The late Roy Castle

Alongside all the other FB news, there were 2 pieces of speculation this week which are worth taking a moment to consider. The first was the suggestion that Facebook are planning on buying the fourth most popular web browser, Opera. The second, that a FB smartphone is in the offing.

Do either of these stories (if true) actually matter? In my POV, yes, they do, as they may represent a stepping up of what you might call the Integration Game of social media.
Think about it: at the moment we do our web browsing in one place, our social networking in another, and use a third bit of technology, a smartphone, to access both of these plus a whole range of apps. Social media, while absorbing to many of us, is an addition to what we might otherwise be doing. But integration of our online world is stealing a march on us.

Even before a potential FB browser and phone, the Bing search engine has brought social media even more closely into its results, and Google is already bringing its utilities, search, video sharing and social network into one coherent whole (and last week also bought mobile phone manufacturer, Motorola).

We have been used to thinking that perhaps social media was the icing on the cake, but this level of connectedness between different online services promotes it straight off the sweet trolley and into the main course.

Are we ready to integrate our own systems and approaches to match these new developments? Can we make sure that our service-users, donors and supporters can get what they need from us? Is everyone in our organisations convinced that social media is a central part of how we work?

Here are a couple of resources that might help:

• 9 Ways to Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing
• Nonprofits Must Tear Down Their Marketing Silos
• CEOs Are Finally Warming Up to Social Media

Tell us what you think…

PS. For anyone asking themselves why there is a picture of Roy Castle on this post, click here.

YouTube’s blog posting that launched the new channel clearly addresses the perhaps unlooked-for role of the video uploading site in various human rights movements, such as the different elements of the Arab Spring, Iranian democracy struggles and ’99%’ protests. With viewing figures of a staggering 4 billion videos watched per day (click here for more official stats or, for more digestible fare, look at this infographic), it’s good to see that YouTube sees its role as something more than a repository for videos of cats on bicycles and the like.

Now part of the Google family, it has also taken the canny step of integrating the new channel with Google+, offering activists an online space to make connections and hold conversations.

Take a look at the new channel here – what do you think?

So here they are:

1. Page Admin app.
Now there’s no excuse for not keeping up with your duties as Page Admin: you can use a new iPhone app to do your housekeeping. There are various bits of information about this, take your pick from Mashable, the very detailed All Facebook and the even more detailed Not for Profit Facebook Guy.

2. Facebook Policy Hub
In response to generalised confusion and upset about Facebook’s notoriously complicated privacy settings and policies, the network has brought all its policies into one place with the launch of the Policy Hub. Read all about it in Mashable or All Facebook

3. The App Centre
More of a shop window for apps, than a store itself (apparently), the new FB app centre brings you all the apps you can eat – of both the FB and mobile flavours. More on this, including a very useful FAQ, from Mashable

4. Video Hangouts
Move over, Google+, Facebook is muscling in on the video hangout with the revelation that OoVoo has been making its free multi-person hangout available on FB over the past few months. Offering 12-person conferencing compared to the 9 of G+, this looks like it will be a popular feature – and, indeed, over 300,000 people have already used it. All very sci fi, if you ask me. Check out more details on Mashable or All Facebook.

This is all in addition to the existing Facebook video app, Rounds, which has now started to offer ‘social matching’ to connect you with like-minded folks for a video chat (hmm, shades of Chatroulette, methinks). More dets from All Facebook.

That’s all folks!

Pinterest, the online pin and share board, has really leapt into the headlines in the last few months. With reports that it is now occupying the bronze medal spot after Facebook and Twitter, even worries that its exponential growth may be slowing a bit or doubts about the validity of studies suggesting that Pinterest users may spend more than their cousins on Facebook, don’t detract from its attraction as the new social tool to watch. (And if you need more convincing, check out these figures, video stats and infographic).

Well, that’s all well and good and we all like a shiny new toy, but what (if anything) does it mean for the voluntary sector? How can we use the strengths of the new tool to get more exposure and more engagement with the work of our organisations?

To help us in our ponderings, here are some thoughts and suggestions from around the blogosphere:

• Frogloop comes up with several very good reasons to answer the question Pinterest: Is It Really Worth Your Time? This post also has a good infographic about the tool.
• Great advice and examples from Avi Kaplan in his post Steal These 42 Creative Pinterest Ideas for Nonprofits
• Nick Watts has some excellent suggestions about how to use Pinterest to support the work your organisation is already doing: Pinterest as a marketing tool

Is your charity using Pinterest? Tell us what you’re doing!

