
Mobilising Online Communities
Social networking sites offer new ways of informing and communicating with stakeholders who have internet access, provided that they are also members of the particular social networking site you are using. We would suggest surveying your stakeholders to see which, if any, of these sites they are using, before incorporating social networking into your campaign strategy. Different sites are popular in different regions, for example while Facebook is ubiquitous in the US and Egypt, Orkut is popular in Russia and Brazil, and Friendster dominates in the Phillipines.
These sites should be used with a certain amount of caution as many of them not only control content but may (as is the case with Facebook) not actually reveal how they use the personal data that users must give them in order to join. These are commercial ventures, and privacy is not their primary concern. Nevertheless, these sites provide unique opportunities to connect with your constituencies and the public at large.
If you are interested in using social networking sites, see wikipedia's 'List of Social Networking Sites' at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites
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MySpace is a social networking website offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music and videos internationally. Geared towards individuals who want to post information about themselves on the web.
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Facebook is a social networking site that connects people with friends and others who share similar interests. It is geared towards people who want to form networks and linkages.
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Orkut is a social networking site that connects people with friends, colleagues and family. It is geared towards people who want to form networks and linkages.
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It is a social networking site designed for connecting with your friends and finding new ones.
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Mobile application to upload photos and video from your phone to web-based services like Flickr, blip.tv, wordpress. Can tag and add comments on the phone. Back up the contacts on your phone to the web. Get others' photos, videos on your phone.
