Tag Archive for 'net2thinktank'

Net2 Think Tank: January’s Predictions for 2009

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Amy Sample Ward
on January 7, 2009
in blogging and community
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Happy New Year, everyone!  We all know what this time of year means for blogs around the world: resolutions and predictions.  Why not share those predictions with the NetSquared community?

Topic:

This month, your Net2 Think Tank topic asks, “What do you think will be the big changes, new technologies, hot applications, or successful campaigns of 2009?” If you want to read some thoughts before you get going, check out these posts as starting points:

Deadline:
Saturday, January 24th
The contributions will be posted on the NetSquared site on Monday, January 26th.

How to contribute:

  • Blog your answer to the question either on your blog or the NetSquared blog. (For directions on contributing to the NetSquared blog, click here.)
  • Tag your blog with “net2thinktank”
  • Email Amy Sample Ward the link to your post!

We are really looking forward to your answers this month!  Be sure to email Amy the link to your post so that it is included in the roundup on Monday, January 26th.

Photo by Môsieur J.

Net2 Think Tank: Lessons from the Campaign

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Amy Sample Ward
on November 24, 2008
in net2thinktank
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Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

Earlier this month, the world watched as America elected a new president who came from a campaign rich with social media.  The campaigns had much more money and resources than all the nonprofit organizations that I know, but were really succeeding with free, or nearly-free, tools.  The question this month focused on lessons for nonprofits:

What was the best example or lesson learned about leveraging social media from the political campaigns this year?  We saw candidates speaking to citizens through various mechanisms, but we also know that candidates have a lot more money than most of our nonprofit organizations (even if the tools are free, staffing and strategy development isn’t).  What social media tools, tricks, and strategies were employed that could be used successfully with nonprofits?

Answers poured in from all over the web.  Here’s what Net2ThinkTank responders thought were some of the best ideas for nonprofits:

Holly Ross, at NTEN, explained Obama’s success with leveraging the under 30 voters thanks to talking to them in the communication styles they prefer - social media:

In this election, Obama rode a tidal wave of youth vote to the presidency, with 66% of voters under 30 casting their ballot for the Democrat. What the campaign realized, early and often, is that the under-thirty crowd communicates differently from the rest of us.  As Allison Fine writes in Momentum, this group is “… likely to engage in two-way conversation with staff, volunteers, and clients, rather than in one-way broadcasts, the style of communication most often used by organizations now.”

Joitske Hulsebosch, of Lasagna and Chips, reminds us that “you have to go out and be where your people are online,” but has a good reminder for us that it is more than just good tools that make campaigns and projects great:

Social media can help and support you when you have a strong service or product, but can also amplify weak services or product. At times I have the impression that is forgotten and that people think a web2.0 tool will automatically give you a good reputation. Take the example of a weblog: a weblog can also worsen your reputation because your work and ideas will be exposed.

Tim Brauhn explains that it wasn’t until the Obama campaign that his organization, and others, was able to really see the benefit of social media.  He also points out a simple lesson that, “It was always a very simply ask, “Please help us do good things. Donate $5 before midnight.” It worked, and it worked like a charm, too.”

Brian Reich, of Thinking About Media, says that the best lesson is yet to come:

I was personally disappointed that the Obama campaign didn’t do more with its big database, its command of social media and new technologies, and its giant war-chest to dig deeper into serious issues and give voters - struggling to find some little bit of serious discussion amid all the mud-slinging - the real facts they needed to make a choice in this election.  They basically ran a substance-light, play-it-safe, don’t-make-any-mistakes kind of campaign.

The MixedMedia blog picked up on the DIY message of the Obama campaign.

I have a hunch that more people made more use of Barack Obama’s imagery - and made it their own - that at any time in history. At the same time, more people independently produced more images, videos, songs, raps, apps and sites to promote Barack Obama’s candidacy *in their own voice* than at any other time.I think this is powerful - politically, socially, and culturally.

Shari Ilsen, of Great Nonprofits, points to Obama’s innovative uses of social media as the biggest lesson for nonprofits.

