How will I use social media in the future? - Assignment 4D

So how would I use social media in the future? Well that's kind of a hard question, because I already am quite "extreme" user of it. I use many social medias and know quite well how to benefit them with different things. As I've said earlier, I handle our basketball club's homepage and updating it and also I'm the admin of our Facebook page. Also Instagram account for our club has been under a consideration for a while now and it might take place on this autumn.

For our homepage I've been updating very precisely every event, happening, practice and game and in addition also pictures, news, briefings and reports. I like to update it and want to see everything in order. It's kind of nice to know that visitors will see clean and interesting site and that it's easy to use and find different things. Pictures are probably the most wanted stuff and people always wait for them after events and games, I've heard both negative and positive feedback about them but mostly people think that it's nice to see what's going on events if they're not able to be on the spot.

Our Facebook page is quite new thing but I've been updating it also very frequently. There's also photos and information, everything almost same as in our homepage. Facebook is fast and easy way to update situation even during the game, so people at home will see the score also. Newest thing on our page is videos. We took part in this famous tournament in the end of July and one of our helping coaches was able to film clips from our games. They appeared to Facebook right after they were filmed so players families and friends were able to follow our games almost as live game. That was good idea and I heard really positive feedback about these videos. It might be a good idea to take these clips also in future games. Also I might add that thanks to technology, we were able to publish clips from two different places and games at the same time; one of us used Facebook's "live video" feature and second one filmed clips with a tablet and published them straight after filming.

Twitter is still quite new for me but I might use it also as a channel for our club. But I think that not so many of our players parents aren't really using it so benefits of this account might not be so good as they might be in some different country, like USA. Actually I think that these existing channels are more than enough for some parents and if I create the Instagram account, it would complete the "circle". I've described earlier how good Twitter could work and how we could use it, but I'm guessing that it would need some luck also to work in the way we planned.

When thinking about my future occupation I don't think that I could really use social medias at my work. I'm gonna be a registered nurse and due to privacy and security policies it might risk patient's medical reports and my career, if I tried to use social media in some ways. At least for now, but you never know how things will be in the future. I read an article about future doctors and nurses and if it will be true, there will be no actual human to human contact. Everything is handled and taken care of through computers or different machines and you don't even need to actually see the doctor, if you have some issues. You just sit on your computer and take care of your medical condition through the cables. Haha, well let's hope this will take many years before it comes true but when we know how fast everything has been evolving in the last couple years and new things being invented every day, it might be actual way of handling things after maybe (hopefully at least) 10-20 years.

I think this will be my last blog text and last part of the course, I thank everyone who's maybe been reading my thoughts and texts. It was nice to write something though at first I thought that I would be really bad at this and wouldn't have anything to say but once when started writing, it was kind of easy and thoughts just kept coming through my fingers. Also English is not my mother language, and you might notice it, but it was nice and also kind of easy to write in English. I liked it and I think that this improved my English writing skills as well. I also think that I learned some new things about social medias during this course and it's a good thing. So I'll finish this course now and THANK YOU for everybody. Especially big thanks for my group, with whom we did this quite big assignment. :)

Goodbye, farewell and maybe we'll bump into each other in the social medias someday.

// PS. About that new social media I tried in the beginning of this course, Snapchat... Well.. I'm hooked with it. I use it daily and think that it's almost a must-have application for everyone. Thanks, now I have one more application to open many times a day and keep up with it. I almost don't have time for Pokemon GO with all of these applications. ;)

Evaluation for one of the implementations - Assignment 4C

I had to evaluate one of the implementations someone else had made during this course. Actually I didn't have many choices to pick from and I don't know if this is because I couldn't use this wiki-site we have or if many of the groups hasn't returned their implementations yet. (I'm not sure if I could have used only implementation plan to evaluate, but I wanted the whole creation including the last part, video or summary. If I could have used just plan also, then I would have had more to choose from.) But I chose this one, because it seems to be quite interesting and it's in touch with my field, kind of. I chose implementation which deals with peer support. It's made by Kaisa Ruikkala, Minja Hongisto, Laura Tasala & Susanna Juuth. Minja & Laura are in charge of English translation and presentation and Finnish parts are handled by Kaisa & Susanna. 

