7. #1 Conversations => Trust Actually, what we are saying is that conversations can build social capital,which in turn helps communities get things done
20. It’s about listening RSS Feeds-- RSS is a technology that enables users to receive updates on their favorite blogs & websites Source: “RSS in Plain English”/YouTube
36. It’s about building a movement Attributes of a Tribe: Connect to one another Connect to a leader Connect to an idea Source: Seth Godin, Tribes, p. 1 Read Seth’s blog
37. “Great Leaders create movements by empowering the tribe to communicate.” Quote: Seth Godin, Tribes, p. ?
There is no set definition of social media. It seems like the definition changes weekly, which contributes to our confusion on the subject – that and the fact that most of us are over the age of 21, which means we are greatly handicapped. Approximately a year ago, I found a downloadable e-book on the subject from iCrossing. It’s now a bit dated, but I still recommend it.
(need an image)Rather than a definition, I like to describe social media as a set of values or characterisitcs(briefly explain these values)These values tell us how we will use the web. If a tool helps you accomplish these things on-line, it’s probably a social media tool.So… what are there…. Probably 10-15 social media tools? Don’t we wish
So, we showed you some characteristics and values a little earlier. We now want to put them into context and give them a little different spin.It’s about Connecting with a purposeIt’s about ListeningIt’ll help “Get Things Done”It’s about CollaborationIt’ll help build a movement
There are an incredible number of tools being developed – we really have a “tool glut”The authors of this image have identified 22 different “categories” of social media tools – and new tools to fit those categories are being developed each month!Some of the more popular categories include:Social Bookmarking tools –Blogging toolsWikisSocial Networking – the latest greatestThe main point of this image, however, isn’t that there are so many tools – its that “Conversation” is common denominator. Each of these tools will should help you engage in conversation. That point is incredibly important to us at the RLC.
It’s important because we believe conversation help build trust.face to face conversations have become less frequent—we believe ways for the conversation to take place online in a way that still fosters the building of trust and social capital need to occur-------More specifically, we believe that conversations that take place between diverse people within the community CAN help build the bridging social capital that can help communities “GET THINGS DONE.” If you’ve studied the Community Capital’s Framework, and especially Cornelia Floras work, you understand the flow that were describing – but we’ll talk more about this later.
I might have been able to say “It’s about conversation”, but too often I think that people miss the point that to have a conversation, one has to listen. For that reason, I’m just listing “It’s about Listening” to make that point. I have another video to show ???? What is often overlooked by “leaders” is that conversation is a two-way street. And leaders need to listen.
This video is slightly longer than the last one and it’s a conversation between an advertiser(man) and a consumer (lady)(show video)(do we ask: What did you hear?)Marketers and media companies have stood up and taken noticed. I think a couple points from the video are important:The lady says “we don’t talk any more…your advertisements are NOT GENUINE…. I can’t TRUST YOU… you’re not LISTENING.”In short, marketers are learning that “one-way conversations” are not good enough. We have to “Engage”Our background at the RLC is in community development work tells us the same thing – we have to engage people. We hear all the time something like this: “Young people won’t volunteer. I developed this great idea for building a new swimming pool. I figured out what type of pool we need and have all the costs down to the penny. Now we need the money to make it happen, and I need help fundraising.. But nobody is willing to help. All I’m trying to do is to help these young people, but they won’t help themselves.” Young families are busy today. But an equally important problem is that the leader didn’t engage the “customer”. It’s a one-way conversation. “Here’s what I need you to do.” As we’ll learn later, social networking can facilitate engaging residents in community development. Listeen to what people want and listen to what people are saying about you.
Google Alerts sends you email alerts so you can “listen” to what’s being said on the web. One of the simplest listening tools is “Google Alerts”. Many if not most are probably using this tool already. The way it works is you go to the Google Alert’s homepage and signup up for “keywords” Google then sends you a message each time that keyword appears in their top twenty search. One of the topics I follow is wind energy in South Dakota. You can see the results of one day’s worth of new web content.Alternative Image -- picture of the Google Homepage sign-up
The ways that you can use this tool to “eavesdrop” on what’s being said are endless. At a bare minimum, I’d encourage you to follow what others are saying about you and your organization.
