Using Social Media to Stay Connected

We live in a social media world! At times it seems that almost everyone has an account on social media outlets. Many people feel very strongly about the way social media should be used. If you’re not careful, it’s easy to lose sight of what is really important because of the time warp that happens when you get sucked into online accounts.  But there are ways of using social media like Facebook to stay connected to your family and those close to you – even if you are miles apart.

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Using Social Media to Stay Connected

I just finished reading a book by Dee Henderson. In this book the main character has a private family online network where all the family members can login and communicate the daily pieces of life with the rest of the extended family- The cousins talk about school, the grandkids talk about their Christmas and birthday wishlists, the parents brag on the babies progress… Even though the family is physically positioned all around the world, they stay connected with the incidental happenings that help make family strong.

That got me thinking. We don’t have a private website or network easily accessible to all our families. But we do have something that many people are already using – Facebook. Why not harness the tool that is already available and let it help strengthen family ties?

Benefits of Private Groups on Facebook

I agree with many people that facebook public walls are often used to broadcast information that is just trivial to the majority of the facebook community.  ( The majority of facebook friends don’t really care what you ate for breakfast, but your family might!) That’s where private groups are so helpful. You can create a group that is secret, closed or private. That translates to mean that only the people that are personally added to the group can see the messages, members or even the group name. This is a great way to get connected to a specific group of individuals.

You could create a group for extended family.  Now any time one of the aunts, uncles or cousins logs into Facebook they can quickly see if any of the family members have made comments in the groups. We are able to interact in an easy way and be more connected. All thanks to Social Media!

How to set up a private group

Facebook has directions on how to create a group. You have three options for controlling how people view your new group:

Control who sees your group

• Secret: Only members see the group, who’s in it, and what members post.
• Closed: Anyone can see the group and who’s in it. Only members see posts.
• Open (public): Anyone can see the group, who’s in it, and what members post.

For a family group like this, you would choose the secret option.  That way it’s only visible to the particular people involved.  But for a school or organization, you may want to make it open.

Do you have private groups that you are a part of that enhance your daily life? I’d love to hear your tips or experiences of how social media groups benefit your life.