Tools to Communicate
- Blogs
What is Social Networking?
A social network is generally made up of individuals or organizations that are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as values, visions, ideas, financial exchange, friendship, relationships, kinship and so on.
A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others.
Facebook is a free-access social networking website.
You can join networks organized by city, school, workplace and region to connect and interact with other people.
You can also add friends and send them messages, post daily updates to your page and comment on your friends’ pages.
Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read messages known as tweets.
Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author's profile page and delivered to the author's subscribers who are known as followers.
Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access.
Blogs
Blogs are a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material.
Some blogs provide news on a particular subject; others function as personal online diaries.
Most blogs combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and related media.
The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.
Cyberspace Social Safety
Use caution when you click links.
Be cautious when allowing sites to scan your email address book.
Be selective about “friends” on social networks. Understand that people are not always who they claim they are.
Assume what you write on a social networking site or blog is permanent. Don’t post anything you might later regret.
Be careful about installing extras on your site.
Use privacy settings to restrict who can access and post on your site.
Picture social networking sites as billboards in cyberspace.
Be cautious about posting and sharing personal information; guard your financial and other sensitive information.
Need Help?
Kitty Cummings
University Center for Training & Development
kcumming@binghamton.edu 777-6117
