Weblog
May 9, 03:41 pm: Week 7: It's all upcoming
By now, you are developing a strong online presence. You should be continuing to add feeds to your reader, friends to your twitter stream. You are blogging and watching your own audience grow. It’s time to start connecting your online work with the face-to-face events.
Upcoming is an event listing service. You’ll need to sign up (you should use a name consistent with your other services to make it easy for people recognize you). Of course, you want to fill out your profile, pointing to the blog that you’ve been working on. The service is pretty straightforward. Spend some time clicking around and looking at how it’s set up. Pay particular attention to the groups. You might not find anyin your topic area but you might find some groups that have the kind of people you want to connect to. They might be techies or activists or political groups. Join the ones that look interesting.
Now that you’ve spent some time looking around. Sign up for some events. Don’t worry, right now, about whether or not they are in your area. You can say that you are watching them. This will help expose you to other people who may be interested in the same topics you are. Like many of these services, you can “friend” people which can also be a good way to find events.
So why are you doing this? Well, the point of using these tools isn’t to use them and build up a lot of web friends. Though that can be nice. The point is to use these tools to make change and coming together with people, in a physical place, just can’t be underestimated. This exercise is to start getting you thinking about the kind of events that happen in your area, either geographical or topical.
As you continue your work over the coming weeks, you’ll have occasions to add things to upcoming. It’s easy to do and you don’t have to be an event organizer to make that happen. And, I’ll prepare you know, host a few events of your own.
This is an easy week. Keep the practice going.
(Photo credit: The Birds by Anthony & Farren)
Apr 23, 03:47 am: Week 6: Fine tuning the blog
Last week, we did some blog set up.
I told you to play and I hope that you did. Spent some time writing some posts and thinking out loud. Maybe deleted some of them but maybe you kept some of them. I hope you kept some them. There’s nothing wrong with thinking out loud. In fact, that’s one of the best ways to get comments.
This week is going to be pretty easy actually. You have a couple more configuration things to do and then you are get ready to push the blog out into the world. Not quite yet. So don’t worry too much. Let’s build up some content first.
Okay, the configuration. Go back to your Feedburner account. Don’t worry about any of the numbers, by the way. Don’t even pay attention to them. We’re just diving in quickly to make sure that people who subscribe to your feed will get your bookmarks from Ma.gnolia.com too. I know that we put the bookmarks on the sidebar of your site. But a lot of people won’t come to your site more than once. They will hang out with you in their feedreader and you want to make sure to bring the bookmarks to the party.
So. In Feedburner, go into your feed information. Then hit the optimize tab. You’ll see Link Splicer on the left column. It’s pretty obvious what do from there. In “Splice Links,” I’d choose “As a once-a-day summary only.” But there’s no math in that. Choose what suits you.
Now that’s done. Back to the blog. Look at your posts. And think, for just a minute, about how you’d categorize what you’ve written. Sure, you have the topic that you are thinking about, the issue that you are working on but if you were filing this stuff away, how would you identify it? Add the various categories that apply to the posts that you’ve written in “Categories” under the “Manage” tab.
Add two more: “off topic” and “housekeeping”. You won’t use ‘em often but you will use them.
Now, very quietly, you are going to start connecting your blog to your other accounts and networks. Go to ma.gnolia and Twitter and add your blog to your profile. And your blog to signature file. You aren’t shouting about it. Yet. It’s a soft launch.
Keep up with reading feeds, bookmarking and twittering as you have been. And use the blog to stretch out. To build the thoughts that serve as connective tissue between those three activities. Don’t worry, yet, about getting feedback on your posts. Don’t worry about the stats. Just build up content and let yourself get found. You should be trying to work, by the way, so that you are spending about an hour a day on these activities. I know that’s what I said at the beginning too but you will have gotten more efficient in all of this. Maybe, if you are really into it, you are spending 1.5 hours. But not too much more.
