Zeb

A highlight event for me of Internet Week was Social Media for NonProfits. I think it was the first of a series of events by a new organization called the New York Social Media Roundtable. (You can sign up for future event notifications on their site.)

I thought the panelists were solid. I tweeted from the event, "While each panelist @nysmrt has differing depths of experience, they each have excellent insights & r generally on point." Each panelist had their own nonprofit thing going on, some impressive and some nascent, and each was neck deep in social media with their efforts. The panelists were @sorayad, @mknell, @rachelsklar, & @katemiltner. The location is worth mentioning as an excellent nonprofit itself, and a lovely event space: The Center, 208 West 13th Street, New York.

A great take away from the event is a breakdown of the current social media tools we discussed. Here is the quick rundown from my notes.

1. Google Analyitics
2. Bit.ly
3. Compete, Quantcast
   
4. Twitter Search
5. Firstgiving
6. Tipjoy
7. Causes
8. Grassroots.org
9. Barcamp
10. Facebook
11. Tumblr
12. Twitter
13. Youtube, Livestream, Qik

Google Analytics (GA) - Empower your site and marketing efforts with metrics. Measure, assess, optimize - standard web stuff applied to nonprofit efforts online. I'll take that a step further and recommend a review of of all the tools offered on Google for Non-Profits.

Bit.ly - Bit.ly is a url shortener that has some built in analytics features. It isn't the only one. Other url shortening services provide similar functionality, and some provide functions that bit.ly does not. Still, bit.ly is a market leader and a strong offering, especially on the tracking side, so let's keep it with them in this post. Whether or not you implement GA, using bit.ly allows you to easily and immediately track how many clicks your link is getting. You can also track geolocation where your link gets clicked, when it received clicks over time, and more tracking features to utilize. It's so easy to start using it, just start now by visiting http://bit.ly/ and sign up for an account.

Compete, Quantcast - Compete & Quantcast both offer ways to evaluate web site popularity and traffic. These tools are great for looking at trends, competitor traffic, demographics, and more. Nobody has the magic formula to arrive at the best results, so experts use a range of tools to assess traffic data. These are two market leaders, are free, and are relatively easy to use.

Twitter Search (Advanced view) - Twitter Search is growing up. It's a fabulous way to check the pulse on just about anything, but especially good to monitor topics that concern or affect your organization. What's Twitter? Here's a good place to start: Top 7 Twitter Tutorials on YouTube.

Firstgiving.com - You can make your own fundraising page on Firstgiving to raise money for any nonprofit organization.

Tipjoy - Tipjoy is a new fundraising startup that enables you to start a fundraising campaign on Twitter. See there Twitter Tools page - Raise money via Twitter: campaign tools and instructions. This is an early market, but don't let that stop you from trying.

Causes - Is Facebook is the mother of social networking, then Causes is the mother of Facebook Apps. "Any Facebook user with a little passion and initiative can create a cause, recruit their friends into that cause, keep everybody in the cause up-to-speed on issues and media related to the cause, and, most importantly, raise money directly through the cause for any U.S. registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit or Canadian registered charity. We process the donations automatically via credit card, tally the results, and report the donation activity via a public "scorecard" in the cause. This allows us to reward people who grow their causes, donate, and successfully raise money."

Grassroots.org - "The mission of Grassroots.org is to serve as a catalyst for positive social change by leveraging modern technologies and best business practices. Grassroots.org provides nonprofit organizations with free valuable technologies and resources to increase their efficiency and productivity."

Barcamp - Barcamp was referenced mostly as a model of an unconference that many nonprofits find useful to help organize local events. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BarCamp for a good explanation.

Facebook - Facebook has been evolving rapidly. That's good in a lot of ways, but it can be confusing for organizations trying to leverage Facebook. "Pages" is the offering that FB recommends for organizations. A lot of orgs choose "Groups" in place of, or in addition to, Pages. Here's a breakdown of the differences as of May 27 2009: Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups: What’s the Difference?

Tumblr - Tumblr is a dead simple blogging platform with built in sharing. It has a follow model similar to Twitter. If you don't have a blog yet, try tumblr. If you do already have a blog, test tumblr out and see if it generates more traffic for you. You might end up moving everything onto tumblr, or importing posts from you main blog.

Twitter - If you don't know, start with Top 7 Twitter Tutorials on YouTube. Seth Godin has a great explanation of Twitter in his book Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. I'll see if I can grab an excerpt.

Youtube, Livestream, Qik - Video is still the most compelling medium. Leverage low cost video and community building features of web sties like these. Youtube is great for creating a channel and generating views. Livestream (formerly Mogulus) is super for live event streaming with audience participation, and playback. Qik lets you stream live video directly from a qualified mobile phone. The new iPhone being announce June 8 2009 should make this commonplace. The videos are saved for playback, too.

A few more tweets from the event:

"Don't assume that posting to a site that may seem redundant to you is a waste of time. Each site reaches slightly different demos @nysmrt"

"Measure who (demographics) is following you, & concentrate on delivering an optimal experience to that demo of ppl @sorayad @nysmrt"

"Word for 2009 is "micro", crowdsourcing works, social media is enabling nonprofits to harness many smaller gifts & raise awareness @nysmrt"

What's next?