On Ventureneer: 25 Best Social Media for Social Good Blogs

This is a fantastic collection of Social Media for Social Good blogs, put together by another great blog I often ReTweet: Ventureneer.  I’ve RT’d this particular article dozens of times, and adore every blog listed.  Read on for some of the smartest ideas, and most creative minds, in the Social Good space!  A big THANK YOU to @Ventureneer!

25 Best Social Media for Social Good Blogs

Values-driven organizations – nonprofits, social enterprises and socially responsible small businesses – face a special challenge: balancing social good and mission with revenue generation.Ventureneer has put together a list of the 25 Best Social Media for Social Good Blogs, those blogs that “get” the challenge of mission and/or provide useful information about social media. We hope this resource will encourage and guide values-driven organizations as they expand their use of social media.Why did we make this list? Who are we anyway? Our favorites. How did we rate them? Suggest a blog for next year’s list.

Rating	Blog Name	Blog Focus
1	Nonprofit Tech 2.0: A Social Media Guide for NPO’s	Solid information any nonprofit can use when implementing social media.
2	A.Fine Blog	Intelligent, focused.
3	NetWits ThinkTank	Nice balance of big picture and details.
4	Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPtech	She keeps up with what’s going so you don’t have to.
5	Socialbrite	Excellent how to’s.
6	Social Media Explorer	Good general social media information.
7	Sarah Durham’s Duck Call	Detailed posts that allow you to drill down to the info you need.
8	Kivi Leroux Miller Nonprofit Marketing Guide	Social media within a marketing framework. One of the best.
9	Beth Kanter	Eclectic, reflecting the personal curiosity of someone dedicated to improving the use of technology by nonprofits.
10	Katya Andresen Nonprofit Marketing Blog	Accessible, helpful tech info for novices.
11	Nonprofit Technology Network	Not for the beginner but great once you get started.
12	FrogLoop blog	On the mark: social media for social good.
13	Richard Millington/ Feverbee	Very specific to community building; excellent!
14	Chris Brogan	Practical advice anyone can use.
15	Geoff Livingston	In your face writing, thought-provoking, challenging.
16	Joe Waters/Selfish Giving	Great info about using social media in a cause marketing campaign.
17	Jay Baer	Insights you don’t see elsewhere.
18	Social Media Today	Social media strategies for the business side of social good.
19	Social Mouths	Good general social media info and how-tos, not for beginners.
20	Companies for Good	Excellent tidbits on a wide variety of topics.
21	Social Impact	For more advanced, tech savvy readers.
22	John Haydon	The place for Facebook info.
23	Jocelyn Harmon	Good basics for nonprofits; conversational, practical, and sometimes thought-provoking.
24	Laura Quinn	Engaging, tech-focused but accessible.
25	The Dragonfly Effect	Runs the gamut, from inspiring to practical, from nonprofit to social enterprise but always social media.

Social Good Stars – Beth Kanter (@kanter)

This post originally appears in the Huffington Post in my new series for Impact, “Social Good Stars.”  Thank you to the amazing Beth Kanter!

Amy Neumann

Writer, speaker and social media consultant for nonprofits and businesses

Follow Amy Neumann on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CharityIdeas

Beth Kanter , Social Good Stars , Social Good , Social Media For Social Good , The Networked Nonprofit , Impact News

Social Good Stars: Beth Kanter

Posted: 11/18/11 12:43 PM ET

This is the first in a new Impact series, #SocialGoodStars. The people highlighted here are passionate, dedicated philanthropists, strengths to their communities, and social media masters. They also happily share their vast knowledge with others, making them shine as leaders in the Social Good world.

