Livefyre: a commenting system that captures the social stream.

Optimize your blog for commenting, mobile, printing & more

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, foundations, cause organizations, companies, brands, start-ups, citizen publications, Web publishers, individuals.

Here are some cool plug-ins for you to try out on your WordPress blog. I found a few of them via Ken Mueller, so I recommend you read him regularly.

The list includes plug-ins to optimize your blog for commenting, for mobile, for printing and to insert images. And don’t forget to check out our list of 10 essential WordPress plug-ins: Akismet, Dagon Sitemap, Broken Link Checker, Creative Commons, IntenseDebate, WP Database Backup, All in One SEO, Zemanta, Audio Player and Smart Update Pinger.

Livefyre: Jacking into commenters’ social networks

1Now, I know a lot of people like comment systems such as Disqus and CommentLuv. But here’s why I love Livefyre:

• It was the first comment system to introduce the ability to tag friends from Twitter and Facebook, thus bringing them into your blog conversation (yes, you see this on Disqus now, but Livefyre did it before Disqus).
 
• Because of this, it really does help boost conversation in your blog comments. Certainly, you need to have a community you can reach out to, comment on other blogs to grow your community, etc. But you can’t beat a comment system that helps showcase your blog posts in front of those who might not have been aware of the post or conversation going on in the first place, can you?
 
• One of CommentLuv’s signature features has been the ability to have your latest post (or one that you select) linked to in your comment. Well, Livefyre lets you do this now, too. And even when it didn’t, its tagging features outweighed the signature feature for me, because of the related ability to grow participation on your blog.
 
• Their customer service is excellent. And I mean E-X-C-E-L-L-E-N-T.

To get started with Livefyre, simply sign your site up at www.livefyre.com (it supports several platforms), and then install the plug-in as part of the process. Two steps that are very easy and very quick.

WPtouch Pro: Make your site mobile-ready

2This is an ab-fab plug-in that makes your blog mobile-friendly for smartphones in just a few steps. I think this is really important to do, especially given the fact that an increasing number of Americans are accessing the Internet primarily through their mobile phones. Remember, this means that all users get to see your site in a mobile-optimized format — no app download necessary. The WPtouch Pro plug-in is a modestly priced solution to get you there. For more details, see our earlier writeup on WPtouch Pro.

Zemanta: Find relevant blog images

3Zemanta finds links, images, etc., that are related to your post as you’re typing so that you can insert them if you choose. My initial reaction is that it’s pretty neat. However, I found it a little slow to pull up related links, especially for the ones I wanted to embed within the text, so I found myself doing exactly what Zemanta is supposed to prevent, which is having to search online for related links. In addition, if you like to type your posts in full-screen mode, as I do, you lose the Zemanta “as you write” view. It does, however, bring up a selection of images that you can drag and drop into your post, and as it’s developed, might be a great alternative to tools like Apture.

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Strategies for identifying stories that exemplify your organization’s mission

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, brands, educators, video producers, Web publishers, storytellers, individuals.

Part 1 of a two-part series focused on using video to tell compelling stories. Also see part 2:
• 16 tips for making video interviews come alive

By Lindsay Oberst
Socialbrite staff

All too often, nonprofit organizations fail to take advantage of their greatest asset: stories.

Stories help us interact with our world and make sense of it. They link us together and shape our view of the world. Nonprofits, however, often miss the stories that surround them; the stories that can help them raise more funding, expand awareness of their cause and reach their goals.

Rob Wu is the creator of CauseVox, a platform to help nonprofits raise funds. He believes that nonprofits are missing a huge opportunity in stories.

“Generally, nonprofits use some level of storytelling but not to the fullest,” Wu said in an email. “The nonprofits that use stories in a meaningful way craft an overarching narrative of their organization and supporting stories that compel their audiences to action. Often, I hear nonprofits talk about fundraising strategies or a communications plan, but seldom do they talk about a storytelling strategy.”

Using stories is something that nonprofits can do in many areas of their work, yet videos are a particularly powerful tool. Especially considering that U.S. Internet viewers watch almost 20 hours of online video per month, according to statistics released in June.

Video storytelling draws us in by appealing to our emotions — a faraway woman with big eyes telling us about the children she can barely feed or the excitable entrepreneur full of passion for his idea. And then if done properly, video stories cause people to take action.

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Schedule your posts and include your own logo & linkback

Iwrote a while back about why I like Post Planner so much as a way to schedule posts to Facebook.

Have you tried it yet? Let me tell you right now that if you haven’t, you should.

And now it gets better. Today we’re relaying a special offer for you — and then I’ll tell you what’s in it for your organization.

When Post Planner, now in private beta, launches to the public, it will be priced at $19.95 a month. Now through the end of August their current customers are being offered a chance to lock their subscription price in at $14.95 a month, for life or until cancellation (at any time). Just sign up and the discount will be automatically applied.

Customized branding on world’s biggest social network

What got me excited about this is that last week Josh Parkinson of Go West Social, one of the people behind Post Planner, created a white label version of it for my blog. For free. Now, thanks to my very own “Waxing UnLyrical Post Planner app” — which shows up in my Facebook left sidebar — I have the option of having my Facebook posts come “via” Waxing UnLyrical when I post a status update.

That means I get my logo at the bottom of the post instead of the Post Planner icon (or, if I were posting from HootSuite, for example, the HootSuite icon), and a branded footer link back to my blog … or any URL I choose. This can be a custom landing page (if I have a special deal I want to share), my blog home page, whatever I want.

Cool!

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Guest post by the Microsoft Citizenship Team

Last week Microsoft announced updates to our nonprofit software donations program to enable more nonprofits around the world to get easier access to the technology they need, when they need it.

We currently provide software donations to more than 40,000 nonprofits each year, but we’re still just getting started and we need your help to reach more. Even if you don’t work at a nonprofit, you can help us spread the word.

Many nonprofit organizations, including some in your local community, are not aware that they can request a donation of Microsoft software, simply by visiting www.microsoft.com/nonprofit. Together, we can ensure nonprofits have access to affordable technology to help them do more with their limited resources.

What you can do to help

There are two easy ways you can help:

1) Share the video above with your colleagues, friends and family to raise awareness of a great resource available to nonprofits. Here’s the YouTube link: http://youtu.be/jvEaOBty6xI

2) Make your cause our cause. Reach out to your favorite nonprofit and make sure they’re aware of the Microsoft donations program.  To make it as easy as possible, we’ve drafted a note below that you can use.

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