1) This week, there are quite a few topics that are worthy of a non-profit point-of-view. One that does not fit that category, but I shall include anyway is the ever-present topic of Facebook privacy concerns. If you have not already considered whether or not you should edit your privacy settings, you should take a look at my previous post that details how to limit the manner in which Facebook uses your information.
2) There was a direct non-profit piece on Mashable this week dealing with how the National Wildlife Federation uses location-based social media to add value to their followers/fans/members/etc. This is an excerpt from the piece, with four ways the NWF is using location-based tech to:
Foursquare to Drive Education and Engagement
Geocaching to Connect Families and Kids with NatureFoursquare is the premier service when it comes to location-based applications. It has the largest user base with over one million total users and around half a million check-ins per day. Location-based services like Foursquare are relatively new, but non-profits are already finding very interesting and exciting ways to make use of them.
Just like the History Channel, NWF is exploring the possibility of using Foursquare to promote engagement with their constituents. “What if when a person checked into an outdoor space like a park or natural landmark, we could feed them NWF sponsored tips of what wildlife they should look for, or what view not to miss,” said Danielle Brigida, NWF's Social Media & Outreach Coordinator. “The idea is to make visiting these locations more interesting and fun by providing useful information about what can be seen and done.” As NWF works on this program, their supporters and advocates will be encouraged to add their own tips to the locations they visit so that as time goes on, coverage around the world continues to grow.
In addition to adding tips, NWF is exploring the possibility of having a branded Foursquare profile page and custom “badges” created for the organization. All of this activity promotes education, fun, awareness and engagement.
Geocaching, in many respects, was ahead of the location-based game. Started in 2000, it has been steadily growing in size and usage ever since. The unique location-based application presents some very cool opportunities for non-profits. The idea is that you can create a large-scale game of “hide and seek” for people all over the world to participate in. Organizations or participants can “hide” items called caches that others can then discover and interact with. You can then share logs or photos to further enhance the online experience.
With over three million caches hidden all over the world (according to the Geocaching website), a large user base and an impressive iPhone app, this location-based application is proving to be a great way to promote both online and offline engagement.
NWF is exploring the use of geocaching to send their supporters on educational treasure hunts involving everyone’s favorite raccoon, Ranger Rick, insightful clues, and special GPS-trackable objects called Geocoins. They are currently in the process of piloting two programs aimed at getting families outdoors.
Google Maps and “mashups” have been around for a while now, but maps are still at the heart of any location-based service or program.
One of the most visited pages on the NWF website is a Google Maps mashup called Nature Find. The website allows users to find information about outdoor areas, nature parks and events (e.g. the San Diego Botanical Gardens) by using the location-based searchable guide.
This simple, but powerful application has enabled them to provide a tremendous service to a large community of wildlife enthusiasts.
Gone are the days when non-profit supporters could only help by giving money or volunteering time. The ability to instantly share stories, pictures, videos and more has revolutionized how people interact with organizations online. The widespread use of mobile devices like the iPhone and Droid, coupled with the instant ability to share user-generated content with location-based information has added a whole new dimension to non-profit engagement.
To complement its Wildlife Watch website, NWF partnered to have an iPhone app called WildObs (wildlife observations) built. “Our Wildlife Watch website is great, but it’s a big ask for people to see wildlife and then go back to the website to log their sighting,” said Brigida. “People are much more likely to capture the moment on a smartphone.”
The application enables supporters to quickly post nature sightings via their mobile device (iPhone, Blackberry or Droid) while they’re out and about. Information such as what the species is, where the sighting took place, and who made the sighting is captured, immediately posted, and fed back to the Wildlife Watch map for other visitors to see and engage with.
You then end up with a largely crowdsourced archive of species and a recent observations map that the wildlife community can enjoy for years to come.
3) Mashable touches on 5 free services for scheduling tweets (and in some cases, Facebook statuses). I list them here with brief comments. For all of these options, key items to remember
- Double-check your account settings to ensure you have the time zone set properly;
- Be sure what you schedule as a future tweet is very unlikely to be taken the wrong way;
- If your future tweet is dependent on a number of planned things going well (this is particularly true when scheduling a tweet about an event), it is probably best to tweet it live rather than schedule in advance... just in case;
- What are the implications for non-profits? Senior class gift campaigns, reunion campaigns, upcoming events like walks, runs, bake sales, lemonade stands, etc. can all use regular promotion. Rather than monopolize your time and cause you stress, you can sit down in your "social media allotted time" and schedule such messages for the next few days.
Later Bro - interfaces with Twitter & Facebook
Twaitter (Which Mashable notes will soon be renamed "gremlin") - The coolest feature about this one? The ability to translate your tweet into other languages! The scheduler-soon-to-be-formerly-known-as-Twaitter also has direct integration with one of my favorite services, Ping.fm, which allows you to use this service to post to Hi-5, Facebook, MySpace, FriendFeed and the plethora of options Ping allows.
FutureTweets - Mashable dubs this "Best for Anyone Up To No Good" because of the ability to post a status update that states it was posted "from the Web" rather than through FutureTweets. I am a big proponent of not deceiving our constituents, as I'm sure you are... so I would avoid doing so. Not that there is a big need to use that feature or a likelihood of getting "caught," but if someone knew you were being misleading with that information, they may doubt your other claims as well.
tweetsqueue - This tool may best serve non-profits who want to run a competition through Twitter. The tool allows you to regularly add tweets to your queue and tweetsqueue will post them at your preset intervals, such as every 30 minutes. The best scenario I can come up with would be for a non-profit to tweet something like:
We'll post clues 2 a special @(charity) place every 30min til someone accurately identifies it via tweet with @(charity) winner gets (prize)
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