1. How to use social media to learn online: penned by Madeleine Sugden (aka @madlinsudn), this is a great guide to using the resources of the social net to boost your knowledge and skills.

2. Social media guidance for civil servants – this looks like a good resource for any organisation, but may be of particular interest to colleagues from local government and other statutory bodies. (Thanks to The Wall Blog for this link).

3. When and how to use social media:
Ok, this is technically more of an infographic than a how-to guide, but it makes you think carefully about how your organisation should be using social media, and I think that’s as good as a how-to any day.

Great for illustrating your presentations, wooing your bosses or just enlightening yourself about important world issues, this selection from Next Starfish is great for us voluntary-sector types.

Check out the list, here.

All this may leave us wondering whether it’s worth investing our charities’ time and efforts in building a following on Facebook, or whether we should be looking for the Next Big Thing.

I am no particular fan of Facebook, as regular readers of this blog will know, but these are my 3 reasons for sticking with it:

1. There are still 900 million active users of this social network. It doesn’t matter if some of those people are also users of other networks, it’s a lot of people, some of whom MUST be the groups that your organisation wants to engage with. Providing a bit of info about your charity’s work on Facebook is a relatively quick and painless way to bring it to the attention of more people, and should be seen as just one of the methods you’re using to reach out to potential service-users, supporters, donors and future staff or volunteers.

2. Facebook provides an easy and accessible way for user-groups and other motivated people to connected with like-minded folks. Don’t fret about website building and domain names, just set up a page or a group, grab your ‘vanity url’ and Bob’s your uncle. With multiple admins and the ability to host pictures, video, and posts from your peers Facebook really is a good resource for a grassroots group.

3. Facebook’s growth varies across the globe and in some countries is still growing very strongly. All Facebook reports that India, currently lying third in the list of top users of FB, will soon overtake the US for top spot. With the other countries in the top 5 being Brazil, Indonesia and Mexico, this must be of real interest to charities working in different regions. Find out some more fascinating stats here.

Whatever your POV on Facebook, whether it will be here tomorrow is moot: it’s here today and we have to deal with it. Want more resources? Try these on for size:

• Facebook Timeline: 9 Best Practices for Brands
• Boost your engagement with Timeline: Timeline For Pages Ups Facebook Post Engagement By 13 Percent
• How to Use Facebook Ads To Promote Your Facebook Page (Video Tutorial)

And find out more about Facebook by checking out the infographic The History Of Facebook, Timeline-Style and The Beginner’s Guide to Facebook.

It’s no different, surely, with social media. We may not be sure how to create honest and engaging content for our social media campaigns, but we know it when we see it. Faked up enthusiasm for products, or blatant advertising for brands, is going to make us reach for the Back button faster than you can say ‘phoney’.

But as workers in the voluntary and community sector we have an advantage, because by and large we believe in the campaigns we are running and the causes we champion. More than that, we have squadrons of people for whom our work is important. Getting those people to connect and tell their stories is a brilliant way of using social media to share information and garner support for the work of our organisations.

Some examples, please? Well, how about the Journey with Prostate Cancer Facebook page? Set up by Gabe Canales when he was diagnosed with this illness, it has provided a space for people affected by this cancer to connect with and support each other. Read about the development of this page on All Facebook.

And there’s the various networks of support that are brought together by the MyHealthTeam website (and which I’ve mentioned before on this blog)… check out this Mashable article.

Oxfam International also use personal stories to bring the issues of war, famine and drought into sharper focus and make them real enough for site visitors to help do something about them.

These are just three examples and I’m sure we could come up with loads more. But all these examples show how bringing people together to share genuine stories of their experiences can, when respectfully handled, supercharge the messages our charities are trying to convey.

More advice about getting your stories across:

• 4 Ways to Tell Better Stories Through Digital
• 4 Tips For Authentic Online Engagement
• And, despite its title: 3 Ways Companies Can Leverage Social Reviews

… oops, for some reason WordPress is not letting me embed the video, but do follow the link – it’s well worth a look.

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.