Chaters 3&4

Chapter three begins with describing and organizations ecosystem, and how humans gather themselves in what used to be called tribes now as social networks. The book also talks about how people are staying at their jobs for a shorter length of time compared to our counterparts in the 80’s. I, of all people, understand that statistic. I left college in 2002 and had six jobs until I came back to college last year in 2010; eight years and six jobs. That pretty much fits what the book says. I also reluctantly joined Myspace and then Facebook which I, like most college students, am hooked to now.

Next, looking deeper into social networks, the book talks about the components that make up the network itself. The words that are used are nodes (people or organizations) and ties (the connection between them). Hubs are larger nodes, and basically “make things go viral online”.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/13/five-viral-rules-video/

I liked the section on how easy it is to create “loose ties” with former grade-school friends and how hard it would have been in previous analog times and how easy it is to keep these ties. Though loose ties are easy to create, you also need strong ties to expand the social network. Mapping an organizations network is important, it shows what is working and what could use some work with your organization. There are many tools available, but the simplest and least expensive (or free) is Twitter and Facebook.  It can also show what other organizations could be missing from the ecosystem. Something else that is also needed, social capital, or trust and reciprocity. Helping Safe Harbor could show social capital. Even though I do not suffer from domestic violence,  it affects women my age.

The next chapter talks about creating a social culture and most importantly LISTENING. This could be from developing a social media site, reading what Bloggers write about you, Facebook or Twitter posts; everything! Organizations can’t stop this from happening, and it can cause them fear of losing control of what goes on with the organization. The fear that the organization will look unprofessional or that opening up to social media will also be opening the organization up to criticism. These fears are true, but shouldn’t keep the organization from opening up to social media. Developing media procedures and rules can reduce possible problems and help the organization gain more control. Once everyone in the organization understands these rules, they can represent their organization well.