(Want to know more about me? Check out my About/Contact page)

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:

1. Make a (decent budget) film, cast my friends
2. Buy a house
3. Invest
4. Travel More
5. Donate More

5 places I’ve lived:

1. Vancouver, B.C.
2. Manhattan, NYC
3. North Bergen, New Jersey (Nice town. Pretty. Supermarkets were hard to find, as were libraries. But there were 5 liquor stores nearby. Oh and some nice parks.)
   
4. St. Anne De Bellevue, Quebec
   
5. Montreal, Quebec

5 jobs I’ve had:

1. Writer & Social Media Evangelist
2. Actor
3. Legal Assistant
4. Assistant to a Professor of Marketing
5. Mascot at Amusement Park (pity me…)

I imagine I’m supposed to tag others for this, but I am assuming most do not want to feel obligated - so I’ll tag no one. Friends, you can thank me when you see me :)

BC Citizens for Public Power (CPP) have asked me to talk about Social Media with regards to Non-Profits (what others are doing), as well as offer them some specific suggestions as to how they can get more attention for their cause. So, post with the tag: “Powertoyou” tag (and Tweets posted with the #powertoyou hashtag) will function as a reference for conference attendees, as well as (hopefully) a resource for others interested in this topic.

Please feel free to offer your suggestions – especially with regards to other great examples of how Nonprofits are using these social media tools. And feel free to post about these topics and tell me about it. We’re all learning from each other and I’d love to hear what you have to say.

My Related Posts:

Nonprofits and Social Media - Getting Your Fans to Help You

Flickr and Nonprofits

YouTube and Nonprofits

Facebook, MySpace and Nonprofits

Twitter and Nonprofits

What can your supporters do?

• Re-tweet important tweets from your nonprofits & other supporters. This will get eyeballs from their network/followers.
• Mention upcoming meetings
• Submit and make popular stories on social news sites, like Digg. (E.g. They submit to Digg & encourage others to on Twitter to Digg as well.)
• Post tweets summarizing important points (See #cdninst) and a conference (something a nonprofit could do at a related conference). If several people are twittering, you can get an good picture of the conference highlights.
• Respond to advice and make suggestions of their own.
• Point you to related information/posts/articles
• Talk about issues/build community
• Twitter is being used in countless other ways (see Twitter Collaboration Stories)

Examples of NonProfit Twitter Feeds

• Youthservice
• Genocide Intervention
• One Voice Walk

Highly Effective Twittering:

• Frozen Pea Fund
• Beth Kanter - “Twitter, Facebook, Chris Brogan and 81 other people send Cambodian girl to college”
• “ The Well That Twitter Built“
• Telling people you’re safe during a disaster.

Some Tips

• Peek in before you dive in (sound advice for most social sites), so you can see how it works.
• Wondering who to follow? - Check out the appropriately named: Who do I follow? Wiki
  
• The Creation of Twitter Best Practices: Round 1 recommends that you BE INTERESTING & INVOLVED in the conversation, among other useful suggestions. Don’t use twitter as a bullhorn. It’s not a platform - it’s a communication tool.
• Remember if you’re going to allow your Tweets to be public (the best way to get new people involved in your message) remember that you’re tweets are public. Anyone can see them and they will likely exist for awhile (potentially forever). So, don’t post anything you don’t want most knowing/sensitive information. (See Rob Cottingham brilliant cartoon.)
• You need to participate in the conversation rather than
• Hashtags can be very useful.

More Excellent Resources

• Twitter for Health - discusses the many different way nonprofits are using Twitter
• Social Media 4 Change Wiki
• Twitter Collaboration Stories
• Beth Kanter’s Twitter Primer
• For others, see my delicious (”Powertoyou”+”Twitter”)

http://delicious.com/mhamburg/powertoyou+twitter%20

My Related Posts

Nonprofits and Social Media - Getting Your Fans to Help You

Flickr and Nonprofits

YouTube and Nonprofits

Facebook, MySpace and Nonprofits

More NonProfit Social Media Ideas

Tags: monicahamburg, twitter, powertoyou, nonprofit, nonprofits, socialmedia,

• Humour can work too. Consider “ Sing A Long” which reminds men to check for testicular cancer with a hilarious ditty.

