Engaging the digital generation...

Just a little update while I have a few minutes! I noticed that my YouTube videos in my blog post on using YouTube to engage young people are no longer working. This is becuase we moved the channel when my service changed it's name - the videos still exist, but in a different place. So just in case you haven't seen them, I introduce to you new (and improved) YESTV!

YESTV Episode 5 - The Jobfather

 

YESTV Episode 3 - Survival Guide to College

 

YESTV Episode 1 - Introduction to the Service

 

As you can see, not all of our episodes are here - this is just a snapshot (with more to come soon!) so head over to YouTube and subscribe to YESTVBrighton to make sure you don't miss out!

Last week I was lucky enough to be invitied to London Southbank Univeristy to have a talk to some of the part time careers students about using Social Media as a tool for engaging young people. I had a lovely time (thanks very much for having me guys!) and I thought I would share the presentation I delivered there, with you here, since it was my first proper time using Prezi to deliver a presentation.

Prezi is a tool I have been meaning to get my head around for ages. I'd seen a lot of examples of it in use and had snooped around the website, but hadn't really had an excuse to properly use it, so when I was invited to LSBU, I thought it would be the perfect opportunity.

So this is my first real attempt, and I'm really pleased with how it came out. It made for a much less boring presentation I think, avoiding the typical 'death by powerpoint' experience.

What do you think?

I cannae believe it has been five whole months since I last posted... I started out with such good intentions!! Still, time flies when you're having fun....or at least, when you are working hard!

So what have I been doing all this time? Lots and lots, which is good, as it means I have muchos to share with you here. 

First on my list of things to talk about is our new service fan page. If you have read my posts before, you might remember me talking about this back in this post. Back then, we decided that our facebook work had been so successful, we wanted to develop this even further. We decided (perhaps controversially) to ditch our website entirely, and instead use a facebook fan page as our main online access point for information for the public. We had a small amount of money to use and so I set about researching companies which could build our fan page to our specifications.

Unfortunately our website had been very much neglected. This was because the website was managed by another department within our organisation, and any changes or updates had to go through them. This made ensuring all information was up to date very tricky. Having our own custom built fanpage allowed us to display up to date and visually attractive information, which we would be able to manage, with no middleman. We also felt that this would mean that the public could reach us more easily and effeiciently. Hurrah. 

Finding a company was a bit of a minefield. There are literally tonnes of organisations offering all sorts of fancy facebook options, it was all a bit overwhelming! However, after lots and lots and lots of research, we discovered Net Natives a company local to Brighton, who specialise in social media engagement within education.

It took a while, but we finally launched our fabby new fan page right before christmas. Visit it at www.facebook.com/yesbrightonhove - doesn't it look amazing? I was very pleased with it indeed.

Now, I don't think as a rule it is vital to spend money on a bespoke page. A well managed fan page which comes as is can be just as engaging, as long as the content posted is relevant, useful and interesting to your fans. However, given that this has replaced our website, I feel that it offers a great deal more that your average page, encouraging engagement as well as offering lots of useful tools. Check it out for yourself (and don't forget to like us!). What do you think??

 

So, it's all built, lovely. That's it right?? Wrong! We have won the battle, but not the war just yet.

You could have the most wonderful fan page in the world, but if no one knows it's there, what's the point? So came the next challenge, driving traffic to our page. So here is my top eight ways to get those all important likes... hopefully you find it useful and can use some of these strategies yourself! I would love to hear if you have any other ways you use to promote your own pages too, let me know below!

1. E-mail signature

Include the link to your page on your email signature. Then email everyone in your organisation and tell them to do the same. This is a simple but all important one for obvious reasons!

