14 Tips For Using Social Media to Connect With Your Conference Audience - Engage365

14 Tips For Using Social Media to Connect With Your Conference Audience - Engage365: "Social media has given presenters amazing tools with which to market ourselves. But to use these tools properly, it’s important to encourage dialogue and stay away from broadcasting our message."

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The Aunt Mabel Effect (a lesson from Digital Leap) | NetWitsThinkTank.com

The Aunt Mabel Effect (a lesson from Digital Leap) | NetWitsThinkTank.com: "I just returned from Toronto, where Blackbaud sponsored the Digital Leap conference for the second year in a row. It would be tough to relay all the great new statistics, pointers, and tidbits I picked up at the conference, so I’ve narrowed it down to my favorite takeaway, nabbed from the session led by Ted Hart on Online Fundraising Success and Social Media."

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The KISS Method For Determining Social Media ROI

The KISS Method For Determining Social Media ROI: "Attend any corporate meeting on social media initiatives and it’s likely that you’ll hear a question or two along the lines of “how is this selling us more product” or “what’s the ROI on these activities”? Unfortunately, many social media strategists get caught up in the numbers that relate specifically to social media and they forget about the numbers that are meaningful to their business."

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CharityVillage� Research: Five Things to Do Before You "Do Social Media"

CharityVillage� Research: Five Things to Do Before You "Do Social Media": "Like many charities and nonprofit organizations, you've probably put 'Do something with social media!' on your list of marketing objectives for 2011.

Most nonprofits are already maintaining a presence on one to three popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. If you're not there yet, it's easy to feel pressured to leap in.

Social media projects are notorious for sucking up staff time and energy. Do you have the existing infrastructure to support your organization's efforts in social media?

Here are five things to consider putting in place before you get started."

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Using 4 Online Tools to Inspire Volunteers and Donors, Part 2 : Page 1 of 2 : FundRaising Success

Using 4 Online Tools to Inspire Volunteers and Donors, Part 2 : Page 1 of 2 : FundRaising Success: "ocial media
'Social-media marketing is a business tool if you do it right,' Mintz said. 'It's about people marketing on your behalf.'

Marketing on social media lets you purposefully tap in to the conversations happening online to promote your organization, engage with your constituents and drive word-of-mouth. But don't forget, Mintz said, that social media is just technology; social-media marketing is the process of using that technology to connect with friends and build meaningful relationships."

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OneKind to Steward Them All � Bird Songs

OneKind to Steward Them All � Bird Songs: "OneKind to Steward Them All

March 22, 2011 by Margaux

Social media is such a buzz word these days and it’s all a bit silly. Most organizations, businesses, charities (and let’s face it, people) seem to join Twitter specifically because they’ve been told to. They probably attended some seminar or read some article that told them it would be the only way to keep up with their ever-evolving sector. They have such friendly automated thank yous and #FFs going out, 100s of followers and love that retweet button (especially when the tweet contains their own name). It’s so tragically rare though, to watch someone actually do it right."

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What's It Cost? ROI of social media can be an intangible- The NonProfit Times March 15, 2011

What's It Cost? ROI of social media can be an intangible- The NonProfit Times March 15, 2011: "here's Facebook, Second Life, Myspace, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and now Jumo. There are many smaller social networking platforms. When it comes to deploying assets, where to be in cyberspace is a tough decision.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS) in Baltimore is going through the evaluation process. CRS is one of Facebook's 500 million active users, and also tweets on Twitter and posts videos to YouTube. CRS has a Myspace profile with 3,288 'friends,' although it is not seeing a lot of activity there and managers are trying to decide what to do with it. Deleting it is a serious option."

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10 Burning Questions About How Charities Should Use Social Media - Prospecting - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas

10 Burning Questions About How Charities Should Use Social Media - Prospecting - The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas: "10 Burning Questions About How Charities Should Use Social Media

March 21, 2011, 1:46 pm

By Raymund Flandez

Washington

During a frank town-hall style meeting, nonprofit workers, who gathered at the annual Nonprofit Technology Conference here last week, discussed how to use social media to advance their causes. Some questions had good answers and examples of what worked, but others did not. So we invite readers to add their suggestions in the comments section at the end of this post."

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CharityVillage� Research: Blogging for a cause: 15 extraordinary examples of how nonprofits are using social media to affect change

CharityVillage� Research: Blogging for a cause: 15 extraordinary examples of how nonprofits are using social media to affect change: "Blogging for a cause: 15 extraordinary examples of how nonprofits are using social media to affect change

By Sumac Research
August 9, 2010

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Social networking is becoming increasingly popular for one primary reason: people want to connect. That need to connect has created an explosion in online forms of social media, creating new opportunities for engagement that can be very beneficial to nonprofits. How can your organization take advantage of these social spaces?

