Social Networking for Business (Bonus Content Edition) : Choosing the Right Tools and Resources to Fit Your Needs

Bonus content'Is a Solo Authored Book on Collaboration an Oxymoron?'included in this digital edition. The First Best-Practice Guide to Executing Any Type of Social Computing Project Organizations today aren't just participating in social networking, collaborative computing, and online communities--they are depending on those communities to play crucially important roles in their business. But these collaborative environments don't just manage themselves: To succeed, they must be guided and nurtured carefully, actively, and intelligently. In Social Networking for Business, Rawn Shah brings together patterns and best practices drawn from his extensive experience managing worldwide online communities at IBM and participating in social networking on the Internet. Drawing on multiple real-world examples, Shah identifies key success factors associated with launching social networking projects to meet business objectives and guides you through managing the crucial “micro-challenges” you'll face in keeping them vibrant. • From mega-trends to micro-issues Mastering both high-level strategy and day-to-day, ground-level management • Defining the social experience you want to provide to your community Clarifying how members can join together and collaborate on collective tasks • Focusing on the crucial human factors Building a culture of engagement in deeper collaborative relationships • Promoting effective leadership and governance Setting ground rules that work appropriately for the situation, without “oppression” • Building the skills to manage and measure your collaborative project Discovering the skills necessary to effectively lead computing projects Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 10 Acknowledgments......Page 14 About the Author......Page 15 Chapter 1 Social Computing on the Ascent......Page 18 Reshaping the Way We Work......Page 22 Integrating into Business Processes and Activities......Page 25 Summary......Page 26 Chapter 2 Sharing a Social Experience......Page 28 Modeling Social Experiences......Page 34 Different Experiences for a Complex World......Page 38 Summary......Page 40 Chapter 3 Leadership in Social Environments......Page 42 Governance and Leadership Models......Page 45 The Centralized Models......Page 46 The Delegated Model......Page 49 The Representative Model......Page 51 The Starfish Model......Page 52 The Swarm Model......Page 53 Choosing a Leadership Model......Page 54 Leaders and Influencers......Page 57 Summary......Page 59 Chapter 4 Social Tasks: Collaborating on Ideas......Page 62 The Structure of Social Tasks......Page 63 Identifying Beneficiaries......Page 64 Describing the Form of Aggregation......Page 65 Different Models of Social Tasks......Page 66 Idea Generation......Page 67 Codevelopment......Page 70 Finding People......Page 75 Summary......Page 77 Recommendations and Reviews......Page 78 Reviews......Page 79 Direct Social Recommendations......Page 80 Derived Social Recommendations......Page 82 Creating and Categorizing Information......Page 83 Sharing Collections......Page 84 Folksonomies and Social Tagging......Page 85 Direct Social Content Creation......Page 87 Derived Social Content Generation......Page 88 Filtering Information......Page 89 Social Q&A Systems......Page 90 Summary......Page 91 Grouping Instances......Page 92 Grouping Tools......Page 94 Grouping Audiences into Domains......Page 95 Who in the Organization Should Run the Social Environment?......Page 98 Summary......Page 100 Chapter 7 Building a Social Culture......Page 102 Defining a Culture for a Social Environment......Page 103 Ideology and Values......Page 104 Behavior and Rituals......Page 105 Imagery......Page 107 Storytelling......Page 109 Culture and Maturity of Social Environments......Page 110 How Social Experience Models Impact Culture......Page 111 How Social Leadership Models Impact Culture......Page 114 Summary......Page 116 Belonging and Commitment......Page 118 Creating a Model for Identifying Commitment......Page 120 Maturing over a Lifecycle......Page 125 Membership Reward Programs......Page 129 Recruiting Evangelists and Advocates......Page 131 Member Training and Mentoring Programs......Page 133 Summary......Page 134 Chapter 9 Community and Social Experience Management......Page 136 The Value and Characteristics of a Community Manager......Page 137 Personality Traits and Habits......Page 142 Where Do Community Managers Fit in an Organization?......Page 144 Member and Relationship Development......Page 146 Topic and Activity Development......Page 149 Administrative Tasks......Page 150 Communications and Promotion......Page 152 Business Development......Page 153 Summary......Page 154 Chapter 10 Measuring Social Environments......Page 156 What Can You Measure?......Page 157 Dimensions of Measurement......Page 160 Types of Metrics......Page 161 Metrics and Social Experiences......Page 164 Quantitative Analytic Measurement Mechanisms......Page 166 Qualitative Measurement through Surveys and Interviews......Page 167 Summary......Page 169 Chapter 11 Social Computing Value......Page 170 Choosing a Social Experience......Page 171 Setting a Social Leadership Model......Page 173 Defining a Social Task......Page 174 Grouping Experiences and Identifying the Audience Domain......Page 176 Cultural Forces Shaping Social Environments......Page 177 Social Computing and Business Strategy......Page 178 B......Page 180 C......Page 181 E......Page 182 I......Page 183 M......Page 184 P......Page 185 S......Page 186 Z......Page 188

The First Best-Practice Guide to Executing Any Type of Social Computing Project

Organizations today aren’t just participating in social networking, collaborative computing, and online communities—they are depending on those communities to play crucially important roles in their business. But these collaborative environments don’t just manage themselves: To succeed, they must be guided and nurtured carefully, actively, and intelligently.

In Social Networking for Business, Rawn Shah brings together patterns and best practices drawn from his extensive experience managing worldwide online communities at IBM and participating in social networking on the Internet. Drawing on multiple real-world examples, Shah identifies key success factors associated with launching social networking projects to meet business objectives and guides you through managing the crucial “micro-challenges” you’ll face in keeping them vibrant.

• From mega-trends to micro-issues

Mastering both high-level strategy and day-to-day, ground-level management

• Defining the social experience you want to provide to your community

Clarifying how members can join together and collaborate on collective tasks

• Focusing on the crucial human factors

Building a culture of engagement in deeper collaborative relationships

• Promoting effective leadership and governance

Setting ground rules that work appropriately for the situation, without “oppression”

• Building the skills to manage and measure your collaborative project

Discovering the skills necessary to effectively lead computing projects

Library Journal

For companies looking to increase exposure and revenues in today's online environment, leveraging social technologies is serious business. Any project or venture using social technologies requires a strategy, an oversight structure, and mechanisms to measure the outcome. Shah (social software enablement, IBM Software Group) here documents these best practices and identifies patterns and metrics as well. Do not let the slim size of this text fool you; this is quite a dense read and is extremely granular in nature. Furthermore, the book has a strong emphasis on IBM solutions, which might make it more difficult for smaller businesses to embrace the advice. VERDICT While the advice offered here on macro- and micro-level activities is technically applicable to any social project or initiative, readers may not always be able to relate to the content or the examples. In the end, this is a scholarly text appropriate for only the most serious-minded and is potentially an excellent resource for MBA programs.—Judy Brink-Drescher, Molloy Coll. Lib., Rockville Centre, NY

Social software on the ascent Sharing a social experience Leadership in social environments Social tasks : collaborating on ideas Social tasks : creating and managing information Social ecosystems & domains Building a social culture Engaging and encouraging members Community and social experience management Measuring social environments Social computing value.