Chatterbox : Facebook

An Intro to Social Media

Lindsey Robbins — Tue, 19 May 2009 14:52:00 GMT

We talk about social media, just a little bit , on our Blackbaud blogs. But maybe you're wondering why you should care or you know what it is but need to know more. Where do you go to find more information? I had a friend/professional peer ask me that very question this morning. Where do you begin? Specifically she wanted to know..."if I'm looking for basic, very basic information on social media do you know of any good sites to start with?"

Here's how I responded:

Hmmm... I'm not really sure. Most of social media education is just immersing yourself in the different types of social media/networking websites. I would recommend dabbling on different websites like - Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, Delicious, StumbeUpon, feed aggregators like Google Reader, Plaxo, a wiki site like one from Wetpaint, Hulu, Flixster, Last.fm, LinkedIn, and Digg. To learn social media is to observe how different mediums online encourage community participation. How does bringing the community into the content development process change websites, media, etc? And honestly, the best sites for reading about emerging social media right now are blogs.
Here's a couple good ones to get started with -
Chris Brogan http://www.chrisbrogan.com/ (you can spend a long time on his site, he's a prolific blogger)
Beth Kanter (she does social media for nonprofits) http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/

And like I told my friend, I hope this helps! Good luck getting started and like my friend, feel free to ask questions (of me) and of those you find to observe on social media websites. I find immersion in the practice of social media the best way to learn!

Social Media and Privacy Settings

Lindsey Robbins — Fri, 15 May 2009 13:04:00 GMT

Lately, when something hasn’t been working, in between projects, or waiting for edits, I decided to try a little experiment. I wanted to see what would happen if I played with my privacy settings on some social media sites like myspace, facebook, flickr, and more. While it did make me uncomfortable because it is after all, my privacy, I wondered if the value of transparency outweighed my need to protect my own information. Which, if you think about it, is rather silly because anything you put online has no real privacy - it’s online! If you don't want something to be shared (or misused), don't use the internet! I'm one of those believers that anything can be hacked.

What does this mean for your information? Your profiles? Your social media efforts? Your organization's information?

I can't give you the answer, I can only help you question yourself and figure out the answer on your own. Because after all, the more we learn about the terms of agreement of social media websites, the better educated you are to know what you should and shouldn’t share online. When does your content suddenly become not yours? And, when does your privacy cease to be private?

What did I learn from my privacy experiment?

I had one random person contact me based on making my profile more available... Hmmm my content must not be that appealing. Lesson Learned - Transparency doesn't mean people will flock to you.
Instead, it just meant I had no clue who was seeing my information. They didn't have to ask permission first. Lesson Learned – Unless you have an analytics tool like Google Analytics, open content doesn’t yield you much insight into your users.
If you have too tight rules around privacy, it will be hard for people to find you. Lesson Learned – Make it easy for people to find and connect with you. Once they do, you can work on making the connections more meaningful.
There are so many settings you have control over on social media sites like Facebook. Lesson Learned – Take some time to browse through the settings, read the help information available, and play with what settings work for your organization. I found it’s nice to have different privacy settings on different sites depending on the content available. On a site like Facebook where I connect with family and friends in addition to my professional work, it’s nice to have more privacy.

Maybe my overall lesson learned however is that it’s easy to set custom privacy settings. However, the unsettling part is deciding what content to share and what settings work best. Never put content online you wouldn’t want the whole world to see even if it’s “private.”

Geek Speak: Facebook and Gmail sitting in a tree...X.O.O.P.I.T

Steve Pham — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 10:31:00 GMT

Facebook and Gmail sitting in a tree, how does that happen and what does Xoopit have to do with it? Well, Xoopit in a nutshell, is a Firefox plugin that integrates with Gmail. Xoopit enhances Gmail by displaying your photos, files, and videos from your emails all from within the Gmail interface. See the cool example below!

But wait...there's more!!! Xoopit just released an update to their plugin. Facebook users can now view profile photos and status updates, as well as set your own status updates in Gmail. Best yet, you can get all this for the low, low price of...FREE!

I can't wait to spend some time up that tree with Facebook and Gmail. Who knows what productivity and fun I'll be able to find up there?!

Supporting Your Causes in Facebook

Lindsey Robbins — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 19:58:00 GMT

I noticed this week that Causes in Facebook seem to have improved their ease of recruiting. I was recruited to a couple of my favorite local nonprofits and in return could invite others all without much effort. The other nice part about Causes in Facebook? Once you invite someone and they join, you can thank them! We all like thank you’s and it shows that you appreciated someone supporting your causes. The value of social networking – shared philanthropy and hope of making the world a better place.

