The document discusses how social media can help disability organizations share information, resources, skills and knowledge. It outlines several ways social media can help: by receiving up-to-date information through tools like RSS and Google alerts; finding people and resources using Twitter and hashtags; and sharing information through social bookmarking sites and connecting via social networks like LinkedIn. It concludes by asking the reader to consider how they currently get information, if any social media tools could help, and how that information could be shared with others.
Thank you for inviting me Louise Brown ICT Development Officer – supporting orgs NCVO – voice and support Talk about some of the opportunities for using social media as a network
Already stated that the aim of the network is to: Share information , resources , skills and knowledge Social media allows you to do all of those things What is social media? Static web to interactive web You had to go to a website to find out if there was anything new The next generation of the web is much more interactive and it connects people Allows users to generate their own content It puts people at the heart of content and connections
So how can social media help you to do your job? Receive up to the minute information Find people and resources Share information Connect
RSS one of the key components to social media It is a technology that pushes information out to you Gone are the days when you had to visit websites Picking your favourite or key websites means you are always up to date with the latest information Policies, funding, consultations, news Use either a tool on your computer or on the web When you don’t know the specific sites, key word alerts can help you to find new information It’s also a useful way to connect with other people talking about your issue Use the information you find to start a discussion or feed into policy
You will know if a website can push information out to you if it has this orange logo This is an example of page with RSS The Department of Health site has RSS in built to different sections
Twitter is probably something you’ve heard a lot about even if you don’t know what it does Press focuses on which celebrities are using it and what they are saying I find Twitter an excellent tool for finding out new information and connection with people There are over 100 million people using Twitter I started to use it to connect with people offering ICT support to voluntary orgs We shared links and ideas Then I started to connect with people that shared my interests and lived in my local area To me it’s a vital network and one that happens offline as well as online
On of the great things about social media is the ability to share. Tools like Twitter are a great way to share information A more useful way of saving the things you find online is social bookmarking Before the internet developed – if you found something online you wanted to keep you would add to favourites or save it as a file Social bookmarking is a new way of saving online You save your link, give it a description , add keywords that allow you to find it later and then share it with your network These are the links from someone at the Essex Coalition of Disabled People He has saved information relevant to him and given it keywords
Probably the most obvious thing you can do with social media is connect with others If you use Facebook you will be familiar with connecting with people and joining groups There are sites like Linkedin that offer more professional networking where you can connect with others working in the same field Online networks like these make it easy to connect with others
But what are the opportunities for engaging with people with disabilities? A recent report from the government’s Race Online 2012 project said that 48% of disabled people are offline So you need to think about if this is something you want to promote with the people you work with? Could it be your role to help reduce that number by offering equipment and training? There are people out there using social media to get their voices heard – Twitter, blogging, posting photos Treehouse – autism charity – has an online forum There are some accessibility issues with some of these sites but with the rise in mobile internet they will be easier to use
Thank you again for inviting me If you have any questions please email me or contact me through Twitter There are some really useful online resources on accessibility and the web from the BBC and AbilityNet