The Friendster Effect

By Kara Jesella, AlterNet. Posted January 30, 2006.

Since their inception, hugely popular social networking websites like Friendster, MySpace and Flickr have been subtly making over the relationships between grassroots progressive organizations and their members.

It's an uneasy affiliation for political groups, nonprofit organizations and independent magazines that are intrinsically anti-corporate, whether by ethos or by size, especially since conservative powerhouse Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million in July.

Still, the sites are ostensibly democratic: Everyone who joins them can have their say. And it makes sense that groups with limited resources would be drawn to them: The sites are free to join, and it takes just a few clicks to post a profile.

A recap for those who aren't sure how it works: Anyone who has a profile can invite other users -- or, in this case, organizations -- to become a "friend." If the organization accepts, its picture will appear on the user's homepage, linking the two profiles to one another. MySpace allows users to create their own web pages with pictures, blog templates, and audio and video streaming capabilities, making the site particularly popular with musicians and bands.

Both MySpace and Friendster allow users to join groups that organizations can use as online discussion boards. They also have bulletin boards, so an organization can send out notices about upcoming events that will immediately appear on the bulletin boards of all that organization's friends.

The sites' public nature makes it easy for grassroots groups to do what they have always needed to do: build community, especially among a younger, notoriously hard-to-reach demographic. Clearly, that demo is already there: Friendster says its users are between 16 and 35. And, though popular opinion claims MySpace skews younger and hipper, the site says its users are between 18 and 34. The former "gave us great access to young folks in particular, folks who are self-selected, the kind who would be interested in what we were offering," notes Sharif Corinaldi, the coordinator of progressive nonprofit Swing the State.

The group facilitated grassroots political activism (it sponsored voter drives to red states across America) between friends during 2004's presidential election, so it made sense, Corinaldi says, to have a presence on a social networking site, where people "speak in terms of being friends." Friends who, when banded together, exert political power. The sites are becoming the equivalent of an old boys' club for the cyber-savvy generation (with girls allowed). Corinaldi notes that many progressive causes, which worked in coalition during the 2004 campaign, were all linked on Friendster, including "Dyke March, Department of Peace, IndieVoter.org -- all of the lefty groups."

Some organizations have used the sites to forge more intimate relationships with their members. Both Friendster and MySpace have "absolutely been an excellent way for us to meet and connect with Venus readers," says Amy Schroeder, editor-in-chief of the independent feminist-inflected culture magazine, which has had profiles on both for about two years. Schroeder, who is based in Chicago, uses the sites to find out more about her 60,000 mostly twenty-something readers' preferences, from bands to books and beyond, helping her decide what kind of content she wants in the magazine.

She has also used the sites to post calls for submissions -- most recently, to find young, female Hurricane Katrina survivors to write about their experiences. And, Schroeder says, her "friends" pass along great ideas: "Instead of us just listening to publicists or depending on reporters and writers for legwork to find fresh stories, we depend on readers."

In the cutthroat magazine industry, everyone is competing for the same audience -- many of whom seem to have abandoned print entirely. It's become imperative for magazines, particularly not-for-profit and independent ones, to reach readers in other ways, and social networking sites give them yet another venue to connect with their favorite publication. They also allow the magazine to triangulate, connecting readers to each another.

Schroeder says fans of the magazine often approach her at events and say how grateful they are that they met other Venus readers via the social networking sites and have since teamed up to do a project together. Many make use of the bulletin board postings. They'll say, "I'm starting a band and I'm looking for a bassist," says Schroeder. "We see a lot of that kind of networking." In that way, the sites serve as a clearinghouse for the like-minded, like a targeted Craigslist.

And though the effects of community building via these sites are hard to quantify, some groups want to try. Hands On Bay Area, a nonprofit organization that matches volunteers to a multitude of projects, is one. Every year, the group organizes a day of service; last year was the first with projects not just in San Francisco, but all around the Bay Area, and about 1700 volunteers were needed. "The challenge is getting 1,700 people to do that," says Sandeep Chivukula, who works with the group.

Hands On partnered with Friendster last year, in the hopes of attracting enough volunteers for their October 15 event. In return for sponsoring the day, Friendster offered to help with publicity, showcasing the event in its news alerts, which are visible to any Bay Area members who log on to the site.

According to Chivukula, about 60,000 people saw the alerts. "Even if only 1 percent turned out to volunteer, that would be 600 people," she says. Unfortunately, though, the event was a success. "We weren't set up to track where the volunteers were coming from," she adds. "It's hard to tell what the conversion rate was, from clicks on Friendster to volunteers"

Kara Jesella is a freelance writer in New York City. She is currently co-writing a book on Sassy magazine for Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

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