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Specialist Social Media

+This Session

Pinterest

Flickr

Break

Instagram

Goodreads

Recap of Social Media

+Specialist Social Media

Yesterday we covered the specialist video and music based forms of social for personal and business use.

Today we will cover the image based forms, as well as Goodreads, and you’ll have time to recap the main channels of Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google + before the end of the session.

There are far more social media channels than the ones we will be covering, but these are the main ones, or the ones with the most usage.

+Flickr

Flickr is an image based platform that allows users to upload photographs, which other users can view, comment upon, and share.

Flickr also has a huge range of groups available, adding a community element and allowing photographers to share images and knowledge.

Images can be organised into sets and categories, and Flickr also makes images available for use by other internet users through The Commons, and Creative Commons.

+Flickr for Personal Use

Personal users can use Flickr to share photographs as part of a hobby – they might post them to groups to share them with fellow enthusiasts.

They might take part in challenges set in the forums in order to improve how they take photos.

Personal users might also post questions in the forums, and browse threads to learn more about photography, both in terms of equipment and techniques.

A real benefit to Flickr is that you can upload images at their original dimensions, and use it as a form of ‘file backup’ because you can re-download them if you need to.

+Flickr for Personal Use

In addition, Flickr offers hundreds of interesting images from archives around the world, which Flickr offers through the portal called The Commons.

Participating institutions are displayed on the main page of The Commons – choose one to see their image uploads.

If you type Creative Commons into the search bar, it will bring up images that you can use in your blog posts under the Creative Commons licensing agreement.

Attribution Only is the best as all you need to do is name the photographer in the caption of your image in the blog post.

+Flickr for Business Use

Flickr is perhaps used less by businesses, and more by professional photographers.

Users are not allowed to use Flickr for commercial purposes - you can't just upload an ad as it's against the terms of service. 

Professionals can use it as an online portfolio to display their work – even the free package offers a lot of storage space, and while the site is not as customisable as a website, it allows for more interaction with the images.

Use your Flickr profile to promote your products or services.

Post images relevant to your company, and join groups.

+TASK

Create a new blog post, titled Social Media Session 8.

Create a new heading, ‘Flickr’.

Write two benefits to using Flickr for personal use, and two benefits to using Flickr for professional use.

+TASK

Try going to www.flickr.com. Click on Explore in the top menu bar, and choose The Commons.

Choose a participating institution and browse their images.

Find one that you really like, and click on the ‘More Ways to Share’ button. Share it on Twitter or Facebook.

Take a screenshot of your tweet or FB post.

Post to your blog.

+Pinterest

Pinterest is a visual bookmarking site that works around the principle of ‘notice boards’ and stick pins.

Users can create themed boards and ‘pin’ image-based links to these boards. The pins act as a good visual reminder of the website they came from.

Pins can be sent to other users, commented upon, or ‘liked’. They can be uploaded from a computer or pinned from an existing website.

Many users use Pinterest as a virtual scrapbook or moodboard, and it is particularly favoured by wedding planners and interior decorators.

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+Pinterest for Personal Use

Pinterest is ideally set up for personal use – it’s entirely up to you how to use it. There’s no right or wrong way to use it for yourself.

Some people pin photos of their ideal cars, places they’d like to go on holiday, DIY ideas, fashion, and much more.

Designers use it to make moodboards and online scrapbooks of images they want to refer to again later.

It’s not really set up for professional use – you’re not likely to find a lot of ‘dry’ technical content. It’s better to keep it for hobbies and interests.

+Pinterest for Business Use

Pinterest is NOT just about travel photos, inspirational quotes and mouth-watering recipes. It can be used for marketing purposes too.

You can use your boards to collect content that is useful, interesting or entertaining for your target audience.

Beautiful photographs help but you might also use infographics or images related to your business.

You can add ‘Pin it’ buttons to images that appear on your blog or website to make it easy for visitors to share content to their own pinboards.

+Pinterest for Business Use

Businesses can also pin ‘behind the scenes’ images, works in progress, or simply content that they feel will benefit their customers in some way.

General Electrics have created boards like “Badass Machines” which they fill with images of the more interesting technologies produced by GE and “Gifts for Geeks” which features gift ideas for geeky friends and family.

Pinterest is a good idea for businesses or freelancers because it’s actually fun to do, and it can be done in short bursts throughout the day.

It’s also free!

+Pinterest for Business Use

Pinterest drives more referral traffic to websites and blogs than Twitter, StumbleUpon, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn and Google+ combined.

