Finding your Network

You may be wondering how you're supposed to get started with building your own online network (or "personal learning network"). How you approach this challenge depends entirely upon your goals:

Are you looking to connect with:
 * academics who work in your same research area?
 * faculty who are teaching classes about similar topics?
 * your colleagues at your institution to learn more about what they are doing?
 * colleagues at other institutions who are working in areas outside your expertise so that you can develop some new knowledge?
 * individuals, in general, who may be interested in general topics (personal or professional) that you find interesting?
 * specific researchers or organizations who you suspect may be developing a social media presence?

Your network doesn't have to be just one of these things. You can have connections with people across all of these sectors, and you can even communicate with them separately, depending on the social media you're using.

Connecting with Specific Individuals or Organizations
If you're trying to develop an online connection with a specific person or organization, the easiest thing may be to just Google their name + whatever social network you'd like to connect with them on. Twitter, for example, has become such an ubiquitous social media service, that a quick search of "John Doe Twitter" will yield specific results pointing to an individual's Twitter account. Facebook is similar, as long as the person/organization has left their profile open.

Alternatively, if the person or organization has a Web page, you can start there. Non-profits and companies are becoming more and more aware of the power of social media to reach out to their constituents, so often on their Web site, you'll see links to their profile on various social networking sites. Individuals interested in developing their own online identity are beginning to be more aware of providing these cross-links among the various facets of their presence as well. Their Web site might include links to their Twitter stream, and their Twitter profile might include links back to their Web site.

You may be surprised by who you find by just searching for specific individuals social networking accounts. You may also feel a bit awkward friending or following someone after simply finding them through search. Here are some guidelines that may help:


 * Take a look around the Twitter stream or Facebook page (or activity in another social network) after you find the person. Is the content generally personal or professional?
 * If the content seems to contain a fair amount of professional sharing and they've left their account open, it's safe for you to assume that they WANT to be followed.
 * Remember that social media sites are meant to be SOCIAL. If you're new to this space, it may take some time to become comfortable with the behaviors of the network, and you may feel uncomfortable adding new people to your network. However, people aren't going to develop online personas and share their work if they're not interested in other people finding it.

Finding the Blog
In addition to searching for someone's account on a social network, you may find that when you search for them on Google you discover their personal site and blog. You can use something like Google Reader to subscribe to blogs that interest you and become a regular reader and commenter. As you comment, you might notice that there are other frequent commenters who, when leaving a comment, also leave a link to their own blog. This is an opportunity to expand your network, find a new blog, and start following it.

Working the Network
If you strike out with finding specific individuals OR if you have success, the next step is to use the social network itself to help you find more connections. Most social networks are designed to facilitate the finding of other people to follow. The trick is figuring how how that particular network works.

On Twitter for example, it is possible to view a list of both the people who someone follows as well as the people who follow her. This can be a way to quickly and easily find individuals who share interests or backgrounds with those you already follow.

You can also look at someone's Twitter stream to see who they are regularly responding to -- particularly if what they're talking about seems to be of interest to you.

Finally, on Twitter you can follow a hashtag (#example) to find other people who are talking about ideas that are interesting to you. Many professional conferences these days designate a hashtag to encourage online interaction via Twitter. Even after the conference is over, you can search twitter for that tag to find people who attended and/or were talking about the event. There are also some informal discussion groups that designate hashtags around with to share ideas, links, or questions.

Figuring out how to work the network, once you're in it is more of an art than a science. You need to live within the network for a while and discover the social norms and signals that participants use. Pay attention to how people are sharing ideas and asking questions. When you can, participate by contributing your own ideas or answering questions. Gradually try to connect through those you are already following to others.

Don't Forget to Participate!
Once you start to build your connections, make sure you're using your own voice to contribute to the conversations developing around you. Answer questions that come up, when you can. Share links or ideas that you come across. And use the network to ask your own questions. The strength of the network is in the activity it fosters. No one wants to participate in a community in which everyone is yelling into the ether, and no one is talking back.

Fighting the Flow
It's easy to become overwhelmed by social media when you first start following people. There are tools like Google Reader for following blogs and TweetDeck for managing Twitter that can make it easier to track and filter content as it comes in.

But, most importantly, you need to develop a reading habit that works for you. You don't need to read every tweet like you read every email. It's okay if, when your blog reader gets full, you mark a batch as read and pick up where you are. One of the characteristics of social networks is that they tend to echo ideas. So, even if you miss the link to the great article the first time around, there's always a good chance someone else will mention it down the road.

Think of your social network as providing you with a "river of content." You're job is not to get swept away by it but to learn how to dip in, swim about a bit, and then get back on the bank.