Social Networking 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Facebook, Twitter, Google+ …

By Eric Griffith

• 
  

‘);

You’ve grown up hearing about tweets, status updates, likes, and friends (the online kind, that is). You may have even dabbled in social networking yourself. And there’s that now-infamous movie, of course. Whatever your experience or inexperience, we’re here to advise you about what you should and shouldn’t be doing on today’s most-popular social networks.

Just in time to go back to school, PCMag is here to give you a complete rundown on how to become a member of the major social networks, how to use them to your best advantage, mistakes to avoid, and what using these networks means for your future. Think of this primer as part of your coursework—Social Networking 101, if you will.

First, let’s be clear: You should join every major social network. Why? Well, while one may dominate now, it may not last forever (Friendster, MySpace anyone?). Oh, and you should reserve your name—your very digital identity—whenever possible.

Now, let’s grab our syllabus and let the lesson begin…

THE COURSE: SOCIAL NETWORKS 101

Facebook
It’s home to 750 million active users (as of July 2011) who create status updates about what they’re doing or thinking, share pictures, videos, messages, and links, play games, and run apps. It’s a jack-of-all-trades so big that, for some, it’s synonymous with the word “Internet.”

LinkedIn
Some refer to it as the business version of Facebook, minus the games, of course. It focuses on the kind of networking that helps people get jobs. Your profile on LinkedIn is actually your résumé.

Google+
This social network is the new kid on the block and, technically, still in “field testing.” Google+ builds on features we’ve seen previously from Google, such as the status updates we saw in Google Buzz and picture sharing from Picasa, mashes them together within profiles, and integrates them in other incredibly popular Google services like Gmail. Is it a Facebook killer? Time will tell.

Twitter
Though technically a micro-blogging service, Twitter does play in the social networking space. Tweets are, essentially, the same as status updates or links on Facebook; they’re just limited to 140 characters. You can follow anyone and anyone can follow you, and you don’t have to do anything to make this happen (unlike Facebook, where making “friends” requires approval from both sides).

Share and Enjoy

Missouri bans teacher-student Facebook contact

You won’t find teachers in Missouri friending their students on Facebook, or any other social network for that matter, this school year — not unless they want to violate a new law in the state that prohibits such contacts.

Senate Bill 54, signed into law by the Gov. Jay Nixon and taking effect Aug. 28, is quickly becoming known as the “Facebook law” in Missouri, although the bill is creates what is known as the “Amy Hestir Student Protection Act.” Hestir was a Missouri public school student who was molested by a teacher decades ago; the law basically requires school districts to report any allegations of sexual abuse to state authorities within 24 hours.

School districts will also be liable if they fail to disclose suspected or known abuse by past employees to other public school districts that make inquiries about those workers.

But buried deep in the bill is Section 162.069 is a mandate that references social networking sites, as well as teachers not being allowed to have a “nonwork-related website that allows exclusive access with a current or former student”:

By January 1, 2012, every school district must develop a written policy concerning teacher-student communication and employee-student communications. Each policy must include appropriate oral and nonverbal personal communication, which may be combined with sexual harassment policies, and appropriate use of electronic media as described in the act, including social networking sites. Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website unless it is available to school administrators and the child’s legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian.

Some teachers think the law is overkill for what’s needed to ensure student safety.

Randy Turner, Joplin East Middle School communication arts teacher, wrote on her blog that “hundreds of teachers across the state who have effectively used Facebook and other social networking sites to communicate with students, and I am one of those, will have to trash years worth of work, because all teachers are potential criminals” in the view of the author of the bill, State Sen. Jane Cunningham.

“The teachers I know who communicate with students through Facebook have a large number of parents as ‘friends’ and most of the communication with students is done on the Facebook wall,” Turner wrote.

And, she noted, the bill went through “in spite of the positive effect that teachers and students being Facebook friends had on Joplin Schools’ effort to locate students after the May 22 tornado.”

Related stories:

•  Teachers told not to friend students on Facebook
• ACLU: Students can insult teachers on Facebook
• Red Tape: Teachers, students and Facebook, a toxic mix
• Teachers asked to ‘unfriend’ students on Facebook

Check out Technolog, Gadgetbox, Digital Life and In-Game on Facebook, and on Twitter, follow Suzanne Choney.

Share and Enjoy