When I talk with organizations about how they are using social media tools to engage online, whether they’ve already started or not, I find that the most common approach is to set up that Facebook group, add a blog to the website, or even set up a wiki for an event.  But that’s it.  The work, the thinking, the strategy building, and even the engaging stops mostly after the set-up.

Obviously, that’s not the best route to take, but I think groups know that, even if they make the mistake.  We all know from offline life experience that you don’t just schedule a meeting, but you have to show up and contribute for the meeting to be successful; you probably also have action items that come out of the meeting that people work on individually and that also draw them back together for another meeting.  Why is this our pattern?  Because we’ve learned that by creating these kinds of spaces, we can get our work done together.  Which leads me back to the online communities.

We don’t want to just create a blog and ‘walk away,’ so to speak (schedule a meeting and not show up, or have nothing to say).  We want to create a social learning space or a social media space.  This means that we have established a space online where we want to learn, exchange, collaborate, and really engage with our community.  Organizations need to bring their social media tools together so that the interweaving of conversations and extended networks can develop a space where the organization is able to effectively and efficiently collaborate with the community while members of the community can collaborate with each other.  It’s about using our social media tools in a way that goes beyond listening, goes beyond conversation.

Social media spaces can be supported and grown on and offline.  If your organization has an offline, real world event for volunteers, be sure to have digital cameras and video cameras available if possible for people to capture ideas and take-aways from conversations.  David Wilcox, the Social Reporter, discusses how groups can integrate social media tools in offline learning events to successfully reinforce this idea of creating a space.  I think it’s critical that we begin letting go of our construct that social media tools are and should remain separate, and that the work stops after we’ve set up the account or created a loudspeaker.  This mind-shift is crucial: creating social media spaces is the only way for organizations to connect their work online, connect their communities online, and the next step forward in actively collaborating within with community.

2009 will, undoubtedly, bring us more to fill the social media bucket, new places to explore, tools to try, and things to consider.  In 2009, I’d like to see groups recognizing the power of social media tools to create sustainable social learning spaces.  Instead of using social media to send out messages to their audience, organizations will recognize and harness the power of social media to collaborate with their communities.

For the full post, visit the SSIR blog here.

Topic:

This month, your Net2 Think Tank topic asks, “What do you think will be the big changes, new technologies, hot applications, or successful campaigns of 2009?” If you want to read some thoughts before you get going, check out these posts as starting points:

• Social Media Gurus Offer Their Predictions for 2009: A Few That Might Resonate With Nonprofits, by Beth Kanter
• 2009 Web Predictions, by ReadWriteWeb
• Top Internet Predictions for 2009, by Social Computing Magazine

Deadline:
Saturday, January 24th
The contributions will be posted on the NetSquared site on Monday, January 26th.

How to contribute:

• Blog your answer to the question either on your blog or the NetSquared blog. (For directions on contributing to the NetSquared blog, click here.)
• Tag your blog with “net2thinktank”
• Email Amy Sample Ward the link to your post!

We are really looking forward to your answers this month!  Be sure to email Amy the link to your post so that it is included in the roundup on Monday, January 26th.

Photo by Môsieur J.

Yesterday, at Make Your Mark’s Social Media Afternoon, I was asked what my predictions were.  And I realized
1. I hadn’t thought about it much
2. I hadn’t blogged about it

So, here are my 2009 Predictions for the Social Web

Mashups

Mashups are great. I love them! But I think 2009 will see a more refined world of mashups take over.

We have seen plenty of mashups where a website is able to push together a mapping tool, some public data, and user-created content like comments.  I think these mashups are tremendously helpful to organizations working to make real change in their communities, allowing them to more dynamically tell their story and make their case in a compelling way to supporters, funders, and the community at large.  Mashups in this sense aren’t going anywhere, especially as platforms are built to help create them with less technical knowledge and in less time.

The mashups that will come out in 2009 are going to be ones that create hybrid spaces in between the different tools we are already using.  Mashups of applications and spaces, not just information.  We are going to see tools developed that provide a space to interact with your contacts and content in new ways.  Like FriendFeed, but to the next level – where you aren’t creating new contacts or content or spaces; but they all exist already and are ported to the in-between spaces for you and with you as you move.

Community Movement

Tools for individuals are great, but what we’ve seen in 2008 is that the tools that individuals like the most and use the most are the ones that create the most dynamic communities. Tools like Twitter, FriendFeed and social networking.

As new tools develop, whether they are the mashups above, or new tools altogether, they are going to be driven by needs of already-formed communities and not individuals.  We have lots and lots of tools at our disposal as individuals on the web.  We can do what we need to do.  What comes next is tools that accelerate and are created by the needs of communities we already work in and have created online.

This includes organizational communities, in the sense that your organization has created a space for supporters to connect with you (on your blog, Twitter, forums, wiki, whatever), as well as the network of contacts and content I have chosen to follow, subscribe to, or otherwise connect with.

Reality

Regardless of my predictions or anyone else’s, 2009 is going to be a very exciting year. The ‘networked president’ takes office in the US, many countries around the world are facing incredible financial insecurity, terrorism is plaguing many communities, and many of our ‘same old problems’ continue to exist. Innovations online will certainly be tempered by those facts and the developments we see in our social media tools will need to help us continue to connect and discuss the issues we are dealing with around the world.

What are your predictions for 2009? What do you think is going to change the web next year? What was your favorite innovation from 2008?