The Channelise team has some exciting nonprofit ventures coming up. On Social Media Day (June 30th), we were lucky enough to attend NTEN’s “Who’s Your Mayor? (Exploring Nonprofits + Foursquare)” talk about the benefits to .orgs of Foursquare.
To those uninitiated with the social web’s most talked-about, location-based platform for telling your friends what you’re doing and where in real time, the benefit to nonprofits aren’t obvious. Users “check in” to restaurants, bars, retail stores and more, earning points in the weekly tally, becoming “mayor” if they’ve checked in the most, and sometimes they’re alerted to nearby deals offered by businesses seeking to leverage the application.
Nonprofits play the game
True, different types of nonprofits stand to gain more or less from Foursquare. For example, the American Society of Association Executives in downtown Washington, DC is unlikely to have visitors beyond employees and, assumedly, the occasional association executive. But organizations like the Brooklyn Museum, represented at the talk by Shelley Bernstein, Chief of Technology, can work the social media game to interesting results.
As Shelley pointed out, if people identify with and are impressed by your brand, there’s a element of pride to checking into your space, and if they’re lucky, becoming its mayor. For the social web crowd, that’s a bragging right! The Brooklyn Museum website has integrated a page that prominently displays the mayor (who’s rewarded with free membership), as well as those who’ve checked in lately and the quick tips they’ve left other users. The museum’s worked with Foursquare to develop a badge (BK Art Star!) users can earn. Foursquare co-founder Naveen Selvadurai was present to answer excited questions from the mostly nonprofit technologist crowd about where the network is going… and how best to ride the wave.
Photo by Howard Brier of Brooklyn
Is a virtual reward reward system with little monetary incentive significant in driving a museum’s membership? The Brooklyn Museum was careful not to overstate its metrics. However, every step an organization takes to thoughtfully improve the experience of the audience helps your brand become an important part of people’s lives. In this instance, the action is relatively inexpensive (Foursquare uses an open API). And as Channelisers believe, even better when you’re bridging the gap between your physical presence and your digital one!
More reading on nonprofits & Foursquare from Mashable