Next week, we’re going to see if we can bring some of this into the 3D world. And we’ll get a little louder about your blogging.
This is part of 52 Weeks to Social Change: Using the Social Web to Make Good Things Happen.
Tags: week6, socialnetworking, net2, nptech, 52weeks, socialmedia, howto, tips, blog
Apr 16, 03:53 am: Week 5: Start your blog engine
You’ve spent the last month building your expertise by collecting and sharing articles and building your network by connecting with people on twitter. It’s time to pull this together on your very own blog.
There’s a squidgy bit right here that we have to get over: I don’t actually know you. I mean, I have an idea of who are you. You are an individual. And you want to make a change in the world. And maybe these articles are helping you. I hope they are helping you. But I don’t want resources you have available to you. Are you the decision maker in an organization? Are you working toward a specific change on and off the clock? Do you just want the people in charge of your local waterfront to start making decision that have some hope of being connected to good ideas? That’s all the part I don’t know.
So, you may have to tweak what I write below to meet your needs and, more importantly, to better match the resources you have available to you in this change you are trying to make.
Me? I’m going to keep with the assumption that you are like most of us: struggling to understand your own influence, figuring out how to work collaboratively and with people you’ve never meet, and wishing that there was something in the world that is different from what it is today.
And I’m going to tell you to start a blog at WordPress.
First let, me take some pressure off of you: You aren’t going to tell anyone you’re blogging. At least not yet. This week you are going to spend time writing some practice posts, tweaking layouts and figuring out how to best incorporate the work you are already doing. You are going to put some basic web analytics into place so that you can get some feedback on your work.
Spend a few minutes (or more) thinking through the name of your blog and the tag line. These need to make your mission and intent clear. And they need to be something that you can live with.
Test them out, if you want, on a friend or two (you can even use the direct message feature of twitter to ask the question). Go through your feed and think about the names you like and how you can apply those qualities to your own blog name. I’m not too good at this. 337 really is my extension.
Go to WordPress and sign in for an account and start your new blog. All you need to get this going is that blog name.
One you’ve done that, follow the instructions to log in. The first thing that you are going to do is set up your layout. Do this by clicking on “Design”. Page through the designs and just look at them. You need to choose something that provides a sidebar (you’re going to connect to some of your other work there) and is, frankly, something you can look at over and over again.
Okay. Got your design? Good. Go ahead and click on it to activate (trust me when I say this is very easy. Anyway, remember that you haven’t told anyone about this yet. Don’t worry. No one will see you change your mind).
Now, let’s add some of the work that you’ve been doing. You are, by the way, going to impress yourself.
Once you’ve activated your theme, you’ll see some options next to it. Select “widgets”. First, choose the “About” widget. First choose the “Text” widget. Once you select “Add”, you’ll see it appear on the right side of your screen. Hit “edit” and some text introducing yourself. Spend some time writing this (again, look at the websites you like and see how the authors of those sites introduce themselves). You can start by simply saying your name and clearly stating the change that you are working for. You can even use that as a formula “Hi. I’m NAME. I’m looking forward to the day when CHANGE. Please feel free to contact me at EMAIL.” It really can be that simple.
Now add a second “Text” widget. You’ll be adding something to it later.
Finally, add the “RSS” widget. Same deal. Look over on the right so that we can edit. In a new browser tab or window, pop open your ma.gnolia page. Grab the RSS feed (look down on the bottom, right above your contacts) and add it to the RSS widget. Be sure to hit save. Now go look at what you’ve made.
Sure, you have that goofy example post. But you are working on something important and you have some links from important headlines and those links will automatically change every time you add something new to ma.gnolia (okay that’s not quite true but it’s true enough).
Now that we’ve plugged those two bits in. Let’s get you hooked into a light weight stats package. WordPress has some basic stats that it gives you but it isn’t quite enough. And larger scale packages will be a little like killing a gopher with a nuclear bomb. Sure, the gopher’s dead but the whole state of Wyoming is gone too.
