TWITTER 

The term "tweeting" has become a verb commonly used in the social media world. While "posting on Facebook" is still something we discuss doing regularly, it has come to be that "tweeting" is the most common social media maneuver there is. 

In the last year, Twitter has taken off immensely. The simplicity of it has helped a lot.  

It's simple, I promise. You can only use 140 characters - so no long, whiny statuses like Facebook. 

You 'follow' instead of 'friend.' People tend to socialize with people they know more on Facebook than on Twitter because Twitter isn't as strict, but also people don't post the same types of things on the two sites. It's more of a newsy-network, more information than personal postings about what someone had for dinner.

Twitter is great for journalists. It short and sweet. Post one sentence and a link to a story. Done. People are reading.

Then they can 're-tweet' your story, showing it to all of their followers, which in turns helps you gain readers.

One of the complaints I hear most about Twitter is that it's not personal. You can't directly talk to anyone on there - which is false.

You can tag someone in your tweet and it will show up on their page. You can also send a direct, private message.

The other big complaint is that it moves fast, which it does, it moves VERY fast. There is a constant flow of new information. You can't read everything posted if you follow a lot of people. The alternative is to create lists. I have a 'news' list created that I use at work. That way, instead of reading 800 peoples' posts, I'm only reading 45 peoples' posts when I need news only. 

The Hashtag (#) is fun. It creates a chat-room type of feel. You can Hashtag any word you want, the popular ones create a 'trend.' Yesterday when we found out that Victor Martinez would be out the whole season (Tiger's Baseball) there were trending hashtags that were #VMart and #Tigers and #ACL (he tore his ACL).

That way you could go see what everyone else is saying about that specific topic. It's fun and pretty entertaining depending on who you're following! Even if you're not following someone who uses the same hashtag, you can see what they post and then choose to follow them. I find a lot of new people to follow from trending hashtags.

Twitter has without a doubt taken off. "Friend me" (Facebook) is starting to fade and "follow me" has picked up.

In fact, on our press badges our Twitter handle (name) is listed.  

The site considers itself "a real-time information network that connects you to the latest information about what you find interesting." That is exactly how I see it as well. You can include photos and videos in your tweets. It's a great promotion tool. My sister's high school cheerleading coach uses Twitter to tell them what the schedule is. 

Last week, I called Facebook the King of Social Media, which true. However, I think Twitter is the Prince of Social Media and is completely ready to take over the 'King' title when his father dies. 

With that, follow me on Twitter! @EricaPerdue 

Social Media Mania Blog

Today starts a new weekly addition to my blog! Every Wednesday I will be doing a blog about a different social media site. I'll provide a little background about the site, who uses it and how it can best be used (especially for journalists). 

I'll start with the big ones. Eventually I'll probably even touch on some of the sites that have died down since their climax.

Now, let's begin.

FACEBOOK

Well, most of us know about it already. If you don't use it I'm sure you've heard plenty about it.
This social media craze was founded nearly eight years ago. It was started by college students and those were the only people who used it for a few years. Since then, it has taken over and in a way created the social media phenomenon we live in now. 

From posting your own status about anything you want, to creeping on pictures of an old high school classmate to seeing what comments are being made about pretty much any topic in the world - Facebook captured the attention of students, adults, professionals, businesses and worldwide corporations. 

It connects people who are far from each other and allows men and women to choose to let others invade his/her privacy. 

However, it has become an immensely important tool in the journalism field. That became a big statement last year with the Tunisia and Egypt revolutions and the uprising that Facebook created during those times. 

Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim told CNN after Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down that he credits Facebook with the success of the Egyptian people's uprising.


"I want to meet Mark Zuckerberg one day and thank him [...] I'm talking on behalf of Egypt. [...] This revolution started online. This revolution started on Facebook. This revolution started [...] in June 2010 when hundreds of thousands of Egyptians started collaborating content. We would post a video on Facebook that would be shared by 60,000 people on their walls within a few hours. I've always said that if you want to liberate a society just give them the Internet."- Ghonim in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer

Wild, right? It's remarkable really.

Now, back here at The News-Herald, and at every news source across the country, we're using it to promote our stories.

The "sharing" tool moved that right along. By posting a story on Facebook, it can be comment on with ease while people are scrolling through the news feed. It can simply be "liked" or it can be "shared." When it's shared, it posts onto the person's Facebook wall who shared it. Then that gives the story more opportunities to be read than if it just on one wall.

We gain a significant amount of viewers when we post stories on Facebook. 

It's also a great way to communicate with readers, crowdsource and gather an idea of what a majority of our readers are thinking/feeling.

Facebook has been the social media hit for the last several years. However, it has mentioned talk of advertising showing up in news feed, which will immediately turn people off from it.

How long will Facebook be the King of Social Media? No one can really say. But, there's no doubt that it has held the crown for years and changed the way we communicate, relate and - in a way - how we live.