Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Meet Amy Fox of MuseumTweets: Best Practices for Micro Blogging in Museums

I first met Amy Fox when she de-lurked on the Museum Computer Network listserv.  She describes herself as having a "unhealthy obsession with Twitter."   Indeed, her first post summarized some observations from her research on how museums were using Twitter for her masters thesis.


1.  Tell me about you

I am a University of Washington student currently writing my thesis to complete my MA in Museology. I'm fascinated by social networking and am interested in finding ways for museums to appeal to all types of people. Somehow that morphed into my thesis topic.

2.  What is your thesis about?

Broadly, I'm researching how museums are using micro-blogging. This has been narrowed to a focus on Twitter since that is where the most activity is concentrated at the moment. The goal is to identify and analyze how museums are using Twitter and suggest best practices as well as some possibilities for the future. My research has been in three areas, first finding and following "official" museum Twitter accounts and tracking subscribers, followers, number of posts and other measurable data. The second part of my research has been analyzing updates, or tweets, and identifying categories. The final section of research is a survey completed by sixteen museum professionals involved in their museum's Twitter account. I have also been following public Twitter updates that include the key word museum using Twitter Alerts.

3.  What are your best twitter tips for museums?

For anyone just starting out, first try Twitter for yourself. Then set up an account for your museum and follow a few other museums as well as people in your target market using a search for location or interest keywords. Decide what you want to accomplish with this account. Do you want to start conversations? Do you want to post updates about events? Trivia and information? Will it be another RSS feed? I suggest a mixture of all of these, but do whatever feels comfortable and whatever best fits into your mission. Then start to update. Try using the @username feature to start conversations with your audience.

I think using a mixture of types of tweets is a good strategy because sometimes the same type of message over and over can be monotonous. One example is simply turning a Twitter account into an RSS feed. If followers already subscribe to your blog and you only tweet blog posts, there is no reason for them to follow you on Twitter. Similarly, only updating with event reminders leaves little room for follower interaction. The more types of updates you mix in the more interesting the feed becomes.

The number one thing I think museums should remember about Twitter is that following works both ways. Many people don't follow their followers. For a popular bloggers or other celebrities, this is understandable, the volume is simply too large. But for museums and public institutions like libraries and other nonprofits, it is so important to subscribe to their followers and take a look at what they are saying. It's free insight into their follower's daily lives. I see a lot of museums following their colleagues and other museums. Sure, museums should follow other museums, it's a good way to see what their peers are doing and bring traffic over to their own page. But don't forget your target audience, followers/visitors.

Finally, make sure that your museum's full name is in your bio, especially if your username is an acronym. You might also consider throwing in some key words to make sure you show up in searches.

4.  You have observed museums using Twitter in a variety of ways, can you give me some examples (with links to the actual tweet?)

The two most common tweets are event reminders and automatic RSS feed updates, but museums are also tweeting with podcast and video links, updates on exhibits or animals, fly on the wall observations from inside the galleries among others. Some examples that I found looking through the most recent pages of my Twitter feed include the Women's Museum asking followers for input, the Exploratorium linking to news that relates to their museum, The Pacific Science Center's Science Calendar trivia of the day, an animal update from Monterey Aquarium, and the San Francisco Zoo interacting with followers/visitors.

5.  If I'm a museum staff person and want to connect with my peers on Twitter, what's the best way to do that?

Well, all I can suggest is my approach. Make sure your profile reveals that you are a real person interested in museums so when you start following people a quick glance at your profile explains why you are following them. Then start by searching for keywords such as "museum" and make note of both museums and individuals whose profiles look interesting.  Look to see who follows these users and whom they follow and start adding people. I had an e-mail exchange with a museum staffer who started an account for their museum and began to follow 500 people in a manner of days. They had no updates of their own and no information in their profile, so unfortunately they were identified as a spammer and the account was suspended. So, I suppose the moral is to have a profile, be active with updating and to be selective when building your feed. I'm not very good at being active or interacting, so I have to remind myself to do both.

6.  Who are the five most interesting Museum twitterers?

As cliché as this might sound, it was really difficult to choose five. My criteria are diversity of topics and frequency of updating, as well as the overall tone of tweets. Five museums that consistently provide interesting, varied content are Renton History Museum (@rentonhistory), the Exploratorium (@Exploratorium), The Women's Museum (@The WomensMuseum), Life and Science (@lifeandscience) and the San Francisco Zoo (@sfzoo).

7.  What is the best of the best how-to advice out for using Twitter?

I like Mashable and Tweet Crunch for the latest news, ideas and applications. Nina Simon's Museum 2.0 has a couple good posts about Twitter and museums. And I recently discovered a collection of Twitter suggestions sprinkled around the web titled "Twittn' Secrets." I have not read all of them, there is some good advice in there, though some of the suggestions may not apply to museums. I am always discovering new resources, there is so much out there that it is difficult for one person to keep on top of everything.


Some additional Twitter Nonprofit and Social Change Resources

Cocktail Party Participation: Revisiting Twitter, Nina Simon
Twitter to Save the World (celebrates the release of Social Actions Twitterfeed)
Twitter Primer by Beth Kanter
Twitter 101 by Connie Bensen
Twitter Resources from Pistachio

NpTech Summary: Nonprofit and Social Change Digg Redux

Should there be a nonprofit and social change category on Digg?  (Digg it here).  That was the conversation in the nonprofit, nonprofit technology, and social change social media space.   Here's a summary of the distributed conversations, some context, and some questions.

Back in the early days of Web 2.0,  nonprofit technology thought leader Marnie Webb created the NpTech Tag as a way for nonprofit techies to share bookmarks on del.icio.us. Marshall Kirkpatrick, who was working with Netsquared, whipped up the NpTech Metafeed which allowed folks to aggregate items tagged by nonprofit techies from many distributed sources.  As the volume of information increased, weekly summaries were added to the mix.  The result of these ad hoc collaborations was a  folksonomy of terms of nonprofit technology related news and a community of taggers. 

Most recently, Marnie Webb created a Yahoo Pipe of the NpTech Feed and runing it through AideRSS to sort it by popularity.  And Jonathon Colman created the NpTech FriendFeed Room.

And, of course, one of the community ad hoc collaborations incorporated Digg or a "Digg like" ability to crowdsource news items. Allan Benamer put together an NpTech version of Digg, using open source software called Pligg combined with a Yahoo Pipe of the Nptech feed.  These early experiments were about how to crowd source, aggregate, and share nonprofit technology news using web 2.0 tools.  To get a zeitgeist of nptech.

Recenty, on NTEN's WeAreMedia project, nonprofit technology folks have been exploring the another aspect of Digg - generating buzz.   A number of nonprofit groups use Digg as a way to generate interest and traffic in their content - even it doesn't make to the top of the home page.   That discussion generated some good tips for using Digg (as well as other tools)

• Don't just submit your own content: submit stories from all around the web
• Be a good community member and learn by watching people whose posts regularly become "popular" on the homepage
  
• Spend time building your reputation by digging stories and making intelligent comments
• Respond to "shouts" of stories that you like by digging them and letting the shouter know that you supported them
• Spend at least 10-15 minutes each day digging stories, making comments, and submitting new content
  
• Remember that you only have 24 hours to make your post "popular"; any longer than that and the post usually can't become popular anymore
• If you become friends with a powerful digger, occasionally have them post content on your site to Digg rather than doing so yourself
• Check with your IT/IS staff ahead of time to ensure that your site can handle a "Digg Effect" (also known as a "slashdotting") -- a giant waves of people all coming to your site at the same time

Others who work in the nonprofit sector, perhaps mostly gen y, turn to Digg for news.  Last week, Ashley Messick brought up the question, "Should there be a nonprofit and social actions category for Digg." She notes that she often is frustrarted because she can't find nonprofit news on Digg because there isn't a specific category.

Today, the Wild Apricot blog continued the discussion about "Should Digg Have A Nonprofit Category?," making the point that nonprofit news on Digg gets lost because a) demographics and b) site structure (no specific category.) Social Butterfly, back in June, also voiced this complaint which was echoed in the comments by her readers.

The question was also discussed over at Social Actions.   While there was some consensus that a nonprofit and social actions category on Digg would be a good thing, Christine Egger wondered, whether having a nonprofit and social change category would create a silo that would prevent new people discovering nonprofits and social action news.  As says in the comments:

The nonprofit community hasn't been served well at all by being lumped into a single category named for their legal structure. It completely obscures the contribution each organization makes uniquely to every single Digg category . . . Action category could make sense, but if the idea is to pepper all of our daily goings-on with opportunities to seamlessly take action so whatever issue we're impacting moves in a positive direction (regardless of whether that action is nonprofit-, CSR-, or especially "none of the above"-related) it might be cooler to 1) encourage Digg to display related ways to take action on things that have been Dugg, and 2) encourage Digg functionality on all of the campaigns created on social action platforms.

