10 Social Media Things I’m Thankful for This Year

Coming up on Thanksgiving, I wanted to share a top ten list of things I’m thankful for when it comes to social media.

10. Restricted social media like Path to share with a select group of people.
9. Getting up to the minute news via Twitter.
8. Learning what rhymes with purple from Pinterest.
7. Meeting a co-presenter online and working virtually with her for a year before meeting in real life.
6. Facebook hasn’t changed my privacy settings for a while…oh wait, nevermind. They just did again
5. Foursquare rolled out updates for local merchants (including nonprofit merchants)
4. Instagram was opened up to Droids.
3. More books specific to nonprofit use of social media have been published including these three gems: 1, 2, 3.
2. That share button on every piece of mail, email, and website is increasingly important.

and the number one social media thing I am thankful for this Thanksgiving season is…

1. Using Social Media for Nonprofits Gangnam Style

Social Media at the 2012 Olympics

With the world focused on London for the Olympics, it’s a chance for social media to shine.

We’ve seen athletes kicked out of the games because of tweets including a track athlete and a soccer player. A journalist was kicked off of Twitter, then reinstated, for including the email address of an NBC executive while complaining vociferously about NBC’s coverage of the games.

The Olympics actually has a set of social media guidelines for athletes and delegates to follow.

Social media companies have forged partnerships with broadcasters bringing TV and the internet even closer. For example Facebook is partnering with NBC. Facebook is crunching analyzing people post to Facebook about the games and they are broadcasting NBC’s video feeds. NBC gets stories out of the data that Facebook is analyzing. NBC, and other broadcasters, are posting live news to various social media sites. So if you follow NBC on Twitter or Facebook you’ll see the results of the games before the tape-delayed events are broadcast. While tape-delayed Olympic events are not new, the viewer’s ability to voice their complaints about it is…thanks to social media.

Here’s a video of some athletes and how they plan to use social media during the Olympics

How are you using social media during these Olympics? Are you doing anything different? Are you staying the same? Feel free to share in the comments section.

Spamalot?

Let’s talk about spam and social media.  Not the canned meat delicacy but the nasty unwanted stuff.  When you think of spam you probably think of email.  But social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. are also avenues for spam.  

A story by Bloomberg Business Week states that as many as 40% of all social media accounts are spam.  Why would spammers target social media – because they can.  And because it’s easier to reach a larger audience via social media than it is to send spammy emails.  

Putting spam and social media together leads us to two things.  First, make sure you don’t click on links on social media sites you don’t know and make sure your social media passwords are very secure.  In fact why not change them regularly, including after you read this post.  Second, think about the types of information you share on social media platforms.  Is it really important content?  Is it something your readers/friends/followers would consider spam?  Would the social media platforms consider it spam?  Here’s a list of what the various platforms consdier spam.

World Map of Social Media

I recently came across a world map of social media on the Vincos Blog. I really enjoy their post because it shows you the gradual change in social networks in different parts of the world. Only three years ago you can see that there are many different social networks dominating in different countries. As social networks have matured and the weaker networks have faded away, you can see what is left. Outside of Russia and most of Asia, Facebook (the blue countries) is now the main player.

What are your thoughts on using Facebook? Is it the most effective engagement tool for your organization? Let’s discuss in the comments.

10 Commandments of Posting Online

Here are 10 commandments of posting to social media. If you follow them you will avoid trouble (most of the time).

10. Thou shall not post someone else’s content as your own.

9. Thou shall not complain about work online. Everyone has a bad day at work but bad days last forever online.

8. Thou shall segment your feeds as appropriate so your posts only go to those you want to see them.

7. Thou shall not post embarrassing or inappropriate photos on line, they are on-line forever.

6. Thou shall post unto other’s feeds as you would have them post onto your feed for all to see.

5. Thou shall spell check before your post.

4. Thou shall keep posts to 100 characters or less when wanting them to be retweeted.

3. Thou shall not lie or libel.

2. Thou shall not post to personal social media accounts while at work.

1. Thou shall think twice and post once.

Social Media as a Fundraising Tool for 2011

PBSNewsHour had a recent segment on how charities are turning to social media as a fundraising tool now more than ever. In the video, which is embedded below, Allison Fine from The Chronicle of Philanthropy is interviewed by Ray Suarez. I’ve mentioned Allison in a previous post. She creates podcasts on the topic of social media for the Chronicle of Philanthropy and you should check them out.

How is your agency using it as a fund raising tool in the new year?

Jumo – Social Media for Nonprofits?

Back in April I posted about a new social media platform, called Jumo, which was being created by one of Facebook’s founders to provide a social media tool to connect individuals with nonprofit organizations and social change.

On November 30, 2010 Jumo launched to the public. It went down shortly thereafter from the inundation of people trying to sign up. I wasn’t able to sign up on the opening day. The launch was timed with a media blitz including stories in the New York Times, Mashable, and Huffington Post.

Ross McCullouch from Glasgow, Scotland who focuses on nonprofits and technology, wrote a great blog post about his impressions of Jumo including the good, the bad and the ugly. The whole post is worth reading.

Have you signed up on Jumo? If so, what have you been able to do with it to date? Please feel free to share in the comments section.

Social Media Policy Guidelines for Nonprofits

I was fortunate enough to serve on a committee of AFP International that brought together some social media gurus to hash out guidelines that nonprofit organizations can use to craft their own social media policies. These guidelines focus on social media from a fundraiser’s point of view but they are easy to tweak to your own needs and a great starting point if you are starting from scratch.

The official version of the social media guidelines document is online and available for downloading in either a one-page summary or a full version with detailed guidelines and examples. I highly recommend reviewing the document to see how it can benefit your agency.

With the release of these guidelines I wanted to share 7 reasons why you should have a social media policy.

7. It should fit seamlessly into your agency’s technology, human resource and marketing policies.

6. Your staff are given guidelines on how to interact with customers in a user-friendly way.

5. You are better able to engage your customers, volunteers, donors, and the community at large.

4. Social media policies provide details on how to interact with your customers

3. Do you really want the summer college intern speaking on your behalf in an official capacity?

2. If you read this blog regularly, you know that social media is how people interact online with each other in real time, how they share information, pictures and videos.

1. It’s just good common sense.

Do you already have a social media policy that you’d like to share? What are some examples of social media policies that you like? Please feel free to share in the comments.

Social Media Privacy Again

A few months ago I wrote about a presentation I gave on social media and privacy. I now have a link to the recorded presentation. You’ll want make sure to click on the little video box (on the toolbar click view and then video) to see me as I present the materials.

The WebEx recording of the presentation will ask you to first register to hear the presentation. This recording lasts about an 42 minutes. Click on the icon to view and hear the presentation’s WebEx recording file.

Feel free to share the link with others.

Social Media and Privacy v.8/2010

Recently I gave a presentation on privacy and social media for ACHIEVA’s free webinar series. Privacy is a major issue for families and individuals we serve. Posting private information on social media sites takes that to a whole new level.

A copy of the recording should be up shortly but in the mean time here are the slides from my presentation.