A beginner’s guide… to sharing content online using 5 really useful websites

At Yorkshire Youth and Music, Rebeka Haigh is the 'go-to girl' for all things social media. This is a beginner’s guide based on her experiences using social networking and content sharing sites on behalf of a music education charity and arts organisation.

Facebook Send messages and / or media content to your friends and followers

To start using the many features Facebook offers, you first have to join and create a profile for yourself. Then you need to find and ‘add’ some friends – you can search for people you know in a few ways which are explained on the site when you sign up.

Most profiles on Facebook are personal ones, where you can put up or ‘post’ messages, status updates, photos, videos, website links and more. You can post via your profile page or on one of your friends’ pages. Importantly, you are in control of how public or private you’d like your profile to be using Facebook’s privacy settings – find out more here http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

Facebook also has other types of web pages that are more suitable for collectives, businesses or organisations. These collectives can start a group or have a page where they can post information about interesting websites, events they’re holding, have discussions and more. One or many individuals can be assigned as administrators of a group or a page but they must have a personal profile on Facebook.

Should you have a group or a page for your organisation then? Good question… Here’s a fantastic article that explains the two in much more detail and can help you to decide: http://mashable.com/2009/05/27/facebook-page-vs-group/

Having a presence on http://www.facebook.com can connect you with new, often younger audiences, and it’s a great way to share various types of content without word limits… other than the Youth Music Network site, of course!

Twitter Send messages or have #topic based conversations with @contacts in 140 characters or less

If you’re brand new to Twitter here’s a quick introduction… The premise of the site is that you can only post messages (or ‘tweets’) of up to 140 characters long – like a text message. When you join Twitter, you choose a name and you can contact other people or have published conversations, using the ‘@’ symbol and their name (@name). You can ‘follow’ people on Twitter and they can follow you. All published tweets can be seen by anyone online but they’re more likely to be read by those following you. You can send private messages to others via Twitter, as long as you’re following each other. You can even highlight certain issues or topics with a hash tag (#topic). Other twitter users can then use these hash tags to search the site for relevant tweets.

Twitter is a fantastic tool for sharing and finding content about specific subjects quickly: you can share other websites (post shorter versions of links via the http://bit.ly website), share photos and video, have conversations with lots of people at a time, create a buzz about an event you’re putting on, raise awareness about specific issues and more.

But this is just the tip of the Twitter iceberg – go to http://www.twitter.com to find out more.

Audioboo A place to record, listen to and share all kinds of audio recordings (or ‘boos’) online

Creating an account on Audioboo can be as easy as logging in with your existing Twitter account (you don’t have to – you can sign up separately). Just visit http://www.audioboo.com and follow their sign up instructions. Recording via the site is quick and easy, providing you have the free Java software (if you don’t, the audioboo site will automatically send you to the free Java download site) and you’ll need a microphone connected to your computer. If you don’t have either, you can still upload a number of previously recorded sound file formats.

This site is great for sharing conference or event clips, training sound bites, interviews, tune snippets and more, and could be a fantastic, creative tool for music organisations in particular.

Vimeo Featuring a higher quality of video footage, Vimeo is the more ‘cultured’ alternative to YouTube

Basic membership on Vimeo, as on many social media sites, is free. Simply fill in the details on the sign up screen and verify your e mail address. You can then upload a range of video files and prompts on the Vimeo site will take you through the process step by step. You can then share these videos easily via other networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Vimeo is fantastic for playing uploaded videos at a much higher quality than YouTube. Although YouTube is great for reaching a large and varied audience, the Vimeo community and staff are committed to uploading relevant creative content. Post up snippets of training events, music videos, performances and more. For an interesting alternative to sharing your videos, visit http://www.vimeo.com

SoundCloud SoundCloud is to Audioboo like Facebook is to Twitter

The SoundCloud site allows account holders to upload music and sound bites, collaborate on songs and sounds and network with other, like minded members. You can create an account via Facebook or keep it separate and create a profile directly through the site.

This site is particularly good at uploading longer, more developed content with other potential listeners and collaborators. If you or the people you engage with have talented music making skills, SoundCloud could be the perfect place for them to showcase their ability. Visit http://www.soundcloud.com to find out more.

Overview

The sites mentioned above are a selection of the vast amount of social media platforms available online to network with individuals and organisations, share content and discuss relevant topics. Many of the sites link together to make it easier for you as users to upload content once to a number of linked sites – but each site has different links. Check out each site above for further information or consider using Tweetdeck for all your social media needs!

Membership to all of the above sites is free (some have paid packages, but all have a free option), so don’t be afraid to set up an account to try things out… and get sharing!