Getting The Buzz - Issue 1

Keeping up with all the buzz your friends make, all in one place, is made possible with the worlds biggest database called the internet.
The Buzz we're talking about is the huge picture we're all painting - or rather a timeline of pictures (and much more), on the social network.
Whether you're just paying attention to a small group of friends online, or a bigger network of acquaintances, friends, family or the like, you participate in this buzz somehow.



It's quite extraordinary when you think of it. It's the most efficient way to keep up with what our friends are doing, or indeed what the whole world is doing. On our private profiles, like the popular Facebook, or Myspace, etc, we read these little stories of what our friends have been doing. The Feed of information - listed neatly for us so the most Important and Recent ones are on top; or Top News, as it's called.
We can comment on each of them by commenting on their post, and help sorting out the most interesting and useful stories by giving it a +1 or "liking" it.
Facebook is currently the most used site like this, to keep up with friends etc. New users will find this video below really helpful, describing the new (current) layout of the site.

Status Updates

Lets backtrack just a little, so that our "buzz beginners" can catch up.
If we start from the beginning, and have added our circle of 20 close friends to our profile, (Facebook for example), and we're deciding on a day and time to meet up for, say, a little reunion! we can write a little Buzz to take the initiative. On Facebook, then, we write our own Status Update.

Your status update is like your online voice. A voice that reaches as far and wide as you can make it- which I guarantee is much further than your real voice - and can be painted with pictures and videos, your own media or anyones; or at least link to anything you want.
It's your own broadcast, which it is also sometimes called, and also your diary, or your blog (online diary).

On our own profile there will be a list of all our own status updates, with the latest one on top, and it's viewable by anyone we've added to our friends list. Sometimes we set it up for only certain people to see.
An online diary sorted like this is conventionally called a Blog.
Each time we go on our own profile and write something into the "what's on your mind" box it will be timed and dated, and whatever we write will be added to the Buzz.
So our 20 friends, from the example above, will all see our latest writings on their News Feed - their Home Page.

Perfect way to send our invitation to all 20 people at once :)
Our first few status updates might have been "I'm bored on the couch" , or something simple; maybe we weren't getting the hang of it yet;
and underneath it our friends commented. Maybe one or two of our friends said "I am too!", not much of a buzz created, but our next invitation should really create some.
If we really wanna start something we could write "I'm going to our old town tomorrow! anyone for the coffeehouse?"

Say we post this at noon on a Friday, and there is nobody on. By the time they get home at 5 from work and check their Feeds on the homepage, there might be several ones from their friends.

But our status update is pretty interesting, so our good friend Suz might see it from work, and "like" it. Giving it a little +1 by liking it, etc. makes our update show up higher on our friends "Top News".
Which you might remember is a button you click to sort through the feeds on your homepage. And Suz might write a comment as well, so when our friends come home they can see that there's something going on.

Say we leave the computer and bring our smartphone with us. Then we can get notified if someone comments on our update. And we can keep up with the buzz in general. Most smartphones (Androids and iphones) have apps for Facebook etc. The app is a simpler version of the webpage. Still seems to have all the features you really need - on the go at least.
You can post status updates the same way you do on the computer, with the added benefit of tagging your location - and taking new pictures to share, easily (more on all this kinda stuff in Getting the buzz issue 2)

A few hours later, on-the-go, we check the news feed. And check it out, among al the stuff our friends have been doing we see that "5 people have "liked" our invitation, and all of them have commented as well"
That "bumped" our status update pretty high up, so all our 20 friends will probably see it now no matter what time they're on.
Reading the comments it looks like only 5 are in town and 3 of them will make it., tomorrow. Now we need to come up with a time, let's take the initiative again and write a comment on our status update. Could just write "I'm free all day tomorrow" and let them figure out the time.

Join us in Issue two where we meet some of our friends, bring our network on the go, as well as figure out how we can keep certain things more private, and more!
Coming Soon.