Optimising your social network - a glossary

Here is a list of the terms I use when writing about social networks:


Social network - the humanity around me - both online and offline. I like to think of my social network as comprising three different kinds of social group:

• Social convoy - the people I go through life with. People who are important to me, and for whom I am important, even if I don't see them often 
• Personal community - people I interact with in the course of my daily life, be that at work, school, college, in my neighbourhood or as a result of other stuff I do
• Inspiration network - people who give me stimulus and ideas

Activities that add contacts to our network

• Scanning - looking out for people who it might be useful to be connected to 
• Collecting - adding people to my network as a result of making preliminary contact either virtually or face-to-face 
• Reacting -  responding to collecting or connecting approaches - deciding how to respond to the requests or suggestion from someone else
• Reaching - asking people I know to connect me to others

Activities that change the connections between people in our network

• Connecting - introducing two people in my network who don’t know each other (maybe in response to reaching by someone else, or as a result of mapping)
• Catalysing - bringing about a change in the relationship between other people in my network (for example by encouraging them to start a conversation with each other)
• Mapping - studying the structure or shape of our network to decide where and how new connections could be made or new conversations started

Activities that contribute to the thinking of people in our network

• Firing - starting a private conversation to get people sharing ideas
• Fusing - adding people to a conversation 
• Broadcasting - inviting people in a network to contribute ideas on something
• Tuning - attending to the conversations that people in the network are broadcasting
• Digging - passing on ideas from one connection to another
• Moulding - refining, reframing or interpreting an idea for someone else
• Burying - closing down or choosing not to pass on ideas from one connection to another
• Resourcing - giving time to someone to help them develop ideas
• Recruiting - asking people to give time to help with the development of ideas 

Circles: A way to think about your social network

What does the term 'social network' make you think of? Increasingly, people use the term to refer to online social networking sites, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. It is as if a social network, in their minds, is something people interact with online.

In my mind, a social network is the humanity around me - both online and offline. I like to think of my social network as comprising three different kinds of social group. I depict these groups as circles, inspired by Google+ - a tool which makes it possible to assign contacts and friends to self-defined circles and have Facebook-like interactions with them.

Your social convoy is the people you go through life with. People who are there for you or with you. People who are important to you, and for whom you are important, even if you don't see them often. These are close and reciprocated ties to people you know alot about, like family, friends and relatives, former friends from education or work.

Your personal community comprises people you interact with in the course of your daily life, be that at work, school, college, in your neighbourhood or as a result of other stuff you do. We typically co-exist in many different personal communities, some of which overlap. Relationships in a personal community are more short-lived than in a social convoy - people you know and interact while you have something in common. You may see them frequently but not know them very well. Over time, some may become a part of your social convoy but many pass on as your lives diverge.

Your inspiration network is the set of people who give you stimulus and ideas. They may be authors, bloggers, artists, journalists, commentators or creators of one sort or another. You may not know them at all. They may never have heard of you. An inspiration network may consist of very ephemeral relationships with a short half-life; people you find inspiring for a short time only. Or it may include a following of people you don't know but who tune in and respond to your tweets or posts. Over time, some members of your inspiration network may become part of a personal community, while you lose interest in others as the novelty of their ideas declines.

Of course, there are overlaps between these circles. But it's useful to think about how ideas move from one circle to the next. To make use of ideas that originate in the inspiration network, we need to migrate those ideas into a relevant personal community and get them accepted there. For example, I've been inspired by Mike Wesch's ideas on using digital media in education, but his ideas will only change how I teach if I can persuade my students and my colleagues to accept and embrace a very different way of teaching and learning.

Ideas from the inspiration network are developed, implemented and put into action in a personal community of some kind - a work-based community or group of friends whose opinions shape what we can do. Smart networking involves knowing who in a personal community is important for validating a new idea and influencing other people to embrace it. Also clever is the ability to spot who is in reach within your inspiration network and to develop techniques for drawing them into a personal community - by following them, digging them, commenting on their feeds or finding a way to meet them face-to-face.

Where does online social networking fit in to my concept of a social network?  For me, utilities like Facebook and LinkedIn are ways to connect with people in various of my personal communities - college friends, former colleagues or friends from some time ago. I am also connected on Facebook and LinkedIn to people in my social convoy too but that is not the main way I interact with them. Twitter and the blogosphere are how I maintain and refresh my inspiration network, as they give me a great way to tune into the ideas of people I don't know. Often it's through the suggestions of people in the other social circles that I find new people to add to my inspiration network. In effect, our personal communities and our social convoy shapes the ideas that we tune into.

The terms social convoy and personal community are inspired by Rah Pahl's book 'On Friendship'. The term inspiration network is my own.