Social Networking

Social networking

Social networking sites help you to keep in contact with your friends, share photos, thoughts, comments, meet new people and much more.

There are a wide range of sites, click on a tab to find out about :

• Facebook
• Bebo
• Twitter
• MySpace
• Friends Reunited.

What do I need?

You will need an email address to register for an account.

Once you have an account you can use the search feature to look for friends who also have an account and add them to your contacts list. They will then receive a request to be your friend . . . and you are 'connected'.

Facebook

Facebook is a great way to meet friends and keep up on what they are doing. Once you add a friend to your Facebook friend list you will always know when they are adding things to their blog or updating their profile. Join Facebook groups to meet people like you, or browse the profiles to find new friends. Facebook's classmates and co-worker search is good for finding friends too.

• Create a profile so others can find you.
• Find old friends and family.
• Share pictures and links.
• Organise events and invite your friends.
• Meet people from all over the world.
• Join groups of interest.

* Hampshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Bebo

bebo is like an Internet Profile about yourself. People can be your friends who already are you friends in real life or you can add Celebrities on bebo as your friends!

• Create your own profile page.
• keep in contact with friends and family.
• Share photos and music.
• Find bands to suite your taste and listen to there music.

* Hampshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Twitter

www.twitter.com*

Twitter is a free social networking and microblogging service that allows you answer the question, "What are you doing?" by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called "tweets", to your friends, or "followers."

• Create your profile
• Update your status for your followers to see (Tweets)
• Respond to your friends 'Tweets'
• Make new friends
• Follow famous people
• Discuss current issues

* Hampshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Myspace

MySpace is an online social networking website that allows you to communicate with friends and other people around the globe. You can post images of yourself, you can blog about your ideas and concerns, and you can post comments on other people's profiles.

• Create your profile page.
• Find new friends.
• Keep in contact with friends.
• Discussion forums.
• Find information on favourite bands.
• Listen to music.

* Hampshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Friends Reunited

• Find old school friends, neighbours, armed forces regiments, university, workplace and more.
• Reunion planning.
• Join groups that interest you.
• Dating.

* Hampshire County Council is not responsible for the content of external websites.

Stay safe

Be careful when using online social networking sites.

• Limit the amount of personal information you post - Do not post information that would make you vulnerable, such as your address or information about your schedule or routine.

• Remember that the internet is a public resource - Only post information you are comfortable with anyone seeing. This includes information and photos in your profile and in blogs and other forums.

• Be wary of strangers - The internet makes it easy for people to misrepresent their identities Consider limiting the people who are allowed to contact you on these sites.

• Be sceptical - Don't believe everything you read online. People may post false or misleading information about various topics, including their own identities. This is not necessarily done with malicious intent; it could be unintentional, an exaggeration, or a joke.

• Check your settings - Take advantage of a site's privacy settings. The default settings for some sites may allow anyone to see your profile. You can customise your settings to restrict access to only certain people.

• Use strong passwords - Protect your account with passwords that cannot easily be guessed.

• Check privacy policies - Some sites may share information such as email addresses or user preferences with other companies. This may lead to an increase in spam.

• Use and maintain anti-virus software - Anti-virus software recognizes most known viruses and protects your computer against them, so you may be able to detect and remove the virus before it can do any damage.