This blog entry is about what we use online and why we use it.
It is written for people who are new to social media, and for other WIs who want to know what we do online and why.
We pride ourselves at having a wide range of ages at The Hive WI, and while members in their 30s may have grown up with the Internet, it is important to remember that not everyone is so confident or knows what the different websites are.
Before we begin, here are some quick links to all of our social media accounts so far: Facebook page, Facebook group, Twitter, and Pinterest.
We also have a Google Calendar.
Website
This is our website. I kinda like to think of it as an online ring binder.
The main pages of our website tell you the main things you need to know about The Hive WI, such as when we’re meeting and what we’re doing; how to join and contact us; and a bit about how The Hive WI works and runs.
You can find this information in the links at the top on the left.
The article that you’re reading now is on the part of our website called a blog (short for web log).
Our blog is like the Misc section of our ring binder.
It contains non-essential articles that could nevertheless be useful or interesting to Hive WI members. In it, we can flesh out ideas related to the WI and get our name out there by sharing these blog entries on social media.
There are only a couple of entries in our blog right now but we will add them when inspiration strikes.
Almost everyone has an email address these days.
An email is a message that goes from one person to a specific person or a specific group of people.
Email is totally private and direct, so much so that we must have your exact email address in order for you to receive emails from us.
I’m sure you know this already, but stick with me here.
The circle around the stick figures in the picture above illustrates this closed system.
No one outside of the email may know it has even been sent.
With The Hive, emails are usually a one way system of communication. There is the potential for members to reply, but they usually don’t (this is represented by the dotted grey arrow under the black one).
The Hive’s email address is thehivewi@gmail.com
Social Media
“Social media” refers to a type of website where the users of that website make most of the content for each other, such as by posting images, text, or videos.
This is in contrast to traditional media (as in “the media”) or websites where the content is made by professionals or volunteers for consumers to read, watch, or listen to as opposed to contribute to.
Social media accounts tend to be updated much more frequently than websites (unless the website is something like a news resource like the BBC) and are also generally much more interactive.
Social media is social – the main point of it is for the users to connect, communicate, and collaborate with other users in real time.
Even though not everyone is “a social media person”, members are still far more likely to reply to a post on social media than they are to an email.
The biggest difference between email and social media is that social media is much more open.
We can use social media to interact with a wide audience and our audience can interact with each other, too.
Through our public Facebook page and Twitter account, we can reach members and non-members alike.
For example, over 600 people visited our Facebook page last December. This is far more people than we could ever reach without social media.
With email, we can only contact the members who have given us their correct email addresses.
Social media can also be a lot more spontaneous than email, which – for some people – can also make it a lot more fun.
The Hive WI have two main social media accounts: Facebook, and Twitter (see below).
The Hive WI has two “things” on Facebook: a Facebook page and a Facebook group.
Our Facebook Page
A Facebook page is a very different system to email.
Gone is the private circle, and a lot more people are involved.
A Facebook page is a public profile specifically created for businesses, brands, celebrities, causes, and other organisations. Unlike personal profiles, pages do not gain “friends,” but “fans” – which are people who choose to “like” a page.
WhatIs.com
A Facebook page is kinda like your own Facebook account: we can post on our page and other people can interact with what we post by clicking the like button or by leaving a comment.
You can also see and respond to the comments left by other people, but most of the time people just respond to what the main post is.
A big difference between our page and your Facebook account is that your own account is probably private so the things you post will only be seen by people you’ve accept as “friends” on Facebook.
Our page is public which means that potentially anyone can see what is posted there (we’ll never post anything that isn’t okay to share with a general audience).
It is a great way to show new and potential members what we’ve been up to if they’ve never been to one of our meetings before.
The people who tend to see our page’s posts are the people who are directly involved in The Hive WI and their friends, and women looking online for a WI to join.
We use our page to post details of our upcoming events, as well as other things that might be of interest to the Hive community.
You can help support our page by liking our posts, commenting on or sharing our posts, and tagging friends in the comments section so they can be involved in the conversation too.
Our Facebook page is the most useful out of all our social media profiles, so even if if you’re not interested in any of the other stuff we recommend you follow our page anyway.
Our Facebook page address is www.facebook.com/thehivewi
Our Facebook Group
The circle of privacy is back!
If The Hive Facebook page is where you can interact with The Hive WI as an organisation, then our Facebook group is where you can interact with the individual members who make up The Hive WI.
