As we get ready to wind down for the weekend, I wanted to share some links from around the web that have inspired me, taught me something new, or given me a hearty laugh. Hope they do the same for you. Happy Friday!

The buildOn Instagram account is endlessly inspiring to me. A great one to follow.

+Acumen just launched some amazing free online courses. From ‘Business Models for Social Impact’ to ‘Financial Modeling for the Social Sector’ and more – it’s worth a peek.

I’m living in this T-shirt right now. I call it #empowermentchic. ;)

NTEN (The Nonprofit Technology Network) is producing two conferences this fall—in New Mexico and Oregon—and both are designed to help you develop and refresh your digital strategy. Highly recommended.

It’s so important to allow ourselves the space and time to do things differently. This is something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently. How do I let other sectors inspire me to look at my work differently? I enjoyed reading about how Beth Kanter is working on Design Thinking with nonprofits in her blog post, Different Ways Nonprofits Are Using Design Thinking to Solve Problems and Achieve Impact

I found this post from CauseVox to be a super-detailed and informative read on peer-to-peer fundraising. A great primer to get you going.

Totally old Buzzfeed post on ’25 Situations Only Nonprofit People Can Understand’, but still makes me laugh every time I come across it.

Have a great weekend!

The post The Friday Edit – Links I’m Loving appeared first on Socialbrite.

Instagram Stories create an extra layer of visibility for your nonprofit – whenever you want that visibility.

Like Snapchat, Instagram Stories last for 24 hours. And like Snapchat, stories are told in a series of pictures and videos.

Users who’ve published Instagram Stories within the past 24 hours appear at the very top of the home screen:

What are the benefits of Instagram Stories from a communications perspective?

Let’s dig in!

Get on the marquee with Instagram Stories

When you publish a story your profile picture appears at the top of the home screen (as shown above), giving your brand extra visibility. Once your stories expire (after 24 hours), your brand will no longer appear in the marquee.

In other words, the simple act of publishing Instagram Stories creates more visibility your brand!

Content with an expiration date:

Before Snapchat, social media content was assumed to be permanent on the Internet. In fact, Facebook updates, Twitter tweets, and Instagram posts all have a unique URL called a permalink – a permanent link to a piece of content. No expiration date.

But with Instagram and Snapchat stories, social conversations can have a shelf-life. An expiration date helps you:

• Create a sense of urgency: If your people are going to act, they have to act now. The story won’t be there tomorrow.
• Get and keep their attention: The stories only last seconds, pay attention, or you will miss out.
• Inject more “human” into your brand: People seek to engage with people, not brands. Brands are fiction, people are everything. Instagram Stories allow you show supporters the people behind your brand – immediate, transparent, and spontaneous.

5 Creative Examples of Nonprofit Instagram Stories

A few nonprofits have started using Instagram Stories in very creative ways. Here are five examples.

1. Do Something

Do Something engages users in a creative and fun mini-campaigns to grow and engage their mobile supporter base.

2. Stand Up To Cancer

Stand Up To Cancer invited Instagram followers to a live Q&A with Sharon Jones to discuss her new documentary.

3. PETA

PETA invited Instagram followers behind the scenes to film a new PSA about the dangers of leaving your dog in a hot car.

4. Pencils of Promise

Pencils of Promise invites followers to tap through a series of pictures that promote#BacktoSchool. Fun, interactive, and creative!

5. Monterey Bay Aquarium

Monterey Bay Aquarium entertains with cool facts and bad puns… Hovercraft!

What other creative Instagram Stories have you seen?

The post 5 Creative Ways to Engage Supporters with Instagram Stories appeared first on Socialbrite.

Video tools could be your next weapon in extending your nonprofit’s reach

This is the second of a two-part series. Also see:
• 5 nonprofits using Instagram video to promote campaigns

Guest post by Teddy Hunt

Nonprofits traditionally have had trouble attracting today’s youths because many causes have a hard time reaching young people on their own terms. Tailoring your nonprofit’s marketing strategy to the interests of youths could mean the difference between getting them involved in your cause for years to come — or not at all.

As social media continues to proliferate, nonprofits should incorporate these tools in ways that introduce young people to your cause or organization in genuine ways. Find the right tools to reach this untapped resource.

Appealing to shorter attention spans

Young people are sometimes desensitized by being told things over and over. Think about this when marketing your cause: There are many good causes to work or volunteer for, so what makes yours special? Catching the attention of the young means reaching them visually, starting with Instagram or Vine.

