Wiley Ning For Dummies
Contents
1. i Password esee to your Ning Magee eae Activity Problems signing i Signin A gning in Sign In Feed be i When you click the Sign In button you re taken to your Ning Activity Feed just like you would after you re done signing up 14 Part I An Overview of Ning Join and participate in social networks In Chapter 2 I give you the details of finding and joining networks When you find a network you like and join it you can start participating in the social network For example you can 1 Give your profile page all the personality that you want 1 Maintain a blog 1 Leave comments to other members 1 Post videos from a recent activity or event 1 Participate in the discussion topics in a forum 1 Organize events and meet ups with other members 1 Chat with others about topics of common interest 1 Create and join regional groups Before you dash off to start socializing on Ning you might want to check out the next section where I give you a full tour of the Ning Activity Feed Getting Around Ning Your Ning Activity Feed is packed with information and navigation links Everything you need to get around Ning is right there All that information coming at you can be confusing so in the following sections I break down each bit of the Activity Feed and then describe each link that appears in the navigation bar across the top Exploring your Ning Activity Feed Your Ning A2. Scrapbookers Recommend Manage Premium Services Delete 20 Part I An Overview of Ning Figure 1 10 The My Friends page lets you see your friends last status and more CE Friends Clicking the Friends link in the navigation takes you to the My Friends page which you can see in Figure 1 10 By default you see the results in the Recently Updated tab starting with your friends who have updated their status most recently Clicking the All tab shows all your friends and clicking Recently Added shows your most recently added friends at the top You can also grow your list of friends by clicking the Find More Friends link This takes you to a page where you can find recommended friends based on your current friends people you re likely to want to add as friends As with social networks you can also display your friends in a list view or in a grid view by clicking the appropriate button at the top right For each friend on the list view shown in Figure 1 10 you can see a photo a name and the friend s most recent status update along with how long ago it was posted Also you get to see which networks you re friends on and the Recommend a Network link on the right of each row Clicking this link lets you invite that person to all the networks that you belong to but the friend does not Notifications When you have an account on Ning you receive notifications of many types invitations to join a
3. I discuss the sign up and sign in processes in this chapter This is different from actually join ing a network If you ve already joined a network you can sign in to Ning with the same credentials you used If you haven t already joined a net work this is a good first step for getting your feet wet with Ning Create your own social network for anything You can find out how to create your own social network on Ning in Chapter 7 1 Discover social networks on Ning deal with finding networks to join them in Chapter 2 So are you ready to start your trip through Ning Ready or not here we go Chapter 1 Exploring Ning De Figure 1 1 The Ning com home page lets you doa number of things DO O Figure 1 2 The Sign Up page lets you create your free Ning account E 7 E Ning Sign Up or Sign Ir Popular Social Networks Create Your Own Social Network for Anything Name Your Social Network Pick a Web Address ning com CREATE Learn more about social networks on Ning Ning Spotlight Here are a few of the hundreds of thousands of social networks on Ning today Sign up for a free account When you click the Sign Up link on the Ning com home page you re taken to the Sign Up page as shown in Figure 1 2 e Ning Sign up for a free Ning account Your Ning ID lets you create new social networks and join existing social networks on Ning Already have a Ning 10 Sign In or Si
4. Remove Removing your account on Ning Clicking the Remove link lets you remove your account on Ning Doing this effectively deletes your member account on all networks you belong to along with all content you ve contributed to them posts photos videos and so on Be very careful with this option because you may lose a lot of information if you choose it On the left side of the page the list of options lets you modify settings for the following things 1 Social Networks This section of your settings see Figure 1 13 lets you view general details about your profile and privacy for each of the net works you re a member of It also lets you conveniently edit both allows you to adjust the frequency of the updates from each network that you get on your Activity Feed and even lets you leave the networks 1 Theme This section lets you change the theme or color palette for your Ning Activity Feed You pick a primary color and the page gives you five options for secondary colors all of which complement the primary color very nicely This way you have control of how your home page looks and it still looks very good Y Email Notifications You can choose what specific types of e mail notifi cations you want to receive from the networks you re a member of This section lets you set your default notifications when you join new net works You can override these default settings in each individual network Chapter 3 details what
