#COMMUNICATIONS: Make Your Next Fundraiser An Online Conversation Too
A Twitter Wall adds dynamism to even the smallest event
Though weather in the mid-Atlantic continues to flirt with spring while staying surprisingly loyal to winter, it is the season to be planning summer festivals, fundraisers, and rallies. And if you really want to stay on top of your nonprofit’s schedule, start planning your end-of-year banquet as well (and use Tungle). But in this day and age, a nonprofit’s fundraising festival should be but one component of a multi-media plan to engage constituents, volunteers, and supporters both at the event and in the social networks of those attending.
We have recommended ‘Tweet Tables’ in previous posts, and today we draw on a really useful compendium of ideas from Trevor Jonas at Mashable.com.
Popularity: 2% | Category Advertising, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Events, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Gala, Geo-Location, How-to, iDevice, iPad/Tablet, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Mobile, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALMEDIA: Rise Of Micro-Networks Might Reconfigure Social Outreach
Online social networking is all about the sharing, even sharing stuff you wished the rest of the world didn’t see. The opportunities for outreach are expanded exponentially through a social network like Twitter or a blogging site like Tumblr. For businesses, to garner thousands of ‘likes’ or ‘followers’ can be testament to your product’s popularity in the market. But those thousands can also alter your message faster and farther than your company might like. The phenomenon of Kony 2012 proves that millions might watch, but many of those millions are also challenging the message. And how many of us have texted a work colleague meant for our significant other?
A micro-networking culture is brewing that might alleviate some of these stresses through greater control and focus of who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out’ of your particular network. And developers are not thinking in ‘Circles.’
Popularity: 2% | Category Communications, Design, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPad/Tablet, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Link Your Tumblr Post To Other Social Networks
Social networks build connections and interactions, sometimes in surprising ways. Long before such networks were presumed to be online, nonprofits have strived to make connections, have friends influence friends, and spread their good work by word-of-mouth. Now that much of that socializing is taking place electronically, nonprofits need to offer numerous opportunities to disseminate their information. Plenty of evidence shows that a Facebook page is expected for nonprofits, even though little fundraising or communication will come directly from there. Blogging and Tweeting seem to encourage far more engagement than Facebook.
One of the many beauties of Tumblr is that it’s designed to link your blog posts to your Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feed. So you can keep the accounts your community already has running, develop a blog site via Tumblr, and easily connect the three or four! Here’s how:
Popularity: 5% | Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Geo-Location, How-to, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Resource, Reviews, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Tech: QR Codes, Smart Phones, And Prunes Come Together In South Korean Subway
The BBC and PRI’s The World offered a story on the ‘virtual grocery stores’ that are starting to pop up on the walls of some of Seoul’s subway stations. They are the brainchild of Homeplus, the South Korean affiliate of the British supermarket chain Tesco (which has only a minimal presence in the US market as a part of the ‘Fresh & Easy‘ stores). The advertisements have images of the foods sold at the market and QR Codes associated with each product. Use your smart phone to snap a shot of the QR Code, which places your order into a bag or bags, all of which will delivered to your home.
Will such a convenience move beyond the Korean peninsula? Probably, though some resistance is found even in South Korea’s subway.
Popularity: 4% | Category Advertising, Case Study, Community, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Media Review, Reviews, Social Media, Technology | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialMedia: Turns Out, Twitter Can Start Revolutions Mr. Gladwell
What a difference a year can make – not always for the better, mind you. But in today’s post we see grounds for optimism when it comes to the development of social networks and of social movements through those networks as they force political and economic change.
Last fall we wrote about the incisive and incendiary thesis of Malcom Gladwell, who wrote in The New Yorker magazine that social media gives us an inflated sense of social and political engagement when, in fact, little changes. His argument was that though social networks are critical for social change those networks must be personal, not virtual, and the ‘friends’ must be willing to put themselves in a high-risk situation – something that a retweet does not require. He contrasted the revolutions of Moldova and Iran in 2009 (and largely unsuccessful) with the civil-rights movement that began at a Woolworths lunch counter in Greensboro, NC in 1960.
