Social Networks have moved from being a buz word, to an essential element of global pop culture. From India to Brazil, youth, artists, musicians, businesses, politicians, and not for profits are embracing these new technologies in order to spread their influence and reach new audiences. Yet as Social Networking becomes more popular, the array of choices are starting to flood the average user. What do you pick with so many new options popping up everyday? Obviously, you pick what your friends are using, or in the case of NGOs, what your supporters and clients are embracing.

 

For Canadian NGOs, it is pretty hard to ignore the resounding influence of Facebook. International NGOs such as Greenpeace and Amnesty International have embraced multi-media sites like YouTube, and of course we cannot fail to mention the powerful networking platform TakingITGlobal has provided for youth leaders around the world.Yet there are some agencies that are going the extra mile by producing their own networks, such as the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s site obviously.ca. Youth Action Network has tried to embrace all of these technologies, by having both a Facebook, MySpace, Flickr and TakingITGlobal profiles. Some sites are more popularly used than others, as you can see that our MySpace account is rarely used as it has gone way out of style with Canadian youth. With all these subscriptions, our most popular network is through our website itself and our individual members. Our website gets over 50,000 hits a day, and our toolkits and web publications are some of our most popular downloads. Really it is not the amount of networks you are signed up to, but the quality of content and programming that your NGO provides which makes it the most succesful!

 

As new sites are popping up everyday, how does a NGO determine where to put its resources into? Is it worth it to construct your own site? I think that it is worth it to invest in independent social networking infastructure in order to provide a focused space for conversation, networking, and idea generation. In big sites like Facebook and MySpace, your project can get lost in all the chatter. MyBLOC.net does a great job in this regard, as they have carved out a specific space for youth activists of colour to engage and network on the issues that concern them. Yet it is also important to have a networked presence in these sites as well if that is what your target audience is engaged in daily. The trick is to find a ballance, and to also find ways to integrate existing online platforms.