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Who are you friends with on Facebook? Do you care who sees where you check in on FourSquare? Last month, Farra Trompeter of Big Duck and Danielle Bridgida of National Wildlife Federation presented at the Bridge Conference last week about personal and professional branding. In preparation for their presentation, they circulated a survey to over 200 nonprofit professionals, asking how they use various social platforms. The responses lean towards a reality in which our online presence is just as diverse as our offline personalities – people are connecting with a mix of others on difference platforms.

Are you mixing your personal and professional self online? Here are some helpful tips to keep you on your own message:

Use privacy options to your advantage! “72% of the 209 respondents describe their approaches to personal/professional use of social media as either ‘blended’ or ‘segmented by channel’.” Facebook friends aren’t created equal; or, rather, Facebook gives you the options to treat your friends differently. Use the functionality in the system to ensure you can share as much as you like, with the people you want to see it. Create lists so that you can easily add people as you connect with them, and set your privacy settings to some secure options like none of your photos or photos that you are tagged in are visible to people in your “work only” list. Similarly, Google+ allows you to filter general actions or content as well as post-by-post content to certain groups.

Set your own tone! According to Farra and Danielle’s survey respondents, Twitter is the top three platforms for both personal and professional use. Twitter doesn’t provide much room for a bio, but be sure to squeeze in a statement that “the views expressed here are my own” (or however you’d like to phrase it in your own way!). You can include a disclaimer in all of your profiles, actually! Additionally, on Facebook or any other social platform, you may want to include an explicit statement about who you want to connect with and how. For example, you could include a statement that says your personal friends are encouraged to make a friend request but that all professional contacts should subscribe to public posts – or whatever your preferred options are.

Be a social recommender! “Almost everyone uses LinkedIn, but hardly anyone asks for recommendations with any regularity (despite the fact that your LinkedIn profile is one of the top results for your name in Google).” The social Web is social because we are all humans, connecting and talking with each other. And it is the Web because we are connected and networked across and around the world. Don’t be shy: Ask for a recommendation, and give one to someone else! Think of it as the social media version of a good deed or social capital investments.

Choose your own path! “Most people tend to favor using blogs and LinkedIn ‘professionally’ and Foursquare, Google+, and Instagram ‘personally’.” Do you love taking photos of your kid (also known as the worlds cutest kid, I know!)? Not sure you want to overwhelm your professional network every evening with more photos of her cute face? You don’t have to mix your channels! You can keep that flickr account or Instagram profile private and shared with just your family and closest (photo-tolerant) friends. Even if you are a social media manager or a social tech lover, you can still claim profiles and platforms as purely personal or professional, especially if it means you enjoy the connections and content that much more. After all, some of this is supposed to be for fun, right?

I’d love to hear what you think about the results of Farra and Danielle’s survey: do you mix your profiles or use some for only personal or professional purposes? What are your tips for keeping them straight and managing your personal presence online?

[Photo credit: Flickr hassmanm]

Here’s a Qriously case study, from Katy Gilbert – enjoy!

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I have been using our free Qriously account for the last month.  (Thanks Amy for getting us hooked up!) I wasn’t sure what to expect, but loved it straight from the start.  It is easy to use and understand.  The data is clearly laid out.  And it was so much fun to watch people answering the questions and getting real time data to things that would help our project.

Background on the project:

Stories of Our City is a worldwide project sharing true stories from around the world.  We believe that if people will listen to each other they will understand each other better – and hopefully take steps as world citizens to build a more peaceful world.

With this in mind, we asked questions in 3 primary areas:

1. content- “what kind of stories do people like?”
2. ideas about peace “what do people think about world peace?”
3. social media “how can we use social media to engage people in our project?”

Questions & Qriously Answers

Here is a run down of questions we asked and the way people responded around the world:

Content

“what kind of personal stories do you like best?  Funny or Dramatic

“what kind of stories do you like?”   Funny or Dramatic

Dramatic won the first one, but then funny won the second question. It was helpful to know that people want to listen to moving, dramatic stories if they are listening to life stories.

Peace

“What will stop the next war?” Understanding or weapons

With understanding winning out by 8.6 %.  But the interesting thing is you can see what people in certain locations think of your question.  For instance, in India, weapons won out.  But in the U.S. it was understanding.  It was great to be able to see the geographic breakdown on these kinds of questions.

“will there ever be world peace?” Yes or no

Although most Americans answered “no,” the Argentinians were the most optimistic of all the countries.

“what effects world peace?” World leaders or citizens

It was interesting to note that most people think world leaders (18% more than citizens).  This helped us realize that our project (dealing mostly in helping citizens understand each other better) has barriers to overcome in helping other people see that their actions effect world peace.

Social Media

The last category of questions that we asked was regarding Facebook and Twitter use.  We needed to know more about how people use facebook, so we asked them:

“what are you most likely to share on Facebook?” Photos or links

The results were tied.  So, we know that we can add photos and links to help engage people on our website and we don’t have to worry about not engaging a certain group.

“what do you share on Facebook?” Photos or random news

We found out that people are more likely to share photos.  So, now we know to spend time getting great photos and not so much time on being cute with the random facts.

We also asked people if they had ever heard of Stories of Our City and if they visit our website daily or weekly, etc.   It is a great way to find out how you are doing in your marketing strategies! – like having a global focus group at your disposal!

So, basically, I love Qriously and I am so glad that we got to give it a go- Thanks a ton!

5 Nonprofits, 5000 Responses

I think there’s a lot of potential for the way organizations can use a tool like this, and I’m sure there are plenty more that you can think of! The folks at Qriously think so, too. They are going to give five organizations 5,000 responses each (these could be divided up into multiple questions or used all for one), for free, with just two stipulations:

1. You can only use global or national surveys (not local)
2. You have to share what you learn!

That’s it!