Feedburner is just right. You know the drill: sign up for your account. Once you get logged in, you need to burn your feed. It’s enough. Just follow the on-screen directions. When you get to the traffic statistics page, be sure to select “Clickthroughs” and “I want more”. Once you click through the first couple of screens, you’ll get to a page that gives you options with regard to various services. Choose “Publish a chicklet to display your Feedburner Feed”. It’ll open a new tab or browser window and give you a help page. The instructions are a little off (the version of WordPress has change) but you’ll recognize the widgets as the ones that you were just working on in the “Design” area. Add the text to the empty “Text” widget you added previously.
And don’t forget to hit save on your WordPress design page.
Finally, back at Feedburner, select “Offer blog updates via email.” Again, you’ll get some straight ahead directions and some more text to add to that second text box (the one with RSS subscription info in it).
You’ve done the heavy lifting. The rest of this week is play. Really. And, again, don’t worry about anyone stumbling across this. First, they probably won’t. Second, you’ve done enough to create an identity on the blog and it’ll show that you’ve just started it.
So the play. Write some blog posts. These should be on the topic of your desired change. They can be long or short. The can (and should) be building on the conversation that is already out there. And that you’ve been following and linking to for the last week.
There are category options and comment options and pinging options. I don’t want you to worry about any of those. We will do work on that next week. Right now, I just want you start writing some posts.
You’re goal is two-fold: get used to the tool. Learn how to use the editor. To remember to hit publish. To go back and change previous posts. To add images. That’s the first bit.
The second? To start to get some good posts up there. Write them and change them but when you like something. Keep it. Use this week to start to get a sense of your own blogging style. Again, don’t worry about people finding it. That’s okay. You have real content up here. Spend the time getting to know your own blogging self.
Next week: we’ll do some tweaking on the blog, add categories and tags and then start sharing what you’re working on with the world.
This is part of 52 Weeks to Social Change: Using the Social Web to Make Good Things Happen.
Apr 2, 04:43 am: Week 4: Talk amongst yourselves
Now that you’ve started collecting and sharing information, it’s time to start building conversations with individuals.
This week, we’re adding Twitter to your tool chest.
Before we get started take a few minutes to check out this video from Common Craft.
Life happens between blog posts and email and so does thinking. Twitter is going to provide you the place to start thinking aloud — and getting other people to engage with that thinking. Getting people engaged with you and your thoughts will help you as you engage them in the broader change that you are trying to make.
When you sign up for Twitter, make sure that you take the time to fill out some information on your profile. Your ‘More Info URL’ should point to your organization or causes website. If you don’t have one, point to your bookmarks on ma.gnolia. Your ‘One Line Bio’ should very clearly start the change you are trying to make. Yes, one line is quick and too the point and, yes, it will lack nuance. But that’s not bad. Remember, you’re giving people a quick hit of who you are and giving them a reason to ‘Follow’ you.
Once you’ve signed up and filled out your profile a bit, it’s time to find some followers. Go back to the RSS feeds that you’ve collected over the last three weeks. Some of those are, undoubtedly, websites maintained by individuals. Find out if those people have twitter accounts (they might provide the info on their blog, but you can also search for people on Twitter) and, if they do, ‘Follow’ them.
It’s easy enough to think of following people but what do you have to say in 140 characters? A lot.
If you are reading a particularly interesting article (on topic, of course), point people to it on Twitter. Have a question about something you’ve read? Ask it on Twitter. Someone else says something that interests you? Respond to them (simply start your twitter post with ‘@username’ to make the connection). And let some of you slip in. Remember the video: it’s nice for to get to know the people you are working with and following.
And now people are following you. Every time you get notified of a new follower, check them out and, unless it seems like spam or wildly off your topic of interest, follow them.
