Social group managers: Your groups are not yours (and Denmark Online Groups: Weekly round-up, week 20)

What often happens when numbers get tracked and publicized is that a few individuals dislike having their numbers made public. In the case of the overview and statistics for Denmark Online Groups the numbers are already public, but still the point doesn’t seem to be entirely clear to some of the Denmark-related group managers.

A network is not the property of the person who has set it up and is kind enough to make a structure available within which the members can join in discussion and networking related to their interests. The person with the initiative to set up such a network is merely an admin – the true owners of the network are the members. The admin should keep the interest of the members in mind. The goal should be to make for the best possible networking experience without any regard for whether that experience happens inside our outside the framework the admin makes available.

Any group manager should keep this in mind!

This weekly round-up of groups specifically related to Denmark, Danes and Danish is a tool that networkers can use to seek out the most valuable forum, whether for business or other purposes.

Maybe that’s why some group managers dislike being put on a list. It compares the quality and value of their network by putting them next to all the people they see as their competitors.

That’s so 10 years ago! Group managers should snap out of it!

Now on to this week’s round-up:

The most recent update to the online groups featuring content about Denmark, Danes or Danish has been posted at http://bit.ly/dkgroups.

Notable developments include:

• Danmark Unlimited (Xing-based): is still the largest Denmark-related network online.
• DABGO – the Danish largest Danish expat network for business grew their Ning-based network with an impressive 42 members. With just 586 members the network probably still needs some growth to really have value for its members.
• The fastest growing country for the Danes Abroad Business Group Online (DABGO) was Switzerland. Same as with the Ning-based DABGO network as for the individual countries on LinkedIn, they will need to grow further to really be worth much to their members.
• Most growth was achieved by the “Danmark” group on LinkedIn with an impressive 28 new members.

Head over to http://bit.ly/dkgroups for more details and do click the links in the sheet to visit the individual groups!

Your ideas, comments and criticism are welcome. You can find me on twitter here http://twitter.com/thusgaard, you can start a discussion in the Danmark group, or you can comment here on the page.