But what about now that dictators have fallen in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and perhaps Syria – and the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement has gone global this past weekend?
Popularity: 3% | Category Banking & Finance, Blogs, Civics, Communications, Community, Facebook, Facebook, Geo-Location, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Politics, Social Media, Twitter | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Tech: Near-Field Communication Now Allows Two-Way Exchanges Of Information
The NFC Forum announced last week a technology protocol that allows NFC to be able to work in two directions synchronously. The press release touted the flexibility of two-way communication and the standards established at the outset to ensure universal access:
The extension of the NFC Data Exchange Format (NDEF) to peer-to-peer use in SNEP is a significant advance. Previously, NDEF was applicable only to NFC tags in reader/writer mode. Now, SNEP enables the use of the openly standardized NDEF in peer-to-peer mode, making seamless interchange of data a reality. Application developers no longer need to concern themselves with how their NDEF data gets transferred between NFC-enabled devices. By providing this capability, the SNEP specification makes the difference between reader-writer and peer-to-peer operation modes disappear – a major step towards global interoperability of NFC applications.
What does all that mean for the technology and for the ways nonprofits can utilize the technology?
Popularity: 3% | Category Communications, Fundraising, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Press Release, Publications, Technology | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialNetworks: Is Facebook Too D@%n Complicated? Depends On What You Want To Share.
We got the notion for this story from Chris Taylor at Mashable.com, who argues that the geeks at Facebook are so excited about adding and tweaking their platform that they are leaving befuddled an ever growing section of their membership. The latest changes have driven him to distraction:
Take the Ticker, for example, that real-time stream of information which now crowds the right-side of your Facebook page with a lot of distracting noise. Or look at the Like button: That was a very popular all-purpose tool that spread rapidly across the Web. Everyone knows what it means to Like something. But Facebook couldn’t leave well enough alone.
The changes in FB’s layout and Timeline storytelling are not yet implemented for most of us, but they will mean a phenomenal amount of sharing of your online ‘life’. Are you going to accept the flow of your information to the larger world, or are you going to take the time to lockdown or at least curtail some of your sharing?
Popularity: 4% | Category Advice, Blogs, Communications, Community, Facebook, Facebook, Geo-Location, How-to, Marketing, Media Review, Opinion, Permission Marketing, Site Administration, Social Media | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialNetworks: How Can Social Media Help You When Disaster Strikes?
Natural disasters have been a part of human history since Noah. What has changed is how we get information about – and request help in the midst of – natural disasters. Thanks to digital media, we can get instantaneous reports about earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. from all over the world. But what about disaster that either touch closer to home or might directly affect our families and friends?
Social-Media services like Twitter, texting, and Facebook have proven to be great ways to raise money and supplies to deal with the aftermaths of these events, as we have often discussed. But a recent survey from The Red Cross demonstrates how people in the midst of these disasters are turning to these services to get updates on the event and to give updates about their own situations.
Popularity: 4% | Category Case Study, Climate Change, Communications, Environment, Facebook, Geo-Location, Health, Media Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Social Media, Technology, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Tech: Near-Field Communication (NFC) Could Turn Smartphones Into Donation Engines
Near-Field Technology (NFC) allows short-range communications between an NFC antenna or engineered SIM card and a receiver. The communication is good only up to a couple of feet, which might help make it a secure connection because eavesdroppers need to be next to the users. It is a technology that first appeared in Taiwan in 2007, and is expected to have a major impact in the US by the middle of next year.
From a hardware point of view, the user needs a smartphone with the necessary antenna or SIM card. For most of us, that would mean a phone upgrade, though a few NFC-ready phones are already on the market (click here for a running list of available phones). With the NFC-ready phone, a user could connect his or her bank through the phone to make purchases with a swipe of that phone. And there is where the debate has started.
Popularity: 4% | Category Advertising, Banking & Finance, Civics, Communications, Geo-Location, Hardware Review, iDevice, Marketing, Public Relations, Reviews, Software Review, Technology, Tools | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Communications: How Twitter Helped And Hurt The Spread Of Information In Two Recent Disasters
Which is not to say millions haven't tried it...