2. Use pictures and videos

Facebook don't make it easy. The new (ish) news feed now generates content for users using 'Edgerank' which, in a very tiny nutshell, determines whether you will see content in your news feed, and high up in your feed it appears. This is huuugely important for fan pages - you don't want to be posting content that nobody ever sees. There are a number of factors which determine your content's Edgerank score, but what we do know, is that the formula for Edgerank prioritises 'rich' content (IE content featuring images and videos). Not only that, but a status which also features a picture to support it is attractive, helps to tell your story and it makes your post stand out! Thanks Net Natives for your fab blog post about this here. 

3. Post interesting content (read, not just one big fat advert for your organisation)

People want to engage in interesting content, and unfortunately, this means that a constant stream of status' advertising your local drop ins, whilst very useful, may not bring the likes flooding in. I don't mean start posting completely irrelevant content, just keep your content varied, and, well interesting. For example, you might post a relevant news story (unemployment figures anyone?) and ask what your fans think, or you might post an inspirational quote (supported by an image of course!), or perhaps you fancy running a quiz or competition? Think about what your fans want to see. As a good example of this, we have begun to post 'something for the weekend' on friday afternoons. This generally features an inspirational image or film to encourage our young people to keep up the hard work! This grabs attention in a news feed and encourages sharing (if you find a really good image/vid) which all in all results in a very happy fan page. 

(Here's your something for the weekend, just in case you were wondering!) 

4. Remember to invite your friends!

If, like me, you have already established your own profile page to support your work before setting up your fan page, use your friend's list to your advantage and invite your friends to like your page! This gives you a really good foundation from the off on which to build your fan page. All you have to do is have a look at the right hand side of your page and click 'invite friends' as below:    

Then you'll be able to select (individually, unfortunately, if you have lots of friends to ask) all the people you want to invite to 'like' your page.

5. Interact with you fan page community

It goes without saying that you want to interact with anyone who engages on your page (comments, likes etc) but don't be afraid to put yourself out there! Use your fan page to interact with other like-minded fan pages. Firstly, find the fan pages which are relevant to your work. For us this means fan pages to do with recruitment (Monster Jobs UK, National Apprenticeship Service, Brighton and Hove Jobs), young people (Prince's Trust, UK Youth, Youthnet) and local community pages (Brighton, Brighton & Hove, Love Brighton). Then, using your fan page news feed, go ahead and interact! Comment and share content. This then shares your page with that fan page's fans, and also encourages that organisation to notice you, making them far more likely to notice and share your content. It's like a great big fan page family out there!

6. Ask questions

This is another simple, but effective one. Don't make statements, ask questions. Encourage your fans to give their views wherever possible to encourage engagement. The more comments on your status the more people it will reach. Simples. 

7. Use insights, insightfully. 

An awesome feature of your facebook fan page is facebook insights. This is located in the left hand side bar of your page, and only visible to admins. This clever feature allows you to track the popularity and virality of all your content, and analyse what kind of people you are reaching, right down to what they like to eat for breakfast. Well, not quite, but you get the idea. Check it out! You can use this information to ensure you are reaching the right people, and find out which content you are posting is most popular. 

8. Make it look nice

Finally, let's make sure your fan page is visually attractive. Your fan page has a 'photobar' running along the top of the page which stores and displays five photos. You can't choose which photos to feature here, but you can manipulate them. Unless you have a custom landing page, your wall is the first thing your fans are going to see. Make it attractive by using the photobar to your advantage. Upload the five photos you want to feature there in a row, and they will automatically display along the top of the page. If you add a new photo to your page it will replace one of the images. To remove it, and get your old ones back, just click on the cross in the top right of the photo. There, prefection restored! We use five shots of local young people, to support the message we want our service to portray. Give it a try!

Phew, well, I hope you find that all useful. We are still growing our page, so I would love to hear of any others ways people have found to generate traffic :) Let me know!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's all been busy in the land of Elle lately - but not so busy that I haven't had time to try and find some new fun and free online tools.

Much of my life has been taken up with creating content for our fabby new facebook fan page, in particular creating video content (see last post for all things video here). Whilst searching the internet for other ways to use online film to engage young people, and I came across this rather nifty site - goanimate.com.

