In today’s society a vital part of becoming a successful nonprofit is maintaining a strong social network. Our book shows the how social networking takes a organization from a small scale to something much larger when they state, “networked nonprofits shift their focus from working as single organization to working as part of larger social networks that exist inside and outside of their institutional walls.” Networked nonprofits understand the key to growing big fast is using the influencers in their network. Social networks can come in many shapes and sizes:
- Personal social networks- family, friends, and neighborhood members.
- Professional networks – colleagues within organizations, funders, government agencies, and associations.
- Self-organized networks- Facebook
- Networks of people- created by specific nonprofit organizations way of getting people to post information on their website for you.
These examples are known as organizational ecosystems.
Ok so we know now the different types of social networks now lets look at how everything ties together this is fairly simple. First off there are two main components this is the people or organization they are called Nodes and the connections between them is called the Ties. Here the ties are what play the big role they bring everything together fast. Another factor that plays a roll in this is Hubs they are larger nodes within networks meaning they people or organizations that have lots of connections. I like to think of it, as the Hubs are the big dogs, if you want something heard by tons of people then they are the ones to contact. This is what we call going “viral” this is when huge amounts of people view your video, blog, Facebook post, or tweet. Going viral is largely due to the fact that a Hub shared this information.
There are two additional characteristics of networks are counterintuitive but essential to networks’ effectiveness:
- The networks edge or periphery is vital to its growth
- Effective networks are made up not only of strong ties between nodes, but of a combination of strong and loose ties.
Thinking back to our group’s homecoming campaign I feel that we used our social networking to our best ability. This is especially true when it came to the Chick-Fil-A night we made sure that we invited as many people as possible through Facebook and email list servers. We also used word of mouth to spread the word about our ribbon campaign. I like to think we acted as nodes in our Facebook like campaign to get as many people as possible to like Safe Harbor the day of homecoming.
In chapter 4 of our book we now shift our attrition to the importance of creating a social culture. Making the shift to a social culture can be uneasy for some organizations; this is because it requires their leaders to practice using social media personally. Many of the organizations are scared because they have to put themselves out there for everyone to see and they don’t know how much or how little to share.
Organizations with social cultures:
- Use social media to engage in two-way conversations about the works of the organization with people inside and outside of the organization.
- Embrace mistakes and take calculated risk
- Reward learning and reflection
- Use a “try it and fix it as we go” approach that emphasizes failing fast
- Overcome organization inertia (“we’ve always done it this way”) through open and robust discussions
- Understand and appreciate the informality and individuality do not indicate a lack of caring, professionalism, or quality.
- Trust staff to make decisions and respond rapidly to situations, rather than crawl through endless check-off and approval processes.
I feel that through our work with Safe Harbor that they have the use of a social culture, they are open with the functions of their organization but at the same time with the line of work they are handling they have to be confidential to protect identities. I feel that Safe Harbor uses social networking in a way that is very positive in gaining the support needed to reduce domestic violence in the counties that it covers.
Overall I feel that these two chapters really show just how important and helpful have a social network is to run a successful organization. I think there are some really good points that I would recommend and organization to read before getting started in social networking.
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