You Know Jumo? Posted on March 29, 2011 Post a comment

You’ve heard of Facebook, Friendster, MySpace and every other social network out there, but have you heard of Jumo?

Here at rabble+rouser, we work with a lot of inspiring nonprofit clients, and we’re often charged with finding new and exciting ways to get their messages out to the masses. How can we push them forward? How do we help them advertise ideas, events and news without breaking the budget? How can we take things beyond Facebook and Twitter in the social media realm? With all these questions floating around, our latest desire wasn’t far behind: We wish—oh, how we wish—that there was a social network specifically for nonprofits.

Low and behold, there actually is. Woo-hoo! And it goes by the name Jumo. Chris Hughes, the co-founder of Facebook, created Jumo to “connect individuals and organizations working to change the world.”

You might ask, “Don’t nonprofits already have events and profiles on Facebook? Why use Jumo, too?”

Yes, nonprofits do have profiles on Facebook. However, Facebook is the “me” network. It’s all about updating your status, your profile, your photos, who writes on your wall, what events you create, etc. But on Jumo, users can enter a very basic profile, which is comprised of only their name, location, causes of interest, and a very short optional bio. Jumo is a network about supporting causes, such as community foundations, and it will recommend local and global organizations that you might be interested in.

The purpose isn’t to create another network based around individuals, but rather let people connect to organizations they care about through a simple find, follow and support model.

Nonprofits can create profiles in Jumo as well, but the main reason for them to join is to define their mission and tell their story. Then that’s where the individual users come in. People can search the site, find nonprofits that matter to them on a personal level, and show their support by clicking the “Care” button.

Simple. Streamlined. Support.

It’s the wave of the social media future and we can’t wait to put it into practice on some of our fabulous clients.