Weblog
Feb 26, 02:12 pm: First, search. Alot.
I think that should be the requirement before any social benefit organization starts talking about which social network they should join or build. It’s an investment in time and, in the same way that you’d search for funders before writing and shooting off grant applications, you need to spend time search the wide world of the social web.
And by search, I mean:
And every single social site you can think of:
There are more but you get the idea. Search the ones that people who don’t work for nonprofits might be at. Save the ones that cater particularly to nonprofits. We can come back to those. You can pick one and use it as your home base. A steady spot from which you can be a center and reach out.
But this first part, this part before you sign up for any account names or start telling your board (would you tell your board this?) about the people you have friended. This first part should be about searching.
Search for groups that are close to your issue area. Try out different tags. Poke around. For a week. An hour a day for a week poke around. And collect what you find. Google Notebook can be an easy way to collect things from across the web.
Collect the stuff. Organize it by social service (and then maybe through in blogs as an organization tool). Make sure you are collecting tags that returned good results in that service, people that seem to always be sharing good information or media in your issue area and groups that are about your issue area.
That’s it for the first week. Just collect. Get the information in one place.
That’s week one of your social networking efforts.
