In Grizzard’s new review series, Eric shares a video book review of the book! Take a look:

I’m so thrilled about his review and honored by the positive response! As far as the downsides he notes:

• Beginner focused: It’s true; we were commissioned to create a handbook for organizations, communities and individuals just getting started with tools the wanted to keep the book as hands on for those at the beginning of the process as possible.
• The size: Yes! I, too, was incredibly surprised about how big it was! The design concept was to mimic the orientation of a web page within the book, so you could have comments, information boxes and so on in the side bar with the main column acting as the main content on the page, just like a web site. I think that could have been treated to a slightly narrower product though.
• The companion: As much as we wanted to give people straightforward and simple information, we also wanted to be sure they had options. The companion is also intended so that if someone comes across a tool that they are unfamiliar with, like vimeo for example, they can easily understand how it may work by seeing it listed as an alternative to youtube. Too much information – noted! We hope it’s still useful!

Thanks to Grizzard and Eric for sharing the review of the book. Check them out at: http://www.grizzard.com

And if you haven’t read the book yet, you can read it online (or buy-on-demand) at: http://socialbysocial.com

Here’s my list of things I like and things I hope can be improved.

I like it!

• Embeds: I really like that the entire dashboard is embedable – helping keep the resources and value emerging from the community accessible and transportable.
• Integration: I think that the ability to pull in a google document, slides, notes, and so on really adds to the value of the tool – it also separates it from many of the other tweet-pooling tools out there.
• Voting: The functionality to vote on tweets, pulling out the ones that people find interesting, valuable or pertinent has the potential to add a special dynamic to the tweet pool.

I want to improve it!

• Lag: As with many tools, especially during conferences, the lag can really impact a tool’s reception. I found that in most of my sessions, the lag meant tweets took far too long to show up in the dashboard and I was using Tweetdeck to follow what people were saying in real time – pointing them to the dashboard for all the resources and as a place to find the tweets after the session.
• Tabs management: I wish that the administrators of a dashboard could create tabs (within reason) for separate resources so that you could have a separate tab for the slides or notes, and another for pulling in a google doc-survey, and another for a google doc for real-time notes or something.  I think the ability to separate resources by tab could really help.
• Voting: I listed this as something I like because I see potential there. But, at least in the times I’ve used it, people weren’t voting because they needed to create an account and sign in to do so (not many people were going to take the time during a session or discussion to do so).  Maybe there is also another way to show tweets that the community likes, too – like most RTs or something.
• Hashtag: I would love to be able to include multiple hashtags or search terms – especially if the dashboard is going to be used in non-conference settings where people may be using variations on a name or event, etc.

What I really like most about Tweetnotes is the potential use in a wide variety of situations. I’ve used it in conferences where you want to be able to pool resources, slides, and conversations into one place. But what about the use in emergency response or breaking news? We’ve already seen people come to hashtags or streams fairly quickly in reaction to global events – this could be an easy way to capture the streams, pull out resources, images, and news sources, and so on – in real time!  Or, for use in campaigns, either for those wanting to track a campaign or as part of the public-facing campaign map.

Have you used Tweetnotes? What do you think? Did you view or participate in the Tweetnotes dashboards from one of the above sessions? What would you improve and what did you like best?

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA – at the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference

Topic: Building Stronger Online Communities without Losing your Sanity

Description: If you want to build a strong online community, getting the right platform in place is only half the battle, and it’s the easy half. In this peer-led discussion, we’ll share our experiences of online community building and build lists of best practices around recruiting new members and retaining them, increasing participation and moderating your community. I’m joining Manny Hernandez (Tu Diabetes), Peggy Duvette (Wiser Earth), and Christine Egger (SocialActions) for this session.

Related Links:

• 10NTC
• Pre-event blog post
• Post-event blog post

If you want to build a strong online community, getting the right platform in place is only half the battle, and it’s the easy half. In this peer-led discussion, we’ll share our experiences of online community building and build lists of best practices around recruiting new members and retaining them, increasing participation and moderating your community.

Social networks and social media has busted out of the marketing communications and fundraising silos and changing the way nonprofits deliver programs, manage, and even govern.  This session will take a look about these trends and how nonprofits can equipment themselves to be networked nonprofits.

——

http://networkednonprofit.wikispaces.com

The writing process for the book:

• Expository vs storytelling
• Different brains – visual vs words
• Helpful guide tone vs colorful and wordy
• Hired an arbitrator to be the editor

There was one thing that we both had in common: chocolate.

What is the Networked Nonprofit?

Working through networks allows us to scale social change projects geographically and geometrically. When you do that, there’s an entity called the networked nonprofit.

BE:

• understand networks
• create social culture
• listen, engage, and build relationships
• trust through transparency
• simplicity

Do:

• work with crowds
• learning loops
• friending to funding
• governing through networks

Three Themes from the Book:

1. Social Culture

Red Cross – started social media efforts shortly after Katrina when people weren’t saying very good things. Wendy was hired “to make the bloggers go away.” As she started putting into practice some great listening practices, she realized that listening was the gateway drug for social media.  Staff started to see the value in social media and it led to adoption of tools. Fast forward to 2009, Wendy led a process internally to create a social media guidelines and operational handbook. It’s evolving the social culture of the organization.

Step 1: overcoming the fear and opening up – can’t let fears keep you from moving forward.

