There are a lot of people who get freaked out by geo-location services like Foursquare, Gowalla and now Facebook, but MTV has paired up with Foursquare to try and promote some good by “checking in,” at one place in particular.

Everyday people check in on Foursquare at restaurants, venues, stores, etc… but rarely, if ever, do you see someone check in at an STD testing center. MTV has come up with a new campaign in conjunction with Foursquare, urging users to check in at STD testing centers in order to win a badge and change the feelings surrounding STD testing. The campaign is called Get Yourself Tested, or GYT, and urges people to take control of their sexual health. Foursquare, who has never offered a cause-related incentive on its platform, urges users to follow MTV on Foursquare and “shout” GYT to their followers, virally spreading the importance of being tested.

According to New York Daily News, Stephen Friedman, the general manager of MTV, said he expects that some people will decide to get the badge despite the social stigma surrounding STDs. And once they do, their friends may, too.

“It only takes a few to get the ball rolling,” he said. The point is to make these checkups as commonplace as going to the dentist or getting a physical.

MTV actually launched this campaign in 2009, and it is part of a partnership between MTV and the Kaiser Family Foundation, a non-profit organization that focuses on health care issues. The campaign has helped increase the number of young people getting tested at Planned Parenthood clinics nationwide.

By incorporating Foursquare into Get Yourself Tested, MTV is illustrating the importance of focusing on social media platforms for cause-related campaigns. People like to be awarded for their choices, and while at first STD checking may seem taboo, MTV believes that they can change this stigma by using these new tools.

While technically, Facebook has the right to control content that is published on its site, where exactly is the line drawn when it comes to free speech? With such a large user base, many are not happy with the way that Facebook controls and monitors certain topics.

 For example, currently no user can post something with “power.com” in it. If you do in fact try to post something with “power.com” in it, you will receive an error message that reads “This message contains blocked content that has previously been flagged as abusive or spammy. Let us know if you think this is an error.” Ultimately, Facebook has the option of blocking any content that they do not want to be seen on their site.

Facebook has released the following message in regard to pulling content and blocking particular content, “Facebook is a place where people can express their views and discuss things in an open way as they can and do in many other places, and as such we sometimes find people discussing topics others may find distasteful.” 

So what do you think? Should Facebook be allowed to remove and block content that they choose?

While we’ve seen successful large scale fundraising due to social networking, if you recall the Red Cross text-message and Twitter campaign for Haiti that raised over $1,000,000, however it is more difficult to understand the impact of social networking on small scale fundraising.

What I’ve come to notice, when dealing with small scale fundraising efforts, is that it comes down to your personal network to really get the ball rolling. Rather than finding mere supporters of your cause, whatever it may be, it is your personal social network that amplifies results due to their support for you.

Recently, my very good friend Paige Osborne decided to do a hike to the peak of Mt. Berstadt to benefit The Children’s Hospital and The Kempe Foundation. Rather than taking the grass-roots approach to fundraising, she posted a link on her personal Facebook page asking her personal network for donations to support her in supporting a good cause. While her personal network is rather large, with over 1,000 Facebook friends, she was able to personally raise over $280 in less than one week.  While I’m sure many of the donations were out of support of The Children’s Hospital and The Kempe Foundation, they were truly out of support for Paige’s support of the cause and efforts to make a difference.

Be sure to build a good personal network, and continuously engage in a dialogue with a majority of your network. Remain personable and real in your efforts to connect with your network and do not treat it merely as a business venture. When your personal network feels connected to you, they then provide both monetary and emotional support.

To see Paige’s fundraising efforts or to support her in her first ever hike to Mt. Berstadt, visit http://tinyurl.com/39qlklm.

Imagine logging into your Facebook account and seeing a suggestion to reconnect with a family member who has passed away.

Back in 2009, Facebook released a feature that suggests old friends with whom users might want to “reconnect”. This is to encourage use of the site and networking, but it can have its downsides, especially when someone has died.

Soon after the release of the new reconnect feature several members complained that they were being encouraged to get in touch with people who have died. One Twitter user, Anita Frediani, actually tweeted, “Ironic that Facebook is suggesting I ‘reconnect’ with a friend who was murdered this year.”

There are a lot of problems such as this that can occur when a deceased persons Facebook page is still active, and there aren’t a lot of people who know how to correct this problem. Facebook does, however, have a solution. In October of 2009 Facebook created a feature that would memorialize the Facebook pages of deceased individuals. 

Max Kelly, the head of Facebook security, said that memorializing a Facebook profile would stop suggestions from happening. Kelly sites other benefits to creating a memorialized account. “When an account is memorialized, we also set privacy so that only confirmed friends can see the profile or locate it in search. We try to protect the deceased’s privacy by removing sensitive information such as contact information and status updates.”

However, the memorializing of a profile hasn’t been perfected. One issue with memorializing a page is that once a profile is memorialized, many items on the page are no longer available. Rachel Cooper, who lost her 19-year-old son, was furious when she memorialized his page. “There was absolutely no warning given about all his comments and postings being deleted. All his friends and our family have now been caused the additional pain of losing all his written contributions to our lives without having the opportunity to save them first.”

The death of a loved one is such a sensitive situation it is almost impossible to come up with the perfect solution, but Facebook is still working on coming up with one.

As far as Social Media goes, we know how often things can evolve (sometimes overnight!) It is important for marketing, public relations and event planning companies to stay current on the newest ways to connect with possible clients and customers of those clients.

While working as a Social Media Account Manager for The Mantooth Company, I have found that it is equally important to educate clients of the growing importance of evolving social media and educate them on how to effectively use and maintain their own social networking sites.

I have taken the time to create a presentation to educate our clients on how to better utilize their own social networking sites, while incorporating a marketing aspect so that everyone’s bottom line is met.

What are you doing to enhance your social networking sites and make them more efficient and effective?

For more information on all of your Social Media, Social Networking and Social Marketing needs, contact kerrie@mantoothcompany.com.