6 Steps to Safety on Social Media

Your personal safety online is important this is why you should consider your social media safety. Everyone needs to be more careful online and I’ve come up with some tips that I don’t think are too hard to do but they could prevent a number of issues.

Regularly check the privacy settings of your accounts. Facebook and Twitter have different levels of privacy available for your accounts. Instagram has the option for people to request permission to follow you. Somewhere in the terms and conditions that you accept when you sign up to any of these services, you will more than likely be agreeing to the fact that they withhold to right to make updates to their services and in doing so they may revert to default your privacy settings. (I’m not saying this is the case for all platforms but it’s worth checking with Facebook changing their algorithms frequently.
Consider the audience of the things you share. Every time you post something you should really decide whether you want that content to be online forever. Do you want this to be part of your digital footprint? If your grandchildren’s children are given a summary of your life what do you imagine it would consist of? Mine mainly would have been mainly moaning about stupid inconveniences and bragging about something good happening. Just bear it in mind.
Who are you actually friends with? In Digital Marketing there is a term for the amount of people that will see you post. This is called “reach”. Basically it means the number of people who can see it. Often this is referred to as impressions but Facebook are different. Reach is fascinating. For example, if you post something there is a potential that everyone you are friends with will see it. This is unlikely but it is possible. Theoretically then if each of these people shared it, it could be seen by all of their friends and so on. This is why you often see people putting posts on that are going “viral”. Topics like “I’m wanting to see how many likes and shares I can get to show my students about online safety” is something I see quite regularly. This is good. Someone needs to try and educate the younger generations about the potential implications of having a presence online. So basically, when you post something remember that once you post it, this content is no longer yours, it belongs to the internet. Anyone and everyone can share it, screen print it, archive it, you name it, it can be done.
Whatever you post could be interpreted in different ways. Yes, the world has gone mad. Political correctness, everyone gets offended, blah blah blah... it is what is is. At the end of the day what you post online is often in the form of text. Text has no tone (unless you write all of your posts in the form of scripts with directions and everything). Just consider this when posting online. You also need to realise that your friends might not be offended by anything you post but if they share something and a friend of family member of their’s is offended, it could potentially escalate. I’ve heard of a scenario where someone posted some content on Facebook that was about the money cuts to the police force referring to something that Teresa May had said during the elections, this persons’ friend liked this content and one of their friends was offended. Unfortunately, this friend of a friend was a colleague, it escalated and this person ended up being investigated at work. You’ve got to think about how you are perceived online. It’s not just your friends that could see what you put.
Potential employers use social media to screen applicants. When you set up your Facebook profile when you were a young impressionable teen, you probably showed off and put silly things in the description/about us section. Might be worth checking this. That content probably is still there. When you were 16 you may have listed “getting drunk with my friends” as a hobby or interest. Strangely, a future employer is not going to be keen on taking on someone who thinks that is a good past time. And if there is you “social drinker expert” and “mrs I love knitting” they are probably going to safeguard themselves by choosing the more sensible option. Can’t blame them really.
Throughly consider who you connect to. It’s very easy to click that “accept request” button. I use the theory of “ if I bumped into this person in the street would I talk to them”. If the answer is yes then you probably are quite justified in having them as a friend or connection. If you are only friends with them so that you can stalk them, please think about your behaviour. If this was in real life, you could be arrested. Don’t think that because it’s online that this behaviour is acceptable. Of course it isn’t punishable but think about it from an objective point of view. If you’re spending your own time that could be used elsewhere spying on others lives you might want to take a minute to ask why, why are you doing that?

I wrote a post about Social Media in general. Click here to view it I hope these 6 Steps to Safety on Social Media has been insightful for you and will help you make the correct decisions when online.

Please remember

Social media is always changing, they are always updating settings and changing things. Whenever a platform may change it's look, it's probably safe to say that they will more than likely have changed something in the "back-end".

At the end of the day, it's your responsibility to check your settings, you waver the right to blame any of the platforms when you click accept to their terms an conditions so check, check and check again.

Google Garage – A Great Way to Learn

Google Garage

This weekend, I went to my first Google Garage meet. The topic was Social Media Strategy.

Being based in South Yorkshire, it’s only natural that I headed to the Sheffield branch. I found out about it in a chance encounter with one of the reps when their bus was on tour in the local area and I was intrigued as to what it was all about. Whenever I see the term “social media” I’m naturally inquisitive. This was some time ago, but with a new found drive to develop my skillset, I decided to book myself on one of their “classes”. I’ve got nothing to loose anyway.

I headed here: https://learndigital.withgoogle.com/digitalgarage/f2f

It wasn’t the easiest to find at first but I just had a look at what courses they had to offer and booked myself on the first one: Social Media Strategy. I also really want to do the Digital Marketing Strategy one but thought I’d go for social media first.

Yes, I may be a digital marketing professional but it certainly do not mean I know everything. Far from it! The nature of marketing is ever changing and in the digital world this can be on a daily basis. It’s so important to keep your eye on the ball and recognise that there are skills to be learnt and platforms to discover.

