Social Media

Written by Linda Allen Saturday, 07 August 2010 09:56

We had an excellent presentation on Social Media at the TDW Summer Retreat (many thanks to Tanya Tarr, GOTV & Social Networking Political Organizer for the American Federation of Teachers, AKA @nerdette on Twitter).  Social media like blogs, forums, Facebook, and Twitter allow you to take part in conversations on many subjects with many people.

If you go to "Web Links" in the Main Menu, you'll find links to some places of interest.  I just added the link to BlogHer, which has a large number of interest areas for women and makes it very easy to share interesting items found there on Facebook or Twitter.  For example, I just tweeted (as @boomernerd) an article titled "No Excuses Allowed: Tackling The #1 Reason Women Don't Run For Office".

Information on Twitter can be found on Wikipedia.  I found the following comment there interesting:

"...Twitter is mainly used by older adults who might not have used other social sites before Twitter, says Jeremiah Owyang, an industry analyst studying social media. "Adults are just catching up to what teens have been doing for years," he said. According to comScore only 11% of Twitter's users are aged 12 to 17. comScore attributes this to Twitter's "early adopter period" when the social network first gained popularity in business settings and news outlets attracting primarily older users. ... According to a study by Sysomos in June 2009, women make up a slightly larger Twitter demographic than men — 53% over 47%. It also stated that 5% of users accounted for 75% of all activity, and that New York has the most Twitter users. ..."

The vast majority of people on Twitter are followers.  Some people I follow are:  @nerdette, @LisaStone (the founder and CEO of BlogHer - #blogher), @TXDemParty, @HuffingtonPost, @JoeMyGod (blogger), @lizzwinstead (political satirist and co-creator of The Daily Show), @MeanRachel (blogger), and @maddow (The Rachel Maddow Show).

There are free Twitter and Facebook apps for smartphones, so you're never far from your community.  Find a conversation that interests you and join in.