social networking



May
10

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FourSquare has over 40 million checkins


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Location based social network Foursquare counted their 40 millionth checkin according to a tweet from one of their developers.

Foursquare’s growth rate is also accelerating.  According to Pete Cashmore over at Mashable:

The number shows that Foursquare’s growth rate is accelerating: Five weeks ago, the company announced that the total number of checkins had reached 22 million. In short: Foursquare appears to have doubled its checkin rate in just over a month. -Mashable

The internets rumor mill is also a buzz about Facebook’s potential foray into the location based market with their own product.  Nobody knows for certain if they will develop their own location check-in product or integrate with Foursqare and Gowalla.

What’s clear is that location based services will be a large part of the social media landscape in the coming months, but how can nonprofits begin to use geotagging to benefit our community?  Is this something we should even be spending resources in?

Some of the things we need to think about is the reason why people use and enjoy geotagging.  It sounds simple, but behind many of these features is the basic necessity of people needing interactions.  Interactions become more involved and meaningful the closer the other person is part of your network.  One of the ways that this happens is proximity.  Knowing where your network is at any time can be a powerful tool in increasing your perceived connectivity to your network.

But how can we use this psychology to increase the nonprofit community? We need to use geotagging for more than making a Flickr maps of where people are uploading pictures. I would love to hear your ideas but here are some initial thoughts:

  • Mobile Volunteering – People have shown that they enjoy showing that they are part of nonprofit campaigns (adding badges, causes etc. to their accounts).  Maybe this mentality carries over into the geotagging world where we can show your friends what nonprofit projects you’re involved in.  “Hey i’m volunteering at a food bank at X location, come join me”
  • Twitter (Twitter) advocacy – This can be done from either a local or national level.  If you have a local issue, show a local representative a visual map of how many people are talking about it on twitter.  Sending emails is great but what if you could show a politician a real time map of incoming tweets coming in directly from his district?
  • Geogames – Foursqure became popular because of the game features they used, why can’t we do the same?  Geotag whenever you attend a rally or event, gain points or karma or whatever your community finds valuable.
  • Community mapping – This is something more popular in developing countries but there is no reason why everyone can’t get involved.  Use your phone and location to identify problem areas in your community and force government to fix the problems.

What are some of your geotagging ideas?




Mar
8

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Social Media Cheat Sheet


Should your non-profit be on Linked-in, Flickr, and Facebook at the same time? With so many social networks it’s often difficult to determine which combination makes sense for your organization. In cases like these, a little cheating is completely

fine. This Social Media Cheat Sheet goes over the pros and cons of using some of the major social networks. Download the pdf here.




Jan
25

1 Comment

Twitter Knows Where You Are…


Twitter recently

announced the introduction of Local Trends, giving people the ability to search by location-based trending topics. The race for location based information is on, but what does this mean for non profits? Can we capitalize on what may become the 2010 buzz topic?

Twitter and Geo-location

Most people probably don’t realize they already put their location in twitter when they signed up because up to know the location based information hasn’t been highly utilized. Twitter will soon however begin to contextualize their information to allow people to search based on trending topics by location.

Acquisition!

Twitter isn’t the type to make acquisitions, but when they do they’re a big deal. Their purchase of Mixer Labs — makers of the popular GeoAPI service — gives the company technology that is laying the foundation for the future of Twitter location services.

GeoAPI is a reverse geocoder, which means it can take the actual location (the exact latitude and longitude of your tweet) and transform that to identify a particular physical location. Their database includes 16 million businesses and supports layers from Flickr, YouTube, and even Foursquare, to add rich media context to neighborhoods. -Mashable

Planning for the Location 2010

Location based applications are undoubtedly going to be a part of the social media landscape this year, but what can non profits anticipate to see?

  • Place Data – Knowing that tweets are coming from a specific city are great but what if you could tell that they are coming from a specific precinct? With Twitter’s acquisition of the GeoAPI they will able to tell on a very granular level exactly where tweets are coming from. Think about sending a petition with not just the number of names but the exact geo-location of all the constituents who care about an issue. Having a rally, get people to twitter to show a local representative the power of your movement.
  • Check-ins - You might not have to have a FourSquare strategy if Twitter and Facebook make geo-location check-ins part of their strategy. Twitter might use their geo-location features to create their own check-in applications. Checkout this Mashable post on some creative ways to use check-ins for your non profit.
  • Crisis Info – With specific geo-location information your non profit could know exactly where emergency relief is needed and how many people need assistance. Mobile platform Ushahidi is already making some pioneering work in this area.



Jan
11

2 Comments

FourSquare for Charity?


In a world of far too many social media tools and not enough resources, FourSquare the popular geo location social network/game/craze has tested their own fund raising component to the service.

Is this something that nonprofits need to keep on their radar? Do you need to hire a foursquare intern now?

FourSquare for Charity

In December FourSquare ran a test campaign that donated 4 cents to CampInteractive, an organization that aims to inspire inner-city youth through technology each time someone check-in to a location in New York City.