(Of course, there is an individual behind our Facebook page too).
A good way to remember the difference between a Facebook page and a Facebook group is to think of how you already use the categories of “group” and “page” already: Facebook groups are where groups of people get together to chat, whereas a Facebook page is a page to read, share, and make comments on.
Some Facebook groups are public and anyone can see what is posted in them, but our Facebook group is private to Hive WI members.
This means that people outside of the group can see that the group exists but not what is posted in there. Only Hive members are allowed inside.
Our Facebook page is public, however.
Posting in the group is a great way to chat to other members and get to know them better.
You don’t have to join the group if you don’t want to.
All the important information should be sent out by email or put on The Hive WI Facebook page.
Because the Facebook page is public, you can view it any time without needing to do anything except for searching for it.
The address of our Facebook group is www.facebook.com/groups/thehivewi
Twitter allows you to post (or “tweet”) short messages, as well as photos, links, and videos.
You’ve possibly heard of hashtags even if you have never used Twitter before. They’re a huge part of Twitter.
It helps to think of hashtags as a filing system.
You can click on hashtags when they appear in people’s tweets, or you can search for them in Twitter’s search box.
If I go on Twitter and search for or click on #TheHiveWI, I will then be able to see all the Twitter posts that have used the hashtag #TheHiveWI.
They will all be sorted together on one page for you to scroll through.
Sometimes people use hashtags for humour rather than as any serious filing system.
Through these hashtags and accounts, Twitter creates complex networks that span the globe.
Our Twitter account is very small though, so most people who interact with us on Twitter are also either based in The Hive WI, are in other WIs, or are in Nottingham generally.
We also have several UK women’s charities that follow us.
As well as the hashtag “filing system”, you can tag other users to interact with them and get their attention.
To do this you use the @ symbol and the account name for that person.
If someone tags your user name in a post with the @ symbol, you’ll get a Twitter alert.
This means that if you put @TheHiveWI in a Twitter post we at The Hive WI will see that you’ve tagged us with the @ symbol. The @ creates a link to our account in your Tweet, so other people can click on @TheHiveWI and be taken to our Twitter account to see what we’ve posted. If you just write “The Hive WI” without the @ symbol then we won’t get an alert. Make sure you delete all the spaces as well. As with emails, you must use the exact username that corresponds with the account you want to tag.
“Retweeting” is another thing that is a huge part of Twitter.
This means that you can share what someone else has tweeted on your own Twitter page, and your own followers will then be able to see that post and interact with it.
You can also “like” posts on Twitter.
Liking posts means that the posts won’t be “retweeted” and added to your Twitter page, but they will be saved in your Likes section (you can see ours here).
Some people “like” tweets so that they can save the tweets in their Likes section (it’s kinda like bookmarking them), and some people “like” tweets to simply to show their appreciation to whoever posted the tweet.
Follow us on Twitter if you’re into Twitter, but don’t worry about missing out on any important information if you don’t. Anything important will be posted to the Facebook page and sent out by email.
Our Twitter address is: www.twitter.com/thehivewi
Pinterest is like an online cork board.
You make an account to create different boards and “pin” images to them.
Your boards can be private or public and can be about almost anything you want.
If your board is public, then other users can “pin” images from your board to their board (this makes a copy of the image rather than removing it from your board to theirs) so you may not want to pin personal images and stick to ones you find online or ones that are on Pinterest already.
Because Pinterest links to images found on websites rather than stealing them, you don’t have to worry about copyright violations.
We’ve used it to help give our members ideas for our handmade Christmas decoration competition, among other things.
It is kind of addictive.
Have a look: https://www.pinterest.co.uk/thehivewi/
Google Calendar
Google Calendar is an online calendar.
It has on it the dates for our monthly meetings and regular subgroups.
Anyone can look at the calendar, but if you use Google Calendar yourself you may want to add our calendar to your own.
To do this, simply type in thehivewi@gmail.com in the box where it says “Add friend’s calendar”.
Please note that you can only add another person’s Google Calendar to your own when using a laptop, so, unfortunately, it won’t work if you are try to add us when using a phone or an iPad.
You can choose to have alerts that remind you when our events are coming up, but this is entirely optional and you can turn it off if they are ever more annoying than helpful.
You can find our Google Calendar by clicking here.
The End
You made it to the end!
I hope this entry was helpful and answers some of your questions.
We may be getting an Instagram account in the future, but that’s something to investigate on another day…
The Hive WI 