Many people view online social networking tools, such as Facebook , LinkedIn , and Myspace as time-draining distractions. Facebook also has the benefit of having your installed audience, your network of friends at your fingertips, so you can easily announce new activities, campaigns, and events to your self-selected constituency of like-minded individuals and groups, without having to email a large group of people and risking the effects of a spam filter's black hole. If you haven't heard of Facebook, I'm sorry to break it to you, but you are living under a rock. However,

PR Blogger Stephen Davies thinks we’ll start to see a fragmentation of social networks. As people begin to tire with the vast, general nature of MySpace et al , they may migrate to niche social networks that are more relevant to them, their passions and their lives. Niche social networks can be tapped into for more relevancy in online engagement. He asks: So what does it mean for brands?

very insightful. Ivan Boothe pointed me over to a blog post by Lina with an intriguing tweet " Transmedia activism with a co-creation network." Now to dig into this topic because it combines a couple of interest - storytelling with social media and working in a networked way. Lina offers a concise definition of Transmedia Storytelling , a concept and term coined by Henry Jenkins. Transmedia storytelling is storytelling by a number of decentralized authors who share and create Diagram by Gary Hayes See See also this set of diagrams

Nonprofits looking to start using social media as a marketing tool with find a wealth of sound advice online, but putting the pieces together into a solid strategy? That's the real challenge. No one simple strategy will work for every nonprofit group. (In

I've been in Washington, DC for the Network Effectiveness and Social Media Strategy Map working session for Packard Foundation Grantees convened by Monitor Institute.   This is a post to help me identify what I don't know about social network analysis and mapping tools with the hope that you'll fill in the gaps in the comments. Since I couldn't use my computer to get on the wifi, I took out my session workbook I flew back from DC last night on Virgin America.  Unfortunately, the weather in DC kept us on the ground and in the airplane on the runway for a couple of hours.   They

Social Networking Trends Web 2. Social media! I seriously think it’s "the" buzz word of 2009. According to Omniture, over 200 million searches are conducted every single day and 78% of people trust recommendations by peers. But how should nonprofits track their social media?

According to a survey conducted in March 2009 by NTEN, Common Knowledge , and ThePort , social networking has become an integral part of nonprofits’ online strategy. have one or more social networking communities on their own web site. gt; Download the Social Network Survey Report And You may have already suspected that, but now you can get some hard numbers to justify that Facebook page you've been keeping so tidy and au currant. Then you can go all Matt Damon on your ED: “You

The typical assumption about any social networking site is that it will allow you to market your mission and, possibly, increase donations. Skeptics take note - I agree with you that Twitter , the " microblogging " service that your friends are pressuring you to join, appears to be the ultimate synthesis of vanity and wasted time. All of that potential is there, and, worse, the service seems to advertise those traits as its raison d'etre.

using social media and social networking in their organizations. Friendraising Not Fundraising If the reason why you want to use social networks is just to raise money, then stop now. Hope from the Hype So why does social networking matter? Social networking matters. For a while now I've been talking with a lot of nonprofits about using I thought

Social Networking Web 2. Grassroots Enterprise recently launched “Actions” on Facebook that allows nonprofit organizations' supporters to take action and send a letter to their members of Congress without ever leaving Facebook —and without installing an app. The Actions tab will not only match supporters to federal and state legislative officials based on their addresses but will also capture names and emails in a database.