Making Social Networks Work
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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Comments
Well, a social network is not for everyone. Regardless of how good and easy-to-use the servcie is, a lot of people will be very late to adopt it.
Does this post make sence? http://thekillerattitude.com/2007/08/split-personality-and-social-networking.html
Hi Chris,
This is a Fantastic article and just what I have been wanting to know. Love the goggle hit! I have flickr, love it by the way and have a group called glass playground so I would like to try that! Thanks!
Hi Chris,
I love what you’re saying…it’s right on the button. Recently I’ve been writing about the concept of Open Messaging. What we’re building will encourage an openness AND be reflective of closeness. As well as (for example) targets, a goal to shoot for will be to be more open and honest when using it…really being yourself in an intimate way on a social network.
While it’s in build however, I spend time on Facebook and my age-old Myspace. I have found myself spending less and less time on them both as I’ve done everything that I want to do that can be done. Twitter included. I’m currently feeling out Plaxo Pulse but haven’t got excited yet.
If more posts were conversations that would certainly draw me back in…earlier today I read a post by Laurel Papworth which you might find interesting: http://silkcharm.blogspot.com/2007/08/australia-thebroth-art-community.html
I’ve just discovered your blog man, and I already love what I’m reading!
~biff~
One thing that Flickr does well is “bundling” your notifications. A few examples:
“Recent activity” shows me the comments that have been left on all my photos.
“Comments you’ve made” shows me when someone else has replied to a photo where I have also left a comment.
“Photos from your contacts” shows me when one of my friends has posted a new photo.
So rather than having to subscribe to multiple feeds (one for each of my friends, one for each photo where I want to track comments, etc.) they are bundled into feeds based on the task.
Excellent and thought provoking article. I’ve watched and been part of the SN since it was still simply called community. BBS, Forums, Blogs, Zings, etc. all have a play in the evolving model but web 2.0 seems to favor change and acknowledge the user is driving the boat. Some of the leaders, like LinkedIn, are still viewing the world through their eyes and not the user. I think it will end up hurting them. Others, like Facebook are a little fuzzy in defining who the real user or customer is and I’m waiting for the whatever it will be that ties everything together. I kind of do that now with LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo and Meebo but its clunky at best.
“…people either rise to the occasion and build their own goals, or they wander around hoping they’re doing it right…”
Sounds just like real life… One of my favorite quotes is “Life is filled with choices, choose wisely…” We’re all faced with all sorts of choices everyday, they were put to us prior to the interweb and there are now ever more choices to make each day. Will I spend my time in the real world working on physical projects? Will I interact with friends, family, clients via phone? What portion of my life will I digitize today, spending time via Social Networking sites, blog, email, IM, etc? There are only so many hours in a day and we can’t do everything everyday, nor do I believe we should. People in our wired world seem to have accumulated more time via the use of modern conveniences which relieves them of the chores (laundry, food prep, cleaning) that took up so much of our parents time, yet we still seem to have less time with our families. I believe it’s based in the same principle as increased earning… earn more and most people will spend more. The more time we perceive that we have to spend the more “things” we’ll try to cram into a day. Are these “things” really adding to our lives? Or are they distractions from what we should really be doing? How do these things help us stay “focused” and not “wander” through life, or whatever else we should be engaged with?
Social networks can be a blessing in that we can reach out to, and interact with, people that we couldn’t meet in “real life” just due to locational constraints, however, how beneficial your group of contacts is, is up to you and what you plan to gain from your interactions.
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Hi Chris, intrigued by the same question, I wrote the “10 tools to make meaningful (instant) friends”. I think Facebook provides us new tools for communication, successfully replacing our old habits of making friends.
One way to answer this question is to take a look at the online social networks that were successful pre-Web 2.0. I’m talking about forums. I’ve participated in several forums related to topics that interest me, and a good number of my social network contacts come from those forums.
What I think makes them work: a focused purpose or topic, strong moderation (keeps out the trolls and spam), devoted admins, technology that doesn’t get in the way.