Other Causes features I love:

Easy to Feature the cause on your profile (on your wall, info, and boxes tabs)
When you thank or recruit someone, it can show up in yours and their news feed. From the news feed, people can click to join, view, or invite people to the cause.
Hall of Fame for top recruiters – recognition!
Media Board to share links, photos, and videos
Discussion Board and Wall to spark conversations.
Easy to Donate!
And lots more, check out http://apps.facebook.com/causes for more information and to see how you too can make an impact. Halos and Fields to Families are great examples of two small nonprofits jumping into social meda!

Work/Life Balance in Facebook: a conversation continued

Lindsey Robbins — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 20:54:00 GMT

We had a couple great comments from Joe Meehan and Ayesha Dawson on Work / Life Balance in Social Networking. Joe gave some great examples on how he separates business and personal. Ayesha shared a great link about a couple articles on work/life balance of Facebook.

NY Times Article – The Media Equation: Hey, Friend, Do I Know You?
By DAVID CARR

Harvard Business Publishing Online Conversation Starter – Why I'm Dropping You as a Facebook Friend
Posted by Paul Michelman on July 21, 2008 9:13 AM

Both these authors didn’t find professional value in Facebook. So what does that mean for you?

Well, here’s what I would recommend. I still recommend you create an account, why? because one, learning how the social media is consumed is an important lesson to learn. And two, you don’t have to use Facebook in the same method these two businessmen did. They were looking to create valuable business connections through their personal profile. In that respect, I can see how it might fall short. The friend-to-friend aspect yields more social results than business results.

However, if you’re an organization, how would you get value from facebook? Here are some ways…

Create a community around your organization. Get to know your volunteers and donors better. Yup, more constituent relationship management.
Do you have a talented developer on your team? Challenge him or her to develop a custom application for Facebook that your supporters could add and share. Seek out successful applications and think way outside the box of fun ways you could use it for your organization.

Example - My Detroit Red Wings application shares the next game information and sends news updates to my email along with fun things like pictures and trivia. What could you imitate from an application like this? Well, would you want to share your event calendar and perhaps an rss news feed from your website? Applications are also fun ways to support causes, see the Green Patch application. It created a fun garden people could add plants and send plants. When people add the application and view the sponsors, the sponsors contribute money towards the cause (in this case saving the rainforest) and your supporters learn more about your mission.
Create a Page or Cause for your organization. How do you use it successfully? Seek out success stories on Facebook and emulate.

Page example –
Barack Obama has 1,351,344 supporters on his page. Can you imagine having a million supporters of your organization? Maybe not, but if you had 100-1,000 quality supporters what would that mean for your mission?

Cause example–
Support The Campaign for Cancer Prevention has 3,315,009 members and $70,647 donated. Not bad for a social media effort where your supporters become your advocates. Maybe you won't generate $70K in your first year, but I'm never one to turn away a dollar.

Need some examples of things you can do with your page or cause?

Publish stories in the mini-feed (push out mini news stories). But, make sure it’s short, sweet, and not too often. You want to saturate the audience with information not soak them until they drown in TMI (too much information).
Post pictures & videos = integrate your multimedia efforts with your social networking efforts
Post volunteer opportunities
Solicit feedback on your wall
Post exclusive content to reward your Facebook supporters
Post links to your important content on your website (draw visitors to your main marketing efforts)
Give away free stuff? Well, it’s free for them but perhaps part of your marketing budget (if you have one)
Find unique ways to encourage your supporters to network with each other, developing a community of their own willingness. Can you get your supporters to ask their friends to sign up? The more supporters you have, the more your message is transmitted.
Provide transparency. People want to know why you love what you do and why your mission is important. Facebook is an opportunity to genuinely share your story. Young people need to hear the story; we need to know why before we get invested in a mission. Facebook is an opportunity for you to share before you make the pitch.

What do you think? Can you dip your toes in the Facebook social networking pool? And remember, just because you did a canonball and created a profile doesn't mean you have to know everything about being sucessful on Facebook overnight. Start small, learn more each day, and before you know it, your constituent management, BBNC, and social networking efforts will all work together in harmony to promote and cultivate your mission. When that happens, you've officially mastered web 2.0 and social media. It's all about integratiing your efforts and creating community in new mediums.

Oh and when that happens, do be sure to share your story. I love hearing stories of how people forged new paths online.

Let's Talk About Facebook

Lindsey Robbins — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:52:00 GMT

With all the buzz around social networking in BBNC 5.5, I’m very excited about the possibilities. But are you still wondering what Facebook is all about? First I’ll give you a background on my experiences with Facebook and then some recommendations on how to join the Facebook culture. After all, it may seem easy to join but in order to really fit in and build your community you need to understand how this social network operates.

