Social media monitoring for parents

I do my share of talking to journalists about monitoring what's being said about companies or keywords on their beats online, so when I stumbled across these videos on how parents can use social media to do the same I couldn't help but laugh and have found myself unable to get them off my mind since.

The first of these is from September 2009, the second from mid-March this year, but they are both such great illustrations of our brave new media world that they can stand re-watching. First, the how to:

Then some of the wider implications (via Adam on Roaming Originals):

It must be said that I've always thought age is a state of mind and am delighted to see friends of all ages on Facebook, one of the latest being a friend fast approaching seventy. Still, I've kept my Facebook profile family-free, save siblings, and the fear of uncomfortable family discussions about not friending near and dear ones is part of the reason why I chose to use a nick when I first set up my current Facebook profile...

Comments

[Lene Johansen]

It is funny that you chose Facebook as the platform where you use a nick, because research shows that is the platform where we are most true to our real personae: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/on_facebook_youre_really_you.php

[Kristine]

Yes, perhaps I'm still suffering from the ideas drummed into us in journalism school about how journalists should be like a tabula rasa or like a mirror objectively reflecting the reality around us and have no personality;-) But seriously, Facebook probably is the social network where I am most true to my real personae - in contrast to Twitter, I often find myself discussing art, philosphy, personal pshychology, books and all kinds of stuff in addition to media there - but it's still not a place I'd like to have my closest family: in addition to friends, both from VL and RL, I have former colleagues, managers, partners, even my sister, there, but I can't think of any social network where I'd like to bring my parents into the mix: it feels like muddling very different spheres. The reasons for me using a nick on Facebook are more mixed though: it means I'm not quite so easy to find for people I don't want to find me, including the guy who once threatened to kill me (who also is on Facebook).