Feb 17 2012

NFL Player Promoters Will Help NFL Dominate Social Media

By Alissa Skelton


A select group of college students could get digitally cozier with their favorite NFL players.

United Way is looking for social media interns to promote the philanthropy efforts of the 32 NFL teams and each team’s United Way spokesperson to help the the organizations dominate social media.

The NFL has been known for its striking ability to engage with fans on social media. More than 4.6 million people are NFL Facebook fans and another 2.8 million follow the league on Twitter. The teams and individual players have large fan bases, too.

The interns will be called player promoters — not interns — and will be assigned an NFL player to promote. The main goal of the position is to drive traffic to the NFL player’s social media accounts to increase the player’s following, so United Way’s message will reach more people. Although unpaid, this opportunity is a chance for college sports junkies — who are social media savvy — to be noticed by their favorite NFL players and to increase their own social media following.

The Team NFL Player Promoter program adds to the NFL’s 39-year partnership with United Way. The non-profit’s name easily stays in the spotlight with the backing of 32 NFL teams that captivate a huge audience.

So far, 21 top athletes such as Greg Jennings of the Green Bay Packers, Josh Cribbs of the Cleveland Browns and Roman Harper of the New Orleans Saints have pledged to recruit 3,000 United Way volunteers over three years in an effort to reduce the U.S. high school dropout rate. The volunteers will read, tutor and mentor youth to encourage students to stay in school. United Way’s high school dropout campaign plans to sign a member from each NFL team.

SEE ALSO: How the NFL Is Dominating Social Media

“These NFL players have their own reach — they are their own media,” said Tracey Holmes, spokesperson for United Way. “The interns will greatly help the players call attention to United Way’s goal and get their fan base interested in the player’s work.”

Interns will be responsible for developing creative social media strategies to reach the NFL player’s audience. On top of tweeting and Facebooking, interns will write one or two articles about their player’s efforts to recruit volunteers for USA Today College and United Way’s NFL microsite. The application deadline is Friday, Feb. 17 at 5 p.m. EST.

In the slideshow below, check out some of the players who want to cut the nation’s high school dropout rate in half by 2018.

1. Greg Jennings, Packers




Greg Jennings, a wide receiver for the Green Bay Packers, has the most Twitter followers out of the 21 players who have signed onto United Way's campaign to cut in half the number of high school dropouts by 2018. Jennings has more than 203,000 Twitter followers.

Click here to view this gallery.

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Feb 03 2012

World Cancer Day Facebook App Hopes to Beat Cancer Before it Starts

By Zoe Fox

Two international cancer prevention groups think the online community can — and should — take a stab at the worldwide cancer epidemic. In honor of World Cancer Day, Feb. 4, Stand Up To Cancer and the Union for International Cancer Control are launching a Facebook app that they hope will create a digital buzz that will reduce the spread of the disease.

The World Cancer Day Facebook app asks you to commit to make a change in your life — or help a friend make a change — to prevent cancer. Most of the preventative behaviors the app suggests are the standard adages associated with healthy living; eating green vegetables, exercising regularly, avoiding cigarettes and alcohol and wearing sunscreen. You can also pledge to help a friend quit smoking, learn about cancer or donate money to cancer research.

Both Stand Up 2 Cancer and the Union for International Cancer Control hope that the app, video and social campaigns will help raise awareness about behaviors that prevent cancer. The groups claim that one in three cancer deaths can be avoided through lifestyle changes like those the app addresses.

The app also allows you to make your pledge in honor of someone in your life who may have suffered from the disease or be affected in some other way.

“On World Cancer Day, we can unite people globally to take a stand against it through social media,” says Stand Up To Cancer co-founder and ABC correspondent Katie Couric. “Working together, we can end cancer’s reign as a leading cause of death.”

cancer app

Last year, nearly 67,000 people donated their Facebook status for World Cancer Day. The campaign hopes the new app will increase that number.

Other aspects of the digitally focused World Cancer Day campaign include the #WorldCancerDay hashtag on Twitter. The two organizations also put out a star-studded video (above) featuring Natasha Bedingfield, Kate Bosworth, Jimmy Fallon, Jennifer Garner, Seth Rogen, Emma Stone and more.

