MySpace, Facebook, and Bebo, oh my!

Social what now?

A social network service focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Users create their own ‘space’ or profile where they can post information about themselves, share pictures, find people with common interests, and keep in touch with friends or family. The most popular social networking sites include MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Youtube and Twitter.

Rates of participation in social networking sites have skyrocketed over the last five years. Arguably the world’s largest social networking site, MySpace has an estimated 110 million monthly active users ?and 300,000 new sign ups every day. An estimated 29% of MySpace users are aged 12-17. American academic Danah Boyd suggests, ‘MySpace is the civil society of teenage culture: whether one is for it or against it, everyone knows the site and has an opinion about it’.

Newer to the social networking game but growing rapidly in popularity, Facebook has over 60 million active users and according to its website, is the fourth most trafficked website in the world. It’s not just the US and UK where social networking sites are proving popular. A recent report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) found that in Australia, 72% of girls and 52% of boys aged 14-17 had their own social networking profile.


What’s in it for you?

One word. Reach. Social networking sites represent a significant opportunity to reach large numbers of young people at almost no cost. Through a simple and targeted social networking strategy you can recruit new young people and continue to engage those who are already involved. The downside? It requires a little bit of forward planning and an ongoing time commitment.

Making social networking work. As social networking sites evolve to meet the interests and needs of their users, so will the strategies that organisations can use to create and manage online communities. There are no hard and fast rules that guarantee your social networking strategy will be a resounding success, but there are few things to keep in mind:

1) Focus
Figure out what you’re there for. Do you want more young people to know about your organisation or do you want to communicate with an existing group? Keep your goals simple to start with and make sure you know what you want out your social networking strategy.

2) Keep ‘em keen
It’s not enough to add someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site. You want to keep them interested. Think about why young people would want to join or connect with your organisation via a social networking site. Are you providing them with up-to-date information? Are their opportunities on the social networking site that they can’t get anywhere else? Are you connecting them to other like-minded young people?

3) Something to do
Young people will be much more inclined to come back to a social networking profile if they can contribute to it. Have you provided space for them to upload their own content? Do you reply to comments they post on the profile?

4) Nuts and bolts
When it comes to putting your profile together, mix of text and images is important. Sites like MySpace and Facebook make it easy to upload multimedia.

If you’ve had success with a basic social networking strategy and want to dip your toe in a little deeper check these out:

• An introduction to Facebook Activism
• Bridging the Digital Divide: Creating Opportunities for marginalized young people to get connected
• Beth’s blog - interesting advice for non-profits wanting to use social networking sites
• A master’s thesis which explores the key success factors of virtual communities