How I Have Used Delicious Over the Years

I heard that delicious might be shutting down and I started thinking about how I have used the site over the years.

• To connect with others through the nptech tag experiment
  

  I started learning about the nonprofit technology field in late 2004. I learned about the nptech tag experiment in early 2005 and joined delicious to participate. Through this project I connected with Marnie, Deborah, and others.

• To share resources with others by using tags and analyze what tags other people were using
  

  When I first started saving bookmarks I used as many tags as I could think of to describe the website. I would always look and see what tags others used to describe sites. I analyzed the nptech bookmarks to see what other tags were used.
  

• To learn about resources by tags and popular sites

I would always look at tags to see what new sites were added. I also find new sites from the main delicious page.

• A place to store all my bookmarks and resources I would like to read at a later time

• To organize the Nonprofit Blog Exchange content

Since starting The Nonprofit Blog Exchange, I have added all the blogs that are part of the project to delicious. Every month I write roundups and I keep track of which entries to include by saving them on delicious.

• To write blog entries about delicious
  

My most popular entry titled Tagging Bookmarks with del.icio.us for Educators was written in April 2005.

Nonprofit Awareness Through Websites

The most important thing an organization needs to have on the Internet is a website. People look at websites to learn more about organizations.

Whenever I learn about an organization through Twitter or blogs, I always check out their website to learn more about them. I always want to know what their mission is and where they are located. It is very important that organizations include their website address in their profiles on social media sites and blogs.

Nonprofits can increase awareness by having the following information on their websites:

• Mission
  
• Information About Programs, Events, and Campaigns
  
• Information About Topics Related to the Organization
  
• Press Releases / News Articles About Organization
• Contact Information
  

My Have Fun and Do Good List

Britt wrote an entry on her blog titled How to Find Your Way to Have Fun and Do Good. She asks for others to make their own list, so I made a list.

My Have Fun

• Play with social media
  
• Read blogs
• Update website content
  
• Code in HTML
  
• Internet research
• Learn about how different places use social media
  
• Writing
• Analyzing data
  
• Play games
  
• Solve puzzles
• Staying busy with different groups I am involved in
• Meet new people

My Do Good

• Being a leader
• Volunteering
  
• Sharing resources with others

My Have Fun, Do Good

• Writing a blog about topics I enjoy to research about and write (this blog, Emily's World)
• Volunteer my time to write a blog to share resources with others and connect nonprofit bloggers with each other (Nonprofit Blog Exchange)
• Analyze web analytics for both blogs
  
• Work on websites for large nonprofit organizations or associations (past jobs I had)
  
• Being a leader in organizations by planning events for young professionals in the DC area

How Breast Cancer Awareness Groups Use Facebook and Twitter

I read an article on montgomeryadvertiser.com titled
'Social' Support: Breast cancer groups use Facebook, Twitter to boost awareness.

Here are some interesting facts from the article:

• Breast cancer groups use social media to reach people who might not otherwise hear their message.
• Breast cancer groups have different objectives and different groups they try to reach.
• Volunteers for the American Cancer Society use social media to get the word out about events.
• Susan G. Komen for the Cure uses its Facebook page, which has more than 280,000 likes, to drive traffic to its website. People are coming to their website to learn more about the information they are posting.
• Twitter is also useful for posting information about events. Followers of a group can retweet messages for their followers to see.
  

After reading this article, I started thinking about nonprofits using Facebook and Twitter.

Here are my thoughts:

• Organizations can encourage their supporters to post information about upcoming events and campaigns on both Facebook and Twitter.
• Use Facebook and Twitter to post links from your organization's website. Link to new reports, studies, press releases, new resources, and any other new content on the website. Followers and people who like your organization do not check your organization's website daily. They can see your new content through links on Facebook and Twitter.
• Organizations reach new people through social media.

Bloglines and RSS Feeds

I just read an entry on BlogHer titled "Is RSS Dead? Bloglines to Close on October 1". I have been using Bloglines since 2005 and had two accounts.

The first account I created was to get the latest news from blogs about nonprofit technology, educational technology, and web design. For the past couple of years I had stopped checking that account because I was too busy checking my second account.

