Hello there and welcome to Net Effect. Thank you for taking the time to read this space. Here, I hope to be able to brainstorm on the effectiveness of new media in bringing about social change. This introductory post focuses on the youngest medium – indeed, the one you’re using to read this very post: the internet.

‘Got $1 to spare? Introducing the Twitter library in Mongolia, funded solely by Twitter users. Look, donate, retweet…’

Edurelief is a development organization focused on changing the lives of poor people around the world through sustainable education and training. The 116 character blurb you see above was broadcast via Twitter, a micro-blogging service that’s sometimes described as the ‘SMS of the internet’. One of Edurelief’s most recent projects aims to raise $2,000 for a school in Northern Mongolia, serving 500 students from families classified as poor and very poor. And while the goal is traditional, their methods are not: they aim to raise this amount entirely via Twitter. By posting short messages, updates and photos, and relying on the ability of the internet to rapidly propagate information, Edurelief is attempting to tap into this social networking phenomenon whose potential is virtually limitless.
 

The Love Without Boundaries Foundation is an organization working towards changing the lives of orphaned and impoverished children in China. A small organization with no paid staff, they simply logged on Facebook and created an advocacy group (called a ‘cause’, in Facebook-ese). Soon, they had raised $150,000 to provide medical care for Chinese orphans. Indeed, the fist ten babies which received surgeries through donations from this cause were called ‘Facebook Babies’!
 

These are just two out of the many success stories of how nonprofits are beginning to effectively leverage the internet and its capabilities. Along with ‘poking’ friends and taking quirky quizzes, Facebook has a lot to offer the nonprofit world - and all free of cost. Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups allow you to connect with an interested audience, and present a forum through which an organization can interact with and update them. One can organize and promote events, invite people, and raise money. To specifically cater to nonprofits, Facebook even has a special type of group - called a ‘cause’ – which is what allowed Love Without Boundaries to inspire and mobilize a significantly large number of people (as of July 2009, the group has 13,657 members), and raise money. A useful starting-point to find information on how Facebook can help nonprofits is to become a member of a group called ‘Non-Profits on Facebook’.
 

Twitter is another paradigm of social networking, and one that does not have a clear precursor in traditional media. The Twitter philosophy revolves around short bursts of information that take the form of a stream-of-consciousness delivery of 140 character messages (called ‘tweets’). Twitter has seen a rapid growth in recent times, and new avenues are still being discovered. One such area where Twitter has recently made a massive impact is citizen journalism, where information is posted by people close to the scene (for instance, voters in Iran), and rapidly broadcast to an audience across continents and cultures; an audience that traditional news websites on the web have difficulty reaching.
 

Nonprofits, too, are increasingly beginning to leverage Twitter to provide short, regular snippets of information to their members, volunteers and the world at large. In addition to these tangible functions, Twitter provides the opportunity to present a ‘human’ face for the organization. The advantages of an informal and dynamic medium of interaction must not be underestimated.
 

In the US, many nonprofit organizations have begun to effectively use Facebook, Twitter and other such social networking sites to advocate themselves, raise funds and build their base. In India as well a small number of nonprofit organizations use social networking and the web for advocacy, but it is important for more individuals and NGOs to fully exploit these portals. The possibilities that exist, in social networking in particular, are limitless! Go ahead, seize the internet and leave your footprints online!