Facebook and Twitter

[markopolo]

I'm sending links to new forum posts to Facebook and Twitter:

Class B Forum Facebook

Class B Forum Twitter

Basically it is the post title and a link back to this forum so you can read the full post. I hope to encourage more members to follow the forum and participate when a topic they are interested in come up.
This should make it easy to see when there are new posts. I just started it and it seems to working. There may be a bit of duplication going on but I should be able to solve that.

If it proves to be useful then great. If it doesn't get used i can turn it off.

If you don't use Facebook or Twitter here are what the links looks like:

[Johnny R]

Good luck with that. I use neither facebook nor twitter.

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by Johnny R

Good luck with that.............

Thanks Johnny - I hope it helps too. I'd really like to see more members participate here. Interesting - there has been 80+ plus views on this post already. Maybe it will bring in some new members also.

[Davydd]

On Twitter, keep your tweets simple. Can the not necessary "Open Discussion" words and rephrase what you want to say in plain English to entice a visit, not necessarily the subject title.That would let searches pick you up better and pique curiosity since you only have 140 characters to work with.

On Facebook, be more conversational similar to what I said about Twitter. People ignore canned generated messages like you showed. On Facebook you need to editorialize your opening comment. You have a few more characters to work with to dress it out.

[markopolo]

Agreed - I'll look at all the options again. The process is automated and not very configurable.

[markopolo]

I think I stopped all the duplication. Basically a new forum post gets sent to Twitter (periodically, not real-time) and then Twitter sends it Facebook. So if your are already on Facebook or Twitter you should be able to track new posts on the forum then come back here to participate. That it the most effective way for me to do it I think. I don't use either service that much myself but it is fun learning new things.

Also, the forum software was updated last week to the most current version available.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Johnny R

Good luck with that. I use neither facebook nor twitter.

@ditto

I'll try it though, just to be trendy.
What's a tweet?

[markopolo]

Originally Posted by Mike

What's a tweet?

A lot of the kids said it on Halloween...... Twick or Tweet ..........

[Mike]

Funny, I have a twitter id but have no idea how it works, as i generally don't do social networking, and so never
learned how to tweet. Like Betty White says, "it seems like a waste of time". Or was that about facebook?
Places like this, web chat forums, with common themes are the main exception.
I think I'd go nuts reading 140 character messages about what someone's kids did today, or what
someone is having for lunch, or what someone is wearing (although that might have exceptions, too )

Still, if I can get some help with it, I'll give it a try, since it's targeting this forum, which I really enjoy.
Do I have to "follow" classbforum?

[markopolo]

I don't know much about it either Mike. I think it will be useful for people that use Facebook or Twitter regularly. They would follow ClassBForum and see brief descriptions of what is going on here on the forum. Those small descriptions contain a link to the actual post here. So, if something comes up that they are interested in then they click the link and end up here. If you follow ClassBForum on Twitter Mike let me know what happens such as do you get emails or do you have to be on Twitter to see the activity here on the forum.

[Davydd]

Facebook and Twitter are somewhat different social media in how they work. I'm on both and have been almost from their inception.

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Davydd

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Davydd

Let's take Facebook first. You have your own profile Wall page where you can post messages, photos, videos, etc. Your friends can respond to your postings and musings. Your friends can also post to your Wall if they desire. You can control and edit (delete) any postings on your personal Wall. To have friends it has to be mutual consent, so if you don't want someone to see your Wall you simply don't "friend" them and set your controls of who can see accordingly.

You also have a Home page you can control what kind of content you can see. Basically a Home page is an aggregate page of what all your friends post on their Wall pages so you don't have to visit every friend Wall page to see what they are up to. If you find a friend tedious or boring you can also control what you see posted from them.

ClassBForums.com has set up what is a business or fan page that people join by selecting "Like". After you Like a page, postings from their Wall pages can show up in your Home page if you desire.

You can also join groups that people set up. Those can be closed or open groups. You have to ask and be accepted to a group. I've joined several groups that I have an interest in. Group postings also show up in your Home page. I've set up two groups on Facebook that I administer. They are:

Pursuing Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches

BEE Social Group (Class B RV Camper Vans)

Explore and get a feel for what goes on.

Twitter can be tailored almost any way you want to use it. If you create an account you can post short 140 character messages with linked web pages or photos if you desire. If you have no followers you are basically posting to the ether unless someone is following a post they have set up to search. You don't have to post anything if you desire.

If you want to read other postings, you have to "follow" them. Right now I follow 29 people and for some reason have 70 people following me and I probably only know a half dozen personally. Followers are not necessarily friends. They are just people interested in what you post.

Another way to use Twitter is to Search it. If you want to read anything posted on a subject by anyone in the world, just search it. For instance, if you want to follow anything said about Roadtrek you simply search it. The strength of Twitter is not just what is said in a post but in the links associated with the posts. That's what ClassBForums.com is desiring to do.

It all gets a little more detailed but that is the gist of Facebook and Twitter. There is a little bit of overlap such as in the case of ClassBForum.com. I selected "Like" in Facebook. If I decided to "Follow" in Twitter I would just get duplicate info from ClassBForums.com. So, I use Facebook and Twitter for different purposes. I also post entirely different things in them. I post for friends in Facebook and for strangers in Twitter. Yeah, I'm a social online animal. I've been at it since 1984.

[Davydd]

Marko,

If you want to see a more effective way of ClassBForum.com delivery on Facebook and Twitter you ought to see it on the Flipboard app on the iPhone and iPad. They turn comments into more of a magazine format presentation. Unfortunately, in both cases, it is like preaching to the choir. One has to actively seek out ClassBForum.com in order to see the comments. That means they are probably already members here.

[Mike]

Originally Posted by Davydd

It all gets a little more detailed but that is the gist of Facebook and Twitter. There is a little bit of overlap such as in the case of ClassBForum.com. I selected "Like" in Facebook. If I decided to "Follow" in Twitter I would just get duplicate info from ClassBForums.com. So, I use Facebook and Twitter for different purposes. I also post entirely different things in them. I post for friends in Facebook and for strangers in Twitter. Yeah, I'm a social online animal. I've been at it since 1984.

I probably shouldn't ask, but what universally accessible "medium" was available for you "social online animals" in 1984?
Didn't Al Gore create the internet in the mid-90s?

[Davydd]

Compuserve, GEnie, AOL, Prodigy, etc...all dial-up networks outside the unknown Internet at that time. I first got online by laboriously typing in a Basic language telecommunications program copied out of a magazine before there was anything commercially available on the Macintosh computer.

[Mike]

Funny, it's been a long time since I've heard those other names, besides AOL.
How soon we forget?
Dial up system support from home at a blinding 28kbs.
PROFS, my first taste of email.
It's all coming back to me now.......