Share Your Questions to Win
So, as a way of opening up the possibilities and participation, I’m asking that organizations “submit” via the comments. If you’re interested in participating, please share:

1. The name of your organization
2. The question you’d like to ask
3. How the question will help inform your work

As you know, I’m a big believer in community-driven processes, and there’s nothing that helps you be community-driven than tapping in and listening directly to the people you want to serve. Hopefully, sharing your questions and reasoning in the comments will help others think about the way they can survey the community at large, and sharing back what you learn will help us all!

Winners

The 5 organizations to get free trials of Qriously include:

Storiesofourcity.org – submitted by Katy Gilber

Katy did a great job of identifying a series of questions that the 5,000 responses can be divided between that can really help with content planning as well as community engagement planning.

EpicChange.org – submitted by Stacey Monk

I love the way Stacey blended the goal of getting feedback that can improve their messaging and content with the goal of spreading awareness/exposure of the brand. Great job!

Austin Civic Orchestra – submitted by Mazarine Treyz

This is a great example of targeting mobile users by asking specifically about those generations most likely to be on a phone! The question needs some work in refining the ask and providing answers, since it isn’t an open response field, though.

Neighborhood Montgomery – submitted by Takoma Horn

I think this is a great topic to break up into multiple questions. You could ask for a sentiment measurement, like “how do you feel about commercial development” and then use some of the other 5,000 responses for specific, similar to the examples Adam shared in the comments.

buildingcommunity WORKSHOP – submitted by romoseki

I’m really interested to see how these questions can be reshaped to better understand sentiment around architecture as well as even start some conversations (guide content development). Adam shared some great examples of reworking the questions to provide answer options, too.

I’m inviting all of the 5 organizations to share a guest post here after you use Qriously to ask your questions to share what you learned and how it contributes to your work!

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

• FT.com / Weekend columnists / Tim Harford – Perhaps microfinance isn’t such a big deal after all – "Last December, I showed some unwitting prescience by worrying about a backlash against microfinance, the practice of providing small loans – or perhaps savings products or insurance – to poor people. I fretted that there was little compelling evidence that it worked. A year later, the evidence is arriving and the backlash has begun. The Boston Globe published an article in September, subtitled, “Billions of dollars and a Nobel Prize later, it looks like ‘microlending’ doesn’t actually do much to fight poverty.” " – I'm interested to hear what you all think about this issue, especially now during the 'giving season.'
• Open Source Is Dead! Long Live Open Source! | NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network – "That's right, I said it. Promise to read the rest of this before you send me hate mail, though. What I mean is that open source, as we knew it, is dead. For the last decade, what we've been talking about when we say "open source" is "open code" — a set of zeroes and ones that we can configure to our heart's desire."
• Net2 Think Tank Round-Up: Best of 2009 | NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoupGlobal.org – Check out the diverse submissions to the December Net2 Think Tank that simply asked for the best blog posts of 2009! I'm sure there are some resources, conversations and pointers in here that are new to everyone.
• What Matters Now eBook – Get the ebook now for free! "We want to shake things up. More than seventy extraordinary authors and thinkers contributed to this ebook. It's designed to make you sit up and think, to change your new year's resolutions, to foster some difficult conversations with your team."
• Orchestras and Social Media Survey: Key Findings and Full Report | Dutch Perspective by Marc van Bree – "In short, the survey found that social media activities, familiarity and usage seem to be widespread among orchestras. Managers find social media important and organizations are generally enthusiastic. However, the efforts are far from organized and strategic. It seems many orchestras are dipping their feet in the social media pool, but do not have the policies, budgets, and metrics in place to effectively use the tools at their disposal, even if they do recognize the need for checks and balances."

Survey Monkey just announced that it is now 508 compliant!  This means that the surveys you create are accessible by those with disabilities.  You can read more about the 508 law here.  Survey Monkey is the only free survey tool to meet these standards.

Have you ever used the tool? Do you have a constituency that would benefit from this new functionality?

NonProfit Open Source Initiative is an organizationt hat was started to facilitate and encourage the use of free open source software in the nonprofit sector. They provide concrete resources to help organizations choose and use free and open source software.

Currently, NOSI is conducting a survey of the nonprofit sector on open source software use and what resources, assistance and tools would be most beneficial for individuals and organizations to assist in the transfer to new open source tools.

You can take the survey here! I already did and it really made me happy to think of the terrific open source movement of innovation and support that is growing every day. Take the survey!

TechSoup

The general increase of web 2.0 tools (social media / new media tools) is not surprising since there is a growing number of people and organizations providing support and education for those interested in getting started. But, there are a few things that I find interesting.

Survey respondents showed a 19% increase in use of RSS feed subscriptions. Using RSS both to distribute and to consume information online has been a topic at the new media training events I have helped put on for Meyer Memorial Trust and a topic that has always created a lot of conversation among the nonprofits I talk to. One great reference on RSS use is Marshall Kirkpatrick. RSS use will also be the topic for the Portland 501 Tech Club meeting on January 14th, with Marshall as our terrific presenter. (Let me know if you are interested in attending!)

50% said that they participated in an online event or training session related to work, which is an 11% increase from last year. I think it’s great that people are taking advantage of the great learning and engagement opportunities online, especially from organizations like NTEN.

What things have you increased your usage of in the past year? What things do you hope to increase your use of in the year to come? I’d love to hear about it!

If you are involved with technology for your nonprofit, you should take this survey and help NTEN identify patterns in the field, issues to address in the future, and areas of interest and concern.

So, if you have a couple quick minutes, click here to take the survey!