It’s important that use this tool. Using the social web to collect information, and even tools like ma.gnolia to organize that information, is easy. It’s how we are used to using the web. It’s harder when we start thinking about putting our own voice out there. And this is, to some extent, a make a break step. That is, if you can’t put yourself out there it is going to be harder to build the network, conversations and community of trust that will allow you to harness the good energy of people you don’t yet know to achieve the change you are working for.
So think of Twitter as your first test in the 52 week course. Set a goal for yourself — 3 tweets a day or 4. Enough so that you are creating and growing a presence.
Next week: You are going to ask for some help from your new friends and contacts.
This is part of 52 Weeks to Social Change: Using the Social Web to Make Good Things Happen.
Mar 11, 03:19 pm: Week 3: Publishing is the new black.
Here’s what you have to date:
- a collection of resources courtesy of your first week of Google searches
- an RSS reader full of targeted topic-rich goodness that you’ve been shifting through, first thing every morning
And, in week two, full of following and reading, you’ve been starring links in Google reader, sharing things with co-conspirators. You may even have been commenting on a post or a video or a photo here and there.
Now, you need to start publishing the things that you find interesting, the things with which you are engaging. And the first phase of publishing is to point.
Set up an account on the social bookmarking site, Magnolia. Now, there a lot of arguments for using del.icio.us instead and if you have someone standing at your shoulder advocating at you, I’d go for that tool. But, short of that, I think Magnolia has a friendlier user interface, has a handy group feature, and makes printing out a list of links an attractive snap (the one big downer: it is not as easy to build a URl that brings together multiple tag words).
When you sign up for the account, spend more than a minute filling out your profile. Upload a picture — it can obscure your face if you aren’t comfortable. But make sure to point to your organizations web site — or another appropriate issue based site — from your profile page and put a sentence or two about the cause that is moving you to do all this in the “About You” section.
So, get the account at Magnolia, from the Help menu, get the appropriate bookmarklet. As you surf the web, share the really interesting things on Magnolia. And use the tag field to provide rich information so that you can find it later. And fill in the comment field. Tell other folks why are your thought it was interesting. Just a sentence or two. This is the first step in publishing and it is starting to get you established as someone who doesn’t just see a link and send it but has something to say about it. Something that directs the interest of a person who will follow the link and then follow you.
As you use the service, you’ll see that people are adding you as a contact. Check out their profile and add them as a contact, too, if appropriate. At the end of the week, five days into this exercise, go back and look at your list of links. See who else has saved them. See if you should be adding those folks as a contacts, if you should be subscribing to their bookmarks.
Now, you’re well on your way to building and contributing to a network.
Next week, we’ll add to that network on other services.
Mar 4, 02:03 pm: Second, follow.
So if you spent time last week searching a lot, this week should be about following the things that you found.
There are a few ways to follow. Some easier and some harder. The harder method is to pop open your Google Notebook and click on the links every day. The easier way is to use RSS. I’m going to recommend Google Reader for this. I’m not trying to be a Google stooge here but let’s use a batch of their services for the sake of username/password simplicity. Over time, you find another service you like better (over time, I’m going to recommend that you keep information in formats that allow others to contribute but that’s not for a bit yet).
Subscribe to everything on your collection of research that is subscribe-able. Subscribe to people if they write on your topic area a lot. Subscribe to terms. Subscribe to blogs or tags or other streams of information.
And every day open your subscriptions and read them. This is the important part of follow. It is not “check back in in a month or so and see if you can remember what you found interesting.” It is “read first thing every morning.”
Okay. Not just read.
Read and mark (with a handy star — it feels good like pre-school!), the things that you find interesting.
And then share them or comment on them.
If you think someone in your office, on your team, would be interested send a quick email pointing to the link. If you want to talk to the person who initiated the item, do it. Leave a comment in the comment field. There’s almost always a comment field.
For the next week, follow, share and comment.
Oh, and don’t stop adding new and interesting things to research list and subscription list. As you follow, you’ll find new people, new tags, new terms. Capture them on your trusty Google notebook page and subscribe.
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.