As noted on Wild Apricot,  last week’s announcement of a $28.7 million investment in Digg is intended to fuel  Digg’s plans for customizing the Digg experience, enhancing the recommendation system across other areas of the site, creating deeper category and topic content views and more ways to discover and organize content.  This might bode well for a nonprofit and social category on Digg or other ways.

What's your take on how the nonprofit sector uses Digg? What's your take on how the nonprofit sector can use Digg?  Should there be a nonprofit and social change category on Digg?  (Digg it here).

The NpTech Tag started as an experimental community tagging project in 2005. A loosely coupled group of nonprofit techies and social change activists decided to use the tag "NpTech" to identify web resources that would create an ongoing stream of information to promote and educate those working in nonprofit technology.  Through TechSoup's Netsquared project, blogger Beth Kanter, was commissioned to write a weekly summary.

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Be Prepared for Social Media

Be Prepared for Social Media

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: boyscouts socialmedia)

A few months I created a workshop called "Be Prepared For Social Media."  So, what came to mind?  The Boy Scouts and Merit Badges.  After wasting way too much time browsing Boy Scout badges, I put together the above slide show introduction.   However, right before the workshop I got a list of participants and realized that it was not the right metaphor for some participants signed up for the workshop and might even be offensive.   So, I ditched it.

My colleagues, Connie Bensen and Shashi Bellamkonda sent me this link to PopCorn Kids from a 10 year old cub scout who is selling PopCorn to help feed hungry kids through Feeding America.   So, since I'm trying to raise little money myself for a food bank thought I'd blog this.

What advice would you offer this budding ten-year philanthropist? Is there a merit badge that needs to be on the list so your nonprofit can be prepared for social media?

Twitter is Not Pointless, It is Pointillsm

Step back and look at the painting

Jay Cross is making a point (couldn't resist)  about Twitter by referring to the art work of Georges Seurat who was a pointillist.

Twitter is like pointillism. Up close it can be meaningless. Back away and a pattern emerges. Your subconscious shapes an image of the person from the Tweets. The whole is a phase change from the sum of the parts.

Stepping back and seeing patterns is an important skill when you use Twitter, particularly as a listening tool.  That's why I like to grab a search feed from Twitter for topics that I'm monitoring and then step back and see the patterns.    I recently came across this tool called "TweetBeep" - which is described as google alerts for Twitter - it sends you emails when someone mentions you on Twitter.

I thought this might keep you from seeing the forest through the tweets - or get in the way of pattern analysis.  But, if you wanted to be monitoring in real time and you lived in your email - then this would be a good tool for the job.

And while I'm on the topic of pattern analysis and stepping back, Chris Brogan has some advice about how to self-monitor your tweeting.

Post the occasional tweet about a particularly good blog post to Twitter. Do this at a rate of about 1:12, meaning one post about your stuff to any 12 tweets about other people’s stuff. This will keep people a bit more interested in your stream as something of value, versus a “mememememe” type of Twitter user.

Bryan Person has started the Twitter "MeNotMe" meme in which has analyze his last 100 tweets categorizing them into me (personal), not me, me (professional - about work).   I think he needs to come up with a rating scale of egotism (see the definitions here). 

 

WeAreMedia Module 5: Social Networks (and widgets) for Community Building, Taking Action and/or Fundraising

Photo by Mill Zero

NTEN's WeAreMedia project has been discussing and building six tactical modules on social media - the practical tips and resources you need before you start to focus on the tools.    In the last four weeks, the community has shared tips, resources, and case studies to create four awesome tactical modules:

• Listening is the first step
• Participating in the conversation
• Sharing Your Story Social Media Style
• Spreading Awareness and Generating Buzz

This week, we're talking about Module 5: Social Networks (and widgets) for Community Building, Taking Action and/or Fundraising.   This module takes a look at ways that you can build an online community, engage people and inspire them to take an action, or raise money using social networks and fundraising tools.   We looking for tips, examples, and resources.

• What are the best getting started tips for using Ning or LinkedIn for community building or sharing knowledge?
• What are the best getting started tips for using Facebook or MySpace for engaging people and inspiring action?
• What are the best getting started for using fundraising widgets and social networking fundraising apps for fundraising?
• What are the best examples from nonprofits?
• What are the best of the best resources?

I'm particularly excited about this module because we have a lot of expertise and knowledge in the WeAreMedia community.   

Help build this module by visiting the wiki and share what you know!   The module page is here.

Hunger Is A Global and Local Issue: Some Ways To Take Action

Photo by Danamdefebbo

Once a month, my kids' school holds a school spirit day which includes a school-wide community service project.  The younger kids are asked to bring an item in that is donated to a local community group in need.  For October, the school is requesting donations of canned food for the local food pantry.

"With living costs soaring, many local families are struggling to makes ends meet, and nowhere can it be seen with more clarity than on the lengthening lists of people being helped by the local food pantry."

Hunger is not only local issue, but also a global one.  So, while we were in the grocery store picking up some extra canned goods, I was thinking about the different hunger awareness campaigns that have come across my email this past week or two - and wondering how I might creatively take some personal action myself (beyond buying a few extra canned goods during our weekly grocery trip). 

Then I remembered the invitation to participate in the Weight Watchers Lose for Good, a campaign created to empower people to get healthier while also giving back to others in need. The program addresses two global epidemics – obesity and chronic hunger and malnutrition.   

For every pound lost with Weight Watchers during a six-week period, beginning September 7 and ending October 18, Weight Watchers will donate the cost of one pound of food -- up to one million dollars. The funds will go to two hunger-fighting organizations:  Share Our Strength, which works to make sure no child in America grows up hungry, and Action Against Hunger, which provides immediate and long-term solutions for hunger to people around the world. 

So, I thought - why not drop that ten pounds that I've been meaning to lose and help some other folks too?  I signed up. 

I also kept thinking about the inspiring social media infused fund raising that Connie Reece, David Neff, and Mike Chapman (through the local Austin Social Media Club and 501 Tech Club) have been doing for the Austin Foodbank.  I also wondered if there were some ways that I could support this issue that were more immediate than losing ten pounds?   I also kept thinking about strategies to keep in me on track to lose for good.

So, here's what else I did:

1.   Set Up A Campaign at ThePoint

I set up a campaign over at ThePoint.  If I lose ten pounds, the Austin Foodbank will receive a donation.  What's cool is that you can pledge a donation too, but you don't have to pay unless I lose the ten pounds.   I figure that ought to give me some will power.

2.  Social Actions TwitterFeed

I've set up a the Social Actions Twitterfeed to search and post for hunger related campaigns and actions.  The Social Actions Twitterfeed will search through 24 platforms for hunger related campaigns and automatically post them to my automated twitter account.  (I have two Twitter accounts - one for relationship building and one where I will post automated feeds.  I'm mostly doing this to test out what the Twitterfeed can do.

3.  I left A Comment To Help With Tyson Foods Hunger Relief in California

This was soooo much easier than resisting chocolate.  All I had to do was leave a comment on this post.  For every comment on the post receives, Tyson Foods will donate 100 pounds of high-quality protein (up to a total of 200,000 pounds) to the six Bay Area food banks.    So, leave a comment and let them know that Beth sent you.

4.  Signed up for Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The goal is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.  The focus is on poverty reduction and certainly hunger awareness is part of that theme.

How else would you take action against local or global hunger issues?  What are the best examples of hunger organizations using social media to raise awareness or dollars for this cause?

Relationships and Engagement Fundraising

Breast Cancer awareness month (October) is just around the corner!   And here's another clever online fundraising strategy for breast cancer.  I like it because it combines education, a personal story, and a click through model for donations.   I heard about it because it turned up in one of my friends activity feeds on Facebook.

If you go to Purina Cat Chow's web site & take a test on your knowledge of breast cancer they will donate $1. to the Susan G. Komen Foundation to support breast cancer research. There are only five questions and they are not difficult. 

What's the connection between cats and breast cancer?  You'll have to read the story about how one woman who was struggling with breast cancer got some extra TLC from her cat.   As many of you know, I'm more of a dog person than a cat person, but I thought this was a great example of encouraging deeper engagement with a cause, disease education, and online fundraising.   

