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Use Social Media
People say that Facebook is ‘information’, X (formerly Twitter) is ‘conversation’ and Instagram (Insta) is good for visual communication.
A good tip for personal use – is to use social media that you like and generally makes you feel good about your world and the people in it. Social media is also good to use in business, to create networks and potentially sell products.
LinkedIn is considered generally good for your career and finding people you may want to link up with – and create a bit of a network.
Needless to say that the companies who own these platforms could be better corporate citizens by paying reasonable tax in each country they do business in…but I digress!
Here we will run through information on the following social media platforms:
- X (formerly Twitter)
BE SAFE – The most important thing to remember when using social media is that anything you post, is no longer owned by you and is available to everyone on the internet.
Never share personal details such as your home or work address, phone number and financial details on Social Media Platforms. See Online Security and Privacy.
Facebook is a social networking site where you make a personal or business profile and enables you to share photos, videos and links, connect to friends and family online and advertise your business. It is the most used social networking platform in the world.
Creating a Facebook account
Facebook will ask you to fill out the below questions. You can do this here
Once you’ve created an account you can follow the prompts to personalise your profile by adding photos, a bio and other information.
Basic uses of Facebook
When you click on another person’s Facebook profile, you will be able to see an overview of their profile and these buttons (most often of the right side of the screen).
By clicking ADD FRIEND you are sending a friend request to another user. The recipient can either accept or decline this request. If they decline it, the request will disappear. If they accept if, you will be able to view their full profile and can see when they make a post.
By clicking MESSAGE it will take you to Facebook Messenger where you can send private messages.
If a person or company Facebook profile is public then it will say ‘Like’ instead of ‘Add Friend’. Pressing ‘Like’ does the same thing as pressing ‘Add Friend’ except no friend request is sent as the user has allowed everyone to view their profile.
Make a post
Up the top of your page you will see this box. Here, Facebook gives you the option to write something, upload a photo/video, livestream or make an event. Once you create your post press ’post’ and it will be uploaded to your profile page.
If your account is set to private, only your Facebook friends will be able to view it. If your account is set to public, anyone who visits your profile will be able to see it.
Privacy settings for posts
If you would like to change your privacy settings for a particular post, you can click on the drop-down box that appears next to your name when writing a post and select the audience you want.
If you would like to like comment or share someone else’s post, look for these icons and click on them.
If you would like to reply specifically to someone else’s comment, go to the comment and look for the small ‘reply’ button underneath it. Click this and the message will already be addressed to the person you are replying to.
Remember that not all posts will have the share function as some may be set to private
If you would like to watch a video on the basic uses of Facebook, click here
Business uses of Facebook
Many businesses use Facebook to advertise and promote their company. Below are a few tips on how to get started.
Posts
- Depending on your strategy and target audience, posts can include links to relevant articles, behind the scenes, press mentions, questions, quotes, videos, tips, links to blog/website, promotions, showcasing
- Posts can be scheduled in advance and strategic timing can influence how many people see the post eg. Perhaps your target audience is peope who may be online most around 9pm.
Ads
- You can buy ads through Facebook to advertise your page. You can spend as little as $5 a day or as much as $1000. By doing this, you have the power to create your own budget and target audience.
- To buy ads, visit Facebooks Ads Manager here
Personal uses of Facebook
In addition to messaging and connecting to other Facebook users, Facebook can also be used to connect to the community.
Facebook advertises events and has community groups that you can join.
Instagram is a social networking service focused on photo and video sharing.
Creating an Instagram account
Instagram will ask you to fill in the following questions. You can do this here
Once you’ve created an account you can follow the prompts to personalise your profile by adding photos, a bio and other information.
Basic uses of Instagram
If you would like to watch a video on the basic uses of Instagram, click here
LinkedIn is an online service primarily used for professional networking. It acts as a digital resume where job seekers can promote themselves and employers can promote jobs.
As a job seeker, LinkedIn is a great way to get in touch professionally and network with like-minded people.
For an employer, LinkedIn is a great way to find new employees for the business.
Creating a LinkedIn account
LinkedIn will ask you to fill in the following questions, you can do this here
Once you have agreed and joined, follow the prompts to add a variety of features to your profile such as your professional experience, volunteer experience, education, skills and interests.
You should use your full name and a professional photo as your profile picture.
If you would like to watch a video on the basic uses on LinkedIn, click here
Further tips for professional use
- One of the first things you see is the ‘about’ section. Think of this like a personal introduction where you want to briefly showcase your story, interests and aspirations. Why should people connect with you?
- Avoid connecting with old friends via this platform (that kind of thing is more suited to Facebook and Instagram)
- Start by connecting with your co-workers and then expand to people you have a professional relationship with or that you may be interested in in the future.
- If you’re connected with someone you can also leave or receive endorsements which help to strengthen your profile.
- If you are on the hunt for a job, you can set your LinkedIn profile to #OpenToWork. This adds the #OpenToWork tag to your profile picture, and lets people viewing your profile know that you are available for work. Select the Me icon at the top of your page, select View Profile > Open to > Finding a new job > Add to Profile.
X (formerly Twitter)
X is a social media platform where users interact with each other by commenting on everything from breaking news to sport and politics. X’s motto is to ‘get the full story with all the live commentary’.
It can be useful to follow community leaders, artists, journalist and politicians you trust and value to hear what they have to say about worldly matters.
Creating an account with X
X will ask you to fill in the following questions. You can do this here
Once you complete the above sign-up process follow the prompts to add a variety of features to your profile such as your profile picture and bio.
Basic uses of X
- Use the X search bar to search for people you may like to follow or key words of news articles you may like to read. For example, if I wanted to hear about what’s happening on International Rural Women’s Day, I could enter that into the search bar and relevant content would appear
- Once you have found someone you would like to follow, press the FOLLOW button. This will keep you updated with their latest content.
WARNING: X has been criticised for its failure to combat misinformation by scrapping the feature that lets users self-report fake news. It’s always good practice to double-check news info you find on X – a quick google search goes a long way!
VISUALS! People love looking at or watching something as opposed to reading nowadays. Use visual pleasing material to grab people’s attention.
Don’t post pictures of people unless you have their permission
In many cases, people use this as a highlight reel to display the best aspects of their life. Don’t take it too seriously.
Whatever your use for Instagram, be authentic.
Instagram has a new update where it won’t proactively recommend political content on your feed. This has been criticised for suppressing political debate, but some people do prefer to avoid political content, and that’s fine too! If you still want to see political content, you must opt-out of this update. Got to Settings > Content Preferences > Political Content > select ‘Don’t limit political content from people you don’t follow’.
