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).

• How Women Use the Web [REPORT] – "In the “Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet (Internet)” report, comScore concludes that women are the digital mainstream, a group of savvy Internet explorers who are more engaged than their male counterparts, and are the primary drivers of online and group buying."
• Why Do You Participate in Twitter Chats? | Community Organizer 2.0 – "Why do people participate in Twitter chats? I’ve been thinking about that question a lot. I posed the question “what Twitter chats do you participate in and why?” on Twitter and Facebook. What came back was pretty consistent: people participate to get information, ideas, contribute to a community, and meet new people."
• Fire Your Marketing Manager and Hire A Community Manager – David Armano – The Conversation – Harvard Business Review – "Okay, maybe that's going too far. I don't really recommend firing your marketing manager. I do however believe that most companies will eventually need to hire or contract with a community manager, if they haven't already. A recent BusinessWeek article called "Twitter Twitter Little Star," describes social media as a booming industry which has caught the attention of corporations everywhere, and suggests the role of a "social media director" and what that person should do. I'd like to dig a bit deeper into what this core function, necessary to create to what's becoming known as social engagement. I'll call the role the community manager."
• Q&A: A West Point for Community Organizing – Walking Distance – GOOD – "Since its first boot camp in 2006 the New Organizing Institute has trained more than 700 organizers across the country in leveraging online tools to generate offline action. It’s the nation’s leading progressive advocacy and campaign training program and it’s quietly and forcefully redefining the way campaigns are run and social change happens. Judith Freeman, one of the organization’s founders, worked on the new media strategy for the Obama campaign and is using those same tactics to train leaders from organizations like the NAACP and the Red Cross. We spoke to Ms. Freeman about what community organizing looks like in the 21st century."
• Where does Social Media belong on the Org Chart? — Global Neighbourhoods – When everyone wants a bit of the social media juice, having a strategy and usage policy become even more important. Interested to hear how organizations are dealing with this issue!
• The Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide | Idealware – "Social media can be useful to your organization… but how useful? For what? What tangible results are people seeing from it? Created in partnership with the New Organizing Institute, the Decision Guide walks you through a step-by-step process to decide what social media channels make sense for your organization via a workbook, guide, and the results of more than six months of research. And through the included Consultant Directory, you can find a professional to help define and implement your strategy."

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.

Our webinar defined the concept of a “social media listening dashboard”, describing how nonprofits can use free and low-cost services to track and stay notified about online communications that relate to their work and brand. We also discussed best practices for coordinating online communications  and specific how-to’s to provide participants with the information they need to get started in their online listening.

If you missed the webinar, that’s okay! Use these links to access the conversation:

• All webinar resources
• Presentation slides
• Audio recording
• Audio & video recording
• Links to tools & info

Were you on the webinar and have a question that wasn’t answered?  Did you review the links above and have ideas to share, other tools to recommend, or questions you want to ask?  Leave a comment!

About Nonprofit 2.0

It’s a next generation conference in format. Ever attend a conference, for a keynote, and find the rest of the content to be wanting? NonProfit 2.0 delivers the best of both worlds, offering great keynote sessions led by Amanda Rose, Founder of Twestival,  but in an unconference way with no PowerPoint, 15 minute leads, and open questions and dialogue for fantastic conversations. Then from midmorning forward, NonProfit 2.0 shifts into a full-on Unconference.

Who is invited?
Are you working in the nonprofit community? Are you a an online advocacy guru, a fundraiser, or grassroots organizer? Perhaps you manage a communications team and want to dive into social media but you’re a little old school. This event is for you! We invite nonprofit staff and do-gooder consultants from a diverse array of fields to come join us at NonProfit 2.0. This includes people who work in:

• Online Advocacy and Outreach
• Grassroots Organizing
• Social Media
• Fundraising
• Communications
• Nonprofit Technology
• Nonprofit Consulting
• Public Affairs
• Programming
• and more.

What is an Unconference?

Following the keynote sessions – at 10:30 AM we start with a blank wall and, in less than an hour, with a facilitator guiding the process attendees create a full day, multi-track conference agenda that is relevant and inspiring to everyone in the room. All are welcome to put forward presentations or propose conversations that you would like to have with others and:

• questions you want answered
• information you want to share/present
• a project you would like help on

As people register we will be posting proposed topics on our wiki.

What happens During Sessions?*
As sessions happen people volunteer to document the outcomes on a wiki (The notes of what was said is even better). Photos of any whiteboards are also important along with any slides that were presented.

End of the Day
At the end of the day everyone gathers in one place to share highlights of the day.

Register for Nonprofit 2.0 today!

Location: Fulham, London, UK

Topic: Creating a Local Community Website (training)

Description: David Wilcox and I facilitated an all-day training for local W14 (postcode) residents interested in creating a local community website.  The training included an overview of best practices and examples, strategy and roles, and hands-on training.

Related Links:

• W14 site

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

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!