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it. ~Edith Wharton

Some people stand out as an example of a person who is indeed the bright candle, from whom others can help spread light. Beth Kanter, well-known in nonprofit and social media circles alike, is one of those people. She has been named by Fast Company Magazine as one of the most influential women in technology and one of Business Week’s “Voices of Innovation for Social Media.” She is the author of Beth’s Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media, one of the longest running and most popular blogs for nonprofits, and the book, “The Networked Nonprofit” with Allison Fine. She is also co-founder of Zoetica Media. Most importantly, Beth spends a lot of time listening to others, curating key information, and sharing it so other people can also be Social Good Stars.

Beth Kanter in Kenya with a winner of her book.

With 32 years in nonprofit social good, Beth is the perfect person to answer some pressing questions about current and future trends. Our interview is below.

You famously co- authored the book, “The Networked Nonprofit” with Allison Fine, and have worked with social good luminaries such as Claire Diaz-Ortiz of Twitter and Randi Zuckerberg of Facebook.  With such legendary background knowledge, can you reveal any social-media-for-social-good trends you see?

What’s top of mind at this moment is this stat:  In 2020, 40% of the world population will have grown up knowing nothing but the Internet and social networks.  Think about that. I’m a baby boomer and my first job was with the Boston Symphony in late 70’s, early 80’s.  I was in development and wanted to see examples of membership or annual fund brochures from other symphonies.  So, I wrote letters to about 20 of them, asking for a copy.  It took a month, but I then had a great collection of ideas — which was good because the annual conference when we could exchange that sort of stuff was six months away.  Now, we can learn in real time from our peers. Think how fast ideas are shared and copied from nonprofit to nonprofit.  I also watched my son last night do his homework.  He is 12.  He had to do a PowerPoint on Portugal.   He had a PowerPoint document uploaded into Google, was collaborating on it with two friends, and they were talking to each other on Skype. Our world is changing before our eyes and organizations really need to think about what this means for their work.  I think about the younger people in nonprofits — and those like free agents outside, and how important it is for nonprofit leaders to empower younger, millenials on staff and outside their walls.

Who is a personal  hero/ine in the social good space?  What makes them unique?

This is such a hard question — I have so many heroes/heroines.  But, I will name one.  Kristin Row-Finkbeiner the co-founder of Momsrising. “Where Moms and people who love them go to change our world.” They are such a fantastic example of working in this agile and transparent way and leveraging social media for on the ground social change.

 How important is “networking” to you in social media (and IRL)?  Has social media made it faster, slower, more or less relevant?

Definitely faster. I’ve always been a networker, before the tools — that is seeking people out, introducing people, and learning from the network/community.  The challenge when you add online tools is that you can connect to so many more people that you run the risk of having shallow relationships.  I have a lot of connections or friends, and I often feel that I don’t get a chance to just to chat and get to know people in a deeper way. These days I get a lot of requests for a lot of things. I find that introducing people to other people where there is a mutual need or potential for reciprocity is a good thing.

 What’s the “killer app” of social media right now?

Tools come and ago — and they change faster than humans.  Right now the killer app or type of app is content curation.  Less about the tools, more about the process.  I’m really excited about the whole concept of people whose job it is to make sense of information on the web. They used to be called journalists — but we have so much information available to us now that the sorting and making sense of it is a job in and of itself. This primer on content curation talks about why.

Do you have a favorite “social media success story” for this this year?

Yes, grist.org. They use a unique combination of entertaining content and environmental reporting, dubbed the “The Daily Show of the environmental movement.”  They have inspired a whole new generation of environmentalists who don’t take themselves so seriously while creating on-the-ground change.

What personal projects and charities do you love & support?

My main charity is the Sharing Foundation which helps kids in Cambodia.  My two kids were adopted from that country – and supporting the organizations is a way to give back.

I’m also on the board of Ushahidi , a non-profit tech company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping. I support a number of other organizations in small ways.

Beth Kanter

You can learn more about Beth at BethKanter.org and follow her on Twitter @kanter.

Amy Neumann is a writer, speaker and consultant on social good marketing. Check out her CharityIdeasBlog and follow her on Twitter @CharityIdeas.

Why I Love QR Codes – Amy Neumann

Scan Amy Neumann's QR code for more!

