#TECH: Mac? Windows? Need Both Operating Systems? Use Both! (Part I)
Invest in software, not computers
In the primitive era of personal computing (any time before about 2004), one had to commit entirely to one of three platforms or operating systems: Mac, Windows, or Linux. Sharing documents created on one platform with a colleague on another platform was tricky at best. What could be shared was electronic information (emails or websites) or un-editable PDF files, all of which made collaboration difficult and pretty much locked any office, nonprofit, or even family onto one track.
Now with cloud computing and mobile devices and programs that create ‘virtual machines’ of one kind of operating system working within another (think: picture-in-picture feature on a television), individuals can pick their favorite hardware and OS, and be confident that they can collaborate with their less enlightened colleagues. We’d like to introduce the latest developments in virtualization and present a brief series on a few ways to set up many computers on one device.
Popularity: 1% | Category Desktop Apps, Hardware Review, How-to, Nonprofit, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#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
#TECH: We Catch Up With Dropbox Collaboration Tool (With Nonprofit Pricing)
Sync files among your devices, whatever OS they run
We’ve covered collaboration tools in the past, and Dropbox is a favorite for its ease of use and inexpensive offerings (including a personal favorite price: free for 2GB of storage space). We wanted to return to the program this Tech Friday because Dropbox continues to develop and people are finding new ways to use it.
For a reminder on the practicals of Dropbox: individuals get 2 gigabytes of storage for free, which allows you to sync files and folders among your computing and mobile devices − the premise of ‘cloud computing.’ From there, rates go up by 50 GB increments up to the ‘Teams’ level that start at a Terabyte. But what’s really good news is that late last year Dropbox started offering 30% discounts to nonprofit organizations!
Once you get signed up for the account, what can you do with it?
Popularity: 2% | Category Desktop Apps, How-to, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Nonprofit, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Get Guidance From Google On Simple SEO Success
Is your site worth searching for?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a social media buzzword: gotta have it, gotta work at it, gotta pack it in to your website or blog! And it is true that SEO needs to be a part of your nonprofit’s online and outreach strategies. Why develop a new site or even update your outdated one if people will struggle to find it, much less relevant information on it? The go-to standard for web searches (including images and videos) is, of course, Google. Even as the e-behemoth develops Android and G+ and even augmented-reality glasses, millions of us use it simply, almost exclusively, for web research.
So why not find out what the folks at Google recommend to bolster the searchability and discoverability of your website?
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Resource, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Web and Print, Web Design, Writing, YouTube | | 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
#TECH: Designing A Mobile App? Design For A Mobile Device!
Who needs an app for that?
The nonprofit world is going mobile. The move might be slower than in the corporate world, but it’s steady, and nonprofits are developing ways to get around software or contractual walls. Mobile apps encourage supporters to stay engaged with your organization and its programs, and the apps also can give volunteers and staff in the field access to necessary information from the home office and/or report developments to that office. Best of all, mobile apps could links developments on projects directly to the mobile donors who can instantly see the link between their support and the progress the charity is making.
But before you get all buzzed about the synergy, you should be aware of the challenges of developing an application for mobile devices, including the fact that there are so many kinds of mobile devices.
Popularity: 2% | Category Blogs, Communications, Design, Desktop Apps, Graphic Design, Hardware Review, How-to, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing Skills, Mobile, Nonprofit, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web Design | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Setup A (Free) Scoop.it Magazine For Your Community
We introduced Scoop.it and Pinterest earlier this week because we think these information-sharing sites offer a great platform for nonprofits and charities to share their own news as well as related images or stories in their sectors. As promised we have returned to round out this mini-series with a guide to help you setup a Scoop.it e-magazine site. Unlike Pinterest, you need not wait for an ‘invitation’. In fact, if you have a Twitter or Facebook account, you are already good-to-go. And if you don’t, where have you been these past five or six years?!