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has just launched a campaign to raise $100,000 in 100 days and is using a gaming platform, PledgePlay.  It's an online casual gaming platform where the money used to purchase "tokens" to play games is donated to LLS. 

What's makes this interesting?  The personal element.  The CEO of PledgePlay, Jim Carol, developed the platform while his 11 year old son, Taylor, was receiving treatment for a rare form of leukemia.  In fact, Taylor was named VP of Game Development throughout that time.  Their hope was to develop a fun way to bring families together - old and young - to have some fun while ultimately raising money and funds for those battling childhood cancers.  (Cancer is a disease that doesn't care how young you are --  as Matthew Zachary will certainly tell you)

Social Actions has a great list of links about other platform developments, resources,  and news happening in the fundraising 2.0 arena.   Here's three themes worth reflecting on.

1.  Relationship Building Is King

London Fundraising Summit took place last week.   It focuses on relationship building -- very important to any fundraising success -- both online and offline - and regardless of tools.   

Jonathan Waddingham from justgiving gave a presentation that included 7 principles for engaging donors online:

• Engagement is more than just a ‘donate now’ button
• It’s about building relationships with supporters
• Reaching out to people in their online world
• Go to where your supporters are, don’t expect them to come to you
• Hard to measure, may not reap immediate returns
• The investment is time more than money
• If you do it, do it well – be authentic

Amy Sample Ward who has recently moved across the pond gave a presentation about online engagement    She makes a point about connecting social media strategy with traditional strategy with her phrase - conversations and conversions.  For more, read her notes here.

2.   From Crowd Sourcing to Crowd Funding With A Purpose

I've been watching Dave Cohn (aka DigiDave) now for a few months now.  His project is “Spot Us” allows an individual or group to take control of news in their community by sharing the cost (crowdfunding) to commission freelance journalists to write important, or uncovered news stories.   Dave is using distributed networked fund raising approach, but connecting it to specific outcome - journalism (see slide 19)   In this post, he describes the soon to be launched site.

3.  When will relationship begin online and enhance offline activism on Facebook?

Peter Deitz shared an audio clip of the debate "Can Facebook Replace Face-to-Face?" between Facebook Causes' Sean Parker and the Brookings Institution's William Galston (& moderated by Joe Trippi) . Unfortunately, there isn't a top line summary of the key points any place online.   I listened to some of the audio but it was hard for me to hear -- here's some of what I pieced together:

The debate wasn't about whether Facebook would replace face-to-face real-life interaction in terms of organizing activities.    The debate was about whether Facebook is a tool soley to maintain relationships with people you already know offline.  That is it can help you augment  your close personal connections.  Or whether it can be effective to help you find people that you don't know face-to-face who are passionate about your issue, convert them to your cause and get them to attend an event or action offline.. That is the relationship begins online and leds to offline activism.   There hasn't been a lot of that yet, but with new features integrated in Causes/Facebook more of that is in the future.

In addition there were two other blog posts providing some quotes:

The Social Citizens Blog posted some quotes from Galston for fodder for an online discussion:

• “In the old days, there were gatekeepers and some information just didn’t get out there. A world without gatekeepers is a worse world than one with gatekeepers, even though they are not infallible.”
• “Online      organizing is good for latent communities of like-minded people to      organize themselves”
• “Definition of ‘common good’ now differs greatly … so, if you’re asking me if these things are alleviating polarization or bringing unity—no, they are not.”
• “Viral      nature is good and bad … virality proliferates rumors below the radar”

The PhilanTopic Blog also shared some notes from the session.

What, Why, and How of Facebook Pages: An Expertise Roundup from Mari Smith, Jesse Stay, Collin Douma, and Others

 

Many nonprofit early adopters of Facebook set up groups as their organizational hubs because that was the only option.   Later, Facebook Pages were introduced and many nonprofits have set these up as their institutional hubs.   There has been some discussion in nonprofit forums, blogs, and listservs about the pros and cons of Facebook Pages versus Groups for nonprofits.   So I tweeted Mari Smith  who told me she had something in the works.   Well, she just posted something and it rocks.

I also searched around for some additional advice on Facebook Pages and I've summarized the key points below:

Why have a Facebook Page?

Mari Smith suggests these key reasons:

• More people can find out about your organization because your Page gets indexed and is search able inside and outside of Facebook.
• Because the number of Fans you can have is unlimited (whereas the Friend limit is 5,000 on an individual profile).
• Activity on your Page helps increase “viral visibility” on Facebook.
• You can establish your brand even further.

I might also add that a Facebook Page will provide better analysis in terms of users, time online the time , demographics compared to a Facebook Group.

There was also a good post on Social Media Today by Collin Douma that looked at Best Practices for Facebook Fan Pages.   It makes this point:

Although many users have joined brand pages advocating various messages, the average Facebook user doesn’t want content pushed to them, particularly contests or other promotional programs that don’t speak to their overall enthusiasm for a brand. These types of promotions can be supported on the Facebook Fan Page, but should not be the primary focus and should be housed in other digital arenas.

Successful communities on Facebook offer an attitude of openness, transparency and enthusiasm - not a technology platform for advertising.

As the chart above details,  people who join Facebook Pages fall into three different profiles.

Mari Smith's post goes on to give you the step-by-steps for setting up a Facebook Page as well as some tips for success. And she made the screencast below - great for visual learners.

So, if you set up a Facebook group before there were Facebook pages and you are hoping to use Facebook for external marketing goals - then consider converting your group into a Facebook Page.  The Facebook Page FAQ tells how Facebook can convert your group into a Page for you.

However, as Mari Smith notes, for optimal outreach you need both a group and a page.  I'm hoping she will write a post that says why.

 

• Tim Davies - Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups Pros/Cons
• Social Media Today, Best Practices for Facebook Pages
• Jeremiah Owyang - Testing Facebook Pages
• Jesse Stay - Ten Things You Didn't Know About Facebook
• Jesse Stay - What You Get From Facebook Pages Series
• App/Gap Blog - Should your business with Friends with Facebook? (analysis of using Facebook groups)
• Jenny Ambrozek, Ten Tips for Getting Business Value Out of Groups
• Heather Mansfield, Facebook Best Practices - Interview
• Shara Karasic, Setting Up A Facebook Page
• Facebook FAQ on Pages

If your nonprofit has a Facebook Page, what have you learned about what works?  What doesn't work?

Should there be A Nonprofit and Social Change Category on Digg?

I got a message from one of my readers, Ashley Messick, on Facebook about a recent post about Social Actions Twitter for Good Facebook Group and TwitterFeed Mashup

I wanted to Digg post about Save the World with Twitter and wasn't quite sure how to categorize it when submitting. It then got me thinking that I often am unsure where to go on Digg to find good nonprofit news. I try to just use the search function or rely on shoutouts. It made me think that it would be great if Nonprofit had its own category on Digg. I think there's enough news and stories out there (my Google Reader's full of it!) to merit something. Wouldn't it be nice to have a place in Digg for nonprofit news?

So I sent an email to Digg and the response suggested that maybe a good idea would be to have someone blog about the idea and have us all Digg it to show Digg that there is a real community out there who would love to have a Nonprofit section.  What do you think?  Let's start a nonprofit Diggfest?

I remember how disappointing it was not to see this post about Social Actions Ad Widget not make it to the top of Digg. Do you think with a nonprofit category we'd have a better chance of getting social action alerts and news rising to the top of Digg?

What do you think?

(Cross posted at Social Actions)

Social Media Basic Literacy Skills In the Nonprofit Workplace

Source:  Pew Internet and America Life Project: "Networked Workers" Study

 

Michele Martin and Tony Karer have been blogging at the Work Literacy blog for several months now.  Work Literacy is a network of individuals, companies and organizations who are interested in learning, defining, mentoring, teaching and consulting on the frameworks, skills, methods and tools of modern knowledge work.  The topics they look at are what I might call social media literacy skills.

When I get out into the real world and come in contact with people who are no early adopters of Web 2.0 tools,  I find that there are still many people who haven't heard of many of these tools - blogging, tagging, RSS,  etc, let alone have incorporated them into their daily professional work practice.   Mostly they are aware,  but haven't experienced it.   

Fast forward ten years from now, and the nonprofit workplace - maybe it is only five years from now - but will social media basic literacy be on the list of basic job skills?

Marshall Kirkpatrick at the Read/Write Web has two recent posts, one that analyzes some research and a second providing some great tips for incorporating social media into your work life in a productive way that can enhance your work.

