12. Getting Social with Facebook, Pinterest, and Other Social Networks
In this chapter, you learn how to share your thoughts and experiences online via Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social networks.
Social networking is all the rage. We’re talking online communities like Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter, places where you can go to share what you’re doing with your online friends, and find out what they’re up to, too.
If you’ve never used a social network before, it’s a whole new world to explore—and you can do it from the comfort of your iPad. If you have used Facebook or another social network, you need to install the appropriate app(s) on your iPad and learn how they work.
Understanding Social Networking
A social network is an Internet-based service that hosts a community of users and makes it easy for those users to communicate with one another. Social networks enable users to share experiences and opinions with one another, and thus keep in touch with friends and family members, no matter where they’re located.
The goal of a social network is to create a network of online “friends,” and then share your activities with them via a series of message posts. These posts are short text messages, sometimes called status updates, which can be viewed by all your friends on the site. A status update can be text only, or contain photos, videos, and links to other web pages.
Your online friends read your posts, as well as posts from other friends, in a continuously updated stream. On Facebook, this stream is called the News Feed (other sites call it different things), and it’s the one place where you can read updates from all your online friends and family; it’s where you find out what’s really happening.
There are many social networks on the Internet, and Facebook is the largest and most popular among users of all ages, including older users. Other social networks popular among those 50+ include LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Twitter.
More About Social Media
Learn more about Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and other social networks in my companion book, My Social Media for Seniors, available online and in bookstores everywhere.
Using Facebook on Your iPad
With more than two billion users worldwide, chances are many of your friends and family are already using Facebook.
Although Facebook started as a network for college students, today it’s the social network of choice, especially for older users. In fact, half of all people aged 65 or older who are online make Facebook their hub for online social activity—and browse the site for at least an hour each day.
People of all ages use Facebook to connect with current family members and reconnect with friends from the past. If you want to know what your friends from high school or the old neighborhood have been up to over the past several decades, chances are you can find them on Facebook.
In addition, Facebook helps you keep your friends informed about what you’re doing. Write one post and it’s seen by hundreds of your online “friends.” It’s the easiest way I know to connect with almost everyone you know.
Like all the social networks discussed in this chapter, Facebook is completely free to use. You access Facebook from its iPad app, which you can download from Apple’s App Store.
Navigate Facebook’s iPad App
The first time you launch the Facebook app, you’re prompted to either sign into an existing account (if you have one) or create a new account. Follow the onscreen instructions to proceed from there.
Whenever you open the Facebook app, you see the News Feed screen. The News Feed is where you view status updates from all your Facebook friends, and it looks different depending on how you’re holding your iPad.
Tap the Facebook icon to launch the Facebook app.
In landscape mode (held horizontally), you see the News Feed on the left with a sidebar on the right side of the screen that displays upcoming events, the Chat panel (with favorite friends listed), trending topics, and more. Scroll down the screen to view more updates in the News Feed; refresh the News Feed by pulling down from the top of the screen and then releasing.
In portrait mode (held vertically), you see the normal screen with no additional sidebars. All the navigation icons are at the bottom of the screen; tap News Feed to display the News Feed.
Tap the down arrow in the top-right corner to access app settings.
When a person you know sees you on Facebook, she might send you a friend request. You have to be friends with someone on Facebook to see their posts in the News Feed. To view your friend requests, tap the Requests icon.
Tap the Marketplace icon to see items for sale from Facebook members in your area.
Tap the Notifications icon to view notifications from Facebook.
Tap the More icon to view your favorite pages and groups, and to configure Facebook settings.
Pages and Groups
In addition to posts from individuals, Facebook also offers official “pages” from companies and celebrities, as well as topic-specific groups. You can “like” a public page to receive posts from that page, or join a group to post and receive messages from other members of that group.
Read and Respond to Posts
The messages people post to Facebook are called status updates or posts. You read and respond to posts from your friends on the News Feed screen.
For any given post, tap the Like icon to like that post. Tap and hold the Like icon to choose from a range of responses, from Love to Sad to Angry.
