E-Tricks - Social Networking Sites

Some Social Networking Sites:

• Bebo – popular in some Indigenous communities – www.bebo.com
• Care2 - for social activists - www.care2.com
• Facebook - www.facebook.com
• Gather - gather.com
• LinkedIn - more about business/professional contacts - www.linkedin.com
• MySpace - www.myspace.com
• Plurk - microblogging - www.plurk.com
• Twitter - microblogging - http://twitter.com

 

Creating Your Own Social Network:

Some places have used the site ning.com to create their social networks.

Others have used content management systems to create a social network within their website with their users.

Tips on Social Networks:

• Don't spread yourself to thin - Pick two or three social networks that you feel that serve people that you want to reach the most or who are most likely to be interested in what you are doing. You can always create profiles in new up-and-coming social networks as placeholders. It is better to keep your 2 or 3 social networks up-to-date.
  
  
• Use student workers - A lot of non-profits have assigned a student worker to one social network, so that it has a consistent voice and so that the postings don't fall through the cracks. Be sure that you have someone besides the student set up the account to begin with because sometimes (like with Facebook) the first admin can't be removed.
  
  
• Don't be afraid to use tools like HootSuite or Tweetdeck to automate or schedule your tweets and posts.
  
  
• Link your sites (i.e. Facebook status updates --> twitter, youtube upload --> twitter), but make sure that you aren't getting into a cycle.
  
  
• Relaxed language/Real Posts - Make sure to have posts that are casual in tone. Too many automated postings or postings that sound too corporate will just put off most of your users.

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