5. notifications you can expect from networks on Ning and how you can decide which ones to receive for each network The section also allows you to control the e mail notifications you receive for New Network Invitations and Ning Profile Friend Requests as shown in Figure 1 14 1 Privacy Settings In this section you can decide who can view your Ning profile and your profile on each of your social networks The Network Profiles privacy settings you choose become your default settings for Figure 1 13 The Social Networks section of the My Settings page gives you a bird s eye view of your networks on Ning EE aay Figure 1 14 The Email Notifi cations section of the My Settings page lets you control which e mails you get C Chapter 1 Exploring Ning 23 any new networks you join These can be overridden as explained in Chapter 3 which has an entire section dedicated to the level of control over your privacy you have in networks on Ning Your options for Privacy Settings are e Ning Profile You can choose among Anyone Friends and Members on My Networks My Friends and Just Me e Network Profiles You can choose among Anyone Members of the Network and My Friends on the Network Ning Create Your Own Social Network Soc nds Notifications Settings r My Settings rofile our default profile is Jane and is viewable by everyone To change your default edit your profile or update Profil
6. you a message on Outdoor Music Festiva View Message OE i er 12 20 Figure 1 11 The Notifi v ni ule sent you a message on Your Network View Message cations page Mondale sent you a message on Your Subdomai View Message combines all notifica Mondale sent you a message on Your Network View Message tions you get from all r veck veal at riaseacnc oh Vue aeons View biaxin networks PCs Create Your Own Social Network Jane Sign Out Ning Home Profile Social Networks Friends Notifications Settings Info Details Links Photo URL Account Remove Full Name Email Notific Jane a gt Privacy Settings Fi 1 12 A few words to describe me igure 1 12 The My Settings page lets Keywords you tweak ER Country S Zip Code your United States iH settings Birthday February W 15 E 1972 PA across all Gender networks Female 0 aa 22 Part I An Overview of Ning NING When you first get to My Settings you can modify the details of your profile 1 Info The information you entered when you created your profile 1 Details More details about yourself for others on Ning com to get to know you better 1 Links Links to pages of interest that appear on your profile page under My Links Photo The profile photo you may have added while setting up your profile URL The address you want for your profile page on Ning 1 Password Changing your password across all networks you belong to 1
7. Chapter 1 Exploring Ning In This Chapter Discovering Ning Finding things to do on Ning Investigating your Ning Activity Feed UW all have different things that we re passionate about You may be a life long fan of your hometown sports team You may enjoy buying and selling handmade crafts You may have even seen your favorite band twenty times in concert Regardless of all the facets that make up your life you are not alone in them Thousands most likely millions of people out there have something in common with you But until now it wasn t easy to find them or to connect with them Enter Ning Ning exists to help people create their own social networks for anything Inside social networks people can connect and stay in touch with others they have a very specific connection with Nearly a million different social networks have already been created on the Ning platform So depending on whether you choose to join one or more exist ing social networks or create your own social network you may find yourself interacting with others in networks on Ning in a number of possible ways What Is Ning Ning is a platform for creating your own social network to interact with others in a niche social network that looks and feels unlike other social net works you may belong to As a matter of fact you can be a member of mul tiple social networks on Ning and each network may be completely different focusing on different topics and havin
8. Latest Activity from all networks on Ning you created or have adminis tration rights to 1 Latest Activity from your friends across all networks on Ning This includes things like videos they ve added photos they ve posted and friends they ve made Recommended Networks Ning recommends networks intelligently based on what it judges to be your interests You can see in Figure 1 6 how another portion of the stream on the Ning Activity Feed looks 16 Part I An Overview of Ning Figure 1 6 Your Activity Feed shows Latest Activity on your networks on Ning recom mended networks and friend updates as You updated your profi t we make the great s n Friday KN y wy ha iers commented on your blog post Whe oing to Outside 4 FAK Lanc weekend on Friday P not gonna be there Your I rh Tu Diabetes A Community for People Touched by Diabetes y 6993 members Last activity 24 seconds ago x Join Profile photo If you added a profile photo when you signed up you can see it next to the green status box Clicking it takes you to your profile page on Ning com dis cussed shortly Clicking the Edit Your Profile link below it takes you to the My Settings page also discussed in a bit You can access the Settings page clicking the Settings link in the top navigation My Social Networks Below the profile photo is the My Social Networks area well not my social networks but