 

Survey: Most Workplace Internet Use Remains Rudimentary:  Marshall gives a good summary of what he thinks the implications are from this research.  I'll just quote him here:

The gist of the analysis is that people who use the internet at work also use it to do work at home; it makes them more efficient but also increases the demands on their time. Any of us who live that kind of life could have told you that - but what we find more interesting is the surprisingly low number of people who say they use certain technologies at work.

Greg Sterling at the excellent blog SearchEngineLand pulls out some of the most salient data points from the survey and we'll excerpt further from his post below. We question both the definition of "networked worker" in the survey and Sterling's perspective on it, though.

Reading Blogs at Work: How and Why You Should Do It:

This is a fantastic post that gives us the why - first mover advantage, something that Chris Brogan has talked about.  Marshall's tips for reading are all about listening. There's a few more strategy/tool ideas tools that I think are definitely worth incorporating into the WeAreMedia Listening for Nonprofits section.  And, it has given me some inspiration for social media listening step-by-steps projects.

When do you think social media basic literacy skills  -- reading blogs in an RSS reader and listening to what people are saying - will be come a standard part of the nonprofit job description - at least for someone doing marketing for the organization. 

Project 10 -100 - $10 Million from Google for Ideas To Change the World

Project 10¹⁰⁰ (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping           as many people as possible. Here's how to join in.

 

1. Send us your idea by October 20th.
          Simply fill out the submission form giving us the gist of your idea. You can supplement           your proposal with a 30-second video.

 

2. Voting on ideas begins on January 27th.
We'll post a selection of one hundred ideas and ask you, the public, to choose twenty semi-finalists. Then an advisory board will select up to five final ideas. Send me a reminder to vote.

 

3. We'll help bring these ideas to life.
We're committing $10 million to implement these projects, and our goal is to help as many people as possible. So remember, money may provide a jumpstart, but the idea is the thing.

 

Good luck, and may those who help the most win.

RSS Reading Habits

Photo by Lynetter

I use a RSS reader and read feeds because it is part of my writing process.  Lately, my RSS reading habits have changed.  I haven't given up on it completely, but my process has changed.  My feeds are organized into folders and the folders ordered by priority.  Like a farmer tending his crops, I'd scan through each folder, each feed, bookmarking and annotating what caught my eye, and looking for patterns and connections.  This scan, capture, analyze patterns, and write a blog post is a part of my routine.

It still is, but I now use other methods for scanning.  It's more like hanging out in a village square or a pub -- conversations, news, and resources come to me.   I'm finding new links and posts either through twitter, comments on my blog post, or through people who have linked to me.   

So, it's like I have a left brain, orderly, linear way to scan and a right brain, wildly creative way to scan.

I like how Chris Brogan describes his reading goals.

1. Reading what friends write.
2. Reading about the “new marketing” industry and the tech industry (fishbowl).
3. Reading what people recommend.
4. Reading off the wall stuff that inspires new thoughts (outside the bowl).
   

Michele Martin wrote a post summarizing a paper titled How Knowledge Workers Use the Web  and pulls out some the classifications referenced in the paper.   My RSS reading is mostly information gathering or browsing.

• Finding–Looking for something specific, such as an answer to a specific question.
• Information gathering–Less specific than finding, this is research that’s focused on a particular goal that’s broader-based than simply getting a specific piece of information.
• Browsing–Visiting personal or professional sites with no specific goal in mind other than to “stay up-to-date” or be entertained.
• Transacting–Using the web to execute a transaction, such as banking or shopping.
• Communicating–Participating in chat rooms or forums (remember–this was done in 2002, prior to Facebook and the explosive growth of blogs, etc.)
• Housekeeping–Using the web to check or maintain the accuracy and functionality of web-based resources, such as looking for dead links, cleaning up outdated information, etc.

So, this is the information, knowledge worker part of it -- but how do you keep up?  As Michelle Murrain notes the whole process of writing a blog makes you process the bytes of information that flow through. 

Arts Summit 2008: The Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations - Reflections

I just got back from doing a plenary session at the Arts Summit organized by the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations.  It's gathering of arts leader from throughout New York State.   I spoke about social media and future leadership in the arts - and also did a workshop.   I had the pleasure of sharing the podium with Susan Chun who spoke about the Steve project.  (Since we shared my laptop, she kindly gave me permission to upload her slides)

I have a long history with the arts community in New York.  For 12 years, I worked on arts and technology projects with the New York Foundation for the Arts, beginning with its Arts Wire program in 1992.   I've worked with Judith Weiner at the Alliance in many different capacities since 1994 - I built their first web site. I was a circuit rider for their Rurals Program where I drove all over New York state working with Rural Arts administrators - teaching them anything and everything from how to set up an excel spreadsheet to using email to powerpoint - to plugging in modems.  (I don't crawl under desks anymore, I'm too old).   As Phil Morris noted in his blog, it feels like home to be with this crowd.)

It was great to see many familiar faces - many folks who I haven't seen in at least five years, including Hoong Yee Lee Krakauer, an artist and the director of the Arts Council in Queens,  Andrew Salgado who runs Reader's Theatre Workshop, Phil Morris (the visionary behind Proctor's Theatre where the conference took place), Martha Strodel, Rural Arts Director, Robert Zuckerman from NYSCA, Elaine Giguere,  Anne Ackerson, Caroline Thompson, Kay Stamer, Judith Levine, and many others.  Some of my creative work in technology training was done during my decade plus two years working with the New York Arts community.  Many, many memories ..

The plenary and workshop took place in the black box theatre with a huge projection screen.  See the photos here.   I took a few minutes to check out the gorgeous mainstage theatre, a historic theater renovated to perfect. 

 

 

There was some excellent questions during the plenary from this very smart crowd.   One that stuck with me was: "I'm an older babyboomer.  I'm comfortable with computers and the Internet.  But, I just haven't paid much attention to the Web 2.0 stuff.   I realize that I should get my hands on it to understand it better - so I can manage my staff better. My head is spinning (in a good way) but where and how should I get started. "

I have to caution people that when I share the results of my experiments and learnings - that it is a culmination of 6 plus years of daily exploration of Web 2.0.    That's not where I began my learning journey.  I tell folks that my recent experiences are like playing a Paganini Violin piece.  But, I started with Twinkle, Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star Suziki lessons 5-6 years ago. 

When my son, Harry, was three years old.  He used to watch the Mark Morris and Yo Yo Ma Failing Down Stairs dance video. He really wanted to play the cello.  So, we rented a 1/10 size cello and started on some lessons.  He sawed, sawed away at all.  But after a week, he said, "I don't want to play the cello anymore!"  I asked him why. "Because it doesn't sound like Yo Yo Ma!"  I had to explain to him that Yo Yo Ma didn't sound that way after he had played for week either - and that it takes practice.

So back to the question ... I offered some places to start and told her to live in that one thing for a couple of months.  Once you master it, take on the next thing.  I suggested a sequence of steps.

I had planned to do the social media game workshop, but after using a spectragraph to see if we had newcomers to social media and hear their burning questions, I decided to do some q/a and show them some basic getting started steps.  (Similar to what I've done here - except adding a live Twitter demo)

One of the most important things you need to do as a trainer - is to listen and adjust on the spot.  You have to be willing to toss out the lesson plan too -- ramp up or ramp down - and watch out if you're speaking in jargon.   I've been keeping an inner ear for that and when I spew jargon - I mock myself in front of the group and translate.  It gets a good laugh.

You can find the slides and resources at my Arts and Social Media wiki. 

What advice would you offer Working Films about measuring the impact of their social media strategy?

I get lots of email requests like this and can't answer all them or blog either.  Every now and then I like to share these queries and see what you, dear readers, think.

Dear Beth:

I want to compile a report for my Executive Director about the impact of our online organizing strategies. When looking at our google analytic stats, I usually note the number of visitors, sites that people come from and keywords. But sometimes, those stats don't really tell us anything. What are some things that I should be looking for? I want to be able to tell the story of our online campaigns in a narrative way.  Any ideas/links/resources would be helpful!

The organization I work for is Working Films.  We are a national nonprofit that works with documentary filmmakers to help them create their outreach plans. The films that we work with touch on serious social justice issues, so we link them up with organizations who are already doing work on the issue.

Our online organizing strategies include:

A screening headquarters for supporters to sign up to host/attend screenings of the films we work with. (this will be launched by the end of the month)

Keeping an updated blog about what we are working on and to show the diverse voices of our staff.

