An introduction to social media and social networks, covering the basic definitions, why they are important in today's web environment, and an overview of how to build a community yourself. Given at the Genesee Valley Psychological Association's 2009 Annual Conference.

1. Online
Communities:
The Social Web
dave vogler, sparkhouse

2. 3 Questions:
What? Why?
...is social media? ...is this important?
...is a social network? ...bother?
How?
...do you build a community?
...do you keep it alive?

3. What is Social Media?
• a platform for
interaction and
relationships
• conversation
empowered by
technology

4. What is a social
network?
• A group of
interdependent people
• United by a common
interest or cause

5. What is a social
network service?
• an online space where a group convenes
• a conversation enabled by internet
technologies

6. a little history...
Four Major Landmarks in Human Communication:
Printing Telegraph/
Press Telephone
Pictures/ Radio/
Movies Television

7. The Internet
• Delivers all media types
• text
• images
• audio
• video
• Native support for conversation
• it took 35 years to figure this out

8. Media Model
one to
Then
many

9. Media Model
one to
Then many
and back

10. Media Model
everyone
Now
talks

11. Why does this
matter?
• 75% of North Americans use the internet
• 96% of Gen Y reports joining a social
network
• Age 35+ is fastest growing demographic on
facebook.com

12. Why does this
matter?
50 million users:
Radio TV
38 years 13 years
Internet Facebook
4 years 3 years

13. Why does this
matter?
• Facebook now has 300 million users
• the last 50 million since July
• that’s almost as big as the United States

14. Why does this
matter?
• YouTube: 1,000,000 viewers each month
• 15 hours of video uploaded per minute
• Wikipedia: 14 million articles
• 200 million blogs online

15. Why does this
matter?
• Pieces of content shared on Facebook
in a single week:
2 Billion

16. Why does this
matter?
• By the end of 2008, social networks
have surpassed email in popularity
• Social media is now mainstream
• Technological value becomes social
value

17. Types of social
networks
• Extension of existing community
• Entirely new community
• Geographically independent
• Local to certain area

18. Building a
Community
Research
• What do prospective members need?
• What are perceived communication gaps?
• Survey, poll, interview, gauge enthusiasm
• Benchmark similar sites
• Look for niche if needed

19. Building a
Community
Action Plans
• Content strategy
• Engagement strategy
• Governance
• Feature list
• User experience
• Technology

20. Content Strategy
Where will content come from?
• Authors, guest authors
• User-generated content (UGC)
• Aggregators
• Licensed content

21. Engagement
Strategy
UGC Drives Growth
• perceived value to new user
• flywheel:
• zero inertia at start
• participation attracts more participation
• incentivise participation
• avoid ‘ghost town’... keep size ‘just right’

22. Engagement
Strategy
• Face to face events
• Email newsletters
• Traditional promotion, word of mouth
• Your users become your evangelists

23. Governance
• Convene your community, not control it.
• Community guidelines are key
• Moderation tools
• Community manager
• Listen well (both on and off site)
• Easily accessible feedback process

24. Features
• Member database • Ranking/voting/polling
• Blogs / Articles • Moderation control
• Article comments • Photo galleries
• Discussion Forums • Video galleries
• Event Calendar • File sharing
• News ticker • “Mysite” customization
• Links to other • Newsletters

25. User Experience
• Good user experience= good impression
• Well designed interface delights users
• Verify workflows are reasonable
• Usability testing is cheap with big payback

26. Technology
• Content Management System (CMS)
• Domain registrar
• Reliable hosting & database support
• Scalable hosting as traffic grows
• Service provider or custom- built

27. Services
• groupsite.com
• socialgo.com
• ning.com
• blogger.com
• facebook
• twitter

28. Custom Built
• Drupal
• Joomla
• ExpressionEngine
• MODx
• Elgg
• Proprietary

29. thank you
sparkhouse.com