Tips for eNewsletters

With all the abundance of social media, the effectiveness of the e-newsletter should not be overlooked.

Intro to Social Media for Non-Profits

I presented this workshop on social media at Volunteer Connect this morning. A great group of folks working in the non-profit arena in Mercer County, NJ and beyond. (Shout out to the Red Bank participant!)

I am sharing my slides to help non-profit volunteer coordinators learn about and better use social media tools.

Intro to social media

View more PowerPoint from Data Center Knowledge

Princeton Community Works – Another Great Year!

Thanks to all who attended my session on advanced social media for non-profits at Princeton Community Works 2012! The setting is so great at Princeton University and the Princeton High School orchestra played so wonderfully.

To anyone who would like a digital copy of my slides, I have embedded them below. Feel free to share.

Getting in the swim – Effective management of social media

View more presentations from Data Center Knowledge on Slideshare.

Arab Spring Reflections

From the Meta-Activism Project, a blog post on the how social media helped shape the Arab Spring. MAP’s community members and advisors were asked to reflect on what the

WordPress.com Sites Hit by DDos Attack

WordPress.com experienced its largest attack ever, reported tech news site, Techcrunch, today.

The DDos (short form for Distributed Denial of Service) attack lead to disruptions for bloggers who host on the free service, WordPress.com. (See this for explanation of DDos.)

Wired for Change – Conference on Internet Freedom

Protestors in Madison, WI. Photo credit: kenfagerdotcom on Flickr.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that the Ford Foundation, which hosted a day long conference called “Wired for Change” to discuss Internet freedom and social change, is working hard “to sell the philanthropy world on the idea that the Internet is not just an accessory to help push social change but also an integral part of enacting that change.” (See full story, Ford Foundation Conference Sheds Light on Internet Freedom.)

Significant quote:

“We use the Internet and mobile technology to build society, and we take it for granted that the open Internet will always be in place,” said Brett Solomon, who runs Access, an organization that helps those in countries who are subject to censorship maintain Internet access.

The article is a good read. 🙂

Twitter Lesson Learned

Here’s an amusing anecdote about the Red Cross and a Tweet sent in error. Someone meant to tweet from a personal account, but accidentally sent from the main @redcross account instead.

The Red Cross blog explains how the group cleared up confusion and came clean on the error. No harm, no foul. See Twitter Faux Pas.

Way to turn a slip up into a positive!

Twitter for Newbies

Sometimes it seems all the world is abuzz about Twitter. Television, websites and other media mention it continually. (If you are still unclear why you and your organization should engage in social media, see my previous post on Targeting Your Social Media Efforts.)

For those who haven’t yet jumped into tweeting and those who want to expand their use of Twitter, questions remain. Bear with me as I explain for the Noobs.

What is Twitter? It’s a social network that produces an information stream of short bursts of content (and links). By scanning this conversation, you see real-time news, information and insights from people you know and those you don’t know. Messages are limited to 140 characters or less. (This is changing – as a TweetDeck service now allows for longer Tweets, but that’s another story.)

Chiefly, you might be asking where do I go from here? Here’s four steps to get you started.

A Single Tweet Can Cause A lot of Damage (via HighTalk)

An agency PR pro takes a look at a recent gaff by a Kenneth Cole exec on Twitter. It is an example of how a small message can have big – and negative- impact.

10 Ways to Fail at Social Media

This entertaining slideshow shows the negative things that happen when people jump into social media with some mistaken ideas or without planning properly. Shows 10 examples of pitfalls. On the positive side, the slideshow covers 5 ways to not fail. Created by Luis Carazzana, Head of Social Media, Chemistry Communications Group, London.
The lessons here are sound.