He took technology that had been around for a while and used it in a new way. He applied web 2.0 to a realm that had never met it before, and in so doing he changed the face of modern politics. What’s scary about what Obama did is the risk he took- putting large amounts of resources into an untried strategy. But his success reminds us all that anything new, exciting, and ultimately worth it requires risk.

I want to close this with a challenge from Brian Reich and hope that you will weigh in with your answers and ideas!

So, NetSquared, rather than looking back at the Election for lessons that nonprofits can use, I would challenge you to look ahead and help the Obama Administration brainstorm what is possible for using technology and the internet to improve our Democracy and bring nonprofits more directly in contact with the Administration as they start to tackle tough issues.

Share your ideas and responses on the NetSquared blog here.

Net2ThinkTank: Lessons from the campaigns

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on November 7, 2008
in community
. 0 Comments

Whether your candidate won or not on Tuesday, we can all be happy to be rid of campaign commercials, right?  Since the campaigns are still so fresh in our memory, I wanted to use it for this month’s Net2 Think Tank question.

Topic:

What was the best example or lesson learned about leveraging social media from the political campaigns this year?  We saw candidates speaking to citizens through various mechanisms, but we also know that candidates have a lot more money than most of our nonprofit organizations (even if the tools are free, staffing and strategy development isn’t).  What social media tools, tricks, and strategies were employed that could be used successfully with nonprofits?

Here are a couple links from the applications themselves in case you didn’t see them:

Deadline:

Saturday, November 22nd
(The round-up will be posted on Monday the 24th.)

How to contribute:

  1. Blog your answer to the question either on your blog or the NetSquared blog. (For directions on contributing to the NetSquared blog, click here)
  2. Tag your blog with net2thinktank
  3. Send me the link to your post! (You can leave a comment here, email me, etc.)

Thanks again to everyone who participated last month.  I’m really looking forward to your ideas and insights this month and think we have a lot of examples to choose from.  Be sure to send me the link to your post by Saturday, the 22nd!

The Net2 ThinkTank roundup will be posted on the NetSquared site on Monday, November 24th.

Net2ThinkTank: Key Questions about Social Media Training

Published
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Amy Sample Ward
on October 21, 2008
in roundup
. 0 Comments

Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.

This month’s Net2ThinkTank Question was: What are the key questions nonprofit organizations should ask to help them determine how to prioritize social media training and experimentation as they do their technology and organization-strengthening planning?

Below is a roundup of your answers!

Beth Kanter reminds us to choose a social media strategy before selecting or committing to specific training. She also explains

If your technology plan will have long-term sustainability, you must include many strategies for technology professional development.

  • What is the best way to deliver this social media training so that we build our organizational capacity?
  • Does the delivery match our organization’s culture for learning?
  • Who will be hands-on?  Who needs the overview?
  • How will you take into account different learning styles for individuals and generational differences?
  • How will staff make the time to put what they’ve learned into practice?  Time to experiment?

Beth also includes some tips for social media training.  Read more…

Britt Bravo provides 9 great questions nonprofits can ask to help identify organizational goals, internal resources, level of interest, and measurement mechanisms.  Read more…

d1st4nc3 posted four key questions for nonprofits, including “What are the key factors that determine whether someone will become involved in our cause?  Do they vary according to the social networking site/group page/amount of advertising and promotion/etc.”  Read more…

Emily’s World provide three areas of questions: those nonprofits should ask before adopting social media tools, when putting social media into action, and when evaluating social media usage.  Read more…

Gregory Heller of the CivicActions blog focuses on the main questions nonprofits can ask to identify if social media tools are a good fit.  He reminds us: “It is important to remember that the social media landscape is continually evolving. When developing a social media strategy or deciding whether to train staff on the use of social media remember that the tools are different than the techniques.  Training should focus far more on the techniques of using social media, not the specific tools (websites and services) because they will always be changing.”  Read more…

lnorvig lays out a couple questions for nonprofits, the first of which asks to identify staff already using social media tools.  “Getting involved in social media as an organization should not feel like a chore. Let staff who already have a passion for this take the leadership in ways that work for them.”  Read more…

JYStewart emphasizes the importance of identifying staff members already using social media tools, as well as the inherent opportunity with social media to let your staff ‘play’ and engage in the game of it all.  Read more…

Nancy White brings up a great point to consider:

Why are you doing social media training? I rarely recommend that organizations do pure social media training, but instead weave it into preparation and execution of real work. If you are planning a social action, ask how social media can contribute and build the training into the campaign training. In isolation, this stuff takes up time and attention without the crucial element of context and purpose.

