This is the slides of "Social Networking on a Shoe String" a presentation I gave at the Society for Scholarly Publishing (SSP) annual meeting, Baltimore, MD May 2009 (Concurrent 2D Building Social Collaboration Tools: A Practical Guide for Scholarly Publishers)

1. Social Networking on a Shoe String
Concurrent 2D: Building Social Collaboration Tools…
Dr. Philip D. Roberts
Business Innovations Executive
p.roberts@cabi.org

2. What is a social networking?
“A social network is a social
structure made of nodes (which are
generally individuals or
organizations) that are tied by one
or more specific types of
interdependency.”
“Social media is an umbrella term
that defines the various activities
that integrate technology with
social interaction, through the
construction of words, pictures and
video”.
Source: wikipedia

3. The old communication model was a
monologue – from publisher to consumer
Image source: Flickr

4. Put simply social networking is:
People having
conversations creating new
online… content, providing
reviews and
feedback.
It’s a
dialogue
Cartoon characters from xkcd

5. By 2010 the “Digital Native” will outnumber
the “Baby Boomer”
By 2015 ~96% of the online population are
predicted to have joined 2+ social networks
Image source: Flickr

6. Why would you create a social network?
● Offers a great opportunity to connect with your
users.
● Create a community and facilitate the conversation
around your content, rather than just selling to a
customer – create a brand loyalty.
● Allow the provision of content that enhances your
traditional offerings.
● Gain feedback from the online world.
● Crowd source additional content.
● The most popular and active sites on the web.

7. Social Network Options
Option 1 – Purchase Internal hosted
High Cost $30,000- $50,000 (one off purchase)
Continued cost for Support
Server traffic load
Option 2 – Open Source Internal hosted
High IT dept. input
Server traffic load
Option 3 – Externally hosted
Little IT dept. input
Free/Cheap (monthly charge)

8. Social Media – what tools are out there?
Image source: Flickr

9. What is Ning?
www.ning.com

10. Why we chose Ning?
● It is cheap – with a FREE option
● Familiar interface – a la Myspace
● Customizable platform with lots of features
● Easy WYSIWYG editor
● Benefits of external hosting
● Multiple security/privacy options available
● Good developer network – regular updates
● … did I mention that it is cheap!

11. A sample of Ning social network sites

12. Case study: CABI’s social network trial
www.cabi.org/biofuels
Driver : Member country feedback for information
“Assist in the provision of information to provide
knowledge on the issues surrounding biofuels”
● Research Information
● Expert contacts
● Conversation area

13. Setup
Choose the features
that you want on your
social network.

14. Setup
Establish the
appearance of your
site.
These themes are fully
user customizable to
give you the look and
feel that you want.

17. Creating our community
● Mined our Biofuels database for contacts
● Filtered for relevance
● Contacted key authors
● Profile required for registration
● ~1/3 sign-up rate
● Continued organic growth

18. Map of Members

20. Our hook, is the Biofuels subset of CAB Abstracts database
● Updated weekly scientific abstracts
● Full text linkage
● Additional full text scanned print sources

21. You require a community coordinator
● Someone to oversee memberships (if closed site)
● Raise initial conversation points (in the beginning)
● Stimulate discussion and champion the site (an expert)
● Workload ~1 day/wk
Dr. Carol Ellison – Senior Scientist
Invasive & Biofuel species expert

22. Remember, it’s a dialogue
The goal of your social network is not to control the
conversation.
The goal is to:
● Enable
● Inspire
● Influence
● and above all Engage in the dialogue
Give your users something to become involved within

23. Content, content, content
Ning allows numerous content types:
● Documents

24. Content, content, content
Ning allows numerous content types:
● Documents
● Events

25. Content, content, content
Ning allows numerous content types:
● Documents
● Events
● Pictures

26. Content, content, content
Ning allows numerous content types:
● Documents
● Events
● Pictures
● Video

27. Content, content, content
Ning allows numerous content types:
● Documents
● Events
● Pictures
● Video
● Slideshows

28. Content, content, content
Ning allows numerous content types:
● Documents
● Events
● Pictures
● Video
● Slideshows
● Applications &
Widgets

29. Mobile ready
No added expense of producing mobile enabled site
Slideshow on
Homepage on ipod touch the iphone

30. The cost of a mere shoestring (if that)!
Options available for all budgets:
● Free version – you still have all the features.
● “Go Ad-Free” or “Run own Ads” service ($24.95/month).
● Remove Promotions Links ($24.95/month).
● Premium Support (Starting at $10/month).
● Get More Storage and Bandwidth ($9.95/month/unit).
● Use your own domain name ($4.95/month).

31. The cost of a mere shoestring (if that)!
Options available for all budgets:
● Free version – you still have all the features.
● “Go Ad-Free” or “Run own Ads” service ($24.95/month).
● Remove Promotions Links ($24.95/month).
● Premium Support (Starting at $10/month).
● Get More Storage and Bandwidth ($9.95/month/unit).
● Use your own domain name ($4.95/month).
Total cost ~$50/month

32. A couple of Ning tips
● Use RSS to keep tabs on your site
● Change the generic message
● Free Support use http://getsatisfaction.com/ning

33. Thank you
Biofuels Information Exchange:
www.cabi.org/biofuels
Philip D. Roberts p.roberts@cabi.org
Business Innovations Executive
Connect with me on:
www.twitter.com/PhilDRoberts
www.delicious.com/PhilDRoberts
www.linkedin.com/in/philipdroberts
Also thanks to the other members of the CABI Business Innovations Team:
David Smith and Tim Holmes