How does your Facebook page compare?

How does your Facebook presence stack up to other nonprofits? How much staff time do other nonprofits dedicate to social network upkeep? Now many nonprofits are using Twitter?

Our friends at NTEN surveyed over 900 nonprofit professionals about how they’re using social networks and then compiled the results into an easy-to-read report. (Note that you have to provide some basic contact information to download the report, but it also signs you up for NTEN’s free newsletter, which is full of helpful tools and info. And don’t forget – you’re an NTEN member!)

Building Relationships with Lawmakers

"In reality, successful influencers are... methodical. They are humble. They are patient."

Check out this exerpt from Amy Showalter's book about how underdogs (us) can build relationships with the Big Dogs (lawmakers) they hope to influence. Interesting reading...

http://www.innovatetomotivate. com/reports/ASAEUnderdog809. pdf


This abridged excerpt was published by The American Society of Association Executives Associations Now magazine.

Twitter 101 for business

Despite all the talk and hype about Twitter, do you still feel like you missed the first day of class?

This link will take you to a great guide- provided by Twitter- about how businesses are using the tool and maximizing their relationships with customers. There are sections on getting started, learning the lingo and even best practices. Plenty of relevant information as we think about how we can effectively use Twitter to engage with advocates.

http://business.twitter.com/twitter101/

Getting the most out of your NTEN membership

First- did you realize you have an NTEN membership? You do! We have an AHA membership that extends to all our grassroots staff. You should have received a welcome message way back at the end of 2008. You'll need your email address as your log-in name, and you'll click 'forgot password' to get started. Contact Danielle Grooms if you need assistance getting up and running on the website.

If you do know about your membership... Do you take advantage of the many free or low-cost webinars and conference calls hosted for members? They're a great way to get and stay connected with others in the advocacy field- and to learn how they're using various technologies in their work. I love their 'Ask the Expert' series!

Visit http://www.nten.org/ right away to get acquainted with the Nonprofit Technology Network. You'll be glad you did!

Tabbloid Reading

Have trouble keeping up with all your favorite blogs? Do you run out of time or forget to visit some of them? This is a great resource!

Visit http://www.tabbloid.com/ to set up your own daily paper. You simply enter the urls, set the schedule and let the website do the work. They'll send you a daily paper that includes all the recent posts from your favorite blogs.

Check it out! No need to spend your entire morning clicking from site to site...

Bloggers on the Bus

This looks like an interesting presentation- To stream this event live, click here

A Conversation About Media and Politics in the Digital Age
July 16, 2009, 5:00pm – 6:30pm

Last November’s elections broke barriers and made history on a number of fronts, making it one of the most transformative elections our nation has ever seen. One of the most groundbreaking changes was in the way Americans received and processed vital information about the most pressing issues—for the first time in American history, blogs, social networking sites, and other web-based media were the primary sources of information for many voters. They helped shape individual opinions and the public discourse at large.

While the Internet has proven to be instrumental in disseminating intelligent, well-developed information on public policy, it has unfortunately also been a medium for disseminating hateful rhetoric and promoting the politics of fear. The progressive movement’s challenge moving forward is to not only help curtail the spread of this inaccurate information, but also seize this new media’s benefits to help promote a factual, intelligent, and broad progressive policy agenda.

Please join us for the Internet Advocacy Roundtable on Thursday, July 16 from 5:00-6:30 p.m. This month’s discussion will moderated by Media Matters founder and CEO David Brock and feature Media Matters Senior Fellow Eric Boehlert and ThinkProgress.org Editor-in-Chief Faiz Shakir. They will discuss blogs and other new media’s impact on the public discourse, and how the progressive movement can use new media to help promote a broad policy agenda in 2009.

Twitter Just a Blip So Far

Someone recently shared this study with me, and I thought you might find it interesting as well! Interesting to note the very low percentage of people actually using Twitter...

Findings of the Online The Harris Poll, conducted between March 31 and April 1, 2009, show that 51% of Americans do not use Twitter or have a MySpace or Facebook account. 48% of adults have either a MySpace or Facebook page, with 16% of adults updating their page at least once a day. While the media may have found Twitter, only 5% of Americans are currently using it.

There are some substantial differences in who is and who isn't using these social networking sites, says the report:

• 74% of those aged 18-34 years old have a Facebook or MySpace account but this quickly drops off the older one gets. Only 24% of those 55 and older have an account


• 8% of 18-34 year olds use Twitter, 7% of those 35-44 use it, 4% of those aged45-54 and just 1% of those 55 and older


• Men and women use Twitter at the same levels (5% each), but women are more likely to have a Facebook or MySpace account (52% versus 45%)
• Two in five people with a high school degree or less have a Facebook or MySpace account compared to 55% of those with some college and 52% of those with at least a college degree.

There has been some discussion about whether these social networking sites may, at some point, become a threat to search engines such as Yahoo! or Google. Right now, that doesn't seem to be an issue, concludes the study, as 45% of adults believe the sites are popular, but they won't pose a real threat to the domination of search sites while just one in ten say they may become a threat. 46% of Americans are not at all sure. Even among the largest users of the social networking sites, 18-34 year olds, 62% say they will not become a real threat to the search engines.

Here's a link to the press release of the study:
http://www.harrisinteractive.com/harris_poll/pubs/Harris_Poll_2009_04_16.pdf