Social Media

Causes on Facebook Adds New Features
May 3, 2011

Causes, Facebook’s social-media fundraising site, recently added three updates to help nonprofits raise money on Facebook, participate in marketing deals with companies and ask questions: Facebook Fan Page Integration, Give a Minute and user support forums.

The Fan Page Integration application can be set up to show your cause or a specific project. Give a Minute asks people viewing the Causes site to do something like take a quiz or watch a video in an interactive advertisement for the corporate sponsor. Forums allow nonprofits and donors to get help using the site from each another.

Your Meal On Their Plate: WeFeedback Harnesses Social Networks To Feed Hungry Children
April 28, 2011

An innovative new social-media engagement platform launched by the United Nations World Food Programme is using the power of social media to raise the funds needed to feed tens of thousands of hungry children around the world.

WeFeedback engages supporters through an online “Feedback Calculator” that helps them work out how many children they could feed if they donated the cost of a favorite food item. Through social networks, followers of WeFeedback can track how many children their communities feed and what popular food items are being donated throughout the world.

Royal British Legion, RSA and Comic Relief pack top social-media punch
April 26, 2011

The Royal British Legion, RSA and Comic Relief are the top three U.K.-based charities with the largest “social media presence” — in terms of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube engagement — according to a major briefing, Social Media League Table.

By specific social media “platform”, the Royal British Legion heads the Facebook rankings, with 1,875,926 ‘likes’; the Tate heads the Twitter rankings, with 304,987 ‘followers’; and the RSA heads the YouTube rankings, with 79,341 ‘subscribers’.

Many College Facebook Users Say Web Advocacy Better Than In-Person
April 6, 2011

A recent study conducted on behalf of Harvard University's Institute of Politics found that around a third of four-year college students said using online tools like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube has a greater impact than in-person advocacy.

The "Survey of Young Americans' Attitudes toward Politics and Public Service" study, conducted by Knowledge Networks in February, found that 32 percent of college students with Facebook accounts believe advocating for a political position using online tools has more of an impact than advocating in-person.

Measures of (Social-Media) Success
April 1, 2011

Your social-media plan — if you have one — should consist of goal-setting, implementation and measuring, among other things. That last part, metrics, frequently is overlooked, partly because the tools for measuring are still maturing and partly because there's 
no clear agreement over what to measure.