Join us for the San Francisco Net Tuesday on September 9:
Involver: How Nonprofits Can Create Video Campaigns for Social Networks.
NetSquared is an initiative of TechSoup
NetSquared enables social benefit organizations to leverage the tools of the social web.
- Home
- Blogs
- Rich Reader's blog
- Articulating a NetSquared Facebook-Group Strategy and set of objectives
Articulating a NetSquared Facebook-Group Strategy and set of objectives
Quite a few non-profit organizations have set up a presence, primarily via groups, on Facebook. This is because the platform is very friendly to the development, deployment, and utilization of applications and integration that help an NPO to work more effectively on its'objectives.
Look at the early accomplishments on the Facebook platform by NTEN, "Non-Profits on Facebook", and TED to see a few good examples in their early going.
Last night, I had an impromptu meeting with Billie Bicket, Marnie Webb, Britt Bravo,and others about how NetSquared should pursue its' mission, and what sort of tools, applications, and widgets would be needed to facilitate that taking place. Marnie suggested that we could implement pols here on the N2 org site for the present time, at least to get a solid consensus by which to figure out how to move forward.
For good specific ideas to garner favor, we need to have proposals, discussions, rankings, ratings, and meetings or consultations that allow us to draw on the wisdom of the crowd.
I, for one, would like to see data mined from profiles and other groups that N2 members are registered in so that we can attract and recruit a larger, more participatory and actively engaged incremental membership, while stimulating the existing members to do more. I'd also like to see intra-group discussions and polls help NetSquared to A-B test the theme for N2Y3.
Please respond with suggestions so that we can poll for the most highly rated ideas.
Subscribe to Net2News
Latest Comments
- Awesome
2 days 12 hours ago - Many thanks Laura
3 days 20 hours ago - Great list of resources Beth
3 days 21 hours ago
Comments
Facebook and getting more participatory
Some here may know that earlier this month, the highly participatory Omidyar network closed down leaving its social purpose inhabitants to scurry off in search of a new home. A group called Ned took on the Omidyar software, which remains highly participatory if not so fully featured and quite a large number seem to have moved on to Razoo. Those that attempted to migrate to Facebook were also numerous but as yet the experience has turned out to be far from participatory.
For example, the N2Y2 group has attracted over 30 member this year, yet there are no discussions, no video, nothing but 3 Wall posts. I've joined many groups on Facebook, attempted to start discussion but there is simply no response. Netsquared may not be particularly participatory but Facebook is several degrees less so.
Now Facebook does have a SDK for those among us that want to develop applications but software alone isn't going to effect meaningful change without person to person interaction and the plethora of new networking sites attempting to grab a portion of the "social" market is staggering. It seems to drive us futher apart, in a more is less outcome rather than helping us interact with each other.
Polls on Facebook usability,
Polls on Facebook usability, top applications and useful tools sound like a great way to read the wisdom of the masses; I'd love to see more feedback on N2Y3 as well. Yesterday I had tea in LA via LinkedIn with another N2Y2 innovation participant and I was sad to realize how many common circles we have that had not been connected previously...we should've found each other HERE a year ago.
Beth Kanter, Susan Tenby and I had a conversation on network weaving awhile back that made many new ideas spring to life in my mind: simple graphical interfaces like TwitterBlocks or Xigi that help map relationships between people, organizations, projects and campaigns. I would love to see NetSquared bring together a cool collaboration of programmers to develop good visualization applications along with vibrant project planning/collaboration tools for Facebook or other app-friendly platforms. Help us make the legwork easier for new projects to grow while giving us a better sense of the landscape!
I would prefer applications or the facebook flyer approach to datamining; target nonprofit technology leaders and emerging grassroots innovators through buying keyword flyers (low cost, high focus). If you build an application you can do much more with the data as a fun exchange of information. I never visit groups in Facebook, for instance, but I read my notifications and play Scrabulous most every day.
Good luck filling the social web's pocket of change!