Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

New Twitter Tool Mailana Helps Me Visualize Strong Ties In My Network

To see Mailana live map

Marshall Kirkpatrick wrote a piece called "The Inner Circles of 10 Geek Heros" using a tool developer Pete Warden's service Mailana.   The tool is quite fascinating because it combines a light weight social network analysis (see this page to learn more about the methodology) of your twitter friends with search.

Marshall's post will shows the top five people I'm having conversations with on Twitter and who respond to me:

1. Marnie Webb is the co-CEO at Compumentor/TechSoup. You should get to know Marnie; once you do you'll wonder why you waited so long.
2. Amy Gahran, see Jeffrey Levy's list above. Gahran has a lot of conversation with a lot of awesome people.
3. Jonathon D. Colman does SEO for REI.
4. Beth Dunn is a consultant and MBA candidate.
5. Dr. Mani is an Indian entrepreneur and heart surgeon.

I don't understand by @ntenhross (Holly Ross, Director of NTEN) and @amyrsward (Netsquared community builder) aren't in my cloud. I think it's because they're not in the malina database, but you should follow them.  There's lots of friends in my network that you explore.  Here's a mosaic:

Get your twitter mosaic here.

What's interesting to me is looking at my map and identifying sub-communities or spokes and hubs.  They identify different nooks and crannies of my network.  For example, I can clearly see the Aussies I met or connected with as part of my trip to teach there last year. (Those folks are:@silkcharm, @dnwallace, @edwardharran and @divabat).  I can see in this inner circle at least 8 or 9 hubs.

Speaking of Austraila, I also met Gary P Hayes after I session I attended at the Sydney Writers Festival.   He left a comment pointing to an excellent post called "Twitter Long Tail - Broadcastization & Pre-Twitter Reputation."  The post is chocked fulled of statistical anaylsis answering this questions:

Ever since I joined Twitter (GaryPHayes) I have been fascinated by the subtle ‘etiquette’ of being followed, following and timely updates (as well as the enormous growth and creative potential twitter now affords). It is also interesting watching those traditional media brands and celebrities with a non-twitter and web 2.0 online reputation enter into the fray. What effect do they have? Do they corrupt this young new channel before it has found it’s own feet or is the invasion of old brands and celebs part of its maturation?

I can also click on a map of someone in my network, KDPaine, for example, and see who her inner circle is.  I can also search by keyword and she who she talks to about that.  For example, I searched KD Paine's map on the word "metrics"  Presumbly, because these people are talking to KD Paine (and she is responding) and the tweets contain the word "metrics" - these might be people I'd want to connect with because I'm interested in this topic.

1.		jasonfalls
2.		kanter
3.		serena
4.		silkcharm
5.		curtmonash
6.		thornley
7.		mcp85
8.		dough
9.		andrewcherwenka

There's something just a little bit creepy about this.  While we've opted to have all these conversations in public, the tools let people track more granular information about you - who you talk to and what you talk about it.  

What's your takeaway from this tool?  How would you use it?  Do you think it raises some privacy and security concerns?

Saving Money and Building Up Social Capital in Hard Times

Making Whuffie

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: fuelconference whuffie)

Michael Gilbert, Nonprofit Online News, has an article entitled, "Turning To Each Other in Hard Times: Four Steps To Save Money and Building Social Capital."

I couldn't get past the title without thinking about Margaret J. Wheatley's 2002 book, "Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations To Restore Hope to the Future" which was about listening and conversations.  Of course, Gilbert's article, while touches on listening, is about how organizations should make decisions about technology in this financial crisis, where to cut back, and where to invest using social capital concepts as a guide.   Between the lines is a framework for making wise choices about social media, although referred to as new media in the article.

He begins with a definition of social capital, stated simply as the productive value inherent in human relationships.  It's what Tara Hunt calls Whuffie.   Gilbert suggests four principles:

1. Ruthlessly drop any technology that erodes social capital.

Many nonprofits are probably looking at the Internet communications components and wondering where to make trade offs.   Gilbert suggests, and I agree, that it isn't necessarily looking at it each in terms of its efficiency but in terms of its return on relationships.  "This is instead a call to look at each and every medium we use and make a single cold judgment call: Is this medium, as currently constructed, getting in the way of people making genuine connections?"  

