Entries in Social Networking (119)

Saturday
Aug282010

Blog Picks of the Week

DateSaturday, August 28, 2010 at 10:24AM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

After scouring the web, two articles caught our attention this week. Check them out and feel free to share your own picks of the week.

The Death of Facebook
Geoff Livingston wrote a thought-provoking piece this week about the death of facebook.

"Who in their right mind would predict the death of Facebook given its ever increasing dominance? But this is a question everyone asks, 'What’s next?' said Livingston.

Frogloop readers also ask this question frequently. As nonprofit campaigners know, it's critical that we understand what's coming down the pipeline and be nimble enough to redirect some of our outreach resources. Also, don't place all of your eggs in one basket. Check out Frogloop's article "Is Your Nonprofit Too Social Media Dependent."

One of the reasons Facebook has continued to grow and dominate for so long is because it uses the McDonalds model. "That’s right, McDonalds," said Livingston.

"A good part of McDonalds relevancy lies in its ability to offer a cheap menu of foods and beverages that are popular in contemporary society. Facebook does the same with its social network functionality.

But trends come and go and eventually Facebook will fade out too. What's next? Livingston recommends keeping an eye in Ipad apps such as Flipboard which allows users to create their own magazine based on preferences and socially recommended content and ABC’s iPad app, a visual globe of news stories.

Click here to read the full article.

5 Reasons Why No One is Reading your Enewsletter

Is your organization struggling to get decent open and click-through rates on your enewsletter? You are not alone. While there are several things you can do improve your enewsletter and make it resonate with your supporters (check out Frogloop's article 10 Fast Tips to Boost Your Enewsletter Performance) Sean D'Souza over at the Copyblogger says that there are 5 common mistakes that you need to address ASAP.

Mistake # 1: Your newsletter isn’t helpful

If your content is NOT useful to your target audiences, guess what? They won't read it. Tailor the content to your audiences. Remember it's not about you. It's about your audiences and what resonates with them.

Mistake #2: Your voice isn’t particularly compelling

Do you enjoy talking to boring people? No. So why would you expect people to read a boring enewsletter. Find your writing voice. Tell stories. Paint a picture around the issues you are sharing with your supporters.

Mistake # 3: You’re not telling stories

See number 2 about telling a story and painting a picture for your readers

Mistake # 4: You have a half-hearted call to action

Do you want supporters to take an action? I sure hope so. Make sure you use directive language when you ask them to take an action. Be upfront and don't beat around the bush. Also, don't bury your action at the bottom of the enewsletter or rely on callout boxes off to the side all of the time. Mix it up and of course test it.

Mistake# 5: You don’t have a specific frequency

Stick to a regular publishing schedule so people know when to expect their enewsletters in their in-boxes.

Click here to read the full article.

 


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Wednesday
Aug252010

Bye, Bye FourSquare. Hello Facebook Places?

DateWednesday, August 25, 2010 at 09:23PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

Facebook who now has over 500 million users, launched Facebook Places, a geo-location service to compete with location apps like FourSquare. In a nutshell, Facebook Places uses check-ins and allows you to see where your friends are and share your location.

Although Facebook did not copy FourSquare’s popular competition features such as the ability to earn mayorships and badges, this is clearly another move by Facebook to try and be the ultimate social network that wants to do everything.

The nonprofit world has been keeping a close eye on location apps like Foursquare and Gowalla for the past year. Some nonprofits like Big Love, Little Hearts who have invested time into using FourSquare have had some success raising money and using it to promote advocacy campaigns. However, now that Facebook Places is here, will Foursquare survive? It has taken FourSquare a couple of years to generate three million users. But Facebook, which also hosts thousands of nonprofit fanpages and has a built-in audience of over 500 million people, could easily dominate the geo-location market. Nonetheless, people are still quite supportive of FourSquare. The day that Facebook Places launched was the single biggest day for new Foursquare sign ups, said company representatives. It will be interesting to watch if that loyalty stays or fades.

Interested in taking Facebook Places for a test run? Try these tips.

1. First, search for your organization in Facebook Places. If your organization has been created, you will need to go through the process of claiming ownership. If you don’t see your organization listed in Facebook Places, create it. This would be useful for organizations like museums, animal shelters, food banks, hospitals, schools and universities, etc.

2. According to Facebook’s blog you'll need the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. You also can access Facebook Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geo-location.

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Thursday
Aug192010

Would you Turn to Social Media in a Crisis?

DateThursday, August 19, 2010 at 05:39PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

The American Red Cross hosted the Emergency Crisis Social Data Summit last week, which brought together over 100 influentials (including Robert Scoble) and practitioners from the tech, social media, and emergency response communities to brainstorm how we can use social media to respond better to emergencies and disasters.

During the event, the American Red Cross released a white paper based on a recent survey to over 1000 people that revealed interesting data about their use of social media in emergency situations. The survey found that if people needed help and couldn’t reach 911, one in five would try to contact responders through a digital means such as e-mail, website or social media. If web users knew of someone else who needed help, 44% would ask other people in their social network to contact authorities, 35% would post a request for help directly on a response agency’s Facebook page and 28% would send a direct Twitter message to responders.

