What is a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN) & why do you need one?

Posted By Laurel Hitchcock on Dec 17, 2019 | 2 comments

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of blog posts about how technology can be used to develop and sustain one’s professional network.  The idea for this post came from a think tank hosted by the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work in June 2019, that I attended along with the other authors of this post. Our goal at this think tank was to brainstorm how to teach students in their new online Doctorate of Social Program (DSW) program about how to develop key stakeholder networks using digital and social technologies. In this series, we are exploring the concept of a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN), which are technology-mediated user-centered relationship constellations designed to enhance or enrich connections, knowledge, and professional opportunities. This post covers the “whys” and “whats” of a PCN.

Social media and other forms of digital technologies are ubiquitous tools for communication in the 21st century, including in the lives of clients and communities served by social workers. It is clear technological tools are being used to create and maintain relationships when a third of America’s marriages now start online (Cacioppo, Cacioppo, Gonzaga, Ogburn, & VanderWeele, 2013), and 69% of internet users utilize social media, 74% of those daily (Pew Research, 2018). Social work professionals need to understand how these tools work, and learn to use them for creating and maintaining professional relationships with colleagues, communities, and the vulnerable populations served by the profession, and disseminating information to communities of interest.

There are several reasons why social work practitioners may not be engaging with social and digital technologies for networking and collaboration purposes. These include generational differences, lack of technology resources, lack of training with technology (technological competency), lack of best practice guidelines, policy and ethical concerns, and/or more personal reasons, values, or biases related to social media.  However, competent and ethical practice requires practitioners, educators, and students to be lifelong learners who stay up-to-date and share information about current news, practice knowledge, and the latest research findings. By learning to use social media for their own professional networking, social workers can increase their professional knowledge, share information with others, and find project collaborators. 

When a social worker creates a process for learning and exchanging information online with a purposeful set of people and organizations in order to meet some specific professional goals, we refer to this group as a Professional Collaboration Network (PCN).  PCNs are user-generated, technology-mediated spaces that extend professional networks, where people build relationships to connect, learn from, teach, build trust, empower, and inspire others. These participatory networks are personally defined, and can be formal, informal, or a combination of both. This type of network helps a user keep up-to-date in their fields of interest, build and disseminate knowledge, connect to other professionals for collaboration, and offer opportunities to bring online and in-person networks together.

For example, a social worker’s PCN might occur primarily on Twitter and include social work thought leaders and advocates working at national organizations in child welfare. These connections likely include online conversations around issues with children and families. A user could “engage” their network by asking questions about best practices or promoting policy. The social worker might even use direct messaging tools on Twitter for discussions that are best taken offline, such as asking about specific strategies used by the expert’s agency that they may not want to share publicly. However, organizations often engage on a less personal level, and instead speak primarily as representatives of their agency. Since a common goal of a network is a collaborative and mutually beneficial two-way relationship, it is beneficial to have people in one’s network who are also interested in mutuality, and whose primary roles online are not just informational announcements.These networks can also occur at a local level, allowing the social worker to connect online with colleagues met in-person first and then following up online. 

There are several advantages to having an online PCN including continual access to resources, information, consultation and referrals as well as opportunities for collaboration across geographic and institutional or to learn about and develop skills related to your area of practice.  Knowing how to create and maintain your own PCN is an essential skill for new social work professionals. Additionally, a PCN can be used to model leadership skills such as communication, interprofessional education and practice, and support for learning about the social work knowledge base.   

We have coined the term PCN to emphasize the importance of collaboration, and that a PCN user should both contribute knowledge to and draw knowledge from their professional networks through a process of relational interaction. PCNs can be considered an extension of Professional (or Personal) Learning Networks (PLNs), which have their roots in education pedagogy (Richardson & Manacebelli, 2011).  Some of us have written about how social workers can create their own PLNs to promote professional development and life-long learning (Hitchcock, 2015; Hitchcock, Sage & Smyth, 2017; Hitchcock & Sage, 2018; Hitchcock & Young, 2016; Michaeli, 2015). PLNs include the use of technology-based tools and processes by a social worker to stay up-to-date and share information about current news, practice knowledge, and the latest research findings.  Generally, PLNs involve passive ways of using digital and social technology for professional development such as observing (i.e. lurking), and can include low engagement activities with others (e.g. posting only announcements).  Conversely, PCNs require active use such as sharing work experiences, offering knowledge pertaining to a particular topic area, responding frequently to other users, and creating digital content. Another way to look at PCNs is that one is using digital tools to increase social capital among colleagues and acquaintances (Escobar-Viera et al., 2018; Montague & JieXu, 2012). 

How do you get started with setting up your PCN? 

The first step is to think about your goals for networking, collaboration, and building social capital among colleagues and professional acquaintances.  It is also important to reflect about the clients and communities that you serve as well as the general public because of the open and public nature of social and digital technologies.  While not all networking needs to be done in public digital forums, you should consider all the content that you post online could be made public even if you are using privacy tools within digital platforms.  Here are some questions to consider: 

• What do you do?  
• What are your professional goals? What are your current projects? 
• Who are you as a collaborator? As a learner? 
• Who do you want to make connections with and why?
• What kind of expertise might help you meet your goals? (Think about various disciplinary expertise, the role of consumers or those with lived experience, family members and friends of your population of interest.)
• How do you like to meet other professionals? How do you currently meet other people working in your field? 

