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 social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Nonprofits on Twitter...
Not a day goes by when someone in the Nonprofit world or Public Sector doesn't ask me about Twitter. Here's a great post by Lon S. Cohen (Director of Communications at the ALS Association of Greater New York) listing "26 Charities and Nonprofits on Twitter".
Lon's list includes great examples of organizations that have embraced Twitter for building awareness, making new friends, engaging communities and raising funds.
And, it's clear that more and more local, national and global groups are experimenting with Twitter everyday.
It's very easy to get started. Twitter provides a free easy-to-setup interface; the potential to reach a huge engaged audience; and, the ability to engage with people in stimulating conversations. It's a natural platform for any organization seeking recognition for their mission or building a following.
Please share your thoughts.
Cheers!
Dave Sharp
Sharp Consulting Group
Lon's list includes great examples of organizations that have embraced Twitter for building awareness, making new friends, engaging communities and raising funds.
And, it's clear that more and more local, national and global groups are experimenting with Twitter everyday.
It's very easy to get started. Twitter provides a free easy-to-setup interface; the potential to reach a huge engaged audience; and, the ability to engage with people in stimulating conversations. It's a natural platform for any organization seeking recognition for their mission or building a following.
Please share your thoughts.
Cheers!
Dave Sharp
Sharp Consulting Group
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
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Offline, Multi-generational, Multi-media, Social Media Marketing, Mash-up Meetup
My daughter, Tara is 26, and I’m 56. Tara grew up in a world with cell phones, the Web, instant messaging and Google. I was born into a world when TV had just been introduced, manual typewriters were in use, man hadn’t walked on the moon and we shared a telephone line with our neighbors (party lines). Our interests in life are very different. However, we both share many common interests: art, cooking, reading, philanthropy, social networking, and “making a difference”.
Tara and I just made a presentation about Social Media Marketing at the Northwest Development Officers Association (NDOA) Winter Conference in Seattle. More than 350 nonprofit development professionals from the Pacific Northwest were in attendance at the full day meeting. The audience was a mix of NPO executive directors, development directors, marketing communications managers, event managers and others. Senior and junior non-profit professionals from different organizations represented at the conference.
The conference theme was “Stability in an Unstable Economy“ and it was clear from the beginning that everyone in attendance was very worried about the impact the economy was having on "business".
Our break-out session, “Return on Engagement: Leveraging the Web to Make New Friends, Engage Communities, Build Lasting Relationships and Increase Donors”, was well attended with more than 125 participating. The focus of the presentation was the Web, specifically social media and social media networking, and the profound impact on nonprofit organization fund raising. The interactive presentation shared tips on blogging, podcasting, online polling, photo sharing, tagging, social networking, vidcasting, wikis, etc. I think the presentation was well received judging from all the questions, comments and requests.
After the session was over Tara and I were struck by a couple of things.
1. Social Media Marketing is a Hot NPO topic. The audience was really interested in the topics we touched on (from a personal and professional point of view) and is hungry for more information, tips, ideas and case histories.
2. NPO Social Media Marketing is still at a very early stage. It was clear from the beginning of the session that web/ social media experience among our session attendees was all over the map. The younger, less seasoned NPO managers were old hands with Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging,meetups, mashups, Twitter, Flickr and de.li.cious. Others in the session had much more limited experience beyond email, awareness of YouTube, and searching with Google. The range of perceptions, apprehension, knowledge, trial and use is all over the map but falls along generational lines.
3.Questions about privacy, ethics, transparency and use need to be addressed. There were many questions raised about the use of Social Media Marketing as NPO communications and fund raising tools. These are rich topics for future workshops and blogs.
Partnering with Tara was a great idea. Her perspective about communications, community engagement, social media applications and networking provided the group with a generational perspective I wasn’t able to provide. My perspective was similar in some respects, but very different in others. I may try to convince my youngest daughter, Erica (20) to join us next time. Her social media use and perspective is vastly different from mine (at this point she won’t “friend” me on Facebook because it’s lame). I’ll text an invitation to join us.
More to follow. I’m going to blog about the presentation topics over the next couple of weeks. Please share comments, thoughts, and ideas. Thanks.
Cheers!
Dave
Tara and I just made a presentation about Social Media Marketing at the Northwest Development Officers Association (NDOA) Winter Conference in Seattle. More than 350 nonprofit development professionals from the Pacific Northwest were in attendance at the full day meeting. The audience was a mix of NPO executive directors, development directors, marketing communications managers, event managers and others. Senior and junior non-profit professionals from different organizations represented at the conference.
The conference theme was “Stability in an Unstable Economy“ and it was clear from the beginning that everyone in attendance was very worried about the impact the economy was having on "business".
Our break-out session, “Return on Engagement: Leveraging the Web to Make New Friends, Engage Communities, Build Lasting Relationships and Increase Donors”, was well attended with more than 125 participating. The focus of the presentation was the Web, specifically social media and social media networking, and the profound impact on nonprofit organization fund raising. The interactive presentation shared tips on blogging, podcasting, online polling, photo sharing, tagging, social networking, vidcasting, wikis, etc. I think the presentation was well received judging from all the questions, comments and requests.
After the session was over Tara and I were struck by a couple of things.
1. Social Media Marketing is a Hot NPO topic. The audience was really interested in the topics we touched on (from a personal and professional point of view) and is hungry for more information, tips, ideas and case histories.
2. NPO Social Media Marketing is still at a very early stage. It was clear from the beginning of the session that web/ social media experience among our session attendees was all over the map. The younger, less seasoned NPO managers were old hands with Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging,meetups, mashups, Twitter, Flickr and de.li.cious. Others in the session had much more limited experience beyond email, awareness of YouTube, and searching with Google. The range of perceptions, apprehension, knowledge, trial and use is all over the map but falls along generational lines.
3.Questions about privacy, ethics, transparency and use need to be addressed. There were many questions raised about the use of Social Media Marketing as NPO communications and fund raising tools. These are rich topics for future workshops and blogs.
Partnering with Tara was a great idea. Her perspective about communications, community engagement, social media applications and networking provided the group with a generational perspective I wasn’t able to provide. My perspective was similar in some respects, but very different in others. I may try to convince my youngest daughter, Erica (20) to join us next time. Her social media use and perspective is vastly different from mine (at this point she won’t “friend” me on Facebook because it’s lame). I’ll text an invitation to join us.
More to follow. I’m going to blog about the presentation topics over the next couple of weeks. Please share comments, thoughts, and ideas. Thanks.
Cheers!
Dave
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