Name of the implementation is Vertti Vertaistuki and basically it is a peer support network for parents of preschoolers. Also I think that it might be a good way to get in touch with children and living with them even if you don't have kids, would have them or miss them. First thought was also that this would be good to use with social and health care students, when they're studying about children. I thought that it would be helpful for students to read about real life incidents and difficulties with children, especially if they don't have kids. Second thought was that this sounds really good and actually needed network, because nowadays many people are "suffering" with their difficulties and maybe need to realize that they're not alone with their problems. I'm not sure if that's because the world and people has been changing so much or do people dare to talk about their problems more openly than before or what, but somehow it seems that kids and youth are more undisciplined nowadays. Or that could be that I'm getting old and can't stand kids and youth as well as younger.. But also nowadays people dare to seek for help and Internet is a good way for it because you don't need to really see any people or even show your actual name, if you don't want to. Okay, but let's dive in with this implementation. 

I opened the plan and at first look it seems really clean and easy to read. There's both Finnish and English plans together, but they're divided and does not mix up together. It's very easy to read just the side you want to read. Plan is very thorough and you get good idea about what they're aiming with it. I also found myself nodding when reading this, it sounds so good. They're planning a blog and Pinterest-site as a peer support for parents of small children. In the blog they will gather posts about current issues and relevant topics, it's open for everyone but there's an admin who checks and accepts every post before publishing it. That's very good idea because that way you get the real issues and topics to the audience, but you don't allow any "trolls" or advertisers etc. take a lead in the blog. It also makes it possible that there will be topics from border to border and everyone might get the support they're looking for. Personal blogs are also good idea, but the problem with them is that they're only written by one person and because of that they're also dealing with just one kind of problems and you might need to seek for a long time for a right blog and writer. Many writers and participants guarantee that there's almost every issue handled. Pinterest is also modern and good way to provide some help and support people in need. As they write in their plan they will gather ideas and tips on their Pinterest account and it makes it easy to find some new things to try to. 

It's good that these both platforms can be used anonymously and you don't need to even leave a comment, if you don't want to. Anonymity makes it easier and more comfortable to even seek for support. I agree with them when they're writing that this combination of Pinterest and blog will provide a versatile and comprehensive channel for furthering the well-being of parents. This plan sounds very good for me and I can see that they've really thought about things and invested on this. It sounds so good that it makes me wonder how this hasn't been invented before. All in all, the plan is very thorough, easy to read and gives to reader very clear picture about purpose and environment of the implementation. You get the information fast and don't need to dig for it. Also I think that their target group is just right and that they would actually be in need for this kind of thing.

Between the plan and the implementation, I took a look about their self-evaluation. They've described things and evaluated their works almost same as I would've. I opened their video presentations about the implementation. They've made two of them: one in Finnish and one in English. They tell clearly about their implementation and meanings of it through this short video. I think that if I've only watched this video and not read the plan before it, I still would've get the full picture what they're talking about. Talking in both videos is clear and easy to understand and follow with. The English version is quite a bit longer than the Finnish version and at first I thought it might be because of the problems with the language, but the language is really clear and the speaker has very understandable accent. Length of the video is because it shows really precisely how to use blog site, for example it shows where is the headline of the blog and where you can find all posts. I don't know if that's because I consider myself as skilled when it comes to Internet and different social media platforms, but I think that this is kind of pointless and just takes too much time to watch the video. I think that people would know how to use and move on the blog site without the instructions. After blog there's also instructions of how to use Pinterest. Now that might be useful but I think that it takes bit too long. If it would shorter, it might be a very good thing. 

