After reading chapters 4 and 5 in the Social Organization, discuss effective principles on online community building with social media. Provide examples and links to illustrate.
As a role of Social Media or Online Community Manager, there are a number of key principles which are at the center of any community building initiatives. A true community appreciates that some people are more knowledgeable than others about what works and what doesn't, but that everyone has something to offer. By ensuring the community's vision is explained clearly, visitors can naturally place themselves into various social groups defined at an organizational level, whether that's as resident experts, emotional supporters, or those requiring guidance.
The community can then grow together and respond to new situations positively. There are unrecognized talents in all communities; as Community Manager you just need to unearth them. Another good a true community is founded on the basis that relationships are what sustain it. A continuous effort to build and feed relationships between members and the organization, as well as between each other, is necessary. If you see them form, encourage and strengthen them. If you don't, connect people and try to ignite them. If they are thriving in one area, harness them to work towards a common goal.
A true community looks to align common goals rather than exchange and barter time or services. Key words are collaboration and communication in order to see through common projects. Hierarchies and silos are to be avoided, and replaced with shared ownership of ideas and processes that lead to success, group problem solving, and above all a desire to commit and work towards the vision of the community.
A true community offers professional, emotional, financial, philosophical, physical or political growth for members. As each member of the community invests their time and effort in supporting or guiding others, the community as a whole becomes more successful at reaching the stated goals, whether earning money, authority, visibility, or growth. This contributes to the deeper meaning and higher purpose of the community in the minds of its members. A true community places its members at the centre of its governance, reinforcing the value of contributions rather than encouraging passivity.
Creating key roles for some of your community leaders in positions of governance for community initiatives will encourage a feeling of belonging and transparency, as well as empowerment. By doing so you shift the relationship your members have with your organisation from being recipients or clients (when your community leaders help you) to actors or citizens (when they are masters of the direction the initiatives take and how they are accomplished. true community realizes that turning the organization inside-out is the way to create a sustainable and successful partnership.
When you allow your community members into the organization and give them a voice in the direction it takes and how it achieves goals, you are ensuring they feel a sense of control over the source they rely upon to meet their needs. As Community Manager your role is to assist relationship building as an organizer to ensure the members' (or their leaders) agenda is given due and transparent consideration. A true community has a structure that encourages leaders to involve others and a true community listens carefully during one to one or group discussions to discover each other's motivations and invite participation in community initiatives.
Chapter 4 pg.42 talks about where a community collaboration is more suitable, which in the community collaborations is more appropriate when a large group of people are independently to contribute and share open and complementary information that aggregates well into a bigger picture and performance.” Community collaborations is especially good at getting information and wisdom directly from those affected. It has also been said community collaboration is less suitable for challenges that require deep analysis, where information is best provided. On chapter 5 a community collaboration explicitly identifies the communities. One thing I like what chapter 5 explains how strategy always begins with a purpose. Purpose provides the intelligence and purpose drives all other strategies considerations. I also like how it talks about the grow stage how it is a large construction company in Asia that specializes in office buildings and housing complexes was losing millions every year to materials spoilage. A grow assessment is just a decision to move a potential community collaborations effort forward as a top-down project.
2. After completing the Hootsuite/Podium module 4, discuss what you learned about growing an online community. How do these principles apply to the client you are working with on the client project?
After completing module 4 I learned a lot it was so much to wrap my head around but so good information to know for my future business I want to open. I like how it spoke how it went in depth for how to fix an Instagram photo, how to edit the photos and getting creative with editing features. The one that got my attention is having the right headline to catch the readers and the audience. The principles apply to my client because she has a website has her products on Etsy, so this is perfect for my client to learn how to create content, how to do lives, how to run all social media to get her product more out there and more audience to see her products which are homemade candles. In case my fellow students don’t know what client, I am working with. I learned how growing an online community starts off with 4 key components of a Social Content Strategy: Research and analysis of current content reception and strategy, your target audience identified by platform, a list of content-specific goals and objectives, and plans for the distribution of your content. Most of all I learned; the core principles of community engagement which are to be Careful planning and Preparation, Inclusion and Demographic Diversity to keep in mind. Collaboration and Shared Purpose is a good key, openness and learning new things for your small business. Most important to have are transparency and Trust, impact and Action and sustained Engagement and Participatory Culture. With Community engagement/growth starts by first changing ourselves, our attitudes, language and the way we view the world around us. Communities are most successful when true partnerships exist, and power or control is delegated and vested effectively within the community.
Bradley, A. J., & McDonald, M. P. (2011). The social organization: How to use Social Media to tap the collective genius of your customers and employees. Harvard Business Review.
Hootsuite Academy. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2021, from https://education.hootsuite.com/courses/take/social-marketing-course/lessons/2540608-creating-a-content-strategy-for-social-media.