The whole process of booking onto my first class was simple: just a quick online registration form with an email for confirmation. A couple of weeks later I was sat in an very industrial looking shop-space which ultra modern furniture, staffed by cool, hip, causally dressed Google Professionals. Obviously everyone knows Google is an American company, but it always gets me how different the work environments can be in a US company.

Anyway, I was greeted by two older ladies who were only there to learn how to use social media and another lady who was wanting to learn how she could use social media to help promote her new holistic business.

“What a mixture of people?!”

This made me feel really happy to know that there were people, on a Sunday, willing to give up what people would normally class as social or relaxing time to work on their professional skills. It really gave me a warm feeling and I couldn’t help but have admiration for all those there. A few others arrived, from a self-employed make-up artist trying to break into B to B to an entrepreneur who had launched her own kids clothing line, it was quite clear there were similar motivations as to why we were all there.

So what did I learn?

Well the class lasted around an hour and a half, and looked at:

why you would use social media to help a business
how you can decide what content to share
who your audience is
what platforms to use
and how to measure your success

I kind of felt like an A* student. I knew all the answers. Not in an arrogant way but I’ve spent five years getting to know my audience on social media. I know we don’t just have one target audience, but many. This is very important when using social media. The lady, Annie, who lead the class, looked at me to give answers to her questions when I suppose those who were there who hadn’t even started their business social media experience were looking quite confused, I was smiling with an element of reassurance.

Often, when using social media for business purposes, you can loose sight of the purpose of the platform. You forget you are targeting people with feelings, you forget that when a lot of your audience are on these platforms they are doing so for leisure purposes. They don’t want to see you directly seeing to them. You need to be of value. Whether you’re sharing a recipe or a how to video, it’s better to become a friend or advisory rather than just fire out information constantly.

Overall I came out of the session with a great feeling of reassurance. I’m doing everything I should be doing. It’s a great pat on the back to know that years of hard work, testing, failures and successes have paid off. I know I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I am excited about setting direction and trying some of the new ideas I’ve been given.

I love how learning brings people together

All credit to Google offering these services for free to help professionals and those wanting to learn. I’m very sad to learn on my first meeting that it will be closing at the end of March, but it’s certainly not going to stop me going as much as I can before then. I know they have Garages around the country, so if you’re interested in learning more or just fancy doing something, give them a look.

Love Emily

Social Media

Working with social media can be a “cool” thing to proclaim. People may be jealous that I spend quite a lot of time, legitimately, at work on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, often not as much as I would like.

However I do now have to ask, has having social media completely taken away the freedom we once had?

I recently attended a union meeting that included advice of how to behave online. Basically they gave the following advice:
*Don’t list your employer online
*Make sure that your privacy settings are as strong as possible
*Don’t be “friends” with your boss/manager

Fair enough. But why can’t you do this if you know how to behave online? I am friends with my manager on Facebook and I do list my employer on there too. It is my personal account. I have a limited friends list. I often do friend culls. probably less often that I should do.

Facebook

Something that I have been told recently is that every time Facebook do an update not the service, they often reset the privacy settings on your account. So it’s worth giving your security settings a good check every so often.

So what is correct behavior online?

Good question!

I’ve seen this question answered in a number of ways over the last 5 years whilst I’ve been working in digital marketing.

My favorite is don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your nan to see. Good idea!

How about don’t put anything online that you wouldn’t want your boss to see?

Everyone needs to remember the following:

Everything you put online STAYS ONLINE, FOREVER

It never goes away. Despite deleting all your statuses on Facebook. They DO keep a log of all your activity. It will be around far longer than you will.

You need to be aware of what your security settings are set to

Don’t just presume things are ok. It’s your responsibility to take care of your own accounts and your presence online. If you put that you’re out having a heavy drinking session with the girls and somehow your ex turns up, just think how he could have found out. The worst setting on Facebook is the “Friends of friends” option. Right… I hope I kind of know my friends well enough to know I’m not friends with any wrong ‘ens. As I always say, good criminals don’t get caught! But you have no idea who your friends are friends with.

Also, if you have your profile fully locked down to friends of friends but tag your friends in it, this opens up this status to be seen by their friends. If you post something and then they share it, only your settings keeping it private with prevent this content being shared.

Something else you need to consider is what content you like. I’ve often seen short videos or gifs that may be related to having a bad day at work. I did used to like these because I innocently thought “this is very accurate” or “it’s my profile, I can like what I want”. Wrong! So wrong. For example, imagine it’s around Remembrance Day, you see a picture of a poppy floating around good ol’ Facebook saying “Lest we forget”. What a lovely tribute, you may think. This may have been the case once upon a time, but not now. Check where the sources of this content. I’ve heard of an incident where someone had done this but she didn’t realize the content she’d shared casually originated on a Britain First post. If that’s your cup of tea, fine. But some people may be deeply shocked to think that they are unsuspectingly being associated with such extreme groups without thinking.

This post it not a lecture about how to behave online it’s more some points to consider. I’ve been witnessing some behavior online recently that has been done without thought about any repercussions. Every time you post you need to think:

Could this offend anyone?

