Why I hate facebook or what social media shall we use today?

By Peter Fleck at MN Extension Service

Beth Kanter is attending this session...

My note: My blogging is a bit handicapped as I just gave myself the mother of all paper cuts on a fairly thick manilla folder. Ouch!

Social Network (Dana Boyd) (I've heard of her... great article about MySpace/Facebook dichotomy):

• Construct a public or semi-public within a bounded system.
• Atriculate a list of other users with whom you share a connection.
• View and traverse your list of connections and those made by others within the system.

Cool, but specifically, what can you do?

• Find long-lost high school friends.
• Make new friends.
• Find work.
• Collaborate.
• Market. Have to be careful, though... if you're blatantly marketing, ppl would chew you out.
  
• Connect by sharing. Sharing a part of yourself in the network. Might be what you're interested in.

Some work cultures are not social media friendly. (How can you tell, though? --e)

Can find support from folks doing the same kind of work.

How private and sensitive is your data?
Issues in small towns: people know alot about you!

Facebook
60,000,000 "active users" (what is an active user?)

Peter's problems with FB:
* Invites: so many aps ask you to spam your friends.
* FB interface is kind of clunky and nonintuitive; not a web interface. (My note: I think it's much better than MySpace.)
* FB "feels slow" (I wonder how so?)
* Irritating applications (e.g. "vampires", "zombies" aps) (My note: I agree! That stupid FunWall spam--telling me messages sent to other friends--so annoying!)
* Spam: friends using aps can be used in ads, as if they are recommending that program (also annoying)

FB doesn't share well--it's a silo.

Ning.
Create your own social community.
Fundraising.com

Google
Share maps
Share docs
Map out buildings of campus for other folks to use
Google Streetview (very cool--get 360 view of a point on the street)

Google OpenSocial -- work at MySpace, LinkedIn, etc.
* Apache 2.0 license. Owned by Open Social.org, open source.
* NYT, Nike, PayPal, others that use this standard.
* FB considering it.

Twitter
* Officially about 1 1/2 years old. Answer question: what are you doing? Or answer question: what are you paying attention to at the moment?
* What's really amazing: can access it through multiple systems (e.g. IM, widgets, Twirl, texting from cell phone, etc.)
* Can follow like-minded people.
* Can direct message folks without others reading it. However, replies don't in themselves give context... context is timeframe in which you tweet, or you give context of reply.
* Status reports. Doesn't have to be open to the world.
* Aggregate and publish links from many posts.
* Announce blog posts and podcasts.

Q/A gleanings...

Beth Kanter's wiki

Easter Seals has a social networking policy that Beth will blog about soon.

A CEO who is the "face" of the organization on, say, Facebook, doesn't have to actually maintain the the profile... but have a staffer that maintains & briefs the CEO on what comes in from the profile.

How do you measure success, and how to document this?
socialmediametrics.wikispaces.com
Don't be obsessed about numbers... qualitative info helps to understand the numbers.

Twitter, continued again...

Beth talked about America's Giving Challenge... Beth started by blogging her ideas for winning the contest. Though there was a risk of other folks running with Beth's ideas... she's found that openness in the beginning is helpful.

Strategy was to make it personal. Not just about the charity, but the personal message of WHY this particular charity was connected to the fundraiser in a personal way.

Stories strategy: tell stories about the kids, the supporters and how they moved through levels of engagement, and about what was learned, mistakes, best practices.

Three Rs of Networking:
Relationship building
Rewards
Reciprocity

It's not support my cause... it's creating community.

Strategy: fun, easy.

What's better than a bday celebration? Beth asked folks to give $10.

Went to YouTube and tested four versions of videos:
* humorous
* 3 others

Twitter: can Beth get x number of folks to donate $10 by such and such a date?

Facebook: IDd evangelists fundraisers.

125 ppl donated
145 bday wishes
180 ppl clicked on Beth's baby birthday suit pic!

Beth's bday went, but still had time in the contest... so interacted with folks via blogs, twittering, etc. Beth fell into second place and did a Twitter run to put her back into first place.

Paypal integration really important. Makes it easier for folks to contribute.

Traditional campaign with Cambodia for Kids board members (did I get the right org name here?)--anyway, they did the face to face, pounding the pavement strategy.

Beth was unconnected from the internet for six hours on a flight... and landed to being on 5th place! Emergency outreach to her network... Twitter, Facebook, Hi5, bloggers came out--an Indian doctor retweeted Beth's request to thousands of other Indian doctors (in India) and they gave... and Beth/Cambodian Kids won!

Kids in Cambodia said "thank you."

Lessons learned:
Let the dogs out.
Stories work. Make it personal.
Urgency, fun, humor, competitive spirit. Thank people in fun and engaging ways.

Twitter, continued...

Can use Twitter to build community...
* Like NTC08... see all tweets related to the event in one place
* Qwitter (stop smoking support)
* Tweet what you eat (for folks managing diabetes or monitoring what they eat)
* Cancer support: Fridays, add a pea to avatar... raising money for cancer... so THAT'S what that pea stuff is all about!
* Used Twitter in natural disasters to hear if people are okay. Red Cross has pilot project--how can Twitter help in an emergency?

Erin's notes: Here's what I think is really useful about Twitter: you can text a group of people really quickly. The tech I've seen to accomplish that is usually subscription based -- but maybe I just haven't seen the full array of options : )

It also seems to be really great as a back channel of communication during a live event.

Beth says that after a community -- of your friends, or nptech colleagues, or whatever -- you can use it to find a quick babysitter, a quick response of particular case studies, to raise money for social causes.