Beth's Blog: Nonprofits and Social Media

Book Giveaway: Engage! by Brian Solis

I was lucky enough to get two copies of Engage! by Brian Solis.  So, I'm giving away a copy on this blog.  To be eligible to win, leave a comment (be sure to include your email address).

The book is a comprehensive collection of  philosophy and advice on social media, strategy, brands, and business integration.   What I appreciate are the info graphics that accompany most of the chapters.  Brian has collaborated with Jesse Thomas over the years to produce compelling visuals of ideas.  One you may be familiar with the Conversation Prism that has probably appeared in more powerpoint presentations about social media than any other graphic.   

My favorite part of the book is Chapter 21:  The Social Media Marketing Compass: Creating A Social Plan.

Solis notes in his book that his inspiration for the Social Media Marketing Compass was the term "moral compass," because the plan should include more than tactics.  It should also define an organization's value system.    Here's the definition:

"A Social Media Marketing Compass points a brand in a physical and experiential director to genuinely and effectively connect with customers, peers, influencers, and where they interact and seek guidance online."

Jesse Thomas created the information graphic below to illustrate the full concept.  The book contains a detailed explanation.   The brand is at the center.  The concentric circles include players (stakeholders); platforms which are places where people connect online and off; Channels (activity on platforms) and finally Emotions.  

Source: Brian Solis

The Social Media Compass is a concept, the chapter also presents a framework for creating a social media plan. 

David Neff Wants You To Submit Your Films To Lights. Camera. Help.

That's my colleague David Neff who co-founded an organization called Lights. Camera. Help., a nonprofit organization that is dedicated to encouraging other nonprofit and cause-driven organizations to use film and video to tell their stories.  

David wants to know if your organization has a film that promotes a cause and a winner.  If so, he wants you to submit your cause-driven films to the 2010 Lights. Camera. Help. Festival now open to submissions.  All entries are free. Get in your entries before June 30!  Visit the site to learn more!

Book Giveaway: Inbound Marketing Book (and some advice)

I'm giving away a copy of "Inbound Marketing" by Brian Halligan (Author), Dharmesh Shah (Author), David Meerman Scott (Foreword). I discovered it because of a charity challenge they're running on Twitter to raise awareness of their book, plus raise some money to help Room To Read.  I'm a fan of Room To Read, so I asked Dharmesh for a copy of the book to give away to nonprofits, and he agreed - so if you want a chance to win, leave a comment on how your nonprofit could benefit from in-bound marketing.  And of course, if you want to help out Room to Read, send this tweet.

The definition of Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers.  You can read a more detailed definition here.  I heard about the challenge because Laura Fitton posted this tweet.  I guess you could say it is an example of in-bound marketing.

Now, a few critical thoughts about their charity challenge.  Here's how it is described:

The Inbound Marketing Challenge

The Challenge:  Get as many people as possible to tweet a link to this article, especially the people in the list below by midnight (ET) on Sunday, February 21 2010.

The Cause:  Room To Read a not-for-profit organization that transforms the lives of millions of children by focusing on literacy.

How It Works:  We will donate $Z to Room To Read (up to a whopping $10,000) based on the following formula:

Z = (Number of people on list below that retweet) x $0.01 x (Total Retweets)

Example:  Lets say 20 people on the list below retweet the article (more on how to make this happen a little later).  Then, each retweet is worth $0.20 ($0.01 x 20).  If the article gets 10,000 retweets, that’s $2,000.  If all 50 people below retweet and we get 20,000 retweets, that’s 50 cents per tweet and 10,000 smackeroos for Room To Read.  Cool, right?

Here’s the diabolical part.  My guess is many of you know a few people on the list below.  Enough to where you can tweet them, and they’ll listen/respond.  I even made it easy for you, just use the convenient link next to each of their names.  (Yes, I’m just a helpful guy).

Do Your Part:  Retweet this article and try to get as many people on the list below to retweet it too.  It takes just a minute for you and them. The more that tweet, the more that hear about and the donation amount goes up.

Before I launch into some of my criticism, I want to applaud Hubspot for experimenting with different ways to promote their book and help a charity.  My criticism below is intended to help such efforts have more impact on the charities. 