As social media become ever more deeply immured into our technology and information landscape, perhaps we should not be surprised that users of such media are starting to be held to standards once expected of reporters at TV stations and newspapers. On the other hand, some seemingly fine reporting about being a lesbian in Syria turns out to be written by a heterosexual male in the U.S. The swell of the swine flu back in 2009 seemed to be predicted by Twitter, until calmer heads pointed out that unfounded fears could spur twitterers to use terms like ‘#swineflu’ for anything related to pigs, pork, or travel to Mexico.
Recent events in the United Kingdom and here on the east coast of the United States has encouraged professional reporting institutions to reach out to the Twittosphere to try to bring some higher level of expectation to those claiming to report from the riots in English cities or through the mayhem of Hurricane Irene that soaked the eastern seaboard this weekend.
Popularity: 3% | Category Blogs, Case Study, Communications, Community, Environment, Event, Geo-Location, Marketing, Media Review, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Public Media, Social Media, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Tech: Memorial Day History & Technology To Get You Home
Image by Eddie Coyote (Flickr)
Memorial Day in the US sits on the opposite end of the calendar of most of the western (post-)industrial nations who celebrate it on November 11. While theirs marks the end of hostilities from The Great War (aka World War I), ours marks our Civil War, and was begun to create an opportunity for reunifying a divided country.
US General John Logan, who instituted the event as ‘Decoration Day‘ in 1868, sought to give a moment’s reflection on the war dead without undue bias toward the victorious US army over the Confederacy. Indeed, his proclamation stressed a strikingly American emphasis on the familial and the local:
In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
Popularity: 3% | Category Advertising, Branding, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Newspaper Article, Social Media, Software Review, Technology | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Communications: A Beginners Guide to the Social Networking Services
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Leading Age (formerly the American Association for Homes & Services for the Aging) has published a useful guide on their website: it’s a quick look at what social networking is, why you should use it to connect to others and share resources, what the various services do for organizations/individuals, and why one would prefer one service over another. It’s a quick read and will help young and old alike know the difference between a “Tweet” and a “Twit.”
Popularity: 6% | Category Adult Kids, Advertising, Aging, Assisted Living, Branding, Communications, Direct Mail, Facebook, Geo-Location, Grandparents, Independent Living, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nursing Home, Permission Marketing, Public Relations, Research, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Social Media, Twitter | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Social Media: Museums Extend Their Walls To Patrons’ Computers
Museums represent all that is classical, time-honored, and stable in a world of worthy f flux and fad. These institutions are made up of the spaces, curators, and scholars who house, protect, and advocate for what is worthy of inclusion in the collection.
Yet some museums are keeping that ethos while also engaging in the latest social media to bring audiences into the processes: giving them behind-the-scenes looks at restoration or early-bird opportunities to view new acquisitions, or even having a say of what gets shown.
Last month The New York Times had a story about how two museums in the city, one in Indianapolis, and one in San Francisco are finding creative ways to bring people to the museums’ activities and collections, even if those people do not go to the museums themselves. What seems to work to engage people in these virtual collections?
Popularity: 2% | Category Geo-Location, Marketing, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Social Media, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Social Media: Twitter Clips 3rd-Party Developers’ Wings
Who Shall Survive?
On Monday of this week, Twitter reiterated its demands that third-party developers of software interfaces and/or added features to the enormously popular ‘micro-blogging’ site hold development on their products. As Juan Carlos Perez points out in an article published on MacWorld.com, those third-party developers are neither happy nor stopping their development.
Popularity: 3% | Category Communications, Geo-Location, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Social Media: Newspaper Abandons Newsprint. Uses Facebook Instead.
Much has been in the news about the role of social media to spark and sustain the revolutions going across the north African/Arabian region. A small irony amidst the bloodshed and tragedy of a tyrant killing his own people is that most Libyans had to revert to overseas 1990s dialup to wield the power of 2010s social media.
