Technology in the Not-for-Profit Sector

This is tangentially related to the last blog post (with the Clark Shirky TED Talk) and features Clay yet again. It's definitely worth a listen. Freakonomics is a fantastic podcast and this episode talks about the Internet on a larger social scale. 

We didn't talk about podcasts in class, but holy crap are they awesome. Here's a list of amazing shows that you might like:

Public Radio Shows (US)

Radiolab

Freakonomics

99% Invisible

This American Life

Independent Shows

Back to Work (kind of about productivity, but much more than that)

You Look Nice Today (probably the funniest podcast ever, start from episode 1)

Roderick On The Line (interesting, funny, weird and thought provoking conversations between two guys)

The Truth (basically audio short films - really neat)

You can download the slides from today's lecture.

Thanks for all your great discussion about email, collaboration and productivity. Try turning off your email notifications and practicing some of the process that we talked about...you might like it!

We pulled information on 12 billion email sends from earlier this year and analyzed subject line length versus open and click rate. The results are straightforward...

This is a great post from Mailchimp (an example of some of the useful info they share on email marketing) about subject line length. 

Since weaversworld7 asked... I'd have to say this one is my favourite. As an introvert, I appreciate this technique and may have to try it out.

Also, this woman is an audience building master. What she does may seem fluffy and ridiculous to some, but there's an awful lot of strategy going on here. Kudos to Jenna.

Yes, I realize that headline is not funny at all.

Thanks for a great class today - hope you came away with some value. You can download the PDF slides if you wish.

Here is the dummy copy that you can use if you wish when creating your Mailchimp email.

Headline: You're Invited to a Rubber Chicken Gala Dinner

Subhead: Help us raise lots of fake money by eating a mediocre meal.

Content: Because you probably have too much money, come and moderately enjoy our Rubber Chicken Gala Dinner on Saturday, December 7, 2013 at The Bus Station. We'll have corporate, dry, enteraintment and a microphone with lots of feedback. Plus, check out not-unique items at our really loud auction.

Button: Buy your ticket today

Use this image:

Feel free to get creative and make up your own content as well. Remember to add me as a subscriber to your list (you have my permission!).

Have a great week off guys, see you November 5.

You can download a PDF of the lecture slides if you wish. The blog post assignment is below. Check out Hootsuite, Sprout Social and Buffer to get started. Do some research on your assigned platform both on their site and through other's posts about them. Setup a free account, get a sense of the features and give us your opinion on how it might be useful within a non-profit to have a platform like this to post across platforms, measure engagement and manage multiple users.

You can view a sample of a social media acceptable use policy if you wish. I'd encourage you to cover how your assigned social media management platform addresses some of the issues covered in the acceptable use policy.

Resources

Check out some content marketing resources:

Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman

Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson

Content Marketing by Rebecca Lieb

Seth Godin's blog

Your assignment this week should you choose to accept it is to take a picture of something that portrays technology to you. Write a few sentences explaining what it is and why you chose it.

This is my cable graveyard box, where all the various cables and random little accessories that go along with electronics and computers go to live out the rest of their lives. They get to intermingle with each other, creating a giant snakes nest that is nearly impossible to break apart.

Hope you've had a chance to start looking at the websites of the non-profit organizations that you're following. I'm looking forward to reading your thoughts on their websites. In case you need a refresher, here is the blog assignment again:

The link above is the cloud report I referenced on Tuesday. 

In this hilarious and highly practical book, author and professional speaker Scott Berkun reveals the techniques behind what great communicators do, and shows how anyone can learn to use them well. ...

This is the password management tool I referenced in today's class. The other one I mentioned was LastPass.

Here are the slides from today's class. 

Next week we'll talk about media monitoring, cloud computing and presentations. It'll be a mixed bag of topics, but we'll tie them together.

Everyone has done a fantastic job with getting their blog up and running. Thanks for taking the time to introduce yourself further and share the two organizations you'll be following technologically this semester. I'm really impressed by the diversity of the choices, it's going to make for some really interesting final presentations. 

If you aren't already, please take a minute to follow each other:

Aaron

Ny

Ali

Tania

Susan

Izabella

Lindsay

Sienna

Sunni

Jessica

Kevin

I also love that many of you have jumped in customized the template and appearance of your site. Nice job!

You can view a PDF of slides from our week one lecture. Feel free to email me with any follow-up questions.