Why Instagram and Vine are perfect: The most effective videos can be funny or serious, but they are short enough to keep youths engaged. Give them the option to watch, comment on and share your video. Build up visibility for your cause by adding friends and fans to your Instagram or Vine accounts. Be proactive by not just responding to comments but by commenting on your followers’ videos — it only takes a few seconds. Viewing and adding friends who have interests that seem to align with your cause is one of the easiest ways to recruit young supporters.

To some youths, Facebook is for ‘old people’

I recently came across an online article in which a 13-year-old girl was asked why she didn’t frequent Facebook. She responded, “Facebook is what my parents use.” While tens of millions of young people — college students, high schoolers and others — continue to use Facebook, others have turned to other social networks such as Instagram and Vine.

The younger demographic loves these video apps and seeing a nonprofit engage and use them in smart ways can make your cause more appealing. Being seen as an organization that connects with younger people is important to build your future with a supporter base that is younger, more social and more mobile.

In a day and age where company culture matters more than ever, Vine and Instagram can help showcase the human side of your organization and your cause. Take a look at some examples of nonprofit videos on Vine and on Instagram to consider how to put a face to your cause and draw young people in on a personal level.

In the end, reaching the youth market is always going to be a difficult task. The best things about young people is that they’re excited to be a part of a good cause and happy to help spread the word about it. Engaging the young is no simple task, but social media makes it just a bit easier.

Related on Socialbrite

• 5 nonprofits using Instagram video to promote campaigns

• 5 nonprofits using Instagram video

• Adding mobile to your video & content mix

The post How nonprofits can reach youths with Vine & Instagram appeared first on Socialbrite.

Guest post by Annie Lynsen
SmallAct

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, digital marketers, educators, Web publishers, Instagram users.

Since Instagram launched its new video service in late June, users have shared tens of millions of videos on the network.

Lots of nonprofits are rocking Instagram, and several of them have started experimenting with the new, 15-second video feature to tell their stories in a new way. 

Check out five good Instagram examples from nonprofits below. (Clicking each screenshot will take you to the video; Instagram doesn’t support embedded videos.)

1The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art posted a sneak preview of an exhibit at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. This is a great way to get people excited about up-and-coming programs!

2charity:water posted a glimpse into the lives of people who just got water taps at home. Connecting your donors to those whose lives they’ve changed is a fantastic use of video.

3UNICEF USA does a sneaky teaser for their upcoming Trick-or-Treat campaign. This kind of video, though simple, helps build excitement for the organization’s forthcoming efforts and helps donors and members feel involved.

4National Geographic uses Instagram Video to create a stop-motion animation piece showing how one of their photographers packs his camera bag. Showing a tiny slice of the work you do is a great idea – in this case, photography buffs (particularly those on Instagram) will be interested to see all the equipment a National Geographic photographer carries around.

5Heal the Bay posted a short video showing the surf at Venice Beach Pier, to get people excited and remind them of their mission to create safe, healthy, clean beaches everyone can enjoy.

Have you seen any great examples of nonprofits rocking Instagram video? Post them in the comments!

The post 5 nonprofits using Instagram video appeared first on Socialbrite.

Interact with Instagram directly from the Web

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

Did you know that Instagram profiles on the Web are now live? Until now, all interactions on Instagram (purchased by Facebook earlier this year) took place entirely on smartphones. Here’s my profile pageif you’d like to see what they look like.

Sweet and simple, right? I like that profiles are only for the purpose of viewing, commenting on, and liking photos. But snapping, creating and sharing photos is still mobile-only as if to preserve the simplicity and pureness of the experience.

To see your profile, go to instagram.com/[username].

What can I do with Instagram Web profiles?

Whether you have your own account or an organization account for your nonprofit, you can share your own profile with anyone you want to see your Instagram photos. You can also follow other users, comment and like photos, and edit your profile directly from the Web.

All photos you’ve shared to Instagram are included in your Web profile.

What do you think about Instagram’s new offering?

Related

• Is Instagram useful for nonprofit marketing? (Socialbrite)

• 6 creative ways to use photos to increase engagement on your Facebook page (Socialbrite)

The post Instagram launches Web profile pages appeared first on Socialbrite.

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, Instagram users.

Guest post by Beth Kanter
bethkanter.org

Instagram, the mobile photography app (and company) purchased by Facebook, has been getting a lot of attention lately. From critics saying it is killing photography to hype and hoopla from marketing pundits saying it is a must-have as part of your “visual marketing tool box.”

