forget the buzzwords

Using online tools to build relationships, foster communities, and provide value.

Where have you experienced community?What are some images of community?

Local community Community theater

comitatus communion

PsuedocommunityChaosEmptinessReal Community

Everyone acts extremely pleasant and avoids all disagreement.

Link farms, glowing blog tour reviews, ridiculously complimentary comments, etc.

But community is not cheap. It demands individuals be allowed to speak openly.

When people speak openly, they offend each other. Chaos results.

People try to heal the disagreement by converting others to their own viewpoint, or adopting a condescending attitude and trying to heal others.

We heal and convert others because we don’t want to really listen.

Instead, we listen to our own◦ Feelings◦ Assumptions◦ Ideas◦ Motives

Bloggers self-promote. Brands seek traffic, fans, subscribers.

Let go of your own motives and feelings. Take up your cross, and follow the boss.

“Community building is an adventure, a going into the unknown. People are routinely terrified of the emptiness of the unknown.”

Let go of the need to control. We are no longer gatekeepers.

How many blogs does the world need? There is already blog gridlock.

It’s a genuinely new literary form, which, at its best, combines the immediacy of talking with the reflectiveness of writing.

Kinsley, Michael. “How Many Blogs Does the World Need?” Time. December 1, 2008.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1860888,00.html

Every community has a purpose and a vision. Communities do not exist for their own sake. Get on with the business of the community. But, don’t forget:

Community building comes first, problem-solving comes second.

How do you listen to people in your community?What are the tools of listening?

“Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.” (Prov. 19:20)

When we listen to others, we show that we value their words and ideas. ◦ Eye contact, nonverbal cues, active listening,

response. It’s not about what you have to say. It’s about listening to what others have to

say through their user-generated content.

“My staff was a little nervous about the idea [of

sending a letter to the left-leaning blog Daily

Kos] … but I had come to appreciate the give-

and-take that the blogs afforded, and in the

days following the posting of my letter, in true

democratic fashion, more than six hundred

people posted their comments.”

Obama, Barack. The Audacity of Hope. (2006).

“Online discussion is a poor way to communicate with the average customer, because average customers don’t participate. But it is a great way to communicate to them, because average customers watch and listen.”

Loechner, Jack. “The Fractured Web Community Impacts Marketing Focus.” Media Post. November 6, 2008.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=93950

The online context is social media, web 2.0. These tools allow us to connect virtually, in

an approximation of community. But really, all community is an approximation.

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12)

Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2008http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

How do you listen to 1.5 million blogs every week?Or even the 76,000 most influential blogs?Isn’t it just chaos?

Go to the ant , you sluggard;consider its ways and be wise! It has no commander,no overseer or ruler, yet it stores its provisions in summer and gathers its food at harvest.

(Prov. 6:6-8)

“Some twenty years ago I saw, or thought I saw, a synchronal or simultaneous flashing of fireflies. I could hardly believe my eyes, for such a thing to occur among insects is certainly contrary to all natural laws.”

(Philip Laurent, 1917)

Qtd by Steven H. Storgatz in SYNC: The emerging science of spontaneous order. 2003.

After Aaron and his sons have finished covering the holy furnishings and all the holy articles, and when the camp is ready to move, the Kohathites are to come to do the carrying. But they must not touch the holy things or they will die. The Kohathites are to carry those things that are in the Tent of Meeting.

(Num. 4:15)

How do people communicate in the communities we discussed earlier?

“We found that the most significant variable [in predicting album sales] is blog chatter or the volume of blog posts on an album, with higher numbers of posts corresponding to higher sales.”

Dhar, Vasant, and Elaine Chang. “Does Chatter Matter?” NYU Faculty Digital Archive. October 24, 2007.

http://archive.nyu.edu/handle/2451/23783

“MarketingExperiments.com they hired an employee at $10 per hour to blog, create content, and in general work to drive traffic to a site.”

“Harnessing Social Media—Web 2.0 Grows Up.” June 2007. http://www.marketingexperiments.com

“Harnessing Social Media—Web 2.0 Grows Up.” June 2007. http://www.marketingexperiments.com

Too much noise.Too little control.

