network effectiveness

Network Communications: Using Social Media to Enhance Network Effectiveness

Beth Kanter, Beth’s Blog Packard Foundation Visiting Scholar

Flickr Photo by OceanFlynn

What is Social Media?

Using the Internet to instantly collaborate, share information, and have a conversation about ideas and causes we care about.*

Definition from Katya Andresen, Network for Good

Powered by ..

Publisher MediaPublisher Media Social MediaSocial Media

The Web has become more social….

• Social Media took the lion’s share of the 2.1 trillion page views made at the top 1k media sites last year, nearly doubling 2007 PV volume

Page View ShareShare of all page views at the Top 1,000 Media sites, December 2007 – 2008

15%

85%

Publisher MediaPublisher Media

Social MediaSocial Media 2008

Social Graphs: Individuals as networks

How do we convert our online activists to on the ground activists?

Not everyone is a social media user (or has Internet access or a fast connection)

Social Media Is Not A Life Raft

How can we use social media to enhance network effectiveness?

Begin with context …

swim with the school …

surf the network

Bounded Group: We

Unbounded: Many

What structure?

How much control of your boundaries do you need?

Inward

OutwardCommunicationsCoordinationCollaborationPublishingShared ResourcesLearning Networking

EngageFundraisingActionOutreach

Bounded Group: We

Unbounded: Many

What direction?

Purpose, Audience, and Existing Use of Technology before tool selection.

Inward-Facing *

Outward-Facing

1. Objective and Audience

2. Internet Integration

3. Culture/Capacity

4. Tactic/Tool

5. Experiment, Measure, Adapt

Online collaboration Tools

Enterprise 2.0

Social Media Tools

* Source: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

Toolsoverlap

Different Paths

1: Members skills, capacity, and comfort

2: Group orientation

3: Technology Plan

4: Stewardship

5: Evaluation

Inward-Facing *1: Members skills, capacity, and comfort

2: Group orientation

3: Technology Plan

4: Stewardship

5: EvaluationOnline collaboration

IT Tools Enterprise 2.0

Private Social Networks

* Source: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

Toolsoverlap

Characteristics

Life Cycle

Constitution

TechnographicsJust Forming

Self-DesigningGrowing & RestlessStable and Adapting

Diversity Openness

Boundaries Time zones, languages, participation

Interest and SkillsToleranceFactors

Orientation

Patience Bandwidth

12

Know YourNetwork

Technology Inventory

3

Existing platforms and tools and understand

their features and usage

4

How well does current technology inventory

support ?Based on Action Notebook from Digital Habitats: http://technologyforcommunities.com

Meetings Open-Ended Conversation

ProjectsContent PublishingAccess to Expertise

RelationshipsIndividual ParticipationCommunity Cultivation

• Meetings – in person or online gatherings with an agenda (i.e. monthly topic calls)

• Projects – interrelated tasks with specific outcomes or products (i.e. Identifying a new practice and refining it.)

• Access to expertise – learning from experienced practitioners (i.e. access to subject matter experts)

• Relationship – getting to know each other (i.e. the annual potluck dinner!)

• Community cultivation – Recruiting, orienting and supporting members, growing the community (i.e. who made sure the new person was invited in and met others?)

• Individual participation – enabling members to craft their own experience of the community (i.e. access material when and how you want it.)

• Content – a focus on capturing and publishing what the networks learns and knows (i.e. a newsletter, publishing an article, etc.)

• Open ended conversation – conversations that continue to rise and fall over time without a specific goal (i.e. listserv or web forum, Twitter, etc.)

Source: Digital Habitats: Stewarding technology for communities© 2009 Wenger, White, and Smith

What is the orientation?

Inward-Facing *

Outward-Facing1. Objective and Audience

2. Internet Integration

3. Culture/Capacity

4. Tactic/Tool

5. Experiment, Measure, Adapt

Social Media Tools

How do you think strategically about social media for outward facing work?

Brand in control

One way / Delivering a message

Repeating the message

Focused on the brand

Educating

Organization creates content

Audience in control

Two way / Being a part of a

conversation

Adapting the message/ beta

Focused on the audience / Adding

value

Influencing, involving

User created content / Co-creation

Traditional Media Social Media

Source: Slide 10 from "What's Next In Media?" by Neil Perkin

Social Media requires a different mindset…

Source: Inside Obama’s Social Media Tool Kit

Your Supporters Are The Message

Source: David Wilcox, The Social Reporter

Email Marketing

Social Media

Different Ways To Spread

Take it from us

Get it from our friends

It’s about engaging the right 6 people

Source: Inside Obama’s Social Media Tool Kit

Let’s go step-by-step

•Objectives •Target Audience •Integration •Culture Change •Capacity •Tools and Tactics •Measurement •Experiment

Objective

•What do you want to accomplish with social media? •Describe how your social media objective supports or links to a goal your network’s communications plan?

Audience

•Who must you reach with your social media efforts to meet your objective? Why this target group?

•Is this a target group identified in your organization’s communications plan?

•What do they know or believe about your organization or issue? What will resonate with them?

•What key points do you want to make with your audience?

• What do they do on the social web?

What research do you need?

What are they doing online?

One Wayemail

search engineads

SocialListening

ConversationConnecting

HomebaseWeb Site

AudienceObjective

Integration with Internet Strategy

1/3 Web Presence 1/3 One Way

1/3 Social

Culture Change

• Loss of control over your organization's branding and marketing messages

• Dealing with negative comments

• Personality versus organizational voice

• Fear of failure

• Perception of wasted of time and resources

• Suffering from information overload already, this will cause more

How do we get

Common Concerns About Social Media

Negative Comments?

Social Networking Policy

“We let people sculpt our brand to support our mission.”

Capacity: Staff, Time, Expertise

Comfortable with socialnetworks

Expanded job for Web/IT staff

GenerateBuzzShare

Content

Listen

Participate

Community Building &

Social Networking

Tactics

Amount of Time Increases ….

Tactical Approaches

Listen Participate

Community Building &

Social Networking

GenerateBuzz

Less Time More time

10hr 15hr 20hr

ShareStory

Tactical Approaches and Tools

http://neilperkin.typepad.com/only_dead_fish/2008/04/blended-measure.html

Measurement

Broader use of hard web metrics – users, time spent, comments, bookmark, outbound links, engagement

…combined with digital ethnographic insights

Design Around Problems, Not Tools

Start small, reiterate over and over

Pick a social media project that won’t take much time

Write down successes

Write down challenges

Ask or listen to the people you connect with about what worked and what didn't

Watch other nonprofits and copy and remix for your next project.

Rinse, repeat.

The Steps

•Objectives •Target Audience •Integration •Culture Change •Capacity •Tools and Tactics •Measurement •Experiment

Thank You!

Beth’s Bloghttp://beth.typepad.com

Have a blog post topic idea?beth@bethkanter.org