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!

Last week I spoke at the 2009 Conference for Nonprofits, and one of my presentations was called 50 Social Media Tactics for Nonprofits. Organizations often have social media channels developed, and are just looking for ideas they can use to engage their followers. This presentation is a roundup of 50 things nonprofits can do on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, StumpleUpon, etc.

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.

Last Friday I spoke on the social networking panel at the Charleston Green Business Expo. It was part of the Charleston Green Fair, where I also exhibited for Go Green Charleston. I always love having a chance to talk social media with excited people. I like to remind everyone that listening to an audience is probably more important than broadcasting to them. Listening really works, and can help you make smarter decisions.

I used these slides for an eight minute into on listening. I’m not sure how well they hold up without me ranting, but here they are nevertheless:

What problem can’t be solved with social media these days?

Our neighborhood was having trouble communicating, working together, and behaving like a true community, so we turned to Ning.com to help us improve that.

Using Ning it took only minutes to create a full-featured social network complete with groups, discussion forums, an event calendar, blogs, and photo sharing. After a few tweaks, neighbors were invited and The Longpoint Commons was born.

I’ve been working with online communities for years, and Ning has always impressed me with how easy it is for people to use. It seems like everyone who signs up immediately begins to write blog posts, join groups, or just build out their profile. A volunteer brigade, neighborhood crime watch group, and resident meetups appeared right away. It’s clear that social media makes it easier for busy, family-oriented suburbanites to connect. It really does take a village, and technology can make the village really hum.