8/9/2019 Going-Viral to Entice the Unaffiliated Young - Jewish Exponent July 22 2010 - Goldstein Media Quoted

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ing Viral to Enticee Unaffiliated YoungCHEL VIGODA

Exponent Feature

ather than follow the oldfashioned model of opening the doors and waitingthe Jews to show up, newerish groups are aiming to enge Jews where they are. Andre the Jews are, if they're in

eir 20s or 30s, is online.Local organizations targetingin the post-college, pre-marrange - such as the Collathe Philadelphia branchBirthright Israel NE XT andel's Jewish Graduate Studentwork - are relying on Faceand other social media toolsconnect with existing memrs, att ract new ones and givewith even the most tenuousto the Jewish com

ya n effortless way to keepwith the latest buzz...It works because over -toopeople are on Facebook.Facebook was a o u n t r ~ : it

third largest counin the world," said Seth Goldfounder of Goldstein Me -and Internetcompany in Doyles

and of the online maga"A2SM," short for "Addictto Social Media.""Everyone - plus their mom,and grandma - is on Facek, so it's a really easy way fororganization to reach out," hed.About 66 percent of Amer i

are online use socialsites, up from 20 perin 2007, according to theSocial Networking Report"last month by the marsearch flrm Experian Sim

The numbers are even highin younger demographics:Al90 percent of online 18- toly use socialsites, an d they 'r e

just "friending" friends anders. A majori ty of peovisit the sites say that'\-e shown their support forcompany ora fan.

The Facebook page for theative has roughly 1.100,The group a! 0 has 95

fo llowers on Twitter (a site itdoesn't use as much) and a database of 3,000 e-mail addresses."Our mission is to give Jew

ish people an opportuni ty to socialize with each other. It's rea!ly as simple as that," said theCollaborative's program d ~ r e c -tor, Joshua Hersz. "We're givingthem the opportunity to createa Jewish community - theirown Jewish community - andusing social media help makethe connection ."NEW BRANCH OF THE TRIBEHersz and the Collaborative'sexecutive director, Ross Berkowitz, are in the process of developing Tribe 12, a new nonproflt that includes the Collaborative: LimmudPhilly. a weekend learning program: and aPhiladelphia branch of the PresenTense Communit Entrepreneur Partnership, which Herszdescribe a an "incubator des _oc ally small Jewish projects. " The PresenTense partnershiprecently received a $50,000 grantfrom the Jewish Federation ofGreater Philadelphia; the Collaborative and LimmudPhillygot S50,OOO and $20,000, respective ly.While Hersz and Berkowitzsay that it's too soon to divulgetheir strategy for Tribe 12 - theorganization officially launcheson Sept. 1 - they have alreadyset up "Where Jew At Philly," aFacebook page where anyonecan promote "anyth ing relatedto Jewish life in Philly.""Most of the groups targetingyounger Jews work really welltoge ther, promoting and supporting each other' s events," sa idHersz... 'Where Jew At' is partof the idea of suppor ting eachother, rather than competingagainst each other."Much of this outreach is fairly new. When Hersz joined theCollaborat ive two years ago,most of the marketing was doneon paper, primari ly th rough abrochure mailed out every other month. Hersz's first movewas to take everything online."We had to plan out all theevents three months ahead, then

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The Collaborative hosted a recent networking event in Center City.print brochures and sit therefolding, stamping, mailing," hesaid. "And 25 percent or 30 percent of them would come backin the mail because people hadmoved. It limited the flexibilitywe had in our programming."Now he can post details of anupcoming event, such as a "HowJew Meet Singles" party or awalking tour of Jewish Ph illy,on the Collaborative's Facebookpage. giving 1.100 people instantaccess. He can also make updates, and respond to questionsand comments immediate ly.Since the Collaborative started reaching out to it s audienceonline, the num ber of un iqueevent attendees - a figure thatcounts each attendee once, evenif th at person goes to multipleevents - has increased fromabout 1,750 to 2,500 per year.The main advantage of marketing through social media isthat it's vira l- it spreads on itsown, explained Adam Oded, director of the Philly chapter ofBirthright Israel NEXT. "Ourconstituents aren' t just responding to a message I pu t out there;they're broadening the conversation themselves. They're talking about what we're doing ontheir own pages.They're taggingthemselves in photos and postingcomments to their friends, andthen their friends are contactingus. It moves in every direction."

Oded also uses Foursquare, asite where users announce the irlocations, whether it's a coffeeshop, museum or anywhere else,by virtually checking in to thelocation on a smart phor-e De pendingon how a user an

account, Foursquare can publishthe locale on Facebook or Twitter.Birthright Israel NEXT's shorehouse is a Foursquare location:so is its porch."Everyone hangs out on theporch, and it has it s own Foursquare 'check in' - and that waset up by one of ou r guests, noby me," said Oded. "It 's just another way of engaging peopleFor this generation, i f you're noonline, you're invisible."Mir iam Steinberg-Egeth, d'rector of the Jewish GraduatStudent Network, cites a mix 0the group's Web site, Faceboopage and her own personal Facbook page as a recipe for succ- with hundreds attending thGrad Network's major events."I posted a link about a dinnfor Penn grad students on pepIe's Facebook walls, and rigaway, I saw other people post'it, and more people I don't evknow reposting it," she said ..Ithard to tell where it all starts, bwhen there's a free event, peopwill fmd out about it."Of course, Facebook