Step 2: make learning in public less stressful, worst case scenarios and contingency plans.

Step 3: Reflection – where the greatest learning is

Momsrising uses joyful funerals for things that don’t work. The richest insights come when we are at the wake of a joyful funeral.

Step 4: Leaders experience personal use.

Codifying a Social Culture: Policy

Most important thing in a social media policy: be professional, kind, discreet, authentic. represent us well. remember that you can’t control it once you hit send.

Step 5: Testing the policies: refining, educating

Operational guidelines need to be specific and include examples!

2. Transparency

The gravitational pull of social media is from inside organization out. You can’t close yourself off from the world.  3 kinds of organizations: Fortress, Transactional, and Transparent.

Transparency is not the same as being in a glass house. Think about national archives, behind a glass case – there’s still a barrier even if it is see-through.  A better anology is a natural sponge. They are anchored to the ocean floor, they let in 20 thousand times their weight of water through them every day, and they hold the nutrients from the water. It’s about engaging, that’s why you can’t have a glass wall.

Radical transparency: all naked all the time. You can’t run organizations that way. We don’t know where the line is but the line is there.

3. Simplicity

charity:water – focus on what you do best and network the rest.

You have too much to do because you do too much.

4. Reflection

One small step: what is one small step that you can take to make a big different in your organization to become a networked nonprofit.

http://networkednonprofit.wikispaces.com

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA – at the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference

Topic: Bringing Community Organizing into Online Campaigns

Description: Together with Ivan Boothe (RootWork) and Debra Askanase (Community Organizer 2.0), we’ll be facilitating a workshop that provides both information and case studies as a well as practical experience.  What is the basis of community organizing and why is it important to online campaigns? Traditional community organizing informs a successful online campaign — and lays the groundwork for a sustainable, effective movement for social change. In this session, participants will get their hands dirty planning a social media campaign that integrates traditional organizing theory and practice.

Related Links:

• 10NTC
• Blog post & dashboard
• Slides

Who: Speakers: Amy Sample Ward | Netsquared; Debra Askanase; Ivan Boothe

When: 1:30 p.m.

What: What is the basis of community organizing and why is it important to online campaigns? Traditional community organizing informs a successful online campaign and lays the groundwork for a sustainable, effective movement for social change. In this session, participants will get their hands dirty planning a social media campaign that integrates traditional organizing theory and practice. During the workshop, we will present traditional community organizing principles and methods of campaign mapping. We will also ask up to three attending organizations to present an idea for an upcoming campaign and goals. Attendees will divide into break-out groups to design the online campaign. The groups will use both community organizing principles and social media tools to create an online social media campaign. Each group will present its campaign strategy and tactics to the entire workshop. Workshop leaders will offer feedback and evaluation. Come to the session with your online campaign ideas, and get ready to have fun mapping out a campaign!

Who: Speakers: Susan Tenby | TechSoup Global; Janet Fouts; Kira Marchenese

What: An important part of your social media strategy should be listening for people and organizations who are talking about the issues you want to discuss.How do you know which networks will be most effective to reach your goals? Listen first and discover where the conversations are!

—–

Tools for listening:

Goodbyebuddy – find out when people aren’t listening to you any more. Learn what people want to hear.

Tweetdeck – add columns to listen and track conversations or watch mentions. Not just following mentions but also events – anything with hashtags, etc.

Google Alerts – remember that they aren’t always accurate or enough to find everything.

Mixed Reality events – conference going on in Second Life with a live streamed video into Second Life, it expands the audience exponentially. Conversations take place in both places separately and together.  Multi-channel conversations.

Flickr and YouTube – monitor and subscribe to activity around you, not just your own.

Lessons for Listening:

Don’t be afraid! Hold the reins: if you aren’t listening, paying attention, and diving in then the conversation can get so far away that you aren’t able to join in.  You can only have a real impact and “control” or influence over the public conversation about you, your organization or your programming if you are listening and engaging.

Where are the conversations?

• Blogs
• Linkedin
• Forums
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Communities
• Ning/Yahoo/Google

What to listen for:

• brand
• cxo names
• sponsors and donors
• supporters and evangelists
• industry and local news
• topics of corporate and/or personal interest

Find conversations quickly: check out Radian6, Biz360 and so on – a fairly expensive way to listen but comes with functionality to sort, track, etc.  Not about follower numbers, but about engagement and content.

Lazyfeed: use it for when you don’t have anything to say but want to say something. Set up keyword searches and it brings you relevant tweets and links. Allows you to be a thought-leader because you are on top of the conversations.

Twitter: even if you don’t want to engage on it, you need to be listening there. Set up alerts and so on.

Check out listening tools at: http://janetfouts.com/listen/

Listen, engage, repeat!

Follow #10ntc.listen on Twitter for links and conversation from this session.

Location: Atlanta, GA, USA – at the 2010 Nonprofit Technology Conference

Topic: Open Data and APIs in your Organization

Description: The NetSquared team will be facilitating an open spaces or “unconference” style event from 9 am – 1 pm focused on open data and APIs; we hope to bring together projects who have built successful tools using open data or API technology with others looking to learn more and discuss ideas for helping their organization better tell stories, reach communities, and serve their audiences.

Related Links: 

• 10NTC
• Open Data wiki