Would you say this to your nan/share this with your nan?

This is where my question about freedom has come from. Are we now being silenced on a platform we once saw as being free? Yes. Of course.

I’ve created 6 easy steps to follow when staying safe using social media. Click here to view the post

Just remember to stay safe guys!!

Apprenticeships – The best route for many

A couple of weeks ago I was privileged to spend a couple of hours in the presence of some very inspiring young individuals at the Rotherham Advertiser Apprentice of the Year Awards. The event celebrated those who have excelled in the Apprenticeship route and those who are at the start of very successful careers.

I nominated my Apprentice, Rachel, for the award due to her commitment to the role of Digital Marketing Apprentice, her professionalism, her self-motivation and many other assets. Out of 160+ nominations, she was in the finalists that included those studying intermediate and advanced levels of apprenticeships in a variety of subjects such as engineering, care and media.

The evening was a lovely event. Being in a room full of people who were all there to be advocates for the apprenticeship route and to see the younger generations taking the initiative to get into work whilst learning, was very touching.

Obviously the fact that i work in education exposes me to the vocational route as opposed to the academic route for those completing their GCSEs and older. I’ve always been an advocate for Further and Higher Education.

My route

School

I followed the traditional academic route: went to sixth form college after school and then on to university. I had not clue what I wanted to do with my life. I’d flitted with different possibilities such as veterinary, medical, music, media and many more… I’m not an unusual case. I think at 14/15 it’s very hard to decide what career you are going to be doing for the next 50+ years. Seems pretty unfair and such a big decision to make at such a young age. Deciding what bag and hair accessory to team up was the extent of my decision making at that age. Picking your options and choosing between geography and history was a no brainer. Explains why until I was 18 I thought Penzance was in France! (yes I know. Ridiculous right?)

I picked Expressive Arts and Music out of the mix of Business, Sport and other various ones of no interest to me. I’d always been musical due to my extensive instrument playing from a very young age. I’ve always loved music and performing arts, so this was the obvious route.

I did reasonably well in my GCSEs: five Bs, five Cs and two Ds. Not bad. I’ve never been and A* student. I’m happy with that. Average Joe over here!

Sixth Form or College

My school didn’t have a sixth form so I had limited options. I had to choose between the rival secondary school and move into their sixth form with a lot of others from mine, go to the sixth form college in the centre of town or possibly one of the two local vocational colleges. I didn’t really have a push to go to a vocational college despite desperately to study Popular Music I was prompted to do A-Levels. The school sixth form didn’t seem to me as an option. All the high achievers were going there. I wouldn’t fit in. Non of my close friends were going there and most of all I didn’t want to wear a uniform for another two years. (Priorities, I know!)

So the choice was made for me. Local sixth form college it was. I chose English Language, Spanish, Music and Media Studies. I had to general studies as a given but the others I chose not because I thought I was going to be working in the media in Spain but because I still had no clue what I wanted to do and fancied another two years kind of working things out studying subjects I enjoyed rather than ones I felt I had to do. College was a good experience. It was more grown up and I made some good friends. Whilst at college I did have a part time job. this actually turned in to an eight year on and off relationship with my local Tesco.

University

After College I went on to university. I again picked a course I would enjoy rather than picking something I was certain would give me a career; BA(Hons) in Media and Popular Culture.

I spent three years partly living in a city that I loved and learning about popular culture and the effects that the media play on the way we behave. Yeah it was really interesting but all I can say that I remember is little things. I enjoyed watching films, learning about the effects of music on behaviour and many other theories. My final year dissertation was titled “The Representations of Lesbians on Contemporary British TV”.

In the end though, I was left in debt with an over draft and student loan and with no better prospects of a job or starting my career. Please don’t for one second think I’m preaching that the university route is bad. Nope! I would recommend it to anyone. Going to university is far more than just learning a course. You get life experience. You become self-motivated. If you don’t you can’t do well. If you move away from home you learn to live on your own. You learn many life hacks like how to never need to iron your clothes by hanging them straight as soon as they come out of the washer, that 5p (as they were back then) noodles are a meal and that there is never enough time to sleep. It’s a lot of people’s first experience of being out in the world on their own.

I came back home at the weekend to work. I had a boyfriend in my home town at the time so it made sense. I juggled that with staying up at uni 4/5 days a week.

Anyway…..

What I’m trying to say is that I spent five years of my life contemplating what I wanted to do. Going to college and university was right for me as I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Doing A-Levels let me keep my options open for a further two years while I decided what I wanted to do. I, naively (as probably so many others do) went to university kind of expecting that once I’d got my degree that I’d have jobs waiting for me. The media industry is so competitive and unless you are willing to spend a further two years working for free as some runner or have a huge drive to get into the industry.

In summary

Choose whichever route suits you. Do you research. If you know exactly what you want to do, consider an apprenticeship. This way you get the theory and the practical experience all in one go rather than waiting until after your qualification. If you’re not sure, stick with A-Levels and that way you’ve got another two years to consider your options.

xxxx