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).

• Attention Data Nerds: Nonprofits Miss Out on the Power of LinkedIn: Learn How to Tap It | Beth’s Blog – Geri Stengel has a great guest post on Beth's blog. "Whether connected or cold calling, you can build long-term, valuable relationships using LinkedIn. Find out how easy it is. LinkedIn isn’t some stodgy place where people post their resumes. It’s a no- to low-cost database that is a rich source of information about potential major donors, board members, employees, and strategic allies." Would love to hear what you're doing on LinkedIn and how your organization has or has not found LinkedIn valuable!
• Blackbaud and Convio Now One Company – "Blackbaud, Inc. (NASDAQ: BLKB) today announced that it has completed its acquisition of Convio, Inc., a leading provider of on-demand constituent engagement solutions. Under the terms of the merger agreement, Blackbaud paid an aggregate purchase price of approximately $325 million. Blackbaud financed the deal through a combination of cash and borrowings from its credit facility. “This is an exciting day for the Blackbaud and Convio teams. Together, we can build better solutions for nonprofits, and that’s what drives us,” said Marc Chardon, Blackbaud’s chief executive officer. “Convio’s strengths in online and social marketing, and subscription and cloud-based offerings complement ours, and will accelerate our ability to deliver more to the nonprofit sector.”"
• Charities May Soon Get a Way to Seek Bigger Text Gifts – Prospecting – The Chronicle of Philanthropy- Connecting the nonprofit world with news, jobs, and ideas – "Donors who give through mobile text messages could soon have the options of giving a larger donation and setting up repeat text gifts, say the leaders of two of the organizations that oversee text giving in the U.S. and Canada. Jim Manis, chief executive of the Mobile Giving Foundation, and Bernard Lord, chairman of the Mobile Giving Foundation Canada, said in an interview that they are working with some cellular service providers to allow $20 donations—double the current $10 limit—and recurring donations, though they gave no timeline on when those features would be available."
• Get more donors with free fundraising lessons and ideas – I love this new free series from Causevox – get a video a week filled with great information and actionable tips to help improve your fundraising right away. I don't even primarily focus on fundraising and I'm finding it really valuable!
• The A/B Test: Inside the Technology That’s Changing the Rules of Business | Epicenter | Wired.com – This is a terrific case study in the power of a/b testing on your websites – be it organization site, microsite, campaign pages, or even fundraising pages – to question everything and find what really works. Every time I do testing, I see the same thing that they note here: my instincts are wrong. We over-think things and the best way to stop is by testing!

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).

• Mattel to manufacture bald Barbie doll – HealthPop – CBS News – "Big news for the campaign for a bald Barbie: Mattel has agreed to manufacture a hairless doll. Mattel company spokesman Alan Hilowitz told HealthPop that the company will produce a friend of Barbie that will have wigs, hats, scarves and other accessories to give children "a traditional fashion play experience." The kids will have the option to remove the wigs and head coverings. The company stated that they will not be selling the dolls at stores, but instead will donate them to children's hospitals and other hospitals, as well as the National Alopecia Areata Foundation."
• Care2 Impact Prize | NTEN – A group of inspiring, talented people! Please help us select a winner for the Care2 Impact Prize! "We invite you to cast your vote to help pick this year's winner of the second annual Care2 Impact Prize, which recognizes individuals in the nonprofit sector who have made an outstanding impact on the field of online advocacy, online fundraising or both. The winner will receive a cash award of $1,000, plus $1,000 to donate to their favorite charity. The prize will be awarded on Thursday, April 5th at the Nonprofit Technology Conference, during the awards luncheon. The deadline to vote is noon (Pacific Time) on Monday, April 2nd. Any member of the NTEN community is welcome to vote, but only one vote per person, per IP address will be counted."
• Sharing photos online – a decision matrix for non-profit organizations : Social Media 4 Good – "Many non-profits, NGOs and International Organizations are of two minds when it comes to sharing photos on the internet. On the one hand, they want their material to be shared as widely as possible, on the other hand they want to have total control. The decision matrix in below will help you decide which photos to share and how."
• 2012 Top 100 Best NGOs by The Global Journal | The Global Journal – "The Global Journal is proud to announce the release of its inaugural ‘Top 100 Best NGOs’ list. The first international ranking of its kind, this exclusive in-depth feature will no doubt stimulate debate, while providing academics, diplomats, policymakers, international organizations and the private sector an insight into the ever changing dynamics and innovative approaches of the non-profit world and its 100 leading actors. Recognizing the significant role of NGOs as influential agents of change on a global scale, The Global Journal has sought to move beyond outdated clichés and narrow conceptions about what an NGO is and does. From humanitarian relief to the environment, public health to education, microfinance to intellectual property, NGOs are increasingly at the forefront of developments shaping the lives of millions of people around the world."
• UNICEF Uses Social Media Monitoring for Annual Flagship Report « Radian6 – Social media monitoring tools, social media engagement software and social CRM and marketing from the industry leader in social analytics. – "UNICEF dedicated the 2012 edition of its flagship report, The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World, to the situation of children growing up in urban settings. Almost half the world’s children now live in urban areas; the report calls for greater emphasis on identifying and meeting their needs. The goal of the communication strategy was to raise general awareness of the issue and offer information and facts for grassroots advocacy. Social media has become an integral part of UNICEF’s outreach strategy for main publications and campaigns."
• Simple Nonprofit Donor & Volunteer CRM & Email Marketing | Wishery – "Running a non-profit is hard work. With good tools and techniques, however, you can greatly magnify your impact – this post describes how to combine two great tools into a powerful yet easy-to-use donor and volunteer management system. While there are a variety of purpose-built donor and volunteer management systems available, they tend to either cost a lot of money, be complicated to implement and use, or both! The set-up described below is nearly free and refreshingly simple."

