Professionalism Matters In All Communications–Even Blogs And Other Web 2.0

Whether you are blogging to promote your organization or your expertise/services or to create an online community about an issue you are passionate about, professionalism matters.  No, I’m not talking about coming across as an uptight, blue-suit, white-shirted exec or posting corporate press releases on your supposed blog. (yes, that’s professional but doesn’t create the 2-way communication that’s desired….here’s an example [...]

Webinars: Staff Development Solutions Part 3

As previously discussed, one easy way to promote learning and networking among staff is to use Skype with video (or other similar services).  This works best when someone knowledgeable among the attendees can take the lead–both in setting up the call, helping other “newbies” and perhaps in setting an agenda. 
Sometimes, your staff development needs may [...]

Staff Development Solutions Part Two–Skype and videoconferencing

After reading part 1–wikis and staff development, we move onto a brief look at other web 2.0 applications and how a nonprofit exec can take advantage of them for staff development (this is not comprehensive, but meant to get your feet wet).   
The Value of Networking Among Peers 
One of the frustrations we had when I ran the small [...]

Wikis, Skype and Webinars, oh my–Staff Development Solutions Part One

To many of those I network with online (either by reading & posting to blogs or via Twitter) –the three words in the title are routine: 

Wikis, Skype and Webinars. 

But for you nonprofit execs trying to manage agencies on a shoestring, one or more of these may be meaningless.  After all, these terms didn’t even exist a few [...]

Google is Old, Yahoo is Young, but Lifestyle is better determiner of social media usage

Joel Cere’s headline, “Poor Young People Use Yahoo; Rich Old People Use Google,” in response to recently released research from Hitwise leads back to an issue I promised Beth Kanter I’d ponder this last weekend: lifestyle versus age when examining how people use social media.   This issue arose after Beth informally polled a group of teens about their [...]

Appeal of social media depends on fit with organizational goals–4 Areas of Focus

There’s a lot of discussion about whether “social networks” have seen their best days, citing things like declining unique visitors, time spent on site, and general grumbling (esp. about whether one can truly ever back out of Facebook) .  You might ponder what this portends, especially for nonprofits. 
If “Social Networking” means linking people to each other in [...]

Risks, rewards involved in adopting new business models–even in Web 2.0

A couple of “down” days with a cold followed by watching the Superbowl led me to ponder new business models and web 2.0. 
As you recall, the Superbowl was played at University of Phoenix’s stadium.  UOP was one of the first educational institutions to adopt the distance learning model.  The upside to pushing the envelope is their phenomenal growth and still cutting-edge [...]

Social Media in Action 2: Pedal to the Metal for America’s Giving Challenge

On a post last week,  I reported on Social Media In Action, where Beth Kanter’s passion for kids in Cambodia stood to benefit from participation in the online fundraising contest sponsored by America’s Giving Challenge.   Beth’s passion is for The Sharing Foundation, which is benefiting from her networking on Twitter and her blog. 
The contest is intented [...]

Are “late” adopters “twits?”

At least I am. 
I confess, I’m “late” with getting on board with Twitter (ok…it launched in late 2006; only in the cyberworld is this late).  Lots of reasons: 

Concern with time management 

 Already have plenty of work flow interruptions

Too busy to take the time regarding how it all works. 

Not sure if there was anyone to tweet with [...]

Social Media In Action

I haven’t been blogging long, and although I have a depth of experience in communications and a “gut” instinct on what works, there’s still a lot to learn.  One great source has been Beth Kanter’s blog and wiki.  The great thing about social media is that this assistance comes “free” (okay, I retract that, there’s the [...]