Once connected – IF one could connect – Facebook became as much a means to disseminate news to the larger world as it was to reach out to like-minded local activists. In fact, over the last year or so Facebook’s programmers have been developing tools to clarify and simplify the ways Facebook can become a news source. How as FB developed itself to act as a medium to disseminate real news?
Popularity: 3% | Category Communications, eNewsletter, Facebook, Geo-Location, Local/Maryland, News and Current Affairs, Publications, Social Media, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Far More Developers Than Users of Location-Based Social Media
We shared with you last week a story published by The Wall Street Journal about how mobile applications draw our personal data from our devices in ways few of us understand. We would expect our social-media apps to do such (Facebook, our myriad of Twitter-based software, FourSquare, etc.), but The WSJ found that information-based apps and websites often share even more of our personal data than do social media.
One of aspects of our personal data that we seem less willing to share is our personal space – or at least where our personal space is at any given moment. Location-based services are growing, if FourSquare’s numbers are any indication. But their numbers are still small in relation to the buzz about their potential.
Popularity: 3% | Category Advertising, Facebook, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Social Media, Technology | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Why Egypt’s Government Shut Down Social Media, Not Land Lines
Image by Mama Qarat
We make no claims whatsoever to bringing any political, religious, economic, or aesthetic insight on the momentous events unfolding in Tunisia, Egypt, and now (perhaps) Yemen. We encourage our readers to go to a few respected news sources to get a better sense of what is going on there, and how these rebellions (the names given to revolutions until the rebels win) might have an impact on the US.
A sub-story is emerging, though, that relates to the ongoing debate about the impact of social media to bring social change – a topic we have often touched upon here. The events in Egypt may or may not be of immediate concern to our readership, but the sub-story might prove to be a micro-experiment in the interplay of social media and traditional media to motivate larger audiences to important causes.
Popularity: 5% | Category Audio Interview, Campaigns, Communications, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPhone Apps, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Politics, Public Relations, Social Media, Technology, Twitter, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Apple Sued Over Mobile Apps’ Lack Of Privacy-Tip Of The Iceberg?
The turn of the year has not been especially kind to Apple Inc. and its insanely popular (though not ubiquitous) iPhones and iPads. A widely-reported (and satirized) bug in the clock/alarm application meant many millions were not awoken by their alarms in the first few days of 2011, for example.
Yet the bigger problems started a week earlier, when Jonathan Lalo of California filed a class-action, or group status, lawsuit for his complaint that Apple is giving away his personal information without his consent. The lawsuit claims that the transmission of personal information is a violation of federal computer fraud and privacy laws. Apple is not the only target of this suit, as Pandora, Paper Toss, the Weather Channel and Dictionary.com, are listed as defendants as well.
The concern over privacy and the use of mobile devices could be one of the hot topics of 2011, as mobility apparently means transparency.
Popularity: 4% | Category Advertising, Apple, Communications, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Social Media, Technology | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Holiday Retailers Have “Lost Control Of Their Shoppers”!
No, we don’t mean that door-busting deals have returned to the insane smack-down ‘running-of-the-bulls-in-Pamplona‘ kinds of stuff found on Black Friday a few years ago. We are referring to a quote by Vodafone chief executive (in the United Kingdom) Guy Laurence in TheGuardian.co.uk. His point is that stores have traditionally sought to steer their customers toward certain products or up-sales, but modern mobile technology has stripped them of their abilities to draw people into their stores and entice them to buy what they see. The days of the “Personal Shopper” also seem to be numbered.
Popularity: 1% | Category Advertising, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Social Media, Technology | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
Twitter Joins The Trip To Location-Based Social Media
Image via CrunchBase
Twitter recently, if coyly, announced that its developers are working on a beefed up Places-like feature that allows Twitter-ers to specify the location from which their tweets are sent. The feature is not new to Twitter, but the company’s reminding the public of it suggests an effort to steal some thunder from (or ride the wave with) Facebook’s announcement of Places and Deals that we noted earlier. How might Twitter fare in the micro-blogging/location-specific skirmish?
Popularity: 1% | Category Community, Geo-Location, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Web and Print | | Comments Off
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD