Online tools that connect people to real world actions in creative and accessible ways have the potential to rapidly accelerate social change.
Social Actions is a nonprofit initiative committed to making it easier for people to find and share opportunities to make a difference. A search engine on SocialActions.com helps users find ways to take action for the causes they care about from 50+ online action sources including Kiva, DonorsChoose.org, Change.org, DemocracyinAction, GlobalGiving, Idealist.org, SixDegrees, VolunteerMatch,Care2 and others. Social Actions creates incentives such as the Change the Web Challenge to encourage the distribution of their open API (Application Programming Interface) to websites, blogs, social networks and mobile devices and include everything from volunteer opportunities to micro-credit loans.
The overall goal of the SocialActions site is to make the web more action-oriented and to make it easier for people to make a difference.
Check it out.
Cheers!
Dave Sharp
Sharp Consulting Group, LLC
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Tools and Tips for Monitoring Conversations about your Organization on the Web…
There are lots of ways to keep track of the conversations taking place on the web regarding your group or organization. Here’s a short list of social media marketing tools to help you keep track of what is being said about you on the internet.
1. If you don’t have a personal profile on Facebook, create one. Then create a business page on Facebook. Invite your friends, stakeholders, members and customers to become fans. It will help you keep track of your “friends” as well as start, facilitate and track conversations surrounding your org. Depending on your goals, you can also create a Facebook Group page and/or Cause page.
2. Want to follow conversations on Facebook? Signup for Facebook Lexicon.
3. Sign up for a Twitter business account. Start following tweets and joining in the conversations about your group or organization.
4. Once you are on Twitter, you can use Twitter Search to follow keywords across the millions of conversations and posts.
5. You can also search for any word on Twitter using Tweetscan.
6. Twilert allows you to receive email notification when something is mentioned regarding your organization.
7. GoogleAlerts is a great tool that helps you track your org and relevant conversations.
8. Sign up for an account on HowSociable. This is a great tool for tracking conversations.
9. If you come across a negative comment about your organization or group, respond with kindness and transparency. Craft your response strategically. Most of the time, you can turn the negative comment around just because you were listening.
10. If you are interested in tracking industry trends in the online space, you should check out Trendpedia.
11. Create a LinkedIn group for your organization or group. This is a great way to keep stakeholder communicating, collaborating and sharing.
12. There are many monitoring services if you have the budget. Just Google “reputation management” or “web monitoring” services.
13. If you don’t have a blog… start one. Be topical, relevant, and keep at it. Encourage comments and sharing. And, it’s ok to fall off the wagon. Just get back on (I’ve fallen off many times) and try to keep at it (at least once a week). It gets easier once you have established the habit.
14. Finally, set aside some time every day to monitor conversations about your group. It is important to stay on top of the conversation.
Social Media is here to stay. It’s very dynamic and keeps on changing. Jump in and start using a couple of the tools listed above.
Cheers!
Dave
Sharp Consulting Group, LLC
1. If you don’t have a personal profile on Facebook, create one. Then create a business page on Facebook. Invite your friends, stakeholders, members and customers to become fans. It will help you keep track of your “friends” as well as start, facilitate and track conversations surrounding your org. Depending on your goals, you can also create a Facebook Group page and/or Cause page.
2. Want to follow conversations on Facebook? Signup for Facebook Lexicon.
3. Sign up for a Twitter business account. Start following tweets and joining in the conversations about your group or organization.
4. Once you are on Twitter, you can use Twitter Search to follow keywords across the millions of conversations and posts.
5. You can also search for any word on Twitter using Tweetscan.
6. Twilert allows you to receive email notification when something is mentioned regarding your organization.
7. GoogleAlerts is a great tool that helps you track your org and relevant conversations.
8. Sign up for an account on HowSociable. This is a great tool for tracking conversations.
9. If you come across a negative comment about your organization or group, respond with kindness and transparency. Craft your response strategically. Most of the time, you can turn the negative comment around just because you were listening.
10. If you are interested in tracking industry trends in the online space, you should check out Trendpedia.
11. Create a LinkedIn group for your organization or group. This is a great way to keep stakeholder communicating, collaborating and sharing.