In Steve Rubel’s Ad Age post, The Revolution Won’t Be Televised; It Will Be Instagrammed, he points out some underlying trends that might make some of the hype less hype:

• Smartphone use has become pervasive, citing recent research reports from Pew  Internet for America Life research.
• Visual marketing is becoming an important part of the online marketer’s tool box – especially because images are global, easy to digest and distributable.

There are some nonprofits experimenting with Instagram.  I’ve been following charity:water, which has been posting a photo of the day. Charity:water’s CEO, Scott Harrison, is also using it quite skillfully to share imagery about his organization’s work. Like many nonprofit leaders and staffers,  Scott is “mixing up the personal with the professional brand.” I think Instagram is a terrific platform to do that if you have a culture that is comfortable with mixing it up and, of course, people who like to share photos.

Others are using Instagram by sharing visual stories about their programs using a branded profile, like Children’s LA and Unicef USA. Take a look at the how the US Embassy in Wellington, New Zealand, uses it.

Instagram is one of those channels where a nonprofit could start with a small pilot that is strategically linked to communications or marketing objectives, and pick a success metric to track. First, however: best practices and measurement, learning, and improving. This guide for business marketers is relevant to nonprofits.  It boils down the techniques to: Curate, Snap, Hashtag, Engage, and Repeat. Simply Measured offers a free report that lets see which of your photos/stories was most engaging.

I ran an analysis on my Instagram experiment and discovered that my most engaging photos included monks, clouds, and cats! Porter Mason from UNICEF USA also suggests this other measurement tool: Staigr.am.

Is your nonprofit experimenting with Instagram? What have you discovered? How are you defining and measuring success?

The post Is Instagram useful for nonprofit marketing? appeared first on Socialbrite.

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, educators, visual artists, photographers, general public.

Images are one of the best ways to tell your story, simply because they convey emotional and unconscious elements of your story that words often cannot.

This is why people share photos the most on Facebook, and why Pinterest has blown up practically overnight.

The shift toward visual storytelling also means that you need the ability to quickly edit the photos you are sharing. You need the ability to do several things with an image:

• Cropping – There are lots of optimal sizes for photos on social media sites, requiring the ability to crop images on the fly.
• Adding text – A picture says 1,000 words, but adding text narrows the field.
• Combining images – Before/after pics and infographics.
• Adjusting contract and tone – Many times the photos you take at an event will need a little touching up.
• Resizing images – Hi-res images taken with a Canon Powershot might be way too big for a Facebook Page update.
• Creating various file types – Depending on the situation, you may need JPGs, PNGs or GIFs.

7 image editing tools to create top-rate visual content

Here are seven tools you should check out for your image editing needs.

Instagram: An undeniable cool factor

1Instagram is an iPhone and Android app that’s both a social network and a very cool photo editor. In terms of editing, the only thing you can do is square cropping and applying a variety of retro-style filters. Sharing to Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr is super easy. Recommended for arts organizations and perhaps museums.

Phoenix: Combining power & simplicity

2From basic image retouching to complex effects, Phoenix has a lot of the same basic features of a desktop image editor with the simplicity and accessibility of a Web-based application.

Phixr: Free basic Web-based editing

3Phixr is another free online photo editor that includes all the basic photo manipulation tools like cropping, rotating, removing red eye and resizing. You can also add text and speech bubbles photos.

Google’s Creative Kit: Lots of options

4Google’s Creative Kit is an advanced photo editing tool within Picasa and Google Plus. You can add text to photos, and even select from a variety of interesting filters like “face-painting.” In either platform select a photo and then choose “Edit Photo” to get started.

Pixlr: Photoshop on a shoestring

5This is the one I recommend the most to my clients. With Pixlr, you can crop, edit layers, lasso parts of an image, resize, add text and save in a various different file types. It’s the closest thing to Photoshop that’s free and Web-based.

Jing: Easy screen grabs

6Jing is what I’ve used to create the screen grabs you see in this post. It also allows you to create screencasts — videos of your desktop — but I prefer ScreenFlow.

Photoshop Elements: More control & features

7Photoshop Elements, a desktop (not Web-based) app, is my go-to app for image editing. I like it better than any of the free Web-based editors because it has many more features, allows me to easily save and reuse files, and doesn’t depend on the limited Internet bandwidth at Starbucks. Cost: $62 and up.

What’s your favorite tool for image editing?

Related

• Creating media section (Socialbrite)

• 6 tips on how to shoot photos like a pro (Socialbrite)

• How to capture great photos on the road (Socialbrite)

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