Engaging families through social media

and discovering the benefits of virtual sharing

By Eliana Tardio

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

The term Social Media refers to the use of web-based and

mobile technologies to turn communication into an interactive dialogue.

Social media is present in many different forms.

The most popular are:

Facebook is a social networking service and Web site launched in February 2004, operated and

privately owned by Facebook, Inc.

As of July 2011, Facebook has more than 800 million active users.

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service . It enables its users to send and read text-based

posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".

Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July.

Twitter rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with 200 million users as of 2011, generating over 200 million tweets and

handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal

employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, share and view videos

A blog (a blend of the term web log) is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are interactive,

allowing visitors to leave comments, and even messages each other via

widgets on the blogs and it is “this interactivity” that distinguishes them from other static websites.

Being successful at social media

Is not as easy as opening a facebook page, twitter account,

youtube vlog page or a blog.

“Social Authority"

In order to be successful, you’ll need to build something called :

What is Social Authority?

Social authority is developed when an individual or organization establishes

themselves as an "expert" in their given field or area, thereby

becoming an influencer in that field or area

So, as the State wide non for profit organization serving children with special needs, it is most important we become a Social Authority for

Early Intervention

We are

LEADERS

We are

EXPERTS!

How to engage families through social media?

It is important to understand :

- Social media is not about overt marketing

- It is all about “starting a conversation” expecting that you can achieve a significant influence in that conversation

- Social media is measured by INFLUENCE- INFLUENCE is gained by credibility - CREDIBILITY is gained through

knowledge

Do we have possibilities in such a big and competitive market?

In the Edleman Trust Barometer report in 2008, the majority (58%) of the respondents reported they

most trusted company or product information coming from "people like me" inferred to be

information from someone they trusted.

In the 2010 Trust Report, the majority switched to 64% preferring their information from industry

experts and academics. According to Inc. Technology's Brent Leary, "This loss of trust, and

the accompanying turn towards experts and authorities, seems to be coinciding with the rise of

social media and networks."

Statistics talk by themselves Social networking now accounts for 22% of all time spent

online in the US. A total of 234 million people age 13 and older in the U.S.

used mobile devices in December 2009. Twitter processed more than one billion tweets in December

2009 and averages almost 40 million tweets per day Over 25% of U.S. internet page views occurred at one of the

top social networking sites in December 2009, up from 13.8% a year before

Australia has some of the highest social media usage in the world. In usage of Facebook Australia ranks highest, with over 9 million users spending almost 9 hours per month on the site.

The number of social media users age 65 and older grew 100 percent throughout 2010, so that one in four people in that age group are now part of a social networking site.

As of June 2011 Facebook has 750 Million users.

The best of all

SOCIAL MEDIA is freeand very simple to use

You can open a blog at www.blogger.com

After you open a blog connect it to a facebook non profit page with

www.facebook.com and www.involver.com

Tweet in www.twitter.com

The future of social media

The Nextweb.com, a very famous blog about social media talks about the future in social media like this :* We will no longer be passive media consumers. Media will interact with us in dynamic ways on all platforms. Just like gamers playing WOW today, we will all become a part of a virtual world unknown to us yet, where we

will all be avatars in the game of life.

My personal experience with

social mediaMother of two children with Down syndrome, migrant, no previous experience on social

media.

ARE WE READY FOR THE FUTURE?