How to set up on Facebook
Wild Apricot Blog not only has an excellent beginner’s guide to Facebook for non-profits:
This powerful networking service is not just for individuals like me to keep in touch with friends. It’s a very effective networking tool for nonprofits to create awareness and connect with their community. In this post, I’ll take you through a beginner’s guide to get your non-profit on Facebook and ways to effectively use this tool. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list of features, but it may help get you started.
but also useful information on How to Set Up a Non-Profit Facebook Page:
How do you tell Facebook that you want to make a Page for a nonprofit organization, not for a commercial business?
If you’re even thinking about Facebook — and you should be at least thinking about it — visit for clear, helpful instructions.
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June 21, 2008 No Comments
Social networks beat email
According to Hitwise New Zealand users prefer social networks as a channel for communication:
Bebo continues to be the market leader in the Social Networking & Forums online industry with 16.87% share of visits for the week ending 5 January 2008. Facebook followed closely at second position with 14.2% share of visits.
Brand recognition of Bebo is extremely strong amongst New Zealand Internet users; ‘bebo’ was the top term out of 9,343,431 unique searches measured for the 24 weeks ending 5 January 2008, ahead of ‘trademe’ and ‘youtube’. ‘Bebo’ was the leading search term for most of 2007.
…Social Networking & Forums significantly outranked web-based Email services with 4.98% share, suggesting that users prefer social networks as a channel for communication.
[Source : Hitwise NZ Social Networking Update - Bebo leading social network and brand online.]
[Thanks to The Evolving Newsroom: Bebo still rules the roost in NZ for the link and lead.]
Which suggests that community organisations should consider adding one or more social networks — probably Bebo and Facebook — to their communication strategies. Email may not be enough any longer.
March 1, 2008 No Comments
Facebook engages conversations
Businesses are getting in on the social networking sites, because they know that’s where a substantial audience is. Then they’re finding that they need to actually engage with their customers:
Ernst & Young were among the first companies to set up a recruiting page on Facebook, aimed at recruiting the thousands of entry-level graduates throughout the world it needs each year.
Young said some businesses felt uncomfortable about their lack of control over what was posted on social media sites.
But he said opening a business to scrutiny was what made social media advertising work.
“It’s conversational rather than just a one-way broadcast,” says Young.
Lee agreed businesses using social media should be prepared for a two-way conversation.
“A one-way push of information doesn’t work any more. You want people to engage.”
February 23, 2008 No Comments
Old Friends, Bebo and MySpace are a hit in NZ
Apparently Kiwis are big users of social networking sites such as MySpace, Bebo and Facebook:
Australians and New Zealanders have jumped on the global social networking bandwagon with more than 60 per cent of online Kiwis using the sites followed by 55 per cent of web users across the Tasman.
The numbers come from a social networking report released [13 February 2008] by Nielsen Online, which shows that 62 per cent, or 1.3 million adult Kiwis, and 55 per cent of Aussies have browsed other people’s online social networking profiles in the last 12 months, while 49 per cent and 44 per cent respectively had updated their own online profile.
…In New Zealand, the Trade Me affiliated site, Old Friends, remains the country’s most visited social network site, followed by Bebo and MySpace.
… In New Zealand, social networking has largely been driven by a desire to reconnect with people, with 42 per cent of those surveyed saying they wanted to reconnect with former colleagues and old school friends.
[Via : 1.3 million Kiwis use social network sites - m-net - ICT business news and information.]
If that’s where the people are, your community organisation definitely needs to at least know about it, do some exploring, figure out how it fits with your work.
February 17, 2008 No Comments
Non-profits and social networking
Priscilla Brice-Weller asks:
I can’t quite believe I have to ask the question, but there it is: “Should non-profits get involved in social networking?”
… Having used MySpace as an advocacy tool for a year for ANTaR, I’ve decided to stick with it for now. The relationships we’re building are worth the time I spend on MySpace. As for Facebook, we’ve been on there for about six months and I’m a bit disappointed with the results, but we’ll continue with our investment because I feel that it is too soon to tell whether it’s going to be worthwhile in the long term.
[Via Solidariti: Should non-profits get involved in social networking?.]
January 12, 2008 No Comments
