Twitter for the little guy

Beth Kantor has another great post about how even modest organizations that don’t have pots of gold can make social media work to accomplish for their own missions. Plus, she wants to hear about any good ideas out there form nonprofits using social media in new and exciting ways:

“And, if you are a small organization and have succeeded, I want to hear about it.

Leave a comment sharing how you're using social media to support your organization's work in a local community or regional effort and using a shoe string budget to do it. And, if you could win a copy of "Twitter for Dummies" that the good folks from Wiley just sent me.”

Doing something cool with Twitter? Facebook? Ning? Drop Beth a line.

The power of layering

According to this great post from Frogloop, the key to a successful campaign builds momentum both offline and online:

“The cardinal rule of offline campaigns is layering: multiple contacts on the doorstep and on the phone build on each other to create momentum. Neighborhoods that have had multiple passes of canvassing tend to deliver higher ROI on each successive pass - the second, third, and fourth contacts aren't "cold calls", they're follow-ups. Adding contacts through online advertising and content, social networks, email, text, mail, etc. can build momentum, too. The more times a voter, donor, or advocate sees, hears, reads, or experiences a message and call to action the more likely it is to penetrate the noise of every day life…”

Face Time

For nonprofits, engaging supporters online is becoming the norm. Emails fly and movements are building on social networks. But nothing will ever replace the power of real, live, human beings standing together for a cause. How do you get online activists not only to show up at real events – but to make those events truly awesome and effective?

Check out One Day, One Planet: A How-To Guide to Orchestrating a Global Day of Action on techpresident.com.

What does the future hold for democracy? For organizing around a cause? 350.org's Global Day of Action might give us a clue.