So I was required for class to choose a Social Media platform that I use and create a tutorial for my fellow students to learn about it. I am sure you can tell from the title of the post that I chose StumbleUpon. If you are interested, Click Here for the presentation that I uploaded to YouTube.
So for those of you who are interested in how I created the presentation here are a list of the programs I utilized.
Prezi
I like to use Prezi instead of PowerPoint because I like that the presentation has movement. I think the slides flying in and out of focus are pretty impressive and attention grabbing, especially for students who are used to a lot of movement in their daily lives (ever notice how much the camera angle changes in movies? How fast cartoons move and change?).
This is the first presentation I ever saw given with Prezi and it made me immediately switch. (Here is the presentation without the video)
Then this is the first Prezi presentation I gave for high school students.
I also recommend adding Prezi to your Facebook account as they typically post tips and new features there. Check it out!
Screencast-O-Matic
I used Screencast-O-Matic to record the audio and the presentation so that I could upload to YouTube, you know, just to make it easy 🙂
I have used Screencast-O-Matic on prior occasions to record tutorials and have always liked the results. Some of the main things I like about this product:
- You don’t have to download it. You can use it straight from the site!!
- It has the option to have the cursor circled so the viewer can follow it easier!
- When you hit record it gives you a visible 3 second countdown until it starts recording.
- It is easy to save, or share directly to YouTube or Vimeo. No need to worry about the format or anything, it does it for you!
- It is FREE!
- It is pretty self-explanatory, aka fool-proof and user-friendly.
So if you need to record things, this is a pretty awesome free option.
Questions from my Classmates
Do you think that this will (or has) become something like Facebook Ads in the sense that advertisements that you see on the web will become more detailed and personalized based on your preferences in StumbleUpon?
According to StumbleUpon they do have paid advertising. The advertisers pay to have their pages added to the Stumble list of sites so that you, as a Stumbler, make it to the paid page instead of getting ads and banners and such. Click Here to read up on it some more.
How can StumbleUpon be used when doing research? Is there a particular way to search for peer-reviewed articles like with Google Scholar?
- On the Stumble Tool bar on the right side there is a search box and a drop down menu
- Use the drop down menu to select a previous stumble interest
- Or use the search box to input a new topic.
I came across this post in the SU blog, maybe it might help with your research? Also it better describes how to use SU for research. Using StumbleUpon to Get Ideas.
Is StumbleUpon a social bookmarking site, such as Diigo and Delicious, or a search engine? Is it true what I read somewhere that through this SM you can promote the websites that you like but not your own?
StumbleUpon is not necessarily a bookmarking site like Delicious or Diigo and it is not quite a search engine either, although you can use it to do both if you wish. The term that I came across that best described SU was a “Discovery tool”. What I take this to mean is that you use the stumble feature to explore new media/topics/ideas and by giving those pages ‘thumbs up’ you narrow down or broaden you interests allowing you to discover new items the more you use the software.
- From your homepage click on Profile.
- Then below where your picture is there is blue text that says Your Settings and Add a New Page. Select Add a new page.
- Then fill in the URL and the information.
- However if it gets enough thumbs down the page is removed from their system.
How specific can you make your search (when searching for pages to add)? Does it give you what you asked for or do you have to “fine tune” your search terms?
Well, it isn’t a search engine like Google or Bing so you won’t get results like that. When you do a “search” it is more along the lines of narrowing interests. For instance, you would wouldn’t search “library school journal articles” but you could narrow the interests to “library school”. Basically you are just browsing topics and getting associated websites instead of getting pages you would look for specifically.
My question is, while StumbleUpon looks like it could be a lot of fun (and possible timesucker) what really sets it apart from other services. i.e., why should I use it? Would you recommend someone replace a site they are using such as Delicious with StumbleUpon, or use it in addition?
StumbleUpon can be a timesucker, but it can also be quite helpful.
Libraries have found ways to use sites like Facebook and Pinterest to promote products and services, so my question is, how do you think libraries could use StumbleUpon as a marketing tool?
This question had me a little stumped for a bit. Ironically I hadn’t really considered how SU could be used to market the library (although now it seems quite obvious that this should have been my focus). I have always used it as a discovery tool for learning new things and hadn’t thought to market with it. And to be quite honest I am not quite sure how to use it to market your library locally (I will continue looking into this however).
I was wondering if there is a way to set privacy such as making some likes public and some likes private? You may not care that someone saw you liked a certain book but you may not want to admit to liking that Disney channel star.
As far as I am able to tell, there is currently only 3 privacy settings options.
- Only Me
- Everyone
- Everyone, but hide any adult likes and interests