Do you think Facebook status updates are a good way to generate awareness? How should social good campaigns best use Facebook? Let us know in the comments.

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Feb 03 2012

Could Facebook’s Newly Wealthy Employees Help California’s Withering Economy?

By Kate Freeman


Facebook’s slew of newly wealthy employees could “significantly impact” California’s economy during the next few years, said H.D. Palmer, deputy director of external affairs for the California Department of Finance.

“The closest analogue is the 2004 Google IPO,” he said. “Its benefit to the state’s general fund was in the neighborhood hundreds of millions– at least $400 million.”

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, Calif., afforded generous pre-IPO stock options to as many as 1,000 of its employees. They now stand to make a fortune when the stock goes public. One of the ways the state will make money is when employees cash out their shares and then have to pay taxes.

“If it’s as big as it’s advertised, it certainly has the potential to eclipse the Google IPO — but it won’t happen over night,” Palmer said. “While the potential revenue gain is certainly significant, it has to be viewed in the larger context of the legislature having to close a budget gap that we estimate to be $9.2 billion before the state’s new fiscal year begins on July 1st.”

There’s nothing currently built into the state budget, finalized in December, 2011, that reflects any increase in funds related to Facebook’s IPO. At the time, it was unknown when the company’s IPO would be announced. But the state will release a revised revenue forecast in May, which could reflect any Facebook IPO money affecting the state’s General Fund revenue for the coming fiscal year.

Jason Sisney, deputy legislative analyst for the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office which advises the California legislature on state budget issues, said that lawmakers are eager to know how Facebook will affect California’s economy.

Because tax records are private, no one will ever know the Facebook IPO’s precise impact on the state, but Sisney said his office must consider Facebook when they revisit the budget.

“Given the budgetary pressures they (legislators) face, they’re interested in not making more cuts than they have to,” he said. “This is more than a drop in the bucket, it’s a pretty noticeable chunk of money.”

But even the most optimistic estimates of Facebook’s revenue are not enough to cure the state’s mammoth budget woes.

“This is only going to be one relatively small piece of how California addresses its budgetary issues in the next few years,” Sisney added.

It also remains to be seen exactly how much California will benefit from Facebook and where the most revenue will come from — whether it’s from taxes on the IPO filing itself or on executives cashing out stock. When these various taxes are paid will determine which fiscal year California’s legislature can include Facebook in its budget.

Facebook employees with stock options won’t pay taxes until they sell their shares. Once Facebook employees sell their shares, the money will be taxed as personal income. The top marginal rate for personal income tax in California is 9.3%. Individuals whose adjusted gross income is more than $1 million pay an additional 1%, with that money going toward mental health programs under Proposition 63. In the 2011 tax year, about 1 percent of earners generated more than 40 percent of all the personal income tax in California.

“History suggests that a lot of investors will sell some of their stake and diversify their portfolios, to spend, to save, to give to charity and other purposes,” Sisney said.

Comparing Facebook with Google, Palmer said Google’s co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin sold most of their stock over an 18-24 month period.

Richard A. Walker is a professor at University of California, Berkeley, and an expert in economic geography and California. He said that as outside investors purchase Facebook stock, Zuckerberg and employees with stock options will become wealthier.

An influx of wealthy Facebook people buying property could also drive up housing prices in the San Francisco Bay Area. But he said that property buys won’t provide as much long-term help to the economy as purchases of things like cars, food, and hardware.

Walker also said that, while hundreds of newly-minted millionaires could boost the California economy somewhat, their newfound riches will also come with economic drawbacks. “On the other hand, these kinds of super-IPOs contribute to the class of very rich people and to the ongoing problem of class inequality in California, which is already very bad — one of the worst states in the U.S.,” Walker said. “While the tech boom today is a healthy contributor to the local economy, what the state needs more is ordinary jobs with decent pay, not just high-paid or very wealthy techies.”

What’s your prediction for Facebook’s impact on California’s budget? Tell us in the comments.

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