Apart from that minor flaw this whole (including plans and both Finnish and English implementations) implementation is really good and clear. It's short and pithy and that's nice because I think that people wouldn't want to watch long and/or boring information videos. I think that the Finnish version could as well be some advertisement video for the Vertti Vertaistuki blog and Pinterest. This kind of peer support platform would quickly gather people in need together and really give the support they're looking for. It's really good idea and many people would actually need that. I don't know how to say this more accurately but this implementation is SUPER GOOD! Good work ladies, I really really liked your implementation! *And here you could set thumb (or two) upwards*

Our implementation - Assignment 4A&B

Okay, so as described earlier we decided to give a try for a Twitter account. And especially an account for basketball club, which is quite active in other social medias and sites. Here's a link to our Twitter page, be my quest and take a closer look about it. As you can see, it doesn't really have much information yet and might not have ever. But it's completed layout for our sports club and ready to be used. 

Here you have link to our video presentation about our implementation.

I said that our club is also active in other social medias and sites, so I thought that I'd also give our Facebook page and homepage for a "big" audience to see. Here they are, you're welcome.
Ylivieskan Kuula - koripallo Facebook and our homepage

You're welcome to become our follower and also welcome to give some feedback, if you feel like you want to.

// Contents of these links are only in Finnish

Our plan to raise knowledge about local sports club. - Assignment 3C

In my group we have altogether three people. Our decision was quite easy, because I'm in touch with the youth and coaching a basketball team. So we decided to take this ground and benefit it in our assignment. This was the choice, because it's kind of the easy way of doing this assignment and I've got quite much knowledge about this area. We didn't have same educations or anything like that, so we didn't even think about using education or school in our assignment. Actually we didn't even discuss about anything else beside this, because it was okay for everybody after someone asked what hobbies do we have and could we use them. I'm quite happy with this choice, because it may benefit me also later.

So our target group exactly is youth, from age 7 to 16 and basically now we have just girls but I don't think that this will have an impact on the assignment, because I hope that we'll have boys as well some day and could also benefit results of this assignment with them. Also in our club we have actually older girls than 16, but it's easier to target just a certain age group. Girls have been playing basketball more or less, some of them has just started now and some of them has been playing for several years. All of them live nearby, maximum distance of 30 km from my home town and our head gym. Some of them has several hobbies along with the basketball, some of them are concentrating only for basketball.

We chose Twitter, mainly because we couldn't choose Facebook. Facebook would be the obvious choice and also the easiest one. It would catch most of the people and provide a large platform for extending knowledge about our sports club. Actually I already have a Facebook site for our group, I've created it about a year ago because I think that it's important and useful for a sports club to have it's own Facebook site. You can provide common knowledge, information about games and tournaments, share pictures and videos from events and many more things through only one page and every one, who's interested, will have the same knowledge and information. 

So Twitter is our choice. I haven't used Twitter really, only when commenting some big games like basketball European championship games and ice hockey world championship games. So I don't have very much knowledge about Twitter and how to use it, but I think that quite many people use it daily and also I know that many big sports clubs use Twitter and share their events, pictures, information etc. through it. Also I know that using Twitter is kind of easy, you only need to write what you want to say and publish it. You may use hashtags, if you want, but that's not compulsory. In our assignment we'll use Twitter as I already described above: for sharing information, events, pictures etc. 

Possible privacy and security issues? Every time when using social media and communicating through it you can't be 100% sure about with whom you're communicating. It's quite easy to pretend to be somebody else or even steal someone's accounts and passwords, if you want. But I think that when using it for things like our assignment; youth clubs, it's quite trustworthy way. Youth has been using social media for a long time and they're like "fish in the sea" with it. I think that this is smooth way for communicating with youth and providing knowledge and information. Also for their parents it's a good reason to learn using different social medias, so that they also get the information about their children's hobbies etc. Of course you can't or shouldn't share personal information or anything like that about your players or yourself (if you don't want to) in social media like this, but it's actually not even necessary. Also you have to remember that for example if I was using this Twitter account, I would have to think carefully before sharing something not regarding to basketball. It wouldn't be nice to notice that you've shared something what divides opinions and soon people might be hating your club because of some opinion you've given away through your public account.
Also with pictures and names you have to make sure, that every one are comfortable with their information and pictures being public. You can't share any personal information or pictures without their permission. 

