If used correctly, #hashtags can be very useful to nonprofits on Twitter. Hashtags allow your organization to participate and inspire conversations (and in the process get new followers) and organize the Twitterverse around campaigns (#climatechange) and events (#openwebawards). The problem is that there so many hashtags floating around on Twitter, that’s it tough to keep track of which hashtags...
Six months ago I came pretty close to complete social media burnout. I was running over 20 social networking profiles, logging in seven days a week, and at minimum pulling 60-hour work weeks. My brain was completely fried and those around me were getting pretty fed up with the fact that I was never present, only connected… online, all...
Last week I asked the followers of @NonprofitOrgs to nominate their favorite nonprofit bloggers. The list below is the result of that “Tweet Out”. Some on the list are very known in the nonprofit sector, and others are completely under the radar and providing some very valuable resources to the nonprofit sector. This time around I limited the list...
This morning I followed my 10,000th nonprofit on Twitter! A young nonprofit dedicated to building schools for girls in developing countries named Circle of Women. That they are number 10,000 is completely random, but I am pleased that it is an organization with a mission dear to my heart. I worked for a number of years in international development...
There are thousands of Apps in the Facebook App Directory that Nonprofit Admins could experiment with on your organization’s Facebook Page, but below I have highlighted my five favorite Apps to get you started: 1. The Static FBML App The Static FMBL App is the most important App on Facebook for Nonprofit Admins to master. It allows you to...
This morning I randomly selected 10 nonprofits on Twitter and viewed their “Favorites”. Eight of those had never Favorited a Tweet, and the other two had Favorited a couple of Tweets, but more than three months ago. At @NonprofitOrgs, I started using “Favorites” regularly a few months ago and it is has made managing the chaos of Twitter (which...
As the Web goes mobile, so does social media… and so should your nonprofit. If there is one thing I have learned over ten years of using the Internet for fundraising and social change, those nonprofits that can embrace change quickly, empower their visionaries, and adopt new Web trends, reap the benefits of being early adopters. The Web and...
Animoto is a service that allows you to create videos about your nonprofit using a selection of your organization’s best photos. Within a few minutes and a couple of clicks, your nonprofit could have a new promotional video that you can use on your Web site, your Blog, in your e-mail newsletters, and on social networking sites. An Animoto...
With over 45 million active users worldwide, LinkedIn is a social networking site that is becoming much more than just a place to have a Web 2.0 resume. Recently they have added many new tools and will likely be adding more in the coming year. Here are three simple, but powerful ways that nonprofits can use LinkedIn: 1) Create...
Please Note: All nonprofits in the United States that have an entry in GuideStar.org are also on Change.org. You can access your nonprofit’s profile and the Change.org tool set by signing up for a Nonprofit Admin account. Now on to the best practices: 1. Brand your organization’s profile on Change.org. Nonprofits can easily design their profile on change.org to...
Over the last few years we’ve heard a lot of discussion about nonprofits and their use “Web 2.0” and social media. Much of the focus has been on the fundraising tools themselves … What are they? How do they work? Do they work? But very little analysis has been made about how Web 2.0 donors are different. I am...
A continuation of the original Five Fun and Fabulous Twitter Tools for Nonprofit Organizations and Activists, here are five more fun and fabulous tools that nonprofits can use to spruce up their Twitter campaigns: 1) Trottr: Trottr allows you to record brief audio messages with your cell phone that are then hosted on the Trottr Web site. After you...
Like clockwork, every couple of weeks I receive an email from a panicked nonprofit or university asking how they should handle a situation where someone has squatted their URL/username on a social networking site. Most often it is YouTube and/or Twitter. Sometimes these squatters actually have the audacity to ask for money. Here’s my advice on how to handle...