Go animate is a free online animation creator. Of course, it does have a whole host of amazing extra features which you can use to create some really brilliant animations - but since i'm all about the freebies, I sat down to see what i could come up with using a basic level account.

I decided to have a go at creating a mini cartoon series. Following the journey of 'Jenny Jobseeker' as she battles through the unemployment jungle. Of course, on the face of it it's a silly little cartoon, with very little advice (since you can only add up to 10 lines of conversation for free), but the point in it's creation wasn't to give young people an epic series which would be the only tool they need to beat unemployment, but rather it serves as (I think) a rather nifty tool for engagement - providing a little bit of advice, giving them a bit of a laugh, and most importantly engaging them in the service, encouraging them to access support from us, and in accessing local opportunities.

So this is what I came up with - a five (so far) part series. I intend to 'release' each episode week by week on our page once I have completed them all, but for now (consider yourselves extremely lucky for getting this first look preview!) I present to you episode one and two of Jenny Jobseeker!!

<b>GoAnimate.com</b>: Episode One - Jenny Jobseeker by elleemployability<br/><br><br>Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

 

<b>GoAnimate.com</b>: Episode 2 - Jenny Jobseeker by elleemployability<br/><br><br>Like it? Create your own at GoAnimate.com. It's free and fun!

 

 

It's not just all about facebook. As professionals in the 'digital age' I strongly believe we should be looking at all the fabby online tools which are available online. YouTube is one of these tools. The truth is it's really not all that difficult to create some brilliant, engaging online video content, now that sites like YouTube are readily available to us.

Don't panic if you have no idea about all the ins and outs of creating your own film or episode. Remember all the wonderful young people you work with? I bet you any money a few of them no a thing or two about video editing. Even if they don't - it's not that difficult to teach yourself. Look on your PC now and you probably have a programme called Windows Movie Maker - or if you are using a Mac - Imovie. These programmes are incredibly simple to use - just have a bit of a play around and you'll see!

So anyway, we've been busy creating YESTV today, the new YouTube channel for the Youth Employability Service.

We've experimented with video in the past. We've always ensured that young people have been involved in the film making process and have always found it to be thoroughly enjoyable - the first time we made a film we were amazed by what we could do with a flipcam, windows movie maker and a youtube channel! 

Here is the flip camera we have in our organsiation - nothing special, but does a great job, and is so easy to use! There are tonnes of flip cams around, from very very low priced, to much more expensive fancy ones. See if you can persuade your manager to invest in one!

The first video we ever produced was this one:

We then experimented further, with a video designed to give advice to young people about using the 'phone to speak to employers:

And then today, we launched YESTV - with the first episode designed to explain and promote the new Youth Employability Service.

These videos were all created with the simple tools I described above - and the very important input of some very talented young people!!

We had a great time making them, and hope you have fun watching them too - and hopefully will be inspired to create your own organisational channel! I will post updates for any upcoming episodes here, and if you have some video content you'd like to share, I'd love to see it!

 

 

One of the main issues youth organisations face when deliberating over setting up Social Media sites to engage young people is safeguarding. 

Surely having a facebook page is leaving yourself open to all sorts of mishaps? After all, the internet is a dangerous place....

Not so, or at least that's what I believe. Whilst there are a huge number of issues concerning safeguarding, child protection and confidentiality which absolutely must be taken into account, this is no excuse for denying young people your presence online. The rewards and positive outcomes which go hand in hand with using Social Media far outweigh the time it takes to get to grips with setting up your presence securely. It is paramount as professionals working with young people that we take the time to understand the security measures sites such as facebook have in place, to ensure that we are able to offer young people a safe and secure place online to engage with us. 

So, let's consider facebook...  

If your role involves working 1:1 with young people, a facebook profile page is the way to go. A fan page is a fantastic source for representing your organisation as a whole, but a profile page allows for full interaction and meaningful engagement with young people which neither a fan page or group can emulate. See Facebook: Profile Page Vs. Fan Page.

