Last Post on This Blog
This is the last post I will make on this blog. I am continuing my blog with helpful information about online fundraising, email marketing, and how nonprofit organizations use social media on my new WordPress blog. I have successfully married my website and blog so that they are together now. I was able to import all my old posts from this blog into the new blog so they are all there now too.
I did this for a couple of reasons:
1. My website needed to be updated anyway and I wanted it to be in a platform that I could easily update from anywhere
2. This way my blog is on my own domain so when search engine spiders crawl it, I'll be helping myself by driving more traffic to my own blog rather than to google who owns blogger.
For a business like mine or for a nonprofit organization with fairly basic needs, WordPress works great as a CMS (content management system) to power your entire site. Want to learn more about using WordPress as a CMS and how it compares to other open source CMS options? Check out this article at the Idealware site.
Check out my new website and blog at harmaninteractive.com
I'd love your comments and suggestions regarding my new site and blog.
If you've included my blog in your blogroll, please update the links
Lastly, I've done a little digging around and I don't think there is an easy way (or a way at all) to automatically redirect people from my blogger blog to my new blog. Do you know the answer?
I hope you will continue enjoying my blog in its new location.
Facebook & Nonprofits: Use Pages and Groups
Yesterday I spent some time looking at how some various nonprofit organizations present themselves on Facebook and use various Facebook tools. I also spent some time reading up on the features of Facebook pages and groups.
Here are a few notes and links to resources that I hope you will find helpful. I encourage you to look up some of your favorite nonprofit organizations on Facebook. If you work for a nonprofit organization, please share how you are using Facebook and what you've found works best for your organization.
First of all keep in mind that Facebook is simply one tactic in your overall outreach and engagement strategy. Focus on using social networking sites like Facebook to engage and connect with people first and for fundraising second. Engaging and connecting with people will lead to increased giving and engagement through all channels.
Also, use social media sites as a tool for listening and to better understand what people are saying about your organization and how it impacts their life. Two keys to success with Facebook are frequent updates and being personal and human to forge real connections.
One of the first questions that organizations seem to have when it comes to Facebook is which tools should they use and how should they set up their presence on Facebook. Some organizations have set up their presence the same way as an individual does with a basic Facebook profile. Others are using Facebook pages or groups.
Pages can only be created by official representatives of businesses, bands or organizations. There are also specific applications built for different types of fan pages. The pages are indexed by search engines which is a huge reason to use them. Also with a page people can become "fans" of your organization. As a fan you are showing that you value and appreciate the business or organization but you aren't giving the organization access to view everything on your own personal profile as you do when you become a "friend" with someone. An organization can also enable multiple administrators to help keep the page up to date.
Groups tend to be more informal and based around specific interests. With groups you can be more viral because everyone in the group can send bulk invites to their friends to join the group or participate in group activities.
I think it makes a lot of sense for organizations to use both pages and groups and to encourage staff and volunteers to use their personal Facebook profiles and friend networks to spread buzz about the organization.
The page would be the place for the official organization presence, link to sign up for the organization email newsletter etc...
Groups could be used for specific purposes and constituencies such as the volunteer group, the junior board group, or a group related to one specific aspect of your organization's mission.
A couple quick examples -- WGBH has a volunteer group as well as a WGBH page and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago has a page as well as a group for people who like attending their First Friday events.
Here are some other articles on the topic that you may find of interest:
Beth Kanter is a go to person when it comes to how nonprofits use social media. Her blog is constantly updated and jam packed with useful information. This article on her blog is very useful on this particular topic.
This article from Searchenginejournal.com has a good explanation of the reasons to use pages versus groups.
Mari Smith offers this great comparison of pages and groups in Facebook
I also found this excellent article about the use of facebook pages and groups in Higher-Ed.
Here are a few notes and links to resources that I hope you will find helpful. I encourage you to look up some of your favorite nonprofit organizations on Facebook. If you work for a nonprofit organization, please share how you are using Facebook and what you've found works best for your organization.
First of all keep in mind that Facebook is simply one tactic in your overall outreach and engagement strategy. Focus on using social networking sites like Facebook to engage and connect with people first and for fundraising second. Engaging and connecting with people will lead to increased giving and engagement through all channels.
Also, use social media sites as a tool for listening and to better understand what people are saying about your organization and how it impacts their life. Two keys to success with Facebook are frequent updates and being personal and human to forge real connections.
One of the first questions that organizations seem to have when it comes to Facebook is which tools should they use and how should they set up their presence on Facebook. Some organizations have set up their presence the same way as an individual does with a basic Facebook profile. Others are using Facebook pages or groups.
Pages can only be created by official representatives of businesses, bands or organizations. There are also specific applications built for different types of fan pages. The pages are indexed by search engines which is a huge reason to use them. Also with a page people can become "fans" of your organization. As a fan you are showing that you value and appreciate the business or organization but you aren't giving the organization access to view everything on your own personal profile as you do when you become a "friend" with someone. An organization can also enable multiple administrators to help keep the page up to date.
