social media in a virtual world
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TRANSCRIPT
Social Media in a Virtual World
A Communications Overview for Nonprofit Commons in Second Life
March 2010
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NPC Serves Virtual and Real World Communities
Nonprofit Commons (NPC) is a 4-sim archipelago in Second Life. Housing over 80 social benefit organizations from around the globe, NPC is managed by volunteers under the leadership of TechSoup
Global.
NPC & Techsoup Groups
Second Life Community
Professional Network Outside SL
Advocacy & Outreach Community
Active Tenants & Volunteers
Communications Objectives
Use communication channels to galvanize community interaction.
Integrate 2D and 3D communication tools as much as possible.
Deploy and efficiently maintain a steady social media communication stream about nonprofit activities.
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NPC Community Interaction is Rich and Diverse
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Inworld and Outworld Tools Used
Increasing potential for reaching communities in both the virtual and physical world.
NPC Community - Many Communication Options
Local chatGroup chat
Group noticesInstant Messaging
VoiceAudio/VideoNotecards
Interactive DisplaysPresentation Tools
Mixed Media applications
Inworld (SL) Outworld (Flat Web)
WebsiteBlogsEmail
Google applications
Social Media• Twitter
• Facebook• LinkedIn• YouTube
• Flickr• Avatars United
• Plurk
Expanding Inworld Flow
Limited Outworld Flow
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Diverse Audience Inworld & Outworld
How can the use of social media assist this transformation?
NPC Community - Communications Challenge
Transform
Somewhat engagedOccasionalImpersonalShort-term
From
Passionately committedConstantIntimate
Loyal
To
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NPC community interacts on three levels:
1. Within Second Life as NPC tenants, volunteers and NPC/Techsoup group members
2. Across Second Life with other individuals and groups
3. In our real world interactions with each other, our colleagues, interested friends and related organizations
NPC & Techsoup Groups
Second Life Community
Professional Network Outside
SL
Advocacy & Outreach
Community
Active Tenants & Volunteers
Three Virtual World/Real World Levels of Interaction
LEVEL 3
Real World
LEVEL 1
NPC/Techsoup
LEVEL 2
Second Life
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Social Media Tools and How They Work for NPC
Increasing numbers Decreasing Intimacy
Small, Most Intimate
Smallest number of core connections with people that have an active affiliation and meet real-time in virtual world (i.e. are avatar friends or colleagues). Provides most intimate level of interaction & collaboration.
Medium, Less Intimate
Medium number of connections with people that often have a real world interest (i.e. are or have been friends or colleagues). Good for group information sharing and updates .
Large, Least Intimate
Many loose connections across broad audience (i.e. least likely to be real/virtual friends or colleagues); interactions are frequent but short. Most potential for viral sharing.
NPC & Techsoup Groups
Second Life Community
Professional Network Outside SL
Advocacy & Outreach Community
Active Tenants & Volunteers
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NPC on
NPC's Visit Avatars United page here
Social networking site for avatars, recently purchased by Second Life’s owner, Linden Lab.
Can tweet messages, pictures and locations directly from Second Life using Blip.me application.
Small, Most Intimate
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NPC on
Largest social networking site where you can host a fan page for your organization’s followers.
Interacts with Twitter and other social media applications.
Visit NPC's Facebook page here
Medium, Less Intimate
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NPC on
Visit NPC's LinkedIn page here
Professional networking site where there are many groups that cover both virtual and real world organization activities.
Can tweet into LinkedIn, start discussion, share news, resources and presentations.
Medium, Less Intimate
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NPC on
Visit NPC's Twitter page here
High-volume, 140-character text messaging platform to get word of events out quickly, send links and follow people and institutions in the nonprofit sector.
Can link to Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as website and blog.
Large, Least Intimate
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NPC on
Visit NPC's (TechSoup) YouTube page here
Global video-sharing site where organizations can upload videos, establish subscription channels and amass large followings.
Videos easily linked to or embedded into other social sharing sites (e.g. Facebook) as well as topic-related blogs and websites.
Large, Least Intimate
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Third Party Applications Make Deployment & Tracking Easier
Search a particular NPSL tweeter
Search a twitter list (followed by NPSL)
All tweeters (following NPSL)
Example: Tweetdeck
Monitor and respond to several social media channels from one application.
Selectively search on your twitter address activity.
Selectively tweet or re-tweet information from several individual or organization accounts
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Lessons Learned (and still learning) about Social Media
Develop an integrated communications strategy. This is as important in a virtual world as it is in the real world.
Event promotion requires a messaging and message timing strategy across all the communication channels you plan to use.
Define your metrics for success: is it event attendance, number of donations raised, more volunteer activity? Apply these metrics every time you run a new campaign.
Your community includes people with different levels of social media usage; make it easy for them to hear and respond to your messages on the platforms they are comfortable with.
Solicit feedback from your community on all your communication efforts in order to target your efforts on the right platforms and refine your messaging.
Using volunteers? Make sure they have the right skill-sets for social media -- and train them if they do not.
Social media is time consuming. Plan it out and determine which third-party applications will help you be more efficient.
Do not fall in love with your tools! Both Inworld and Outworld, they are changing rapidly. Experiment and test - keep the best, divest the rest.
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For Further Information…
More about Nonprofit Commons can be found at the URLs below: Nonprofit Commons Website: http://www.nonprofitcommons.org TechSoup Global Website: http://www.techsoup.org Wiki: http://npsl.wikispaces.com Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/npsl Google Group: http://groups.google.com/group/TechSoup-Second-Life Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nonprofitcommons LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=2112519&trk=anet_ug_hm
About the Author Randi Kopp of Digital Ability Marketing is a social media and marketing strategy expert. One of her clients is
Kidsbridge Tolerance Museum, located on the campus of The College of New Jersey. Randi’s Second Life avatar, Dusty Artaud, is a tenant of Nonprofit Commons, representing Kidsbridge
Tolerance Museum. Dusty is also the volunteer communications coordinator for Nonprofit Commons, a role that she shares with her
typist and many other wonderful volunteers. Contact information:
For Randi: [email protected]
For Dusty: [email protected]
Follow @DustyArtaud on Twitter (she is much more interesting than her typist).