Experiences of the last few days have me interested in explaining what makes a social network work for people so inclined to use them. None of this should be surprising, but it might remind you to take a look at your networks and how you interact on them. There are multiple variations on the online social network, and their use can be for business, for like-minded sharing, for collaboration, for spiritual engagement. Remember that these are tools not ways of life. You can choose to implement them as you see fit. But should you choose to use or run a social network, keep these things in mind.
Something to Do
The best networks have something to do built right into them. I love Flickr because we’re all there to share photos, comment, mix them into groups, and several other less-known-but-fun uses. I built the Grasshoppers group with the mindset that we all go there to try and be helpful. Giving people something to do makes them feel more engaged.
Do-it-Yourself Interactions
Facebook lets you, the user, add and remove applications, join and leave groups, and participate on all levels. Flickr lets you do lots of things by yourself. An inherent trait in social networks that work is that they make us feel like we’re moving things around and managing things. If we’re not empowered to interact, the value of the network goes down.
Make it About Them Not You
A great social network doesn’t tout the creator; it focuses on the group themselves. With Grasshoppers, I stress all the time, and put into actions, the notion that I’m not the leader. Other people run the page. Another person runs the talk network. It’s about everyone feeling that they’re the network, not the creators. The creators of Ning feel that way, too, empowering tons of interactions on that front. If you’ve ever gone to a dinner or a breakfast hosted by someone, observe whether they praise the crowd or pimp themselves. It’s telling.
Put a Few Goals In There
As a lifelong game player, from board to Dungeons and Dragons to video games, I believe in there being goals and objectives tacit in the social network. Some sites do this subtly. Others don’t put this in, and people either rise to the occasion and build their own goals, or they wander around hoping they’re doing it right. The beauty and the downfall of Second Life for me is that there’s no objective. I feel like a wanderer. And yet, some people build ways to interact with goals in mind.
Goals can be simple: “have you been helpful this week?” They can be task-oriented: tag your photos and add them to groups that like such photos. But putting a few goals into your social network makes there even more of a reason to be there.
Build Recurring Touches
A strong social network gives you reasons to come back repeatedly. There’s value in the network, but only if everyone is going there to check in. Facebook has a status indicator, similar to Twitter. It answers the “what are you doing” question. It prompts me to go into Facebook, if only to change that status. But by making touchpoints we need to manipulate, we’re compelled to use the service more, thus increasing the group value of the social network.
Make It Easy to See
One trick that some social networks are doing better than others is releasing the information of the network out to where people choose to view it. (This is technical for some, but bear with me.) Social networks that enable their content with RSS feeds make it easy for me to use a single location to view all the activity of my various points of web presence. Meaning, I can equip Google Reader to view my Grasshoppers group, my Flickr groups, and several other social networking sites. (Facebook: please get the hint and enable this).
Making it easy for people to interact with the information a social network creates seems like a no-brainer.
And What are Your Suggestions?
Though my website isn’t a social network, I strive to keep all posts conversations. I want people to fill in where I’m wrong, to comment where they have an even better idea. This is the purpose of blogging and not just thinking about these things by myself. So now, what do you think? What makes the social networks you love work? Where are you hanging out these days? How do they keep you coming back for more?
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Photo credit, Cobalt123
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