If you have Facebook or Twitter, you can now keep in touch with Education Alliance there.
Facebook offers a number of features that conventional websites and blogs do not–particularly the ability to create groups, communicate more freely and deliberately, and post up-to-the-second updates with the push of a button.
If you aren’t familiar with Facebook or Twitter, let me explain a little.
Both Facebook and Twitter fall under the category on Social Networking websites. Social Networking is a relatively new phenomenon that has emerged on the Internet just in the last 5 years or so. Generally speaking, Social Networking websites allow people (or in our case, organizations) to create “profiles” that are displayed on a special web page. You can then search the website’s directory of profiles for your friends, organizations and businesses you like, famous movie stars, politicians–whoever and whatever you want.
Facebook, at this point, is becoming the most popular and most-used social networking website on the Internet. It’s a multi-billion dollar organization that a Harvard University student began right out of his college dorm room. In the last 4 years, its popularity has skyrocketed to unbelievable heights.
Twitter is known as a social networking website that offers “micro-blogging.”
To understand micro-blogging, you need to understand what a blog is. If you think you’re unfamiliar with blogs, you’re wrong. You’re reading one right now. “Blog” is short for “web log;” it’s a form of journal that has become very popular in the last 10 years. Some people keep blogs about their everyday lives (e.g. “I went to the store today. It rained a lot. I bought 3 dozen eggs and an artichoke.”); you may have a personal blog that you use to keep in touch with friends and family. Others (like the Education Alliance) write about current events, their organization, and so on. For micro-blogging, think about what it would look like if this full-size blog article were condensed down to just a sentence or two. Rather than writing this long entry about how awesome Facebook and Twitter are, it would probably just read, “E.A. now has Twitter and Facebook. Come check it out.”
Micro-blogging could be compared to the Status features found on Facebook and MySpace. These websites let the user enter their current “status.” Usually the status will contain the user’s name, followed by the status that they enter. So my Facebook status might read, “David Cox is updating the Education Alliance blog,” or “David Cox thinks today would be a good day to go to the beach.” Twitter allows users to enter these “micro-blogs” as opposed to full-size articles like the one you are reading right now.
A lot of businesses use Twitter and Facebook to keep customers up-to-date on their organizations; several local news stations in Central Arkansas use them to post the latest headlines and breaking news for their viewers. We’re going to use them to keep you updated on everything our office is working on.
Facebook and Twitter aren’t just for your computer-savvy kids. Maybe you’re too busy to fool with social networking; that’s fine–I understand completely. We just want to make the option available to you: If you want to see our Facebook page, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Education-Alliance/72275346356?ref=nf to find out more. If you want to follow us on Twitter, go to http://twitter.com/EduAlliance.
A final note: In order to follow us on Facebook and Twitter, you’ll have to join their websites. Both make signup a breeze, but just be aware that, if you don’t already have an account with them, you’ll probably be prompted to set one up. Signing up with these sites is 100% free, and allows you to choose how much personal information you want to share with the world and how much you want to keep personal.
To find out more about Facebook, go to http://www.facebook.com
To find out more about Twitter, go to http://www.twitter.com