The greater good of social media

Social media is becoming one of the most prominent ways for people to promote their business and it turns out that charities are no exception to this rule.

According to a new report by the Institute of Philanthropy, social media is playing a very key role in charity fundraising bids, reports Third Sector.

This type of media is having a huge impact on securing donations, with charities becoming increasingly reliant upon the channel to raise money, connect with their supporters and deliver their services.

According to the institute, there are plenty of charity organisations, groups and individuals who are successfully managing to harness the tool to “great effect”. “Some have completely revolutionised their work by using social media,” the report adds.

Through running social media campaigns, charities are able to direct their existing backers to online and mobile fundraising portals and they’re even able to get people to donate via text.

The report encourages service providers to use the power of social media to their advantage – they should be taking feedback on board and engaging with their supporters through the channels available to them.

One of the best things about social media, both for charities and other businesses, is the fact it is so low cost. You can obviously use the platform to varying degrees, but it’s possible to use it completely free of charge, making it great particularly for small firms and organisations with a limited marketing budget.

The key to making social media work for you is all about engagement. As long as you engage with your customer base, you’ll reap the benefits of the channel. You don’t have to spend lots of money to make it work, but you definitely need to invest plenty of time if you want your campaign to be effective.

What better time to embrace online marketing than now?

If you’ve ever needed concrete proof that online marketing really is the way forward, the latest PwC/Internet Advertising Bureau report should do exactly that.

Online advertising spend has now hit a record high of £2.26 billion, driven largely by increased investment in social media and video by FCMG companies.

In the first half of this year, brands spent significantly more money marketing themselves through online mediums than on TV, showing the uptake of internet advertising is showing no signs of slowing.

Online advertising now accounts for 27 per cent of the market share, with 58 per cent of its revenues derived from search marketing, 23 per cent from display ads and 17 per cent from classified.

IAB chief executive Guy Phillipson described the growth of video and social media as “spectacular”. If online marketing continues in its popularity, it’ll definitely be the best way to advertise your business.

Social media is allowing brands to engage with their customers in a way they couldn’t previously, which is leading to vastly improved customer service. The way people use the internet is changing and in order to cash-in on your customers, you need to have an evolved way of thinking when it comes to advertising.

While people obviously still watch TV, they increasingly spend time online and this is the expanding market which you need to take advantage of if you want to widen your customer base.

Social media allows both you and the consumer to spread the message of your brand so it’s important to harness online marketing tools in order to boost your business’s performance.

Online advertising is only going to become more popular over the coming years, so it makes sense for you to push hard towards the digital age.

Can social media be used for the greater good during rioting?

The recent UK riots rocked the country, with widespread looting and mayhem taking hold across London, as well as Liverpool, Birmingham and Manchester.

With the accused rioters still being dragged through the courts – one of the youngest to receive a sentence so far being an 11-year-old from Romford, east London – the question still remains as to what or who was responsible for the events.

The government was quick to accuse the rise of social media for the demise of society, with David Cameron (who was conveniently absent when the riots kicked off) claiming Twitter, Facebook and even BlackBerry messengers were to blame for the public disorder.

Cameron’s knee-jerk response was to assert that suspected rioters should be banned from using social networking sites during times of unrest. However, he has since backtracked on the threat, deciding against bringing in some form of censorship if looting occurs again.

Some believe social networking was entirely to blame for the riots. And perhaps it could be argued that without the medium, fewer people would have been aware as to where the rioting and looting were taking place.

However, the clean-up campaign was swift as well, and, without Twitter users garnering support, that would not have happened quite so quickly.

When civil unrest occurred in Egypt earlier this year, the country’s president, Hosni Mubarak, was quick to ban all use of social networking.

Many commentators believe that this resulted in more persistent protesting taking place in even more areas around the country, as people felt incensed by the government’s decision to take away this tool of expression from them.

The UK government’s U-turn on their plans probably had very little to do with this theory and had far more to do with the international community’s reaction to Cameron’s proposals.

But either way, the coalition has decided to use social media for good, not evil, during times of unrest. According to the Home Office, the government is focusing on the ways in which law enforcement agencies could work with the social networks in times of need.

In a statement, it said two parties discussed the ways in which they “can build on the existing relationships and cooperation to prevent the networks being used for criminal behaviour”.

Hopefully, rioting and looting won’t become a regular form of protest in the UK. But at least if it does, social networking is unlikely to be branded the sole driving force behind it and perhaps it can be harnessed for the greater good instead.

Has Google+ blown it already?

Asking motor manufacturer Ford whether it’s male or female isn’t the most auspicious of starts for a social networking site but that’s exactly what happened when the company decided to get involved with Google+.

By way of response, Google held up its hands and admitted the social networking site wasn’t quite ready for business users just yet, and asked them to bear with it while things were sorted out.

“We just ask for your patience while we build it. In the meantime, we are discouraging businesses from using regular profiles to connect with Google+ users. Our policy team will actively work with profile owners to shut down non-user profiles,” product manager Christian Oestlien said.

The search giant is in the strange position of launching a social media site when it already has a well established brand, meaning that it’s having to iron out its problems in public. Few people had any idea what MySpace and Facebook were when they launched, meaning they could clear up any potentially embarrassing issues without anyone noticing. Whenever Google+ slips up, it’s inevitably going to be all over the internet.

But will this admission that it’s not ready for business users harm Google+? Probably not. With all the hype surrounding the social network it would be easy to forget that it’s not actually fully live yet, it’s on a “limited field trial”. Basically, Google is working out the glitches before unleashing the thing on the world, meaning the impact of any problems will be limited. Not only will it help ensure Google+ works as well as it can, it will help reduce bad publicity when things inevitability go wrong because fewer people will be affected.

However, if a major problem comes to light after the limited field trial ends then Google+ could be in for a very tough time.

Can Foursquare go from game to social commerce winner?

Half a million users may not seem like a lot, especially when you consider around 750 million people are currently signed up to Facebook, but for Foursquare the 500,000 mark may prove to be a significant milestone.

Explaining what Foursquare is to someone who hasn’t used it is far from straightforward – part social network, part game it also offers discounts to users. It works by allowing people to “check in” when they enter a real-world building and the person who checks in most often becomes the “mayor” of that particular location. Competing for the position of mayor is the game element of things, but once businesses get involved that’s where the discount side comes in.

Companies can provide special offers for people who check in and even offer bigger discounts for anyone who claims the title of mayor. This is why the half-a-million mark could be so significant for Foursquare – it doesn’t represent the number of people who have signed up, but the number of businesses that are now using the service to reach customers.

It’s important because the service obviously needs to reach a tipping point in order to boost the number of people signing up to Foursquare. It’s got ten million users at the moment, but once it’s able to provide consumers with access to so many special offers it becomes almost silly not to register that figure should increase rapidly.

Quite where that tipping point lies remains to be seen – it’s unlikely half a million businesses will be enough, but more will sign up and when enough have done so Foursquare could become a major player in social networking.

In fact, its business model of building a social network side by side with sales elements means it could have a significant advantage when it comes to social commerce, especially as Facebook has found it difficult to turn fans and friends into customers.

With Foursquare members already used to the service acting as a conduit between them and businesses it’s not too much of a leap to imagine them using it to make purchases. If Foursquare can crack the ecommerce problem then it will have a significant advantage over many of its rivals, no matter how many users they have signed up right now.