Presentation to A*WIN (Allstate Women In Technology), 2008.

1. A*WIN Lunchtime Lecture:
Social Networking 101
Patty Lewis
September 26, 2008
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2. Social Networking 101
 What is it?
 Benefits / Business Value
 Components and examples
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3. What is social networking?
 Technology and services that enable
users to…
 Create unique personal profiles
 Build and map out relationships
 Leverage connections to accomplish tasks
 Create, consume and share content
 Online social networks augment the
personal and professional networks
most people already have
 A.k.a. social computing and Web 2.0 3

4. Benefits / Business Value
 Expertise location
 Information sharing
 Collaboration
 Relationship building
 Sharing personal information helps build
bridges. Such connections can yield*:
 Faster, more efficient expertise location
 More timely responses
 More shared learning over longer periods
* Cross & Parker, The Hidden Power of Social Networks, 95-97 4

5. Some Social Networking Sites
 As I walk you through some of the
components of social networking, we’ll
look at these consumer-facing sites:
 LinkedIn: Networking site for business
professionals
 del.icio.us: Shared bookmarking site
 Facebook: Social network and application
platform
 All enable people to connect around
shared information and content
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6. 1 of 7
Social Networking Components
 Personal profiles
 On-line identity is expressed via profiles
 Often includes basic personal info,
interests, associations, work history,
testimonials, and a picture or “avatar”
 Helps establish credibility and trust
 Users typically control “who sees what”
 May include user’s criteria for connecting
 Helps users connect on shared interests
 Example: LinkedIn
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7. 2 of 7
Social Networking Components
 Relationship management
 Users map and expand their relationships
with other people by inviting them to
connect (“friending”), using search tools
and connecting with friends of friends
LinkedIn
Facebook invitation
and “friend finder”
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8. 3 of 7
Social Networking Components
 Trust, reputation, rankings, badges
 Reputation is made visible with ratings,
rankings, badges and testimonials
 Importance of reputation management
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9. 4 of 7
Social Networking Components
 Messaging, chat functions, and
indicators of online “presence”
 Communicate quickly, cut down on email
 Can tell at a glance which team members
are available to answer a question
 Provide a sense of being together in a
shared “space” Facebook chat
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10. 5 of 7
Social Networking Components
 Ability to create groups or networks
 Groups and networks form around every
kind of affiliation and interest
 Administrators of the group determine the
group’s “openness” (public / anyone can
join vs. private / invitation only)
 Discussion boards with topic “threads”
 Repositories for sharing content such as
links, documents, videos, pictures, etc.
 Example: Facebook
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11. 6 of 7
Social Networking Components
 Easy ways to connect and share
 Web-based tools such as browser toolbar
add-ins enable users to easily and quickly
share, collaborate and co-create
Browser
buttons
(“add-ins”)
MediaWiki
application
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12. 7 of 7
Social Networking Components
 Tagging
 The practice of labeling Web content to
facilitate later retrieval
 Others’ tags are often visible and re-
usable, enabling collaborative
classification to create a “folksonomy”
Tags are often displayed
in “Tag clouds,” with font
sizes weighted according
to tag frequency
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13. Social Networking Adoption
 Technology Adoption Approach
 Definitions
 Tools
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14. Adoption Approach
 Gain experience via small group(s) of
early adopters
 Include non-IT users where possible
 Provide safe environment for
experimentation
 Guidelines – IT usage policy, etc.
 It’s about people, not tools
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15. Definitions: What is a blog?
 A blog is an online journal or diary
 Many kinds of content, from personal
diaries to news, business and how-to
 Typical workplace uses:
 Replace newsletters and bulletins
 Department / team communications
 Subject-matter experts – post FAQs
 Benefits:
 Centralized conversation in shared space
 Visible discussion vs. inboxes 15

16. Definitions: What is a wiki?
 A wiki is an editable Web site
 Best known example: Wikipedia
 Wiki is from Hawaiian “wiki-wiki”: quick
 Typical uses:
 Managing a project or group
 Community information / reference site
 Benefits:
 Transparency – developing consensus in
a shared space
 All content is traceable and recoverable 16