A little over two years ago my wife and I realized we had outgrown our small rancher and needed to find something bigger to accomadate our growing family. Our second daughter had joined us rather unexpectedly and we needed more space.
We decided we would build a home in a growing but mostly rural community about 30 miles outside of Philadelphia. Our home was number twelve or so of seventy six, five of which are still under construction.
For the first year my wife struggled to find comfort in the new community. We moved in during winter and none of the neighbors spent much time outside. As winter gave way to spring we began to develop a network of friends and then, as if it happened overnight, our entire neighborhood discovered Facebook and the ability to create groups and engage in discussion after hours and beyond our front lawns.
Rather quickly our site was secure and our neighbors began discussing everything from defects in our homes to who needed a sitter. Social media revolutionized the way developments are developed, neighborhoods interact, and how communities are formed.
I've marvled at how these relationships that began online have grown stronger during our early evening walks and how quick those conversations on the front lawns of the neighborhood carry back over to group dicussions.
To this end I began to think about how this same concept, the concept of newness, experimentation, community solidification through social media, and the core value of trust and sharing could apply to non-profits and associations.
Let's imagine for a minute that an association is a suburban community and each house represents a member of the organization. Each homeowner, or member, has a vested interest in the success of the community, each member (for the most part) wants to be heard, and most importantly each member is truly interested in building relationships that are built on trust, friendship, and a common interest.
Organizations, like neighborhoods, will evolve by interacting, trusting, and experimenting. There is value in participating in online communities, particularly with those who you will see at an upcoming event, conference, or professional development opportunity. Social platforms help to fill in the gaps, build trust, and develop relationships between those front yard meetings.
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Awesome post. You make a grea and important point: online community isn't only about interacting online. So many people complain that socialzing/participating online isn't social and is a waste of time but they are totally wrong. Relationships begun or nurtured online only serve to strengthen "real" live relationships.
ReplyDeleteIt's a fact of life that the world moves very quickly these days. People are busy with work, family, friends--there are not enough hours in the day to physically spend as much time as we'd like with the people we like. Online community makes it possible to keep up those connections when real-life circumstances make it hard or impossible to connect in person on a regular basis.
Particularly when it comes to meetings and conferences I think there is a ton of value in online relationship building before and after events. Take ASAE. I do a ton of online networking with fellow ASAE colleagues. I've never been to their annual meeting before; this year was the first time I've considered it and not because of the content; I want to go hang out with the people I've been connecting with all year online! Not that the meeting content isn't valuable--it of course is. But equally or, in fact, more valuable, would be the chance to connect with the online community ASAE has done a wonderful job fostering. Even if that community doesn't necessarily happen on their site or isn't orchestrated by them, the bottom line is that I as a member attribute it to them and value my membership because of it.
Thanks for the link to my blog, btw!