Social Media Archive

Four Facebook Status Functions Your Nonprofit May Not Know About

June 19, 2013
Some of your best learning on social media occurs when you just start clicking around and see what happens. That’s how I discovered three of the four functions below and when I give in-person trainings on Facebook and demonstrate these functions (with the exception of hashtags since the functionality was just launched last week), there are usually quite a...

The Math and Science of Social and Mobile Media: A Spreadsheet to Track Your Fundraising Success

June 13, 2013
There absolutely is a math to social and mobile media. If your nonprofit has a good content strategy in place and understands the power of integrating all your nonprofit’s communications channels (website, email, Facebook, texting, etc.), then as your numbers grow on social networks so will your e-newsletter and mobile lists which in turn significantly increases your fundraising success. It’s...

How Social and Mobile Media is Changing Nonprofit Print Design

May 30, 2013
Over the last two months I have opened more than 200 pieces of nonprofit print materials and 95% of them are in the same format and structure of those that I was writing and publishing  in the late 1990’s. Like press releases, print fundraising appeals and newsletters seem to be taking little account for the rise of social and...

33 Must-Read Updates to Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits

May 18, 2013
Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits was released in August 2011 and despite the rapid change occurring on the Social and Mobile Web, 90% of the content still rings true. The functionality of the tools discussedhave changed slightly, dimensions have been tweaked, and Google+ Pages, Pinterest and Instagram have since become relevant when launching a successful...

HOW TO: Add YouTube’s New InVideo Programming to Your Nonprofit’s Videos

May 8, 2013
Seemingly less than 1% of nonprofit have upgraded to YouTube’s new One Channel design, but even fewer appear to be utilizing YouTube’s new InVideo Programming option. If you haven’t spent any time recently exploring YouTube’s enhanced tool set, I’d highly recommend that you set aside an hour or two to upgrade to the new design, add InVideo Programming, and...

HOW TO: Merge Your Nonprofit’s YouTube Channel and Google+ Page

May 5, 2013
Google’s strategy of making Google+ the thread that links all Google Products together is working. Google+ can now lay claim to 359 million active monthly users and the title of being the world’s second largest social network. If your nonprofit uses Gmail, Search, YouTube, Maps, etc., then you can’t avoid having a presence on Google+. Currently in Beta, YouTube just...

Google Search Results Now Prominently Feature Nonprofit Google+ Pages

April 29, 2013
And yet another reason why your nonprofit can not ignore Google+… the Google Knowledge Graph which now prominently features information about nonprofit organizations on the right-hand side of Google Search results. Data is pulled from multiple sources including Wikipedia, GuideStar and of course Google+ Pages.  As a result, nonprofits must ensure that their Wikipedia Page and GuideStar Profile are current and...

11 Tips for Making Nonprofit Press Releases Social and Shareable

April 24, 2013
Social media has forever changed how nonprofits and journalists distribute and consume news stories, yet the format of nonprofit press releases has not evolved at all. Almost every communication medium out there has been impacted by the rise of social and mobile media, but not press releases. I think that enterprising nonprofits would be eager to try something new...

12 Must-Know Stats About Social Media, Fundraising, and Cause Awareness

April 22, 2013
Until recently the nonprofit pioneers of the Social Web had to mostly rely on their intuition that their social media campaigns were resulting in more dollars raised online, an increase in brand and cause awareness, and higher rates of volunteer recruitment and retention. However, as LinkedIn, Blogger and Myspace all celebrate their 10-year anniversary this year, nonprofits have now...

Three Nonprofit e-Newsletters to Subscribe To and Learn From

April 14, 2013
My e-newsletter is by far the driving force behind Nonprofit Tech 2.0. Those 27,000+ subscribers produce more return on investment (ROI) in terms of bringing in new clients and webinar attendees than my 600,000+ Twitter followers and 40,000+ Facebook fans combined. And even though a recent report pointed out that email open and donor response are dropping in the nonprofit...

Four Recent Facebook Upgrades That Nonprofits Need to Know About

April 3, 2013
Hopefully your nonprofit has grown accustomed to the fact that Facebook is a constant work in progress. That said, some recent upgrades to Facebook Pages have a big impact upon your nonprofit’s presence on Facebook and with the site-wide launch of the new News Feed and Social Graph Search coming soon, many more changes are likely to come. Before you fall...

Pheed and Sulia: Two New Social Networks for the Nonprofit Early Adopters

March 27, 2013
Nonprofits that have the capacity to be early adopters have learned that early adoption in and of itself is a wise social media strategy. Followers tend to grow the fastest during the early adoption phase and being one of the first nonprofits to have a presence on a new social network tends to solidify their popularity on the social...