- Where to get help
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