• Use the Bonus Features. Youtube recently introduced annotations, a feature “that allows you not only to annotate your uploaded video with captions, but also to create links within the video to other video clips or to your YouTube channel”. Consider how you could might integrate this feature to link other videos.

• Make it Short, Sweet and Riveting. Remember to make it short (we all have ADT). And compelling. WITNESS’ video about the plight and segregation of the Roma people distills a fairly involved situation into a video that is easily understood. Giant Ant Media ’s Bongo Promo – a video for Urban Projec   t tells their story - which involves the funding of hip hop artists in Tanzania in a way that moves and captures the audience.

http://monicahamburg.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/youtube-and-nonprofits/

Other Tips

• Create a Channel. You need one to create an organized place people can go and find all the videos (e.g. Campus Progress Action).
  
• Create a Playlist. A Playlist can highlight some specific videos (e.g. the ones made by Youth for Beatbullying).
• Create a NewsRoom. With regards to Photos, Videos etc. - make it easy for people to share and show your content. Having a central hub (website etc.) to aggregate efforts (as Be the Full Stop does) is excellent (read: do it!) but also consider combining all your efforts into a type of “social media newsroom” – a place where you amalgamate items people can easily use and repost (the most effective videos/pics in your arsenal, news items/releases and more), so people (and tradional media) don’t have to search, space (take this tip from big business –e.g. Ford).
• Create Buzz. Think about how you are going to get the buzz going - a video has no effect if people don’t watch it. Figure out how to promote it – e.g. Be the Full Stop’s site asks people to take action by “ emailing everyone in their address book with a link to the Click TV ad” ”. Or consider Presentense which “had a “Viral Video Party” when a new video release was due, where they got a group of about 70 people in a room with computers, and they send the video to their friends, friends’ friends, etc.”
• Note that Youtube has a nonprofit program (Nonprofit must be U.S. based, however)

Great Resources

• Youtube’s NonProfit tips, including those on running a video campaign
• Frogloop’s - Insider’s Guide to Video and YouTube for Nonprofits

More Resources

• can be found bookmarked on Delicious [my delicious Powertoyou and YouTube ]

http://delicious.com/mhamburg/powertoyou+youtube%20

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: YouTube and NonProfits :: YouTube and NonProfits :: TailRank

My Related Posts

Nonprofits and Social Media - Getting Your Fans to Help You

Flickr and Nonprofits

Facebook, MySpace and Nonprofits

Twitter and Nonprofits

More NonProfit Social Media Ideas

• Create a Photo Petition (such as Oxfam’s). This is a really exciting use of Flickr. Oxfam asks that you to “add your picture in support of Ethiopian coffee farmers”, for their Starbucks Photo Petition.
• Document an Event of Significance. Youth Service America’s Global Youth Service Day 2008, is a great example of this. (When Beth Kanter talks to Ian Gottesman, Director of Information Technology at the organization and Gottesman remarks, “Especially if the event is carried out through a network where your staff cannot be everywhere the event is taking place. It gives everyone a feeling of community and shows what people are doing for your event. It also helps capture stories that are really compelling so you can retell them.” (See Footnote (1), below)

• Provide Evidence. For instance, of wrongdoing as does the Mara Conservancy. The Conservancy endeavors to protect Wildlife, and posts pictures of poaching offenders.

• As a Database - That Generates Traffic. “[H]elp generate traffic, reduce on bandwidth and storage” – gtp_zambia. These are some of the reasons Global Teenager Project (Zambia) - uses Flickr. And they’re darn good ones too. Think about it: most organizations have a myriad of photos taken at events, for pamphlets, brochures, websites – many are not on a website simply because of bandwith issues. Upload to Flickr – use the site as a low-cost database/storage unit, while promoting your cause and accumulating more photos (as others contribute). And, if a photo is intriguing, it creates even more interest and attention – a bonus for your purpose!