Next, you will want to consider the value of networking and creating professional connections in your work life. Having a network of other professionals can provide many benefits such as gaining a new perspective about a particular  problem, staying up-to-date on current trends, exploring opportunities to participate in new projects, building confidence, and obtaining emotional support. Here are some prompts to help you think about the types of connections you want within your PCN:

• What is a quality online connection to you?
• What would be diverse connections for you? 
• What do you want to share? 
• What do you want to gain from your network? 

The third step in setting up your PCN is to decide which digital tools you want to use for your PCN. This might include social media platforms, listservs, texting apps and online groups.  Additionally, think about the different types of features available within apps. For example, Twitter has a direct message feature that can be used to have more private conversations with other users.  Here are some questions to consider:

• What digital tools do you already know how to use?  What digital features do you prefer? 
• What digital tools would you like to learn? 
• What digital options are available for your current professional groups? 
• What tools are other people in your network using? 

Based upon our experience, we would recommend the following digital tools to get started: 

• Twitter 
• LinkedIn 
• A professional blog (see this list of social work blogs for examples)

The fourth step to organizing your PCN is to plan how will you manage it.  Because digital tools offer 24/7 availability and almost instantaneous responses, it can be overwhelming to be online continuously.  It is important to set specific times to be engaged online and have boundaries around when and how you share content. Also, your engagement with your PCN will change over time depending on your needs and projects.  Here are some questions to get you thinking about managing your PCN: 

• How do you want to present yourself professionally?
• How often do you want to engage online for work? 
• How do you identify people who will likely respond to you?
• How much do you want to participate in your PCN? 
• What are possible questions you could ask about your PCN?

Finally, think about how you will connect your online network with your face-to-face network.  Integrating your networks will help you build and maintain both networks. Consider these questions: 

• How can you use social and digital technologies to build relationships? 
• How will you know when you are succeeding? 
• How can you engage your face-to-face colleagues on digital platforms? 
• How can you connect with digital colleagues in-person? 

As you go through these steps, remember that everyone’s PCN will look different.  Some of us have developed close collaborations and professional friendships through our PCNs, which has allowed us to write and present together, or obtain additional career opportunities.  While it will help to look for models in digital spaces, your PCN will enrich your professional and personal life based on how you contribute and give to it. 

Please share your thoughts or questions in the comment section below. We would like to hear about how your PCN, how you developed it, and how you have benefited from building professional relationships online.

References: 

Cacioppo, J. T., Cacioppo, S., Gonzaga, G. C., Ogburn, E. L., & VanderWeele, T. J. (2013). Marital satisfaction and break-ups differ across on-line and off-line meeting venues. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201222447. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1222447110

Escobar-Viera, C. G., Shensa, A., Bowman, N. D., Sidani, J. E., Knight, J., James, A. E., & Primack, B. A. (2018). Passive and Active Social Media Use and Depressive Symptoms Among United States Adults. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 21(7), 437–443. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2017.0668

Hitchcock, L. I. (2015, July 2). Personal Learning Networks for Social Workers [Blog Post]. Retrieved from Teaching & Learning in Social Work website: https://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2015/07/01/personal-learning-networks-for-social-workers/

Hitchcock, L. I., Sage, M., & Smyth, N. J. (2017, April 15). Day Two of #SWDE2017 – Professional Learning Networks for Social Work [Blog Post]. Retrieved from Teaching & Learning in Social Work website: https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2017/04/15/day-two-of-swde2017-professional-learning-networks-for-social-work/

Hitchcock, L. I., & Sage, M. (2018). Professional Learning Networks for Social Workers in the Digital Age. Social Work Today, 18(2), 22–23. https://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/MA18p22.shtml

Hitchcock, L. I., & Young, J. A. (2016). Tweet Tweet! Using Live Twitter Chats in Social Work Education. Social Work Education: The International Journal, 35(4), 457-468. https://doi.org/10.1080/02615479.2015.1136273

Michaeli, D. (2015). Personal Learning Network Twitter Cheat Sheet [Blog Post]. Retrieved from SocialWork.Career website: https://www.socialwork.career/2015/11/personal-learning-network-twitter-cheat-sheet.html

Montague, E., & JieXu. (2012). Understanding Active and Passive Users: The Effects of an Active User Using Normal, Hard and Unreliable Technologies on User Assessment of Trust in Technology and Co-User. Applied Ergonomics, 43(4), 702–712. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2011.11.002

Pew Research Center. (2018, March 1). Social Media Use 2018: Demographics and Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/

Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2011). Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power  Connections to Transform Education. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

How to cite this blog post: 

Hitchcock, L.I, Sage, M., Michaeli,  D., Young, J.A., Bakk, L. & Smyth, N.J. (2019, December, 18). What is a professional collaboration network and why do you need one? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from Teaching & Learning in Social Work website: https://laureliversonhitchcock.org/2019/12/17/what-is-a-professional-collaboration-network-and-why-do-you-need-one/.