College for Arts and Technology’s Interactive Marketing department put on a very special presentation for BootCamp 2013 parents and family members on Thursday morning. The presentation was aimed to shine light on the current trends, myths and truths of social media and how it can not only immediately affect you, but down the road as well.

Director of Interactive Marketing – Amy Nutt – led the presentation. As a parent, Amy knows the risks of youth accessing social media websites first hand.
The world of Facebook was first to get dissected as Amy stressed the importance of maintaining a positive online reputation. The significance of knowing the friends you add on Facebook and of being accountable for what you post on Facebook is as important as how well you know your friends outside of the digital world and what you say in person.

Many employers use Facebook as a means of conducting a background check on their job applicants – hence why it is important to know what you’re posting and to be aware of the possible future consequences of making that post.

Next item for discussion was the complex, continuously growing, Twitter. Twitter holds the same risks that Facebook users encounter – in that having anything they post be forever accessible. Again, it is important to ensure that those who you follow and allow to follow you are people you know and trust.
Parents need to be made aware of what’s going on in their children’s social media world, to be able to monitor – and not hover over – their child’s social media usage.

Privacy settings are easily one of the most overlooked features on both Facebook and Twitter. One of the easiest ways to protect yourself – and your children – is to ensure you have the proper security settings established prior to going live. By establishing proper security settings you can help monitor who is contact with your children and who can view their profiles.

Amy then dove into LinkedIn. Although LinkedIn is not an immediate concern for parents, it is important to know the tricks of the trade for themselves as well as for their children’s future. Knowing how to effectively utilize LinkedIn can assist in advancing one’s career opportunities and professional networking circle. Amy emphasized the importance of using current, accurate information when utilizing LinkedIn as it is just as important as providing that information in the real world.

Although each social media outlet is very different, each asks the same set of questions:

1. Should I target a specific audience with this message?
2. Will anyone really care about this content besides me?
3. Will I offend anyone with this content? If so, who? Does it matter?
4. Is this appropriate for a social portal, or would it best be communicated another way?
5. How many times have I already posted something today? (More than three can be excessive.)
6. Did I spell check?
7. Will I be okay with absolutely anyone seeing this?
8. Is this post too vague? Will everyone understand what I’m saying?
9. Am I using this as an emotional dumping ground? If so, why? Is a different outlet better for these purposes?
10. Am I using too many abbreviations in this post and starting to sound like a teenager?
11. Is this reactive communication or is it well thought-out?
12. Is this really something I want to share, or is it just me venting?

Each point is very important to keep in mind when posting – as deleting a post and privacy settings do not guarantee that information will not be copied, reposted or shared elsewhere online.