How are you going to garden when the snow is on the ground? Most gardeners use this time over the winter to learn and plan. Online networking is a great way to glean new ideas from a global source. It will help you see the most recent trends and products in the horticultural world. It will also allow you to connect to other garden enthusiasts that you know and help you meet new ones if you choose.

Here is a garden project that every online horticultural enthusiast should be thinking about this winter: Learn to Garden in the Social Media.

Even if you are not interested in participating in this new form of communication, at least by learning about it, you won't feel completely out of the loop when other people are talking about it.

In its simplest form Social Media consists of two things: an In-Box and an Out-Box.

The In-Box, or “Aggregator”, organizes and filters information that you have chosen to follow.

The Out-Box, or “Feed”, is the stream of information you have chosen to send out onto the Internet.

Does this sound familiar? If you use email, you are already using a form of social media. You receive information, emails, in your In-Box and send out information from your Out-Box.

But for most people social media is something that people talk about called Twitter, Facebook, Blogs...

Blogs and Aggregators

The word Blog is an abbreviation for the title, Web Log. It is an online journal.

Anyone can have a blog. There are several websites that allow anyone to start a blog account for free. They can be customized to have almost any colour, design and theme. There are thousands of gardening blogs. You can find many on gardenwriters.ca.

Blogs are not limited to amateurs. Any online journalist, for most newspapers, will have an online list (or web log) of their articles.

All online blogs carry that list of articles in an RSS (Really Simple Syndication) file. It is usually written in simple code called XML, and is often labelled as feed.xml. The visual link to the xml code is usually

The only thing to remember is that once you have found several people worth following you need an In-Box that will sort the information chronologically. This Aggregator will present to you all of the new articles that you haven't read as they appear. No longer will you have to search from one website to another to find new information. It will be presented to you all on one page. (Imagine your own personal newspaper with only your favourite columnists.)

There are many aggregators to choose from but the most popular at this time is google reader. Just create a google account, if you haven't already, and collect your favourite RSS feed addresses in the menu.

Twitter

Twitter is a way of communicating quickly with brief (140 Character) announcements. Once you create a twitter account you are presented with 2 pages: your Home page (In-Box) and your Profile page (Out-Box.)

You can follow many people who have similar interests. When you follow someone, all of their announcements (or tweets) will appear on your Home page. Everything you tweet will appear in both your Profile page and your Home page and in any Home page of people that follow you.

Often secondary web pages are necessary. You might write something like, “Check out the great garden event on http://www.gardentoronto.ca”. This will encourage people who follow you to check that website.

Why use twitter? Twitter is an excellent way to follow celebrities, and other people of note, to hear their advice or find out what they are doing. It allows you to hear this information immediately. It can also be a way to generate a “buzz” about an event or product. It is also a great social media network when using a mobile device.

Most garden writers and almost all garden product manufacturers and retailers have a Twitter account for you to follow.

Facebook

Facebook is the most important social network on the Internet right now and it is continuing to grow and evolve. A huge manual could be written about how to use it, but I will try to give you an understanding of the basics.

There are two kinds of Facebook pages you can create. One is a Friend page and the other is a Fan (Official or Community) page. The Fan page is more of a professional outlet. It is an Out-Box for commercial and Public Relations information. If you were a celebrity, organization or company you would have a Fan page. You would gage your popularity by how many people follow (or “Like”) your Fan page.

A Friend page contains an In-box, Out-box and a few extras. You can send out and receive information. You can choose to allow anyone with a Facebook account to see that information or restrict it to the people that you have agreed to be friends with.

The Facebook In-Box

Your In-Box is called your “Home” page. The content in your In-Box “News Feed” can be delivered to you in multiple ways.

By Choosing “Most Recent” on your Home page you will receive your “friends” comments chronologically.

By choosing “Top News” you will be presented their information based on how often it is viewed and commented on, with the most interesting at the top. These comments are only fresh for so long and the longer they are posted the lower down they will appear in your In-Box.

Another way to view your In-Box is to divide your friends into lists. By choosing a particular list you will only be shown the chronological comments from the individual on that list. This allows you to create categories such as “Work”, “School”, “Family”... This process is for a more advanced user.

There is also a message centre and an instant message chat feature that allows you a more private way of communicating directly to other individuals.

The Facebook Out-Box

Your Out-Box is found on your “Profile” Page. There are three important sections on your Profile Page.

The “Info” section is for your bio. You control the amount and detail of your info.

The “Photos” section is for pictures that you choose to upload and share. You can subdivide them into Albums and Tag (identify) the people in them.

The main section of your Out-Box is your “Wall”. On your Wall you can share things that you are doing, websites that you find interesting, pictures that you have taken or enjoyed, and share videos that you have uploaded or found on the Internet.

Everything you post on your Wall will appear in the News Feed of people that follow you.

(To complicate matters other people may comment on what you have posted. They may also post a message on your Wall. Imagine your Wall as a bulletin board attached to the door of your dorm room in college. You can leave messages there telling friends where you are going and they can also leave notes there saying that they have passed by. Ultimately you control what is posted there and you can remove anything you do not like.)

Almost every professional garden writer has a Facebook account. Many will have a Facebook “Profile Badge” on their website to encourage you to become one of their Facebook friends or fans.

I hope this has helped the beginner start to understand social media. Now as your garden sleeps over the winter you can network online with fellow horticultural enthusiasts.

Warning!

Be mindful of what you put on the Internet. Your presence on the Internet is like an active resume. If it is full of spelling mistakes it will reflect on your education. If you post pictures of yourself in compromising situations, it will reflect on your character. Be assured that potential employers and current coworkers will see what you have broadcast.

Your bad behaviour may be all fun and games now. One day you will regret that people have seen it. It will come back to haunt you. Even idle gossip is less damaging than actually publishing that same information on the Internet.

Remember that everything you put online is part of a process of building your “Brand.” (Your Brand being your public face to the world, both to people you know and to people you don't know.)

There is a trend now to blame social media networks, like Facebook, for the results of the content place there by foolish individuals. Ultimately, bad content does not hurt Facebook, but only the unfortunate individuals involved.

I would say, “Think twice, post once.” If that advice is too obscure, follow Grandmother's simple rule, “If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.”

Mark Disero

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