 

For now, let's have a look at how you can set up your page completely securely, ensuring that you are protecting any young people you 'befriend' online. 

Security settings for your page. 

Obviously, first and foremost we need to ensure that our pages are set up securely to safeguard young people.

So, let’s look at the security settings.

To access your security settings, log into your page. In the top right hand corner there will be a box which says ‘Account’. Click on this, and a drop down menu will appear, like this:

 

Click on ‘Privacy Settings’. You will be taken to a page that looks like this:

Click on ‘Customise Settings’ at the bottom of the list. You will see a page like this:

You want to ensure that your content is visible only to your friends. This will ensure that only people you have verified and allowed access to your page will be able to view your content.

So work down the list selecting ‘friends only’ for each option.

There are some things you may wish to share with everyone, so that young people can find and verify you more easily. For example, you will notice that mywebsite (www.connexionsplus.co.uk) is visible to anyone.

Scroll further down the page and continue to check ‘friends only’, though, like me, you may want your address, email address and phone numbers visible to all.

Under ‘things others share’ click on ‘edit settings’ next to ‘photos and videos I’m tagged in’. Select friends only.

Under ‘friends can check me into places’ click ‘edit settings’ and in the top right hand corner change the setting from ‘enabled’ to ‘disabled'.

Then go ‘back to privacy’. Under ‘Apps and Websites’ click ‘Edit your settings’.

You will see something that looks like this:

Click ‘information accessible through your friends’ and uncheck all of the boxes that appear. Then click ‘save changes’.

That’s it! You are now securely set up. Remember though that facebook regularly changes and adds new security settings and it is important that you keep up to date with these. I will be talking through any new and relevant security updates on my blog, or you can access facebook security settings updates through the facebook help centre. 

 

 

 

Yesterday I tweeted some info about a publication we produce online for our young people - a document called Vacancies on the Street which is compiled by the Client Advisers at Brighton and Hove's Youth Employability Service. We produce this fortnightly booklet, which is a list of all the vacancies currently being advertised in the shop windows in Brighton and Hove. We have done this forever, but about a year ago now, it was brought into the world of cyberspace, through one of my favourite free online tools.

Issuu.com provides free digital publishing platform, allowing you to upload any kind of document and turn it into a snazzy looking online magasine style publication. This is great for filtering information to young people (or anyone, actually, but for my purposes predominantly young people) for several reasons.

It looks really good

Simple as that - something which may have looked like a makeshift word document created booklet, instantly turns into a professional looking, readable catalogue. The best part is that it is fully embeddable to blogs, facebook and other online tools. So for people using facebook to engage young people, for example, you can use issuu.com to publish professional looking information and display it directly in you facebook wall, creating something which young people can flick through, without leaving your facebook page.

It's easy to use

Nothing complicated here whatsoever. Simply upload your document from your desktop and fill in a little information, and it will create your glossy maagise, and transport it into your very own online bookshelf. And it looks like a bookcase too, which is probably my favourite part.

It's fun to view

As a user, it is fun to use and draws you in. The look and feel of the whole thing encourage you to click and access the publication. This is why it is so successful to use with young people without a doubt. It is attractive, and you can access it right within facebook - far more interesting than clicking on a note or picture. Plus the interactivity of it in turning each page rather than scrolling through a load of information makes it really attractive. This makes your page engaging, which brings more traffic, and increases engagement.

Check out the latest Vacancies on the Street from the Youth Employability Service here!

The second tool I'm going to talk about used to be my favourite, but has now been demoted since they have gone from providing a free service, to charging. Quiz Revolution (formally mystudiyo.com) is online software which allows you to create interactive quiz content, using video, text and pictures. They are fully customisable and very easy to use. The content used to be entirely free unless you wanted to create a completely ad free quiz, but they have since started charging - though you can still create a free quiz which will remain free for the first 250 plays.