Building an online presence on Social Networking / Web2.0 Sites

• MySpace - to stay connected / reach out to potential supporters
• Facebook - to stay connected / reach out to potential supporters
• Twitter - to announce new blog posts, breaking news related to our work, and to ask supporters  (followers) questions to get to know them better.
• Wikipedia - editing articles of films, events, and organizations that we are closely linked to in order to mention our affiliation with them.
• YouTube - to host trailers and clips of the films we work with.
• Flickr - to host photos from events we have attended and hosted. For people who have hosted/attended screenings to share their experiences by uploading their photos

Here's a couple of tips/observations - but hoping the readers will jump in with comments and suggestions.

• You've got a lot going on here!   My first question is out of all the stuff you're doing here, what is most effective?  Do you have the staff/capacity to give all the time that is required to get results? 

• Let's start with your blog.  You need to set up a benchmarking process.   About a year ago, I decided to benchmark my blog using some tips suggested by Avinash Kaushik.  I've continued to do this on an annual basis to compare the results against my goals and have found it very useful.

• For each of the social media tools you are using, you might want to set up your google analytics so you can track referral traffic.   Which one of these is sending you traffic. 

• Also, are you directing your potential supporters to a spot on your web site where they can sign up for your email list or get into your CRM?   

• For narrative stories, you need to keep a journal - and screen capture or write down notes as you go any stories related to how your social media strategy help you reach a goal.

This post by Colin Delaney called "Measuring the Effects of Social Media Marketing" may give you some additional pointers as will this how-to post from Mashable.

Okay readers, I'm handing over the mic to you.  What advice you offer?

Social Media Roadblock: An Interview with Wendy Harman, Red Cross - Social Media Strategy Case Study

For the WeAreMedia Module 4: Spreading Awareness and Buzz With Social Media, the community has built an awesome resource - lots of tips, resources, and ideas from people's experience.   To top it off, I did an interview with Wendy Harman from the Red Cross about her recent experience using Twitter and other tools to spread buzz for campaign -  Social Media Roadblock

1. Tell me about the campaign - what, why,objectives

The Social Media Roadblock campaign's objective was to encourage social media activists to show solidarity with the Red Cross by displaying Red Cross PSAs, videos, photos, widgets, on their online spaces. We also encouraged people to change their avatars (see above).  It was an echo campaign to complement a radio roadblock on Friday, September 19, 2008 when the NAB encouraged all radio stations to run a Red Cross PSA at 1 pm EDT. We hoped to created more awareness of the need for support for all of those affected by recent disasters. Our key objective was to make a viral splash, to spread dynamic content, to increase donations to the ARC Disaster Relief Fund.

2. How did you implement it?

Well, I knew about the radio Roadblock for about 4 days before the event, but it wasn't until about 9:30 am last Thursday morning that I was hit with the idea for the social media roadblock complement.  That meant we had less than 24 hours to implement.  I quickly reached out to our advertising department to bounce the idea off of them (they're responsible for NAB relationship and PSAs). They liked it and said go for it.

I asked my current volunteer (who happens to be a social media genius and a member of ARC's National Youth Council) to draft a "press release" announcing it. I wouldn't normally do a press release, but on such short notice we needed to get the word out. I also knew that it would take too long to get all the proper approvals in-house for a press release issued on the wire. I contacted our media relations lead and she suggested sending it out on free distribution services social media and pitch engine.

I had already been working on the social media tools wiki so we could offer our supporters a bunch of easy ways to help online. That was useful considering our time crunch.  We put the release out and miraculously got it posted to the "Press" section on redcross.org (beyond my expectations!). It's great to have a "legitimate" URL to point to.  I posted a blog entry announcing it on Redcrosschat.org, and we used twitter to announce. We have enough Red Crossers on Twitter for that to get attention - they retweeted to their communities and we were off to the races.

We have several chapters who are social media savvy. Our Rock River, IL chapter communicator was able to get a 2 minute piece about the roadblock on their NBC affiliate's evening news that Thursday night, which was uber exciting for us. Other chapters announced it on their blogs, in Twitter, etc.

We also got our media relations lead to call in an Utterli explaining the roadblock. This turned out to be key because the founders of Utterli listened and ended up sending the announcement to ALL of their users AND starting a group just for American Red Cross social media supporters.

On the actual day, I reached out to bloggers like you and  Kami Watson Huyse, John Cass, Ike Pigott, our friends at Good2gether, and other social media big wigs I am privileged to know and asked them to help spread the word.

3. What were the challenges?

VERY SHORT NOTICE.

The Red Cross is trying to raise $100 million before the end of the year and lots of focus is now on social media initiatives to help get that done. I saw an opportunity to take 2 spheres and make each of them bigger than they would have been on their own, so I jumped at it.  My fear is that I won't be able to do it again before the end of the year, so of course I would have enjoyed more time to plan and implement a bigger splash.

4. What were the results? Anything surprise you?

I think we did ok. In some ways we sort of shook our own house and I'm not sure how far outside our already active supporters we reached. I think we could have overcome this and had a hugely broad reach with a bit more time to plan. That said, I had tears of joy at the outpouring of support by the end of the day on Friday.

I also believe that it's more inspiring for an individual to feel moved enough by a cause and take action independently of the nonprofit. I am skittish about launching too many of these experiments by the Red Cross National Headquarters when I feel sure it would be more impactful for human beings to do it. That's why I'm making the wiki full of tools - so it'll be super easy for anyone to do this to support victims of disaster.

(Beth's Note:  Wendy kindly shared her documentation of the campaign here

I can't emphasize enough how important it is to document results like this so you can see what happened and evaluate.  I think this is the key to Wendy's successes)

5. What would you do differently next time?

Well, I'd say I would plan in advance, but these things tend to happen exactly like this at the Red Cross, so we always have to be prepared to act really quickly. I would have spent more time on Thursday night reaching out to my social media friends. I would have maybe spent more time asking people to share the info on Facebook.

I would have started a hashtag for Twitter.

I'd try to figure out how in the world to measure how many people changed their avatars. I have no idea! Seriously, measurement is always tricky in this space. Is it a success because 100 people tweeted to their 5 million friends? I think we need to tie back to how much money was brought in on Friday, even though we asked people to help us fundraise, not to donate themselves.

I hope we'll be able to build on this experience as we go through this massive fundraising campaign without wearing out our welcome. I want to really empower people to help other people and not browbeat the message that the Red Cross needs money - all the money we're raising for the Disaster Relief Fund will help those who are impaced by disasters.

6. Advice to other nonprofits about doing this?

During National Preparedness Month (September) my best advice is to always be prepared to react quickly to implement online campaigns that will complement offline activities. Opportunities to showcase social media's value in context of a larger picture is always useful here, so that's why we jumped on this one.

Can Twitter Save the Fail Whales? Err Save the World ...

Joe Solomon set up a Facebook Group called Save the World With Twitter.  The play on words with the title reminded of something a few years ago when nonprofit techies were looking at technology outcomes.  We asked, "How many whales did you save with that web site?"  It sparked a debate - that the technology, in of itself, doesn't create the change, but may help facilitate it.

So maybe the question should be, how many whales did you save with that Tweet? Or rather, how do we measure the value and effectiveness of Twitter? What do we measure? What does it mean?  Right now we're in the collecting great stories mode ... and of course, we can track web site or blog referrals from Twitter (traffic) and possibly sign ups for an action.   Paul Young's analysis of what worked, what didn't in his fundraising campaign can give you some hints of what to measure. 

 
So, this is a Facebook group for people who use or want to use Twitter for good! It was created  to celebrate the launch of a new Twitter mashup that makes it super easy to share actions with your friends: (it also works with Facebook!): http://www.TwitterFeed.com/socialactions

Joe has done a great job scraping all the links and adding to the group's home page. (I've blogged most of these so if you want more context and analysis see here)  Here's the links from the group and I've added some more for context:

• Demand the Presidential Debate
• The Well That Twitter Built
• Twitter for Fund Raising 
• Fighting Cancer with Twitter
• Twitter Drives Participation at Blood Drive
• Twitter for Health
• San Diego Fires – Rapid News Dissemination
• Hurricane Season Twitter Resources
• Twitter Could Save Lives of Children - Missing children alerts
• Twitter as Tool for Emergencies:
• Twitter Me to Safety:
• Twitter for health and healthcare

I'd also add Dr. Mani's recent Tweet-A-Athon

Further Resources:

• Twitter and Nonprofits:
• Twitter Primer
• List of Nonprofit Twitter-ers:
• DigiActive Case Studies
• Net2ThinkTank: How Can Nonprofits Use Twitter?