9. Your default profile i di ble t yone To chang defaul 4 Social Networks your privacy settings Them Email Notifications All Private Public Networks Networks Created e twork Privacy Settings Ning Network Creators ale by anyone Nin J r profile E our profil 5 A ane il Adjust frequencyLeave network Outdoor Music Festivals Viewable by anyone Your profile Edit your profile A jane Il Adjust frequencyDelete network Your Network wable by anyone Your profile Edit your profile i Jane Il Adjust frequencyDelete network Create Your Own Social Network Home Profile Social Networks Friends N tions Settings Ning Profile You have full control over the emails you receive from Ning and all of the social networks you join Theme gt niwo mannois ves O ni Email Notifications New network invitations O Yes I No Privacy Settings Ning profile friend requests Yes O No My Networks These are your default email notifications when you jain new networks You can override these email notifications preferences in the network View your networks Network Friend Requests ves O No Network group invitations ves O No Network event invitations ves No Network application alerts ves no 24 Part I An Overview of Ning My Personal Journey with Ning In late 2006 after working on Web sites for more than six years and living with diabetes for four years I knew I wanted to create a social network abo
10. ctivity Feed gives you lots of territory to explore Through it you can manage your participation in networks you re a member of and keep a tab on networks you created Through it you can also find out about net works you could benefit from joining Take a look at some of it in Figure 1 5 Status Starting at the top you can update your status much you like you can do on Facebook or MySpace This status not only appears on your Ning Activity Feed but also gets updated in every network on Ning you belong to As explained in Chapter 5 you can also update your status on a network by network basis Chapter 1 Exploring Ning 15 Ning Create Your Own Social Network Jane Syn cut Home Profile Social Networks Friends Notifications Hello Jane Notifications A 11 network messag Update Status Share a Link yu doing i a mi Outdoor Musie Festivals Figure 1 5 ge You aaae A el Your Ning Yo ed the application Bu Activity Feed gives you access to all your networks and friends Dn yPok My Networks Find Networks to Join stewart updated their profile on Fricuy My Friends pawg ELETR bi id 2 ae 8 Find Your Friends Latest Activity Below the green status box you find a stream that pulls information from several different places 1 Status updates from your friends across all networks on Ning 1 Latest Activity from all networks on Ning you belong to 1
11. ends Notifications and Settings I discuss each of these pages in the following sections All these pages also have a Home link in the navigation bar that takes you back to the Ning Activity Feed no matter where you are Profile When you click the Profile link in the navigation you re taken to your Profile page as shown in Figure 1 8 Your Profile page displays most of the same information contained in your Ning Activity Feed along with a few extra bits of information such as your location the number of times your profile has been viewed and whether you re online Ning Create Your Own Social Network Home Profile Social Networks Friends Notification Jane Update Status Share a Lir Outdoor Music Festivals You added the application BuddyPoke yesterday You reviewed the application BuddyPoke yesterday I love itt You updated your profile on Friday Chad Summers commented on your blog post W Lands this weekend My Friends anil ca Soe e sili you at the U2 concert Still can t believe we got F tickets i Find Your Friends Chapter 1 Exploring Ning 9 a Figure 1 9 The My Social Networks page gives you a snapshot of activity in all your networks Tt Social Networks Clicking the Social Networks link in the navigation takes you to the My Social Networks page shown in Figure 1 9 Below the My Social Networks heading you can sort or filt
12. er the list of your networks in the following ways 1 A Z Displays all the networks you belong to in alphabetical order Recently Visited Sorts your networks starting with those that you ve given more love to recently expressed in the form of a visit to them 1 Most Active Displays your networks starting with those that have exhib ited the most activity recently 1 Networks I ve Created Shows all networks you ve created on the Ning platform You can also identify your own networks in the other views because they have a light green background by default which makes them stand out from the other networks listed Additionally clicking the Create a Social Network link lets you start a new network Clicking the icon of stacked lines next to this link displays your networks using a list view the default view of this page Clicking the icon of four tiny squares displays your networks in a grid letting you see more net works in less space Last the Search Networks search box comes in handy if you re a member of a very large number of networks and need to find one quickly Ning Creste Your Own Social Network Jane so EO Home Profile Social Networks Friends Notifications Settings My Networks Most Active Networks I ve Created Recently Visited Create a Social Network in Ning Network Creators Recommend Ni 3 members joine Outdoor Music Festivals Recommend ne Manage Premium Services Delete
