Social Networking Sites

Social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, myspace, or LinkedIn are increasingly likely to provide value to nonprofits looking to have online conversations and reach new constituents. The sites are fairly different from each other, however – Facebook is particularly good at promoting discussion and events with friends and others, while Twitter is particularly good for connecting with like-minded people and the media and LinkedIn provides an interesting way to network with potential new supporters or employers.
Facebook allows you to set up a profile, and post updates, links, conversations, events, photos, videos, petitions, or even collect donations online. Users who choose to “like” you can see updates without needing to navigate to your page. Facebook has seen a huge boom in popularity and attracts huge general audiences.
Twitter lets you send out a stream of short messages called “tweets”. For instance, updates about what you’re doing, or links to resources of interest. People can choose to “follow” your tweets, and if they particularly like one they can “retweet” it. Twitter is particularly good for connecting with like-minded organizations and the media, asking questions, and providing very frequent updates.
LinkedIn is an interesting site that falls somewhere between social networking for the general public and the niche social networking sites described below. Each person sets up a profile which is similar to a resume, and can then link to other people.
Lastly, MySpace was designed to be a general interest social networking site, similar to Facebook. However, MySpace has a large emphasis on music and musicians, and today can essentially be considered a niche social media site with a music focus. It’s worth checking out, because you might still use it to reach a very specific group of people.