This is a great list of links and will be valuable to add to the WeAreMedia Starter Tool Kit.  I'd also like to point two modules in the WeAreMedia that put Twitter in the context of nonprofit organizations - see Join the Conversation (be sure to read how the Chronicle of Philanthropy uses Twitter for crowd sourced research) and Listening Is the First Step for many examples of using Twitter for listening, that first important strategic step.

What's missing from this list?  What else would you like to see from a Twitter Resource page to help your nonprofit use it strategically and effectively?

Networking Tips from A Pro: Charlene Li

I've been following Charlene Li ever since I heard her speak at opening keynote at the first BlogHer Conference in 2005. She's smart, she's insightful, she rocks.  Here's the official bio:

Charlene Li is an independent thought leader on emerging technologies, with a specific focus on social technologies, interactive media, and marketing. She has a blog, "The Altimeter" that discusses these topics at blog.altimetergroup.com. She is also the co-author of the business bestseller, "Groundswell: Winning In A World Transformed By Social Technologies", published by Harvard Business Press in May 2008.

I'm leading a discussion about professional networking over at SocialEdge this week.  (Come join us)  I was thrilled to see this post from Charlene Li about professional networking tips.

Her response to the question about "What online tools do you use to help you network?"

As you can expect, I use LinkedIn and Facebook a lot for networking. For the longest time, I've tried to be exclusive about who I accepted as a "friend" but gave up on that given my visibility in the space. So I pretty much accept any invitation. But I use these sites, as well as Twitter and FriendFeed, to stay up on what people are doing. If I have a one on one meeting, I'll check out their online profiles, updates, and blog, so that I'm up to date. And I'm always impressed when someone has done their homework on me, even down to the last tweet that I made before a meeting.

I also use Facebook and sites like Upcoming to find out who is going to an event in advance. I may send a note to someone, letting them know that I'll be there, and hope to connect.

I like how she connects online/offline networking and that we can't loose the importance of connecting face-to-face and at conferences - and how these tools can extend your networking capacity before as well after an event.

Charlene also references another important issue - the issue of your friending policies if you are using these tools to support or enhance a professional network.   It made me think that I have slightly different approaches on different spaces.   I am also thinking about making my "friending" policies more formal.

Flickr: On flickr, I pretty much friend people who request it.  However, I do look at their photos first.  And I take a quick look, and scream EWWW.   I don't friend them.  Many times I can I do see an visual connection or I might know of the person by reading their profile.

Facebook:  I will immediately approve a friend request on Facebook if I recognize them or know or have recently met them.  But, if someone I don't immediately recognize requests to be friends - then I will ask them why they want to be friends - time permitting.  What has been happening lately - because I get so many request s - I end up ignoring them.    If someone sends a personal message with some context about why they want to be friends, then I will friend them. 

Twitter: My updates are unlocked.  This is my "loosest" network. 

LinkedIn:   I treat LinkedIn as my rolodex and tend to friend people who I know or have met.  I tend to use LinkedIn quite to network through my contacts to find people I'm specifically looking for.

What's your friending policy on different sites?  How does it support your professional networking strategies?  How do you connect your online and offline professional networking tactics?

Other posts

• Is A Social Media Friend Really A Friend? by Mark Dykeman
• How I Think About My Social Networks by Scott Monty
• No, I'm Not Ignoring You by Scott Monty
• Social Media Etiquette by Chris Brogan
• Can Facebook Replace Face to Face by Social Citizen Blog

Vote With Your Purse 2.0: Women's Online Giving, Offline Power

 

WCF Foundation has just released a new report: “Vote With Your Purse 2.0: Women’s Online Giving, Offline Power,” a study of women online donors and how the Internet is changing the nature of political engagement for women.  The study (which was also featured in the Wall Street Journal, summarizes the results of a poll of 600 women.  Some key findings:

• The Internet enhances key values that motivate women to give.  This includes impact, inspiration, information, inclusion, and interaction.
  

The have also launched an Online Resource Center which profiles 10 Web 2.0 Tools and how they are being used to engage women in political giving. I'm honored to a few of my resources included.  There is a section on how to use Sprout and Chipin in for fundraising  -- so I'll take this opportunity to mention my ChipIn Case Study about sending a young woman to college and my personal fundraising wikispace.

Join me in a discussion over at Social Edge: Pumping Up Your Professional Network with Social Networking Tools

Photo by LaFondito

Come join me in a discussion about how to effectively pump up your professional network with social networking tools over at Social Edge beginning on September 23rd.

Professional networking --meeting and connecting with people who can help you get things done-- is an indispensable skill for social entrepreneurs. Using online social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, and even Twitter can help you reach your networking goals.

But they are just tools. The secret sauce is relationship building, and here's the recipe:

1. Meet people as people first.

I borrowed this phrase from Connie Bensen, a social media guru who writes about networking 101.

It is the quality of the relationships that you build online that really matters, not just how many people you meet.

Business relationships, like fine wine, mature over time, from first encounter to trusted colleague. Read Rachel Happe's Relationship Development is a process, sometimes tools can help

2. Reciprocity is important -- It isn't always gimme, gimme, gimme

Don¹t always ask people to help you or give you something every time you interact with them. And please don¹t make that your first point of contact with someone you have just met. That's a huge turn off.

It¹s important to be helpful, share resources and connect people to other people. Social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, let you glean a lot of information about what your friends are up to or might need. Set aside some time to check status lines and think about how you may be helpful to them, not the other way around.

It¹s like putting money in the bank for a rainy day. You will be surprised in the many ways approaching your network this way will reward you.

Marnie Webb has written about this in her post Networking Your Networked Network 

3. Interweave and connect with others within your network and keep connected

Uplift people in your network when they need it and they will do so back. Take every opportunity to keep connected to people in your network. It is like tending a garden.

I schedule time each week to tend to my network. It is part of my daily routine ­5 to 10 minutes per day. I also try to take special care to follow up after I've met someone at a conference where the connection really
resonated. Here's some wonderful conference networking hacks from Chris Brogan.

Liz Strauss says: "Meet your friends by noticing people who have ideas that intrigue you and begin by asking them to elaborate on what they said."

June Holley's Network Weaving Checklist can help you think about how to approach this interweaving in a structured way as well as Bob Allare's "Care and Feeding of Your Network" for maintenance
tips.

4. Make time to meet new people each week

No matter how busy I am, I try to connect with new people each week. I also get lots of new ideas by connecting with people who are outside my main industry or topic area. Life can get boring if you get stuck in a silo or only interact with people who think just like you or cover the same topics. Be a renaissance, cross-disciplinary networker. Think creatively about the new types of people and connections you want to make. Think outside your subject matter area.

5. Build your network before you need it

There are many reasons why it is important to invest in your network before you need it.  As you¹ve probably gathered from reading the other tips, building a vibrant professional network is doesn't happen over night. People don't easily trust people who come asking.

6. Invest in yourself first

I like to share what I know with other people, but before I can do that I need to keep investing in my learning. For me, that translates to carving out time for my professional reading and blogging everyday. And the great thing about having a blog, is that it is a really extraordinary networking
tool!

- What works for you?
- Do you have any advice about using online networking tools?
- What type of expertise or connections have you found through networking?
- What kind of connections has proven more difficult to make?

Come join in a discussion of this topic over at Social Edge this week.

WeAreMedia Module 4: Tips for Generating Buzz - Crowdsourced in a few minutes via Twitter!

WeAreMedia Module 4: Spreading Awareness and Generating Buzz, is about how social media tools can help you spread awareness and generate buzz about your organization's programs or campaigns. What happens is that you share your message with enthusiastic supporters and they in turn may choose to pass it to others with a similar a interest in your organization or campaign. But first, you have to build trust, credibility and -- most importantly -- a relationship with those who might interact with your posted content.

Using social media to spread awareness is an excellent method for generating web traffic and visible support for your cause in the form of comments and other forms of engagement. Best of all, it is very low cost. Referrals from sites like Digg and StumbleUpon can be longer lasting than search engine results. But you should be aware that it may take a while before you have the ability to leverage your connections on these networks in order to generate large waves of web traffic. Finally, it's easy to get started!

I put the word out on Twitter asking for nitty gritty practical tips using Digg,  Stumbledupon, Twitter, Friendfeed as well as some general tips.   Wow, this section has come together beautifully - thanks to Suewaters, Jonathan Colman, Laura Lee Dooley, Jeff Gates, and several other wiki participants who did not register so can't thank them personally.  I'm sharing these below.