How to do this?  He mentions the need for new metrics and asking hard questions about the organization's communication's strategy.

2. Reduce investment in any technology that fails to build social capital.

This principle speaks to change -- how you let go of or change the way you've always done something.  If we're talking about how do you get started with social media while figuring out the right balance of SEO, email marketing, and traditional media counterparts, I think about the great piece that Chris Brogan wrote a few days ago, "If I were getting started today."

3. Immediately invest in technology that allows you to identify and nurture existing social capital.

He's making a couple of points here, but what struck me was social media makes social capital visible.   He also points out that listening (the first step in social media) is one step removed from nurturing and it is important for nonprofits to do 360 degrees of listening (internal as well as external).  As Chris Brogan has pointed out during a session at the New Marketing Summit called "Listening in a Blizzard", it takes some retooling of work approaches to incorporate social media listening practices - so there's a  

4. Strategically invest in technology that helps you build social capital.

Here he talks about the importance of developing metrics that help you measure social capital.

For more on social media and social capital:

Throwing Sheep in the Boardroom by Matthew Fraser and Soumitra Dutta

Social Capital Gateway

My Fairy Godmother Status at Dreambank, Sending Coffee Karma Via Akoha, and My BillMeLater Pay It Forward Shopping Spree

I was first introduced to the concept of the gift economy and pay it forward many years ago when I was the community builder for a first generation online network for artists, called ArtsWire.   Here's the definition from wikipedia:

A gift economy is a social theory in which goods and services are given without any explicit agreement for immediate or future expectations. Typically, a gift economy occurs in a culture or subculture that emphasizes social or intangible rewards for solidarity and generosity: karma, honor, loyalty or other forms of gratitude.  In some cases, simultaneous or recurring giving serves to circulate and redistribute valuables within a community. This can be considered a form of reciprocal altruism. Sometimes there is an implicit expectation of the return of comparable goods or services, political support, or the gift being later passed on to a third party. However, in what is considered to be in the true spirit of gift economics, many times giving is done without any expectation of reciprocity.

I observed this happening when members of the online community started to give free technical assistance without any expectation of being paid or rewarded.   There is a history of virtual gift giving.  Tara Hunt has some great examples and thinking in this post. (And, if you want a more indepth exploration of this topic - definitely order her book which will be published in April and is called the Whuffie Factor)

Some are predicting that with the bad economy will come the rise of the gift economy and with the holidays just around the season, I rather give gifts to charity or help people realize their dreams.   So, the irony of when I won $500 shopping spree from Bill Me Later at the BlogHer Conference in Boston.  Although I not a big shopper, it is convenient not to have to use a credit card.  But,  what would I buy?

Okay, I did use some of it for my car rental while I was at Hawaii Podcamp and Social Media Club Workshop in Hawaii last month.   But, I'm using the rest to purchase gifts or random acts of kindness.   I sent a coffee gift card to Alex Steed to help ower his Millennials Changing America project.   He is currently 60% towards his goal - so I also donated a small amount.

Then I realized, wow, I could play one of my Akoha mission cards.   Austin Hill, founder, was kind enough to send me a box of Akoha decks.  I've been giving them out to people in workshops and playing the game online.  Akoha is a new type of “social reality game” inspired by the idea of pay it forward where players play real-world missions that can be tracked online.  Missions are simple activities that are “played forward” from person to another and might include things like giving away a book, or giving someone a gift.

Yesterday, my kids came running into the office with a big box from Canada that said it contained documents and toy.  The toy turned out to be a fairy godmother crown and latter telling me that I was granted Fairy Godmother Status from DreamBank, a new model for gift giving.  It's sort of cool - you create a page with your "dream" and then let your friends and family know - and they can help fund your dream.  Some dreams include gifts to charities, others are don't.

The package also came with $20 voucher where I could fund my own dream or support someone else's.   Well, had to to support NetChick because I met her Gnomedex.  Chris and Ponzi and the Gnomedex community has been so supportive of Cambodia, that I thought it might be a nice way to pay it back to someone from that community.

How will you pay it for forward or participate in the gift economy this holiday season?