May 28, 2013

How to get people to share your content

Photo courtesy of Jen Stamps (Creative Commons)

Gain insight from your key supporters to ignite sharing activity

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, marketers.

Technology has blessed your community with more sharing power than ever before. The ability to retweet, like and pin with increased ease is what helped launch the slactivist movement.

Even though sharing has gotten easier, getting people to share still feels like pulling teeth.

So how do you get people to share your content? Here are five mind-shifts to remember: Continue reading →

March 7, 2013

Crowdshout: Social advocacy made simple

App puts social actions in the palm of your hand

Guest post by Glenn Vander Laan
Co-founder, Crowdshout

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, educators, activists, general public.

The idea for Crowdshout hit my business partners and me back in November 2011, a few months following the Arab Spring and during the Occupy Wall Street protests. We realized that despite all of the tools and technology out there to support advocacy, something was missing. The advent of social media and the smartphone was helping to change the world right in front of us, but it was clear to us that all of the puzzle pieces were yet to fall into place to fully enable and empower groups of people.

Social media is providing real-time visibility to the social, political and consumer issues that affect us as individuals and as a society. The rapid dissemination of information has changed the game for governments and corporations in both positive and negative ways.

While social media has been embraced as a large part of an overall communication strategy, it can also be used as a powerful weapon by people in reaction to unpopular plans and policies. Institutions must now consider how to react to public opinion — from a Change.org petition, Facebook campaign or a viral video on YouTube. In addition to this, the portability and capability provided by smartphones to access social media have allowed groups of individuals to communicate and organize very quickly and effectively in support of causes. Continue reading →

January 2, 2013

Calendar of 2013 nonprofit & social change conferences

The graphic recording created during Socialbrite’s “You Need a Strategy” session at the 2012 Nonprofit Technology Conference.

SuperGuide to events for nonprofits & social good organizations

Here’s our roundup of conferences in the nonprofit and social change sectors coming up in 2013. This has become an annual tradition here at Socialbrite, and we hope you’ll bookmark this page and return to it throughout the year — we’ll be updating it throughout 2013 as more conference details firm up.

We’ll be reporting on many of these events and invite you to share your coverage or observations on Socialbrite, or let us know and we’ll tweet it or Facebook it. Throughout the year we’ll publish monthly calendars on the first of the month. Continue reading →

November 1, 2012

3 analytics tools to gauge your social audience

Image by kgtoh on BigStockPhoto.com

Listen, implement & measure to keep up with your users’ needs

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, metrics specialists, educators.

Guest post by Ritu Sharma
Social Media for Nonprofits

Like many of the nonprofits Social Media for Nonprofits works with, we were excited by the recent release of Beth’s new book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit: Using Data to Change the World.

In line with the book’s focus on turning data into knowledge through powerful, insightful measurement and analytics of social media efforts, we wanted to share three simple tips and resources that nonprofits can put to work.

All of these platforms have been profiled at our recent Social Media for Nonprofits conferences, which is about to produce its final U..S program of the year in Seattle on Monday, before we head to New Delhi in December, and then back to New York City, Silicon Valley, Vancouver, plus most other major U.S. markets in 2013.

And now, for those tips and tools: Continue reading →

October 19, 2012

3 top tips for nonprofits’ online fundraising

A few small changes that get more from online efforts

Guest Blog by Ritu Sharma
Social Media for Nonprofits

Of the $317 billion donated to nonprofits by individuals, currently about 15% is transacted online, but it’s growing at a whopping 35-55% a year. With Facebook now boasting over 1 billion active users and the “value” of a Like now said to be $217 per year for a nonprofit, social media is clearly playing an increasingly important role in helping causes secure the support they need to maximize impact.

We all wish we could raise more money online, but there are a select few tried and true ways for making that happen without investing tons of time or money, both of which are in short supply at just about every nonprofit. Continue reading →