We* used it for the obvious - to create an 'interactive job interview'. We later followed this up with an 'interactive college interview'. We were so pleased with the results - and young people have given us some great feedback. You can also monitor through visitor statistics, so you can see how useful your quiz really is.

Check them out here:

*If you would like to identify my mysterious co-star, follow the very talented @AliceParrott!

 

 

 

So it's all been a bit quiet on the blogging front lately, I have been facebook training all over the place, and also working to design our service fan page, which we're having custom made by the lovely folk at Net Natives to look all jazzy and interactive and fun. Buuuut more about that when it's done. Whilst snooping around and checking out what's possible with facebook fan pages, I came across some very clever recruiter tools, showing that facebook is clearly not entirely off limits when it comes to looking for work.

This also happily coincides with a training session i'm currently developing with young people around using social media for their job search. Spurred by Isla_CH's request on twitter for any useful bits of info on this for a session she was running with FE students, I decided to develop a session for my NEETS from the small amount of online guidance I had already produced for young people.

You see, if you google 'Social Media for Job Search' or similar, you will come up with a zillion blogs and website offering very useful tips and advice for professionals, which is great - if you are a professional. But what if you are a 16 year old with no work experience? Does the same advice apply to you? Should you be using LinkedIn and attempting to get introduced to professionals in the area of work you are seeking?

I actually do think yes, to an extent. LinkedIn in particular is certainly geared up with an experienced workforce in mind, but I still think there are merits in young people getting themselves out there in this way. But that is all for another post!

The point is young people are using facebook - and yes, it is a potentially dangerous tool when considering seeking work (social / professional divide!!) but, I don't mean using your facebook profile to try to connect on a personal level, I mean using the clever apps and fan pages designed specifically to help you find work.

So this week i've been experimenting. Scouting out clever pages and apps which can help you find work, well specifically, that can help young people find work. 

So, my favourites so far (in no particular order)...

1. Recruitment Genius Ok ok, this is not really specifically useful for young people. But this clever recruitment company have a very clever facebook app integrated into their fan page to apply for jobs. Click on the 'Recruitment' tab and see all of their latest vacancies. The best part? Just click on the role for full information and apply withoutever leaving facebook. Magic!

2. Branch Out I found several apps like this one in my search, but Branch Out was definitely my favourite. It provides a LinkedIn style profile within your profile to reach out to employers, get recommended and get introduced. This is not why I like it though - to be honest, I do feel that you can do all that on LinkedIn, probably more effectively, and I think for young people, who are less likely to be headhunted, investing time in something like that is probably more trouble than it's worth - BUT - they do have a brilliant search facility which draws it's vacancies from a number of different resources, rather than just one like the app provided by Monster. A quick search on the BranchOut app for vacancies in the Brighton area, revelealed a number of entry level, young people friendly vacancies. Hurrah!

3. Facebook Marketplace Works a lot like gumtree, but within Facebook. I really like the design, and it's certainly simple to use. On Marketplace you can pretty much advertise anything you like, so as you might imagine, as with gumtree, there are a few dodgy looking ads - but, a quick search for vacancies in Brighton, came up with a few pages of useful and relevant job ads, plus applying is dead easy - click on a link, upload your CV and you're done!

4. Hire My Friend is a neat little app which let's your networks know that you are looking for work. I like it because I can see that it could be very easy for young people to use - though I admit I haven't yet followed the whole process through and tried it out. I mainly like it because of it's simplicity - I know there are a lot of apps which offer similar things, but I have found most of them to be quite messy and complicated. With this, it's as simple as sending what you're looking for and where out in to cyberspace, and spreading the word virally through your networks. After all, it's not always what you know, but who....