I've been reflecting on the importance of authenticity in CSR programs that my business partner at Zoetica Geoff Livingston wrote about the other day.  I think cause-related marketing efforts could use a little bit more authenticity too or at least balance profit motives and altruism.

This charity challenge is more focused on getting the word out on the book than helping the charity.  Why?  I think they've set the bar too high for the number of re-tweets and influencer tweets and bar too low for what they'll donate to the charity.   The should have donated something like $1 per retweet and put a ceiling on it.

There is also no psychological or emotional motivation to re-tweet.  Plus, the influencer list is a not necessarily a list of Room To Read's influencers (and in fact, as of this writing, RoomToRead had not even tweeted about this challenge.)  The influencer list is a list of influencers with reach who may be not the attention stream to look at all the replies where as RoomToRead influencers may have less reach, but more affinity with the charity.

The formula to trigger a donation is complicated.   The amount donated per retweet is based on the number of influencers who retweet the message and the total amount donated is multiplied by the number of retweets.  So, if 20 influencers tweet and there are 1000 re-tweets, they will donate $.20 cents per re-tweet or $200.

As of this writing they had 298 tweets and 11 people on the influencer list retweeted. (According to the TweetMeme Widget on the post - which could be underestimated)  So, let's see - that's 298 x .11 cents = $32.78 donated to the charity.    I guess if they sold one or two books, they're even. 

What can we learn about the right formula from previous efforts?

Tweetsgiving which asked people to retweet a message of gratitude in a 48 hour period over Thanksgiving generated over 21,000 tweets.  I know it is a different animal - a campaign implemented by a charity without a for-profit marketing motive lurking beneath.

But if we look at for-profit companies using the sponsored tweet model (e.g. retweet this message and our company will donate $x to charity), there is a better a benchmark. Take for example the Haagen-Daz  campaign to raise money on TwitCause for honeybee research. 

The fundraising campaign added some extra buzz, a sponsor, Ice cream maker Häagen-Dazs,  willing to pay for any Twitter user who tweets out the support for the cause.  The sponsorship worked liked this: Häagen-Dazs was offering to donate $1 per tweet for the first 500 people that tweet everyday with the hashtag #HelpHoneyBees. The money was donated to UC Davis research project to further look into Colony Collapse Disorder, as well as help fund the Häagen-Dazs Honey Bee Haven, which aims to teach people about how to create their own honeybee farms.  

I got some of the back story form Julio Vasconcellos, VP for Business Development, for the Experience Project which operates TwitCause.  "I think the #HelpHoneyBees hashtag campaign was very effective and helped
raise $7k for the honey bee research as well as get Häagen-Dazs some great exposure around the contributions they've been making to the cause (and of course, to their brand)."

For those that want the numbers:

• 6,818 tweets sent out during the official week (several more before) by 3,294 unique Twitterers
• Total followers reached was slightly over 5MM (these are non-unique followers, basically a sum of all the followers of each of those 3kTwitterers)
• Total Twitter impressions generated 12.4MM (here an "Twitter impression" is anytime a follower is presented with a tweet - if I have 100 followers and tweet twice, that's 200 "Twitter impressions")
• Häagen-Dazs donated $7,000 to UC Davis for research into colony collapse disorder which is afflicting honey bee populations
• Participation from some celebrities and notables

I know from my 53rd Birthday Campaign  that it is possible to using the Twitter API, to measure impressions. (Julio Vasconcellio  and Kumar  Garapaty were kind enough to do the heavy lifting using the Twitter API to crunch impression numbers.)  So, one could have set up a donation formula based on impressions. 

Here's a few tips that might be useful to companies that want to help nonprofits by small cause-marketing campaigns:

1. Don't set the bar too high in terms of what you'll donate per tweet.  That's not being authentically generous.   Rather, be generous and set a ceiling on the total amount to be donated.
2. Work with the charity/cause so you can leverage their most passionate supporters. It's not just people who are interested in your product, book, or service.
3. Incorporate some emotional or psychological message in your message spread.

