How charities get a slice of the virtual pie?

posted by Matt - 15:31 14/10/09

A recent article in the new scientist exposed that in 2009 US citizens will spend $621 million in virtual worlds like Secondlife and estimates of the Asian market are even larger. Users purchase virtual goods such as costumes for their avatars, patio heaters for their virtual homes and pedicures for their virtual pets with real world money.

This figure is particularly significant as this virtual market is worth more than the national GDP of 19 of the world’s poorest countries.

With widespread famine in Africa and natural disasters in the far-east, it begs the question:
‘Can charities and social enterprises grab a slice of this virtual pie?’

I believe the answer to be yes, however there are already a plethora of commercial social media applications out there, commissioned by major charities which have under 10 users yet required a significant time and financial investment to develop which ultimately came from donations.

I am not trying to scare people off going down the social media route, only to identify a few simple questions to ask yourself, which can avoid your app being doomed to a dusty shelf at the back of the appstore.

1. What exactly is it you are trying to achieve?
2. How is this application going to help you get there?
3. How can our success be measured (KPIs)?
4. What ‘genuine’ value is it offering users?
5. How can we make it as sharable as possible?
6. How can we measure the results?

Any decent design and development agency should ensure you have answered these questions before they even accept the brief, as without these answers clear in your mind from the start you can easily get lost.

To discuss whether a social media application is right for your organisation, please feel free to give us a call 0161 247 7932.