General Tips

• Be a good member of the community: promote others even more than you promote yourself (i.e., "treat others as you would have them treat you"). Linking and promoting others is a nice way to show you care about people
• The creative material or your message should be something that people want to share - newsworthy, controversial, timeliness, immediate usefulness, and even humor all work well
• Don't spam: a good rule is to make one post of your own content for every 5-10 posts that link to other sites
• Don't digg/stumble/link/tweet every single piece of your content. Save it only for your very best
• Try hard not to send too many self-promotional emails or make too many posts of just your own content. Wrap your self-promotion in something of value to others, instead.
• Sometimes, just doing really good work is worthy of others promoting you. Try it!

(General Tips Adapted from Chris Brogan's ebook "Personal Branding for the Professional
and Todd Defren's Produce, Propagate, and Promote)

Twitter

• Make your content Twitter-friendly. If you want “re-tweets” of your content, keep that summary to well-under 140–characters
• If you want people to re-tweet your content, append "please retweet" to your tweet
• If you retweet, give credit where it's due by including source of original tweet
• Build relationships with other Twitterers, respond back to their tweets regularly
• Learn more about the interests of your followers by subscribing to their blogs
• DM or @ new followers - recognize/thank them for following
• Use #hashtags to identify tweets specific to an event or theme
• Think of the 140 character limit as a challenge to be creative

Digg

• Don't just submit your own content: submit stories from all around the web
• Be a good community member and learn by watching people whose posts regularly become "popular" on the homepage
  
• Spend time building your reputation by digging stories and making intelligent comments
• Respond to "shouts" of stories that you like by digging them and letting the shouter know that you supported them
• Spend at least 10-15 minutes each day digging stories, making comments, and submitting new content
  
• Remember that you only have 24 hours to make your post "popular"; any longer than that and the post usually can't become popular anymore
• If you become friends with a powerful digger, occasionally have them post content on your site to Digg rather than doing so yourself
• Check with your IT/IS staff ahead of time to ensure that your site can handle a "Digg Effect" -- a giant waves of people all coming to your site at the same time
  

StumbleUpon

• Make friends; connect to other stumblers who have a lot of friends (100+)
• Don't spam, stumbles lots of other content besides your own site
• Find people interested in your topic and connect to them
• Find niche groups related to your topic and join them
• Stumble your friends' content and occasionally e-mail them, telling that that you did so
• Spend at least 10-15 minutes every day stumbling and reviewing content, making new discoveries
• If you become friends with a powerful stumbler, occasionally have them "discover" content on your site rather than doing so yourself

But, we don't have a single tip for using FriendFeed?   Can you help us out?  Leave your best tip for FriendFeed, or point us to a good tip sheet.  Leave a comment or add to the wiki.

 

A Geek's Reflections on Personal Fundraising Via Blog, Twitter, and Facebook

On September 3, I blogged and tweeted about a story about two interesting social media fundraising opportunities in Africa.  One of them was charity: water, a non-profit bringing safe, clean drinking water to people in developing nations that had launched a September Birthday campaign. (Hat tip Brett Meyer at NTEN) They asked everyone born in September to give up birthday presents and ask their friends and family for donations to build water wells in Ethiopia instead.  More information here.

I tweeted the link one of my twitter followers, Paul Young decided to give personal fundraising with social media a whirl.   According to this post on Mashable, Paul's September 18th birthday fundraiser was a success!  He has raised over $800.

Even better, he shared a detailed analysis of what worked and what didn't.  His key takeaways:

• You’ll have a few super-strong relationships, and these must reside in the real world (your family and best mates) - this is where most of the money came from
• Twitter is a great way to drive people to take action - yes I tweeted many times (up to 20) and I ‘bribed’ followers a little by giving shout outs to those who donated, but $4.50 per click through is great!
• Facebook ‘friends’ are just weak ties - 77 people left me Facebook wall comments saying happy birthday, 34 of them clicked through to my charity page, 1 donated.
• A facebook status is less ‘active’ than a Twitter message - maybe a lot more people are on Facebook, but they’re paying less attention
• The new Facebook design may have confused people - it’s quite possible people missed the link, though 33 of the 34 who did didn’t do anything about it
• A bigger network = bigger results - Pete Cashmore of Mashable fame shares my birthday (and dang, he’s 2 years younger!) and his 12,000 Twitter followers have helped him raise over three times as much money so far (but granted, people aren’t going to throw a thousand bucks at me in order to suck up :))

Paul is hoping to make his goal of $1,000 and still has a week left to do so.  You can donate here.

Report Urges Foundations To Jump Into The Waters of Social Media

Photo by Fred Dawson

”Come On In. The Water's Fine. An Exploration of Web 2.0 Technology and Its Emerging Impact on Foundation Communications" is a new report that describes how philanthropy communications professionals are using social media.  It was underwritten with the generous support of The California Endowmentt, Edna McConnell Clark, and Robert Wood Johnson foundations.   The authors are David Brotherton and Cynthia Scheiderer who will present the report at the upcoming Communications Network conference.

The 45 page report is based on an extensive literature search and interviews with Philanthropy professionals who are currently experimenting with Web 2.0 tools and techniques.   I'm still wading my way through it ... but at first scan nothing earth shattering - except for the idea about communications with the general public and foundation's embracing the groundswell.  There is some good basic common sense advice about how to move forward with adopting Web 2.0 tools, a couple of good mini-case studies,  (the one about the Nitrogen Wiki) and a focused list of references from the philanthropy world.

The report is really about encouraging those in the philanthropy world to stop sitting on the sidelines and begin to dip their toes into the web 2.0 world.   

Beyond just sustaining influence is the need to circumvent criticism in an era of increased skepticism. By opting out or continuing to wait on the sidelines, foundations risk appearing even more insular, perhaps inviting scrutiny by the new vanguard of citizen journalists busily blogging on the outside.

Ultimately, it may come down to the fact that foundations have the ability to innovate, experiment and explore in a way few other institutions can. Many we interviewed felt that communicating those innovative efforts through these new technologies makes sense. Of course there are risks and challenges. But there is also the sense that whatever is lost in message control will be more than made up for by the opportunity to engage audiences in new ways, with greater programmatic impact.

The getting started tips include:

• Assess your organization's appetite for innovation
• Recognize and garner the resources required
• Build internal allies
• Be strategic
• Leverage the great work of others
• Go slowly and build on successes

They identify a list of questions for the field to consider -- many of these topics the nonprofit blogosphere has been discussing in parallel as it relates to nonprofits and social media integration.   The topics include:

• Control and Transparency:  How comfortable is the foundation with the participatory nature of Web 2.0 communications?
• Generational Digital Divide:  Is the generation divide real when it comes to emerging technology?  Will it take new leadership to truly adapt, or can early adopters model behaviors for others to emulate?
• Influence: How can foundations best maintain and increase their influence over issues they care about?  How will ideas and feedback generated from online communications influence grant decision-making?
• Alignment:  If communication is less about unidirectional message and more about how foundations engage with their audiences, what does this mean for integration of communications and programs?
• Evaluation and Measurement:  How will foundation asses and evaluate the impact of sucess of their online communications efforts?  And how are the challenges inherent in the Web 2.0 world any different from the measurement obstacles of traditional communication?
• Individual Giving: What are the implications of the rise of Internet-empowered individual giving for foundations? How will nonprofits adapt to the need to interact with foundations in a traditional way and social entrepreneurs in a new way, and how will this affect their capacity?
• Grantee Network Building: Should foundation be funding nonprofits to develop their capacity to communicate and build networks among their service recipients, donors, practioners, and volunteers?  What is the right investment balance between a fondation's communications efforts and that of its grantees?
• Communicating with the general public: Should foundations take advantages of the opportunities Web 2.0 offers to interact directly with the public?  Is there a role for grantmaking foundations to use their resources and Web 2.0 technologies to help create networks of people interested in certain issues and connect with grantees to tack action?  Could this be a way to help advance progress on foundation priorities.

That last question is the most provocative one.   The report ends with a nod that there are no answers yet - and the way to begin is to get started.

By continuing to innovate and share learning across foundations, the field will develop answers to the unanswered questions. As Victor d‘Allant of Social Edge said,  We‘re learning as we go. There are no experts yet.  Or, as Rich d‘Amato of Case Foundation said, Come on in, the water‘s fine.

What's your take on the findings of this report?  How would you answer some of these questions?   

