I’ll be taking Dec. 22 (oooo…that’s today) through Jan. 7 off for Christmas and a vacation to FL to visit with family. I am going to do my darndest to post a little something everyday to keep you interested. There are a lot of good webinars and educational series coming up in 2009, so I’ll let you know about those as well.
For now, I wanted to let you know about a fantastic series that NTEN and TechSoup Global are presenting in late January, early February called Social Media and Storytelling.
The topics are relevant and it looks like a great series for folks still getting their feet wet. The first webinar is called Building Blocks and is on January 21. Register today!
Convio is hosting a complimentary webinar - Social Media for Social Good - on Dec. 17. If you work with a nonprofit or simply want to know more about how you can use social media to initiate change you might want to check this out. This will be the first Convio webinar that I’ve attended, so I’m hoping that its worthwhile. Maybe I’ll “see” you there! Register online at Convio’s website.
Thought you might be interested in this upcoming live chat from Philanthropy.com. Good stuff!
Tuesday, November 25, at 12 noon, U.S. Eastern time
Twitter, Facebook, and other online social-networking tools offer ways for nonprofit organizations to build connections with supporters and donors.
For some groups, these tools have helped raise money for their causes and built increased visibility.
But many groups are still not effective at using online networks in any meaningful way. And many others are fearful about using them at all.
What are these tools? How do they work? And how can your organization use them effectively?
Join two experts, Chris Garrett and John Haydon to answer such questions and learn to make your organization more savvy about using online networks.
Facebook Event
Many thanks to all who attended and spoke at the Social Media Primer last night in Herndon, VA. Many thanks to Jill Foster, Shashi Bellamkonda, Ken Fisher and Mayra Ruiz-McPherson for bringing such dynamic information to the attendees.
It was quickly obvious that there is a lot of interest in social media in this region and a growing need for more info. We had a packed house with a wonderful panel and loads of questions from the audience. Here is a down and dirty summary of my presentation on “Creating an Effective Social Media Profile”. Please feel free to ping me with any questions or comments. Can’t wait to connect with you all in the social space!
Also, please enjoy these outstanding photos of the event ala Shashi!
Twitter
Examples of good and bad Twitter profiles…
GOOD Business Profile - @quickenloans (Profile is complete. Interesting background image.)
GOOD Personal Profile - @chrisbrogan (Great profile and follows all the guidelines!)
MY Personal Profile - @gooddogzbeth (Good profile. I hate that iPhone uses coordinates - need to fix that. Planning to fix my background image to something other than my happy hamster.)
BAD Business Profile - @BBC (Irrelevant and ugly background image. No bio. No location.)
- Use a real photo - we want to know YOU.
- Include your real name.
- Include your location.
- Include a good bio - you’ve got 140 characters - use them.
- Include your website or blog address.
- Use a simple but creative background tile.
- Twitter Grader: http://twitter.grader.com/ (for those of you hung up on numbers, Twitter Grader ranks your profile based on the folks you follow, who’s following you, your updates, the completeness of your profile, etc. I’m not sure what this REALLY tells you but everyone wants to know where they rank!)
Facebook – Note: I use Facebook for both personal and business purposes.
Examples - it was tough to get examples of Facebook profiles due to privacy settings. Here is a link to my Facebook profile which follows most if not of the guidelines below. You be the judge!
DOs
- Include a personable photo of yourself. Try to make it social and not a biz head shot.
- Interact with your friends. Write on their walls. Comment on their photos. Engagement is key.
- Keep your profile complete and up-to-date.
- Develop a connection strategy. Mine? Befriend people that matter to you.
- Check photos in which you’ve been tagged to ensure that there is nothing out there you don’t want others to see.
- Be yourself - transparent and authentic.
- Post photos that say something about you and are tasteful. You never know who might be looking at your profile - a potential client? a recruiter?
- Privacy settings are your friend.
DON’Ts
- Don’t post questionable photos. What may seem acceptable to you may not be acceptable to potential employers or clients.
- Don’t deluge business contacts with application requests.
- Don’t post personal information that you don’t want other folks to have.
- Don’t be too shy. Social media is about being “social”.
- Don’t post sensitive information in public areas.
LinkedIn
This is a great example of how to improve your LinkedIn profile as provided by Guy Kawasaki.
BEFORE - LinkedIn Profile Extreme Makeover
AFTER - Guy Kawasaki’s LinkedIn Profile
My LinkedIn Profile (feel free to critique)
- Your summary is your elevator speech. Make it pop.
- Work within your network to beef up your recommendations. With permission, recommendations can also be used as testimonials on your website.
- Find your own strategy for connecting. LinkedIn suggests connecting only with folks you know. Some folks connect to everyone to expand their network. See what works best for you.
- Include a “human” photo.
- Keep your profile complete and up-to-date.
- Get a vanity URL using your name.
- Be sure to add your specialties because people search on it.
- Include past jobs and any board or advisory positions.
- Complete the Additional Information fields – web links, awards, interests and activities.
- Be sure to include how you want to be contacted and WHO you want to contact you.
And here are a few misc. resources that you might find helpful. =)
Posted on Oct 30, 2008 under Events, Marketing, Non-Profit Specific |
I found this TechSoup article timely as we are heavy in the midst of our fall/winter events at GoodDogz.org. Two down and two to go. Event planning can be a resource hog, so its important to understand the tasks and resources and automate what you can. We use QGiv to automate event registrations and we love its ease of use and accuracy.
As always, I’ll push the fact that EXECUTION is KEY. The better organized your event, the more participants will remember your organization.