Pinterest has 70 million users, 80% of which are women.

Each Pinterest pin is worth around 78 cents in sales.

Pinterest pins are repinned around 10 times (each) and pins are 100 times more viral than a tweet.

Pins can be found for a long time after they are pinned, whereas tweets and Facebook posts can get ‘buried’.

+TASK

In your blog post, create a new heading, ‘Pinterest’.

Write three ways that you might use Pinterest for your own personal use, and three ways that a business might use Pinterest.

+Pinterest - Downsides

There are no privacy controls supported by Pinterest.  Like Twitter everything you pin is seen by everybody, not just your followers. Once your pictures and comments go online, there’s no taking them back.

There are no controls you can use to limit the visibility of what you pin or comment on like there are on Facebook and Google+.

Don’t post any pictures that you wouldn’t feel comfortable showing to anyone in person.

Don’t add any comments to pins that you wouldn’t be able to say to anyone in person.

+TASK

Go to www.pinterest.com – you can sign in with Twitter, Facebook or Google+ so you don’t strictly need a new account.

Set up 3 boards for things relevant to your interests – refer back to your blog posts for your lists if you can’t remember.

Use the search function to find relevant pins.

Pin content to your boards.

Take a screenshot and post on your blog.

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Instagram allows users to upload photographs, to which they can apply filters and borders.

Users can follow each other, and post comments on images.

It is essentially a photo-sharing smartphone app which allows amateurs to dabble in photography and share their images with friends.

However businesses can also use Instagram to share images of their premises, products, staff, or things that might be useful to their customers, meaning that they can directly place images in front of fans.

+Instagram Downsides

You can log in to your account to view content and edit your profile, but as yet you cannot post images to Instagram from inside the web platform.

However, you can post comments and ‘favourite’ images.

Like Vine, Instagram is essentially a smartphone based app. If you don’t have an Android handset or iPhone then you can’t download the app.

It is also difficult to save images from Instagram, which helps with copyright issues, but makes it a poor substitute for image backup (unlike Flickr).

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Goodreads is a social media platform aimed at book lovers and writers.

Ordinary users can log in and browse titles, adding books to virtual shelves to indicate what they are reading, what they have read, and what they’d like to read.

Users can also post reviews and rate books, as well as recommending titles to their friends.

Goodreads was originally an independent entity but it is now owned by Amazon. As yet, there has been no major change to the way the site looks or functions.

+Goodreads

One of the benefits of Goodreads is that you can sign in with your Google or Facebook account details, so you don’t need yet another set of sign in details.

Users can join groups and discuss topics, in the same way as Facebook or Google +.

Authors can also use the site for promotion. They can; join the Author Program host giveaways link their blogs to their profiles list their books host promotional events interact with readers through groups

+TASK

Go to www.goodreads.com and choose to log in with one of your existing accounts.

Try setting up a profile. They’re free, and don’t take much time.

Search for the book you are currently reading, or the last book that you have read.

You can either add the book to your ‘currently reading’ shelf, or ‘read’ shelf.

Consider rating it.

+Recap

So far, we’ve covered a lot of social media platforms.

It can seem as though there are too many platforms, and not enough hours in the day to use them all.

Some users utilise smartphone apps to use social media, freeing up time spent on the computer for other uses.

Some users only exclusively use one platform, or focus on the specialist media related to their interests.

The trick is to choose the platforms that will most benefit you and what you are trying to achieve.

+Recap

If you want to market a business, or what services you can provide in a freelance capacity, you will need to consider all of the platforms.

You might not use them all, but it’s a good idea to understand what they can do for you.

Make sure you use the ones which will give you the most returns as you’re investing time in social media, and time is valuable.

Give different platforms a try but don’t be afraid to stop using one if it doesn’t work for you.

+Recap

If you’re using social media for personal use, focus on the platforms that best suit your interests and goals.

Consider whether or not you want to use social media to help your personal or professional life.

You may find that you don’t use the big platforms like Twitter or Facebook, but you do spend time with Goodreads or Pinterest.

Remember that these are SOCIAL and you should be using them to connect with people, whether that’s to make new friends, expand your network, or find customers.

+TASK

Go back to your blog post.

Write a short paragraph reflecting on what you have learned about specialist social media.

Is there a platform you already use, or prefer? Which platforms do you think you might like to use?

Publish!

+TASK

You’ve now got some time to go back and add to any of your previous blog posts.

You might also want to write your own reflective blog post about your time on the course.