My Background

I joined Facebook in grad school at Clemson, circa 2004-2005, when it was strictly a student website. Admittedly it was for social/fun reasons. It was launched as more of a virtual yearbook. First thing I liked was leaving fun messages on people’s walls especially if it involved complaining about a tough class. I spent a lot more time on Facebook in this era than MySpace. I’ve always been this way because the Facebook interface is much more simple, easy to edit, and yet rigid enough to enforce style standards. No crazy designs from people without visual communication skills. Some MySpace pages are just too hard to read with all the flashing items and weird color combinations.

Since this era, I’ve watched as the website has evolved from connecting people, to communicating on each other’s “walls”, to the new ways to communicate. You can now comment on pictures, notes, groups, pages, 3rd party apps, and more. Facebook has also improved on a steady pace without too many technological glitches which in my eyes has solidified its role in social media much more so than MySpace despite the user numbers. Many people might have MySpace pages but are they as active and interactive as they are on Facebook?

Facebook has staying power especially when it opened itself up to everyone and not just students. Students make great test subjects though, don’t they? Young, computer savvy, lots of free time (I mean who studies and goes to class), and they eventually become your target consumer market when they graduate college.

Also during this time, I was working as an Instructional Technology Mentor on a grant through Clemson's Strom Thurmond Institute with Boys & Girls Clubs of America. The main focus of the grant… online communities. Seems funny to me now how these two separate experiences would merge and provide valuable expertise as I try to make sense of how communication is changing.

My Recommendations –

Don’t just drink the Facebook kool-aid. Fill a pool with it and do a big cannonball. How?
Sign up for a free account. Add your basic information. Add your picture. Yes, a picture of you is a must. People don’t like looking at avatars or buildings. They really do want to see a real person.
Import your email address book and find your friends, family, co-workers, long lost school mates from 1995, and even a few acquaintances.
*** Need help, check out the Help section. Link is at the bottom of the page. ***
Write on someone’s wall. See what it’s like to communicate asynchronously for the whole world to see.
Add some photos from a recent family vacation or a fun work outing. This shows people you are human and approachable.
Add every stupid application your friends invite you to. You can become a vampire, add pieces of flair (think Office Space), share your favorite books, and even share a map of all the places in the world you’ve been. The more time you spend on apps figuring out what can and can’t be done, the better for you later. Applications enable you to integrate social media efforts as well as learn how you might eventually use one to your organization’s benefit. Applications may be annoying at times but there’s a lot to learn here.
Spend time learning about Groups, Causes, and Pages.
Groups =
Anyone can create one. Majority are silly but some are useful. Can be about any topic. Check out the biggest groups on Facebook. What information are they sharing on there?
Causes =
External application built on the Facebook Platform by Project Agape. A cause can be created by anyone on Facebook to organize people towards collective action. Join a few of your own favorite causes. Watch, learn, and take notes. Which ones annoy you and which ones provide benefit?
Pages =
Created by Facebook to help people connect in a way that wasn’t being achieved with groups. People can now connect and support brands, artists, businesses, and more. You might even discover a few pages you might want to learn more about. Also, pay attention to what pages your friends care about. How can you use this “friend network” to your advantage? This is a great time for brainstorming after you spend time on groups, causes, and pages.
Visit Facebook often and check out the news feed. What kinds of information are you finding out about your “friends.”
Update your profile information often. Don’t be static. People need to be regularly engaged. Also, pay attention to what information is shared in your personal news feed.
Learn about the privacy settings. Consider what part of your information should be seen by all, in your network, friends of friends, or just your friends. You can even make it so some information is seen only by yourself.

What Not to Do -

Don’t poke people. Poking was kinda fun when Facebook started but now it’s just there out of legacy and not actual use. People in the know don’t spend time poking anymore.
Don’t update your status every minute and especially not with mundane stuff. If you were calling or emailing a friend, what important status would they want to know. I’m guessing they don’t want to know that you just ate a slice of pizza and are watching reruns of Family Guy.
Don’t over share. You can tell who’s spending TOO much time on Facebook. You quickly realize who actually has a life and who just has a life on Facebook.
Don’t be too serious or skeptical. Have a little fun with an open mind so you can better understand why part of your target audience is really into connecting others in this way. Try to understand why people really get into facebook even if it’s not your thing. Who knows you might just have fun re-connecting with people you haven’t thought about since the times of braces, bad hair, and youthful optimism.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the overview. Next, I’ll try to talk about some cool ways you might want to use Facebook to help promote your organization and build your community.