Filey and the Social Media

I was just talking to our Filey Library manager Ann Colling on this National Libraries Day. Ive just done a #Thunderclap for the day and amazed I even know what it is. We were remembering how we started on the internet. She like me spent lots of time in the Evron
Centre in Filey in the early noughties doing all the Computer courses  going , when Gina Robinson was the manager, and Win and Paul the trainers. I romped my way through Text Processing, Word Processing, Publisher and WebPage Building with Frontpage with hundreds of others from Filey who needed Skills for work . I found that my very first certificate in Jan 2000 however came from Filey Library. Its the BBCWebwise certificate for learning to use the internet. The librarians at the time  helped me to get my first e mail Account , and its the one I still use. In folder on my email account , I have the very first email sent to me by my son 4 months later in April 2000. Ann and I were saying just how far we had both come in the cyberworld, both in the world of Social Media, she doing the Tweets for @FileyLibrary, and me doing the Tweets for @FileyParish as well as Facebook Pages and Groups.

I follow this Filey Nature Facebook Group for  updates

Here on the Social Media I learn new jargon daily .That doesnt mean I use it. This is my first and last LOL. It has different meanings and I don't want to sign up to one of them. A long time single friend of mine said she  was ready for love again and her children told her not to 'go on Tinder Mum.'   I did really laugh out loud at that one, firstly because she is in  lots of networks and will  find a new relationship I'm sure, but more because I actually knew what the Tinder site was. 

Some people try and hide their lack of knowledge  by decrying Facebook and Twitter . I wonder if they would have waited 20 years before getting their first Telephone or TV sets? Most people however that I talk to in my circles in Filey, use the internet to some degree, maybe Skype their relations abroad and look up the best deals for Electric Kettles before going to buy one in Dixons . I was upset to be hoist on my own petard the other day when I was cross that one can no longer buy Premium Bonds at the Post Office . I had to break my own rule for not shopping online for amounts larger than £20 ,seeds from online Seed Catalogues, or booking a room on Premier Inn as I had to buy my bonds online from my Sitting Room having first registered and waited to receive the confirmation Letter and PIN. A palava indeed when Filey Post Office is so convenient and the staff helpful,now that  they realise I do not want to be asked if I  want anything else, Thank -You !

Filey Library and the ALC in Evron Centre (January 2016) run Computer classes. Anyone with an 8yr old Grandchild has help to hand for getting started too, as I'm told that in Filey Junior School classes network together on their Chromebooks, or are on Utube at home learning to update their MineCraft skills. My grandchildren receive discipline now , not by being sent to their room as I was (though loved as could read) but by  having the wifi switched off in the house.That will only do until they have 4G on their smartphones, when they get them !

How many of us in #Filey love seeing the BBC and ITV weather pictures tweeted from Filey like those of  @rich_cowling  , and many of those in the Tourist Industry here, a staple of the economy, tweet pictures showing the beauty of the bay with a link to their Cottage for rent .

 8 years ago when the @FileyParish and @Filey_UK twitter sites began, only a handful of Filonians used the app at all . 

Simon Rudiger who had been in the Web developing  industry before working in Filey Parish for 18 months  until 2009 ,trained me into all I know for FileyParish Facebook and FileyParish Twitter and FileyParishBlog (now archived but receiving 100s of hits a day ) . His advice still resonates loud and clear to me about broken links and clear guidelines for SEO (Search EngineOptimization), and using real names rather than avatars, and making sure pictures of FileyParish showed people  ,not Buildings. He did not overwhelm me with technobabble and cascading style  sheets, but like all good trainers kept it simple. 

Now we have Natalie Bosomworth and the FileyBay Today magazine. She uses Twitter and Facebook effectively, and has managed to get FBT a great  website (some in Filey would never pass the Paul Nash test) . 

Together with Twitterers like @Filey_UK 2600 followers, and @OfficiaFiley with 1700 followers , interest groups on Facebook and Twitter continue to grow  . 

Some of the best are @fileybirder, Mark Pearson, whose articles are often in FileyBay Today , and 2 of my favourite Favourite Facebook Groups FileyNature , a public group, and the have to join, but fantastic Photos of Filey Old and New , well managed by Steve Eblet and Stuart Bowes, Social Media , Social History at its very Best .

Facebook group for all who love Filey .