WeAreMedia Module 4: Spreading Awareness and Social Media Buzz

Photo by Ectaticist

The WeAreMedia project has been discussing and building six tactical modules on social media - the practice tips and resources you need before you start to focus on the tools.    Last week, we finished an awesome module on sharing your story social media style, filled with lots of stories, tips, and resources contributed by the community.   For this week, Module 4:  Spreading Awareness and Generating Buzz.  Your content may be lively, but does it have life?   The tips and techniques in module will help give you content legs.

Social media tools can help you spread awareness and generate buzz about your organization's programs or campaigns. What happens is that you share your message with enthusiastic supporters and they in turn may choose to pass it to others with a similar a interest in your organization or campaign.  Using social media to spread awareness is an excellent method for generating traffic. Best of all it is very low cost. Referrals from sites like Digg or StumbleUpon can be longer lasting than search engine results.

Here's what need for this module:

• What are your best tips for spreading buzz?
• What are some awesome examples from nonprofits?
• What are the best resources available - specifically we're looking for great primers on spreading buzz with Digg, StumbledUpon and Twitter.

Leave a comment or just add it to the wiki.

 

WeAreMedia Case Study: LoL Seals - An Awesome Example of Stakeholder Generated Content

Winning caption by Zelda - Westlake, OH

Last week, the WeAreMedia project discussed and built Module 3: Sharing Your Story Social Media Style.  I put the call out for some case studies and Carie Lewis, the HSUS, Social Media Rock Star, took the time to share her story about the success and challenges of LOLseals.

1.  What was the LOLseals Photo Caption Contest?

It was a photo caption contest based on the popular LOLcats site  where users share photos of Cute Cats with funny captions. The Humane Society's LOLseals Photo Caption Contest offered cut photos of little baby harp seals and asked people to come up with cute, endearing, and funny captions that celebrated the cuteness of seals.   The campaign also urged people to learn more about how to protect these adorable creatures and get engaged with the campaign.

2. What was your strategy for getting people to participate?

We learned from a previous photo contest that flopped that if you make it hard for people to figure out how to participate and time consuming, they won't.  We provided the photos and an easy way to caption them - so it didn't take a lot of time to participate and it was fun.  We also spread the word via social networks and blogger outreach.  We have a significant presence built up over the last 18-24 months on major sites like Facebook and Myspace.

3. What were some of the interesting responses?  What were some of the challenges?

Some people didn’t “get” the LOLspeak… and they wrote serious captions!   The biggest challenge was making it as easy as possible for people to participate. We learned with the Wendy’s campaign that you’ve GOT to make it easy. Before, we asked people to upload their photo and tag it themselves, which meant they had to create a flickr account and know what “tagging” was. In using the API, everything was automatic, tagged, and uploaded without the user having to even touch flickr.  We were also able to capture email addresses directly to our CRM this way.

4. What you would say made the campaign particularly innovative?

One – that everything was in one step and two – that we were able to pull off showcasing the “celebrating animals” part of our mission on a very serious issue and three – that we played off a pop culture / internet phenomenon (lolcats)

5.  What were some top line results? 

We had about 3,000 submissions and it helped get about 2,000 new email addresses.

 

Meet Connie Reece: Using Social Media to Strike Back At Ike

Connie Reece

Last December, I watched Twitter turn into a sea of frozen green peas to support Susan Reynolds in her fight against breast cancer and to raise money for research in her honor.  The wizard behind the Frozen Pea Fund  (and many others since) is Connie Reece, who specializes in developing marketing and communications programs that use Web 2.0 tools and technology.

She is a co-founding member and serves on the advisory board of the Social Media Club and founder of Every Dot Connects, a consortium of marketing and media practitioners who are passionate about using new technologies to build bridges between people and ideas and causes.

Based on Austin, Texas, I caught up with Connie to find how she is using Social Media raise money for victims of Hurricane Ike and other recent social media fundraising causes.

1.    Tell me about you ...

I'm a wordaholic. Some people drink, some do drugs; I'm addicted to words. It's definitely a genetic predisposition. I acquired my love of my words from my mom, who started teaching me to read when I was three, and who still, at age 84, delights in beating me at word games. Ultimately, my writing skills led me into professional pursuits where I actually get paid for feeding my addiction.

2.    How did you get first get interested/involved in using social media for social causes?  Why is this a passion?

In retrospect, it seems a natural progression over a couple of decades. In the 1980s I worked in direct mail fundraising for nonprofit organizations, then I shifted into the publishing industry in the 1990s. I've been online since the days of early dial-up modems, so I was participating in social networks before the term "social media" was even used.

Through Twitter, I became aware of your work with social causes. I had burned out in fundraising years earlier, so while I contributed to your Cambodian cause I had no intention of doing anything similar. And then, on December 6, 2007, everything changed when my friend Susan Reynolds was diagnosed with breast cancer. Suddenly I had a personal stake in the fight against cancer, and it reignited my passion for fundraising for good causes.

3.    You were key architect of the Frozen Pea Fund campaign, can you give me a summary of strategy and what you think made it work?  What didn’t work?

Yes, the Frozen Pea Fund was mostly my doing, with the help of some great volunteers I recruited. We moved so quickly, we had no long-term goal, no idea that the effort could be sustainable. That's both what made it work (rapid, organic growth) and what didn't work (no well-defined, long-term strategy).

So after our initial campaign, when we raised almost $10,000 in about eight weeks, we pulled back and then began planning for sustainability. We incorporated, applied for 501(c)3 status, and that's actually when I first met Susan face to face.

Recently we set up an office in Second Life, on the Nonprofit Commons Plush island, and we just purchased our own island in Second Life. Our goal is to develop a virtual retreat where cancer patients can escape their physical pain.

4.    Can you share some stories about a few of your recent fundraising with social media projects to help nonprofits in Austin, TX?

The social media community in Austin is very active in worthwhile causes. In July our volunteers from Social Media Club joined with Austin 501 Tech Club to launch the first Blood Drive Tweetup. (A tweetup is a meetup of friends on the microblogging service Twitter.) It turned into a day-long event that was live-streamed, with food donated by local merchants, and it attracted news coverage. (Docublogger video. Statesman blog.)

More than a hundred people signed up online for a donation timeslot to come in and give blood; the center averages around 40 a day. The professionals who run the Blood Center said they’d never seen so many first-time blood donors.

This month we organized a HAM-up Tweetup (HAM because September is Hunger Awareness Month) to benefit the Capital Area Food Bank. Tyson Foods' Hunger Relief project got involved and issued a social media challenge: they would donate 100 pounds of protein for every comment received on their blog post about the HAM-up, up to a 35,000-pound truck load. They thought it might take a week to get 350 comments and meet the goal; it took less than six hours. Tyson's protein-laden truck arrived in Austin on September 8.

It was a timely delivery. A few days later Hurricane Ike slammed into Texas and the remainder of the HAM-up events had to be postponed. Our food bank went into disaster relief mode and has been coordinating food donations to evacuees who fled to the Central Texas area.

5.    What advice would you give to social media mavens who want to work with or help a nonprofit?

Cultivate relationships with communicators at the nonprofit organization. Attend their events. Find out what social networks they participate in, and communicate with them online. You should also be building your own online network. What has made Austin Social Media Club efforts so effective is that our members are highly engaged in social networking.

6.    What advice would you give to nonprofits who want to integrate a social media strategy for their organization.

That would be a great question to ask Lisa Goddard at the Capital Area Food Bank because that is her full-time job. She came to one of our Every Dot Connects workshops where we were teaching Web 2.0 tools, and she's become an unstoppable force. She is the one who contacted Social Media Club Austin to ask for help in organizing the HAM-up. And the rest, as they say, is history.

7.    I know you live in Texas - and I can't help but ask about IKE - and where we people can support relief efforts and what you're doing to help out?

Thanks for asking. There are so many ways people can help, whether it's through the American Red Cross or local relief agencies. The food bank here is still seeking donations for the evacuees that remain in Austin; it may be weeks before they are able to return to their homes. Our food bank is also assisting the Houston food bank.

Over one million people in the Houston area are still without electricity, so they can't store or cook fresh food. A number of my relatives in Houston and Pearland were displaced by Ike, and my cousin's very pregnant daughter barely made it to Methodist Hospital downtown as the storm swept in Friday night; her son was born on Saturday, after the hospital had shifted to back-up power and lost water.

On Monday our food bank had to turn away evacuees lined up for emergency food boxes. That broke my heart. But for the grace of God, those evacuees could have been my family members. While my family had plenty of relatives and resources to provide for them, thousands don't. Without the help of food banks and disaster relief agencies, they would go hungry.