Popularity: 2% | Category Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Dashboards, eNewsletter, How-to, Marketing, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Research, Resource, Reviews, Scoopit, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SM4NP: Scoop.it! For Information ‘Curation’ & Social Interaction
Yesterday we explored Pinterest, a social network that puts a premium on visuals and offers ‘pin boards’ of topics collected/bookmarked/’pinned’ by the user. The metrics on the platform show amazing growth over the last few months, and many are still waiting for an invitation to join up. Scoop.it! has, on the surface, a strikingly similar mission: to provide a webspace to present ‘magazines’ of (hopefully) related materials based on a user’s interests and what information she or he has ‘curated’ for his or her site.
Let’s look at Scoop.it, and to do so we must appreciate what this notion of ‘content curation’ means.
Popularity: 2% | Category Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Design, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Research, Resource, Reviews, Scoopit, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web Design | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SM4NP: How Is Facebook’s Timeline Doing In Drawing New Traffic?
We all like to be liked
Now that the Timeline feature has been up-and-out on Facebook’s individual and on organizational and business pages for a week or so, people are starting to dig into the metrics about how useful and/or successful Timeline has been. The proof of most things Facebook is in the metrics of those who visit and interact with the pages. Timeline’s strikingly graphical interface and the ability to feature content certainly seem to be huge draws. In some instances the numbers back the enthusiasm. But in other instances, they don’t. So what do we know so far about Timeline and increased engagement with organizational Facebook accounts?
Popularity: 3% | Category Branding, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Marketing, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Tumblr’s Advanced Features Won’t Overwhelm Ease Of Outreach
We have been working our way through Tumblr now for a few weeks in the hopes of inspiring you and your colleagues to consider creation of a Tumblr presence for your nonprofit. Tumblr got going in 2007, and really took off a couple of years later as twenty-somethings found in the platform a sweet spot of posting stories longer than those allowed by Twitter but short and quick enough to make sharing a breeze. Since then, organizations − especially those who want to present a lighter and strikingly visual face to their followers − have also gotten on board. See, for examples, Doctors Without Borders and Good Neighbors USA (whose Tumblr page is featured above). Both charities do critical work in the areas of health and economic support around the world, and yet their Tumblr sites put the visceral joy of such work front-and-center.
To develop your organization’s site, you might want to explore some of the more advanced features of Tumblr that offer all kinds of customization of look and behavior. We want to introduce a couple of those features here.
Popularity: 4% | Category Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Communications, Design, How-to, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Posterous, Public Media, Resource, Reviews, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Tumblr, Web Design | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Facebook Timeline Goes Public Tomorrow! Ready?
Are you ready? It goes live tomorrow!
Facebook has been rolling out its new ‘Timeline’ feature for a few months now, and we hope we have given you a helping hand with the changes. Timeline redesigns your social interaction into a chronological sweep that is also distinguished topically and physically (that is, by being placed in different sections of your FB home page). It allows an individual, a nonprofit, or a company to present a visual banner or ‘Cover’ to introduce themselves, and it offers greater opportunity to control the ‘Story’ on the page by giving users means to ‘back fill’ their histories.
And the fact is, Timeline becomes the default interface of all Facebook accounts tomorrow! If your charity is on Facebook, you need to be prepared. We found a couple of great sources to help you tidy up your page in preparation of the final stages of implementation.
Popularity: 4% | Category Advice, Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Storytelling, Study, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Web Design, YouTube | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: Megauploads Shut Down, Highlighting Concerns Of Cloud Computing
But what about all the legal files on the servers?
The move toward cloud computing has numerous benefits, including a place to back up your organization’s most important files and offering access to such files from any mobile device. Indeed, the growing stability and reliability of cloud-computing technologies has been one of the unsung underpinnings of the success of the iPad/tablet market, for they (thus far?) offer comparatively little storage space. Moreover, if that portable device gets lost, sat-on, or stolen, the donor list and the iTunes library are not lost with the device.
