Whew, that’s a mouthful!

Over the last 12 months, I’ve been writing a (long-titled) book with my extemed collegue, Melanie Mathos. We are thrilled that 101 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits: A Field Guide will be coming out in February 2012, and I’m sure I’ll write more about here on this blog.

in the mean time, if you’re into nonprofit social media and want to learn more about using it to engage, raise money, and measure your digital impact, pre-orders are available on Amazon.com.

I’m one of those social media geeks that never stops talking about how important listening is. So I often find myself presenting a session on the topic, as I did at the 2010 Blackbaud Conference for Nonprofits. My good friend Danielle Brigida and I followed our session with a workshop where our students built a social media listening dashboard using RSS feeds and iGoogle.

I took the materials from that workshop and created the worksheet you see below. It can help you get a listening dashboard setup at your nonprofit. Feel free to download and use it to learn everything you can about your supporters!

I’ve blogged about this over at NetWitsThinkTank.com, but thought I should stick it here too. Enjoy!

It’s been a while since I’ve linked back to my nonprofit tech blog, Webby Things. It’s been hard lately to find the time to eek out posts on a regular basis, but I truly love working with and helping nonprofits. If you’re into that sort of thing, here are a few posts from the last couple months you might want to check out:

• 9 Simple Things Everyone Should Know about Twitter Hashtags
• Find Your Local Social Media Club
• 6 Dogooding Webby Things Your Nonprofit Should Check Out
• Power to Your Peeps! Real-time Fundraising with Twitter
• 15 Clay Shirky Quotes That Blew My Mind at NTC

There. Now maybe I’ll get off my butt and actually finish the dozen or so drafts I’ve written. In the meant time, be sure to check out some quality dogooding tech musings at NetWits Think Tank, Socialbrite.org, or Beth’s Blog.

During Peter Thum‘s keynote address at the 2008 Conference for Nonprofits, I snuck a few shots from under the North Charleston Performing Arts Center‘s giant red curtain.

Ha! I just rediscovered this shot while going through my Relay for Life stock. This couple was great. The shot might seem mundane, but there was definitely some flirting and occasional patting going on.

One of the things I enjoyed about Relay was all the activity happening at hours when we would normally be sleeping. Shag dancing, beauty pageants, and boccie ball normally happen during the day – not in the middle of the night.

Despite the countless footballs and Frisbees flying around the infield, it was the volleyball setup that saw the most action. Setup by the Wando High School Student Council, it was open to all and used the entire night. I got some interesting shots, but I really liked this one (also featuring the moon).

3 months ago when I decided to participate in Relay for Life, I had no idea what to expect. The event itself sounded cool, but I mainly focused on raising money. I wanted to do this for my Grandpa, my friend Alan, my uncle John, and my recently diagnosed Dad. I wanted to do this for everyone I knew who had suffered so much at the hands of this awful disease. What I didn’t know was how much fun it would be.

I knew hanging out with work friends would be great, but the event itself was a trip. Considering the Mount Pleasant edition is only in its second year, I was impressed. Between the cross-dressing “Miss Less” pageant and the Office Space-inspired fax machine smashing, it was hard to tell we were at a serious fundraising event. Kilts, night volleyball, kids running everywhere…it was extremely exciting and fun. I’ll post more pics later, but here are some to get started.

I should have focused on the fact that we may have cleared $80,000 $85,000 for the event (Mount Pleasant didn’t even crack $30k last year). I should have focused on the survivors in attendance. I should have focused on all the lives that are affected each year by this nasty beast. But except for the silent luminaries lap at 10 p.m., I mostly tried to have fun. I focused on my friends as we shared cancer-related stories from our own lives and contributed to this amazing event. Is that wrong? I don’t think so.