Nonprofit Social Media Resources: A Menagerie

Sep

2009

This week I’m giving a presentation on social media to the Dane County Administrators of Volunteer Service (DCAVS).

In a 75 minute talk (including discussion) I’ll only be able to scratch the surface of this enormous topic, so I’m providing them with additional resources to help with later planning and learning. I thought I’d post the resource list here for anyone else who’d find it useful.

P.S. If your nonprofit isn’t trying out social media yet, go ahead. Take the plunge. Don’t count on magical results, but do count on finding important new ways of connecting with the people who are most important to you.

1. General Reference

1.1. Big Picture / Social Media Overview

Social Media for Non Profits
A slide show with a good overview of the topic.

Creating Your Organization’s Social Media Strategy Map
By Beth Kanter, widely recognized guru in nonprofit social media.

Britt Bravo Getting The Word Out About Your Cause With Blogs, Podcasts & Social Networks
Includes many examples of nonprofits using these tools.

Example: Social Media Handbook for Red Cross Chapters (Wendy Harman)

1.2. Resource Portals

These sites each offer a wide array of resources related to nonprofit social media.

We Are Media
NTEN provides this excellent depot of resources for nonprofits that want to learn about and use social media. Among other resources the site includes online training modules and resources for a wide range of topics; some are in progress, others are relatively complete. There is also a Social Media Toolbox with information organized by type of technology: Blogs, Podcasts, Social Networking, etc.

NetSquared
An initiative of TechSoup Global, this is a community that shares ideas and sponsors challenges related to social change through technology.

TechShop (University of Wisconsin-Madison)
A Service Learning program for UW-Madison students. It connects students with nonprofits on information technology projects, particularly Web 2.0 projects. The goal is not to do projects for nonprofits, but to increase the nonprofits’ capacity to do and maintain projects. This takes the form of teaching them about social media, and doing projects side-by-side with nonprofit staff.

Charityhowto
This is a for-fee video site offering video training for nonprofits. If you can’t or would prefer not to pay for the full training, each of the sessions offers a brief snippet from the training, and the snippets themselves are useful.

1.3. Blogs and Podcasts

I follow all of these blogs and podcasts and have learned a lot about best practices, examples, new tools, and audience demographics. I’ve listed them here in order of their importance to me; the blogs listed earliest are the ones that have taught me the most.

John Haydon

Get Your Sanity Back: Wild Apricot’s Non-Profit Technology Blog
Note: this blog is sponsored by a Wild Apricot, a commercial Membership Management software vendor. However, except for the ads at the top and sides, the information is generally vendor-agnostic, and often very useful.

Socialbrite

Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media (Beth Kanter)

NetWit’s Think Tank

NetSquared Blog

The Bamboo Project (Michele Martin)

Chronicle of Philanthropy: Social Good Podcasts (Allison Fine)

Nonprofit Tech
Not so much a blog as a meta-blog, aggregating stories and resources from many other sites. It covers all forms of technology, but also provides targeted pages for specific technologies, for example, Facebook (http://www.nonprofittech.com/browse/facebook/), Flickr (http://www.nonprofittech.com/browse/facebook/flickr/) and YouTube (http://www.nonprofittech.com/browse/facebook/flickr/youtube/).