While this will just be an experiment in NYC at first, FourSquare hints that this is something the company is thinking about doing with its leaderboard going forward. And this extends upon the idea of using the game element of Foursquare for good. Last month, the service teamed up with BART, the public transportation system in the San Francisco Bay Area, to encourage people to check in more at BART stations to earn rewards such as free rides and a special badge. -TechCrunch

If you want to sign up your nonprofit on Foursquare, this is a handy little guide on how to do it. But many nonprofits might want to hold off for a bit.

The 300 million pound elephant in the room.

FourSquare is already becoming the darling of the media with journalists calling it the 2010 Twitter. Before we move all of our twitter eggs into the FourSquare basked let’s not forget about Facebook. The social networking giant isn’t sitting still while geo-location websites become more popular.

There is already a Yahoo! app that allows you to share your location on Facebook and when Facebook rolls out their own geolocation service it will likely make a significant impact.

Of course we have no idea who is going to win the geolocation service game, but in a crowded social networking field unless your community is highly active on FourSquare I would advise nonprofits to keep their resources on the social networking you are already working on.




Dec
25

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Social Media Learnings from 2009


Carol Phillips posted a great blog cialis daily use

ting%29&utm_content=Netvibes”>article on some of the lessons she has learned from social media in 2009. Below is a collection of her key bullet points but read the entire article.

1. Social Media is ‘narrowcasting’, not broadcasting.

2. Social Media is about talking to people who think like you do, not winning hearts and minds

3. Social Media can insulate you from different points of view.

4. Effective use of Social Media requires enthusiasm and diligence.

5. In Social Media, it’s best to think of yourself as the target audience.

6. It’s easy to confuse Social Media with real life.

7. Social Media is about people, not brands.

7. Social Media is fun.

full article.




Dec
25

4 Comments

What 2009 Web Trends Mean for Non Profits


Will Twitter be around in 2010? Will Augmented Reality be the next big thing? The truth is nobody really knows what web trends will make their mark next year but

by looking at trends from 2009 we can speculate what kind of landscape we will encounter and what all of it means for non profits.

In a Mashable article, Samuel Axon outlines some of the most popular web trends of this year. The verdict? The Real-time web is will continue to make a big impact in how we use the Internet. Let’s look at some of the biggest trends and what we can do in the non profit field to get ready for them.

1. Google Real-Time Results

You might have noticed a new section at the top of your page when you Google something, that’s a real-time web search. Rather than traditional web searches that crawl through web pages, real-time search aggregates information as soon as it’s published by services like Twitter.

What does this mean for non profits?

  • Regardless if your audience is on Twitter or not, pushing out a stream of timely information is going to become more important. Organizations that are able to rapidly respond to current events will be able to reach people faster.
  • Your community will be just as important as your organization. In order to get your information out in a real-time situation, your community will need to be part of the news pushing process. When you have relevant information, your community will need to republish the content to ensure the information consistently stays at the top of real-time web searches.

2. Real-Time Social Networking

While Twitter dominated 2009 headline’s for real-time micoblogging, other industry giants aren’t sitting still.

Facebook’s real-time vision was in part bought (rather than invented) when the company purchased FriendFeed in August. Shortly after the acquisition, Facebook launched a revamped version of its News Feed incorporating some real-time web functionality. -Mashable

What this means for non profits?

  • Real-time social networking means people will be receiving with even more information unless they setup specialized filters. Your community will be able to receive more information from you, but will also be following other causes and issues they are interested in. Making content interesting and dynamic will take resources and planning.
  • The immediacy of real-time social networking gives us the opportunity to receive feedback from initiatives quickly and given the right framework, we will be able to change plans on the fly, developing more relevant project for our audience.

5. Real-Time Collaboration

waveWe’ve written, and then wrote more, and then more, about Google Wave, and with good reason. Real Time collaboration is now clear within the public eye. Services like Google Docs, Zoho and Microsoft’s new Office Suit are all offering real time collaboration, changing how we interact both with our teams and with our communities.

What this mean for Non Profits?

  • If you are working in a collaborative environment, these new tools could really alter the speed and clarity of interaction. Companies have already been using tools like Google Wave with customized alterations to make powerful collaboration tools suited to their needs.
  • Real-time collaboration tools like Google Wave are also being used to communicate with organization’s communities. News services have already begun using Google Wave as open forums to articles or blogs. Adding Google Wave to the suite of ways of collaborating with your community could make a big impact in 2010.

The real-time web is already here and given the trends of 2009, we are going to see more apps that tap into our need for immediate information. Let’s stay ahead of the curve and think about how we can use these emerging tools to help better engage our audience and promote lasting change.




Dec
23

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10 ways to increase community engagement


With all of the free tools available to develop a social network, creating a community has never been easier. Engaging and keeping your community active however is a different story. Mashable posted buy levitra

le.com/2009/12/16/community-engagement/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Mashable+%28Mashable%29&utm_content=Google+Reader”>10 Rules for Community Engagement get you started.

You also might want to read The Art of Community by Jono Bacon.

Bacon is the Community Manager for Ubuntu, one of the largest open source software projects on the planet. In this book he talks about the ins and outs of building, cultivating and managing a community from the ground up. This is a must-read for anyone interested in community development. In a truly community-friendly effort, you can download the entire book for free and share and modify it under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike Non-Commercial license. -Mashable