Before we get technical, a little bit of philosophy:
RockfordWoman.com is the online home of Rockford Woman magazine. It is an interactive Web site of news, shopping and social networking. It is your trusted place to connect with smart, sophisticated Rock River Valley women.

You can share your "status updates" in 140 characters or fewer through the social networking feature, "What Rockford women are doing." You can ask questions and share advice. You can share photos and send private messages to your friends.

If you’ve never used social networking, this is a great place to start because we keep things simple.

If you’re already a pro on Twitter and Facebook, you can use RockfordWoman.com to update your status on all three. See advanced advice below.
               
To participate, we require:
1. First and last name. If you have two last names, you can put them both in the “last name” field, separated by a space. You must use your real name, not a screen name. We are not allowing anonymity on the site. This is about being authentic.
2. A primary e-mail address (used for all communication with you regarding this site).
3. A daytime phone number (for registration verification only).
4. Birth date (our Terms of Use require that you must be 13 to contribute content; we won’t display your year of birth).

Why register? You cannot participate unless you do so. You also cannot see when members like or reply to a status update.

Now, the technical nitty-gritty. How to:
Get started
Click here to create your account.

You will be required to give us the basic information outlined above.

You must be approved by our administrator before your account is activated.

After you fill out the basic information, you will get an e-mail explaining that you will receive a phone call within 2 business days so that we can confirm you will be a trusted user.

Once you are approved, you will receive an e-mail explaining that your account is activated.

If you are not approved, you will be notified by e-mail.

Note: Rockford Woman can remove your posts and delete your account at any time if you violate the Terms of Use.
                                                          
Fill out your bio
Beyond the required fields, you can fill out as much or as little as you please about your personal interests, work experience and education.

Note: Whatever you fill out will appear online, except your birth date at the point of registration.

You should add your picture to your profile by uploading a photo by browsing files on your computer.

Create a status update
Type what you’re doing or thinking, or ask your question, in 140 characters or fewer.

Then click “Update.”

If you have typed more than 140 characters, you will get an alert message. Edit your entry and hit “Update” again.

Upload a photo

Go to My Account on the right, then My Photos in your tabs. Add a photo album, then add a photo. Images must be 600 pixels wide.

ADVANCED: Send your status updates to your Twitter and Facebook accounts
If you have a Twitter account, you can enter your status update once at RockfordWoman.com and let it update your Twitter account.

After you type your status update, click on the arrow next to “Submit to Twitter” and type your username and password for Twitter.

Your Twitter account will update automatically with this status.

If you also use Facebook, Twitter can feed Facebook with status updates, too. You’ll need to use an application, like Selective Twitter Status.

To set up Selective Twitter Status on Facebook, type “Selective Twitter Status” in the Search box in the upper right of Facebook while you are logged in or go here.

Click on “Selective Twitter Status” and then click on “Go to Application.” Then fill in your Twitter info.

To get your Rockford Woman status update to go to Twitter and Facebook, type your status and then add “#fb” at the end and remember to “Submit to Twitter” before you click “Update.”

Notes:
1. For Selective Twitter Status to work on Facebook, you must have your Twitter account unlocked.
2. While Rockford Woman updates Twitter instantly, Selective Twitter Status may take up to 2 minutes to update Facebook, so there is a brief time lag.

ADVANCED: No need to go to Tiny URL
To shorten a long Web address, people often use Tiny URL to generate a shorter Web address. At RockfordWoman.com, when you paste a long Web address in a status update, it will automatically convert to a tiny URL after you hit "update." No need to go to the Tiny URL site! Handy shortcut!

ADVANCED: Update your status from your phone
If you have Web access on your mobile phone, you can update your status anywhere, even if you're AFK ("away from keyboard"). Type rockfordwoman.com into your browser, and you'll be redirected to our mobile URL, which you can bookmark. Then just sign in and update your status.
Note: This is not a fully functioning mobile site yet. You can view the most recent status updates and "like" them, but that's about it for now. Hopefully, more to come.

Log out
You will be permanently logged into RockfordWoman.com unless you click "Log off" on the right. If you do not like to stay logged into networks, we recommend that you log off every time you close your Web browser.