Yesterday, I went to speak to the Freelance Media Group about social media, specifically Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Of course, we ran out of time; this is a massive subject. I gave everybody a six-side handout to take away in case I’d bamboozled them during the hour and a half workshop. 😉
Rather than be completely techie, we did an assessment of where everybody was and which media of the three we used and how we used it. Then we looked at fear/reluctance to use social media and some of the ways of safeguarding themselves. The user experience, or ‘UX’ if you want the technical term, is one of the most important aspects of participating in anything online.
Privacy concerns were high as was the worry that nobody would be interested in what they had to say. Everybody has something interesting to say – we re unique as human beings, each one of us with a different story, so I urged them to go ahead and experiment.
Of course, you can play with privacy settings to restrict who sees what. But whatever the settings, people should remember that social media is 98% public and they should think hard how much of themselves they put on social media.
The audience was lively, the questions sensible and the whole meeting energising. Plus I sold a few books!  People were very kind and said they’d enjoyed it. I was only too happy to share  and If any of my experience was helpful to them, then that was a huge bonus. I may possibly have tempted a few more to try the social media mines but to do it carefully.
Find out more about the Freelance Media Group.
Alison Morton is the author of Roma Nova thrillers INCEPTIO, PERFIDITAS, SUCCESSIO, AURELIA, INSURRECTIO and RETALIO. CARINA, a novella, is available now. Audiobooks are available for the first four of the series.
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