Jordan Viator

Joining my neighborhood fitness club, eating healthier and getting more involved in local activities are all great resolutions to make my life better in the New Year. But Connection Café is reserved for sharing ideas and insight that helps nonprofits make the world a better place so I’ll save my extensive (and unoriginal) list of resolutions to bore my friends and family…

Rather than sharing our personal resolutions here, we’re teaming with a number of nonprofit bloggers and thought leaders to help create a community discussion and sharing of the best - and maybe worst - resolutions nonprofit professionals can make to help them fulfill their mission in 2009. And to help capture all the great insight the nonprofit community has in store with its resolutions, we’ve also created a poll to capture your ideas on how to make technology work for you and your organization in 2009.  

Most of my friends rarely follow through on their resolutions (never me, of course!), but we don’t want that to happen to people in the nonprofit community. Because we all run into challenges and obstacles that keep us from keeping our resolutions, we won’t just be creating a community discussion, but rather we’re going to listen to the resolutions and obstacles you share and use that to create a meaningful and useful Resolutions Guide. This guide will provide helpful advice, tips and success stories that can better help you keep your 2009 resolutions.  But we need your help to create it. And to make the guide as useful as possible to all nonprofits using technology, we want to not just hear your actual resolutions but the obstacles and challenges you face in keeping these as well.

Our CC bloggers will be sharing resolutions this week and next, commenting and linking to some of the best we see in the blog world and all the while listening to your resolutions and challenges to develop the guide. So please share your resolutions and challenges in the comments section below, on our 2009 Resolutions Poll and discussion thread or email them to me directly at jviator@convio.com. 

We resolve to help you keep your resolutions, but we need to hear more from you before we can help so take the poll and drop us a comment.

And don't forget to check out these great nonprofit bloggers’ resolutions for 2009. They'll be sharing their 2009 outlooks and plans over the next couple of days, and you might just find yourself inspired or inclined to drop them a comment, as well.

• A View from Judi Sohn
• Beaconfire Wire
• Donor Power Blog 
• Everyday Giving 
• FI Space
• Mobile Commons 
• NTEN Blog 
• Social Actions Blog
• Tech Soup
• Robert L. Weiner Blog
• TREW Marketing Spotlight

And by the way – happy New Year!

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a social media addict and that I tend to think those around me – colleagues, friends and event clients- have a basis of understanding around the fundamentals of social media and basic online trends.

However, today’s webinar on Social Media for Social Good provided some great insight and answers to the questions and concerns the nonprofit technology industry as a whole still have about social and new media, which gave me a better idea on the areas that still need work or additional education to help the sector move forward in 2009. 

Throughout the session with Beth Kanter (who has now posted her notes to today's presentation) and Emily Riley, attendees on the line flooded in with questions and comments about the information and tips presented.

I think some of the top surprises and/or busted myths for me were:

1. Many people on the line were unfamiliar with some of the basic social media sites and tools used today. Flickr and Twitter, two tools we often write about and drop casually into conversations with nonprofits, were unknown to many people on the line.

2. We tend to take for granted that the youth are dominating the social media spaces, however according to Emily, the age numbers are quickly evening out and the demographic of 34+ is creating an increased presence in social media spaces (tell that to your boss the next time someone asks why you should invest in social media!)

3. Numerous examples were given around social media efforts made by marketers who are still trying to make social media campaigns that are fake. Despite the scandals and problems driven by falsified campaigns in the past, some marketers have yet to realize that the Web brings transparency and openness – two things that are very easy to recognize online (don’t think your constituents won’t notice if you’re content is fake...)

4. Participants were still interested in learning how to control behavior and UGC content like comments. The answer, of course, is that you can’t and shouldn’t try to control your constituents, but again this is a point some people still don’t quite grasp – you have to let go of control and the message to inspire, empower and move people.

5. Lastly, I realized how completely across the charts nonprofits are in skill level, knowledge and upstanding around social media. After every conference, webinar, blog post and book nonprofits have attended and read over the past year, there are still more questions than answers and fears than convictions around the Brave New World of social media.

Tomorrow, I’ll be posting the follow-up questions we didn’t get to today, but I’d love to hear from all the attendees (or ever Twitter #socialgood hashtag followers) what the overall insights were that you left with today.

So for all of you who attended: what were the zingers and “ah ha” moments for you? Any questions or information that surprised you?

A couple weeks ago I asked if any of our Connection Café readers or their organizations were ready to start embracing social media.

