How about FREE training on Inbound Marketing?

One of my favorite social media resources is the weekly webcast (4:00 pm Eastern on Fridays) from HubSpot, also available as a free download on i-Tunes.

Earlier today, HubSpot announced a series of free webcasts for Inbound Marketing University the week of June 15-19, which provides the foundation for a certification program after one week of study.

I believe the United Way system would benefit greatly from a change in marketing philosophy from herding people into rallies to permission-based, personal communications. I've watched every HubSpot TV podcast and I am very impressed by the folks there.

Make sure to follow HubSpot on Twitter and read the blog post on Inbound Marketing University for more details.

10 Twitter Tips for Non-Profit Organizations

Thanks to Heather Mansfield at Change.org for this article http://nonprofits.change.org/

Newsweek said it best: "Suddenly, all the world is a-Twitter." Simple and powerful, Twitter is a must for nonprofit organizations. I (Heather) created and manage a portal to nonprofits on Twitter @nonprofitorgs and based on my experience using site, I have crafted ten of my favorite Twitter Tips for beginners:

1. Authenticity before marketing. Have personality. Build community.
Those nonprofits who are most successful at utilizing social networking Web sites like Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace know from trial, error, and experience that a “marketing and development approach” on social networking sites does not work. Simply put, it comes across as lame. Traditional marketing and development content is perfectly fine for your Web site and e-mail newsletters, but Web 2.0 is much more about having personality, inspiring conversation, and building online community. Nowhere is this more true than on Twitter. Relax, experiment, let go a bit… find your voice. Be authentic.


2. Be nice. Be thankful. Reply and Retweet!
Twitter functions much like Karma. The nicer you are to people in the Twitterverse, they nicer they are to you in return. The more you ReTweet (RT) others, the more they will RT your Tweets in return. And whether it’s Twitter, MySpace, Facebook or YouTube, if someone does something nice for you in the public commons of Web 2.0, it is always a good practice to send them a message of “Thanks… much appreciated!”. Kindness and appreciation will make you stand out from the others and makes an excellent impression.


3. Follow everyone who follows you.
This is a hard one for a lot of nonprofits. They want to keep their “Home” view clutter free and controlled and only follow a select few. Honestly, they only want to follow those whose Tweets that they are really interested in reading. But I say this often… “This time it is not about you, it is about them.” Web 1.0 communications is all about us and our messaging i.e, your Web site and e-mail newsletter. Web 2.0 is all about your supporters and their messaging. It’s better to create a personal Twitter profile in order to only follow those select few you are interested in reading, but if you are going out on Twitter behind your organization’s logo a.k.a. avatar, it is a mistake to not follow all your followers in return. Why?

Twitter is about conversation. You can’t have a conversation on Twitter if you are not following your followers. It is a one-sided relationship. They can’t message you on Twitter if you are not following them. It’s a snub. Let’s face it… people on Twitter want to be followed. That’s what the site is about! How can you build community on Twitter if you won’t even participate with your followers? Have a look around Twitter… you will see the most successful, ReTweeted nonprofits follow everyone who follows them.


4. Use “Favorites” to organize the chaos and feature your most important Tweets!
So, if you are going to follow everyone who follows your organization (which is hopefully thousands of people) then “favorite” Tweets by those who you are most interested in reading and favorite your most important Tweets. The favorites option on Twitter is a simple, excellent tool to help you organize the chaos.


5. Don’t tweet about your coffee (unless it is fair trade), the weather, or how tired you are. Provide value to your followers, not chit-chat!

Winston's comment: AMEN!!
It’s one thing to chit-chat about the weather, your headache, or how you need coffee to wake up in the morning on your personal profile on Twitter, but it’s quite another if you are active on the Twitterverse via your organizational profile. The messages you send reflect upon your organization. Example of what not to Tweet: “Such-and-such Nonprofit got stuck in traffic this morning. Ugh! I need coffee and a vacation… and I think I am getting a headache!” No one likes a whiner and this just makes it sound like Such-and-Such Nonprofit is not a fun place to work. People follow you because they want good content from your organization on subjects relevant to your mission. Make sure your Tweets provide value and are Re-Tweetable.


