AidSourcery 101: Getting the most out of your AidSource experience

[AidSource]

Hey there awesome AidSource members (you!):

We know it's been a slow summer. We (the admins) have been super busy, and we know that you have too. But we'd like to pick the pace back up, here at The Humanitarian Social Network.

So, to sort of get things rolling again, here are four things you can do right now to get the most out of your AidSource experience:

1. Check in every day. Yep, we know that you've got 7 or 8 or 9 different social media accounts, and that everyone is "just too busy" for one more. But make AidSource part of your daily routine. Check in here first thing or last thing every day. Take five minutes to browse the Top Content on the front page (automatically generated by your clicks). Maybe update your status. Maybe add a comment in a discussion that interests you...

2. Don't try to do it all. There's a lot here, and if you're not super familiar with Ning networks (AidSource is a Ning network) it can be difficult to find your way around. Of course all of the working groups and pages are excellent :) But just pick two or three that particularly interest you. Add discussions or reply to discussions there, rather than trying to stay on top of every discussion everywhere on this network.

3. "Friend" somebody. Yep - we know that most of you use Facebook and have your friends there. But think about using AidSource like Facebook. Use it as a space to hang out socially with others specifically in the humanitarian aid and development industry. From there you can comment on your friends' pages and photos, maybe post some photos of your own, update your status, trick out your page... But start by "friending" others.

4. Integrate and cross-post with your other social media accounts. For those who are really into AidSource and want to take it all to the next level, we suggest that you begin simply by maximizing integration with your other accounts. Be sure to "like" the things that you like, both inside AidSource itself, as well as on Facebook...

Use tags correctly, and cross-tweet from your AidSource account to Twitter. And of course, if you blog be sure to make the most of the blog function built in here.

See you online in AidSource: The Humanitarian Social Network!

[LCD]

Thanks, AidSource, for those tips - it's just a little bit clunky for me, with lots and lots of clicks required to see what people have been talking about. Even with the 'sort by recent activity' option, I still have to open each of the groups to see what's been going on!

[AidSource]

Hey all, thanks very much for your comments!

LCD - Cool, thanks for that. It'd be great if you could unpack that just a tiny bit more? As it is now, if you go to the Groups & Discussions page you have the option to search (or organize your view) of groups based on several criteria, including "most active", "most recently active", etc. Once you're inside the group, all of the discussions ("Discussion Forum") cascade from the top in chronological order of recent activity.

Finally, if you use the "Search AidSource" box (extreme upper right corner of the window, you can enter whatever search term and any content, whether conversation, content, photo, blog post, etc. anywhere in this network tagged with that term will display (thus the importance of tagging correctly).

That help at all? Let us know here in this thread or drop us a note via network email! :)

Daniel - Thanks, and exactly. Most content types in AidSource (photos, blog posts, discussions...) have RSS feeds associated, so any member (or even non-members) can subscribe!

Shana - WIIFM, huh? Glad you asked! But, oh, where to begin?!? For starters, you'll have access to a very broad spectrum of people from the Humanitarian Relief and Development Industry with whom you can engage on practically any topic. You have access to people you'd ordinarily not spend much time with after the cluster meeting or whose ideas won't come through your organizations' Yammer channel. You also have the ability to go from serious, technical discussion to job search to networking to just normal fun, funny social media... all in one space!

Maybe it's time for another internal blog post on this... :)

[LCD]

I struggle a bit to engage, and I think it's because the discussions are broken up into so many groups. If there were a way to look at all the active threads in a more forumesque way I think I'd find it easier to see what's going on and be more active. Maybe there is already, and I haven't found it yet?

[Daniel Drake]

Bonus-tip: Subscribe to AidSource blog updates. If you're using a service like Google Reader to keep up on news and blogs, add this feed to subscribe to AidSource blog posts.

[Shana Montesol Johnson]

Compelling post! It got me to log back onto Aidsource for the first time in...way too long. Thanks for the practical how-to pointers. However, what's missing from this post is the WIIFM -- what are the amazing benefits that will accrue to wayward Aidsourcers when they log in and do the things you suggest?