By Tom Flanigan
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wfsu/local-wfsu-978108.mp3
Tallahassee, FL – Are you frightened of Facebook? Terrified by Twitter? "Cyber-phobia" affects not only individuals, but also organizations. Tom Flanigan reports there are two Capital City seminars coming up to help sharpen those skills.
Randy Atwood, associated director of COCA, the Council on Culture and the Arts, says it's just the way things are today.
"No body's looking for you in the mail anymore, they're looking for you on Facebook; they're looking for you on Twitter and if you're not there, they're not going to find you."
For organizations and businesses, Atwood says this is actually a good thing, considering the cost of other media.
"Really, all the social media resources are free. So for artists, art organizations, it's a terrific tool to use that they can just immediately promote all their events, all of their gigs, all of their shows and get it out to tons and tons of people for very, very low cost. And frankly for very, very little effort as compared to creating a brochure for which you need a graphic designer and a web site owner and all that."
Still, helping you look great online can still be a job for trained professionals.
"Even if you know how to use Facebook for your individual goings-on socially, there's a whole other component to Facebook, which is organization or public figure pages. And that's the thing that people click on and they say, I like this.' And instead of being your friend, they like you and when they like you, they get your updates so it's a little bit of a different set up and that's why we're having two workshops."
Both workshops are this Saturday, July twenty-third, at the COCA offices on M.L. King Boulevard in the All Saints area. Basic Social Media is ten-thirty til noon. The advanced program is one to two-thirty. COCA's web site has more info. This coming Monday, the twenty-fifth, there's a more individual-oriented program. It's the third annual Technomania at the Tallahassee Senior Center where Hella Spellman is the program supervisor.
"We'll have a presentation at ten o'clock that will be an overview of what type of technology is out there and that might give people an idea of they might be interested in. Not everything's for everybody and, believe it or not, there are probably things out there none of us know about that may be useful to us."
Spellman says, no matter how much or how little participants know, the program will cover the field.
"If you want to learn about the social networking, they can help you set up a Facebook page or Twitter account. Are you interested in shopping online? Are you interested in mobile technology? Smart phones? E-book readers? G.P.S.?"
And participants can pretty much pick and choose how much of the program they want to attend.
"And that will be here at the Tallahassee Senior Center on July 25th and if you're interested in the presentation, you need to be here at 10 a.m. But other than that, it's drop in anytime at your convenience, either between ten and twelve noon, or one and four p.m."
You can find out more on the Senior Center's web site. And if you don't know how to go online to get it, attending Monday's program might be a VERY good idea.