But cloud computing does carry some security risks, especially for organizations that feel compelled to rent space on third-party servers. For example, though upkeep of the network isn’t your concern in such a contract, if that third party gets subpoenaed by law enforcement for what’s on its servers, your organization’s data can be caught in the dragnet. As recent developments in the Megauploads case, getting legal and legitimate files back out of that cloud service can be tricky and time consuming.
Popularity: 2% | Category National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics, Site Administration, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Tumbler Can Be Social Media Hub, But Other Tools Are Available
We have sung the praises of Tumblr for the past few Thursdays, and we will continue to do so. Tumblr offers nonprofits and charities a free platform (with some themes and extensions costing a few bucks) and host to establish a web presence that is just a couple of clicks away from integrating with your Twitter account and an RSS feed. Tumbr offers elegant simplicity to est up a look and post as quick or as richly developed media-laden posts as your organization cares to produce via its Dashboard.
But most use Tumblr to pursue ‘Tumblogging’. The word morphed from ‘tumblelog’, first used in 2005 but briefly eclipsed by the rather dry ‘microblog’ for a while. It refers to a blog that consists of an ongoing series of focused, but brief, posts that include various visual, aural, and textual media. These tend to be short entries that simply state the immediate context of the subject/object of the post with no effort to tie it to a larger story.
Well, why would a nonprofit want to do that?
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Resource, Reviews, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Storytelling, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#INTERVIEW: Joanne Fritz, The About.com Website Guide on Nonprofit Charitable Organizations
Joanne Fritz is the guide to About.com’s “Nonprofit Charitable Organizations” site. A former high school and university teacher, she has also been a senior manager at two nonprofits and two universities. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: Is About.com a blog or something else?
JOANNE: About.com is sort of its own animal. It has close to 1,000 guides. Each guide is an expert in a particular topic area. Each of us has a mini-website that includes a blog. So when you first see, for instance, my landing page, it has the blog, but then over to the side are topics, and those links will generally lead you to articles that are meant to be evergreen information. We typically use the blog to keep up with what’s happening in the here and now. The articles go into more depth and are more like reference materials. We’re constantly creating evergreen content because most of our traffic comes from search, and they turn up on one of our articles. I usually blog at least three times a week. There’s a lot going on about nonprofits these days, so it’s a constant struggle to keep on top of it.
Popularity: 3% | Category Blogs, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, eNewsletter, Facebook, Fundraising, Interview, Marketing, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Publications, Social Media, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#TECH: RSS Readers To Help Save Time & Sort Out News & Emails
We continued our series on Tumblr yesterday with some guidance to get your nonprofit’s blog out via an RSS feed that allows people to subscribe to your site. When they subscribe, they get automatic updates and summaries of whatever is going on in your blog. The great aspect of setting an RSS feed for your organization’s blog is that you encourage people to subscribe to your feed, then outreach to your supporters is automatic. Moreover, readers can forward a single link to their colleagues and friends to encourage them to subscribe.
But what about the advantages of using Really Simple Syndication as a reader and follower of news in the nonprofit world? With just a bit of setup organization, you will find RSS a fabulous way to get to the information you want coming to you, rather than hunting out for it.
Popularity: 3% | Category Blogs, Communications, Dashboards, Design, Desktop Apps, E-Mail, eNewsletter, How-to, iDevice, Internal Marketing, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Newspaper Article, Publications, Report, Resource, Reviews, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Tools | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Tumblr & RSS Feeds – How Do They Work Together?
Last week we promised to discuss the connection that can be made between your nonprofit’s Tumblr site and RSS Readers around the world. Thus far in this series we have focused on the Tumblr side of things, but today it might be of greater value to focus on RSS, what it is and how it can be used as a means to keep your audiences fully up-to-date with your work.