5. In the Door I really, really like this clever app. It scans your networks for the companies they work for and then cross references that with an online job board to identify which organisations were hiring. UNFORTUNATELY this is a bit of a cheaty one to have on my list, as even though it is partnered with job site 'Indeed', it only sourced me American vacancies when I used it. Shame - I hope they integrate it for UK use as it's very user friendly, and potentially very useful. 

 

So that's it so far. I have been suprised to find so few recruiters using an 'apply within' feature with their facebook presence, and hugely suprised by the number of big companies not really using facebook at all. I guess it might take some time for facebook to progress (if ever) up with the big boys when it comes to clever recruitment online - but clearly there are some exciting bits around. I would be really keen to hear from anyone who knows of any other decent apps, and especially keen to hear from anyone using clever technology on their fan pages for recruitment, particularly in the UK, and particularly those which advertise entry level jobs.

In the mean time, i'm back to my fan page design (i'll keep you posted!) and thoroughly suggest checking out the clever folks at Net Natives I mentioned earlier, if you would like to do the same!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A colleague and I were discussing yesterday, whether it is 'right' and professional to 'befriend' the young people you work with online. If you set up a profile page on facebook; as you 'follow' people on twitter and 'connect' with people on LinkedIn, you are required to 'friend' your connections.

This throws up all sorts of issues for people using facebook to engage young people. Professional boundaries are key to working effectively with your client group, both on and offline, and how can these be maintained when you are actively requesting young people to be your 'friends'.

It's a difficult one, and I think the first thing a professional needs to consider before making immediate decisions regarding their stance on this issue is to consider the facebook 'friend', and how that connection measures up to real life relationships.

A quick look at this light-hearted viral video showing how social media translates to real life might give you an idea of where I am headed with this....

Facebook tells us that the average facebook user maintains a list of 150 friends. A quick scan through the 400 young people connected to my facebook profile tells me that, in Brighton anyway, the average figure for 14 - 25 year olds is far higher. A very unmathmatical guess places the figure more at around 500 - 800.

Are these real friendships? I believe that in the context of facebook, a 'friend' now has a very different meaning to your real life, 'party on the weekend-shoulder to cry on-can tell you anything' friend.The term 'facebook friend' is more relatable to your twitter followers, or LinkedIn connections.

Ask the young people how many of their facebook friends are also their real life friends, and I would guess the figure would be less than half their virtual community of buddies. This changes the way we look at virtual friendships, placing less emphasis on them and in turn, perhaps lessening the issue for professionals?

Once you have got past the initial horror at the thought of 'friending' the young people you work with, unfortunately, we are still not out of the woods. There is another issue. Something almost every participant in the training sessions I have run, has asked me; 'Should I befriend my clients, or wait for them to come to me?'. Again, I believe ultimately this is the responsiblity of your organisation to decide. You can understand arguments for both.

Personally, when I initially set up my pages, both for Youth Work and for Connexions, I spent an afternoon identifying the young people I wanted to engage, and actively saught them out to 'friend' them on my profile. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't fly through simply sending out friend requests without a thought for the consequences. I ensured first that my page was entirely professional and secure. I also ensured I had written a clear and young person friendly confidentiality policy, clearly displayed on my page, as both a permanent fixture in my 'notes' section, and as an immediately obvious status update. 

I sent each young person which I had 'friend requested' a message, detailing why I was adding them, the service they could expect from me online, and a clear statement concerning what the connection, should they choose to make it, would mean. This followed along the lines of my confidentiality policy, showing a consistent approach and sending a clear message.

The nice thing about 'friending' a young person on facebook is their complete control over the relationship. For those young people who do not wish to connect with their youth worker / connexions adviser, there is an option to 'decline' the friendship, and young people can and do excersise this right.

The alternative, leaving the responsibility of making the connection entirely in your young people's hands also has it's benefits. This clearly ensures that you will only be connecting with those young people who really want to connect with you.

But isn't the best way to reach the 'hard to reach' to go to them, and not just wait for them to come to you?

