social networking
How NOT to cultivate your social network
Submitted by David on Wed, 06/23/2010 - 12:28pm.We often talk about how to cultivate your network--what about how not to cultivate your network? What things negatively impact your social capital? Some obvious ones would be not returning calls, not following through on something you said you would do. Continuously being on the receiving side of a relationship would be another.
I'm also thinking of a few situations lately that bring this question to mind...making referrals, and then seeing my contact handle the situation in a way that made me feel uncomfortable that I had made that referral. The take-away on this is that when someone makes an introduction for me, I need to keep in mind that the person is extending him or herself by making that connection. I need to be aware that how I proceed with that contact is going to impact my relationship with the introducer. Being insensitive to this dynamic is another way not to cultivate your network.
These are just a few additional ideas that come to mind--I would welcome thoughts from others on how not to cultivate your network! Sometimes negative examples can be valuable for our learning.
7 Tips & Counting for Leveraging Your Social Network
Submitted by David on Tue, 04/13/2010 - 2:21pm.
Much of our training for AmeriCorps members and other community leaders this year has focused on the theme of "Leveraging Social Networks for Social Impact". For instance, I recently led a brown bag session on this subject at the Boston Center for Community & Justice.
Getting ready for our session on this subject matter for our Leadership Woburn adult community leader training tomorrow night, and thought I'd share the list of 7 Tips for Leveraging Your Social Network that we've used previously, and see what other additions people would add to this list. Add your comments below:
- Have clear goals in mind when trying to leverage your social network. read more »
Leveraging Social Networks for Social Impact
Submitted by David on Tue, 03/16/2010 - 3:19pm.Last week I facilitated a discussion on "Leveraging Social Networks for Social Impact" as part of the Boston Center for Community & Justice (BCCJ) Brown Bag Lunch Series. The goals were to 1) present some general concepts about social networks & social capital; 2) share how SCI applies these concepts, especially how we train on leveraging social networks for social impact; and 3) discuss the implications of these ideas for the BCCJ network.
I promised to share my presentation and some of the key handouts with the group, and thought I'd post here to make them accessble to others interested in the subject matter. If you only see this post, you will of course miss the interesting conversation we had, but can at least glean some of the key concepts from the presentation. I've also uploaded one of the case studies we use to train on the subject, and our outreach planning tool. Visit this overview page for more background on our work to "Develop Social Capitalists" through trainings and resources like these. read more »
Globe Article Suggests Social Media Strengthening Friendships
Submitted by David on Sat, 06/20/2009 - 5:57am.Earlier this decade, Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone indicted the television as one of the primary culprits for declining social capital. Then in 2006 the study, "Social Isolation in America" indicated that the number of Americans who are socially isolated, with zero or just one close confidante, roughly doubled over a 20 year period to 43%. This study's authors also implicated technology as one of the causes for the diminishing number of close friends Americans have today. Both works raised interesting questions about how Internet based technologies would impact social capital and friendships.
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