The second account was for The Nonprofit Blog Exchange. I used the public account to post the blogroll on The Nonprofit Blog Exchange blog for about 5 years.

I made the switch a few months ago to Google Reader. I had noticed that feeds were not loading correctly in Bloglines. I thought some blogs were not updated anymore. But it turned out it they were still updated, the updates loaded in Google Reader but not Bloglines. I moved The Nonprofit Blog Exchange account over to Google Reader.

After I made that switch I went into my other account and noticed Bloglines now required a word verification to sign in. I really did want to deal with that to read my rss feeds each time I logged in. I finally moved my other account over to Google Reader.

I would be lost without an rss feed reader! It helps me keep track of all the blogs that are part of the exchange. I use it to help me with writing roundups and it helps me figure out where I leave off reading each blog.

How to Use Delicious to Find and Share Disaster Relief Resources

In September 2005 I wrote an entry titled How to Tag Hurricane Katrina Bookmarks on del.icio.us.

Recently there have been more disasters and it is time to revisit this topic.

What is delicious?

Delicious is a great tool to share bookmarks with others. When you add a bookmark, you can add tags that are related to the link.

You can find shared bookmarks by using tags or by using the search engine.

What resources can you find and share on delicious?

• News articles about specific disasters
• What organizations are helping and how they are helping
• Information about volunteering
• Information about donating

Disaster Relief Related Tags

disaster AND relief
http://www.delicious.com/tag/disaster+relief

hurricane
http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricane

earthquake
http://www.delicious.com/tag/earthquake

flood
http://www.delicious.com/tag/flood

oilspill
http://www.delicious.com/tag/oilspill


For specific disasters, you can use the following format:

http://www.delicious.com/tag/TYPEOFDISASTER+PLACE

Earthquake AND Haiti
http://www.delicious.com/tag/earthquake+haiti

Earthquake AND Chile
http://www.delicious.com/tag/earthquake+chile

Flood AND Pakistan
http://www.delicious.com/tag/flood+pakistan

Hurricane AND New Orleans
http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricane+neworleans

Oil Spill AND Gulf Coast
http://www.delicious.com/tag/oilspill+gulfcoast

For hurricanes (or tropical storms) you can use the following formats-

http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricane+NAME
http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricaneNAME
http://www.delicious.com/tag/NAMEOFHURRICANE

Hurricane AND Katrina
http://www.delicious.com/tag/hurricane+katrina

Nonprofits Use Social Media More Than Businesses and Education

The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research published a report titled US Charities’ Adoption of Social Media Study. This is the third year they have published a study about nonprofits using social media. They received responses from 76 organizations.

Here are some of the findings of the report:

• In 2009, nonprofits used Social Networking (96%) and Twitter (90%) the most. Social Networking went up from 32% in 2007 and 79% in 2008.
• In 2009, 65% of nonprofits used blogs which went up from 34% in 2007 and 57% in 2008.
• In 2009, 93% of nonprofits used Facebook, compared with Higher Education at 84% and Inc. 500 at 61%.
• In 2009, 90% of nonprofits used Twitter, compared with Higher Education at 59% and Inc. 500 at 52%.
• In 2009, the adoption of blogging for nonprofits was 65%, compared to 51% for Higher Education, 45% for Inc. 500, and 22% for Fortune 500.

7 Ways to Improve Nonprofit Websites

This is a topic I have written about before on my blog. Earlier entries I have written are Website Pet Peeves and Content Ideas for Non-profit Websites.

I just read a blog entry at Marketing for Nonprofits about nonprofit websites and I started thinking about this topic again.  Listed below are some ways to improve nonprofit websites.


1. Easy to Find Content

What content do you want people to know about on your site? Make sure website visitors can find this information quickly! Examples include how to donate, how to volunteer, how to sign up on e-mail lists, events, and campaigns.

2. News Items

Make sure you keep press releases and other news sections current! There are many organizations that have not kept their news sections updated in years - it's hard to believe that these organizations have not had any news in over a year or longer

3. Contact Information

There are many organizations that do not list their contact information or it is hard to find on their website. Readers want to know where your organization is located! If your organization does not want to put down complete contact information, at least put down the city and state or country if you are not located in the United States.