13. ey would keep coming back Today Ning empowers thousands of Network Creators worldwide with tools that are helping change the world
14. g an entirely different appearance 10 Part I An Overview of Ning The comparisons between Ning and other social networks such as Facebook MySpace and the like are inevitable Yet Ning addresses a need that the others don t It empowers individuals in a way that wasn t possible before because Ning allows you to create customize and run your own social net work related to any topic The Ning name according to co founder Gina Bianchini had a combination of being short sweet and had good karma Plus it helped that the URL was available of course And so Ning was born in October 2004 when Bianchini launched it with the help of Marc Andreessen of Netscape and Loudcloud fame Nearly one million social networks later it seems they had the right idea when they thought of it Since it first saw the light of day Ning has become the best and most afford able option available to create customized social networks focused on spe cific areas of interest something that general social networks fall short on Over the years Ning has gradually become a more complete and robust plat form that keeps adding new networks by the thousands every week A large number of those networks have several thousand members and membership is also growing very rapidly What Can Vou Do on Ning When you first arrive on Ning com you can do quite a few things as shown in Figure 1 1 Sign up for a free Ning account or sign in with it
15. gn In Name Email Address Retype Pass Birthday January v sf 1975 gt Type the Code n on the Right NLuniG By signing up you agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Pe Problems signing up E gt 11 12 Part I An Overview of Ning On this page you find the following elements 1 Name You can enter your actual name or a nickname by which you want to be known in networks on Ning that you join or create 1 Email Address You need to enter a valid e mail address you have access to 1 Password Think of something that isn t foo obvious you know try avoiding things like your last name or the name of your dog 1 Retype Password You need to retype the password to confirm that you entered it correctly Birthday Your date of birth is required to confirm that you re eligible to use Ning After you join a network if you choose to make your birthday visible it can inform your friends on the network that you re having a birthday so they can congratulate you 1 Type the Code on the Right This element is here to make sure you re a human and not a computer setting up an account on Ning vy Terms of Service This link takes you to the Ning Terms of Service page which lists all the definitions policies licenses and fun things you always read in detail when you sign up for a new service Privacy Policy This link takes you to the Ning Privacy Policy page where you can bec
16. network or a group invitations to RSVP for an event requests from people to be your friends messages from your friends and many more such communications Stator My Friends Let Home Profile Social Networks Friends Notifications Settings Recently Updated Recently Added Find More Friends ErnieH Recomm just passed the bar No not the test the You are friends on drinking estat en g establishment y gt pare O minutes ag abp G uG I B Yoonie Kim T just passed the bar No not the test the You are friends on drinking establishment j pag akee Epam y David Fortunato Rene added 7 photos to iPeace You are friends on Erig Y ka pA Will Jelliffe Recommer wants a slice of hawaiian pizza not this You are friends on hawaiian pizza flavored tofu sandwich r Pa YHiss owe 3D Chapter 1 Exploring Ning 2 When you click the Notifications link in the navigation you re taken to the Notifications page as shown in Figure 1 11 This page combines all notifica tions you may get from all networks you belong to which is particularly con venient if you re a member of several networks Settings The last option in the navigation bar is the Settings link Clicking it takes you to the My Settings page shown in Figure 1 12 Ning Create Your Own Social Network Home Profile Social Networks Friends Notifications Settings Notifications Most Recent By Type By Network wees Darlene McNeely sent
