Social Networking and

Online Community Building

Roadmap

•LinkedIn•Facebook•Twitter•Bit.ly•Drop.io

Terms of Art

• Networking– Academic Social Network Analysis (ca. 1955)

predates Online Social Networks

• Communities– Business Communities– Professional Communities– Academic Communities– Online Communities

Social Network Theory Illustrated

Courtesy Wikibooks: Introduction to Sociology

Blurring Boundaries

“Research on corporate social network sites, like IBM’s internal SNS Beehive, suggests that users welcome learning more about their colleagues’ lives, and that this information is used to facilitate social interactions that directly and indirectly support job-related tasks.”- Nicole Ellison et al., Social Network Sites and Society: Current Trends and Future Possibilities, INTERACTIONS (2009).

Real World Networking

• “Social networking is, and always has been, critical to professional success.”

• Networking is still primarily: – In Real World, Local Networks – People exchanging Business Cards– Business Lunches – Wine-and-Cheese Events– Professional Organizations– Conferences

- Jennifer M. Igoe, Social Networking Sites as Employment Tools, MA Thesis (2008)

Continuum

• Background Checks• Rainmaking• Professional Networking• Connecting with Old Friends

& Family• Shape of Things to Come

Utility

Obama’s Speechwriter

Virtual Communities

• Managing Reputation– Real Life (RL)– Online

• E-Professionalism– All the World’s a Stage!– Managing your Google Presence– Behind the Scenes Reference Checks– Pseudonyms & Bibliographic Identity

Legal Online Communities

• LinkedIn• Ryze• Xing• Facebook• LawLinks• Casemaker X• Interaction

Social Networking for Business People

Where the fish are biting…

• Doug Cornelius finds over 300,000 attorneys on LinkedIn (http://bit.ly/x6jmY)

• Martindale Hubble Connected 11,000• Legal OnRamp 9,000• LawLink 5,000• Legally Minded 2,000

Alumni Web

LinkedIn

Weekly Digest

New and Improved

Slideshare

Amazon Reading List

Introductions

Trust in an Online Environment

Recommendations

LinkedIn

• Pros– Professional Aura– Clean Interface– New Applications for Sharing

• Business Oriented

– Increased Interoperability • Xobni

– Business Model (Proxy for Sustainability)– Less intimidating – Difficult to embarrass yourself

• Cons– Boring

Facebook

• Pros– Biggest SNS currently– Fun!

• Cons– Personal, not professional

• Some people resent business discussion

– No tangible business model– Busy Interface– Peer Pressure

Investment of Time and Labor

• LinkedIn profile– Speedy Gonzales

• Current Job• Most Recent Educational Achievement• Elaboration of Work Experience Piecemeal

• Facebook profile– Privacy Settings– Group Settings– Oversharing

CrowdSourcing:

Pick your CrowdWisely

Facebook

How Facebook Works

Big and Little Settings

Big Settings

Click through on Settings button

Privacy Settings

By default, everyone in your

network may see all of your information

Facebook Networks & Privacy

Mere Suggestions

Contact Information

More on this Soon

Back to Privacy

Searchability – Google Results Too!

Serge has no fan pages or friends yet

More Captcha

Browsing Friends

• By default, friends are within circle of trust

Friend Lists

• Work• Student Alums• Professional Associations• In-Laws• Old Girlfriends• Bosses• Locked Down

Make more restrictive groups

Friend Lists and Information Clusters

Custom Settings

• Self-Censorship– Can leave some fields blank!

• Comfortable reading it in Washington Post?• Video Phones• Picture privacy hole• Psuedonyms

– Discouraged– Deleted!

Murphy was an optimist!

Damn Liquor!

Profile & Settings

Small Settings

Small Settings Expanded

Status Updating: Cursor Reveals Options

Facebook Updating

Another way to update

Twitter Application on Facebook

Twitter.com

Friends & Frenemies

Faux Friends

Tweet Tweet

• http://apps.facebook.com/twitter

Twitter on Facebook

Twitter on Facebook

Questions or Comments?

Neal R. Axton

http://www.linkedin.com/in/nealaxton

For copies of this presentation, email neal.axton at wmitchell.edu