Enjoy! Working with Your Vendors for a Successful Event | TechSoup
Posted on Oct 15, 2008 under Beth's Obs, Events |
Poverty has many faces. It can be found in folks who have chosen or have found themselves without a home. It can be found in underprivileged kids living in the slums. It can be found in the communities in Africa with no food or clean water. It’s all over and in the U.S. I feel like the line between what we envision poverty to look like and the reality of poverty has drastically changed.
Blog Action Day is an annual event when bloggers unite to bring a particular topic to their audience. This year the topic is poverty and I’m truly glad that the day is taking poverty by the horns.
In the U.S., poverty has metamorphosed from not only the poor neighborhoods or the homeless on the streets. We’re seeing a shift in which your next door neighbor could lose his house. Your best friend could lose his job - today. Poverty is hitting a lot closer to home than it used to and its a good feeling to know that so many people are addressing it today.
So, how can you help?
- Food Banks - Give to your local food banks. It’s cheap. It’s easy. And it makes a difference.
- Volunteer - Give up a few hours at a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. If you live in a rural area (like me), check in with your local church to see how you can help out.
- Donate - Give to establishments like Goodwill or the Salvation Army. These folks help the poor get back on their fight and it’s easy for you to help. Donate business clothing that will help folks get back on their feet with a new job.
- 88 Ways to DO Something About Poverty Right Now - a great list provided by Blog Action Day.
Making a difference in someone’s life is not that difficult. Take a few extra minutes and drop off those clothes to Goodwill or stick a check in the mail to the local food bank. It will make you feel good and will ultimately help folks that truly need it.
My friend and colleague, Mayra Ruiz-McPherson, had done a great job coordinating a new social media event in November called the “Social Media Primer - What it is and why you should care”. We’re targeting small businesses and nonprofits. I’m very excited to have been asked to present as I think that this will be a fun and worthwhile event. I’ll be on the panel alongside Jill Foster and Shashi Bellamkonda, discussing Twitter, social media, blogging and more! Both of these folks are worth the trip and they are extremely knowledgeable and fun people to boot!
The event will be held in Herndon, VA. So hop in the car and come on down. I’m driving in from Front Royal, so there are no excuses if you are in Northern VA. =)
The details are available on Mayra’s website and you can register online.
I look forward to seeing you there!
This morning, I was invited to participate in a panel entitled “Web 2.0: Beyond the Hype” for professional service firms. The panel was hosted by Hinge and included two other lovely colleagues - Tracy Betts and Jen Sterling. We focused on objectives, assumptions, validation, technology selection and results for your social media campaign. Here are the take aways:
- Objectives. Almost every business starting a social media campaign has the main goal of gaining exposure for their message. While exposure is a byproduct of social media, your objectives should focus on user engagement, not only from customer to business but also customer to customer. No matter what your objectives are (and they may vary depending on your needs) always remember that engagement is key.
- Assumptions. In this case, assumptions refer to the theories you have about your audience. Who are they and more importantly, where are they? Are you targeting a younger crowd who are frequenting Facebook or MySpace? Is your market business professionals who may be on LinkedIn? Define your market and think about where they spend their time - both socially and professionally.
- Validation. So you think you know where your audience spends their time? Go there. Spend some time within the space communicating with the folks who “live” there. If your theories are correct, you’ll find the most effective properties to target your campaign. If you are wrong about your assumptions, you may need to do more research to determine where your audience is on the web.
- Technology Selection. Based upon your audience and their online habits, determine what tools are best for reaching them. Don’t overwhelm yourself. Start small with one or two tools. Use them in different ways. Experiment until you find the tools that meet your ultimate objectives. And don’t be afraid to push one tool aside and try another. At the end of the day, you want a toolkit that suits your needs personally and meets your business goals.
- Results. Where applicable, use tools like Google Analytics to track your metrics. Track qualitative as well as quantitative results. Are you seeing new members in your communities? Has the dialogue increased between you and your customers via social media? Are you getting more interest from the media? There are many ways to gauge the success of your social media campaign through both figures and general evaluation. Find the best metric for your business and track it over time.
The podcast of the event should be available shortly, so I’ll add the link as soon as its live.
GoodDogz.org is heading into its “busy” event season, with four events between now and the end of the
year. As we move forward, we are looking at different ways we can promote these events online. We use both convention methods as well as our social media properties to push these events to our target market. As online marketing continues to PUSH to users (rather than trying to bring people to you), we find ourselves constantly changing our methods. Here is an example of what we are doing and some of the mediums that we are using.
One October 23, we are hosting our first Rock 4 Rescue benefit concert. It will be held at a local nightspot and will include 2 popular bands, food, drinks, door prizes, etc. Here’s our plan for promotion:
- Community Calendars - In our community, community calendars are key and always bring us a lot of traffic. They are easy to post to and reach a large audience.
- E-Newsletters - We will put out several e-newsletters to our subscribers encouraging them to attend.
- Blogging - We will blog about the event up to, during and after the show.
- Facebook - We are posting the event to our Facebook page as well as to our personal pages.
- Facebook Groups - We will also reach out to relative Facebook Groups in the hopes of generating more interest from our market.
- Twitter - Get ready, my little tweethearts, you’ll be hearing about our events shortly.
- Meet-ups - We are planning to push the event out to our local pet and singles meet-up groups.
- Member Websites - We will ask our member organizations to post the event on their websites and e-newsletters.
- LinkedIn - We will push this event out to our network on LinkedIn.
- NING - The event is already listed on our NING community and we will start sending out mass notifications to members of the network.
That is our starter list. Please let me know what avenues I might be missing as we are open to any and all forms of online exposure for our event!
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Beth consults with businesses and non-profits on social media tool selection and strategy and helps her clients find effective ways to leverage these new mediums to meet business goals.