This slide came from Paul Ten Haaken @ Click Rain
Another great tool to use is RSS. RSS Feeds tell you when new content has been posted to websites like blogs. All you have to do is to copy the feed into a Blog Reader and each time something new is added to a blog, it is sent to my reader.In other words, I never have to go out to a blog because it comes to me.(might be nice to show them flickr photos)
One of my biggest pet peeves is hearing “I don’t have time to learn how to use social media”My response is “Social media can help you get more things done!”That’s obviously over simplified. But I want to make a point that Web 2.0 tools can help you “Get things done.”
For instance, if you are working with a group of people – especially volunteers – it is important to help organize them. People are busy and BC is a way you can organize projects without having to have another evening meeting. Individuals can contribute to projects when they have time. It still takes some management by the leader.There are many challenges: asynchronous communication – message board Who’s doing what – “to do list” Collaborate on documents – Writeboard
Helps you get things done by learning from othersTrust what others are telling you. “Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages…”(source: Wikipedia)Image Source (Delicious, SU, Digg) -- http://www.flickr.com/photos/topgold/
Social Media is about “collaboration”. here are an incredible number of tools that can help you get thing done.Basecamp is definitely one of them. But we want to talk about a few others as well.
Before we do, I want to share an important principle for you to consider whenever you are collaborating with people at a distance. It’s the Share don’t Send principle. E-mail is still the #1 tool we use to communicate. (find stat)The problem with using e-mail to collaborate is you soon get lost. Let me explain.How many of you have experienced a situation where you’ve been assigned to a committee to prepare a document. Your fearless leader says “I’ll take a first stab at writing a draft, and then I’ll send it off for you to review. The e-mail goes out to everyone, and the chaos begins. One person just send back his comments to the leader without copying the othersAnother person actually edits the document and send it to everyone. This took place while the leader was editing his/her original so to include the 1st person’s e-mail comments Now people are unsure who’s comments have been included and who’s haven’t.A better way to work collaboratively is to create a central repository where ALL the information can be stored. E-mail comments Resources – like websites & documents Documents you are collaborating on
One tool that we use that allows us to accomplish this is TrueThinker. It’s a knowledge networking tool – similar to the social bookmarking.Create a community of Interest – “Third Places and Social Networks”This was a grant application Jim and I submitted We found all types of websites and documents (pdf’s and Word) that we could use to write our grant application.He found them & I found them & we stored them in the same placeHas a message board – can pass messages back and forth In this case it’s a private community – only Jim and myself I also want to point out that this is the simplest tool I have found that allows me to store my favorites in one spot & move them to a shared community. We can also upload documents It’s weakness is that it doesn’t have a good wiki tool for collaborating on documents.
If you don’t have a purpose for Project Management tools like Basecamp, you may still want to use their simplified wiki called “Writeboard”Sign-up is easy(show a couple more slides
Because “collaboration” is key to all social media activities, something called the creative commons has been developed.Usually when you post something online – you own it. But many people want other to be able to use it. For that reason, the creative commons licenses were developed. A great example of this can be found on flickr.Each picture can be assigned a CC license You can search Flickr for photos by license.Type in the keywords and search for photos with this license…enable people to collaborate using social media tools.
Here’s an example of our blog using a photo that has been assigned a creative commons license
Seth Godin has become a renown “marketing expert” and social commentator. You can follow his blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog
Here’s an example of how Ning can help create individuals create a movement. A few individuals decided they wanted to create a Ning network and share events and activities that other people think make the state great. I’ve joined and found more interesting activities to go and see than if I were constantly reading travel websites and brochures. I even participate – I add value to the group because I want others to add their comments.And the leaders do a nice job of spurring that discussion. And this is partly why I like Ning better than I like Facebook. Ning helps me connect around I use serve on the SESDTA Board and our mission was to promote tourism. If I had to invest in a promotional activity today, however, I would be more willing to pay someone to “lead” an effort like this, than I would be to publish a magazine, brochure or website. Why? Because it provides an opportunity for other like me to contribute and share information.