Update: Wow, Dharmesh Shah knows how to listen and redesigned the challenge.

Think Social Awards To Be Announced November 19th

On November 19th 2009, at The Paley Center for Media’s International Council Event, ThinkSocial will be recognizing three outstanding examples of innovation, featuring – an individual, an initiative and a collaboration between institutions, which together represent powerful models for how social media can be used to address global problems.

The final selection process includes three elements:

• the votes and comments of our panel of expert jurors;
• feedback from the staff of the Paley Center for Media;
• votes and comments from the public through the ThinkSocial site.

You can view the full list of 33 nominations here:  http://think-social.org/awards/final-nominees

I was honored to be included on the panel of expert jurors with corporate co-chairs Facebook, PepsiCo, Meebo and Loreen Arbus Foundation.  The judges include:

• Randi Zuckerberg – Facebook
• William Paley, Paley Center Board Member
• Uzodinma Iweala, Author Beasts of No Nation; Columbia Medical School
• Beth Kanter – Beth’s Blog
• Kenny Miller – EVP Creative, MTV
• Rob Kramer – Founder and CEO of PopRule
• Tom Watson – CEO of Causewired
• Catherine Genaracous, General Manager, Live Earth
• Mahyad Tousi, Co-Founder at BoomGen Studios
• Scott Kurnit – Paley Center Board Member; Founder About.com
• Ami Dar – Founder and CEO, Idealist
• Ian Schafer – CEO, Deep Focus
• Reza Aslan, Professor, Author No God But God, How to Win a Cosmic War
• Stephanie Agresta – Executive Vice President, Global Director of Digital Strategy and Social Media, Porter Novelli
• Colin Nagy – Partner, Attention
• Jamie Kantrowitz, former MySpace & MySpace Music executive
• Paul Meyer, Co-founder Voxiva
• Raquel Recuero, associate professor and researcher at Universidade Católica de Pelotas (UCPel)

Good luck to everyone who has nominated!

Attend Online Nonprofit Technology Conference (Special Discount for Beth's Blog Readers)

NTEN and Jossey-Bass/Wiley is hosting the "Online NTC," a 2-day online conference based on the book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission.

The online conference is for the "Tech Responsible" individual within any nonprofit.  It is a learning event to help you better understand how to manage technology.  With 2 tracks and experts presenting on topics critical to your organization, you are sure to come away better able to succeed with technology.

I'm honored to have a chapter in the book about ROI and you can hear geek out about it here.  I'll be presenting about  ROI as it pertains to investing in technology infrastructure or systems, not just social media. I did a panel presentation at the NTC conference in April on the chapter as well.

Holly has been doing podcasts with presenters for the past few weeks.

• Bad Hires Are Expensive: How To Do It Right (Chapter on IT Staffing with James and Cassie at CommonGood Careers)
• They Just Won't Listen to Reason (Chapter on Change Management with Dahna Goldstein

What You Get:

• Knowledge and skills from top experts and leaders in nonprofit technology
• Keynotes from Ami Dar of Idealist.org and Marnie Webb of TechSoup Global
• 15 live webcast sessions on need-to-know topics, many with Q&A (less than $19 a webcast)
• All access to archived conference sessions after the live event
• Easy access anywhere there is a connected computer
• No hotel or travel costs, time on airplanes, etc.
• Affordable professional development in an interactive learning environment
• Professional networking and sharing in an online community that “lives” after the event
• Very minimal environmental impact, just electricity to run some computers!
• A free copy of the NTEN book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission ($40 value)

Price: $350 for non-NTEN members.

Special Beth’s Blog Offer, $262.50: Use the code “BETH” for a 25% discount!

For more information, the full agenda and to register, go to www.nten.org/ontc

(I couldn't help but notice the dog theme here and adding this to the NpTech Dog Group!)

Craigslist Foundation Boot Camp 2009: Don't Miss It!

The 6th annual Craigslist Foundation's Nonprofit Boot Camp takes place on June 20th in Berkeley, CA. The day includes workshops, one-on-one coaching sessions, and keynotes by Arianna Huffington, Randi Zuckerberg and Craig Newmark.  

