I read “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith this weekend. It’s about, as the subtitle says, “Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.” I’m talking about these concepts in the book I’m writing on nonprofit marketing, so I wanted to see how what Chris and Julien advocate for the…
It’s a debate that anyone using social media these days is having: How much personal information do I share when I’m using social media for work, and how much work information do my personal friends care to know? What are reasonable expectations for a nonprofit to have about what staff members will say online? Should…
The conventional wisdom these days seems to be that nonprofit organizations should not use social media for marketing, communications, promotion or anything like that. Instead, the CW goes, social media is only for listening and learning (call it market research and professional development if you actually want it to survive your work planning process). Ironically,…
I’ve received several questions about the Twitter tools I use, so here are my five favorites. Yes, to use Twitter as efficiently as possible, you actually need to do more than what Twitter.com offers! 1. TweetDeck or Seesmic Desktop These tools let you put people you follow into groups, which is essential once you start following…
When I started my consulting business 11 years ago, virtually everyone told me to market my services under a company name, rather than to promote myself under my own personal name. No one would hire an individual freelancer, I was told. I needed to appear to be a “organization.” Organizations were more stable, more trustworthy,…
When we talk about fundraising through social media (and we had many of these conversations at 09NTC this week), the discussion always turns to how we should go about converting into long-term donors those friends of friends – people who gave to the cause because a friend of theirs and an existing supporter of ours…
Yesterday I attended a workshop organized by one of my favorite bloggers (and NTC roomie) Nancy Schwartz on how you deal with branding issues for your organization within social media. The panel featured Danielle Brigida, National Wildlife Federation; Felicia Carr, National Parks Conservation Association; and Wendy Harman, American Red Cross. Nancy created a wonderful guide…
I planned to live blog from the Nonprofit Technology Conference today, but the Hilton was obviously not prepared to host a tech conference, because the wireless was down most of the day. No wireless, no live blogging. So, instead, I’m going to post a few summaries here. This morning, Clay Shirky, author of “Here Comes…
This Friday, March 20, John Kenyon will join me in presenting a webinar called “Creating Online Evangelists: How to Excite and Motivate Your Supporters.” Who are these online evangelists that your nonprofit should be exciting and motivating? They are ordinary people who, because of a great personal passion for your good cause, do extraordinary things…
What makes someone a big fan of your nonprofit? It’s not that different from what makes someone a big fan of a sports team. 1. There’s an Emotional Connection. Your cause touches something deep inside of them and makes them willing to do crazy things for you. Sports fans paint their faces and wear weird…
If you moan to 10 of your nonprofit colleagues about how you don’t have time to get your nonprofit on Facebook and other social media sites, I’d guess seven of them will tell you to get an intern to do it for you. (The other three? Two will just nod sympathetically and the other one…
Last week, Lindy Dreyer (SocialFish.org) and I hosted a free half-hour webinar called “What’s the Buzz? Find Out Who’s Talking About Your Organization and Issues Online” – or what’s called “social media listening” by the Web 2.0 cool kids. We talked about why you should be listening to online conversations and how you can use…
