1. •What is Ning? What is the learning process I used to create the site?
•Why did I select this tool?
•What are the pros and cons of using Ning in a corporate environment?
•What is the applicability of Ning to my consultancy business now and in the
future?
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2. What is ?
Ning is an online platform for people to create their own
social networks. Ning" is Chinese for "peace" (simplified
Chinese: 宁; traditional Chinese: 寧; pinyin: níng). Ning
started development in October 2004 and launched its
platform publicly in October 2005 with a 100 million US
dollars in capital from investors.
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3. What was my learning process?
1. Joined Learning Town, a Ning site, after
getting an email invite
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4. What was my learning process?
2. Participated in a Ning webinar and
reviewed other sites
iPhone photo of webinar
screen slide
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5. What was my learning process?
3. Created a Ning site to support my
October 9 university workshop
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6. The Top 10
What did I learn from the Ning webinar?
1. Start by inviting a small group of people you know (5-10)
2. Add content- no one wants to see an empty page
3. Modify your Welcome email via Language Editor
4. Add a welcome Center text box
5. Enable sharing and allow Facebook, Twitter and other “Share”
sites
6. Get active on other Ning sites
7. Can set to allow only members access
8. Search Engine Optimization tips
9. Run a contest
10. Consider creating fake member profiles to add “members”
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7. What did the 7 “Best Practice” sites reveal?
•Use of a range of Word Press templates
•Strong graphics
•Daily rotating moderators
•Photos linked to flickr
•Aggregates videos from YouTube
•Builds membership with request to sign up to access different pages
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8. The topic of this learning site is leadership. Currently under
construction. Estimated completion date is next weekend!
Then to testing with colleagues- Shell, Nexen Inc (Calgary)
and one ASTD classmate.
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9. Why did I select this tool to grow my business?
•Flexible in the ways information is
delivered
•Allows for subgroups to self form
•Provides means for geographically
isolated individuals to “get out”
•Cost efficient
•Businesses tend to favor leadership
training and this is a novel approach.
•Appeals to food industry, banking,
businesses with a heavy load of under
30s employees
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10. What are the pros and cons of using Ning in a business environment?
Pros Cons
Social Learning Tool
exposing what others
think outside of a
particular business
culture
Potential customer may
be afraid of exposing
value add knowledge to
competitor
Meets differing learning
styles
Traditional learners may
resist
Uniqueness is attractive May turn some people off
Could create Ning series
to support a range of
different issues.
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11. What Ning aps did I select so far?
Ap Selected Description
Answers Answers allows
members to easily ask
questions and
crowdsource answers
with other members of
this social network.
Opinion Ask your members a
question and view their
responses as a tag cloud
or list.
Polldaddy Enables polls
Twitter feed Set for any topic
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12. What Ning aps did I select so far?
Ap Selected Description
Clackpoint ClackPoint (beta)
provides live audio, video
and text chat. Users can
call in either directly
from the web page, or by
using a telephone and
entering a PIN
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13. Issues to be Determined
Issue Comment
Marketing or paid
membership
Maise uses his as
marketing tool
If membership, what
cost?
Repays for time to
update, add materials.
How to charge- per head
per month, per quarter
etc.
Test it with Shell Oil and
Nexen Inc. colleagues
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14. Additional Information
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15. What plan did I select for the university workshop?
•Blogs
•Photos
•Forums
•Video embed
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16. What plan did I select for business?
•Blogs
•Photos
•Forums
•Video embed
•Chats
•Events
•Groups
•Notes and pages
•Facebook & Twitter integration
•RSS feeds on Homepage
•10 Ning aps, most allowed
Aha Moment- it’s the aps that
will sell this!
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