For years, I've been wanting to attend and this year, finally, I am!   And, I'm leading a workshop on social media strategy.  My colleagues, Britt Bravo and Eric Leland are also facilitating a workshop about getting started with social media and Peter Deitz is talking about future technology.  And, the content is not all social media.  Organized around the theme "connect, motivate and inspire greater community impact," you will find a schedule and speakers with expertise on evaluation, governance, management, strategic planning and more!   There is also ample time for networking.

You can read the full description here and check out the schedule and speakers.  The registration is only $75 and you sign up to attend here. 

See you there!

Ning for Dummies and Me 2.0 Book Winners

Photo in Flickr

I finally got a chance to meet Manny Hernandez, author written the "Ning for Dummies Book."   He is founder of The Diabetes Hands Foundation, a non profit that operates two niche social networks for people touched by diabetes: TuDiabetes (in English, with close to 8,200 members) and EsTuDiabetes (with close to 3,200 members, which is turning it into the main community destination for Spanish-speaking diabetics). Both have been runaway success stories.  You can read more here.

A few weeks I ran a book giveaway for five copies of his book.   You had to leave a comment indicating your goals, audience, and how you'd measure success of your Ning Community on this post which also includes a round up of Ning resources.

The lucky winners (selected randomly) of the Ning for Dummies book giveaway are:

Jon Boroshok
Tedd Nunn
Kara Carrell
Andy Ellis
Robin Mohr

I expect some good case studies at some point.

The winner of the ME 2.0 book giveaway by Dan Schawbel is Lloyd Budd who in a gracious act of pay it forward asked me for a Canadian charity to make a donation to in my honor.  To close the circle,  I connected him with Tanya Davis who raises money for Diabetes in Canada.

In about 8 weeks, I'm moving to California and need to pair down my book collection.  I'm looking for nonprofit libraries that could cover the cost of postage for a box of books in exchange for a donation of some of my books.  They cover a variety of topics, web technology, social media, training, evaluation, information design, management, and etc.   Drop a note in the comments.

Social Actions Change the Web Challenge Winner, Zemanta, Pays It Forward

Peter Deitz and Joe Solomon performed a skit at the NTC to announce the Change the Web Winners.  (disclosure, I was a judge(=)

1st Prize ($5,000) - Social Actions Interactive Map
2nd Prize ($3,000) Zemanta's Related Social Actions for Bloggers 
3rd Prize ($2,000) - SquarePeg's iPhone Application.

Congratulations to the winners and all who submitted an app! The Change the Web Challenge such a huge success! Read more here.

But what's really cool,  one of the winners, Zemanta, had decided to pay its award forward.  It launched a challenge to bloggers to "Blog For A Cause" throughout May in aid of global charities.  Zemanta and partner Weber Shandwick's Social Innovation Greenhouse will donate $6000 prize to most blogged about charities

Bloggers who want to take part should go to http://www.zemanta.com/bloggingforacause for details on the challenge, and start blogging about their favorite charity right now. Zemanta will split the prize money between the charities that are most blogged about over the course of the next four weeks.

Can you weave your personal network?

What is network weaving?

The act of taking responsibility for building a network and forging connections between groups or people.  Maybe simply has introducing the right hand to the left hand .. to increase connectedness.   It also may focus on growing the number of people in a network by connecting to new people or organizations.   June Holley is an expert on the topic, check her out.

Network Weaving is used with networks of partners or organizations.  But, can you take those principles and use it to connect people in your own professional network?  

So, here is a possible example.  \

Last week, a colleague, Steve Heye, let me know about some of his recent work, including a training he did for YMCA folks about using social networking tools to build their careers.  He asked for some feedback for his excellent presentation.  I suggested that he look into Dan Schawebel's work and he his new book, Me 2.0.

Well, Dan sent me a review copy (and I had already purchased a copy), so now I have to copies.  Plus, I'm downsizing for a move across the country.   So, I'm giving one copy to Steve when I see him at NTC at the end of the month and the other copy - well - leave a comment on why you want you want this book and I'll pick a random winner.

