The Occupy Wall Street movement began in New York, but has spread across the U.S. thanks, in no small part, to the new digital tools available to the protesters. While Occupy Wall Street (#occupy) has yet to issue a statement on their demands, we can already learn a lesson from how they are using web and mobile technology to organize, collaborate and spread the word.

Twitter announced on August 13th that they will be integrating an analytics tool into the popular micro-blogging site. Organizations doing outreach on Twitter now have much more information about how those efforts are paying off.

These beginner sessions are an excellent opportunity for nonprofits that are just getting started using social media. The following post has been cross-posted from the TechSoup Forums:

It has been a while since I have posted on the WCDP blog.  This is a way of provding an update and informing about the projects we have been working on. 

We have, for the past 4 years, been providing micro credit loans to women in Uganda.  Currently we have provided nearly $10,000 in loans to almost 100 women over the course of 7 loan cycles.  We have had over 99% of the loans repaid without default. 

"We've just got to keep on keepin' on" I say to my boss as we try to understand why our efforts to engage our fans and followers have flopped again and again. But a question arises in the back of my mind; what am I expecting here? To be overwhelmed with RTs and comments? To be scrambling to keep up with it all? Right now, it's a slow trickle of engagement here and there. But it seems there is a hook we haven't baited properly, no one's biting.

I just went through and made another round of improvements to the Kabissa Connections project on Netsquared to Build Reputation and Trust of Organizations By Revealing Relationships Online. I'm feeling quite good about it and am very excited about the possibilities for Kabissa to serve the African civil society sector in a new way.

For this month's Net2 Think Tank, we asked you to share your tools, tactics, and best practices for promoting your volunteer opportunities online. There are many tools and resources available - so finding the ones that work best for your audience, and finding the ways that you can use them effectively can be a task. Below is a list of networks, tools, and best practices that will help steer you in the right direction.  

Volunteers are the lifeblood of your organization. Your board are volunteers, and they are responsible for the oversight of everyone at your nonprofit or charity.

Volunteers are also there for you when you need to do an appeal mailing, when you're stuck with one hundred phonecalls you need to do for a phone-a-thon, when you need someone to do grant research for you, or pro-bono graphic design, when you're tired and just want to go home.

Volunteers are so wonderful. And they save your organization $18 for every hour they're there.

So where do you find these wonderful, mythical creatures?

1. Your donor database. Is there anyone in there, a loyal donor, who could be engaged as a volunteer?

For this month's Net2 Think Tank, we asked you for your tips, tools, and suggestions for communicating online within a team. Many organizations have found ways to work seamlessly across the hall or across an ocean using online tools to facilitate their internal communication, but finding the right tools for your team takes effort. This round-up aims to help you to jump-start your creative juices and re-think the way you look at internal communications.

Last week, I had a fun time moderating the June #4Change Twitter Chat on Online Community Building. Thanks to all those who participated or followed along, and to those who will join the conversation now! This wrap up will highlight some of the insights and resources shared during the chat, but, if you’d rather, you can review the full transcript.