Week of October 1st

After completing the project for Jennifer Clark at the Division of Student Affairs, reading the chapters on RIBS is so much easier. Now that I have had some hands on work with these four features, they are so much easier to understand.

Belonging is exactly what it sounds like: you want your users to feel like they "belong" or feel a part of the social community/network. At first, I did not think this was a big deal, or something that really needed to be paid attention to at all. My mindset was, well why does it matter if a user feels like they belong to a network? Obviously they do if they signed up and use the network. Well, after completely my project for Jennifer Clark and reading through this chapter, it is a little more complicated than what I first thought. Just because a user technically is a part of something (because they filled in a registration form), doesn't mean they feel a sense of belonging.

Let's take this back to real life. Say you go through recruitment and join a sorority. Yes, you are a part of that group, but feeling a belonging takes so much more than signing a few papers and wearing a shirt with stitch letters. Belonging forms from learning a sorority's history, going through the same initiation that the founders went through hundreds of years ago, sharing stories between members. establishing routines (like going to chapter every Sunday or wearing a letter shirt every Tuesday), and creating a visual symbol (greek letters). Once all of those steps are taken, that is when a new girl really feels like she belongs.

That list of things to create belonging can be incorporated back into the field of social networking. To keep users coming back to your social community, they have to feel like they belong. To do this, share with them the story of how the community was founded. Not just the facts and statistics, but illustrate the relationships and bonds made, this way they feel a connection to the founders. Have them complete something that every single member, back to the original members, had to complete also. This way they have something in common with everyone, which creates a connection and belonging to the whole group. Have the members share personal stories with each other, this allows them to find things they have in common-- strengthening their bonds. Establish some sort of routine within your social community, this also increases belonging because each member does the same thing at the same time. Finally, create a visual identity. Whether this is a corporate logo or a symbol, anything that when the users see it, they identify that with the social network.

All of these techniques work together to create a sense of belonging online.