• Run a Photo Contest. The Nature Conservatory runs an annual photo contest. “Your digital photos will help to inspire others to protect our natural world.” And the Environment Protection Agency (EPA) runs an annual Earth Day contest: “We want to see how you would show EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment.” “Has your community organization cleaned up a stream? Have you enjoyed a day in the woods? Has a wild animal ever sparked your imagination? If you’ve caught anything like those moments in a photo, share it with us!” The contest asked you to submit to 3 separate groups, depending on content ( Enjoying the Environment , Protecting the Environment, Nature and Wildlife).

• Connect the Dots – on a Map. Flickr has Geotagging – so you can create a map that works with your cause. (E.g. I’ll be advising the CPP participants to Geotag photos of the rivers that have been devastated by privatization etc.) (See Footnote (2) )

• Make it Easy for the Media. Some have photos up “to put information out there for the local media to access when they want to feature us in a story.” – Cmartin82

• Add Your Face. Somewhat similar to the Photo Petition, ONE (“Americans of all beliefs and every walk of life - united as ONE - to help make poverty history”) wants you to join their Flickr group and post your photo to it to demonstrate support.

• Add Your Message. Like any social media endeavor you are best to combine a few that would best serve your goal. (A Flickr campaign can work with a YouTube one, for instance – and many organizations have a Facebook Group, Twitter, Flickr etc. e.g. ) One that made great use of Youtube and could have built up their Flickr stream quite seamlessly, is Stand Up to Cancer which also uses many other social media tools. Stand up to Cancer asked people to submit pictures stating why they “Stand Up to Cancer” (e.g. “Because of my Dad” etc. Photos were then edited on the video. The video also requests that people post photos to their Flickr group (with SU2C tag). Oddly, while the organization no doubt has a ton of photos (used for the video and the many more which were likely submitted/sent – they didn’t cross-post many of them to Flickr… (Perhaps that’s in the works?)

So there you go - just a few ways Flickr can generate attention and support for your cause.

Any examples you like, that I haven’t listed here? Or what are your thoughts on these methods – have they been successful for your organization? I would love to hear your thoughts.

Notes:

(1) Many note that nonprofits are fortunate in that they have compelling stories to tell. Pictures are part of this equation. Choose pictures that tell a good story.

(2) Be the Full Stop (which wants to put an end to child cruelty) uses geotagging in a great way, by asking their supporters to get on a map pledging their support.

(3) When you post, try to keep others in mind and choose a Creative Commons license that will allow them to re-post your photo

(4) Respect people and treat their photos as you would want them to treat yours. Be aware of permissions (note the Creative Commons license/rights for each picture. While many will allow you to “Share and share alike”, some don’t). If they don’t, try to contact them through Flickr and ask them if you can use their photos. Provide the specific context you intend to use their photos. Many, will in fact, allow you to use their photos once that communication and context is established. If not, respect their position and find another picture that would work.

(5) Flickr basic accounts are free. Flickr even gives away Pro accounts to Nonprofits as part of their “ Flickr for Good” initiative.

(6) Create a stream or slideshow with your Flickr photos on your website

Some Great Resources I’ve Used for this Post:

• Beth Kanter’s “ Ten Cool Examples of Nonprofits Using Flickr!”

• Joe Solomon’s Wiki – “ Social Media 4 Change“

• Tech Soup Asks “ How Can Nonprofits Use Flickr” - and users respond

• Steve Bridger & his posts about Flickr

For More Resources – See my delicious bookmarks – [tagged: powertoyou & flickr]

http://delicious.com/mhamburg/powertoyou+flickr%20

add to del.icio.us :: Add to Blinkslist :: add to furl :: Digg it :: add to ma.gnolia :: Stumble It! :: add to simpy :: seed the vine :: Flickr and NonProfits :: Flickr and NonProfits :: TailRank

My Related Posts:

Nonprofits and Social Media - Getting Your Fans to Help You

Flickr and Nonprofits

YouTube and Nonprofits

Facebook, MySpace and Nonprofits

Twitter and Nonprofits

More NonProfit Social Media Ideas

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