Until recently, I have gone to exceptional lengths to avoid getting video recorded. I have always felt very uncomfortable in front of a camera and even more so watching myself recorded. I’m usually the person behind the lens. Know what I mean? In fact, one of the reasons that I have pursued a career in nonprofit technology, ironically, is...
Soaring tablet use and an online commons increasingly battling information overload has fundamentally changed web design as we know it. Bigger pictures, less text, larger fonts, and easy-to-tap and click buttons and navigation are the new Web design aesthetic. That said, consistency in Web design is becoming more complicated with each passing day. Do you attempt to create one...
Every morning I begin my day with browsing those that have followed @NonprofitOrgs from the previous morning before. I then follow in return those that are nonprofits, nonprofit staff, or nonprofit service providers and today I followed my 100,000th nonprofit: Furry Feet Rescue in Walnut Port, PA (@FurryFeetRescue). To commemorate reaching 100,000 (which took three years, 10 months, and 100,000...
A recent study concluded that only about one-third of tweets are worth reading and with Twitter now generating 340 million tweets per day, that’s approximately 266 millions tweets that would have been better left untweeted. Finding your Twitter voice is a skill and it takes a concerted effort to first track what tweets your followers react to (or not) and...
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 6 of the recently released book Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits. These basic LinkedIn Profile tips for nonprofit professionals serve as a foundation for when and if your nonprofit is ready to utilize LinkedIn Groups and Company Pages. That said, I do not cover personal LinkedIn Profiles in my upcoming webinar How...
UPDATED July 19 :: With more than 19 million monthly unique visitors, Pinterest is now the fourth most trafficked social networking site in the United States – behind Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Even if your nonprofit is not quite ready to take the leap into pinning, at the very least you should sign up to reserve your first choice of...
On March 30 the new Facebook Timeline design will roll out to all Facebook Pages and one new function is the ability to post Milestones to your Timeline. I’ll be giving a comprehensive click-by-click tour of the new Facebook Timeline design and tool set in my upcoming webinars on Facebook and Facebook Apps for nonprofits, but a how-to get...
With each passing day your supporters, donors, activists and sponsors are becoming overwhelmed by the barrage of tweets, status updates, text messages, and emails being thrown at them on a daily basis. As a result, text-based “Thank You” messages are often unread and overlooked. That said, a video can often communicate your appreciation better than the written word and...
Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits launched in conjunction with a social media and mobile technology training and book tour that also served as fundraiser for partners nonprofits – a total of $17,130 was raised. Thanks very much to those that attended, the nonprofit partners (listed below), and the Nonprofit Tech 2.0 Sponsors that helped make it happen. Completed...
With smartphones now outselling PCs and tablet sales surpassing even the most conservative of estimates, the majority of your nonprofit’s supporters will likely be browsing your website on mobile devices by 2013 – and unfortunately most nonprofits are not prepared for this dramatic shift in Web communications. That said, the following is a short excerpt from Chapter 9 of Social Media for...
The new Facebook Timeline for Pages design provides nonprofits a great opportunity to make a strong first impression on potential new fans. My graphic design skills are average at best – as the graphics on the new Nonprofit Organizations Timeline attest to, but I have detailed the how-to of custom designing your nonprofit’s Facebook Timeline below. I will also be demonstrating...
Most nonprofits have not yet upgraded to the new Facebook Timeline for Pages design, but as more and more admins begin to realize that the Timeline design and tool set is much more than just uploading a photo to the top of your page, I think we’ll see many of our favorite nonprofits take the leap and upgrade before the...
The following is an excerpt from Chapter 1 of Social Media for Social Good: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits. These best practices serve as a foundation for your online fundraising campaigns, but much of your nonprofit’s success also depends upon the service you choose to process your online donations and the design and frequency of your e-newsletter. That said, these online fundraising...