6. Don’t only Tweet your own content.
Twitter is a news source. Participate in news. Tweet articles or blog posts by your favorite newspapers, bloggers, or other nonprofits (yes... other nonprofits! Find allies, build relationships). If it is a good read or a good resource, it reflects well upon your organization that you Tweeted it. There is also a good chance you might get ReTweeted if the article is deemed timely and worthy by the Twitterverse.


7. Send messages, but not via auto-responders.
There are tools out there that will automatically message your new followers. Don’t use them. It’s Spam. It’s not authentic. It’s not human. It's lazy marketing. I think this cartoon sums up auto-responders perfectly.


8. Don’t worry about those that “unfollow” you.
It’s easy to feel slighted when someone stops following you. What did I say? Did I do something wrong? Let it go. Who knows why they followed you in the first place. Give it no more than 3 seconds thought and then move on.


9. Limit your Tweets to 5 per day, and no more than 6!
I have been polling on Twitter and the Twitterverse has revealed that less is more when it comes to Tweeting. See poll results.


10. Twitter is what you make of it. You get out of Twitter what you put into it. This is the same of all Web 2.0 social networking sites.
Twitter is a fun, valuable tool that can drive significant traffic to your Web site (start watching your Web site referral logs!) and help build and strengthen your brand in the online world of Web 2.0, but just like Facebook and MySpace, Twitter requires time and energy to produce results. You get out of it what you put into it. If you do one Tweet a week, you will get the results of one Tweet. But if you Tweet 4times daily Monday through Friday… you will get the results of 20 Tweets weekly.

Again, it’s about community building around your mission and programs. Just having profile on Twitter (or MySpace, or Facebook) does not magically produce any results. You have to work these profiles. Find the person on your staff who loves Web 2.0 and enjoys working the sites and/or find a marketing/pr intern from your local university that needs to do a senior project! If they are getting college credit, then you know they have to stay around for at least a semester.

Source: Change.org's Guide to Nonprofit 2.0 - nonprofits.change.org/

Is it wise to post your pledge card online?

Rochester NY is unique in all of the United Way because it runs a spring public campaign which is kicking off this month.

Just in time for the Rochester kickoff is this Blog post from a local ministry group seeking designated giving by promoting step by step instructions and linking to the United Way website for a designation card.

Over the years, I've seen neighboring United Ways post these same types of instructions on their websites trying to get people to designate their gifts back home.

With the advent of Web 2.0's many free tools (blogs, social networking, etc) anyone can post a pledge form onto the web and campaign among their social connections to promote their cause and potentially damage the unrestricted giving that United Ways need to fulfill community priorities.

In the past, I've felt it unwise to post pledge cards online. Now, I'm not so sure. Comments?

How to use Twitter & online tools

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is hosting a live chat on Tuesday, Feb 17th at noon eastern titled: "Social-Media Workshop: How Nonprofit Groups Can Use Online Tools to Build Awareness and Raise Money".

What's the difference between sites like Digg, Facebook, and Twitter? How do they work? How can your organization use these tools to connect with potential donors or supporters? What lessons can be learned from the recent Twestival -- a massive fund-raising event for the group Charity: Water that was organized on Twitter?

Join the social-media experts Chris Garrett and John Haydon for a discussion of these and other questions.

Click on this link at noon eastern time for the live chat session: http://tinyurl.com/c3djcp

Also, here is a handy link for Web 2.0 & social media definitions: http://tinyurl.com/d9yvwm

Give5Now Minneapolis update

Minneapolis provided an update today on their Give5Now campaign.

