As social media tools like Twitter and Facebook become core components of nonprofit communication strategies, there is a corresponding need to assess how well programmatic messaging and organizational identity are propagating in those channels: “We Tweet; is anybody listening?”

In addition, nonprofits have an increasing need to know on what blogs, websites and other online venues they and their issues are being mentioned and discussed, both favorably and less favorably.

What would you do if you could build a non-profit website from scratch without worrying about any integration issues?

It’s exactly what I’m doing at the moment. In this post I’m sharing my ideas and I’d love to hear your’s.

http://sm4good.com/2010/03/01/nonprofit-website-scratch/

It's already December and we are fast approaching 2010.  As a way to hold on a bit longer to 2009, this Net2 Think Tank asks for your best blog post from the year.  We know you wrote about some really interesting things, shared great ideas and even captured conversations and presentations on your blog or website this year.  And we don't want it to get tucked away under what's to come in 2010, at least not yet!

Share your best blog post from 2009 one more time!

Our users can communicate with one another, which is great, but quite often as an administrator the need may arise for us to communicate with a user or users on our site. It may be to remind them about the web site or to inform active users about new changes to the site, which they may not have been made aware of.

This article is extracted from the "Drupal 6 Social Networking" book. In this article, you will learn:

The number of people blogging is still growing (just check Technorati for numbers), but the number of organizations starting blogs is rising, too. After enough staff members and volunteers touted the usefulness of blogs for conversation, news, and general transparency, it seems organizations are looking to give blogs a chance. Organizations of all sizes and sectors are utilizing this community building tool. Here are some examples of how far and wide blogs are being used to reach out to the community.

ARK Adventure

When the idea of starting a blog for our organization first came up a few years ago, I thought it was the dumbest thing I'd ever heard. All I knew about blogs was that a few of my friends did it for fun, and the Houston Chronicle had about 50 of them that didn't interest me in the least. And since when was my organization the kind to waste its time on trendy stuff like that?

Looking back, I think my problem was not understanding the purpose of having a blog. I mean, we already had a website where we posted news and pictures - wasn't a blog just another place to put all the same stuff, only with a trendier name? At that time, I don't think any of us really "got it".

Josh Levy, who is awesome, and I talk about his new job as managing editor at Change.org, what he's learned at techPresident, and why he believes that just writing blogs won't change the world.

What is your role at Change.org?

 

Before committing resources to particular milestones & objectives for a fundraising campaign that employs groups, events, and applications on Facebook, OpenSocial, and other platforms, test (AB testing) the relative appeal of various assets (themes, messages, actors, stories, text, images, video, wikis, audio, speakers) and tools for your campaign on a representative sample of your target audience/engaged membership.

Some set of elements fit together and perform as a whole better than others. Find out which combinations create the best results.

Once testing is complete, estimate:

At my blog, studio 501c, I asked readers to point me toward examples of nonprofits that have engaged young people in blogging. I also asked for examples of safety guidelines the nonprofits used as a result. I started this research, on behalf of a friend who works for a youth-engaging nonprofit, by emailing Britt Bravo, Beth Kanter, and Marshall Kirkpatrick, all of whom I want to be like when I grow up (and all of whom I finally met face-to-face at Blogher in Chicago this past summer). I'm grateful to them for getting the ball rolling.

Today is Blog Day, when bloggers are encouraged to find 5 new blogs outside of their culture, point of view or area of interest.

We don't post here much about how educators are using the web for their work, so here are a few education and technology themed blogs. Give 'em a little link love!