All in all I think that Twitter is good and not so common choice. I think that through Twitter account you can really share information and feelings, so that people following you will get in touch with your club. Updating Twitter is easy and quick and you can do that even if our club is playing in other places and like 5 minutes before starting the game or something like that. You can update scores during the game and share pictures from the game, if you want to. It's really interesting choice and it would be nice to see, would people really use this when there's Facebook.

Using social media - guidelines for registered nurses - Assignment 2C

I Googled for instructions to use social media at a working community and found guidelines for registered nurses. Now I know these are not designed for a certain workplace, but because I'm about to be a registered nurse and it's what interests me, I chose these guidelines to talk about this time.

I found these guidelines from a site for registered nurses, hosted by Sairaanhoitajaliitto which is a trade union for a registered nurses. And clearly these are in Finnish, so I'm translating these so they may not be in exact forms as shown in the website.

So first there's some general thoughts about using social media as a registered nurse, examples where and how to use it. Also there's a notification that sharing different social media channels for professional and private use or creating a profile for just a professional use is something to consider about. Professional channels can be used when working if your employer allows it and these could be used for example to get some new information or to consult some other professionals. Also there's a reminder that everything you will write, will remain for good and you can't forecast, which will spread and how widely. So you have to just write things, which you could write for a public board also. Reliability of the information is always to be considered carefully, because you can't never be sure about it. And before these certain guidelines, there's also a bold line which says that when using social media, you should always obey the same ethical principles as you're obeying in any other nurse's work.

1. You should use social media for the good of your patient. Meaning that you should develop tools, which would also benefit your patients. Without them you can also use social media as a tool, by sharing some useful information through it and by consulting other colleagues, when your patient needs it.

2. Always remember professional maneuvers, when keeping in touch with patients. Don't take care of your patient's sorrows through social media, if the tool is not certainly designed for it. Also consider carefully will you friend your patient in any social media, when you're using your private profile. Don't share anything, which could be insulting but write about nursing with respect for your patients.

3. Remember confidentiality and keeping silence. When writing something about a certain patient, remember to ask for a permission use patients facts or change details so much, that identification of this patient will be impossible. Never publish anything, even in private communities, which would make your patient identifiable. Don't share pictures or documents from your workplace without a permission from the participants. Always remember to pay attention to your workplace's own rules about using social media.

4. Take care of your own safety and privacy. Use strong, incalculable passwords and always check your privacy settings. Don't open links which seems suspicious. Report about information security problems, if you notice something. Think about when and where you should tell about your private things and how detailedly you are telling about them.

5. Be responsible about your profession's and employer's public image. Remember that you're in creating image about registered nurses always, when articulating about your profession - even when you're not on duty. Towards your employer, you have obligation for loyalty, which designates that you won't cause any harm to your employer with your opinions and speeches, even on your spare time. Notice, that you and your workplace can also be identifiable when you're using nickname by combining things.

6. Use for a common good. Network with other professionals and gather some useful sources of information. Share information, which will benefit other professional, for example from articles or education you've taken. By means of social media participate to conversations regarding to health, wellness and quality of life and have an influence on decision making on both national and international level.

I think that these are really good and useful guidelines for registered nurses. These should be taken note of when studying and always be remembered. I think that at least some older generation nurses aren't aware of these guidelines and it would be really helpful, if these were visible on their working places also. Additionally there's of course workplace's own guidelines and rules for using social media, but these are universal terms which should be always observed. In a way these rules are valid for everyone, even if not working as a nurse and these should be everyday terms for everyone. If even half of people remembered these, social media could be better place to participate in.

I don't know who exactly is responsible for these rules but I'm guessing that there's some person, who's specialized for using social media and is creating these for everyone else. I think this person is in every workplace, or at least should be. When there's person corresponding about social media, he/she will make sure that everyone is aware of the guidelines and rules and will get to know them. I think that at least PPSHP (= Health Care District of Northern Ostrobothnia) has couple of these persons who are specialized to social media and are taking care of the common guidelines and rules and when necessary also updating them and creating new ones. In my opinion every workplace should have at least one of these persons and he/she does the rules co-operating with the employer. That's how you make sure that everyone has the same rules and are aware of them. Also I think that these ditto guidelines are good for everyone and could be used in any workplace, not just nursing places. I don't have anything to add to them, just thumbs up.

