If you’re in the social benefit sector, you’ve undoubtedly heard about or watched Dan Pallotta’s recent Ted Talk. Many folks have applauded the talk, agreeing that if we want charities to be successful we have to value nonprofit work. Yet every time I check my email inbox I find another organization looking for unpaid social media work on Idealist,...

A recent Pew Research Center report on Americans’ technology habits finds that 74% of smartphone owners are using location-based services. The report also found that use of geosocial services, like Foursquare, to check-in at locations is now at 18% of smartphone users. Most notably, use of geosocial services more than doubled among the general population from...

By now it is common knowledge that for our social media efforts to be successful we have to be social. Numerous articles remind us about the importance of engaging our volunteers, donors and advocates. Fewer, however, focus on another aspect of our social media engagement…engaging our staff (whether volunteer or paid) and our board members. What does this mean...

Foursquare users may have noticed some changes during their most recent check-in.  The changes, designed to make Foursquare more social, will provide greater benefits to nonprofits using this geosocial application.  The two most important changes, and ideas on leveraging them to benefit your nonprofit, are: Photo uploading capability: Next to the default check-in...

Recently, I had the honor of presenting two workshops on social networking at The Association of Junior Leagues International, Inc. 2010 Fall Leadership Conference in Portland, Oregon. In planning for my presentations I made sure to include a significant amount of time for questions at end of the session. As volunteer run organizations, Junior Leagues are run by...