I Like What You Said

Webinar on the Building Blocks of Social Media

Amy, Thanks for a great webinar and start of a great series.  Lots of good information presented.

I got a good handle on the Tools for Listening (Google Alert, Technorati, Google Blog Search), and Tools for Aggregating (RSS, Google Reader, Net Vibes).  However, I need to get busy and improve my use of the Tools for Sharing (Tags, Delicious, Friendfeed).

Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPTech.

Today’s webinar focused on the building blocks of social meda; things like tagging, RSS and how to get started finding the conversations taking place online.

Congratulations to Beth Kanter and other Women in Nonprofit Technology

For those of us who are in the Nonprofit arena and believe in the power of Information and Computer Technology (ICT), here are some women to take note of and follow.

Congratulations to all of them!

Women in Nonprofit Technology Who Rock: Adding to Fast Company's Most Influential Women in Technology List

In December, Fast Company published an article called "The Most Influential Women in Web 2.0" featuring about a dozen amazing women who work in the Web 2.0 world. The list included BlogHer founders Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins, and Lisa Stone.  Kaliya Hamlin, who is the founder of She's Geeky, a women and technology conference taking place in Mountain View, CA on January 30-31st was also on the list.

The post sparked heated debate. Fast Company responded with "The Most Influential Women in Technology."

I'm humbled to be listed in the "Activists" category!

But as with any "best of" or "most this or that" list, it's bound to be incomplete. So, when Lynne Johnson from Fast Company asked me to blog a list, I thought I'd create a nonprofit technology category and acknowledge the work of these awesome women:

Seth Godin SAYS

The bestseller author provides 18 items to do on Martin Luther King's Day to transform it into a National Day of Service.

Let me help you.  Number 9, Seth says, "Start a Facebook group for like-minded people who support the same non-profit you do. Commit to spending time to promote it, organize the people there and actually create outcomes of value."

I setup a Facebook Cause, Ending Extreme Poverty in the Congo.  Now, all you have to do is join it, promote it, organize and create an outcome of value with the 400+ members.

Seth's Blog: National Day of Service.

National Day of Service

Monday, January 19 is Martin Luther King Day. And wonderfully, instead of adding yet another shopping day to the calendar, it's being transformed to a day of service.

If every person in the US spent an hour doing something selfless, useful and leveraged, what would happen? What if you and your circle committed to doing it an hour a day for a year? 300 million hours is a lot of hours for just one day, a year of that would change everything.

While I applaud stopgap contributions like helping out in a soup kitchen (where labor and supplies are really needed), I wonder how those that are lucky enough to be web savvy can create work that really adds leverage. What if you did one of these things every day?

Here (the article provides a list of 18 items) are some ideas that you can do online or in your community, with time, not so much with money.

Facebook vs Twitter

Which is better Facebook or Twitter?  I prefer Facebook over Twitter.  That's a better and fairer question to be asked.  I use both tools and will continue to do so for the feasible future.

It is not an "either, or" situation.  You should continue to use both.  And I would further say you should use both.  The article below has some good pros and cons of both Twitter and Facebook.

I primarily like Facebook because of its "huge, rapidly growing installed user base".  Also, it has a developing "gift giving" module.  Probably, my biggest dislike is the "bigness" which requires time to master.

I most like Twitter because of its requires you to be brief to get your initial message out.  You have to get people insterested in 140 characters.  It is a microblogging application.  My biggest dislike is the "newness" of the application.  

Facebook vs Twitter.

So Which Social Network is the Best?

While zealots will immediately point to either Twitter or Facebook as being superior, the truth is that each has its advantages and disadvantages and will tend to appeal more to different types of people and for different reasons. Each can have great or little value to anyone; it really depends on what you are trying to accomplish in a given situation. Consider some of the pros and cons of each network:

Getting Ready to discuss Seth Godin's Tribes

Seth Godin wrote a six-part blog post about his new book, Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us , on the Social Edge. 

On Thursday, January 15, the Smaller Indiana's Indy Business Book Club will discuss Seth Godin's Tribes.  Of course, I will capture our discussion on this blog space.

Tribes Used To Be Local — Social Edge.

Now, the Internet eliminates geography.

This means that existing tribes are bigger, but more important, it means that there are now more tribes, smaller tribes, influential tribes, horizontal and vertical tribes, and tribes that could never have existed before. Tribes you work with, tribes you travel with, tribes you buy with. Tribes that vote, that discuss, that fight. Tribes where everyone knows your name. The professionals at the CIA are a tribe and so are the volunteers at the ACLU.

There's an explosion of new tools available to help lead the tribes we're forming. Facebook and Ning and Meetup and Twitter. Squidoo and Basecamp and Craigslist and e-mail.

There are literally thousands of ways to coordinate and connect groups of people that just didn't exist a generation ago.

All of it is worthless if you don't decide to lead. All of it goes to waste if your leadership is compromised, if you settle, if you don't commit. Many tribes.

Many tools. I'm writing to you about both. The market needs you (we need you) and the tools are there, just waiting. All that's missing is you, and your vision and your passion.

Use of Texting Messaging by the Obama Campaign

This was great article, from the "horse's mouth".  It provided a "behind the scenes" look at how the Obama Campaign used text messaging and other social media technologies (Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and MySpace).  Barack Obama's Text Messaging Guru Talks to the Ticket.

Each media had it own rules of engagement, pros and cons!

  

Here's My Grade in Creating a Personal Brand

After attending a fundraising seminar over a year ago, I realized that my personal reputation and personal brand was more essential for me.  In the nonprofit business, personal brand was the starting point for my nonprofit/cause brand.

Today, I discovered the Personal Branding Blog's post on 10 Step Expert Guide to Blogging Your Personal Brand.  So, I went back and decided to read the beginners, intermediate, and advanced guides.

After reading the previous posts, I got some work to do.  I am not failing.  I started a lots of the steps.  I have actually, completed a quite a few steps.  Here's my assessment against those steps.

A.  Beginners Guide, my grade is C

1) Learn about blogging, 2) Listen to current conversations, 3) Take a niche, 4) Get your equipment ready, 5) Pick your logo and theme, 6) Create your "personal brand page", 7) Get an RSS feed, 8) Claim your blog on Technorati, 9) Widgetize your blog, and 10) Write 5 remarkable posts.

B.  Intermediate Guide, my grade is D

1)  Start adding links to your posts, 2) Get consistent with formatting, 3) Create your "About this blog" page, 4) Comment like a champ, 5) Find out who your visitors are, 6) Guest post on another blog, 7) Integrate your blog URL/feed throughout digital kingdom, 8) Promotion on discussion forums, 9) Use at least one picture per post, and 10) Allow for search and organization.

C.  Advanced Guide, my grade is C

1) Host your own blog, 2) Select or design a unique theme, 3) Choose plugins, 4) Integrate your social networks, 5) Search engine blog optimization, 6) Try a few different types of posts, 7) Allow someone to guest blog, 8) Interview your favorite blogger, 9) Get ranked, and 10) Form content partnerships.

D. Expert Guide, my grade is D

1) Podcast your brand on your blog, 2) Lifecasting, 3) Start your own mailing list, 4) Place advertisements, 5) Setup an affiliate program, 6) Poll your readers, 7) Build a team blog, 8) Use your blog as a platform, 9) Write an eBook/book, and 10) Start more blogs.