Everyone’s connected these days, by phone, email, and social media; but are you using your social media well? Here are some tips to help you manage it!
Decide what social media to use, and how. Not every social media platform will suit everyone’s personality or purpose. The two main social media platforms are currently Facebook and Twitter. Facebook is friendly and casual, while Twitter is succinct and to-the-point. Don’t feel pressured to use a platform that doesn’t match your personality; this is all about communicating with friends, family, and anyone you find interesting.
Facebook: Facebook is a good platform for sharing photos, detailed information, stories, and links. It has a casual feel, and you can be friendly and personal. You can control exactly who sees what you share on Facebook; if you want to limit your entire account to be seen by a small circle, you can do that under your account settings. But if you want to leave the account mostly or entirely public, you can still restrict individual posts, links, and photos to be seen by a select few (just click the drop-down menu at the bottom of the text box when you’re posting, and select the privacy setting. By choosing the “custom” option, you can even limit a post to the eyes of a single person! It’s up to you!)
Twitter: Twitter is a fast-paced platform, focusing on short pithy messages and quick communication. Twitter is an excellent way to follow breaking news stories, sport games, and other live events, as well as chatting with friends and people of interest. When beginning on Twitter, it’s essential to build a community as soon as possible; after all, who wants to talk if you have no one to talk to? Here’s a handy tip: try searching hashtags for topics that interest you. On Twitter, a hashtag is the # symbol, followed by a word or phrase. Twitter turns this into a link; by clicking on a posted hashtag, you can see all posts that contain that hashtag. (Try searching for #NYC for posts about New York City, for instance.) Twitter also has a search function that can help you find people chatting about topics of interest to you. Remember, unless you lock your Twitter account to followers-only (which makes it harder to find new people to chat with), anyone can see what you post!
Have a good one and let me know if you need anything.
