Showing posts with label IMA Community. Show all posts

I've been meaning to write a post about this for a few weeks and I thought I'd better get it out before the next meetup, Talk Social and Science, on Monday (16/5/2011). Basically I just want to get my own thoughts in order.

"Net Tuesday or NetSquared Local groups are monthly events that take place in cities around the world. These events serve as a great opportunity to convene local communities to share ideas, learn from each other, and even collaborate on projects for real world impact. These gatherings provide a chance to connect for all those interested in the intersection of social technologies and social change in your local community. Members of local groups represent nonprofit organizations and foundations, government agencies and service providers, designers and developers, innovators and social entrepreneurs."

Social Media to Gain Donations & Exposure

The first two meetups seem to have focused mainly on helping charities and other non profits to gain exposure, to lead to donations, by using social media. While I agree that social media is an excellent way to get your message out there, in the long run you're still going to have the same problem of many different foundations competing for limited amounts of money. In the short run, the early adopters will likely benefit from the extra exposure and reach that social media can deliver and giving them a greater proportion of available funds, but are they really more deserving of this just because they got there first?

To see a long term benefit we need to be able to get more people to donate than normally would, and/or get each donor to give more.

Social Media Instead of Donations

Many people don't have, or want to donate, money to a cause. If we can find ways for people to use social media to help instead of giving money then we might see some more positive benefits. For example, during the Christchurch earthquake aftermath there was a Google spreadsheet of missing persons being maintained by Twitter users.

Social Media to Improve Efficiency

If we can improve efficiency we can see everyone benefiting. Charities will be able to do more 'social good' for each dollar of donations and Government departments will be able to reach, inform and help more people and give a better service. Devin touched on this with his presentation on crisis management (did the slides go up anywhere?) and this meetup's title 'Talk Social and Science' looks promising for further discussion on how social media can be used to increase efficiency.

Some Questions to Summarise

How can social media be used to...

1. Get more people to donate money than normally would?
2. Get donors to donate more often and/or larger amounts?
3. Help the cause, not associated with getting more donations?
4. Improve efficiency of processes within charities, non profits, government etc. ?

Comments Welcome!

• Foursquare Etiquette: Is there a wrong or right way to check-in?- Shai Coggins discusses the ins and out of Foursquare Etiquette. It an interesting post for someone who doesn't use Foursquare (like me) and I think it would be thought provoking for those who do.
  
• Social media: getting on with it-Michelle Prak blogs about Frocomm’s New Media Summit, a digital conference for PR professionals that she attended in Sydney.
  
• Twitter Or LinkedIn – Which Is Better? [4Mins41Secs]-A video and post by Loc Tran addressing the pros and cons of Twitter and Linkedin for business use.
  
• Content calendars are king-Another great post from Michelle Prak about using content calenders for your social media strategy.
  
• Tom Williamson (Twillyon) Interview-This is my interview with Tom Williamson, I think there's some helpful tips in here for everyone.
  
• How Rad is Foursquare 3.0?-Tom 'Twillyon' Williamson, social media expert, blogs about his take on Foursquare 3.0.
  
• .HtAccess 301 Redirect Generator Tool-Another free web development tool from Tony McCreath.
  
• The Search Engine Battle – Google Versus The Rest- A thought provoking article about the looming battle between Google and the Facebook/Bing social search engine.
  

A selection of digital marketing content pulled from various Adelaide bloggers, tweeters, youtubers and other sources over the past few weeks. I'd like to turn this into a regular post, perhaps weekly or bi-weekly, if people find it valuable.

Top Blog Posts

• 5 Reasons I don't Support Group Buying Websites
  
• Don't Make Facebook the Face of Your Business
• Commonly Confused Words
• Networking Using Social Media (self plug)
• Plant Life Balance. A Campaign Making Office Life Healthy and Happier.
  

Top Videos

• Can Social Media Sell A Product? Featuring Michelle Prak.
• How To Create A Simple Facebook Application
  

Other Great Content

• So Much Said in 140 Characters - News Story
• Interview with Andrea Matthews, Social Media & Digital Communications Manager, Holden Australia - Audio Interview
  

Here's a list of Adelaide Internet Marketing Blogs, Twitter Streams and Facebook pages. The first list contains the best internet marketing blogs in Adelaide, judged by my standards. I like to see blogs that have original and interesting content, are updated at least once every two weeks, have a clear author or author's page so I know who's writing and allow comments with a link back a website of the commentor's choice.

Mission Statement: A group of business communication professionals (PR, marcomms, advertising, employee comms, etc) looking to further enhance their social media skills and knowledge about how social media impacts their work and employers/clients.- Social Media Club Adelaide

I have just created a page for Internet Marketing Adelaide on Facebook. At this point all it has is some basic information but I hope to develop it into a popular and effective tool for furthering the mission of this website.

The page will serve as a case study for Facebook pages. I will post an update at least once a week reporting how the page is going and what changes I have been making. You can help by liking the page by clicking the button in the widget in the right sidebar.

The Startup Club Adelaide is a group of 700+ highly motivated web entrepreneurs, internet consultants & technologists. We meet face to face once a month to discuss internet marketing, consulting skills, small business strategy and life over a casual beer.


I haven't had a chance to make it out to any of the events myself but I hear that they are fun, informative and great for networking. The group was started by Geoffrey Kwitko who is an internet and creative marketing consultant and web entrepreneur. You can join the group on facebook and find out more information at their website.