As to experimentation, this is a very different and important activity. Again, it can be woven into existing activities (15 minutes play with Twitter at a staff meeting) and/or it can be something a smaller group takes on. This “scanning the social media” landscape can be informal — the key is the communication of what is learned back to the other members of the team and the organization.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the Net2ThinkTank! If you want to participate in the next round, stayed tuned to the Net2 blog for the next Net2ThinkTank question, or join the Facebook group.

What do you think?  Has your organization included social media in technology training?  What worked best?

Flickr photo: Siebuhr

Net2 ThinkTank time again!

Published
by
Amy Sample Ward
on October 7, 2008
in blogging and community
. 0 Comments

It’s time again for the Net2 ThinkTank!  Here’s a question for everyone to think about, blog about, and discuss.  Thanks to Marie Deatherage for helping with it, too!

Topic:
What are the key questions nonprofit orgs should ask to help them determine how to prioritize social media training and experimentation as they do their technology and organization-strengthening planning?

Deadline:
Saturday, October 18th

How to contribute:

  1. Blog your answer to the question either on your blog or the NetSquared blog. (For directions on contributing to the NetSquared blog, click here)
  2. Tag your blog with net2thinktank
  3. Send me the link to your post! (You can leave a comment here, on the NetSquared site, email me, etc.)

Thank so much ahead of time!  I’m really looking forward to your answers and insights.  Be sure to send me the link to your post by next Saturday so that I can be sure it is included in the roundup on Monday, October 20th.

The Net2 ThinkTank roundup will be posted on the NetSquared site on Monday, October 20th

Nonprofits in the online attention economy

Published
by
amysampleward
on April 10, 2008
in issues
. 1 Comment

There is a great question for the Net2ThinkTank right now: “How can nonprofits and NGOs succeed in the online attention economy?”

First, what IS the attention economy, you may be asking. Well, Britt has a great post describing it, here is an excerpt of the definition:

Wikipedia defines attention economics as, “an approach to the management of information that treats human attention as a scarce commodity, and applies economic theory to solve various information management problems.”

Here is a more clarifying question:

As more nonprofits, businesses and individuals create blogs, podcasts, rss news feeds, wikis, social networks, YouTube accounts, Twitter feeds, fundraising widgets, mashups, etc. what do you think nonprofits need to do to attract and maintain people’s attention online?

And my answer? Being the best resource for yourself AND your community.

First, you need to gauge what kind of resource you need/want as an organization. Is it staying on top of research or news in you sector? Is it providing a space for question and answer or collaboration? Or is it to create a space for collecting stories, media (photos, videos, etc.), or goals/progress in a public forum?

Whatever resource best fits with the organization’s work, probably also fits with how you want to interact with your community. If you need to be on top of breaking news and the latest research, you probably want your constituents to be up-to-date as well.

Next, now that you know WHAT resource is best, you need to decide HOW to provide it. Does it make the best sense to transform part of your website into an information aggregator? Or instead to provide a wiki for staff, members, visitors to contribute to? Maybe it’s designing parts of your website that can host videos and photos people upload and ways to collect feedback/comments and share stories?

Whichever path best fits your resource needs of the organization and the community, it is best that it is given dedicated staff time and attention for building, nurturing, and monitoring AND you have agreed on avenues for outreach (making sure the community knows the resource is available and that it is the best one for them). You are going to need to prove that, for example, instead of your constituents reading five different newspapers online and subscribing to updates from ten different organizations to stay informed of happenings in your sector, that they can instead just watch your news section to aggregate all the best information they need.

Last, you need to be sure you are constantly gaging the usefulness of your resource to be sure to stay on top (both on top of information competitors and on top of the potential of providing for your community). Are you seeing new blogs or news sites emerging with different and relevant information? - Add them to your aggregator! Are you seeing other communities popping up with discussions on your topic areas? - Invite them to your wiki/forum/community space! Are you finding that groups prefer to post their media on other sites? - Go where they are and create a dedicated community that supports them AND your organization!