12. There are many monitoring services if you have the budget. Just Google “reputation management” or “web monitoring” services.
13. If you don’t have a blog… start one. Be topical, relevant, and keep at it. Encourage comments and sharing. And, it’s ok to fall off the wagon. Just get back on (I’ve fallen off many times) and try to keep at it (at least once a week). It gets easier once you have established the habit.
14. Finally, set aside some time every day to monitor conversations about your group. It is important to stay on top of the conversation.
Social Media is here to stay. It’s very dynamic and keeps on changing. Jump in and start using a couple of the tools listed above.
Cheers!
Dave
Sharp Consulting Group, LLC
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
How to Promote Your Organization Using Podcasts
Podcasting is blogging with audio instead of a text entry. Essentially, you post an audio file (MP3) instead of an article.
Although long-time podcasters (3 years or more) are tired of hearing this, there is no question that a lot of people who might be interested in podcasts believe that an iPod or other MP3 player is required to listen. The fact is a lot more people listen to podcasts on their computers than on their iPods and the number of people listening continues to sky rocket (according to Arbitron and Edison Media Research).
Five Reasons Why Podcasts Are Great for Marketing your Organization
1. An increasing number of people are downloading new podcasts every day (nearly 1 in 10 people have listened to an audio podcast in the last month according to Arbitron).
2. Unlike Radio, podcasts can be played whenever the listener wants.
3. People can listen to them in their cars on their way to work or when they go for a run..
4. There is a lot less competition in the podcast market than there is in the “article” market.
5. Podcasting is a lot easier and less time-consuming than blogging and getting your articles published.
Six Steps to Planning and Producing a Podcast
1. Start by getting a good digital recorder with a good microphone (they run about $50 at Radio Shack).
2. Download an audio editing tool like Audacity or Recordforall
3. Content is King! Write a tight script (so the podcast doesn’t sound amateurish or improvised).
4. Practice (a couple times).
5. Record it in a relatively quiet environment. Try different "reads" and pick the best “take”.
6. Apply the noise-reduction filter in your audio editing software and save the MP3 file to be uploaded
Posting your Podcast
Once you have completed and edited your Podcast you are ready to submit it to Audio Sharing sites:
PodPusher
Pod Submitter
PodOMatic
Podcast Alley
iTunes
Yahoo Podcasts
Digg Podcasts
Podcast Directory
PodFeed
Odeo
Digital Podcast
Podcast.net
Singing Fish
Blog Universe
Collectik
PodNova
Have fun.
Dave
Although long-time podcasters (3 years or more) are tired of hearing this, there is no question that a lot of people who might be interested in podcasts believe that an iPod or other MP3 player is required to listen. The fact is a lot more people listen to podcasts on their computers than on their iPods and the number of people listening continues to sky rocket (according to Arbitron and Edison Media Research).
Five Reasons Why Podcasts Are Great for Marketing your Organization
1. An increasing number of people are downloading new podcasts every day (nearly 1 in 10 people have listened to an audio podcast in the last month according to Arbitron).
2. Unlike Radio, podcasts can be played whenever the listener wants.
3. People can listen to them in their cars on their way to work or when they go for a run..
4. There is a lot less competition in the podcast market than there is in the “article” market.
5. Podcasting is a lot easier and less time-consuming than blogging and getting your articles published.
Six Steps to Planning and Producing a Podcast
1. Start by getting a good digital recorder with a good microphone (they run about $50 at Radio Shack).
2. Download an audio editing tool like Audacity or Recordforall
3. Content is King! Write a tight script (so the podcast doesn’t sound amateurish or improvised).
4. Practice (a couple times).
5. Record it in a relatively quiet environment. Try different "reads" and pick the best “take”.
6. Apply the noise-reduction filter in your audio editing software and save the MP3 file to be uploaded
Posting your Podcast
Once you have completed and edited your Podcast you are ready to submit it to Audio Sharing sites:
PodPusher
Pod Submitter
PodOMatic
Podcast Alley
iTunes
Yahoo Podcasts
Digg Podcasts
Podcast Directory
PodFeed
Odeo
Digital Podcast
Podcast.net
Singing Fish
Blog Universe
Collectik
PodNova
Have fun.