So, my big question is -- is this an example of network weaving?

Businessweek Names Four Social Media Innovators for 2009: Scott Monty, Noah Brier, Eric Brown and Me!

BusinessWeek innovation blog reached out to its readers on Facebook, Twitter, and its blog asking for suggestions for social media innovators for 2009.  They got a lot of suggestions and decided to create four different categories (see below.)  I was selected as "eyes to the world."    The profile is here.

I was asked to do a brief video talking about what I thought the next innovation on the web is - you can see here where I talked about how these new tools are allowing people to come together and do things for charities out of love at a grand scale, not just money.   I also talked about the next innovation of the social web - as a platform to do good.   

There's some details in the profile that could stand to corrected, but later for that.

Congratulations to the other three folks who received recognition.

1) Toolmasters: Imaginative techies whose schemes and applications open new doors and lead to insights. Our toolmaster is Noah Brier, who works days in New York at Barbarian Group, an interactive marketing shop.

2) Eyes to the World: People innovating with social media to help others. Beth Kanter is our pick. She uses every avenue on the World Wide Web to raise funds for Cambodian children through the Sharing Foundation. And she shares what she learns with nonprofits everywhere. Kanter, 52, is also a Net pioneer. A one-time employee of the Boston Symphony, she plunged into the Internet in the early 1990s. She started tapping friends—and friends of friends—through her blog while adopting two Cambodian children in 2000.

3) Crowdstrappers: Entrepreneurs or consultants who harness new approaches in social media to reposition or invigorate businesses—either their clients' or their own. Here we select Eric Brown, who has turned his apartment business in Royal Oak, Mich., into a social media laboratory. Brown, 49, has no training in social media. But he believes in openness and hopes that the ease of communicating through blogs, Twitter, and Facebook, can turn him into a better landlord.

4) Hidden heroes: These are people working inside old-style enterprises and use social media to change the culture and operations. Our choice is Scott Monty, who heads up social media at Ford Motor.

Gee, wish I didn't have to hop a plane to the West Coast all day today - would love to revel in this ...

Case Foundation Launches Change Begins With Me Contest: Winner Attends 2009 Presidential Inauguration

This past week has been about the lightest blogging week ever.   I've had time offline, with family, and just relaxing.  It's also that time of year when you think about setting personal goals or making resolutions for change.  I've been thinking a lot of those, mostly internal - personal improvement and professional goals for my work, blog, and professional learning.

But, given how the economy has changed and that we are about to usher in a new era of change, it is also a great idea to set some more external goals ... how might you make a change in your community, neighborhood, or the world.

Need some motivation? The Case Foundation has just launched the "Change Begins With Me" contest.  They are calling on citizens to make a commitment over the next year for positive change.   The winner will get to attend the Inaugural Ceremony and Hawaii Inaugural Ball!    

Here's the description from the Case Foundation Web Site:

It’s easy to enter – just 2 simple steps:

1. Think about what you can do to help your community
2. Share that commitment with us for a chance to win!

What you Get:

An Inauguration trip for two and a unique opportunity to serve on MLK Day! Package includes:

• two tickets to the Inaugural Ceremony & the Hawaii Inaugural Ball
• three-nights hotel stay
• airfare for you and a guest to the Nation’s Capitol
• a Flip video cam

Want some guidance?  Read this blog post from Jean Case about how she's thinking about it.

I'm hoping citizens everywhere take moment and truly reflect on the 250 characters. It won't help if people "over-think" this or make too much of this, but we are asking for real commitments. For some, the commitment may be small or simple but may be the FIRST experience of "jumping in" to make a difference. For activists, the 250 characters may flow easily. And then there will be everyone else. A little sweating. A little eye-rolling. Hopefully, a little smile. But hopefully the bottom line is that we'll all be better off when the 250 characters are completed and we celebrate the close of next year with commitments that have been fulfilled as one small step toward a stronger, healthier nation.

I've been thinking about goals for 2009 and one of them fits into this contest, so here's mine:

I will continue to evangelize this idea and how it in action "Be A Geek Who Gives" - their time, skills, money, or other resources to a charity, cause, or nonprofit.  Many small contributions in this way can make a difference.