Location: Austin, TX

Topic: Strong Connections: Linking Strategy, Goals and Metrics

Description: When it comes to social media, email marketing, or even online engagement in general, we often have a feeling when things are going well or when they aren’t. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or something else, you don’t have to be satisfied with a feeling: use your organization’s strategic plan to identify real goals and then track the data to show your impact.

Related Links:

• NTEN
• Community Series
• Session Materials

Fenton just released a terrific guide book focused on actionable metrics: “See, Say, Feel, Do: Social Media Metrics that Matter”.

It is tempting to imagine social media as its own communications island where Twitter Follower counts are valuable currency that can be exchanged for internal high-fives. In this scenario there is no way to exchange social media coins for broader communication or marketing dollars. But who cares when you can boast 50,000 likes on your Facebook Page.

This is the wrong approach for three reasons: 1) it doesn’t acknowledge the complete media consumption behavior of your target audiences; 2) it cuts off feedback loops that can be mined for insights that will improve engagement and returns and 3) it limits the reach and impact of your broader communications.

Fenton’s guide divides up the kinds of metrics you can focus on under the headings See, Say, Feel and Do. As I suggest in my Community Mapping approach, the actions and metrics should be mapped against the segments of the community doing them. I really appreciate that Fenton has included a similar recommendation. I also love that they include both a space for identifying and tracking the data, as well as a place to include the insights and actions associated with it. The best of the guide book, though, is the inclusion of an example reporting form and a template to use in your own organization.

Download “See, Say, Feel, Do: Social Media Metrics that Matter” here. 

What do you think? If you downloaded the report, did you find the template useful? What aspects of the do/see/say/feel metrics approach were you already using or do you plan to try out?

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).

• Eric Lanke: Stop Calling It Strategic Planning – "So I'm working my way through Humanize, and like most everyone else, I'm really enjoying it. This will probably be the first of several posts describing the thoughts it provokes for how I am and should be running my association. But dare I start with the endlessly controversial subject of strategic planning? I've heard Jamie Notter (and others) decry this staple of association board meetings as a tool whose time has come and gone, but it wasn't until I read the treatment of it in Humanize that I really understood what he was talking about. And it's convinced me of one undisputable fact. I need to stop calling what my association does strategic planning."
• 2011 NTEN Champions Fundraising Campaign by the Numbers | NTEN – "The funny thing about being the Nonprofit Technology Network is that it can be really hard to practice what we preach. You may recall that the NTEN community recently helped us raise over $15,000 to host more local events throughout 2012. We learned so much while running that campaign, but we also made lots of mis-steps along the way. One of the things we wished for as we navigated the campaign: benchmarks. Besides average gift amount, what might we expect?"
• New Research Proves the Business Case for Product Giving : PitchEngine : Get the Word Out™ – "New research from Indiana University concludes that businesses can do well by doing good through product philanthropy.  Donating products to charities helps corporate bottom lines, reduces waste in landfills, and provides relief for people in need. With a record number of Americans living in poverty today, product donations allow people to use their limited resources to pay for food, health care, prescription drugs, utilities and other vital needs. The study, released today by Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA), provides the first detailed examination of the return on investment for donating merchandise as opposed to liquidating or destroying it."
• Is email going out with 2011? | craigconnects – "I took a look at a few articles and studies, and according to ComScore's 2010 Digital Year in Review, email use dropped 59% among Internet users ages 12 to 17 in 2010. Users ages 18 to 54 have reportedly turned away from email, as well — many are instead communicating through social-networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. An increase in email use, however, was visible in the 55+ age group, who used web-email 15% more in 2010 than in 2009. The report also went into detail on what sites people spent their time on: it illustrated that time spent on webmail sites declined while social networking sites increased considerably." Would love to hear what your experience and perception of email use is! For me, I see the way I use email and treat email changing, but the importance and irreplaceability (is that a word?) of it staying the same. You?
• Multiple Constituent Groups, One Database: Case Studies | Idealware – A great collection of three case studies from very different organizations, including Fight Colorectal Cancer, Sarah's, and Earthjustice. How are you managing your data?

