Tips from the corporate world are not always the perfect match for schools, but they can provide some pointers in our brave new world. After all, the corporate world usually gets the tech toys first.

The transfer seems especially apt with John Cass' posting in his Public Relations blog, "Top Ten Rules" for Designing Social Networks or Communities. Cass, a marketer, started blogging in 2003 to find out how blogs help businesses reach high rankings in search engines. Instead, he discovered the power of blogs for creating dialogue between companies and their customers. He believes these blogging observations transfer to all social networking.

Run a mental search and replace. The company:employee or the company:customer analogies can be translated to either teachers and students, administration and teachers; or even the school and families. Many communities within a 21^st century school can benefit from a social network.

1) Make Sure You Have The Right Culture - A company must leave the community alone to express its own opinions. The company might sometimes disagree, but there must be no consequences for dissent, otherwise the community members will be disappointed and leave.

2) Be Transparent - Set expectations about your intentions, and also provide a framework for the community to police itself. Transparency about your intentions will help to build trust and credibility within a community.

3) Understand The Time It Takes To Develop Community - It takes a lot of time to run a blog, forum, or social networking website. A company therefore has to ensure that they have the resources, and the people available to manage a social network.

It is also important to understand that community members who participate also give a big time commitment to the community, therefore it is important to recognize that time commitment and credit active community members for their participation.

4) Understand The Importance Of Dialogue - A two-way conversation means that you talk, and you listen to community members, and in turn community members participate but also listen to the community. Cass draws on a case study of Ford and General Motors failing to respond to postings.

5) The Importance Of An Entertaining Writing Style And Personalization - Having someone who can write, see the funny side of life and demonstrate their passions for a subject is just as important as writing content within a community.

6) Research Your Community's Place In Social Media - It is important to research whether your community already uses existing social media technologies. (For tips on how to do that, go to "Discovering Which Social Media and Web 2.0 Tools And Websites Customers Prefer To Use To Connect With Other People In Their Community.")

7) Be Altruistic And Encourage Altruism - Giving back to the community is the best way to build community. Altruism builds your standing in a community, you gain credibility and trust, plus, you inspire the rest of the community to give back as well.

8) Use Social Interaction Design - Social interaction design requires an understanding of user interface design, plus how the process of social engagement can be facilitated using web 2.0 website technologies.

9) Encourage User Participation - This is not just about building the best product, though that's important, but it's also about turning ordinary customers into evangelists. After all once your customers help build a product, they will be much more committed to promoting it, as it's partly their product.

10) Highlight and Support Evangelists - Expect the unexpected, your audience may take your product in new and different places, but be supportive of their efforts, if you are supportive others will see what you do and join in.

For greater detail and research references, see the complete article, "Top Ten Rules" For Designing Social Networks Or Communities