The Big Three plus the Foursquare

Bridging the Gaps Between Education

by Paul Hlatky and builder Kara Smith

United Way Volunteers will use

social media for event promotion,

volunteer coordination and tracking

hours. The college volunteers will

be paired with younger students

through the same websites. By

utilizing free company affiliations

and social media outlets United

Way NYC can maximize their impact

without scaling costs.

Facts:

•College students are Facebook’s primary users

•Groups allow users to communicate effectively

•Pages allow people to get primary source

information from the cause

•Provides a more personal network approach for

volunteers and personnel.

•United Way Uses:

•A United Way Bridge Walk and Volunteer Festival Volunteer group could be used to effectively coordinate and communicate to volunteers.

•College volunteers could network through Facebook and find younger volunteers to pair up with and arrange a meet-up at the Bridge Walk and Volunteer Festival.

•A United Way Bridge Walk and Volunteer Festival page would provide the people that like it with real time status updates, discussion boards, pictures, links etc…

•Could be used for voting on the art exhibited in the event. (See United Through art pitch)

Facts:

•Twitter provides real time status updates.

•Used by many organizations to provide its

followers with news and updates.

•Rapidly becoming one of the most popular

means of news, information and networking.

•Easy to use and readily accessible through a

variety of mobile devices.

•United Way Uses:

•A United Way NYC Bridge and Tunnel Twitter

page could be used to provide its followers the

same information on the Facebook page in

another channel.

•Increases SEO (search engine optimization)

The Volunteers can retweet United Way tweets

and network with other volunteers via the page.

They also will be able to see what other

volunteers are doing to help United Way.

•May increase friendly competition between

volunteers.

•Volunteer pair-ups bridging the gap between

education can tweet about their experiences

together.

Facts:

•YouTube is used frequently by college students in

their downtime.

•YouTube Channels can provide viewers with

stimulating videos.

•YouTube is considered by many to be the

premiere video hosting website on the internet

today.

•United Way Uses:

•A United Way Bridge Walk and Volunteer Festival

can provide it’s viewers with videos that

stimulate their involvement in the organization.

•Video explaining their purpose for the walk

•Video documentaries of the people they

directly impact.

•Actual footage of the walk that can be used

in future campaigns.

•The Channel’s Videos can be linked by the

Facebook and Twitter pages for a complete

social media integration.

•Video documentation of the volunteer pairs

bridging the gaps between education.

Facts:

•Foursquare provides its members with

incentives, rewards and information about

businesses and locations.

•Fourquare has a competitive aspect of

becoming ‘mayor’ and getting badges.

•Provides feedback on each site by people

that have actually been there.

•United Way Uses:

•Volunteer Pair ups bridging the gap between

education can visit sites together and share

rewards.

•i.e. a pair can frequent the same business to

reap the benefits and discounts offered.

•Volunteers can use their foursquare membership

to input their time spent at their volunteer

locations.

•i.e. a mayor for the most active at a

particular site

•The affiliation with businesses already with

foursquare and those acquired by United Way

would provide the most active volunteers with

incentives and rewards.

•See Bookstores for Bridge Walk and United

and Sweet pitch

•Who would you get to do the pair ups?

•A college student paired with a younger student in high school would be the optimal choice.

•How would these children be able to use these websites?

•Parental consent may be required with younger students. But these sites are made so that they are readily accessible by anyone, anywhere.

•Is the campaign reliant on using all four channels simultaneously?

•Not at all. They should all be developed by UW, but it is not necessary for each individual to use all of them.

•When are you looking to do this?

•The development and pair ups should be made prior to the Bridge Walk and followed up on afterwards to encourage future participation.

Volunteers could use one, two

or all foursquare to learn and

participate in the United Way

initiatives across the city. The

use of free Web 2.0 channels

during the Attention Age is a

smart and innovative way for

United Way to complete their

objectives. Volunteer pairs

bridging the gap between

education may encourage a

deeper understanding of the

issues as well as continued

participation.