Groups tend to be more informal and based around specific interests. With groups you can be more viral because everyone in the group can send bulk invites to their friends to join the group or participate in group activities.
I think it makes a lot of sense for organizations to use both pages and groups and to encourage staff and volunteers to use their personal Facebook profiles and friend networks to spread buzz about the organization.
The page would be the place for the official organization presence, link to sign up for the organization email newsletter etc...
Groups could be used for specific purposes and constituencies such as the volunteer group, the junior board group, or a group related to one specific aspect of your organization's mission.
A couple quick examples -- WGBH has a volunteer group as well as a WGBH page and The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago has a page as well as a group for people who like attending their First Friday events.
Here are some other articles on the topic that you may find of interest:
Beth Kanter is a go to person when it comes to how nonprofits use social media. Her blog is constantly updated and jam packed with useful information. This article on her blog is very useful on this particular topic.
This article from Searchenginejournal.com has a good explanation of the reasons to use pages versus groups.
Mari Smith offers this great comparison of pages and groups in Facebook
I also found this excellent article about the use of facebook pages and groups in Higher-Ed.
How Some Nonprofits Use Twitter
I was just searching Twitter to see how some nonprofit organizations are using it.
National Wildlife Federation - tips for energy conservation, interesting animal facts, links to opportunities to participate in advocacy etc...
AIDG - a lot of links to interesting videos that showcase the work that they do
Adler Planetarium - some great quick facts about things to look for in the sky as well as info about upcoming special events at the planetarium
Chicago Public Radio and other public media sites - links to news reports and interesting features
American Public Health Association - links to public health news and to interesting facts and polls. There's a link to a pop quiz to name the top 10 public health achievements, a survey asking if you got a flu shot, and more...
Anyway this is just a small sample of how some nonprofits are starting to use Twitter. I imagine it will take some experimenting to determine the right amount of tweets to their followers and the best tone for those tweets. I think there is certainly a place for some fundraising tweets too but nonprofits will have to resist the temptation to go overboard on that or they will likely lose followers pretty quickly. It will be fun to watch how the use of Twitter evolves in the nonprofit sector.
National Wildlife Federation - tips for energy conservation, interesting animal facts, links to opportunities to participate in advocacy etc...
AIDG - a lot of links to interesting videos that showcase the work that they do
Adler Planetarium - some great quick facts about things to look for in the sky as well as info about upcoming special events at the planetarium
Chicago Public Radio and other public media sites - links to news reports and interesting features
American Public Health Association - links to public health news and to interesting facts and polls. There's a link to a pop quiz to name the top 10 public health achievements, a survey asking if you got a flu shot, and more...
Anyway this is just a small sample of how some nonprofits are starting to use Twitter. I imagine it will take some experimenting to determine the right amount of tweets to their followers and the best tone for those tweets. I think there is certainly a place for some fundraising tweets too but nonprofits will have to resist the temptation to go overboard on that or they will likely lose followers pretty quickly. It will be fun to watch how the use of Twitter evolves in the nonprofit sector.
Twitter in Plain English
Ok I've been a bad blogger. I need to post on a more regular basis I know or my blog visitors will quickly lose interest. Maybe it will be easier for me to be a regular twitterer (? tweeter?) than a blogger. I first heard about twitter more than a year ago, but didn't really get it.
Today NTEN had a webinar about twitter and I have a better understanding of how it is best used. More than 1 million people use twitter. I'm really looking forward to using it at the upcoming NTEN conference because that way I can read tweets from people who are in the same sessions I'm in or in sessions I'm missing at the moment or I can hear about where everyone is meeting after sessions for some great New Orleans food and drinks. For me one of the best ways to learn about technology tools is just to try them out so here it is late on a Friday night and I'm having fun updating my blog and scrolling through some strange and interesting tweets from everywhere in the world - of course I can't understand some of them since they are in foreign languages.
Anyway, If you haven't ever heard of twitter, check out this great video that explains it in plain english and shares one simple way to use it to stay connected with friends and colleagues and people with similar interests. Also check out my twitter page and this great radio discussion about "why twitter" that aired on On Point about a year ago.
Today NTEN had a webinar about twitter and I have a better understanding of how it is best used. More than 1 million people use twitter. I'm really looking forward to using it at the upcoming NTEN conference because that way I can read tweets from people who are in the same sessions I'm in or in sessions I'm missing at the moment or I can hear about where everyone is meeting after sessions for some great New Orleans food and drinks. For me one of the best ways to learn about technology tools is just to try them out so here it is late on a Friday night and I'm having fun updating my blog and scrolling through some strange and interesting tweets from everywhere in the world - of course I can't understand some of them since they are in foreign languages.
Anyway, If you haven't ever heard of twitter, check out this great video that explains it in plain english and shares one simple way to use it to stay connected with friends and colleagues and people with similar interests. Also check out my twitter page and this great radio discussion about "why twitter" that aired on On Point about a year ago.
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