/theprestonsocial

Troll: someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room, or blog, with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. It’s a topic that promises to be eye-opening, occasionally uncomfortable and sometimes amusing. We’ve had some brilliant speakers for the Preston Social and this one certainly doesn’t disappoint. We’re delighted to have Claire Hardaker, lecturer in Linguistics & English Language, whose research ‘centre on aggression, deception, and [...]

We use the Internet for alot of things… paying bills, reading the news, keeping in touch with old friends, but a growing number of us are turning to the web to find relationships, soulmates and love. More people than ever are utilising dating services and many are finding success. We’ve all seen the commercials, what used to be considered seedy or geeky is now big business and pretty mainstream. In 2008 SourceWire wrote:“In 2007, 7.8 million single Britons used some form of online dating service [...]

It’s the most inevitable fact of life – we all die. However, more and more of us are putting various facets of ourselves onto the web while we’re still alive, creating a digital archive of everything it means to be us through status updates, photos, check-ins and videos.Pre social media, most of us would’ve faded away pretty quickly, but now our digital selves can hang around for years after we’re gone.In an article for the New York Times, Rob Walker wrote:“One estimate pegs the number [...]

With this event the Preston Social moves to a new and more central venue, the Forum on Winckley Square. With the news that a father in Northern Ireland is suing Facebook over suggestive photos of his 12 year old girl posted on the site, the question of whose responsibility it is to ensure that children and young people are safe online is getting more heated. Is it the responsibility of the makers of websites, the parents, or the education system? Or should we expect children [...]

With the news that a father in Northern Ireland is suing Facebook over suggestive photos of his 12 year old girl posted on the site, the question of whose responsibility it is to ensure that children and young people are safe online is getting more heated. Is it the responsibility of the makers of websites, the parents, or the education system? Or should we expect children to be web savvy enough to not put themselves in danger? Leading the discussion with a talk followed by [...]

We’re in age of social network proliferation. With Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ we’re able to discover, meet, collaborate and acquire business and success through online platforms alone. What then, does this mean for good old, traditional face-to-face networking. Has social media devalued meet-ups? Is there a relevence for paid networks in this age of free? The fifth Preson Social will explore the current state of networking and where best to spend our time and, perhaps, our money. Heather Carey, the director of font57 (a [...]

Activists have leapt on social media as a way to organise themselves – recent examples being uprisings in Libya and Egypt. The nature of social media is that it spreads news quickly, but it can also create a giant echo chamber for rumour. Recent tweets that claimed the death of people like Margaret Thatcher or Jeff Goldblum are examples of false rumours spreading through social media, and more severe rumours can have greater repercussions. So we need to look at how to filter and extract [...]

With social media use always on the up, there’s never been a better time to express ourselves and share things publicly. But with the increase of tools comes a whole new set of challenges – how to present ourselves  online, and how we’re percieved. Online Reputation Management is a term that arose from a recognition of the importance that influencing how someone or something is perceived based on a web search has to a business. We’ll be discussing what it means to put so much [...]

Location is becoming more and more prevalent in social media. From those little tags you sometimes see next to tweets (“sent from Preston, Lancashire”) to people checking in on Facebook, where we are is becoming as important as what we’re saying. But is it really relevant? Are there any dangers in the proliferation of location-based services? And does it really help any of us? To discuss these questions will be the second Preston Social, the hub of discussion around social media in Preston. We’ll be [...]

This is the first Preston Social, a bi-monthly event in Preston, Lancashire designed to bring together those interested in social and digital media from the local area to learn, teach and meet each other. Preston has a small but dedicated group of people involved in marketing, journalism, web development and online consultancy which should make for a vibrant and diverse series of meetups, talks and workshops. Every single day, someone, somewhere is discussing something important to your business online; your brand, your executives, your competitors, [...]