What's your idea?

Managing Technology To Meet Your Mission from NTEN

NTEN has just announced its forthcoming book, Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission: A Strategic Guide for Nonprofit Leaders.  It was written by NTEN members for nonprofit leaders who want to harness the power of technology to support their work. 

The book will be published in March 2009. You can pre-order your copy on Amazon or purchase a copy from NTEN for only $30 with your NTC registration, starting next week.

Each chapter was written by an NTEN member including me!  Can you guess what topic I wrote about in my chapter?

Change to Win A Flip Video Camera ... interested?

R U a social citizen?

Go read it and find out how you can win a FLIP camera and more.

Ideablob October Contest: Only A Few Days Left To Vote

You're looking at widget created by Lend4Health as part their participation in the Ideablob contest to win $10,000 for new small business ideas. They have enough votes to become a finalist, and they're one of eight content entrants in the "final showdown." If Lend4Health can accumulate the most votes between now and midnight Central time on October 31 (see countdown), they will win $10,000 for Lend4Health!

Here's what they plan to do with the money:

With this money, I plan to improve and expand the Lend4Health concept so that more children and families can benefit. Your vote also helps get the word out about the biomedical approach to treating autism -- an idea that certainly deserves to be heard!

I was all set to vote for them and went over to the site. You need to register and go through a verification process.  Then I looked at the other projects and noticed Nate Ritter  - whose used Twitter during the San Diego fires also had an idea.  

So, I guess I have 48 hours to make up my mind ....

Update:  You can vote for more than one project!

Introducing the Knight News Challenge Garage

Via colleague Susan Mernit

            I've been working with the wonderful Knight News Challenge team--Kristen Taylor, Jose Zamora, Heidi Miller, Robertson Adams, Marc Fest and others (under the apt leadership of the innovative Gary Kebbel) to help improve the range, quality and diversity of this year's applicants for the 2008-09 News Challenge (which will give away roughly $5MM to support open source projects that move forward local discourse and sharing/discussion around news, community, social media, visualization.)

Inspired by TechStars and YCombinator, the Garage creates a (drupal platform) community where current and potential applications for funding can enter their ideas, share comments and peer review, and request mentor support to improve their application before they submit it.

The Garage is open as of today; the KNC08 will start taking applications as of September 2nd; close is November 1st

If you are a newsie, a social media person, a social justice person using online tools to improve the world, a hyperlocal fan, or any sort of interested party (or a previous applicant) come and check it out and look around.

Kristen Taylor video on Garage here; blog post here.

 

Nominate The Game Changers for the We Media Awards

I don't usually blog announcements, but this is a little bit of social media kismet and couldn't resist.  Andrew Nachison, President and CEO, iFOCOS, who helped created an annual conference WeMedia, left a comment on an older blog post.  I'd just finished blogging about the book giveaway (reading Amy Sample Ward's reflection about it).   We offered free copies of Media Rules by Brian Reich and Dan Solomon to generate participation on the wiki for the NTEN WeAreMedia Project.  KISMET - Andrew wrote the introduction!

So, that's how I heard about the WeMedia Awards

The We Media Awards recognize Game Changers: people, projects, ideas and organizations leading change and inspiring a better world through media. Game Changers lead society to knowledge. They inspire involvement and action through media.

 

And the Winner of the Google Apps Book Giveaway is ...

Congratulations to Laurie Moy of Pearl of Africa.  She was comment number 9 on the Book Giveaway Post and the number 9 was randomly selected from random.org

NxE's 50 Most Influential Female Bloggers (I'm Number 29!)

Here's the list. And if you think this is cool, go digg it.

 

Chronicle of Philanthropy Online Live Discussion: Tues 7/15 at noon - Building Your Online Presence on a Tight Budget

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I was looking for an excuse to embed this slideshow.  It provides ten tips for cutting back your budget while promoting your presence online.  But, it's geared for business and for-profits.  (Not many of have television advertising budgets ...)

