With all the effort we put into using social media to share our own messages and stories, it’s easy to forget that the number one strength of these tools is their capacity to put people in touch with one another. Whether that’s groups of your charity’s supporters, its service-users, volunteers, staff or just folks who share some of your aims and vision, social media gets people together in ways that would otherwise often prove much more difficult.
Here are 3 ways that social media helps to empower people who share a goal or vision:
1. Facebook groups
In the days before Pages, many voluntary organisations would have used the power of Groups to connect with supporters. Groups are also a great way for individuals who share a belief in the work that your organisation is doing to come together.
It’s exciting, then, that FB has now introduced some file-sharing capabilities to its Groups… this means that you can share all manner of documents with your fellow members of the group. Just think how useful this will be for people who are working together towards a shared goal, irrespective of whether they are operating at different times of day or in different physical locations. Community groups, trustees of charities, or even Parish Councils could potentially use this new facility to share work in progress without having to leave FB to use Google Docs, say.
Read more about this new feature in Mashable.
2. Google+ Hangouts
Video conferencing used to be the stuff of science fiction. More recently it was restricted to global conglomerates. Now it’s available to everyone thanks to Google+.
Google+ already offered up to 9 people to get together online via webcam, and now it is boosting this service with what is essentially a broadcast facility. If you’re holding a meeting, public consultation or event that you want to make truly accessible to everyone, whether or not they can physically come along, then here’s your chance – and it seems to be much easier to arrange than YouTube’s previous live streaming option.
Read all about it in Masahable.
3. Go mobile
The growth in mobile access to social networks means that people can record, share and comment as they go about their day-to-day activities. Whether it’s recording an incident of fly-tipping with a tweet and hashtag, snapping a photo of a rare butterfly or sharing views or experiences of something happening in the local community, mobile makes real-time engagement possible.
Want to know more about mobile? Check out this infographic in All Facebook (especially those of you working in international development), or these general opinions pieces in Mashable or Frogloop.
