Overview of Social Media Networks

Tool

Description

Good if…

Not good if…

Facebook

Familiarize yourself with…A list of common Facebook terms

• Founded in higher education
• Mobile friendly
• Targetted and affordable
• Based on social networks

• You want to share your messages on a site where students already are.
• You want to regularly promote discussion about your department.
• You want students to start sometimes passionate discussions with one another on topics that relate to your department.

• You’re afraid that people may say something negative in front of other students.
• You want to control the discussions.

Twitter

Familiarize yourself with…The Twitter Glossary

• Public
• Casual
• Responsive
• Real time

• You like to share lots of information in a quick way.
• You want other people to share your news as well.

• Everything you send out needs to include detailed information.
• You want complete control of all the messages that come out about your group.
• You don’t want to always be monitoring your feed.

Blogs

Familiarize yourself with…A blog about blogs

• Fun
• Interactive
• Engaging
• Accessible

• You’re an engaging writer with a number of topics you’d like to generate discussion on.
• You’re willing to participate in discussions even after you’ve posted your blog.
• You’re able to think up a number of topics to write 400 words plus about.

• You’re afraid to take a side on a topic or unable to see two points on one topic.
• You don’t want people to be able to share a different opinion.

YouTube

Familiarize yourself with…The YouTube Glossary

• Entertaining
• Short

• You’ve got a video camera, engaging speakers, and a story to tell in two minutes or less.

• You have a group of people too shy to talk on camera.