Resource: Sairaanhoitajaliitto. 2014. Sairaanhoitajien sosiaalisen median ohjeet. https://sairaanhoitajat.fi/jasenpalvelut/ammatillinen-kehittyminen/sairaanhoitajien-sosiaalisen-median-ohjeet/. Viitattu 9.6.2016.

My digital identity - Assignment 2B

I've Googled myself from time to time. It's because I've wanted to keep up with what Google will tell about me for other people. I've always known that everything you post and publish to anywhere in Internet, will remain and may come up later. That's why I've never published anything, which would embarrass or humiliate me or my relatives or friends. At least I think and hope so.


I'm from that generation, whom has kinda grown up together with the Internet and parts of social media, so I'm sure that there has been some mistakes for all of us but first (and worst) thing I can think of, are this poor quality webcam pictures, which I published to this first "social media" service, picture gallery called ii2 when I was about 11 years old. Haha, anyone who remembers that? My generation has been almost the first ones to discover the world of Internet and there has been certain things, which everyone has been using at least couple times, like Arctic.net, Habbo, ii2, IRC-Galleria etc. and we've been learning together to use and benefit from Internet. Nowadays it's quite much more, than it was back then and I think that understanding, that EVERYTHING what you publish anywhere (including Facebook, Instagram, ask.fm etc.) will not disappear and it may meet up with you, even if you try to remove it and wouldn't want to see it ever again. Also I think that kids nowadays won't think that also your future boss and co-workers could find everything about you.

So what I'm getting, when I Google myself? First there's my Facebook profile and some posts, I've published there. Nothing special with those. Then there's some information about my titles and doings with my hobby, basketball. And I'm also doing some kind of genealogy sometimes, so Google shows my MyHeritage-site. Also some really old athletics results are there, they've been published on the newspaper and are now to be found from Internet too.

When examining what pictures Google shows, there's also really nothing special. One picture about my face and the rest of them are pictures taken by me, which is quite a lot. There's pictures concerning to basketball and some old pictures concerning to horses. There's no videos to be found under my name. I think that's simply because I've never published any videos.

All in all, I'm quite happy what Google shows about me. There's real information about me and nothing embarrassing or false information. I'm pleased with that and I'd like to keep it what way. Only thing I'm maybe little bit uncomfortable with, is that my phone number is also to be found from there. But it has to be founded from my hobby's website, because my position, so I can't complain about that. Everything else is just fine and I think that many people would find much more about themselves by Googling.

Digital identity is formed with all, what you post and publish to Internet. But as seen with the celebrities, you can also manipulate information and pictures, so every time the digital identity is not truthful. You can manipulate information by publishing something, for example by editing one's Wikipedia site. Many people consider Wikipedia as a reliable and truthful source of information, but to be true, it's not. Everyone can edit these pages in Wikipedia and change the information for what they'll like. For example when Finland lost ice hockey world championship, there was this page about silver, which was edited to fit to Finland's medal. And when talking about celebrities, there's many different news sites, which will have their own opinions and releases, and all of them will change, what is being showed about celebrities when Googling them. Also, it will change accordingly to popularity of pages and news. It's quite awful, what you can find about celebrities from the Internet. I mean that there could be ALL about their lives and they can't control, what is being written and published about them.

If there's no information online or any social media services about somebody, I think that person would live very secret life and nowadays it also means, that he/she is not using any social medias. If you're using some of them, Google surely would know about that and show them to the searcher. On the assignment there was this question: "should there be any information (about a political, CEO or communication professional)?". Yes is my answer, because nowadays almost everyone is using some of social medias and being out there, so it sounds really odd that there's no information about somebody. For example speaking about politicians, Google could bring them closer to ordinary people by telling us at least something about one's life. It's almost bad thing, if there's no information about politician because then people might think that there's something to hide and he/she is not a trustworthy person.

