Connection, not communication How social media and the Internet build community

Introduction Using Social Media to tell your story (and listen to what folks think about it)

Old Thinking Build a website and they will come

New Thinking Conversation by push / pull Aggregate the conversation

Let’s get down to … How can you use social media? What do you have to know to use them effectively? Which services should you use?

First, things to know The Internet operates like a roundabout … By design, no path is completely straight

How do you find anything online? Search engines SEO Headlines Ledes Connections Links Trackbacks Tags

First advice Get listed Google Yahoo! Technorati Alexa 7Zoom Others?

What about content? Remember the roundabout RSS is your guide

Getting to know RSS feeds Creating a file on your own … The following is what an item in a xml file looks like: <title>The Title Goes Here</title> <description>The description goes here</description> <link>http://www.linkgoeshere.com</link> Or just look for the symbol

Specifics: The sites to know Facebook Twitter YouTube Flickr Foursquare / Gowalla

Facebook The social media monster 400 million user accounts So start a group page, right?

The challenge with Facebook After you post something, you’ve lost control. That’s not necessarily a bad thing if you are trying to create connections. Facebook is the ultimate aggregator

Connecting through Facebook Use all the tools walls, events, photos, discussions Create a group, not a fan page Invite members Mention people by name (@) Respond to requests Start, sustain conversations It’s OK to comment on your comment

Facebook success story

Connecting through Twitter

Connecting through Twitter Push content often … … to start conversations Retweet Use hashtags (#) Use handles (@) Create lists Create links and track them (bit.ly) Integrate with other social media (apps.facebook.com/twitter)

Twitter Success Story

Flickr of the pen Not just about sharing photos Two ways to create community Borrowing Collecting Descriptions and tags are VITAL!

Flickr note Creative Commons License

You and You and You Tube Subscriptions Channels Comments Playlists

In Conclusion To include your conversation on ATHENSi.com, send your RSS feed address to stewartr@ohio.edu. For questions, email Hans K. Meyer at meyerh@ohio.edu.