 

 

 

Don't worry, I’ve not taken to fighting of a weekend and announcing it to all via my social networks. But this status is exactly the kind that can invoke fear in the professional working with young people. So what to do if you set up a professional profile using a site such as Facebook, and you come across an update such as the one above? Or worse?

How does your Confidentiality and Information Sharing policy stand up against the complicated issue of information shared over the web?

Not so badly, as it turns out. My feeling is very much this: There is nothing, nothing at all, that can happen online which you could not feasibly face in real life. 

The way to imagine it is this - let's take facebook as an example, since that is probably the most likely place you will be initially setting up your social media work to engage young people. 

Your NewsFeed produces a whole host of different conversations which are happening between friends, outside your youth centre / connexions centre / any kind of organisation. This conversation is not directed to you, you are simply 'over hearing' segments of it. Your wall and your Private messages, as well as the 'Chat' facility should you choose to use it are direct conversations aimed at you. So anything posted using those methods is intended for you, just as a direct question or comment when working face to face. 

The content on the walls of your 'friends' is none of your business. As far as I see it, I have absolutely no reason whatsoever to be snooping around on my client's own walls. So I don't. Simples. 

The main focus of people's concerns when I have discussed the use of facebook profiles to engage young people has been the content posted and visible to you via your NewsFeed. Your NewsFeed is a facebook round up of the day’s events within your facebook network, giving you snippets of what your 'friends' are talking about in their own facebook worlds. 

There are two ways of dealing with information you view here. Firstly, you can largely ignore it, and deal with anything you com across which causes you concern as it comes. Alternatively, you can prevent your friend's news from appearing in your feed at all. 

So, want to stop viewing your client's updates and pictures of their Friday night out? Just access your news feed, start at the top, click the cross in the top right corner of the update and select 'Hide all by (insert client's name)' like so: 

Then continue down the list for removing updates from all of your contacts (I strongly suggest opting for this method early on in your facebook escapades - it could be pretty hard going and time consuming if you’re trying to work through upwards of 50 clients)

Alternatively, you could decide that it can be useful to see some of your client's updates - for example, I have occasionally seen young people I know despairing of not being able to find work, wondering whether a certain youth club session is on or trying to find out about a local college course. In these instances I have been able to send helpful private messages giving them some answers and support. 

I have also used updates in my NewsFeed to help me understand the content I should be focussing on within my page. For example, I may see frequent status updates from many client's about drug use. This might inspire me to run a mini campaign within my own page about local support services for substance misuse, or links to useful online content relating to this issue. 

Whichever method you choose to use, the important thing is to give clients a clear idea about where they stand in terms of confidentiality and information sharing when linking up with you on social network sites. 

For my facebook use, I have created a small summary of confidentiality, which is permanently visible on my page - written in a note. Around twice a month I will send out a status update, reminding young people of my connection with them and the confidentiality statement in general. This ensures that any client who is 'friends' with me on facebook fully understands the connection, and recognises that it is within their power to terminate this if they are not happy.  

Some Case Study Examples for you to think about - What would you do?

Client A is a young person you have worked with in the past, but you do not know each other well and have not worked together for some time. Several updates appear on your NewsFeed from both her page, and those of her friends describing Client A's boyfriend as a 'woman beater' and describing several incidents of domestic violence. You see an update from Client A announcing that her boyfriend has changed, and will never beat her again. None of these updates have been posted directly to you, but you have seen them all in your NewsFeed. What would you do??

Client B is a young person who you know very well and have been working with both face to face and via facebook for some time. You notice over several weeks that he regularly posts updates about getting high, and about using marijuana. None of these updates have been posted directly to you, but you have noticed them via your NewsFeed. What would you do??

Client C is a young person you know well. You receive a friend request from her although you are already connected with her on another profile on facebook. Upon further investigation you realise that the profile which has requested you is a fake profile, set up to bully and harass Client C. What would you do??

All of the above examples are genuine cases which I have come across through my work on facebook. So what would you do?