1 internet marketing

Geoff Livingston co-founded Zoetica to focus on cause-related work, and released an award-winning book on new media, Now is Gone, in 2007.

The end of the year brings the wrapping up of crucial fundraising drives for many organizations. Looking back at events, several exciting developments occurred in the non-profit social media space. Consider the rise of mobile as a valid giving platform, the great debate about slacktivism and widespread industry belief that social media is moving the needle, crowdsourcing social good hit unprecedented levels, and several new tools arrived that offer grassroots activism and online fundraising.

Moving forward, there are still many online challenges for the social good space. The coming year will see more developments as technologists, activists and online communicators work together to try to address issues such as cause fatigue, delivering return on investment and harnessing new and challenging media forms. Here are three social good trends to watch in 2011.

1. Social Middleware Will Make Causes More Fun

Cause fatigue hit an all time high in 2010, in large part because of over communication of vote-for-me contests, an unusually high amount of natural and manmade disasters, and poorly executed social media. More non-profits will turn to social middleware platforms like Crowdrise, Jumo, and a soon-to-emerge next generation Causes to reinvigorate their online efforts and create more fluid grassroots activism and fundraising.

These middleware solutions leverage people’s inherent networks in class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook and class='blippr-nobr'>Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and add new functionality to them so causes can better develop campaigns and platforms. New, layered functionality not only engages stakeholders in conversations, but it empowers individuals to create their own social good campaigns and initiatives as free agents. Expect non-profits and individuals who are suffering from cause fatigue and low return on investment from traditional social media tools to seek these more sophisticated answers.

The big question is which of these platforms will emerge as social good industry leaders. The race will be to see which platform can get the most causes and active users and may even feature competitive price wars on percentages taken from donations.

2. Causes Will Keep Tinkering With Mobile

Mobile became very interesting in 2010. Haiti fundraising was astounding. Smartphone applications were developed for canvassing and activism. Geosocial networks garnered enough subscribers to merit experimentation with projects that included homeless shelter checkins and museum mayorship battles.

At the same time, industry voices raised reasonable criticism about mobile as a valid platform for social good. These concerns range from return on investment with applications to questions about Foursquare’s long-term validity as a geosocial network. The critiques are reminiscent of the social media adoption curve in 2007.

The reality of mobile class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet usage shows only an increased year-over-year use by citizens with more affordable and powerful smartphones. This creates an inescapable media platform for non-profits. Look for more experimentation and adoption, and with it the emergence of mobile social good best practices.

3. Improved Corporate Social Good

Thanks to social media, the number of campaigns that joined brands with causes to donate a portion of proceeds hit a new high in 2010. At the same time, companies and their non-profit affiliates started to receive push back from online citizens about the value of such efforts, whether their social good efforts had any significant impact and how they related to the brand.

As the social web brought new levels of authenticity to general intra-company and personal communications, this new level of online accountability will require a more authentic corporate social responsibility. Look for more core value ties between cause marketing efforts and actual causes in 2011.

More Social Good Resources from Mashable:

- 4 Innovative Social Good Campaigns for Education /> - 3 Ways to Empower Social Media Giving This Holiday Season /> - 5 Creative Social Good Campaigns for the Holiday Season /> - How Social Media Is Making Veteran Service Organizations Better /> - 10 Inspiring “Buy One Give One” Projects

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, oonal

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Show me a modern political candidate who doesn’t understand television, and I’ll show you a loser.

When TV became the dominant medium for Americans to consume news and entertainment, political candidates could no longer be successful without looking polished in televised debates, appearing on talk shows and spending big on commercials.

Like the television boom of the 1960s, we are standing on the precipice of a big shift in how public figures are perceived and how campaigns are conducted. Our frontier is social media, and its impact on mainstream political culture is coming on fast.

While my colleagues have been making their predictions about what’s on the tech and social media horizon in 2011, there will be no major U.S. elections next year. Here, we’ll be postulating about social media’s impact on the more long-term future of American civics.

1. There Will Be a Tipping Point

While campaigning and marketing share many similarities, the differences mean everything when you’re talking about democracy’s big picture. Brands can sell by hitting a tech savvy demographic of influencers. Elections involve everyone, whether they’re online or not.

If a large bloc of your constituency is made up of 65+ year-old retirees, chances are a Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook strategy won’t be time well spent. Despite the enthusiasm of the tech crowd and blogosphere, Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter is exceedingly far from the mainstream, with only 6% of Americans using the service. And while the world consumes YouTubeclass="blippr-nobr">YouTube videos at a mind-bending rate, viral success is still transient and elusive.

While these tools have certainly proven to be effective in rallying support and contributions, we don’t yet live in a world where social media can make or break a political candidate by itself.

That will change, perhaps even by the next major election cycle.

The future of the social media politician is not about wild speculation and technological uncertainties. It has everything to do with when and how deeply social media can be absorbed into mainstream culture. We are on track for a tipping point — a JFK/Nixon TV debate moment — when everyone on the political scene will acknowledge that we can never go back to campaigns without social.

2. New Media Strategists Will Just Be Strategists

I’ve had the opportunity to talk with the new media strategists for a number of senators, congresspeople and political causes. Despite their differences, they all agree that their own jobs will soon be folded into the larger campaign strategy. As many have already foreseen, social media will not require experts for much longer. As we head toward true mainstream adoption, social will be a default and well-understood tool in the belt of any public-facing professional.

We’ve already seen this happening in the private sector with marketing and PR professionals. As many corporate entities lumber to catch up with those on the cutting edge, so too will government officials and the campaigners who seek their offices.

3. We’ll See the Devaluation of Old Media in Politics/>

Print and radio ads are not as valuable as TV. TV will no longer be as valuable as interactive media. For politics, this is especially so, as the arena (at its best, anyway) warrants engagement and discussion.

As media appetites shift, this is an inevitability. In the U.S., we’re already seeing web use catch up with television in terms of weekly hours spent. Political money will simply go where the eyeballs are, and we’re likely to see a big payoff on social creativity when it comes to future campaigns.

4. Whistle Blowing Gets More Efficient, But That’s It

The WikiLeaksclass="blippr-nobr">Wikileaks saga has ignited plenty of discussion about journalism and whistle blowing in the Internet age. But at the end of the day, the mechanics of an information leak are about the same as they’ve always been: Someone from within an organization leaks damaging information, and the media (in whatever form) disseminates it to the public. Generally speaking, WikiLeaks has only acted as a “middle man” for raw information. It’s journalists who are making sense of it and transmitting it to the public with context.

The web only speeds up this process through digitization and universal access. Governments and politicians will feel the impact of leaks sooner, but it’s unlikely the methods of protecting sensitive information will be much changed.

Your Thoughts?

What do you think will be social media’s biggest impact on the political process? How long until we see a winning campaign strategy that is purely social? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

More Political Resources from Mashable

- How WikiLeaks Became the Story of the Year in 2010 [VIDEO]/> - The Future of Social Media and Politics/> - How Political Campaigns Are Using Social Media for Real Results/> - How the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” Nailed Social Media/> - 17 Web Resources to Help You Decide on Election Day

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