4. Page Titles

There are many websites that do not have the organization's name in the title. These websites have titles like Home Page or Home. That's not very descriptive! Be sure to include your organization's name in the titles of your pages! Also, if you are updating a newsletter or something else with a date on it, be sure to remember to change the date on the page. I have seen lots of newsletters on websites (and e-newsletters) where the title says April 2010 when it is really for May 2010.

5. Design

Content Management Systems are the way to go now for nonprofits. However, there are still nonprofits who are updating websites manually and these sites do not always have the best design and usability. Make sure all webpages on the site have the same color and navigation scheme. Make sure visitors are able to tell what text or image is a link. Make sure the information is not cluttered and there is not too much white space.

6. Social Media

Does your organization have a presence on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr or another related site? Be sure to include the links to these sites on your organization website! It can be listed on the homepage or it can be listed on a separate page for Social Media. Be sure it is easy to find on the site! Also remember to include your website address on these other sites. Alot of people learn about your organization through these websites.

7. Blogs

Does your organization have a blog? Make sure the link is easy to find on the website! Be sure the name of the organization and link to website is on the blog. As a nonprofit blog reader, I have seen many blogs that do not tell me what organization it is or a link to their web address. Remember that some people learn about your organization from your blog!

The Connection Between Websites and Social Media

Even though I was not able to attend the Nonprofit Technology Conference this year, I was able to attend one session virtually through Causecast. The session was "The Art of Aligning Social Media Strategy With Communications Strategy".

Here are two things I learned from this session:

1) The purpose of social media is to drive traffic to websites.
2) Websites come before using social media. "Eat your vegetables (website) before you eat dessert. Social media is dessert."

I have been thinking about these things and how websites and social media relate to each other.

Here are some tips for nonprofits:

Analyzing Visitors, Fans, and Followers

• Check your website analytics and see what your top pages are on your website. This is what your visitors are interested in. Make sure this content is posted on social media.
• What type of content are your fans on Facebook commenting on, asking about, or liking? What are people retweeting or talking about on twitter? Are you putting enough content about these topics on your website?

Content to Share on Social Media

• Press Releases
• Campaign Pages
• Fundraiser Pages
• Event Pages
• Volunteer/Job Opportunities
• New Additions to Website
  

I look forward to attending NTC in DC next year!

Two Ways to Improve Facebook Pages

1. Content

Update your content on your facebook page regularly. It does not have to be daily, but at least once a week to keep content fresh.

2. Promote Your Facebook Page

Do people know that you have a facebook page? Are you looking for more fans? Remember to let people know by including information about your page on your website, e-mails, and anything printed or on the web.

Survey on Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals

Idealware just published a report titled Using Social Media to Meet Nonprofit Goals: The Results of a Survey. This is based on a survey that Idealware conducted in November 2009 about how nonprofits use social media. They received responses from 459 nonprofit staff members about their use of Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, video sharing, photo sharing, and blogs.

Here are some of the findings of the report:

• The social media channel that was used the most was Facebook and more than half of them update their content on there regularly
• Nonprofits are using social media the most to reach new potential supporters and to enhance relations with existing audience
• The respondents felt that social media was not effective for raising money

How Nonprofits Can Search Blogs and Twitter to Find Supporters

There are many ways nonprofits can find supporters on the internet. Two of these ways include searching blogs and Twitter. This is a great way to see who is writing and talking about your organization and a particular topic related to your organization.

What to search for:

• Your organization's name
  
• Topics related to your organization's issue
• Campaign your organization is having
• An event for your organization

Where to search:

• Technorati
  
• Google Blog Search
• BlogPulse
• Twitter Search

How to Connect With Supporters:

• Write comments on their blog entries
• Send a tweet or direct message to thank the person who tweeted about your organization
  
• Follow the person on Twitter (and if they are not following you yet, they can learn you are on twitter and hopefully follow you back)
• Retweet their messages
  
• Link to their blog post in your tweet