"Give5Now was born organically in response to feedback we’d been hearing from donors, media, etc (I know times are tough, and I wish there was something bite-sized I could do to respond). So, we...put up a very simple website and created the referral tool that you saw if you gave. In all, we spent probably 10-12 hours in development and then another 25-30 in promotion (setting up facebook cause, twittering, preparing staff and volunteer email template."

"We raised just over $18,000 online and got a $20,000 check from a random donor. Of the 900+ donors, over 80% were new to United Way (or at least not in our database as current donors). 1 in 4 people that viewed the video on the www.give5now.org website proceeded to give a gift, and the average gift was a little over $20. More importantly, we got picked up by all 4 major newscasts locally, were written up in both dailies and had 3 radio stations talk about the campaign."

--Andy Goldman-Gray, United Way Twin Cities

For less than 40 hours of work, United Way Twin Cities gained almost $40,000 in donations and increased their public profile as a responsive, engaged organization.

We are also tracking similar United Way efforts and will post their results here as they become available.

Philanthropy 2.0 survey

If your United Way is active in Web 2.0 or social media, please make sure to fill out this short survey that is making the rounds on a number of non-profit technology blogs. http://ping.fm/VYxyL .

Thanks, you will be glad you did. Winston

Welcome to Live United Y'All

As a person born and raised in the south, when I saw the title of Louisville United Way's new blog Live United Y'All, I couldn't resist checking it out. I encourage you to do the same. It's well written and engaging.

Speaking of Louisville, the Derby City is also the feature on tonight's American Idol. I hope there is a Metro United Way connection on the show tonight.

Live United & social media

The firm behind United Way's Live United program have just posted some additional information on their blog at the following link: http://bit.ly/YUzy

I'm really excited to see the strategic direction that comes from this engagement. It will be interesting to see how local United Ways work together to leverage one another's influence in the larger online community. Imagine the overall impact if local United Ways would work together in a collaborative way.

My favorite time saver: Google Reader

With personal time at a premium, I no longer go to my favorite web pages to know what's going on, I let the web pages come to me with Google Reader. For me this has replaced traditional newspaper and magazine subscriptions and many of my internet "favorites" on my web browser. With Google Reader, when any of my sites change or update, it shows up on a single web page.

Here at Upic, I track news articles and social media mentions of both "United Way" and "Upic Solutions". Earlier this week, I was able to pass along a service compliant that was posted on Twitter to a United Way in South Carolina just by seeing it pop up in Google Reader.

Overall, this is a BIG time saver for me, allowing me to focus on the most relevant news and social media postings without having to visit multiple websites or publications. Below are two You Tube videos that describe the benefits of Google's reader technology.

Google Reader in Plain English


Getting Started with Google Reader

Give5Now campaign-Twin Cities

United Way of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis, MN) is now experimenting with an new a viral campaign called Give5Now encouraging residents to contribute $5 and encourage five others to give $5 now with a focus of helping with basic needs given the current economic climate.

Check out the short You Tube video below. The campaign launched on Monday with the following article.



According to the local newspaper article, over $12,500 was raised in the first 48 hours with an average gift of $23 per person. We'll keep in touch with the organizers to see how it turns out for them.

Managing your online reputation

Monitoring your organization's online reputation is more challenging than ever before with the hundreds of new Web 2.0/social media tools now on the scene.

This week, we started monitoring "United Way" and "Upic Solutions" mentions on the web and in blogs using several of the free tools mentioned in this article from last year.

As we started monitoring Twitter feeds, we were surprised with the number of tweets coming from United Way board meetings, including this one in Charlotte earlier this week. If you would like email alerts of Twitter feeds, we really like this free service as well.

Listening to the blogosphere is more important than ever and you can do it easily with Web 2.0 and social media.

Live United Flash Mob

What would you do if you saw people taking off their clothes in a busy train station? On November 13th, a "flash mob" from United Way of America struck Union Station in Washington DC for the Live United campaign. Below are the original PSA and a passerby video shot and posted on "You Tube". Very interesting concept to get the community involved. Check out the videos and the crowd reaction.

