WeAreMedia Module 5: Network Weaving Skills (One-on-One Interactions) - Still time to win a free book

Photo by KoolSkatKat

This week we've been building Module 5:  Community Engagement Strategy and Skills of NTEN's WeAreMedia project which focuses on online engagement strategy and skills. (Six lucky wiki contributors to Module 5 between now and August 3rd will have an opportunity to get a free copy of either Media Rules and Mobilizing Generation 2.0.)

The description has been modified based on Nancy White pointed out some nuances in the definition of online community.  (Thanks Nancy) More importantly, Nancy suggested some questions about deciding whether an online community is what your organization really needs.

A traditional online community is a group of people who interact together and have a relationship over time on a site where people can interact around a common interest. A loosely coupled online community or tribe is a group of people who are joined together by a common interest. It's important to determine if your organization needs a traditional community or something.   A critical factor for success in both types is having an engagement strategy.  An engagement strategy can help your organization attract more traffic, loyal supporters, more content, more links, and other values. But it requires investing the time to build relationships with members (yes, even one-on-one interaction) or "network weaving skills." This module covers the key touch points for developing an online engagement strategy and a look at network weaving skills.

This last question is about network weaving skills - or how you build one-on-one relationships with people.  I'm not sure how clear this concept is so let me share a story.

I happen to notice a tweet from @engagejoe with a link to a wordpress plugin and campaign from the point.  So, as random act of kindness and (not because he sent me a press release) I retweeted it  - not expecting anything in return - just wanted to help spread the word and my tweet was retweeted.   Amy Sample Ward wrote a post about the plugin and I left a comment mentioning that I'd test drive it but I use typepad. 

I just received a thank you note - a personal thank you note - from engagejoe.

Beth,

I wanted to let you know that I really appreciate you blogging, twittering, and leaving comments about the DonorsChoose.org plug-in!

When we plan web apps, we always asks ourselves, "Would Beth Kanter add this to her blog?"  We had to change the question for this project --  "If Beth Kanter used WordPress, would she add it?"  So it was awesome to see you write "If I had wordpress I'd give a test drive. " on Amy's post! That means a lot!

Wanted to let you know that anyone can now download the plugin:

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/possibly-related-classroom-projects/

Rob Reed, Alan Levine, and Clay Burell, who were all part of our campaign on ThePoint have so far added the plugin:

http://maxschoolbus.com/2008/07/31/introducing-the-donorschooseorg-plug-in/
http://cogdogblog.com/2008/08/01/a-different-way-to-make-a-plugin/
http://beyond-school.org/2008/08/02/classroom-projects-plugin/

I also created a googledoc with more info. and interesting behind-the-scenes stories that happened throughout the design and development process. -- http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=dhm7jqhx_286dwbfsjg7&hl=en

For the best live example, see http://maxschoolbus.com/2008/07/25/can-we-medicate-our-way-out-of-obesity/

I look forward to working on chopping up this technology to build a widget that pulls in contextually relevant actions from 19 social action platforms (and, of course, would work on TypePad!)

Let me know if you have any questions or feedback about this project and of course, any exposure of the launch would be super appreciated! Our use of ThePoint might also be of interest.  With your tweets and post exposure, you really helped make this project happen! Thank you!

Best,

-- Joe

Joe Solomon – EngageJoe.com
Social Actions Labs, Lead Scientist & Evangelist

So, what makes for network weaving skills:

• Paying attention and noticing comments and tweets
• Personalized follow up
• Weaving together people
• Saying thank you

And as an aside - I wonder if Social Actions might consider doing something with Zemanta

Now, this takes a lot more effort and time and as there are scaling issues.   But, it is an example of network weaving in action

What are the best practices for network weaving (one-on-one interaction with your community members or tribe)?

Is this post an example?  Why or why not?