Well, here are 15 extraordinary examples of how nonprofits are using social media to engage, inspire, and grow that we think just might inspire you:"

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MySpace Resuscitated With UI and Social Messaging Makeover? | Fast Company

MySpace Resuscitated With UI and Social Messaging Makeover? | Fast Company: "MySpace is still alive, which may not be surprising, but the fact that it's alive and kicking is a bit of a shock: It's due to give a sleek revamp to its hideous profile pages, and has bought Threadbox to rejig its social messaging skills.

The news about a revamp to MySpace's profile pages first came via a tweet from a MySpace executive, but then MySpace confirmed it via a short statement: 'We're testing a new look and feel of our site among users' it noted, adding that clients seemed to like the changes thus far. 'As always, we're interested in hearing feedback from our community as we roll out enhancements to the user experience and look forward to sharing more details with you in the coming weeks' is a much more exciting phrase to read, though, as it points to a more thorough revamp en route."

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Staying Engaged With Your Nonprofit Social Media Communities : Page 1 of 2 : FundRaising Success

Staying Engaged With Your Nonprofit Social Media Communities : Page 1 of 2 : FundRaising Success: "Once I got my computer back and stopped twitching, I thought back on why exactly my inability to be as “connected” as I’m accustomed to was so frustrating for me. I realized it was the online communities and supporter relationships I was concerned about damaging. It wasn’t the inconvenience of not being able to perform my normal day-to-day tasks that bothered me (although that was frustrating). I’ve got a system to respond and monitor community discussions and comments regarding organizations I work with down to a science, and I’ve worked hard to make it efficient. Without my tools, my system gets more complicated and speed of response is left wanting."

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Saratoga County nonprofits find funds through social networking sites - The Saratogian News: Serving the Saratoga Springs, N.Y. region (Saratogian.com)

Saratoga County nonprofits find funds through social networking sites - The Saratogian News: Serving the Saratoga Springs, N.Y. region (Saratogian.com): "Nonprofit organizations are no exception to the growing use of social networking in the workplace.

The Saratoga Hospital Foundation, for example, started a hospital-wide Twitter feed in February and just joined Facebook."

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Hewlett Foundation | The Philanthropy Blogosphere

Hewlett Foundation | The Philanthropy Blogosphere: "More broadly considered, the episode was another coming-of-age moment in the flourishing philanthropy blogosphere. Once a backwater of the online world where a relatively small number of people interested in philanthropy talked among themselves, these blogs have grown significantly in presence and profile in recent years.

Their writers now routinely receive press credentials to blog at major conferences like the Council on Foundations, their postings are monitored by influential publications like The New York Times, and foundation program officers join in the conversations on the blogs, using them as sounding boards for policy and sources of ideas."

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How to Avoid Social Network Burnout

From Web Worker Daily
How to Avoid Social Network Burnout: "It’s not trending on Twitter just yet, but I’ve noticed recently that a number of individuals I follow are taking breaks from it and other social networks. Some have announced their intentions; others have just gone quiet — and it seems that social network burnout is to blame."

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Professional Guides — Pistachio

Professional Guides — Pistachio: "Professional Guides

Industry-specific guides to Twitter, by profession."

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Checking in at Foursquare's Hot Tubbin', Rooftop, Rock Star Moment | Fast Company

Checking in at Foursquare's Hot Tubbin', Rooftop, Rock Star Moment | Fast Company: "Since then, Foursquare's user base increased five-fold (from 200,000 to 1,000,000 users), and it's managed to steal the spotlight from established networks like Loopt and Brightkite and upstart competitors like Gowalla. 'Foursquare has a personality that's fun to interact with,' explains New York resident, Leslie Forrester. 'This identity makes it funner than the other ones.' Brandon Keene, a 24-year-old Foursquare user at the party, adds, 'It's interesting that users are so passionate about Foursquare that they threw this party for them, rather than Foursquare throwing it themselves. People are obsessed with Foursquare. It's kind of ridiculous.'"

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Mobile Social Networking Usage Soars [STATS]

Mobile Social Networking Usage Soars [STATS]: "Digital measurement firm comScore released a study today highlighting the rise in social media access via mobile phones and offering some comparison metrics for some of the biggest social networks and their usage on mobile devices."

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RFI Studios - Twitter as a News Source - Right Brain

RFI Studios - Twitter as a News Source - Right Brain: "It’s no secret that social media plays a HUGE role in how we receive information. Pew Internet just released a study that found that 75% of people find their news online through email or social media, with 52% forwarding news through those same means.

The implications of this study were epitomized as this weekend saw a surge of tweets as information about the earthquake became more readily available."

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After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

After Frustrations in Second Life, Colleges Look to New Virtual Worlds - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Some colleges that have built virtual classrooms in Second Life—the online environment where people walk around as avatars in a cartoonlike world—have started looking for an exit strategy."

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Social Media for Nonprofit Goals

Social Media for Nonprofit Goals: "Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals: The Results of a Survey"

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