Social Media

Twitter: It Isn't Just for Breakfast Anymore
March 16, 2009

I’ve heard the confused refrain over and over, from friends, colleagues and certainly my wife, “This Twitter thing everyone is talking about … I just don’t GET IT. Who CARES what you had for breakfast this morning!?” They are referring to the 140-character “micro-blog” messages that users publish to a web page for a list of “followers” interested in what they have to say.

New Media/Web 2.0, E-Mail Gaining Response Results (and Budgets): DMA Report
March 12, 2009

Pilots with new media/Web 2.0: including SMS, social networking, podcasts, blogs, RSS feeds, wikis, online video, user-generated content, and virtual worlds have shown more positive than negative results according to a new report from the Direct Marketing Association, the 2009 Response Rate Report.

Social Networks & Blogs Now 4th Most Popular Online Activity, Ahead of Personal Email, Nielsen Reports
March 11, 2009

Now visited by over two-thirds (67 percent) of the global* online population, “Member Communities,” which includes both social networks and blogs, has become the fourth most popular online category – ahead of personal email. It is growing twice as fast as any of the other four largest sectors (search, portals, PC software and email), according to The Nielsen Company’s “Global Faces and Networked Places,” a comprehensive report published today revealing the new global footprint of social networking.

The Great Schlep
March 1, 2009

For fundraisers, 2008 was a year of change and challenge. Plummeting endowments, budget cuts and other lows added pressure to bring in new money while spending even less than before.

Get Your Head Out of … the Sand
March 1, 2009

Yesterday, the mother of a sick child Googled the name of a devastating disease. She got thousands of results, but the ones that interested her the most were links to your organization’s Web site; two stories from the national media; a handful of online support groups for patients and their families; a general health Web site with online communities dedicated to the disease; and one site focused exclusively on a heartsick father’s negative experience with an operator on your organization’s support line.

Relationships 2.0
March 1, 2009

For fundraisers, the first quarter of the year is as much a time to look back as ahead. It’s a time to find out how year-end appeals tallied up, to assess how winter events performed and perhaps to report back to the board on what it all means.

Twestival Raised $250,000 and Expectations
February 20, 2009

After the Twestival hangover, how much money was raised for charity:water? Twestival today said that after adding up 116 of the 175 cities involved, the Twitterrati has raised just over $250,000.

Practical Tips on Using New Media to Inform Communities
February 19, 2009

Tips from media experts and civic leaders on how to use technology to engage and inform communities are now available at www.informationneeds.org, a Web site of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Pew Releases Report on Twitter and Status Updating
February 19, 2009

In the past three years, developments in social networking and internet applications have begun providing internet users with more opportunities for sharing short updates about themselves, their lives, and their whereabouts online. Users may post messages about their status, their moods, their location and other tidbits on social networks and blogging sites, or on applications for sending out short messages to networks of friends like Twitter, Yammer and others.

Membership 2.0: A Socially Networked Museum Membership
February 18, 2009

Membership organizations looking for ways to entice constituents who have demonstrated an interest in their organization but haven't made the commitment to join are sure to find inspiration from Brooklyn Museum, which recently launched a socially networked museum membership called 1stfans.