FNB launches Shine 2010

I am really excited to share the news that FNB has just launched Shine 2010:

Shine 2010, an online social networking platform which offers a place for South Africans to congregate, learn and communicate in the run-up to the 2010 FIFA World Cup^TM.

Shine 2010 will serve as the first port of call for 2010 good news, offering insights into the critical infrastructure projects and serving as an outlet for the positive stories that aren’t currently being told.

Apart from providing news and feature articles, Shine 2010 leverages the power of online media to offer interactive and engaging content. This approach ensures that the community can consume the good news according to their own preferences. These include a blog, regular podcast interviews, a Facebook group, a YouTube channel and the FNB Roving Reporters interviews. The FNB Roving Reporters - a first for a South African corporate - will serve as citizen reporters, hitting the streets to source video interviews with key influencers, whilst also polling public perception ahead of 2010.

Shine 2010 is yet another one of FNB’s digital initiatives and follows the launch of FNBTV in early June 2008. Furthermore, the bank continues to engage in social media with MXit and FNB Facebook employee groups.

I had the fantastic opportunity to work with FNB’s PR people, specifically Casey Monteiro at Fleishman-Hillard, on the legal side of this project over the last 2 weeks or so. The terms and conditions will feature Creative Commons licenses for content published on the site that FNB’s people produce (an aspect which I am pretty excited about) as well as some pretty interesting tie-ins with a variety of social media platforms including Flickr (the images are licensed under a Creative Commons NonCommercial ShareAlike license), YouTube and del.icio.us. There is already a lot of content available which you can share. I understand there is also going to be a Facebook application so look out for that! Oh, don’t forget to get the code for the countdown clock on the site too (top right):

Visitors to the site will find positive news about South Africa and the upcoming World Cup in news articles, blog posts and even a podcast. It is really good to see a major corporate in SA like FNB launching an initiative like this. Sites like Shine 2010 and SA Rocks go quite some way to balancing out the often overwhelmingly negative news that sells newspapers. I am privileged to have had an opportunity to work with Casey and FNB on this project and contribute in my small way.

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creative commons, del.icio.us, flickr, youtube, shine 2010, fnb, fleishman-Hillard, fifa world cup, world cup, soccer