July 2008 Archives
Last week Pete and I were in Rotherham to deliver a follow up training session on Social Network Sites to the youth service.
Unlike last time we were using an IT suite which didn't block access to Social Network Sites - so we used the opportunity for some hands on exploration of Bebo.com.
I was struck by how much the group managed to learn and explore in just 45 minutes hands-on time. For many workers it was the first time they had been able to sign-up to, and explore a Social Network Site - and being able to use the computer was far better than working with the paper-based Social Network Site models I've used in previous training sessions.
Building on the one page guide Introduction to MySpace I put together a couple of weeks ago - I prepared a more in-depth guide to Bebo which steps a new user through creating a profile, and then exploring privacy settings and adding friends.
You can download the getting started with Bebo guide here.
Many young people are spending upwards of two hours a night on Social Network Sites like MySpace and Bebo. A lot of that time will be spend interacting with friends that they see everday - but some will also be spent browsing, exploring and interacting with the profiles of bands, brands and other people.
There are many profiles and groups out there on most Social Network Sites where young people can find out about important issues, interact with charities, and access support and advice. However, many of those profiles are tricky to find - so young people may need a map.
When you're planning a group work session with young people - why not think about creating a list of Social Network Site profiles they could take a look at afterwards? It offers an opportunity to tap into that two hours a night of Social Networking with some positive input, and if offers a challenge to young people to engage deeper with an issue.
Plus - by pointing young people to Social Network Sites, you create an opportunity to talk about Safe Social Networking. The example hand-out below shows how you might link safety and opportunity on Social Network Sites.
Creating your own Social Network follow up handout If you want to create your own Social Network Site follow up hand-out, then the instructions below may help you:
- Safety First - when young people join a group, or 'friend' a profile, their profile picture, as a clickable link through to their full profile, will be listed as a friend or member of the profile/group. That means their profile could be more easily found - and so it is important to first make sure that the young people you are offering Social Network Site follow-up links to have thought about the privacy settings on their profile.
Once you are happy that they are thinking about privacy settings - there is nothing to stop you sharing links to positive profiles - as long as you are happy that those profiles are run by trusted individuals or organizations.
- Find positive profiles - Both MySpace and Facebook run a list of not-for-profit organisation profiles where you will usually find at least one relevant organisation.
On MySpace look at the lists on http://www.myspace.com/impactuk
And on Bebo look at http://www.bebo.com/bewell
On Facebook you will need to use the search feature to look for groups. Search for the name of organisations you know are working on the issue you have been addressing.
The idea of providing links for different Social Network Sites is to 'go to where young people are at'. Focus your efforts on providing links for the places where you know the young people you work with have profiles. You should also try and include one or two website address for those who do not have Social Network Site profiles - as the purpose of the exercise is not to encourage young people to sign up to any particular site.
- Create short links - if you hand on a bit of paper with links like this:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1306406134
not all that many people are going to bother typing the whole thing in. You can shorten links like this by pasting them into a short web address service like http://is.gd which creates a shortcut address which is far easier to type into a browser.
- Create your handout - you could use the image above to get ideas about the sort of things to include. Ideally your handout would have a few notes about safety - alongside links and descriptions of what those links are to.
- Use the handout - after your group work session.
- Get feedback - next time you see the group - find out if they looked at any of the sites. Ask about any issues the different profiles raised. Get ideas from the group about other profiles and links that the handout could have included.
If you do create a handout - why not head over to the UK Youth Online community to share it with others. You can upload it as an attachment to a blog or forum post.
Thanks to a post over on the Fairsay e-campaigning mailing list I've just discovered these fantastic pages on MySpace, Facebook and YouTube best-practice for non-profit organisations.
The tips, which range of how to lay-out your page, through to how to manage friend requests, blogs and messages to users are all geared towards charities promotion and fundraising for their organisation and cause - but may well prove a useful read for any youth services thinking about how to use Social Network Sites to promote their projects and provision, and to engage with young people in the social network space.
Head on over and take a look:
On the community profiling @ infed org page Mark Smith writes:
The best and easiest starting point with regard to data about the community you are interested in profiling is the web.The focus of Mark's article is on using formal data sources like the statistics on UpMyStreet.com. But with the growth of the social web - it seems reasonable to imagine that it might be possible to not only profile facts about a community using the web - but to also find out what a community is talking about, what the local issues are, and where the networks are which could be crucial in bringing about local change.
I'm thinking about the role of community profiling on Social Network Sites in two senses:
1) Profiling a physical-world community by looking at the online media, conversations and ephemera related to that community.
For example - you could find out what was being said about the 'Jade' dance nights held in Kiveton Park by using the following search:
You can see the results I got when I tried it below. A stack of links to people talking about the dance nights and their links to them.
You could try a similar search for your community by adding this onto the end of a key-word search on Google.
You will need to experiment with key words to get the best results (and you may want to add other sites to the search if there are local forums of places which issue get talked above - to do that, just add them in the format 'OR site:sitename.com' within the brackets) - but once you've found a search that gives you information about the area you could even set up a Google Alert (read more - PDF) so you get an e-mail when the search engine finds new content.
Of course, this online profiling of a physical world community isn't comprehensive. It doesn't search what's not picked up by Google (which includes most content shared in Facebook) - and only some people in the community turn to the web. But the number of young people sharing content on the web is growing - and the information and insights to be gained there are to.
Most importantly, including the social web in your community profile of a local area should help you to break down the boundaries between online and offline worlds in your own perceptions - helping you to get closer to understanding the experience of many young people for whom the online/offline divide is pretty much invisible and insignificant.
2) Profiling online communities
Profiling a local community using the social web may support you in having greater insights and information to base your face-to-face interventions and community developing work upon. However, as we explore the idea of youth work and community development that takes place primarily online - mapping the online community that you are looking to work with becomes important also.
The search tricks above might help you find a route into the communities - but once you've found your route in - it is likely to be far more a link-hopping and online networking activity that you need to engage with in order to build up a sense of the communities.
So, having explored these possibilities for using Social Network Sites in community profiling, my question is: can it work?
What happens if you try to profile your local area using the techniques in (1)? What techniques would you add?
Have you tried profiling an online community? Is it the right approach?
Feedback very much invited, either in the comments here or over in the forums of UK Youth Online.
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P.S: For more topics related to the Youth Work and Social Networking project be sure to check out UK Youth Online and Tim's Blog
Tags: communityprofiling, youthwork2.0, 2gether08, detached youth work, infed
