In this Thing, you’ll get the opportunity to consider the social media platform Facebook, and how you can use it safely.

Open Badge information

Open Badge: SSSC 23 Things Digital – Thing 8: Facebook

Counts towards: SSSC 23 Things Digital – Social Media Champion.

Introduction

Facebook is the biggest social media platform in the world. It has entered everyday vocabulary (‘add’, ‘like’, ‘unfriend’) and millions of people use it around the world for personal and professional purposes. For the social service worker, using Facebook can have huge potential benefits but it can also cause problems if not handled carefully.

Instructions

NB: You can only do some of the following activities if you have a Facebook account or if you set one up to do this programme. If you choose not to use Facebook, you can still earn this badge by completing the second activity.  If you do the second activity, include your reasons for not using Facebook, the impact this currently has on your work and any potential impact it may have in the future when supporting people who do use it in your blog post.

a) Privacy Settings & Tools

We strongly recommend that whether you are an experienced Facebook user, an occasional user or new to Facebook, that you spend some time getting a good understanding of the Basic Privacy Settings and Tools.

Review your own, or if you have access, your organisation’s Facebook account settings. You should at least consider the permissions surrounding what people can tag you in, and managing the audience for posts you make. If you change anything, note your reasons why in your blog entry. If you don’t change anything, consider why your current settings suffice.

b) Sarah Smith

Read this sample “Fakebook” page of Sarah Smith, a fictional care worker. What concerns, if any, might her employer or the people who use the service she works at have? Consider your own organisation’s social media guidance, as well as the SSSC guidance.

c) Facebook groups

You can create groups to share specific information with a select audience. For example, you might set up a group with colleagues to share work-related links, articles, videos, updates. Similarly, you could create a group for family members, where you can share family photos without others being able to see them.

• Groups can be publicly viewable or closed, ie only members can see them.
• You can share files and documents.
• You can create events for specific groups.
• You can use Polls in groups to gather information.

You do not have to be Facebook friends with anyone in a group to take part in it.

d) Blog

Write a blog entry of at least 100 words, detailing your responses to the activities and what you have learned. Have you created your own groups or joined groups created by others? If this is something you were already using, would you now consider using it in different ways?

Image credit: Photo by Artapixel on Pixabay