Social media and drugwork presentation

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Social media and drugwork presentation

Written by Nigel Brunsdon

Saturday, 14 November 2009 15:48

While at the National Conference on Injecting Drug Use (NCIDU09) Allison Downing and Myself gave a presentation on the use of social media in drugs work. The session was very well received and enjoyable to do. But of course not everyone can attend the conference, and what use is a presentation about social media unless you can share it on the media in question.

As a result I decided this weekend to re-record the presentation and put it on here. The original plan was to record the whole session, record video of the slides and put that out on our podcast feed. But as the session recording is 56 minutes long the video file would have been huge! So here is a short version with audio by just me (sorry no Allison on this one). After you've seen the presentation scroll down for details of the information that was also given out to people attending the session.

Each person attending was also given a CD with the first five episodes of Hooked and a file linking to online social media resources like these:

Social media sites

Twitter: The internet’s fastest growing social networking tool. It allows you to send out 140-character messages, and for these messages to
be ‘re-tweeted’ around the internet. For people who are new to Twitter I'd recommend reading my Twitter for Drugs Workers article.
Facebook: Chances are that you already have a Facebook profile. There are a number of great harm reduction groups on here as well.
AIDSspace: New social media site for sharing knowledge, and accessing services for people living with HIV those who are part of the response.
Ning: This allows you to have one Ning profile that you use to join any number of Ning networks. Great for small groups.
Nurphy: Online conversation tool that allows you to start a conversation and then add more people in as time goes on.
Bebo: Mainly focused around young people.

Blogging tools

Blogger: Thisis the first stop for people wanting to try out blogging the easy way, in the presentation I mention that I sometimes recommend people who are IT focused to try blogging when coming off drugs. This is the site I'd send them to.
Wordpress: Wordpress is one of the most used blogging platforms on the internet. It is very accessible for new users and has a great support
network on its forums, who are always happy to help new bloggers.
Joomla: Injecting Advice is built with Joomla. Though it has a steeper learning curve than Wordpress, Joomla however does allow you to do far more once you’ve got the hang of it. Mainly for techie types, but does again have a large support forum.

Social drug sites

WiredIn: A community site for drug users, ex-users and practitioners. Gives you the opportunity to create a blog that’s part of a wider community.
Erowid: A great drug information site that has been largely created by its membership. Includes links to research and user reports of drug effects.
Talking Drugs: Set up by Release, this is an international site that is created by its users. Includes blogs, videos and links to drug news.
FEAD: Established by Lifeline, the Film Exchange on Alcohol and Drugs collects together interviews of some of the biggest names in UK drugs work.
Drugs-Forum: A huge user created forum discussing drugs and drug use issues.

Interesting blogs

Junkie (shootus heroinitis nodnod): A great example of a user-run blog that has been set up on Blogger.
Claudia Bites: Another Blogger built site, this one focuses on advice for sex workers and discussions about sexuality.
JUNKe Life: Observations of an Injecting Drug User, a Wordpress blog.
Australian Heroin Diaries: Terry Wright's great blog covers both issues around heroin use and specific aspects of the Australian experience.

Blog hosting

There are many hosting options if you want to set up your own blog, personally I use Siteground who are really inexpensive. I've never had any issues with the service they provide and they have always been helpful when I need support.