Nurturing Communities with Social Networking

Nurturing CommunitiesWith Social Networking

Kristofer LayonUniversity of Minnesota

HighEdWeb: open+connectedOctober 5, 2009

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Good morning, and welcome to the second session in today’s social media track, entitled “Nurturing Communities with social networking”. My name is Kristofer Layon, I direct web design and online collaboration for the University of Minnesota’s central administration, and I want to thank you for coming to my presentation.

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I would like to begin this morning with a basic premise that I have experienced myself: namely, that social networking can nurture and even create community. Hopefully some of you have experienced this already, too. If you haven’t, hopefully you can allow yourself to consider how this might work for you. But before I go any further, I need to do what any good academic presenter does: review some key definitions, so that we’re all thinking about the same things.

community

A group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other particular characteristic in common.

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There’s more than one definition of community that informs today’s discussion. Here’s the first.

community

A group of people having a religion, race, profession, or other particular characteristic in common.

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As someone who majored in German as an undergrad, I often can’t keep myself from being a language geek and, in this case, observing that the word “common” shares its root with “community”. Let’s keep this in mind.

community

A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

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Here’s another definition. I like this one even more.

community

A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

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“Feeling of fellowship.” Think about this a moment. Perhaps you belong to a church or other community organization, who can relate to the word “fellowship” when you participate in an event with other members of your group. Or, perhaps you recall the book “The Fellowship of the Ring” and think about what fellowship means in the context of travel and adventure. I think both aspects are equally relevant for us here today.

community

A group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

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But here’s a third definition. And isn’t this where it starts to get even more interesting?

community

A group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

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community

A group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

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community

A group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

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community

A group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

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Is anyone here today who is not representing the human species?

community

A group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

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community

A group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

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community

A group of interdependent organisms of different species growing or living together in a specified habitat.

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So to remain philosophical here for another minute or two, what I’m trying to emphasize is that the purpose of social networking is to create community. It can be used to bring different people together around a common cause; or, share information that a group of similar people may find interesting; it can even enrich a common environment and allow people to thrive, or perform at a higher level. On the one hand, these are fairly profound things. But on the other hand, they’re rather simple and just basic to humanity.

• be factual most of the time

• be sincere and polite all of the time

• carefully weigh entering into politics…

• …or otherwise straying off-topic

• be human

principles of good social media personae

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I think by keeping the idea of persona development in mind as you update a Facebook page or status, or Twitter feed, you’ll do a better job of providing information and ideas that nurture a group identity. Not keeping this in mind, or even being reckless with one’s persona online, can quickly cause people to question your online sincerity. Just as they would in person.

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For example: over and over again, when I hear people talk about Facebook, I hear the same story. “I use it to reconnect with people from high school.” But what does this really mean? What makes it enjoyable or important -- is Facebook really just about high school?

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Sometimes it can be, especially around reunion time (which I just experienced myself this summer). But when you distill the assertion further, it really means that it is used to bridge distance and time. Yet it is also used to keep people connected with shared interests, backgrounds, or experiences. Perhaps their closest friends were on a team or in an organization together. These are aspects that we must keep in mind; it regards more than just high school, but what drives people to desire and maintain networks. Bridging distances; bridging time; sharing common ideas, information, or even emotions.

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And yet we still often treat social networking as something high tech and cool, which can suggest that it’s not for everyone. But in reality, social networking on the Web is just a newer version of things that we’ve had around for generations. Web social networking is newspapers, plus television, plus letter writing or sending cards, plus chatting, plus sharing photos, plus sharing referrals and opinions on other media such as music and film.

{ university examples }

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So what do these places look like?

Blogging

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Let’s not underestimate the value of blogging, despite it being so common now, and despite us having grown jaded with people’s passive-aggressive blog comments. A focused blog that is well-written can still be a great communications tool. This is one of our blogs at the University of Minnesota.

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If you’ve seen this film or read the book, you know that the key element to the story is a blog written by Julie as she works her way through Julia Child’s “The Art of French Cooking”.