The survey also noted that:

  • Nearly three out of four people participate in an online community or social network with Facebook being the most popular;
  • 89% of of people ages 18 to 34 use social networks verses 65% age 35 and older;
  • One in 6 people (16%) have used social media to get information about an emergency;
  • About 50% of respondents said that they would sign up to receive emergency related information such as evacuation routes, road closures and shelter locations  via email, text alerts, or applications;

Jocelyn Harmon, Director of Nonprofit Services for Care2, presented questions and feedback from the roundtable discussions to Scoble. Check out their discussion on C-SPAN.

 

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Friday
Aug132010

Ten Ways to Engage Your Supporters

DateFriday, August 13, 2010 at 09:15PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

How does your nonprofit typically engage with your supporters? Is your ongoing online communications mainly comprised of action alerts to sign petitions or donation appeals pleading for money? If you answered yes, then your nonprofit is missing out on major opportunities on engaging and developing deeper relationships with your supporters. Here are ten engagement strategies to add to the mix of your online communications starting Monday morning.

  1. Connect with Us: Make your presence on social networks easy to find on your website. Don’t bury it. Also make your social networking presence is branded with your organizational identity so your members immediately recognize you.

  2. Be Generous: Share a relevant article around your mission with your members. Remember everything you share doesn’t always have to be about YOU. Chances are your organization is part of a larger movement.

  3. Recognize Volunteers and Active Members: Share a story. The story can be about a volunteer who did something extra special for your organization or a member who benefited from a program by your organization.

  4. Make Supporters Opinions Count: People join your organization or take action because they care about your mission and want to help you make a difference. They also want to voice their opinions. (Who doesn’t, right? ) Offer polls on your website or social network like Twtpoll. Launching a voting contest on new slogans and program priorities are great engagement tactics too. Bottom line - get supporters involved in some decision-making processes. Make them feel valued and that their opinions matter.

  5. Share Successes and Failures: As much as your supporters want to celebrate your wins and successes, they also want to be in the loop when the organization suffers from a loss such as not passing a legislative bill that they helped fight for. Sharing losses can also help to mobilize your list and can fire people up for future campaigns and volunteer opportunities.

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Wednesday
Aug042010

Email Dominates on Mobile 

DateWednesday, August 4, 2010 at 04:19PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

Does your nonprofit know how many of its supporters read action alerts and fundraising appeals on their smartphone? It’s probably a lot more then you think.

A new report by Nielsen shows that email is the number one activity people do on the mobile web. In the last year email activity on mobile devices increased from 37.4 percent to 41.6 percent. Despite some predictions, the rise of social networking hasn’t pushed email and instant messaging into obscurity, said the Nielsen report. Across online mediums, email is the third heaviest activity online.

More Useful Nielsen Stats

  • Americans spend nearly a quarter of their time online on social networking sites and blogs, up from 15.8 percent one year ago.

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Monday
Aug022010

There’s More to Marketing than Social Media

DateMonday, August 2, 2010 at 11:58AM | by AuthorNancy Schwartz

I’m facing a difficult challenge and would love to hear your ideas.

The challenge was seeded years ago, as soon as social media began to take the nonprofit world by storm. I treasured (and still do) the vitality and vibrancy of blogging to generate succinct, timely content and discussions. That’s why in 2005 I launched the GettingAttention.org blog to complement our long-form e-news articles.

But as we’ve been deluged by social media tools, I’m concerned to see nonprofit marketers forsake the basics to do all social media, all the time. 

I get it.

It’s hard to resist jumping on what’s hot. Social media is practically all you hear from marketing experts and nonprofit leaders alike. So much so that many nonprofit leaders have social media fever and pressure their teams to jump in, even if they don’t really understand what the “in” is.

This human services agency is using Facebook’s “safe space” to build awareness of its family violence prevention services. That international aid organization is bringing front-line stories of its far-away work to supporters back home via online video. An online organizing superstar dramatically increases email list counts and quality for his client organizations via social-media advocacy campaigns.

It’s incredibly seductive. Lots of success stories, lots of experimentation and lots of attention. Finally we communicators are on the leading edge! That’s why so many of you spend a huge percentage of their time learning and implementing social media tools.

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Thursday
Jul292010

Social Network Tracker: How to Find your Supporters on Social Networks

DateThursday, July 29, 2010 at 11:35PM | by AuthorAllyson Kapin

Ever wanted to find out where your donors and activists are hanging out on social networks so you can continue deepening your relationsips with your supporters and foster more two-way conversations? Thanks to Care2's new Social Network Tracker that allows you to match your email lists across major social networks it's now super easy to do.

The Care2 Social Network Tracker tells you which of your donors and activists are on social networks, what social networks they are on and how many friends they have in aggregate. 

You can use this data to identify the "super-connectors" on your list so that you can reach out to these individuals and:

  • Find out if they are talking about your issue in their social networking community.
  • Engage them in discussions and generate feedback.
  • Cross promote your most important actions, volunteer, and donation opportunities. (Be strategic on this one - no one likes to be treated like an ATM machine).
  • Give them helpful resources and answer questions they have about your issue or organization.
  • Share campaign successes.

Here is the short list of the social media sites that are included:

  • Facebook
  • MySpace
  • Twitter
  • Flickr
  • LinkedIn
  • StumbleUpon
  • LiveJournal
 

Match Rate:

The anticipated match rate for Social Network Tracker data append is 70% to 80%.  However, results may vary for your file.

As Frogloop discusses on this blog often, one of the keys in building a strong engagement and outreach proram is to connect with donors and activists across multiple channels. Social media is a key space to deepen those relationships. The Social Network Tracker is one tool that can help you quickly connect with your base.

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