These are some links I wanted to share from July 29th. Find me on Delicious for more!

• Social media inbound marketing for non-profits and small businesses – in Boston and beyond | Resource Superlist For Twitter Folks | John Haydon – John Haydon has put together a great resource list for using Twitter, "Over the past few months, I’ve received hundreds of questions on how to use Twitter. Based on these questions, I’ve assembled a “resource page” for you, which I will updated as needed."
• PR Communications: Measuring Your Level Of Social Media Engagement – John Cass has a new post in which he discusses "the engagement relevancy rating." Definitely worth a read – another reminder why building a strategy for engaging your community is the most important part, BEFORE you dive into the tools.
• SheSpotter – SheSpotter just launched as a blog and I plan on following/joining the conversations. "What’s a Shespotter? It’s someone who gets that women vote, give, volunteer, spread the word and make more buying decisions than men do, which makes them the number #1 target audience if you’re working for change. We started this blog to continue the conversation we began in our book, The She Spot: Why Women are the Market for Changing the World and How to Reach Them. We also wanted to encourage others to become Shespotters of when marketing to women is done right—and when it goes wrong. So, if you see something send it our way. Because the smarter we are about connecting with women, the more effective we’ll be as political, cultural and consumer change makers."
• Blog | beautiful world – Beautiful World is a new agency for charities, based in London, and are quite happy to ask questions, share ideas and contribute to the conversation. Here is a new post on their blog where they ask, "Are charities (at least some of them) becoming embarrassed at the idea of asking for money?"
• BBC NEWS | Business | VAT abolished on text donations – Great news for mobile fundraisers: "Donations to UK charities sent via text message will be free of VAT from this week as part of an agreement with the major mobile phone operators."
• Social Entrepreneurship – Change.org: Youth Taking Action: Serving Iraqi refugees – "Ashoka's Youth Venturer Sky Choi is one busy 12-year-old. Apart from starting The List Kids to serve young Iraqi refugees in the U.S. he is also starting his university studies in physics, speaks multiple languages, has a third degree black belt in taekwondo, and says that he hopes to always make a difference in the world!" Yes, that's right: he is TWELVE years old. Read this great interview on the Change.org blog to learn more about him!

… Continue readingGreat reads from around the web on July 29th

These are some links I wanted to share from July 23rd. Find me on Delicious for more!

• Nonprofit Marketer of the Year Awards – CONGRATS! "Eric Overman (photo, center), Operation Smile, received the Nonprofit Marketer of the Year Award, and Anne Bergquist (photo, left), YMCA of Metro Chicago, and David J. Neff (photo, right), American Cancer Society High Plains, received the Special Marketing Initiatives and Social Media subcategory awards, respectively. The AMA/AMAF Nonprofit Marketer of the Year Awards honor extraordinary leadership and achievement in the field of nonprofit marketing."
• Developers Start to Surf Google Wave, And Love It | Technomix | Fast Company – I cannot wait for Wave to be public (coming later this Fall), so much so that I've even repeatedly signed up to be an early invite in the first post-developer-only round of users. Here's what some developers are saying about Google's Wave.
• 100 Entrepreneurs You Should Follow and Learn From on Twitter – If you are looking for some new folks to add to your Twitter feed and are interested in entrepreneurship, here's a list of 100 movers and shakers in the industry!
• Favorite Leisure Activities – eMarketer – Some interesting figures about the preferred leisure activities of men and women (of different age groups) in the US. Clearly those of us without televisions are anomalies!
• Social Media Brand Engagement Database – ENGAGEMENTdb – Ever wondered which companies were using social media "right" and successfully engaging people online? Well, EngagementDB has pulled together lots of examples, case studies, expert opinions, and rankings so you can really explore new ideas and tactics for online engagement. Check it out!

… Continue readingGreat reads from around the web on July 23rd

These are some links I wanted to share from July 20th. Find me on Delicious for more!

• Social media brings thousands of ppl w/diabetes together at the SAME time | NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoupGlobal.org – Manny Hernandez (@askmanny on Twitter), the creator of TuDiabetes.com has shared a great case study on the NetSquared Community Blog about how they have used social media tools to bring a community together. And not just bringing them together but doing so at the same time!
• New Tool Lets Nonprofits Send Action Alerts Through Facebook  – frogloop Home~Care2’s blog for nonprofits – frogloop – "Grassroots Enterprise recently launched “Actions” on Facebook that allows nonprofit organizations' supporters to take action and send a letter to their members of Congress without ever leaving Facebook —and without installing an app. The Actions tab will not only match supporters to federal and state legislative officials based on their addresses but will also capture names and emails in a database."
• Social networks for a good cause – growth, culture and impact : crisscrossed blog – A great post from Christian! If you are interested in social media for real social impact, it's a must-read. "If I look at the statistics and the incredible growth of social networks, I wonder how and when would these networks be used to join expertise, share ideas, do volunteer work, and mobilize people for social change?"
• Top 8 Social Media Tracking Tools – frogloop Home~Care2’s blog for nonprofits – frogloop – "Social media! I seriously think it’s "the" buzz word of 2009. According to Omniture, over 200 million searches are conducted every single day and 78% of people trust recommendations by peers. But how should nonprofits track their social media? What tools should they use?"
• Enterprise: List of 40 Social Media Staff Guidelines | Laurel Papworth … – Here is a round up of many different examples of organization's or enterpriese's social media staff policies. I know many people have asked me in the past for examples from organizations; well, here ya go!

… Continue readingGreat reads from around the web on July 20th

These are some links I wanted to share from July 17th. Find me on Delicious for more!

• Ready.gov Launches Social Media Preparedness Initiative – "The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Ready Campaign, in partnership with The Advertising Council, is introducing a series of new social media tools today to further engage Americans in taking steps to prepare for emergencies. The initiative is an extension of Resolve to be Ready in 2009, a nationwide effort designed to encourage individuals, families, businesses and communities to take action and prepare for emergencies in 2009. The social media tools will engage Americans in taking the three simple steps communicated in the Ready Campaign: (1) Get an emergency supply kit; (2) Make a family emergency plan; and (3) Be informed about the types of emergencies that can happen in your area and their appropriate responses."
• Twitter Search in Plain English – Common Craft – Our Product is Explanation – You may have seen some of my recent blog posts about Twitter-based chats, like #4Change and #NPCons and you might have also been really lost/confused about the # or how Twitter search was involved in the conversation. Well, as always, Common Craft have created a video to help explain it "in Plain English." Check it out and be sure to share it with others who may be just as confused as you once were! 🙂
• Social change takes more than social media | Rootwork – If you don't read the Rootwork blog already, you should. Here's a great post from Ivan Booth who picked up on a question Joe Solomon posed on the NetSquared blog recently. It's a thought-provoking, and hopefully conversation-starting piece! "…Too many nonprofits have no social change theory at all; indeed they're more interested in self-perpetuation than winning."
• Viral Video for Nonprofits – A Rethinking – Thinking about creating a "viral video" for your organization's project or campaign? Take a look at this terrific post from Michael Hoffman at See3. "Where you should start with online video is to make a commitment to using this new medium to connect people to your work."
• SocialEarth: Video launched – "Welcome to SocialEarth:Video, the video library from SocialEarth. SocialEarth:Video is a rich media channel featuring over a hundred videos which cover an array of issues within the social entrepreneurship field."

… Continue readingGreat reads from around the web on July 17th

These are some links I wanted to share from July 8th. Find me on Delicious for more!

• Lights. Camera. Help. – Film Passes are now on Sale! – "Lights. Camera. Help. is a new nonprofit in Austin, Texas and it’s bringing you the first world wide film festival only for nonprofit and cause-driven organizations. On July 31st and August 1st at 7pm, Lights. Camera. Help. will screen the best of the over 130 documentaries, PSAs, shorts and feature length films submitted to the festival."
• Traveling Geeks – "The Traveling Geeks are an informal group of technology influencers and bloggers rooted chiefly in the San Francisco Bay Area. We're traveling to London and Cambridge in July 2009 as part of Innovation UK. We like to report on innovative technologies through blogs, video, podcasts and social networks."
• Facebook Users Are Getting Older. Much Older. – "Analytics company iStrategyLabs has examined the demographics stats from Facebook (Facebook)’s Social Ads platform, and they’ve reached some very interesting conclusions. Facebook’s userbase, as a whole, is getting much older very fast."
• Top 8 Social Media Tracking Tools – frogloop Home~Care2’s blog for nonprofits – frogloop – Allyson Kapin has a great post that lists 8 tools for tracking your social media impact. I love posts like this because I always find at least one new tool to play with and test!
• Nonprofits Employ Tougher Measures as Downturn Deepens: Bridgespan Survey Shows 41 Percent Turning to Layoffs, 33 Percent Reserve Draw-Downs, but Also Hope – MarketWatch – According to Bridgespan partner William Foster, "This survey highlights just how tough times really are. Ninety-two percent of nonprofits responding to the May 2009 survey indicated they were experiencing the effects of the downturn, up from 75 percent in November. Forty-nine percent reported that their financial situation had worsened, and the percentage of nonprofits reporting funding cuts has increased from 52 percent to 69 percent. Further, the percentage reporting cuts of more than 20 percent has increased from 13 percent to 24 percent."

… Continue readingGreat reads from around the web on July 8th