Why Your Nonprofit Organization Should Embrace Social Networking

If only because all 501(c)3s can avail themselves of these free programs:

1. YouTube.

2. MySpace.

3. Facebook.

4. Google. Google Grants provides free Google AdWords advertising to select charitable organizations. This program is designed to help organizations extend their public service messages to a global audience in an effort to make a greater impact on the world.

Odds and Ends

1. MySpace joins OpenSocial, a Google-led initiative that promotes a common set of standard for software developers to write programs for social networks. According to the NYT, Google says it invited Facebook to participate, but a Facebook spokeswoman says Facebook has not yet been fully briefed on the initiative, though it has scheduled a meeting with Google engineers soon.

Randall Stross draws the appropriate conclusion: "A long, long time ago—last Monday, that is—Facebook ... was celebrating its ability to command a generous $15 billion valuation while pocketing a $240 million investment from Microsoft ... If Facebook chooses to remain a holdout [from OpenSocial], it will not be as the head of a countercoalition but as a cranky recluse."

2. Todd Zeigler points to another use of Google AdWords: As a "cheap and real-time focus group."

3. The NYT reports on the power of Twitter.

The Googlesphere

"[B]y acquiring DoubleClick, Google will jump so far ahead of the pack with the technology and knowledge to be the only place marketers have to go to reach you and just about anybody else."

—Joseph Turow, professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication and author of Niche Envy: Marketing Discrimination in the Digital Age (MIT Press, 2006).