17. ns include 1 Network Invitations Messages you ve received inviting you to join other networks 1 Network Friend Requests Messages from others who want to be your friend in one of your networks I talk more about friends in your network in Chapter 3 v New Messages Private messages you ve received from others in your networks Private messages are discussed in Chapter 5 Y Group Invitations Invitations you ve gotten to join groups in your net works Groups are covered in Chapter 6 1 Event Invitations Invitations you ve received to attend events in your networks Events are also covered in Chapter 6 YY Application Alerts Alerts sent by OpenSocial applications you have set up in your networks OpenSocial applications are discussed in Chapter 21 My Links Below Notifications you can see the My Links section containing links you can add and modify through your Settings page 18 Part I An Overview of Ning D Figure 1 8 The Profile page lets you share a bit more about yourself with others on Ning A Create Vour Own Social Network button In the right column is the Create Your Own Social Network button When you click it you re taken through the steps involved in setting up your own net work I explain this process in detail in Chapter 7 Navigating the Ning links Across the top of your Ning Activity Feed the navigation gives you access to the following pages Profile Social Networks Fri
18. ome informed about the use Ning makes of personal information on the Ning platform Y Problems Signing Up This links takes you to a page from which you can reset your password identify some of the causes that may be pre venting you from signing up or go to the Ning Help Center for more troubleshooting information and support When you re done entering all these items click the Sign Up button Establish your profile When you click the Sign Up button you re taken to your Ning Activity Feed On top of it is a floating window see Figure 1 3 prompting you to add your photo enter your country and gender using the drop down lists offered and write a little bit about yourself If you prefer to pimp out your profile at a later time you can click the Skip link at the bottom I discuss the details of setting up and making changes to your profile in Chapter 2 Chapter 1 Exploring Ning 13 Ning Welcome Peeps McSugar Add Your Photo Country i Gender Figure 1 3 e You can establish your profile information now or take care of it later PC About Me Sign in with your account After you ve set up an account on Ning or any network on Ning as explained in Chapter 2 you can sign in on the Ning com home page Clicking the Sign In link takes you to the Sign In page as shown in Figure 1 4 Figure 1 4 1 Sign in with your Ning ID The Sign In Ning No Ning ID Sign Up page gives oS ars Email Address you access
19. ut diabetes I spent the next few months searching for a platform that would let me spend as much time as possible facing the community members and not require me to spend too much time under the hood I m an engineer so this might sound odd but as much as I love playing with programming code I actually prefer facing people In early March 2007 a blog post I ran into made me aware of Ning In less than 15 minutes I had set up and launched my social network I couldn t believe it Ning allowed me to have a social network and to focus on creat ing a community for people touched by diabetes and I didn t have to worry about things behind the curtains As impressive as the social networking platform was I was equally impressed with how affordable it was It cost me nothing to set up the social network And when I was ready to tell people about it I added a few premium services that cost me very little It didn t take me long to know Ning was the right plat form for what I had in mind Since then through word of mouth in the blogging community members of the network spreading the word and media coverage TuDiabetes com in English and EsTuDiabetes com in Spanish have grown and continued to help people touched by diabetes Both social networks run on Ning and continue to prove every day what the platform can do I ve seen the Ning platform evolve providing more tools to enrich the experiences of the members so that th
20. your social networks You know what I mean the social net works on Ning that you re a member of You can expand the number of net works you belong to by clicking the link Find Networks to Join directly below your social networks Doing so takes you to the Social Networks page which I deal with later on My Friends Below your list of social networks is the My Friends grid showing up to 15 of your friends across all networks on Ning you re a member of You can see all your friends together by clicking the View All Friends link below the grid where is the number of friends that you have across all social networks on Ning When you click this link you re taken to the My Friends page which is covered later in this chapter You can see the My Friends grid in Figure 1 7 C Figure 1 7 You can see your friends across all networks in the My Friends grid Chapter 1 Exploring Ning 7 Ning Create Your Own Social Network Home Profile Social Networks Friends Notifications Settings y Friends Recently Updated Re Added Find More Friends Darlene es Neely eely joined a group You are friends on ca ad Summers Neely joined a group You are friends on heir profile You are friends on Notifications In the right column of your Ning Activity Feed is a Notifications area where you can see a summary of the notifications you have outstanding in connec tion with all networks you belong to Notificatio
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