March 2009-- Global Faces and Networked Places A Nielsen report on Social Networking’s New Global Footprint

Social Networking has been the global consumer phenomenon of 2008. Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit a social network or blogging site and the sector now accounts for almost 10% of all internet time. ‘Member Communities’ has overtaken personal Email to become the world’s fourth most popular online sector after search, portals and PC software applications.

The story is consistent across the world, ‘Member Communities’ has taken a foothold in every major market from 50% of the online population in Switzerland and Germany to 80% in Brazil. Facebook has become the largest player on the global stage, dominant in many countries, yet localised offerings have won the day in many others.

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With over 200 faculty members spread across locations in Orlando, Florida, New York, and Salt Lake City, JetBlue wanted to make it easy for JetBlue University faculty to collaborate and communicate among each other, as well as support more ideas from the bottom-up rather than top-down. To do so, JetBlue turned to internal blogs, wikis, and other social media tools to help its corporate training team share knowledge.

Iowa State Education Association members are calling law makers to task over recent education funding cuts.

ISEA members will leverage social media tools such as Twitter and Web forums to let all Iowans know that legislators, by making a decision to cut Phase I funding in order to reach a balanced budget, have failed to ‘Keep the Promise” to take Iowa up to 25th in the nation in average teacher salaries.

This ISEA Members' driven campaign wants to know "Governor Culver, what will you do?"

NEA's fan page on Facebook continues to realize steep growth especially among 25- to 34-year-old females. NEA has begun interacting more with its fan base by engaging it in responding to relevant content such as Thank a Teacher and information about swine flu and its impact on schools. Response has been very positive.

Additionally, cross-Web application use has had a positive impact on fan's willingness to engage with NEA--e.g., we encouraged our Twitter community to "Thank a Teacher" by sending a tweet with a message thanking educators. NEA Twitter followers were asked to tag their tweet with "#teachersrock."

NEA reposted member involvement back to the NEA fan page and listed members who participated in the NEA "twitter bomb" as "Winners!"

Sign-up on both NEA Twitter and Facebook accounts averages between 15 to 30 member/non-member subscribers per day.

Membership: Twitter, 500 followers (members, news media, etc.); Facebook Fan Page, 1,453

NEA has established a tag name to track real-time tweets from delegates as they tweet from San Diego. The tag name "#neara09" will help those who are attending the RA keep members who are back at home up-to-date with the RA action.

NEA's fan page along with some affiliates have begun intitating social-media-connected members to the tag by asking them to respond via Twitter whether they will be in San Diego: #neara09 YES I WILL!

NEA may include an awareness document about the twitter tag inside delegate packets. Additional efforts to brand the tag with members are in the planning stage.

NEA will also use the same tag name on Flickr to aggregate and display association and member photographs on its Facebook Fan Page.

Today’s special feature is…you!!!

Yes, you. It is all about you and the skills, insights, and dedication that you bring to the Gateway to 21st Century Skills. Our membership applications are up since our technologic backend revamp of the website. The speed and efficiency that came from those technical improvements have made our numbers soar and the number of people bookmarking the Gateway is unbelievable.

Now, it is time to focus on what the Gateway to 21st Century Skills can do to bring more of our member’s talents, interests and enthusiasm to the forefront.

Executive Director Diny Golder and Project Manager Bruce Walker met with Don Blake of NEA Public Relations, at the NEA headquarters in Washington DC last month to plan and map out the upcoming advances in the evolution of the Gateway to 21st Century Skills.

[repost from The Marketing Technology Blog]

Too many companies have been diving first and then trying to sort out the issues later but I believe this could severely handicap a company’s success. Too often, we don’t get a second chance to implement a social media strategy. There’s a growing graveyard of abandoned social media projects, including corporate blogs, started by companies with talented employees and great intentions.

Of all the storylines emerging from the historic 2008 elections perhaps none has more impact on the future of our country than the rise of the Millennial Generation. These young 18- to 29-year-old Americans born between 1978 and 2000 represent the largest and most diverse generation in American history. Last year, their record turnout and overwhelming support for Barack Obama—as well as Democrats up and down the ballot— delivered a decisive victory and signaled a turning point in our country’s political history.

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The 2008 election saw strong shifts toward progressives among almost all growing demographic groups in the United States. Conversely, conservatives typically retained strength only among stagnant or declining groups. The result is a demographic landscape sharply tilted toward progressives, a tilt that is only likely to increase in years to come.

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Facebook Fan Finds Cafe Filled With Friends

By IRENE PAPOULIS

May 31, 2009

As an "old person," which is my 13-year-old son's term for anyone who grew up before computers, I really like Facebook, as do increasing numbers of my peers. But I'm often on the defensive when I try to explain why I like the popular social networking website.