Social Networking

Social networking is a relatively new way of connecting with people and keeping in touch via the internet. It has become a part of daily life for many people and organisations, and the most common way they communicate.

Creating a social networking page can bring many benefits to your organisation, with little extra stress. A social networking profile, properly maintained, can be used to find, inform and keep in contact with people all over the world.

This how-to guide was created by cybersafety education body, NetSafe. Send your feedback on the guide to queries@netsafe.org.nz.

Netsafe

What is social networking?

Social networking is a relatively new way of connecting with people and keeping in touch via the internet. It has become a part of daily life for many people and organisations, and the most common way they communicate. For more information about what social networking is, click here.

What are the benefits?

Creating a social networking page can bring many benefits to your organisation, with little extra stress. A social networking page is a useful way of creating and maintaining contact with a wider audience who consume their media, research information, and connect with others online. It is also a great way of advertising your service and being another point of contact in the online space. Click here to read more.

What online tools exist to use social networking?

Bebo, MySpace, Sonet, Facebook and many more social networking sites exist on the web to help us communicate with a wide range of friends, contacts and organisations. For more information on which social networking site will work best for your organisation and how you might effectively use a social networking profile click here.

How to design a social networking page

We have given detailed information for the 3 main social networking sites on how to make a profile page on their site:

How to make a Bebo page.
How to make a Facebook page.
How to make a MySpace page

Also in this how-to guide

Resources and tips on how to get the most from your social networking profile page, how to promote your pagehow to track interest in your page, how to stay safe, how to develop policies, and where to go for further advice.

News   (Go to full list of 18 items)

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Publications / Resources   (Go to full list of 17 items)

  • Introduction to Twitter

    Twitter.com is a micro blogging web site where you write short messages (tweets) of up 144 characters. Your followers (subscribers) can then read the tweets via SMS, email, Twitter web site or RSS feed.
    Date updated: 21 April 2010
  • Nonprofit Social Media Primer

    This white paper by Frank Barry, Director of Professional Services, Blackbaud Internet Solutions (USA), examines a multitude of ways to get started with social media and how your organization can benefit.
    Date updated: 6 January 2010
  • Using YouTube to promote your organisation

    YouTube is a social media website where an organisation can host and view video clips free of charge. The site is so popular that main stream television networks around the world see it as a threat to their revenue. This has the positive effect of cheap and efficent advertising for organisations.
    Date updated: 26 November 2009

Full List

Templates

  • Social Media/Web 2.0 policy for non-profit organisations

    It is equally important for non-profit organsiations to have social media policy as it is for commercial organisations. The same risks and many of the same consequences are relevant to both sectors.
    Date updated: 19 November 2009
  • Cybersafety use agreement

    This is a generic Staff Cybersafety Use Agreement developed by NetSafe for use with the personnel in your organisation.
    Date updated: 18 September 2008

Case Studies

  • Outside case studies

    Some other case studies that may be useful to your organisation.
    Date updated: 18 September 2008
  • NetSafe

    Creating a social networking page on Bebo has bought benefits to our organisation, with little extra stress. www.bebo.com/netsafe
    Date updated: 18 September 2008

Email Lists

Websites   (Go to full list of 12 items)

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