PSA:


Passerby video:

Wikis in Plain English-Video

Wonder whether wiki writing would work well for United Way? (Try saying that three times fast).

Maybe you are wondering what is a wiki? The following Common Craft video explains all in about 4 minutes.



Upic is reviewing potential wiki platforms as a forum for our members to share best practices with one another. We believe that a wiki will assist all of our members in learning more about technology and ways we can all be more effective in our work. Watch this space for more on Upic's wiki community.

P.S. We're looking for a creative name for our community's wiki, please submit a comment below. We'll provide a gift card for the winning submission.

The Streisand Effect

Want to become famous on the Internet? Object to something you read and ask it to be removed from the web.

A few years ago, pilot Gabrielle Adelman and photographer Kenneth Adelman decided to photograph the entire California coastline (see http://www.californiacoastline.com/).

Singer Barbara Streisand objected and insisted that photos of her home be removed from the site, which set off a firestorm of publicity for the photography project. Soon, hundreds of others copied and posted the photos on their websites & blogs, resulting in Google Image Search easily returning the photo searching on "Barbara Streisand House".

Despite her efforts to remove the photos, a new Internet sensation was created, costing her well over $150,000 in legal fees when she lost the case.

Blogger Mike Masnick coined the term the "Streisand Effect" for events where attempts to remove content from the Internet cause it to spread broadly instead. A popular blog of the same name now chronicles other's efforts to muffle the power of the Internet.

Some companies are doomed to repeat the lessons of history.

Comcast gaining from Web 2.0 lessons

Organizations are learning to pay attention to the voice of the customer using Web 2.0 tools. Last week, I posted the infamous video of a Comcast technician asleep at a customer's house while he (technician) waited for the help desk to respond. It seems that Comcast is no longer asleep when it comes to obtaining customer feedback.

Check out Comcast Cares on Twitter which provides customer feedback to Comcast via text, IM or cell phone. Rather than wait in a "voice mail hell," customers can reach a real person immediately and ask questions or report service issues.

Web sites like Yelp.com are popping up providing valuable customer reviews/feedback and are definitely worth monitoring. Make sure to do a Google search of your organization name from time to time and see what others are saying.

Power of Social Media: Comcast video

Just for fun....Google the word "Comcast". The 9th most popular entry? A "YouTube" video of a Comcast technician sleeping on my couch. The Comcast technician fell asleep waiting for their help desk to pick up the call. Their service was forever immortalized through the use of social media.



"This is why social media is so important," Charlene Li, co-author of Groundswell said, "this YouTube video recorded by 'Brian' resulted in the Comcast brand going down the toilet. You must understand that the power is now in the hands of consumers."

Source: Social Media for Business-Who's Doing It Well & How

Video: Social Media in Plain English

Welcome to Scoopville. Big Ice Cream Company is facing a big challenge from a new invention.

This very entertaining video focuses on basics of social media: the new technology that makes everyone a producer and easy to use tools that give everyone a chance to have a say.

"YouTube" video and transcript of CommonCraft's Social Media in Plain English. Enjoy!

"Email is kind of...the eight track player"

Well, that quote from Peter Droege of the Daniels Fund (a foundation in Denver) really got my attention. This comes from a new report on Foundations and Web 2.0.

Droege was referring to his organization's efforts to communicate with young people who receive college scholarships from the foundation and to foster a sense of community and camaraderie between the students.

The fund set up a Facebook group (log-in required) after it realized that their students were not using its Web site or responding to numerous email messages.

I wonder how many young professionals find United Way websites and email newsletters as valuable as that Saturday Nite Fever eight track cassette?

Source: Chronicle of Philanthrophy 10/2/2008

The Machine is Us...Web 2.0 video

This "YouTube" video shows the how much Web 2.0 is changing the way we use the Internet in a short and entertaining way.

The title of this is "The Machine is Us/ing Us".

From the opening of the Web 2.0 University session yesterday.

Let me know what you think...