Social Networking

Social networking is here to stay whether we want it to or not. If any business or organization is wanting to reach people, especially the coveted demographic of 18-34 year olds, then social networking is where the business needs to be.

I resisted social networking when it first came on the scene. What was the first one? The one we all have forgotten about? Oh right, MySpace. My best friend growing up was on that stupid site and that is the only reason I joined. We have lived apart since we were like 9 so the biggest challenge of our relationship has been keeping up with each other. MySpace made that so much easier. But that got cluttered fast! Luckily she branched into Facebook and I was right behind her. Facebook has been my saving grace in terms of keeping up with friends all over the place. I am a terrible corresponder. I have so many good intentions of keeping up, but I generally fail miserably. Thank you Facebook for making it easier for me to keep in touch. Instead of a ridiculously long email to someone, I can write a few sentences on their wall and comment on their pictures and I can do that daily instead of attempting to write an email that never gets written.

Twitter intimidates me. I won't lie. A year and a half ago I signed up for it one random night. Why that night? Well, I had just gone to the best concert of my life. That's right: NKOTB! And they were Twitterers and apparently after concerts they would Tweet where they would be. So my friend and I ran back to the hotel, logged onto Twitter and made us an account. The boys of course chose that night not to Tweet so we went in search of them anyways. I tried to follow it for a month or so but I got so lost looking at the Twitter feed and not knowing what all of the fancy symbols meant that I just let it go.

So now, I must figure out the fancy symbols! For real, someone explain to me the #! What does it mean?????

So for 23Things we are looking at Social Networking. As a librarian today, you gotta know how to use Facebook. People are coming in and they want to get on, but remember, they have no idea how to double click the big E to get online, so we must know the steps to walk them through signing up for Facebook. I imagine Twitter will be next.

A question has been posed on whether Twitter would be a good reference tool. My first inclination is no. Just because I want to keep my job. We are not allowed on social networking sites while working at the desk, so how would you explain using Twitter for a reference question? If people did not abuse the right to use social networking while working I think Twitter could be useful. I have read that a ton of librarians use Twitter to find out about different things going on in librarianship. With Twitter usually having breaking news, it could be a good spot to go to if one is looking for something that had just happened. Otherwise, I think you could get your information elsewhere.

Comments

  1. Sis, very well written article far better than anything your illiterate little brother could form with sentences. I do like your point though, I know through work, that we have a socail media group that is embedded in our company, and that they use all the social media sites to talk about the company. As well as advertise the company, but we are not allowed on the sites while present on the network, or on a company computer off the network (they can run out computer history back about 6 months easy and further if they feel like it). I guess the major problem would be the fact that it's not secured, anyone can corrupt it, and also as in wikipedia, anyone can edit the information. So perhaps it would create another job, for a person to edit the information and fact check, it and than run a program to check the facts of the post by individuals. However that being siad the future is not written and who knows where this world of social networking will transpire...

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  2. Thanks for signing up for that "stupid site" and following me to facebook! So glad we have social networking to keep in touch, share photos of our adorable children, and reminisce about the good ole' days :)

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  3. Ok, here goes. The # indicates a hashtag. The idea is that you use hashtag when you want your tweet to be part of a conversation but you don't need to use that tag in your actual tweet.

    Example: Ugh, what happened to Danny? #nkotb

    By using the tag, you make sure that when someone searches for nkotb, your tweet comes up. You're also helping others know what you're talking about without having to work the tag into the actual sentence. So, it's basically a way of tagging your tweet. Make sense?

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  4. Oh, Jackie. This made me laugh. Please catch up with your 23 things so I can continue to be amused.

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  5. Okay Jessi! Today is the day that I get caught up! I swear it. :)

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