Privacy and confidentiality - Assignment 2A

In this assignment I was told  to search for a different forums and blogs etc., where people are discussing about privacy and questions regarding to confidentiality. I tried, but I didn't find any active discussions, which I would wanted to participate in. I'll post links here, if I find an interesting conversation to participate in. However I've participated conversations in our Facebook group, where has been many different articles and news linked about privacy, confidentiality and identity.

What privacy aspects should employees be aware while using social media tools? 
At first employees must pay attention to their profile, is it their own private profile or are they using it also with official, work-related things? That's important thing, because if you're using it also for work stuff, you can't share all your personal stuff and not even all of your opinions because that's causing confusion with people like are your opinions your own opinions or also your workplace's or company's opinions? Also if you use your profile as both, private and official profile, you have to be ready to answer work-related questions all the time and as participating discussions, remember that you're speaking also as a deputy of your profession. On Facebook there's many different forums and places to discuss about the incidents of the world and you have to be careful what you say out loud, because that may not be removable afterwards. When using your personal profile, it's also important to remember that people may know where you work and what's your position and by that connect your opinions to your company's opinion.

Nowadays for example Skype is important tool of communication in many companies and professions. Many workplaces give their employees their own accounts to Skype and it's used as a communication tool either with your co-workers or negotiations or something similar. You have to remember that you're using it with your work accounts and it's not advisable to use it to manage your personal liaison. If you're using your account with both, work and personal things, remember to keep your work-related stuff to your self, not share it to everybody on your contact list.

It's important that employees know the common rules, which are made for your own working community. This way everybody knows about the same rules and should also follow these. This can also ease controlling what employees are sharing and saying through social media, because co-workers know about the rules and they can point out, if something is not acceptable.

What are the benefits of openness and transparency? 
First benefit of openness coming to my mind is that you create a trustworthy and honest image of yourself. Of course people can't be sure, is that really you but at least you're giving this image for outsiders. For example this Finnish shop Jounin Kauppa broke through and became to everyone's knowing using Facebook. The owner, Sampo, is sharing almost everything on Facebook and that gives people certain, honest and reliable, image of the shop and it's owner and also brings the owner closer to people. That's why many people are taking trips to see this Jounin Kauppa and hoping to see also the owner. Openness and transparency can relieve your advertising game and make your company famous in a days, and it doesn't take lot of money. It also can give you new associates and co-workers etc.

Being open and transparent you can also get help from the other people, share your knowledge and
skills and it can also stop you from making mistakes. It brings you closer to the people and makes you available (which isn't maybe that good thing) and approachable. You can get new viewpoints to your opinions or doings or even to your innovations by sharing them and getting advice and thoughts from other people.

When is it beneficial for the employer and employees to share personal information online? 
Well in my opinion it's never quite good nor safe to share your really personal information online, but some of them maybe yes. For example if you need to contact someone like right now and you don't have his/hers phone number and email is just too slow way of contacting, you can find the phone number online or contact through social media, for example Facebook Messenger and reach necessary person(s) in minutes.

It might also help bring people closer to you and give positive image of you. For example some of this big corporation leaders have been creating positive image of themselves and their companies by giving out of their charity or voluntary works through social media. It's kinda like free and positive advertisement to you and your company, if you share something positive and respected things in your profile. Of course people might not be sure about truthfulness of these things, but at least some of them believe you and your created image.

What kind of damage can occur if privacy is not taken care of?
The worst image coming to my mind right now is that someone might steal your identity and mess around with it. It can make serious damage to you, because after that people won't know, which were your own opinions and sayings and which where this criminals. So you can lose your whole identity for good, if someone stoles it. If you share too much your personal things, it might get easy to steal your accounts both your personal and your professional accounts. Also this can cause serious problems, especially if your professional account gets stolen and is related to your workplace. Worst comes to worst, you might get fired because it's your job to keep your professional passwords as unsolvable as possible and in this case, when your profile gets stolen, you've made it too easy to find out and maybe also given out your company's important information by letting somebody to break in to your account.

You might get your whole company to danger if things get to that point, where your customer register spreads around and everything, what your company has been participating in surfaces. It can also make it easy to break in to company's information system and getting EVERYTHING from there, including everyone's passwords and personal files etc.