And from the registrations for our “Social Media for Social Good” webinar this Wednesday, I’d say the answer is loud and clear: you are ready – or at least interested to learn more about social media - because the webinar is now full!

But have no fear, we’ve done two things to allow for everyone to still access what’s sure to an informative and dare I say fun webinar:

1. We’ve opened up the registration to allow anyone who didn’t register in time to sign up to receive the free recording of the event after it takes place at www.convio.com/socialgood.

2. We’ll be accepting the questions you want answered here on the blog during the event right up to the time of the webinar to allow anyone who can't register for the live event to still have their questions asked. Simply leave us a comment in the comments section below and we’ll ask the speakers- Beth Kanter and Emily Riley from Jupiter Research, a Forrester company - what it is you want to know about nonprofits and social media.

Make sure to keep an eye on Beth’s blog and Emily’s thread over at the Jupiter blogs to get more insight into the issues being discussed and what attendees are interested in hearing from the speakers. I’ll give you a hint about what Beth has up her sleeve: think Einstein : )

And for those of you not yet sold on the idea of social media and Web 2.0 or those looking for a primer before the Social Media for Social Good webinar, I’d direct you to the cover story in today’s Wall Street Journal Business Insight section. The Secrets of Marketing In a Web 2.0 World article verifies the validity of marketing in social media spaces for organizations and scratches the surface on some of the tips and best practices you’ll on Wednesday.

The top 5 principles shared to help aid marketers in the journey to use social media:

1. Don’t just talk at consumers (donors/acvocates) – work with them throughout the marketing (outreach) process
2. Give consumers (donors/advocates) a reason to participate
3. Listen to – and join – the conversation outside your site
4. Resist the temptation to sell, sell, sell
5. Don’t control, let it go

Stay tuned to the blog after the webinar for specific tips, ideas and nonprofit case studies shared during the session that may help you better use and plan for a social media strategy in 2009.

So you think your organizaiton is finally ready to take the social media plunge and need to know where to start? Or you're already using some basic new media tools and want to know the next steps to creating a solid social media strategy? And maybe you just still don't believe in the all social media hype and that it could drive results for your organization ... but want to hear more just in case you decide you want to implement them in the future?

We've heard your questions and wanted to lend some expertise in time for new year planning! So, on December 17th, join us for a free webinar with Emily Riley, Senior Analyst at JupiterResearch, a Forrester Research company and Beth Kanter, Nonprofit Social Media Blogger Extraordinaire as they share the most recent research, online trends and real-world examples of the latest in social media for nonprofits. We've even left a full 25 minutes for Q&A so you can ask all those questions you have jotted down about social media (what IS Twitter? How can I really fundraise using social media? Will people really join a Facbeook group if I make it?)

Register now at www.convio.com/socialmedia and make sure to add your RSVP on the Webinar Facebook event page to share the event with your network.

And all you Twitterers, follow live updates from the event with the hastag #socialgood (and follow me @jordanv).

Our very own James Young even sent out a personal invite to all of you nonprofiteers to share how excited he is about the event...

Hope you can make it!

Fresh from the holiday weekend, many nonprofits are back in the office this week focusing on end of the year efforts to pull in holiday giving dollars and advocacy actions to help with end of year campaigns.

Along with those fundraising and advocacy efforts, organizations are also asking questions in the planning process for the new year -- What will be your 2009 organizational goals? What will your main fundraising and outreach campaigns consist of? How will you alter you tactics in the uncertain economy? How will your organization make better use of the Internet? 

And more specifically - how can your organization better use social media tools and tactics like video sharing to help with the above questions?

In a follow up from last week's YouTube session primer video, Kate, Tim, Carie and Ramya each provided their one top piece of advice for nonprofits looking to use YouTube in the new year.

These nonprofit expert's top four tips?

1. Just start, just try! "I mean, what the worst that happens if your video only gets 50 views?" - Tim Fullerton from Oxfam America
2. Include your URL so that people are driven back to your site - Kate Sands Adams from the IRC
3. Link back to the advocacy or fundraising campaign to drive viewers to take action - Carie Lewis from the HSUS
4. Engage in the YouTube community by subscribing to other channels and commenting on other videos - Ramya Raghavan from the YouTube Nonprofit Program 

Check out the full clip below (2:07 mins) to hear what these organizations have done to make online video sharing more effective in their organizations.

As for the rest of you nonprofit techies and online experts - share your top tips for using YouTube and online video to help other nonprofits better plan for the new year!