I wanted to add a big Thank You to a good friend of mine that helped me with this, AFT! She has not decided on her own path yet, and I can't wait to see where that will lead - and how I'll be able to help her in return! Cheers

I believe something more needs to be communicated in this framework . . . something deep or personal. I think this is part of the 'energize' question I posed myself. A friend also made this comment: "I thought about the social networking sites like message boards where some members it seems come to comfort, give advice or offer help to other members . . . I'm a member of several women social media/networking sites and their message boards and I think some women come there not only to consume and connect but also to offer help or advice and guidance to other women" When I look at the framework, this piece was a consideration for my Converse box. So, I will be making the following changes: (1) Updating the objective 'Converse' to 'Engage' (2) Representing eore explicit connecting activities in verbage: - Join asynchronous conversations with the network - Collaborate on products and services, issues, and activities - Embrace the community through advise and comfort

Zach, thanks for the comment and reference to your $.03 (see how fast it appreciates!) I'll be waiting on that review and recommendations, but let me help out, cause we're finding a lot of tools out there - this is just a short list of the good ones - my delicious tag for the whole list is by request only!: For personal / SMB use: - sobees, http://tinyurl.com/ywfqtu, track different social networks and news from a single place and share, like or tweet easily. - cliqset, http://tinyurl.com/dhyd6w, Share, discover and discuss your life online. and Enterprise: - Socialware, http://tinyurl.com/ylrqcjw, social middleware platform moving public social networking sites into enterprise-grade channels for communication and collaboration. - nGenera, http://tinyurl.com/cknlrj, software that creates, aggregates and manages an enterprise’s collaborative and social business activities, applying their collective power to drive business outcomes. - VisibleTechnologies, http://tinyurl.com/5sac7w, Visibly focused solutions to Listen, Learn, Engage, and Protect; all for an effective social media strategy.

Thanks for the comment, Stacy. I'm familiar with 1stdibs and will have to check out Decorati. I'm always interested in how socio-economic status differs across folks' web and social media adoption. In terms of web use, there is no question the wealthy is there - they had high numbers by 2007 according to a Luxury Institute Survey: http://tinyurl.com/yj6pvf9 But you hit the right question. . . what about user generated content. . . here, an LI survey shows increased social media adoption, http://tinyurl.com/yeonbej, which is a start to answering the question. I'll look forward to hearing about your continued experiences!

Alison, Thanks for the heads up on the name/url discrepancy - I'll be sure to update that. I can't speak more highly for aardvark; a food question came through about a South African flour, I passed it onto a friend of mine who worked there through peace corps, via her email address, and she was able to provide a very informative answer quickly. . . awesome stuff :-)

FYI, here's a great blog on social search: http://1xg0.sl.pt

Jim, I really liked your definition of social media - Dan Zane was certainly talking about a lot more then just folk music. . . jazz, SM. . . I have been thinking about, and recently wrote about how the question, "What is Social Media", changes given the stakeholder. In my post, I cited your above choice of words to set the stage. Thanks! . . . and here's my post: http://dcinsight.typepad.com/dcinsights/2009/11/what-is-social-media-to-fill-in-blank.html