“…the more freedom people have to answer a question or propose a solution to a problem, the greater the chances that any one of them will have success.”

Mahoney, Matt. “The Privilege of Being Wrong.” Technology Review, December 2008.

https://www.technologyreview.com/web/21559/

“On Wikipedia, truth is received truth: the consensus view of a subject.”

Garfinkel, Simson L. “Wikipedia and the Meaning of Truth.” Technology Review, December 2008.

https://www.technologyreview.com/web/21558/

“User contribution systems challenge some of the basic tenets and beliefs about the role of managers, the role of experts, the role of quality control.”

Cook, Scott. “The Contribution Revolution.” Harvard Business IdeaCast. November 24, 2008.

“Moderate by encouragement.”

Cook, Scott. “The Contribution Revolution.” Harvard Business IdeaCast. November 24, 2008.

Listen to others, but share your view. Maintain quality control.

◦ Truth is NOT just community consensus. Create a moderation system that is

scalable.◦ 300 member blogs◦ 450 posts per week on average◦ 250 words per post on average◦ 100,000 + words per week on average

The idea: see if we could promote Mary’s book Authentic Parenting and measure direct sales from July 15 – Sept. 9.

Here are the numbers:4672 visitors total721 referrals (15%) from the blog tour

(53 blogs)178 referrals to Mary’s landing page11 purchases

%0.2 of all traffic%4.5 of landing page traffic

2 Concurrent, overlapping communitiesReaders

SubscribersReadersCommenters

WritersPost a badgePart of our RSS feedsCommit to blog, read, and comment

LeadersActively engage the community.Commit to the vision of the community.Contribute as an author to the site(s).

“Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.” (Prov. 19:20)

Use social media tools to listen.◦HighCallingBlogs.com main feed◦Email newsletters◦Group Writing Projects◦Blog Tours◦MODELING through our own blogs◦DEVELOPING lay leadership on blogs

“Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise.” (Prov. 19:20)

Moderate by encouragement.◦ RSS (via Google Reader)◦ Comments on their blogs◦ Email them directly◦ Links (on HighCallingBlogs.com, our own sites, in

our newsletters, twitter, facebook, del.icio.us, flickr, etc.)

◦ Money (if we hire them to write an article)

SilenceStoryLiturgyLife

Guide bloggers and readers toward theological reflection about their daily lives.

Sponsor group writing projects. Show what we value by featuring it. Keep it simple.

◦ Work◦ Culture◦ Faith◦ Family

Liturgy means group praise and celebration. Regular, celebratory, structured. Random Acts of Poetry became this for us.

◦ Every Friday◦ Poetry/Psalms◦ Celebratory

We’re still working on these. And we’re completely open about that. Ann Voskamp doesn’t allow comments. We might refrain from posting on Sundays. Above all we don’t want to be Second Life.

Statistics and Surveys

Read the full report online: http://www.slideshare.net/fgossieaux/2008-

tribalization-of-business-study-447040

If you were present at the presentation and would like to discuss the specific statistics for TheHighCalling.org or HighCallingBlogs.com, feel free to contact me directly via

http://highcallingblogs.com/about/contact/

“Blogging is … to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.”

Why I Blog. The Atlantic. Nov. 2008.http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/andrew-sullivan-why-i-blog

Readers “will send links, stories, and facts,

challenging the blogger’s view of the world,

sometimes outright refuting it, but more

frequently adding context and nuance and

complexity to an idea. The role of a blogger is

not to defend against this but to embrace it. He

is similar in this way to the host of a dinner

party.”

“The torrent of blogospheric insights, ideas, and arguments places a greater premium on the person who can finally make sense of it all, turning it into something more solid, and lasting, and rewarding.”

Why I Blog. The Atlantic. Nov. 2008.http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200811/andrew-sullivan-why-i-blog

Start slow Have a strategy Participate, do not control. The community does not belong to you. Get professional help.

Look to the ant. Look the fireflies. Remember the Kohathites.

“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (1 Cor. 13:12)

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