Dave
Monday, December 08, 2008
Why you need a Blog....
Your organization needs a blog. What I really mean is, your raving fan stakeholders need you to have a blog. Recognize from the start that not everybody reads it, just those nutty people who love what you and your organization does. Your blog keeps them informed and lets them interact (amplify, disagree, share, comment) with you.
Blogs are free, but they do require time and commitment. So before you start, you should sit down and outline an editorial schedule and commit to posting on a regular basis.
Make your blogs more interesting by adding photos and videos of events and members. Sign up for a photo/ video sharing site like flickr or youtube. And Make sure to add sharing functionality to your blog so that readers can email their family and friends as well as bookmark your blog to the major sharing sites (digg, stumble,technorati, etc. Go to sharethis.com and register your blog and get a "Share This" button.
Once you start blogging you will see that people will find your website easier (make sure to link your blog to your website and site to your blog). Additionally you will also find that your organization will move up in search engine ranks.
Share your thoughts.
Cheers!
Dave
Blogs are free, but they do require time and commitment. So before you start, you should sit down and outline an editorial schedule and commit to posting on a regular basis.
Make your blogs more interesting by adding photos and videos of events and members. Sign up for a photo/ video sharing site like flickr or youtube. And Make sure to add sharing functionality to your blog so that readers can email their family and friends as well as bookmark your blog to the major sharing sites (digg, stumble,technorati, etc. Go to sharethis.com and register your blog and get a "Share This" button.
Once you start blogging you will see that people will find your website easier (make sure to link your blog to your website and site to your blog). Additionally you will also find that your organization will move up in search engine ranks.
Share your thoughts.
Cheers!
Dave
Sunday, November 30, 2008
What’s all the buzz about?
The big buzz in marketing for nonprofit organizations and government agencies these days is all about social networking, viral campaigns and Web 2.0 tools. Organizations of all sizes are starting to ask…Do we start a Facebook page, set up a new blog, start using Twitter, Flickr and YouTube?
Before you start using the latest and greatest social networking tools, take a moment to review your strategic business plan.
Keep it simple. Who are you trying to contact, what is your message and what benefits do you have to offer?
After all, if you just start using web 2.0 tools just because you don’t want to miss out on the latest technology or popular website, you can end up wasting a lot of time, effort and money…
So with this in mind, you may want to ask yourself three simple questions prior to starting a big, new marketing effort using the latest and greatest social networking tools:
1. Is this tool going to help us reach our target audience(s) with the appropriate message?
2. Do we have valuable information to provide via these networking venues?
3. Are the resources available to regularly update and enhance our new, social network marketing campaigns so we experience the best results?
If you answered “Yes” to these questions, then please move forward and plan how you are going to incorporate these social networking tools into your marketing and development plans.
But if you answered “No,” it may be best to do some more research about the tools and trends. This way, you’ll be able to focus your efforts on the marketing activities that will give you the best results while still being aware of new tools and technologies that are available.
Cheers!
Dave
Before you start using the latest and greatest social networking tools, take a moment to review your strategic business plan.
Keep it simple. Who are you trying to contact, what is your message and what benefits do you have to offer?
After all, if you just start using web 2.0 tools just because you don’t want to miss out on the latest technology or popular website, you can end up wasting a lot of time, effort and money…
So with this in mind, you may want to ask yourself three simple questions prior to starting a big, new marketing effort using the latest and greatest social networking tools:
1. Is this tool going to help us reach our target audience(s) with the appropriate message?
2. Do we have valuable information to provide via these networking venues?
3. Are the resources available to regularly update and enhance our new, social network marketing campaigns so we experience the best results?
If you answered “Yes” to these questions, then please move forward and plan how you are going to incorporate these social networking tools into your marketing and development plans.
But if you answered “No,” it may be best to do some more research about the tools and trends. This way, you’ll be able to focus your efforts on the marketing activities that will give you the best results while still being aware of new tools and technologies that are available.
Cheers!
Dave
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