The meaning of the acronym ‘RSS ‘has been debated, but not hotly. Most people understand it as ‘Really Simple Syndication’, though early in its history the letters meant ‘Rich Site Summary’. The readers are also known as ‘news aggregators’ because they pull changes from websites and present them in a listed format for the reader’s convenience − allowing him or her to click on any of the headlines of the ‘new news’ of a website to read the full story. Given the fact that your nonprofit wants to be making news, you want to give your followers the opportunity to sign up for your ‘feed’, and Tumblr makes that process painless.
Popularity: 4% | Category Advice, Blogs, Communications, Dashboards, How-to, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Resource, Reviews, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Writing | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#COMMUNICATIONS: Presentation Software Also Moving To The Cloud
Slide presentations have been both the bread-and-butter and the champagne-and-caviar of the business pitch. Slides offer an outline and a set of visual cues that help engage audiences and move donors to action. Moreover, the best-known desktop applications to create presentations, Microsoft’s PowerPoint and Apple’s Keynote, offer various ways to save your slideshow and share it via email or posting on your website.
Nevertheless, developers and startups believe the sharing of these presentations is where the next big thing will be, and they are moving not only the sharing but also the development of slide presentations online. We’d like to introduce two of them, and what they bring to businesses and nonprofits that the traditional desktop apps do not. They both have free starter accounts, with greater features and storage space with subscriptions.
Popularity: 3% | Category Communications, Design, Desktop Apps, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Reviews, Slide Presentations, Software Review, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: Latest iPad Shifts Mobile Toward Creative Productivity
Apple unveiled the latest iPad this past Wednesday, and though the third generation, Apple will not call it the ‘iPad 3′. Indeed, one of the interesting sideshows of the product’s history has been the sturm und drang over its name.
But for its form factor, the changes are both incremental and market-shifting – typical Apple, really. In one of our earliest tech reviews, we discussed how the iPad will pretty much create a mobile computing market – and it has. The device has opened up consumption of digital materials in ways more convenient and lucrative for publishers, game-makers, and app developers.
Whether the new iPad is worthy of a purchase or upgrade for you personally, we defer comment. But what you need to think seriously about is how the iPad is going to move your nonprofit’s workflow and communications strategies – whether you use one or not – because the latest iPad puts the stress on your productivity, not just consumption.
Popularity: 4% | Category Apple, Communications, Events, Hardware Review, iDevice, iPad Apps, Marketing, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Press Release, Reviews, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 1 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
#INTERVIEW: Jocelyn Harmon, Vice President of Sales, Marketing & Customer Success at Network for Good
Jocelyn Harmon is Vice President of Sales, Marketing and Customer Success at Network for Good. She has been writing Marketing for Nonprofits blog since 2007. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: You have said a focus of your blog is helping nonprofits succeed online. When did you latch onto the online piece of marketing?
JOCELYN: I was working at the National Council of Nonprofit Associations, from about 2004 to 2006. Our goal at NCNA was to help nonprofits run better as businesses. My job was to do marketing and raise money for NCNA. I was also tasked with helping our member organizations be better marketers and fundraisers. I started doing a lot of work with a group called NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network, and through them I met some really interesting people: Holly Ross from NTEN, Billy Bicket at TechSoup, and of course I met Katya Andresen (Network for Good) at that time. They were talking about how technology was going to revolutionize the way that nonprofits work – from programming to marketing to raising money: everything was going to move online, and nonprofits were going to be left behind if they didn’t hurry up and get on board. I thought, well, this is really cool. The other piece for me is the promise of technology to level the playing field. I’m an African-American woman, I have a strong history in my family of social justice work, so I love the idea of people having access to tools where they can be publishers, where they can have a voice, where they can connect with people potentially all across the world. So I got really passionate about the power of technology to change nonprofits, and how people with access to tools like that could change the world.
Popularity: 3% | Category Blogs, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Fundraising, iDevice, Interview, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Mobile, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Strategic Marketing, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Tools, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin