These are some links I wanted to share from August 10th. Find me on Delicious for more!

• Introducing the National Talent Bank – The National Talent Bank is an idea proposed by the Council on Social Action. A discussion paper is now available online to stimulate dialogue and engagement (and a call for partners) to build the Talent Bank together. Check out the news to learn more and download/read the discussion paper to join in!
• The Death of the Digital Divide–Or a New One? | Fission Strategy | Fast Company – Based on recent studies about Internet and communication technology use or adoption, the Digital Divide doesn't seem to necessarily be disappearing. How have you made sure to evaluate where or what kinds of tools or platforms your community uses before you choose what to do with your social media strategy?
• Investors & Researchers in Philanthropy | Tactical Philanthropy – A great post from Sean on the TactPhil blog: "I would argue that philanthropic institutions are currently geared towards thinking of themselves as impact researchers instead of performance investors. As I’ve tried to make clear, the goal is the same. Both disciplines are needed. A high performance organization that implements ineffective, poorly researched programs will fail to achieve impact. A poorly performing organization that tries to implement proven programs will fail to deliver them with fidelity and/or fail to grow. But what would happen if funders thought of themselves primarily as performance investors and relied on a mix of internal, external and independent researchers to prove program effectiveness?"
• FutureGov Network – Carrie Bishop's at the Google Local Government event in London today and tweeting and blogging from inside. Here's a post with Google's top tips for making a good website – originally intended for audiences like Amazon.com but you can do some minor word replacement or other alternations to make the nonprofit or government perspective more clear.
• 5 Fun and Fabulous Twitter Tools for Nonprofit Organizations and Activists (Nonprofits 2.0 – Change.org) – Heather Mansfield has a new post on the Change.org blog: "The number of third-party Twitter Apps has exploded over the last year. Twtbase currently lists over 500 of them, and I have highlighted five of my favorites for nonprofit organizations and activists…"

… Continue readingGreat reads from around the web on August 10th

These are some links I wanted to share from August 5th. Find me on Delicious for more!

• Have Fun • Do Good: Community Funded Reporting: Interview with David Cohn of Spot.us – "You cannot run a community if you're not informed. Journalism is really the act of informing communities so that they can make better decisions, that is part of the public service, informing communities so that together we can know where else we need to help."–David Cohn, Founder, Spot.us. Read the full interview with him on Britt's blog!
• Full Circle Associates » How I use social media – Here is a great post from Nancy White discussing how she uses social media. Just like the other link tagged recently with the "day in the life" of Danielle Brigida, I love "case studies" that share how individuals "really" use the platforms and tools and strategies – moving from the theoretical or abstract down to the practical application.
• Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: Guest Post by Michael Sola: A Day of the Life of NWF’s Social Media Outreach Coordinator Danielle Brigida – This is a terrific guest post over on Beth Kanter's blog follow a "day in the life" of my friend, and social media for nonprofits rockstar, Danielle Brigida! I love case studies of this kind because it puts all of the abstract ideas and recommendations into a realistic context. What do you think?
• Delicious Reborn as Real Time News Tracker – Are you a Delicious user? Do you ever check out the homepage? Their new updates may ensure that answer is a "yes!". Marshall Kirkpatrick explains: "Yahoo's social bookmarking service Delicious launched a new home page this morning, combining recent tagging activity and cross-referenced links on Twitter to deliver what it calls the hottest news from around the web in real time. While the exact formula behind the front page remains unclear, its contents are clearly changing minute by minute. It's something the site probably should have done awhile ago and if done correctly could make other services, like Digg, look all the more behind the times."
• Free Social Media Marketing Checklist | 299 Steps to Website Heaven – Nikki Pilkington has improved the Social Media Marketing list originally posted by Chris Brogan – this is a terrific example of how to break down what can be an overwhelming daily gauntlet of social media use. Don't feel obligated to use this as an exact checklist (by the numbers) but use it help craft what is most appropriate for your online interactions.

… Continue readingGreat reads from around the web on August 5th

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