Tap the Comment icon to comment on a post.
Tap the Share icon to share this post.
Tap the poster’s name to view that person’s Timeline page. (The Timeline page serves as a person’s home base, displaying her personal profile, posts she’s made, and photos she’s uploaded.)
If the post includes a photo, tap the photo to view it full screen.
If the post includes a video, tap the video thumbnail to begin playback. (Some videos may play back automatically when you scroll to them.)
If the post includes a link to another web page, tap the link or thumbnail to view that page on a new screen.
Post a Status Update
You create new status updates from the Facebook app’s News Feed screen. The status updates you post are displayed on your friends’ News Feeds.
Tap within the status update box at the top of the page to display the Update Status panel.
Type the text of your message into the big text box.
Tap Photo/Video to include a photo or video with your post.
Tap Live Video to shoot live (real-time) video and share with your friends.
Tap Check In to include your location in your post.
Tap Feeling/Activity/Sticker to share how you feel, tell others what you’re doing, or add a small graphic sticker image to your message.
Tap Tag People to tag another person in your post.
Change who can see the post by tapping the Privacy button beneath your name.
Tap Post to post the status update.
Learn more about Facebook in my companion book, My Facebook for Seniors, available online and in bookstores everywhere.
Using Pinterest on Your iPad
Facebook isn’t the only social network that may interest you. Pinterest is a newer, different type of social network with particular appeal to middle-aged and older women—although there are a growing number of male users, too.
Unlike Facebook, which lets you post text-based status updates, Pinterest is all about images. The site consists of a collection of virtual online boards that people use to share pictures they find interesting. Users “pin” or save photos and other images to their personal message boards, and then they share their pins with online friends.
You can save images of anything—clothing, furniture, recipes, do-it-yourself projects, and the like. Your Pinterest friends can then “repin” your images to their boards—and on and on.
Like Facebook, Pinterest is totally free to use. You access Pinterest from the Pinterest app.
View and Save Pins
You can download the Pinterest app, for free, from Apple’s App Store. The first time you launch the app, you’re prompted to either sign into an existing account (if you have one) or create a new account. Follow the onscreen instructions to proceed from there.
Tap the Pinterest icon to launch the Pinterest app. You see a variety of pins.
The pins in your feed include items pinned by people you follow, as well as recommended pins from Pinterest. Tap a pin to view it full screen.
Press and hold a pin to display the command icons.
Keep your finger pressed to the screen and move it to the Save icon to save this item to one of your boards.
Accept or edit the current description of the item.
Scroll down and select which board you want to save to (or tap Create Board to pin to a new board). The item is then saved to that board.
Not Always Welcome
Some websites don’t want people to pin their images, and code their pages to prohibit pinning. If you try to pin from one of these pages, you get a message that no pinnable images have been found. If you happen to pin an image that some entity owns and doesn’t want you to pin, they can ask Pinterest to take down the pin. (Legally, Pinterest says it’s not responsible for any copyright claims for items saved to its site. Pinning images other than your own can infringe on copyright laws.)
Pin from a Website
Many Pinterest users find images outside of Pinterest to pin to their boards. When you see an image on a website, you can easily pin it to a Pinterest board.
From the Safari web browser, navigate to the web page that contains the image you want to pin and then tap the Share icon in the browser to display the Share panel.
Tap Pinterest to display the Pick an Image panel. (If you don’t see the Pinterest icon, tap More to display it.)
You see thumbnails of all available images on that web page. Tap the thumbnail you want to pin.
Accept or edit the description for this pin.
Tap the board you want to pin to (or tap Create Board to pin to a new board). The selected image is pinned to that board on Pinterest.
Using Twitter on Your iPad
You may have heard of Twitter, even if you haven’t used it yourself. It’s one of the more popular social media networks out there, although it isn’t that widely used by those 50 and up. It’s most popular among users in their twenties and thirties—and among politicians and celebrities reaching out to large audiences.
