Free social media tools for your nonprofit-from Social by Social
I just saw Amy Sample Ward a few days ago, lucky me, on her way from SXSW to London, and she handed me this wonderful book that she is a co-author of, called Social by Social.
So this morning I got up early, plunked down on the couch with a cup of tea and started reading Social by Social, a giant orange book. It was written in wiki format, so there are lots of ways you can go through the book. Here are some highlights you can use for your organization.
If you’ve ever said, What the heck, social media is so full of jargon, I don’t even know what to do, well, they’ve thought of that! Here’s a link to their jargon page.
The How-Tos part was incredibly useful.
It includes:
How to become a digital activist
How to find out what’s already been done by others
How to create a blog strategy
How to find and join conversations that are already happening
How to turn a film into a campaign
10 Search Engine Optimization tips
How to subscribe to an RSS feed
How to use Delicious.com
How to choose tags for your organization
How to use blogging to improve your search engine position
How to make and publish quick videos for the web
10 Search Engine Marketing Tips
How to make the most out of Google Adsense
How to publish a book
How to design a homepage
How to set up a virtual office
and more!
This book/wiki/resource is incredibly useful and I would recommend it to anyone who is interested in broadening and deepening their knowledge of social media, or raising more money for their organization, or learning how to create a strategy to engage donors online.
Favorite quotes so far:
“The message is not about the charity, but about why the messenger cares.” -Katya Anderson
“A public sector that does not create platforms for its citizens to create solutions for themselves, together, will soon start to seem old, outdated and tired. It will also be far less productive and effective in creating public goods. The future of public services rests on their becoming platforms for participation and collaborations, mobilizing citizens as player-developers in creating public goods.” -Charles Leadbeater, author, We-Think.
There were also a couple of good sites that I enjoyed, such as The Nag. As I’ve heard fundraisers being described as professional nags, this appealed to me. They just redesigned their website, but they HAD an adorable interface, you can still see a screenshot if you go to the link above. This new one is simple and okay… Their tagline is still my favorite: “Changing the world one lazy-assed mouse click at a time.”
The book is available, in its entirety, FOR FREE, online, at http://socialbysocial.com.
March 21st, 2010 at 9:12 am
Really delighted you like socialbysocial. My favourite part is the propositions that we wrote as conversations starters. Here’s the first three:
1. Give up on the illusion of control. In a networked world, organisations can no longer control what people think or say about them. If you’re worried, get involved.
2. People make technology matter. Think about mindset, language and skills before you think about tools, features and screen designs. Don’t jump for the tool.
3. People want control. If you give them tools for taking more control of their lives, they will pay you back in attention, support, promotion and even hard cash.
Amy and I are now developing http://socialbysocial.net. Hope you’ll join us there.
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:50 pm
Dear David,
Thank you so much for leaving such a great comment! I love how your answer created the paradox, give up control, yet people want control.
Can’t wait to participate in the conversation on socialbysocial.net!
March 23rd, 2010 at 6:19 am
Thanks so much for sharing Social by Social, Mazarine! Andy Gibson, the other co-author, has recently released Local by Social, a pamphlet focused specifically on local governments using social media. When we originally wrote Social by Social we had the intention of writing additional chapters for specific audiences, and this is the first instance of it. You can read about it or download the section here:
http://sociability.org.uk/2010/03/16/local-by-social/
Thanks again
March 24th, 2010 at 12:36 am
Dear Amy,
Thank you for sharing this link! I hope that governments will take their cue from this pamphlet and become ever more open and transparent.
If we could empower the majority of the population to become empowered critics, petitioners, activists, and otherwise engaged in government online, then perhaps we could finally break down participation barriers, and we really would have a government “By the people” and “For the people.”
Mazarine