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Guide to social networking

Share resources

Social networking features are provided in this site, to enable you share resources.

Social networking toolbar

You will see this icon at the bottom of pages in this site

Bookmark and Share .

Simply hover your mouse over it, and you can choose any of the social networking options which will appear (for example, facebook).

The most popular social networking sites are described by toolbox. (Information is grouped by type of use rather than the product name, as the actual tools are constantly evolving and new ones being developed).

Really Simple Syndication (RSS)

RSS is really useful as it removes the need for you to constantly and individually re-visit each of the websites that you are interested in to check for news and updates.

Instead, if you see that the website (or your browser toolbar) has the RSS icon showing (often denoted with an orange coloured symbol), it means the website publishes an RSS feed. You then just need to click on that logo to add it to the collection of websites you want to keep up to date with.

You will need a Feed Reader (sometimes called News Reader) program which arranges your selection of websites, but these are free to obtain and use, probably the easiest one to get started with being 'Reader' which is built into the Google web browser (just open up www.google.co.uk and click on 'Reader' which is part of the 'more' menu list to set up a free account).

More about social networking

Old' media, such as newspapers and TV are mainly about other people publishing information. 'New' media uses 'social' web features such as photo or video sharing, collaborative document development, blogging tools and facilities to build social networks of people with similar interests. These all create a vibrant internet which has a more interactive and participative culture.

Rather than just one way traffic, 'social media' encourages participation and the development of two way stories and conversations.

It offers new ways to link people together, build networks and sustain virtual communities who can publish their own photos, videos, news and campaigns on the issues they feel strongly about.

It could create opportunities for you to develop new services, but must be used wisely to not further marginalise the people you work with.

Either way it is worth downloading the 'How to use New Media' which is available from the tools library in the ICT area of this site. or reading more at www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk/web2forvoluntarysector.

You could also post questions into the forum in this site to get advice from experts, and share learning and experiences with others.