Twitter is kind of like Facebook, but with only posts—called tweets—and no groups or pages or any of that. Tweets are short posts (280 characters or less), kind of like text messages, although they can include photos, videos, and links to pages on the Web.
As happens with the other social networks, you identify people you want to follow, then you see all of their tweets in your feed. People who follow you see your tweets in their feed.
Read Tweets
Twitter is completely free to use. You have to sign up to use it, however, which you can do from the Twitter app, available for free from Apple’s App Store.
Tap the Twitter icon to open the Twitter app.
Tap the Home icon to display your feed. Tweets from people you follow are listed here.
To “like” a tweet, tap the Heart icon.
To retweet a tweet (that is, post it to the people who follow you), tap the Retweet icon, and then tap Retweet.
Create a New Tweet
Tweets can be a maximum of 280 characters long. You can include photos, videos, and web links in your tweets.
From the Twitter app, tap the New Tweet icon at the top of the screen.
Use the onscreen keyboard to enter the text for your tweet. Remember to make it no more than 280 characters long!
To tweet a photo or video, tap the Photo icon and then select a photo or video stored on your phone. (The photo or video doesn’t count toward the 280-character limit.)
Tap the Tweet button to post your tweet.
Hashtags
Twitter encourages the use of hashtags in their tweets. A hashtag is a word or phrase (with no spaces between words) preceded by the hash (#) character, like this: #hashtag. Use hashtags to link your tweet to other tweets with the same hashtag; click a hashtag to see other tweets with that hashtag.
Using LinkedIn on Your iPad
LinkedIn is a social network with a business bent. It’s designed primarily for business professionals, and it’s a good way to keep in touch with others in your profession, including people you’ve worked with in the past. LinkedIn is particularly useful if you’re in the market for a new job; it’s easy to make new contacts and do your business networking online.
Navigate the LinkedIn App
Like all the other social networks, LinkedIn is free to use; all you have to do is create an account and enter a little information about yourself. You access LinkedIn on your iPad from the LinkedIn app, which is available for download (for free) from Apple’s App Store.
Tap the LinkedIn icon to open the LinkedIn app.
Tap Home to view posts from people or businesses you follow.
Tap My Network to connect with other users and view suggestions of people to follow.
Tap Messaging to exchange private messages with other LinkedIn users.
Tap Notifications to view recent activity from the people you follow.
Tap Jobs to look for employment opportunities.
Create a New Post
You can share notes, articles, photos, and more with the people you’re linked to on LinkedIn.
From the app’s Home screen, tap within the Share an Article, Photo, or Idea box to display the Post screen.
Enter the text of your message within the text box.
Tap the Photo icon to include a photo with your post.
Tap the Post button to post your update.
>>>Go Further: PRIVACY ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
It’s important, when using any social network, to be aware of your privacy. It’s easy to think of Facebook or any social network as a personal diary, but it’s not. These social networks are extremely public; when you post a message or photo, it could be viewed by millions of people you don’t even know.
If you value your privacy, you want to configure your settings on each network so that what you post is seen only by select people. Ideally, you want only your friends to see what you post; that means changing the posting privacy options from public to another more private setting. In addition, some networks (such as Facebook) let you adjust your privacy on a post-by-post basis. This way you could post something that you want your family members to see but don’t want to show to co-workers or other friends.
How you adjust a network’s privacy settings differs from network to network. In the Facebook app, for example, tap the Menu button (down arrow) at the top-right corner and then tap Privacy Shortcuts; everything you need to configure, privacy-wise, is listed there.
Of course, the best way to keep some things private on a social network is to not post them at all. You’re old enough to know when to be discreet; resist the urge to post private information, private thoughts, and photos that ought to stay private. If you don’t post ’em, nobody’ll see ’em.
Finally, never, ever post your private contact information on a social network—or anywhere online, for that matter. If you don’t want strangers calling you up or showing up at your door, don’t share your phone number or street address with them. In addition, never post about going out of town (or even out on the town); it’s not unheard of for burglars to troll the social networks so they’ll know when a house is empty and ripe for the looting.
Bottom line: Be careful out there!