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For a lot of people, social media is considered to be a waste of time.\u00a0 It is certainly true that it can be.\u00a0 It can\u00a0also be the complete opposite of that.\u00a0 There are hundreds of articles about\u00a0Social Media and Social Responsibility out there on the Internet, both pro and con on social media. \u00a0It all depends on how we use it and for what purpose. Perhaps, as Quintin L. Cook suggested, we should use it as a servant rather than a distraction.<\/p>\n
I have noticed in my years of teaching family history and genealogy, that there are a lot of people that just\u00a0don’t want to be bothered learning how to use and engage in social media.\u00a0 Others feel they just\u00a0don’t have\u00a0anything to share.\u00a0 There is so much more to using social media than that!\u00a0 Perhaps paradigms can be changed by knowing a little bit more about it and how to use it for good.<\/p>\n
There are some very wonderful\u00a0benefits in using social media in ways that uplift\u00a0and unite people. The teaching and learning from others with common goals and interests is great.\u00a0 On a personal level, it can help\u00a0us stay connected with our family members and friends who live\u00a0in other places.\u00a0 That alone makes social media a necessity for us as our immediate family is really spread out.\u00a0 Facebook is a wonderful help in locating living relatives for family history\u00a0purposes as well.<\/p>\n
For many of us, Facebook is a place\u00a0to learn so much that we want to know about\u00a0doing our family history. Keeping current is so important.\u00a0\u00a0The Family History Guide<\/a> is just such a place with its amazing learning system and thousands of\u00a0resources.\u00a0 Our use\u00a0of social media can keep you up to date.\u00a0 Once you have created an account on the various social media platforms you can access our social media content from The Family History Guide itself.\u00a0 From the home page<\/a> just go to the dropdown menu Blog\/Social to access our two Facebook pages and more.\u00a0 \u00a0We\u00a0try to help everyone discover what is new, relevant and enhanced on our website each week. The updates are done to make your experiences easier, more efficient and more enjoyable. Here are a few things about each of the social media platforms where we have a presence.<\/p>\n FACEBOOK<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 \u00a0Did you know that Facebook has over 2.2 billion users? It is the # 1 social media choice around the world according to my Google search today. Surely some of those are your relatives!\u00a0 I have\u00a0found that The Family History\u00a0Guide’s Facebook group for Consultants, Trainers,\u00a0and Directors has become a wonderful\u00a0place to connect with others and learn from each other. If you’d like to participate just ask to join. Go to Facebook:\u00a0 Search for The Family History Guide-Consultants, Trainers,\u00a0and Directors. Or search for The Family History Guide for our main page. They each contain a lot of the same posts. The trainers’ page is just more interactive about training and teaching family history. Facebook has literally thousands of pages related to family history and can be extremely helpful for searching and connecting with others, with a common surname or localities of interest and many other topics.\u00a0 You are likely to find a lot of second and third cousins on Facebook!\u00a0 They often have information you don’t about various common relatives and ancestors.<\/p>\n TWITTER<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 Twitter had 326 million users in 2018.\u00a0 Twitter\u00a0posts, called tweets, are limited to 240 characters and you can add a photo also in your tweets.\u00a0 \u00a0What a lot of people don’t understand is that 240 characters also includes links. Those links can have as many characters as you want. \u00a0 So\u00a0when\u00a0I post\u00a0on Twitter I always add a link to something in The Family History Guide.\u00a0 I like to use it to quickly find a post from the past without having to scroll through Facebook to find it.\u00a0 I use it as an index to make sure I haven’t missed any posts on our Blog.\u00a0 It might be useful to you in the same way if you want to revisit something you have read before. Of course for the blog posts, you can look at the archived posts and use the Categories and Tags to find them. I love following other people on Twitter that are also genealogists and family historians.\u00a0 It is a great place to network and learn a lot.\u00a0 If you have never ventured into Twitter, give it a try!\u00a0 Just go into twitter.com and create an account.\u00a0 Then you can find us @thefhguide.\u00a0 You can “like” and comment on the tweets or retweet (share) on your own page.<\/p>\n PINTEREST & INSTAGRAM<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 Pinterest has over 250 million users and over 75 billion pins!\u00a0 Instagram is the 2nd most used platform by marketers worldwide!\u00a0 These sites are both visually-oriented social media platforms. The Family History Guide is active on both.\u00a0 We have lots and lots of images on Pinterest.\u00a0 If you drill down by clicking on the image you will find they are attached to a link with the information you can use for your family history. Not all images on Pinterest are connected to links. There are hundreds of family history\u00a0boards on Pinterest as well.<\/p>\n Instagram is loved by lots of people and young people especially!\u00a0 We are just now getting started on Instagram for the Family History Guide.\u00a0 Again, you create an account and then you can follow others like personal friends and family and entities like The Family History Guide, along with other companies and organizations.\u00a0 Like Pinterest, some images\u00a0contain links if you click on them.<\/p>\n YOUTUBE<\/strong>:<\/span>\u00a0 On YouTube, more than 4.5 billion hours are watched per DAY!\u00a0 50% of YouTube users use it for learning new things. A Google search I did this morning states that 300 hours are uploaded to YouTube every single minute. The numbers are staggering!\u00a0 Social Media is here to stay. The Family History Guide has a wonderful YouTube Channel<\/a> for your enjoyment and learning. It is growing in content all the time, with plans to add a lot more.<\/p>\n BLOGS<\/span><\/strong>:\u00a0 I have been blogging for over 11 years on a variety of subjects. Along\u00a0with that, I enjoy doing social media posting for the Family History Guide because I am passionate about how The Family History Guide\u00a0helps people.\u00a0 A blog is defined as a shortened version of weblog where people post personal thoughts and web links.\u00a0\u00a0They are used by individuals and companies and organizations as well.\u00a0 They are meant to be interactive.\u00a0 People write and others hopefully respond or engage, with “likes” or comments, etc.\u00a0 All social media has the intended capability of people engaging with others.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0You can jump right in and talk with the writers, share your opinions and ask questions. On the Family History Guide Blog, you will find a place to comment after the article and just below the photo displays of Related Posts. We welcome your\u00a0comments! Thank you for following this blog and other platforms where we are posting content to keep you up to date.\u00a0 \u00a0Hopefully, it enriches your experiences and answers your questions about The Family History Guide website. Our aim is to make your family history journey better!<\/p>\n