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).

• Constant Contact Survey Reveals Social Media is a Critical Marketing Tool for Event Planners; Usage Expected to Increase | Business Wire – "A new survey from Constant Contact® finds that social media marketing has become a critical marketing tool for small businesses and nonprofits planning events, with 77% of event planners currently using social media to market their events, and another 14% planning to do so in the next year. The survey also reports that event planners still rely heavily on email marketing, online event marketing tools, websites, and print advertising to promote their events, indicating that traditional forms of event marketing still play an essential role in promoting an event." Get the free ebook "The State of Event Marketing" at: http://img.constantcontact.com/docs/pdf/EVM-EBOOK.pdf
• Upgrading Voter Registration – "Approximately 24 million active voter registrations in the United States are no longer valid or have significant inaccuracies, according to the Pew Center on the States. Research in Pew's report, Inaccurate, Costly, and Inefficient, underscores the need for registration systems that better maintain voter records, save money, and streamline processes. This is an effort that eight states are spearheading with Pew’s support." Registering people to vote, so long as you allow anyone to register for any party and do not advocate for specific voting actions, is not outside your 501c3 status. I really wish more organizations included voter registration efforts in their community work!
• What We Talk About When We Talk About Digital Activism | The Meta-Activism Project – "Usually when we talk about digital activism we talk about concrete anecdotes (the Arab Spring, the 2012 presidential race, the Koman/Planned Parenthood blow-up) or abstract trends (slacktivism, cyber-war, hacktivism).  What we rarely talk about is how we talk about digital activism: Is our focus in the right place? Do we know what we’re talking about? Are we being honest?"
• Jillian C. York » The Arab Digital Vanguard: How a Decade of Blogging Contributed to a Year of Revolution – This is a terrific piece from Jillian York – a must read on digital activism! "This article was first published in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs Vol. 13 Issue 1 (Winter/Spring 2012), “Language, Identity and Politics” and is re-published here with permission."
• The Age of Mobile Email Has Arrived. Are You Ready? | NTEN – "What if you found out that one-quarter of your subscribers were reading your emails on their mobile phones? There’s a good chance they already are. (And if they’re not, they will be soon!) As of November 2011, 89.6 million Americans are using their mobile phones to access their work or personal email. That's an increase of 28% in the last year alone."

Vote today!

Here’s what the NTEN team said about voting:

We received more than 400 ideas this year — a 75% increase over last year — and we need your help to narrow those down to the 100 or so that will make the 2011 NTC the best one yet. I’m not gonna lie: this is not a quick & easy task. It took me about 90 minutes to vote on every session. But we rely on your feedback to help shape the agenda, so we hope you’ll make a little time to at least scroll through the list and vote on your favorites.

The system is the same as last year, with a few refinements, including more social media sharing options. There are 25 proposals on each page. Rate each session from 1 (low) to 5 stars. Click the session title if you’d like to leave a comment.

You can always vote on just the sessions in the track you’re most interested in:

• Communications
• Fundraising
• IT Staff
• Leadership
• Program

Voting will be open through September 30th. Questions? Consult the voting FAQ!

My sessions

If you want to leave feedback or comments about the sessions I am a part of, please do! Obviously, you are welcome to vote for them, too!

• Building a Community Across Platforms
  Most commonly, communities form around an issue, a cause, or even a campaign on many different types of social media, and stretch across platforms. As a catalyst, your organization does not need to force community into a hole, but adapt to managing the cross-platform dynamics that community members use. However, the real challenge is creating community across platforms.
  In this session, we will explore the meaning of community across channels and how to choose and manage the strategic direction of multi-channel community building. Join us to examine where your community resides online using a mapping exercise, think about cross-channel best practices, and talk about examples of successful cross-platform community building.
• Community Driven Social Impact
  This session will focus on strategies and tactics to amplify the impact of mission-based programs through community-driven efforts. We’ll address emerging best practices and discuss the associated opportunities and challenges of community-driven strategies. Participants will walk away with a set of guiding principles and tactics to develop media, events and activities that encourage connections and local leadership among your stakeholders to increase your organizational reach and impact. This session will include a presentation, discussion and small group scenarios.
• Workshop: Using Community Organizing for Effective Online Campaigns
  This participatory workshop will help you answer the question: What does old-school community organizing have to teach the wired activist?
  We believe traditional community organizing helps to inform an effective online campaign for social change, and will lay the groundwork for a sustainable, long-term movement. We’ll present some specific tools you can use, drawn from community organizing, that will help you identify targets, hone your strategy and engage activists to prevent burnout.
  Some of the most successful online campaigns in the past few years — such as Tweetsgiving, opposition to mountaintop removal, government transparency activism in Canada, and the campaign for the Jena Six in Louisiana — have employed principles of community organizing to create effective online actions that helped activists win.
  Participants in this workshop will get their hands dirty planning an online campaign for social change that integrates traditional organizing theory and practice. We’ll invite three participants to serve as case studies, break up into small groups and collectively map out an online strategy. Each group will present its campaign strategy and tactics to the entire workshop, and facilitators will offer feedback and additional ideas.
  The facilitators each have extensive experience both in traditional organizing and online campaigns, and have used strategic planning to move beyond feel-good activism (“slacktivism”) that doesn’t advance toward real social change. We invite both individual activists and staffers in organizations to take part in this workshop.

NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference

But, what do you want to talk about?

I have many things that I want to talk about at the NTC because it’s a one-of-a-kind opportunity to talk about ideas, get advice, or hear stories from others in real time, in one space, as fast as you can share them!  It’s truly like no other conference.  And, I always love getting to talk to people that I follow, read, and am in awe of from our sector IN PERSON!

The conference schedule for NTC has been developed openly and collaboratively.  Those interested were able to submit all kinds of great ideas for panels, workshops, and speaking sessions for the conference.  And now you get to vote on what you want to hear!

I am part of four different proposals and would love to have a chance to share some of the ideas and experiences I’ve had with all of you at the event (even if you can’t come in person, you know I’ll post my notes and ideas on this blog!).  Below are links to the four session proposals, and I’d love your support with a vote and comment on any that you want to have at the NTC!

• >>  Do You Have the Right Balance of Online/Offline Communication? Do your communications with users build trust as well as maintain relationships? You will learn the importance of creating an engaging online space while meeting in person or in higher-impact interaction like video chat with your network.
  Read more about this session and vote here.
• >>  Integrating Social Media into Organizational Culture. Integrating social media into organizational culture is challenging. In this session we will discuss common objections to adopting social media, hear from experienced panelists, identify tools for collaboration, listening, and information sharing, and consider different organizational approaches to integrating social media successfully. We have invited nonprofit staff to share their stories and insights. This session is designed to leave time for plenty of questions and answers!  This session was co-designed with Debra Askanase, read her blog post here!
  Read more about this session and vote here.
• >>  The Social by Social Game: Social Media for Your Community. Come play the Social by Social Game and walk through the strategic steps of creating a social media program for your community, whether you’re part of an organization, a geographic community, a campaign, or anything else. The Social by Social Game is a fun way to dive into Social by Social: a practical guide in using technology for social impact.
  Read more about this session and vote here.
• >>  Wiring a Movement. Panel discussion of case studies, examples, and opportunities for collaboration within sectors for more effective impact.
  Read more about this session and vote here.

There are so, so many great ideas submitted to next year’s conference line-up.  Review all of the ideas and vote on your favorites here! If you have any trouble voting or have questions about this selection process, please visit the 10NTC voting FAQ here.

See you in Atlanta for 10NTC!

It’s true: Today, Friday, is the last day to cast your vote for up to 5 favorite USAID project submissions.  Get out the vote, now!

The Word on the Street…

Project teams and others are telling their friends, families, colleagues and communities about the vote, hoping to make it to the next round where 15 projects will be presented to the USAID judges.  If you want to learn more about projects than what is provided in the Project Gallery, check out the Community Blog where projects are discussing their ideas and asking for your support.

Oliver Subasinghe recently told the devex community about the USAID Challenge and check out this testimonial from quazi on the community blog:

Learning about various projects through the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge

I am glad that I voted for 5 projets posted here on NetSquared. What I liked most is that I now will have access to ideas as I prepare to use social web technologies to advance our cause for leadership development in Bangladesh, especially for the youth.

Get out the Vote!

This is the last day to help select the 15 projects moving on in the Challenge. Cast your vote now!

The voting process is simple, interactive and fun. It’s our goal to be as inclusive as possible because it’s your job to pick the projects that best deserve the time, attention, and funding that this Challenge can offer.

How to vote:

• You must Register and Login to the NetSquared site to participate in the Vote (please check your junk mail folder if you do not see a registration email confirmation)
• Each registered user has one (1) ballot
• You must vote for at least three (3) Projects and no more than five (5)
• All votes are weighted equally (in other words, your first choice and fifth choice have equal value)
• You can only vote for each Project once, yes that includes your own
• You must review and cast your ballot for your vote to count (details below)

Share your feedback, ideas, or favorites on the Community Blog after you’ve voted!

For more information about the Challenge, visit: http://netsquared.org/usaid

Why vote?

The voting process is simple, interactive and fun.  Plus, your voices together are better than ours alone and voting in the USAID Challenge Community Vote will help select the very best 15 projects to move on to the panel of judges.

Voting begins on Monday, December 8 and closes on Friday, December 12.  That’s just one week of voting, so we hope you’ll get the word out to friends and colleagues to help support the projects you care about. You don’t have to be part of a project team or even be a mobile tech expert to participate. 

Go Vote!

How to vote:

• You must Register and Login to the NetSquared site to participate in the Vote (please check your junk mail folder if you do not see a registration email confirmation)
• Each registered user has one (1) ballot
• You must vote for at least three (3) Projects and no more than five (5)
• All votes are weighted equally (in other words, your first choice and fifth choice have equal value)
• You can only vote for each Project once, yes that includes your own

Contact us if you have any problems or questions – we want to make sure your vote counts!

For more information about voting, visit USAID Vote!

The top 15 selected projects will be announced Monday, December 15th and will be presented to USAID, where a panel of judges will select the final 3.  For more information about the Challenge, check out the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge page.