On Tuesday, July 15 at noon EST, the Chronicle of Philanthropy is hosting a live discussion called 'Building Your Online Presence on a Tight Budget."  The description:

Most charities have a strong desire to improve their ability to use the Internet to communicate more effectively with supporters, volunteers, and potential donors.

But at a time when charity budgets are particularly tight, few organizations have the resources to invest in crafting new online strategies.

There are, however, tools and tricks that can help nonprofit leaders improve their presence on the Internet without having to spend a lot of money. Find out what you can do to reach more people online without breaking the bank.

Jonathon Colman and I will be live on the chat to answer questions.  We'll be focusing on some inexpensive ways to incorporate social media and Jonathon will have lots of advice about overall web presence tips.

What's your advice about building your online presence on a tight budget? How would you adapt some of the advice in the slideshow for nonprofits and smaller organizations?

 

Choose the Winners -- 2008 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards: Polls Close on Friday

Nancy Schwartz wants you to help her select the winners of the 2008 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Awards, to be announced in July.   The tagline finalists you see here have been carefully culled from the more than 1,050 taglines submitted to Getting Attention Tagline Awards.   Hurry, the voting closing on Friday, June 20th.

Congrats To Maureen Mayer, Feeding Broward County

 

Last week Ben Rigby of Mobile Voter, and the folks from Rock the Vote gave me a copy of their a new book Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize and Engage Youth for a book giveaway on my blog.

Nineteen nonprofit folks left comments and the lucky winner is Maureen Mayer selected by random.

Why would we want a free book? 1. We are so cheap that more than half our budget is in-kind (we're the largest food pantry and community kitchen in the county plus about a million other things)so free is just about right, 2. We are so slammed, (numbers on meals and food are up 30-60% depending on the demographic) there is no way anyone would be allowed to go to the book store, in fact I hear them looking for me to come do who knows what, and 3. I had to define the term blog in a board meeting...3 months in a row. Has any of them read it, no. Has any staff or mgmt read it.....I shall comment no further, but I need some help! I shall use it to dominate the Web 2.0 for poverty, hunger and homeless advocacy and change. The bludgeoning idea is brilliant too....

Maureen Mayer is the Finance, Information and Technology staff person at The Cooperative Feeding Program in Ft. Lauderdale, FL.   It's the county’s largest food pantry and community kitchen, and they do so much more than just hand out turkeys on Thanksgiving to the homeless.  You've no doubt noticed that food prices are soaring and this has kept Maureen and other staff members who work at the agency very busy. 

If you are so inclined, you might to dedicate a little of your economic stimulus check to a hunger organization.  Maureen's program has a wonderful virtual food pantry donation campaign.   Of course, you may also consider a donation to the United Nations World Food Program and America’s Second Harvest.

I haven't received my copy yet, so no review (yet).   Here's the table of contents if you want to learn more about what's inside.    (Disclosure: I contributed a big picture essay in one of the chapters)

I'm on Facebook, Now What? Book Giveaway (Give it to your Executive Director)

About a month ago, I presented at O'Reilly's Graphing Social Patterns West where I met Jesse Stay co-author of the excellent guide about Facebook. He graciously offered to give me a copy of his book about to be published book, "I'm on Facebook, Now What?" as a book away for the blog.

It isn't a thick book, it's a quick read, but not fluff.   The book gives you a great over and introduction to Facebook, followed by introductory getting started.  The chapter on privacy explained a lot about what you can and can't control.   Chapter 6 - Your Facebook Strategy that talks about how much time is needed before you see results and some time savers is a gem.   There is also a chapter that explains Facebook No's No's - like what does or does not violate the terms of service or etiquette.

So, I thought I'd read it on my return plane ride, jot down a few notes, and give the book way. Well, it was so filled with practical and useful information that selfishly I wanted to keep it for myself.  So,  I emailed him and told him I was going to come clean with my readers and let them - oh no, not giving this one away.  But Jesse generously offered a second book for a reader giveaway.

So, here's the deal.  Leave a comment on why you want this book and how you plan to change the world with Facebook - or whatever - and I'll use a random number generator to pick someone.  You have to agree to write a review on Amazon.  You have until next Friday, April 18th, Noon EST.