Application Area
For this report, “Social Media and Volunteerism” will be focused as I feel that it is an important topic which should be given attention by students and all readers.
Volunteerism and Social Media
Volunteerism is a beautiful word and Oxford dictionary defined it as “the use or involvement of volunteer labour, especially in community services”. There can be many reasons for why people choose to volunteer but no matter what the reason is, the act itself is precious and heart-warming. So, at present days, how can we spread this good activity? And how do we get people to actively involve in good cause? One important way – we must not forget Social Media.
Nowadays, social media is at almost everyone’s fingertips and the way people look for information becomes different. They would turn to social media website when they need to know something and get answers by friends or sometimes they will just browse social media site for news updates.
For this blog entry, the main focus will be on SG cares(NVPC).
From the survey, NVPC found that the main reason why people stop volunteering is because people does not have enough time. And with the hectic lifestyle that most of the people lead here in Singapore,
1- They do not have time to hunt for volunteering opportunities
2- They cannot volunteer for lenghty period of time
But if the volunteering activities can be clearly visible at one place and it is also supported by other social media sites where they could interact with the volunteer organizations, other volunteers or their friends who are volunteering and learn more about the opportunities, and if they know that there are short term volunteering opportunities available, they are more likely to volunteer.
By knowing this, SG Cares has been creating vibrant volunteering community ever since it was conceptualised.
Background on SG Cares
What is SG Cares?
Let’s watch the video below and get inspired! Do you feel any volunteering spirit inside you??
(Click on the image or go to the following link to watch the clip!)
SG Cares is a centre for volunteering opportunites set up by the National Volunteer & Philanthropy Centre (NVPC) to promote volunteerism and give chance to people to give back to the community.
SG Cares assists the asipiring volunteers to match the volunteer opportuniteis based on their interest, availability and location. Volunteers can also choose to serve for a short period of time in a variety of activities for different causes.
SG cares not only reach out to the individuls but also reach out to schools and group of people as well as companies and who would like to develop volunteering programmes and match the volunteer Host Organisations with them.
It has an online portal with real-time updates on episodic volunteering opportunities by VHOs. The portal is a vibrant online medium that facilitates the flow of information on volunteering opportunities, allowing efficient registration, activity search and sign-up by volunteers.
Benefits of Social Media for SG Cares
3 Social Media Applications for SG cares and how will they benefits users and the organization
SG Cares has various Web and Social Media APIs such as Map, Youtube, Calendar, Facebook so on. But in this report, only Facebook, OneMap and Virtual Calendar will be explained in details. We will look at their features and how they are helping the SG Cares as well as volunteers.
Facebook API
Sgcares is also very active on Facebook. Every month, they will post photos of their whole mth activities for anyone on Facebook to check out and be inspired by them. Volunteers can also tag or save their photos from the event they participated from Facebook.
Another good feature for a volunteering organizaton is that there they can create fan page and users can like it, They can also invite users on facebook to an event where the users can say whether they will join or not.
Their latest invitation is the 3-day volunteerism conference From 22-24th May and attendees can explore questions, ideas and solutions that inspire and enable volunteerism in the community! Any interested person can check it out.
OneMap API
For direction, SG Cares relies on API called OneMap which allows embedding an interactive Map the your website. It use the extensive set of JavaScript APIs and users can mashup their own data or themes in OneMap’s repository on the basemap.
Basically, OneMap enables volunteer to find locations and directions precisely. When there’s a volunteering activity, volunteer can check how they can travel from their place to the venue by using OneMap, it will tell you which transportation to take ant how long it will take to travel.
The OneMap search box is comprehensive and volunteers can find the opportunities by dates, organizations, interests or beneficiaries.
Volunteers can go to http://www.sgcares.org/onemap/index.html (OneMap for SG Cares) to explore all the immediate volunteering opportunities on the map and it helps volunteers across Singapore to quickly find out the nearest available happenings. Volunteers can also search by types of community services available to pin point the desired opportunities.
One of the fun parts in volunteering is to explore new areas and meet new people. So do not be afraid of getting lost, OneMap is there to help you and you can also count on your volunteer leaders for direction, information, briefing etc!
Virtual Calendar API
It has a calendar which shows all the immediate opportunities, the green slots are available slots and you can register for it if the time permits.
It also helps you to search the opportunities by area of interest, beneficiaries, events or locations. All this enables you to plan your activities ahead and manage your calendar effectively.
Both SG cares and other organisations can slot in their volunteering sessions and it will show how many opportunities they have on a particular date and when the volunteer click on that specific date, it will list everything with more details. The volunteer can then obtain the information they need and they can register. It will even show how many people have registered and how many places left. The virtual calendar is an important part of SG Cares’s online presence.
Issues regarding the implementation
There can be some issues while implementing and using web and social media APIs. First of all both the person in charge from the organization and the volunteers need to be IT savvy. For SG cares volunteer, it is solved as they have regular volunteer orientation and the volunteer leaders can guide and explain how the website works.
The organization need to have a team or someone in charge to handle the social media applications and their updates as to engage volunteers, they need to be timely and up-to-date. It is good to have pre-event posts, real-time posts and post-event posts like status updates of them from the event venues, thanking the volunteers and uploading photos.
The volunteer organization can think of giving volunteering opportunities to those who are interested in writing for all the opportunities and on the day of the event, they can come to the event to have as a volunteer but their main task will be to write!. So that, at the end of every activity, there will be a concise report which can serves as report or use as a blog entry or so on.
Of course, they all need to have an internet and compatible browsers and systems for some of the APIs.
The volunteer organization needs to be also aware of the target audience and how each API can help them reaching out their desired audience.
I’d also like to highlight some of the other related APIs and volunteering opportunities here.
Blog
Above is the blog by All Saints Home but there are some entries by SG Cares volunteers. Readers can have a comprehensive view of what has happened during the volunteering activities. One good thing about using Blog is that, the writers can tell stories not only by words or photos but both at the same time.
This will give them insight on how each of the activities are like, what they can expect and let them consider registering for it next time.
Friends of the Library
Friends of the Library is the name given to volunteers of NLB’s libraries. It has almost all the same features like SG Cares but the activities they have are mostly related to library management and people interested to experience them can try out!
Wetopia
If you have the volunteering spirit and like to play simulation games, Wetopia might suit you well. It is created by Sojo Studios and you can play it on Facebook.
Wetopia is a free to play game and the Sojo Studios generates revenue by either advertisement or through the selling of social goods (in application purchases).
Wetopia is a game where you have to grow crops, build houses etc and developed from normal green field into beautiful town. As you play, you can collect hearts and every 100 hearts you collected you can donate back for a cause – you can choose where you want to donate- to children of Haiti or Save the Children or disadvantaged children in U.S.
Conclusion
The assignment only focuses on the three Web and Social Media APIs but there are many others APIs so to list, which you can use to build your website and to enhance the activities. Actually, it is good to have all the top rated APIs since some of the users may have preferences – some may use Twitter more than Facebook and it is good if the organization presence can be almost everywhere.
As to conclude, there are many benefits of social media use in volunteering as the volunteer organization can create more awareness and attract more people, showcase their activities and most importantly, they can use them to let social media users know that there are volunteer organizations like SG Cares, providing a flexible volunteering opportunities and engaging current volunteers and potential volunteers in as many ways as they can. Social media helps to keep memories in fun ways.
Happy Volunteering!
Mra Chaw Su Aye
*Special Thanks to SG Cares, YouTube, Facebook, Friends of the Library, OneMap, Wetopia and All Saints Home! 🙂