Strategic Data

I have done a few webinars and presentations about social media tracking and metrics and frequently used the phrase “actionable data.” After one of these presentations, a participant came up to me and pushed back a little on what I’d said, explaining that data was for evaluation and that seemed very passive. I responded that data, without action, isn’t worth our effort to track it. That’s what actionable means.

But then I realized, the reason people didn’t see action tied to their data was because they didn’t see how the data, or even the actions that data could indicate, were strategic. Data we don’t want to take action about is even worse. We need strategic data. And, as it turns out, that doesn’t just mean data from your programs and services, but from your social engagement, too.

Step 1: Linking Strategy to Goals

Most of us on this call probably have an elevator speech or even a few that we use to explain what it is we do as an organization, what our role in the organization is; maybe even why people would want to get involved or donate. That’s where we start. We can use that general or generic even mission statement to start putting our social media use into a strategic place.

If your organization has a strategic plan or even a Theory of Change, you are already equipped with even more deliberate language that can help you get started. Most strategic plans include program area or service area specifics and you can use those to help frame why you use social media.

Step 2: Linking Goals to Social

Now that we have identified some areas where social media fits with the overall purpose of the organization, we can start putting certain aspects of social engagement into goal areas. We want to be specific here about the why and less specific about the what. For example, our goals with social media should identify the influence or impact we want to make, but not necessarily say we will do it on facebook. You may, actually use facebook for part of your social media activity, but you want to form your goals so that they are impact-specific, and open to either multiple or changing platform use.

Step 3: Acting on Strategic Data

And the last part, identifying your metrics to track and really tracking it! When it comes to tracking, there are a few things I recommend:

 Get Started

You can use this template to get you started. Be sure to change the blue rows in the document to reflect your goals and align your various metrics underneath. Make a copy of the file for your own use (otherwise anyone on the web will see your data if you put it in my template), or download the file.

>> http://bit.ly/DIYmetrics

Slides & Video

You can review the slides below, or check out Nonprofit Webinars to watch the full recording!

Photo credit: Flickr myklroventine

Location: Online

Topic: Strong Connections: Linking your strategy, to goals, to data

Description: When it comes to social media, email marketing, or even online engagement in general, we often have a feeling when things are going well or when they aren’t. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or something else, you don’t have to be satisfied with a feeling: use your organization’s strategic plan to identify real goals and then track the data to show your impact. The next time your leadership staff ask why you’re spending all that time on Twitter, you’ll be able to show them why it matters!

Related Links:

• Nonprofit Webinars
• Recording
• Notes and slides

Location: Washington, DC

Topic: Strong Connections: Linking your strategy, to goals, to data

Description: When it comes to social media, email marketing, or even online engagement in general, we often have a feeling when things are going well or when they aren’t. Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, or something else, you don’t have to be satisfied with a feeling: use your organization’s strategic plan to identify real goals and then track the data to show your impact. The next time your leadership staff ask why you’re spending all that time on Twitter, you’ll be able to show them why it matters!

Related Links:

• Blackbaud Conference information
• Slides

Templates

• Community Map Template: http://bit.ly/DIYcommunity
• Content Map Template: http://bit.ly/DIYtemplate
• Metrics Template: http://bit.ly/DIYmetrics
• Listening Dashboard: https://amysampleward.org/2009/10/27/how-to-create-a-listening-dashboard-for-your-organization/

Books & Collections

• We Are Media
• Social by Social
• #SOCIALMEDIA NONPROFIT tweet Book01
• Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission
• Networked Nonprofit

Resources

• Tools and Apps to Energize Your Base
• 5 Steps to a Successful Social Media Strategy
• Google Analytics for Facebook Pages
• Google Analytics for Wikispaces
• List of Social Media Management Systems
• DIY Community Engagement Metrics
• Crowdsourcing vs Community Sourcing
• Slacktivism: Turning a Like into Social Change
• Sustainable Community Building
• Community Building: Landscaping for Gardening

Questions? Ideas? Examples you’d like to share? Drop any questions or things to add to the resource list in the comments here for others to check out!