Friends,
The Third Sector, "the UK’s leading publication for everyone who needs to know what’s going on in the voluntary and not-for-profit sector," reports that a new social networking web system for nonprofits will be coming on-line soon. Entitled MyCharityPage, it will provide nonprofits (and maybe donors) with the ability to create their own pages describing their activities, and, like Facebook and MySpace, users will be able to create their own blogs, share videos and photos, etc.
I've signed up for their waiting list, and though it seems to be a UK thing right now, can a US version be far behind? Naturally, there will be plenty of opportunities for retailers to glom onto some of the online action. Already named are Currys, Marks & Spencer and Body Shop. As you may know from my last entry (Point of Purchase Charity Comes Under Fire), I take a dim view of businesses co-opting charitable causes.
I'm fascinated, however, by the phenomenon of social networks as being played out in two of the most popular versions, Facebook and Linkedin, both of which I joined some time back but have only now been exponentially expanding my universe of friends and contacts. It's difficult not to be pulled into the Vegas-like distractions of Facebook. Everywhere you look there's some new action, game, "funwall" posting of a friend, contest, YouTube video with people beckoning you to join in the fun (interestingly, The Third Sector also reports on a health organization in the UK that has chastised Facebook for trivializing mental disorders by allowing a light-hearted "mental health exam" to be offered throughout their network).
Linkedin is far more austere and business-like. But there's little or no action--Facebook plays into our collective ADD with all of its neon-charged commotion, and Linkedin seems pretty boring. I'm still unsure what advantages there are to being connected on these sites(though my kids tell me that it's indispensable to them) , or how much revenue they generate, but its catching on among my friends and colleagues, who seem equally perplexed as I am why we find ourselves being invited to participate in movie trivia contests or download Vampires applications.
Talk to you soon!
Bob
