Nancy White of Full Circle Associates has made a very useful blog post asking what we mean by engagement online. Nancy is the preeminent online facilitator, and her answers to her own question are a great outline of best practices for supporting engagement. Examples:

• Time is different online. People who are always on and respond quickly experience online interaction differently than those who log on less frequently. (Gilly Salmon called this  ”snowflake time“.)
  The latter can experience a sense of overwhelm and being “left behind.” Make this dynamic visible to the group and encourage the fast posters to slow down a bit and the others to log on a bit more frequently. Understand that if this gap persists, the group may  splinter. If that is the reality, consider sub groups and weave ideas between them as their facilitator.
• Punctuate time. Alternate synchronous with
  asynchronous as a way to keep the “heartbeat” of a group going. Like a first time runner, groups “heartbeats” have to be faster at first to build relationships, establish norms and patterns of interaction. Over time as the runner “trains” the heart beats slower. So with the group.  For example in a three week online workshop I like a  minimum of one synchronous telecon interspersed with asynchronous activity. This is a simple matter of attention – which we always find is in short supply!

Good quick overview presentation by our friend Ross Mayfield, cofounder of SocialText. Social software at work!

Social Web Strategies wants to give a shout out to our friend and colleague Mike Chapman, who does social media strategy for FG Squared, is a legislative consultant for the Texas Society of Gastroenterology and Endoscopy, and an Associate of Buzz Corps, Inc. Mike is also a co-founder of the Austin and international Social Media Clubs.

Mike is a valuable part of the social web scene in Austin. In a sector where there are diverse, often arguable claims of expertise, Mike’s social cred is clear and obvious. His background is in politics, where he started as a legislative aide to Congressman J.J. “Jake” Pickle and later worked as Legislative Director for U.S. Senator Tim Johnson. Politics, working with the polis, can be a numbers game, but the best politicos get to know and understand the people behind the statistics. Mike spent fifteen years inside the beltway developing his people skills at a professional level. And he was successful not just because he was “politic,” but because he really cares.

In the social web space, Mike understand the importance of authenticity because he, himself, is open and genuine. His official bio says that “considering customers as humans, welcoming feedback and criticism, and being willing to trade old ways of thinking for new ones, have made Mike an enthusiast for social media.”

Mike and Jon L. recently worked together to create much of the program for the upcoming (April 27) Interactive Austin 2009 conference, and that proved to be a great and rewarding experience, given that both are highly collaborative and have complementary skills and connections. Social Web Strategies appreciates Mike, and we look forward to working with him in the future on projects, and in continuing to build the Austin social web scene to national prominence.

Our friends from Conjunctured, the coworking company, were featured on Mashable yesterday. Note that Mashable thinks growth-based business models like Conjunctured’s are rare – they really should spend more time in Austin.