C ITY&SUBURB
C ITY& SUBURB
I Going Viral to Entice
I the Unaffiliated Young
RACHEL VIGODA
Jewish Exponent Feature
ather than follow the old­
fashioned model of open­
ing the doors and waiting
for the Jews to show up, newer
Jewish groups are aiming to en­
gage Jews where they are. And
where the Jews are, if they're in
their 20s or 30s, is online.
Local organizations targeting
Jews in the post-college, pre-mar­
r iage range - such as the Colla­
borative, the Philadelphia branch
of Birthright Israel NEXT and
Hillel's Jewish Graduate Student
Network - are relying on Face­
book and other social media tools
to connect with existing mem­
bers, attract new ones and give
those with even the most tenuous
connection to the Jewish com­
munityan effortless way to keep
up with the latest buzz.
.. It works because over -too
million people are on Facebook.
I If Facebook was a c ountr~: it
on the Collaborative's Facebook
would be the third largest coun­
page. giving 1.100 people instant
I try in the world," said Seth Gold­
stein, founder of Goldstein Me-
I dia, a Web-design and Internet­
marketing company in Doyles­
town, and of the online maga­
zine "A2SM," short for "Addict­
ed to Social Media."
"Everyone - plus their mom,
dad and grandma - is on Face­
book, so it's a really easy way for
an organization to reach out," he
said.
About 66 percent of Ameri­
cans who are online use social­
networking sites, up from 20 per­
cent in 2007, according to the
"2010 Social Networking Report"
released last month by the mar­
ket-research flrm Experian Sim­
mons.
The numbers are even high­
er in younger demographics: Al­
most 90 percent of online 18- to
34-year-olds regularly use social­
networking sites, and they're
not just "friending" friends and
co-workers. A majority of peo­
ple who visit the sites say that
they'\-e shown their support for
a product, service, company or
band by becoming a fan.
The Facebook page for the
Collaborative has roughly 1.100
friend ,The group a! 0 has 95
followers on Twitter (a site it
doesn't use as much) and a data­
base of 3,000 e-mail addresses.
"Our mission is to give Jew­
ish people an opportunity to so­
cialize with each other. It's rea!­
ly as simple as that," said the
Collaborative's program d~rec­
tor, Joshua Hersz. "We're giving
them the opportunity to create
a Jew ish community - their
own Jewish community - and
using social media help make
the connection ."
NEW BRANCH OF THE TRIBE
Hersz and the Collaborative's
executive director, Ross Berko­
witz, are in the process of de­
veloping Tribe 12, a new non­
proflt that includes the Collabo­
rative: LimmudPhilly. a week­
end learning program: and a
Philadelphia branch of the Pre­
senTense Communit Entrepre­
neur Partnership, which Hersz
describe a an "incubator de­
s· _oc
For this generation, if you're no
ally small Jewish projects. "
online, you're invisible."
The PresenTense partnership
recently received a $50,000 grant
from the Jewish Federation of
Greater Philadelphia; the Col­
laborative and LimmudPhilly
got S50,OOO and $20,000, respec­
tively.
While Hersz and Berkowitz
say that it's too soon to divulge
their strategy for Tribe 12 - the
organization officially launches
on Sept. 1 - they have already
set up "Where Jew At Philly," a
Facebook page where anyone
can promote "anyth ing related
to Jewish life in Philly."
"Most of the groups targeting
younger Jews work really well
together, promoting and support­
ing each other's events," said
Hersz ... 'Where Jew At' is part
of the idea of supporting each
other, rather than competing
against each other."
Much of this outreach is fair­
ly new. When Hersz joined the
Collaborative two years ago,
most of the marketing was done
on paper, prima rily th rough a
brochure mailed out every oth­
er month. Hersz's first move
was to take everything online.
"We had to plan out all the
events three months ahead, then
The Collaborative hosted a recent networking event in Center City.
print brochures and sit there
folding, stamping, mailing," he
said. "And 25 percent or 30 per­
cent of them would come back
in the mail because people had
moved. It limited the flexibility
we had in our programming."
Now he can post details of an
upcoming event, such as a "How
Jew Meet Singles" party or a
walking tour of Jewish Philly,
access. He can also make up­
dates, and respond to questions
and comments immediately.
Since the Collaborative start­
ed reaching out to its audience
online, the number of unique
event attendees - a figure that
counts each attendee once, even
if that person goes to multiple
events - has increased from
about 1,750 to 2,500 per year.
The main advantage of mar­
keting through social media is
that it's viral- it spreads on its
own, explained Adam Oded, di­
rector of the Philly chapter of
Birthright Israel NEXT. "Our
constituents aren't just respond­
ing to a message I put out there;
they're broadening the conver­
sation themselves. They're talk­
ing about what we're doing on
their own pages. They're tagging
themselves in photos and posting
comments to their friends , and
then their friends are contacting
us. It moves in every direction."
Oded also uses Foursquare, a
site where users announce their
locations, whether it's a coffee
shop, museum or anywhere else,
by virtually checking in to the
location on a smart phor-e De­
pending on how a user an
account, Foursquare can publish
the locale on Facebook or Twitter.
Birthright Israel NEXT's shore
house is a Foursquare location:
so is its porch.
"Everyone hangs out on the
porch, and it has its own Four­
square 'check in' - and that wa
set up by one of our guests, no
by me," said Oded. "It's just an
other way of engaging people
Miriam Steinberg-Egeth, d'
rector of the Jewish Graduat
Student Network, cites a mix 0
the group's Web site, Faceboo
page and her own personal Fac
book page as a recipe for succ
- with hundreds attending th
Grad Network's major events.
"I posted a link about a dinn
for Penn grad students on pe
pIe's Facebook walls, and rig
away, I saw other people post'
it, and more people I don't ev
know reposting it," she said ... It
hard to tell where it all starts, b
when there's a free event, peop
will fmd out about it."
Of course, Facebook <­
Foursquare don't get all the c
it. While Hersz, Oded and S
berg-Egeth all praise socia!
dia as a marketing tool.
each point to face-to-face
action as the heart - and
ving force - of their group.
"I've been with the Grad
work for four years, and our
bers have grown," said Stei.!
Egeth. "But in addition to
out there in terms of soc'
dia, I'm out there in terms of
knowing people, talking to
people. connecting with n
pIe - in person." •