When it comes to collaborating with a group of people
who may or may not share the same physical location, one naturally
turns to the web. When all team members have access to the Internet, why
not use the Internet to connect the members of the group—to enable
communication, file sharing, and the like?
Creating Groups on Social Networks
You’re probably
already familiar with social networks such as Facebook and MySpace. The
typical social network is a hosted site that aims to create a community
of users, each of whom posts his or her own personal profile on the
site. Each user includes enough person information in her profile to
enable other users with similar interests to connect as “friends”; one’s
collection of friends helps to build a succession of personal
communities.
Most profile pages
include some form of blog, discussion forum, or chat space so that
friends can communicate with the person profiled. In many instances,
individual users also post a running list of their current activities so
that their friends always know what they’re up to.
Given that social networks
are personal in nature, what value do they hold for businesses,
community groups, and families? Lots, if you use them properly.
You see, most social
networking sites let you create your own topic-specific groups. In this
instance, a group is a collection of users who share the same interest;
group members can communicate via discussion boards, share photos and
videos, and even upload and download documents and other files.
In other words, a
social network group is like a virtual meeting or community room.
Instead of posting notices on a physical bulletin board, you post
notices on a virtual message board. Instead of exchanging brochures and
papers by hand, you upload photos, documents, and other files for all to
share. And, because most social networks are free for all to use (in
exchange for the occasional on-page advertisement), it’s a cheap way to
keep the members of your group up-to-date and organized.
In this regard, I
find social network groups especially useful for community groups,
far-flung friends, and families. You get just enough functionality to
keep everyone in touch with each other, at no cost to anyone involved.
No IT support is necessary, nor do you have to lease web hosting space;
the social network site maintains all the servers and technology. And,
of course, all of these sites are easy to join and easy to use, which is
nice if your groups include non-tech-savvy members.
These social network
groups are less useful for larger businesses. In a nutshell, these
groups lack the advanced collaboration features that help to keep group
projects on track. In addition, the profusion of web page advertising is
anathema to many businesspeople. Finally, many businesses aren’t
comfortable posting their business on a nonsecure third-party site (nor
should they be), especially when more secure options are available.
With all this in mind,
let’s take a quick look at the two most popular social networking sites
(at least in the United States) and what they offer in terms of group
collaboration features.
Facebook
Of all the social network sites, I recommend Facebook (www.facebook.com)
first and foremost for those serious about group collaboration.
Compared to MySpace, Facebook is more of a site for grown-ups; MySpace
is more suited for teenagers and preteens.
When you create a group on Facebook, you end up with a group page like the one in Figure 1. A Facebook group includes the following collaborative features:
Your
group can be Open (public), Closed (description if public, but members
have to be approved), or Secret (membership by invitation only).
Unfortunately, Facebook groups do not offer file uploading or sharing.
MySpace
A group on MySpace (www.myspace.com)
is even more limited in functionality than what you can find on
Facebook; this isn’t surprising, given MySpace’s typically younger
audience. There’s no file uploading, although members can upload group
photos. There’s a facility for posting group bulletins, and the
obligatory discussion board, but that’s it. Oh, and you have to put up
with advertisements smack in the middle of your group page, as you can
see in Figure 2. If you can live with all this, by all means consider MySpace for your (limited) group needs.
Other Web Groups
The
groups on social networking sites aren’t the only groups you can create
on the web. In fact, they may be some of the less-functional groups out
there; other sites do groups better.
Case in point: Google Groups (groups.google.com).
When you create a Google Group, you get the obligatory message forum,
but you also get to upload and share files, as well as create
topic-specific pages within the group; group members can be notified of
new posts via email. A Google Group can be Public (anyone can join, but
only members can read messages), Announcement-Only (anyone can join, but
only moderators can post messages), or Restricted (only the people you
invite can join).
Similar to Google Groups is Yahoo! Groups (groups.yahoo.com).
Here you also get a message forum (with email notification of new
posts) and file uploading, and also a photo library, group calendar, and
polls. You can select whether your group appears in the Yahoo! Groups
directory, whether anyone can join or if you have to approve all
members, and who can post messages to the group.
Because of the file-uploading
and -sharing options, either of these two groups might be more useful
to you than a Facebook or MySpace group—even though they might not have
the cachet of the social networking groups.