Let’s have an example: Let’s say that you work for an environmental organization that works partly on climate change legislation, you are located in Lane county and besides the community of interest you serve you are also partnered with a student-run climate change organization at University of Oregon. In the climate change and environmental defense sector that is a bounty of resources, news outlets and other organizations all vying for your community’s attention. There is a plethora of other places they could be going for information.

You probably want to become a resource of news, information, legislation changes, etc. This would be incredibly beneficial for your organization’s staff, but by becoming the one-stop-shop for all the industry information with the added value of local/specific legislative information added in, you become incredibly beneficial for your community as well.

You could create a news section on your website that is separate from the press section—keep press releases, press packets, team bios/pictures, etc. in a separate place of your website to avoid confusion. Next, create an aggregator of RSS feeds (what are RSS feeds?) of traditional news outlets like the Oregonian, the New York Times, and so on, as well as ‘new media news outlets’ or blogs that have strong, sustained communities and value like It’s Getting Hot in Here and the Huffington Post. Because of your legislative interest, you are going to also want to incorporate press releases and legislative updates into your aggregator. You should include a ’suggest a resource’ link in the news section so that readers can let you know of other blogs or sites that they think are valuable to be included, keeping you on top of the market for information. Lastly, you will want to be sure that you have an RSS feed for that news page as well so people that want to stay on top of your updates can do so from your website or in their preferred RSS reader.

Now that it is built, you need to advertise it to your community. Include a link and a call to action (like, Check out your new resource for climate change news and legislation!) in the footer of your emails, in the side bar or call-out box of your e-newsletters, and on the home page of your website. It is important that you also notify your community when it is built with a specific email only about the new resource. This message should be tailored differently when sent to the partners at the University so that it stresses the usefulness of the resource to their campus work and to encourage them to spread the news of its availability to students outside the organization as well.

There is so much possibility that it is easy to get lost in the information overload yourself! Remember to:

1. Gauge the best needs for your organization AND your community.
2. Find the best (interactive) way to build and provide that resource.
3. Measure your success and keep improving the resource you are/provide.

Good luck - and keep me posted on how you do!

How can nonprofits use twitter?

Published
by
amysampleward
on January 10, 2008
in issues and socialmedia
. 2 Comments

NetSquared’s monthly Net2ThinkTank question this month is: How can nonprofits use twitter? Should they even bother?

My first response is, “Sure! Totally! Maybe!” :)
So, my second thought is really the more important one. I have said it before and I will probably say it a million more times, but, nonprofits need to use the tools that will best help them reach goals for projects and the organization. Not everyone needs a facebook profile. Just because of that though, not everyone needs a facebook group. Some organizations don’t need some tools at all but could benefit a great deal from others.

How do you know if it is right? Use the POST method!
I blogged about POST before and still think that it is one of the best ways to approach new media planning (thanks, Forrester!). If you have identified your goals and hoped-for outcomes and Twitter is then identified as something to use to meet those goals, then dive right in!

How could Twitter help? By helping you listen and learn!
Twitter is a terrific tool for listening to and gauging the conversation of your audience (and with Twitter, you can sprawl out to hear voices beyond the community you may think you are in). You can ask questions, make comments, and otherwise participate with Twitter in the conversation like anyone else, of course. But it offers a window into live conversation about your industry, organization, or niche that you would probably miss if you weren’t using it.

Still nervous about jumping in? Use it yourself!
Twitter is just like all of the other available tools online when it comes to getting started: You should really use it yourself, in a non-organization-realted way first. This will let you feel out how it works, how to make connections and participate in conversations. Figure out areas you don’t understand and how to get answers down the road when new things come up that you may not understand. Most of all, using the tool personally will let you better visualize how it can be used most effectively and efficiently for the organization, and who at the organization would be the best to handle it (maybe you!).

Thanks to NetSquared for the great question this month! Are you using Twitter personally or is your organization tweeting away? You can also follow me to get started!