Can you believe that “unfriend” has been named the word of the year by the New Oxford American Dictionary? What does it mean anyway?

Recently, I had the opportunity to use the facility for the first time. I hope I do not have that “opportunity” again for a while.

I write a LOT now.  I publish two active blogs (this one and my Bishop  of Technology blog at http://raywaldo.com.) This blog offers Christian, devotional articles. The latter is intended to make technology more accessible to ordinary people. I am also writing two books online (at http://james.cdntoday.com & http://salt.cdntoday.com). Added to this, I am trying to engage others on several other blogs that I support  and  on the social media sites Facebook & Twitter.

So,  how do all of  these online sites work together? Well, read on…

I have been using Facebook & Twitter for a while now and I have made some missteps. Not that I have done something on either site that I am ashamed of – both of these sites have  enabled me  to minister to new people that I would never have met otherwise. The “missteps” were in the way that I set them up for use. So, this article is my version of how they should be used.

Facebook is a place where “friends” can meet and  share conversations with all of  their friends — as if they were all in a single room. This is great for connecting with friends and family. When you post a comment (called an “update”), it can be read by every person with whom you are friends (and, according to your “privacy” settings, may be visible by everyone on Facebook. And, when you comment on a friend’s update, your comments are visible by all of your friend’s friends! It is pretty cool. Each update is limited to about 420 characters.

I recently re-connected with some people that I have not seen or talked  to for almost 30 years! From that connection, I have found others friends that I share with the original group. You only need to browse the “friends” of any new friends that you  make. You can even browse THEIR friends (in most cases). When you find someone that  you recognize, just request that they accept you as a friend.

That is what I use my primary FB account primarily to accomplish – connect. I use the Facebook page http://facebook.com/chiefshep to link FB users to my Chief Shepherd blog. I use the FB page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bishop-of-Technology/134868284909 to direct users there to my technology site.

There are some people who see Facebook as a game where the object is to acquire the largest number of “friends.” I have learned not to accept friendship with anyone with whom I share no common interest. Even then, I may find that I don’t wish to continue communication with someone. They may not  offer anything of value to me (some people only post nags or complaints while others post mundane, “I am eating green beans”) or they may post comments that I find objectionable. In such cases, I may wish to “un-friend” them. However, it is embarrassing to some people when someone unfriends them.

Then I discovered the “Hide” button on Facebook. If you “mouse over” the right side of a post, the button appears. Click it and it will allow you to hide that person. None of their updates will show on your timeline until you UNhide them. If the update is a notice from a game or other application, you have the option of hiding either the person or that app. I hide EVERY app that shows up. Once hidden, it will not reappear – even for different user. That is VERY helpful. It allows me to stop reading all the objectional posts without having to unfriend someone.

Twitter,  on the other hand consists of a stream of “tweets” (short updates of 140 characters or less) which can be read by anyone connected to the internet. Google now indexes tweets based on key words found in them. I have been using Twitter for my “headline news” feed for several weeks now and it works well. I am able to get fresh up-to-date news on the  topics I choose — as it happens. I follow sources for traditional news, technology issues, conservative politics, blogging helps & for Christian & encouragement issues.

Rather than connecting with another as a friend (as in FB), a Twitter user chooses whom he/she will “follow.” Following another user MAY encourage them to also follow you but there is no requirement to do so. Users develop a network of other users whom they follow and eventually find that others will also follow them.

To develop a usable network, I look for the SOURCES of information. Some of these sources are evident (major news networks all have Twitter accounts) while you will have to search for others. Like Facebook, you can expand your network by examining the profile page of the people who interest you. Check the profile pages of the people THEY follow and you will get back to the sources of information. Examples: I follow Todd Starnes (Todd is a Fox News Radio reporter and best-selling author) and CNN Newsbreak for traditional  news. Then I follow Max Lucado, Rick Warren & Chuck Swindoll (plus several other, lesser known leaders) for Christian news.

At this writing, I have 113 follows and I am following 99 others. But both of those numbers are continually changing. As I view the updates from those I follow, I find that some may not be providing anything useful to me. But with Twitter, I can simply UN-follow them and there is no ill-will. Likewise,  others may decide that they no longer wish to follow me  and therefore unfollow me. It is not insulting.

Twitter allows users to RETWEET any tweet that you find (even from those you don’t follow or who do not follow you). This is done by quoting the tweet and preceding it with “RT” (short for “retweet”). This retweet is then sent to all those who follow you. Likewise, when someone that I follow retweets someone else’s tweets, I can see them. (This may alert me to someone new that I may want to follow.)

Added to the stream of tweets sent to me from those I follow, I can also SEARCH for information about practically any topic. Beyond the traditional searches for any word, Twitter uses “hashtags” (a word preceded by “#”) as special key words allowing users to search for the most current tweets on that topic. Some are easy to recognize while others may not be so simple (#TCOT stands for Top Conservatives On Twitter).

If you think that Twitter (or email, etc) is too “complicated” you may want to try a new service called Celery. View the video below to see how this 80-yr-old uses a FAX MACHINE (!!!!) to send twitter messages to her family.

Summary:

I use my blogs for extended articles (such as this one) since neither Facebook nor Twitter allow for longer posts. Instead, updates on Twitter (and to a lesser degree, FB) make use of links to other sites to complete the flow of information.

I use Twitter as my news source (those I follow) and as a way to share notes, RTs and links to information with those who follow me (http://twitter.com/raywaldo). I previously forwarded these tweets to my FB page but it no longer seems appropriate so I have now stopped doing so. If you have become a friend of mine on FB and  LIKED these short updates, you can continue receiving them by following me on Twitter.

UPDATE Jan 5, 2010: I have developed a “Nubie Guide to Twitter” that guides new Twitter users in how to get started. Find it  on my RayWaldo.com  site here: http://raywaldo.com/2010/01/nubie-guide-to-twitter/

I will continue to use Facebook for connections and general discussions with friends & family. I may provide some links to other articles as it  seems appropriate. If you wish to link to me on FB, click here.

I am not an expert on any of these sites. This post (hopefully) will enable new users to begin using the services effectively. To correct any errors in this post – or to add additional tips, just hit the COMMENT button below.