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It’s a true story, and Julie’s blog is still online. What more of an argument do you need about the value of blogging, then it can lead to a book deal, and then a movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams?

Social Networking

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We’re also using social networking sites like Facebook and Ning at the University of Minnesota.

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Photo / VideoSharing

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And don’t forget that photo and video publishing has become photo and video sharing. Which makes this social, too.

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Micro-blogging

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Then there’s the latest development, micro-blogging. Most people know of this by the dominant platform, Twitter.

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As you can see at the time of this screen shot (May 2009), Minnesota’s UMNews service had 919 followers on Twitter...

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...4 months later they are approaching 4,000 followers.

IntegratedSocial Media:MinneWebCon

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At this point, I would like to focus a bit more closely on a particular case study at the University of Minnesota: our annual web conference.

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In the case of the Twitter account for our university’s web conference, MinneWebCon, our follow count is about the same as our event’s attendance. Which, although it would be nice if it were higher, is still pretty significant. It suggests that we have a loyal base of satisfied attendees, which means that its organizers don’t need to be as concerned about filling the event each year.

What was our Twitter ROI for MinneWebCon

2009?

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So besides our follows, let’s talk about something else we can measure: our return on investment.

income - cost

cost

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$1500 - $100

$100

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So this is the ROI equation for Twitter, and the results are...

1,400%

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What was our Facebook advertising ROI for

MinneWebCon 2009?

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$250 - $65

$65

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And this is the ROI equation for Facebook advertising, and the results are…

285%

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What was my banner advertising ROI for

MinneWebCon?

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$250 - $540

$540

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Finally, this is the ROI equation for our traditional web banner advertising campaign, and the results are…

-54%

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{a non-university example}

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IntegratedSocial Media:

Paperedtogether

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I’m using this example because it’s such an excellent case study. It shows a level of integration and community-building that exceeds our web conference examples at the U of M.

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Paperedtogether is a printing studio in Minneapolis, and this is their web site. And it’s the only nonsocial aspect of their communications plan.

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Here’s paperedtogether’s Etsy page. As you might know, Etsy is sort of the Amazon.com of handmade or artisan products. And, like Amazon, one of Etsy’s strengths is its social aspect.

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And here’s their Flickr page. It’s quite similar to Twitter, when you think about it. Twitter is a stream of text that can fit in a box. Flickr is a stream of photographic images that can fit in a box.

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And here’s paperedtogether’s Twitter page.

Some people have garage sales

Krista has a $40,000 garage business

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What does social media success require?

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I believe that successful social media requires persistence more than anything. The implementation of social media may feel instantaneous, but its successes do not come so easily. Like most rewarding things, social media use requires time and patience.

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Much like marathon running…

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Or making a fine cheese…

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Or making a fine wine.

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And, it might be helpful to remember that visually, a pixel alone is usually not very compelling.

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But as you start to consistently add more…

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You start to get more of a pattern…

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And out of that pattern you get something entirely different and with a new scale, and it represents something else that is very new, unified, and whole -- despite it being made of many tiny parts. This is your social community.

plan

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So just as with running marathons, and making cheese or wine, a plan is essential. There’s a considerable distance between a bucket of milk and a bleu cheese, or a bushel of grapes and a bottle of cabernet. Your social media plan should include frequency of updates, who is making updates if there are multiple people involved, and any topical constraints and other protocols that will keep your communications focused, reliable, and consistent.

patience

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Logging into a social network might be able to give you instant gratification as a user, but don’t confuse that feeling with a social networking content provider. Having an active community requires patience. And even after your network is more established and mature, don’t expect to get replies to status updates all of the time.

humility

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Humility is important for two main reasons. First, people both love and hate experts. People want expertise, and yet distrust people who act like they have all of the answers. So be humble in your social communications: ask as many questions as you post advice, links, or tips. Second, pay attention to tone as well as content. Even 140 characters can convey attitude: are you conveying the right attitude in your updates?

persistence

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Finally, don’t underestimate the amount of persistence required for establishing a successful community with social networking.

{ thank you }

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[email protected]/klayon

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