All the Rest Is Commentary: Getting Schooled by a Day Schooler

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by Ken Gordon Friends: Today I got schooled - by a fifth grader. A fifth grader. You see, I’m parked at edJEWcon in Jacksonville, Florida, and I’m feeling more than a little woozy - and not just because I woke up at 4 a.m. this morning or that it’s the end of a very intense, workshop-heavy day. My wooziness owes itself chiefly to a child named Rebecca… who spoke to me, and a sizable number of JDS professionals, of her lucid, reasonable, and ethically minded philosophy on blog commentary. Rebecca knows things about blogging etiquette some people three and four times and five times her age don’t know. How does she manage this? I suspect that Rebecca’s self-assured understanding has something to do with her teacher Silvia Tolisano’s blog-comment checklist, which … [Read more...]

25 SMART Social Media Objectives

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How nonprofits can use SMART goals to chart impact by Beth Kanter Beth’s Blog Using SMART objectives for nonprofit communications strategies is not a new idea. Spitfire’s useful SMART chart planning tool has been used by many nonprofits over the years. SMART Objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely objectives. The Aspen Institute’s Continuous Progress blog points out they come in three flavors: Tactical: Tools and techniques Results: Money, time, or other tangible result that can be converted Capacity: People, content, workflow, learning The process includes beginning with identifying intent. Next, make it specific by adding a number, percentage, increase/decrease and a date. Some nonprofits find it hard to do because it takes hitting the pause … [Read more...]

Facebook Releases Guidelines for Nonprofits and Causes

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Facebook has released a new Best Practice Guide for Causes & Nonprofits. The 2013 guide contains a number of different updates, including tips and tricks for posting compelling content on Instagram, growing community with Facebook Pages, and five brand new essential best practices for engaging your organizations' audience - all specific to causes and nonprofits. You can find the new best practice guide in the Nonprofit Resource Center, located on Non-Profits on Facebook. … [Read more...]

Leadership and Your Social Media Voice

Leadership and Your Social Media Voice from Community Organizer 2.0 by Debra Askanase On Tuesday, I presented a session entitled “Leadership and Your Social Media Voice” at the North American Jewish Day School Conference. Based on the conference theme of ”Leading to Learn, Learning to Lead,” I offered the session as a conversation-starter for educators who are thinking about or currently using social media personally on behalf of their organizations. The session and presentation addressed the following thematic questions: Why should educational staff use social media personally yet professionally, how could organizational leaders translate their leadership offline to online, and is it possible to have a “playbook” of sorts with which to design one’s professional online … [Read more...]

Laying the Elusive Golden Egg Gangnam Style

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by Mordecai Holtz Social media is an absolutely fantastic tool. The potential to reach a global market by breaking the boundaries of classical marketing tactics is simply fascinating. But with all of its strengths, social media is not intended to be the life line of a fledgling organization or the golden egg that magically saves the day. Why is it then that some companies and NGO’s still think that what this medium holds can be used in this way. This question began bothering me a few days ago, when one of our clients invited us participate in their annual planning meeting. As part of their fundraising campaign, they set a goal to raise a significant amount of capital to complete a building. In describing their strategy of reaching this lofty goal, they included a mix of traditional and more … [Read more...]

Looking Forward: 2013 Nonprofit Technology Use

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[Excerpted from Looking Backwards and Forwards: 2012 and 2013 Nonprofit Technology Use.] In 2013, I think we’ll see a lot more of the following activities and thinking around nonprofit social media: Widespread adoption and integration of social media policies in the workplace. Use of graphic images everywhere. If 2012 was the year of the infographic, 2013 will be the year graphics with text are used to move people to action. Using social media personally on behalf of your organizations. Executive Directors, development officers, and staff will get out from behind their logos. Testing social media ads. Buying Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and other advertising to move people to action. Engagement overtaking broadcasting activities. I’ve said it for years now: it’s all about … [Read more...]