Simply put, I love QR Codes because they make getting key information directly into someone’s hands easier and faster.

QR Codes, short for “Quick Response”, are these funky boxes (left) that when scanned link to more information online. [ I like using @daqri because of the number and types of links you can embed behind it.  It’s in private beta, and here’s their site, where you can request an invite:  daqri.com.]

This one shown is my personal QR Code, which I have on my business cards, sites, blogs, and pretty much everywhere.  If you download the free daqri app you can see the 8 links behind it (which can include PDFs, sites, maps, video, link to call directly, and more.)

These are brilliant to use for nonprofit events, where you can add directions and maps, info like an auction catalog, a way to purchase tickets and make donations via mobile like give.mobi, links to sites, direct click-to-call, and more in one spot.  You can upload videos of prior events and post pictures and videos of the event real-time.

Here are a couple great examples of using QR Codes:

• 22 Ways Nonprofits Can Use QR Codes for Fundraising and Awareness Campaigns
• QR Codes – Can Your Nonprofit Use Them?
• Why QR Codes Will Go Mainstream

What are your thoughts on QR Codes?

Twitter’s Claire Diaz-Ortiz @ClaireD: HOW TO Use Twitter for Good!

Twitter’s Claire Diaz-Ortiz (@ClaireD): HOW TO Use Twitter for Good!

“How can *I* use Twitter for Good?”

As a consultant to nonprofits and business about social media strategy, Twitter is without a doubt what garners the most curiosity and questions.  Having heard countless uplifting tales of how it can help people in disasters, break fundraising records, and create global awareness, people everywhere want to know: 

What’s the secret to Twitter?

 “Be a Force for Good.”
                    ~ Twitter’s operating principle

Claire Diaz-Ortiz, aka @ClaireD, Twitter’s Philanthropy & Social Good Expert.

Luckily, the day has arrived that Twitter’s own philanthropy and social good leader, Claire Diaz-Ortiz (pictured), has written the book on just that: the definitive How-To guide, “Twitter for Good”.  From co-founding a nonprofit for AIDS orphans (Hope Runs) in Kenya and using Twitter there in 2007, to helping the world’s largest nonprofits and socially responsible companies, Claire has seen amazing uses of Twitter and shares some best practices in her book.

Claire became impressed with Twitter impact for good while using it in 2007 in Kenya, running her nonprofit Hope Runs.

Having been inspired by Claire’s discussion of her T.W.E.E.T. model as panelists together at Dell’s Social Innovation Competition earlier this year, I asked her how we can all “Be a Force for Good.”

• What do you consider most important for organizations who want to use Twitter for Good effectively?

“First, developing a strategy is the answer to ‘What am I doing on Twitter?’  I create the 5-Step framework called T.W.E.E.T. to help with that and for using Twitter:  Target, Write, Engage, Explore, Track.  It works because it’s simple.”

• What are a few examples of nonprofits really leveraging the relationships from Twitter to impact awareness and fundraising or other key goals?

“Pepsi Refresh showed what it means to pique the interest of the Twitter audience, and draw them to a site to learn more and take action.  Pepsi took $20 million, and later included another $1.3 million for the Gulf, and used Twitter to help local causes be broadcast across the nation and beyond to win grants to help their communities by voting.

Mark Horvath, well-known as @hardlynormal on Twitter and founder of InvisiblePeople.tv, is another brilliant example.  He travels the US and Canada interviewing our homeless friends on video and gives them a voice, a voice everyone can now hear because of the reach of Twitter.”

• Twitter does numerous internal philanthropy projects, including your pro-bono Tweets for Good program.  Can you talk about that?

“Within our advertising platform, we offer pro-bono programs for non-profits already engaged on Twitter.  Promoted Tweets are a tool advertisers use to promote specific campaigns via Tweets on Twitter. The Promoted Tweets for Good programs is an application-based pro-bono program serving a number of non-profit organizations each year. We offer a second type of Promoted Tweets for Good ad hoc to organizations involved in disaster relief in times of crisis or civil unrest.”

        “People are basically good…When you give them a simple tool that helps them exhibit that behavior, they will prove it to you every day.”
                ~ Biz Stone

For more information on Claire’s book, and many more ideas, below is an informative trailer for “Twitter for Good”, which highlights additional tips and case studies.  More about programs mentioned can also be found at http://Hope140.org and http://Twitter4Good.com

The Video Trailer for the “Twitter for Good” book

I received an advance copy of “Twitter for Good” and found it incredibly helpful for both nonprofits and business, and for individuals too. ~ Amy  [Follow me on Twitter @CharityIdeas]

Claire's book, "Twitter for Good"

Catchafire Virtual – Now You Can Do ProBono Work From Anywhere!

Giving your skills for good in America will take a great leap forward this September as Catchafire activates virtual pro bono for the first time. Catchafire matches professionals who want to give their skills with social good organizations that need their help, making it easy for every professional to use their skills for good and for every social good organization to access and effectively use pro bono as a way to build capacity within their organization.

Until recently, only pro bono professionals based in the greater NYC area were able to take advantage of @Catchafire‘s pro bono opportunities. However, professionals from all over the United States will be able to give their skills for good, even if they are not in the same location as the social good organization they are helping.  A few key points on virtual pro bono at Catchafire:

•  Almost all Catchafire projects are suitable for virtual pro bono, and social good organizations will receive project applications from virtual professionals in the same way they do from local ones.

•  Social good organizations will now have more talent choices and a larger pool of professionals to help them address their needs.

•  Meetings will be conducted via videoconference or telephone, with both parties taking advantage of 21st century technology such as Skype, Gchat and Google Docs to work efficiently.

“The move to virtual pro bono is based on us now being at a stage in our lifecycle where we feel that we can provide our organizations and our professionals with just as good an experience virtually,  as we can in person,” said Catchafire CEO Rachael Chong. “We wanted to make sure that we had all the pieces in place to make a virtual project just as successful as a project where the professional and organization can meet face to face. While we still advocate local matches, we want to provide our organizations with as much choice as possible in terms of talent, and do not believe we should restrict them if they decide to choose a virtual professional instead of a locally based one.”

Ready to get involved? Register here!

Top 10 Creative Social Good Resources | TheTop10Blog.com

Top 10 Creative Social Good Resources | TheTop10Blog.com

http://www.thetop10blog.com/top-10-creative-social-good-resources/

In this latest installment of my Expert Series I am delighted to welcome Amy Neumann with her compilation of web sites which provide creative resources and tools to help you to get involved in helping others.

Amy, who may be better known to you on Twitter as @charityideas is a passionate advocate of using social media and technology for social good. She is also a lady who is prepared to but her beliefs into practice as one of the team tackling Mera Peak in the Himalayas in Nepal, in April 2012 in aid of charity.

If you would like to find out more about Amy you can find all the places where she blogs and her other social media connections at About.me.

Top 10 Creative Social Good Resources

A question anyone in the “social good” space is asked often, is “What are some of your favorite sites?” Well, there are oodles, which can make it a challenge to select a few choice ones for lists. However, below are a few favorites that might be new or unexpected, ranging across volunteering, fundraising, research, donating, pro-bono, mobile, and a couple very cool celebrity-backed ventures! All of them are excellent tools. Just click on the images to pay them a visit.
Philanthroper

The daily deals site for charity! Get introduced to a new cause every day and give $1 when you’re interested. Awareness plus micro-action! Making doing good an easy daily habit.

Sparked

An opportunity to micro-volunteer anytime, anywhere, online. Projects range from 2 minutes to 2 hours and include many fun, techie things like reviewing social media or translating documents. To learn all about Sparked please see my Huffington Post piece with @2morrowknight.

Crowdrise

Ed Norton’s baby, Crowdrise leverages crowdsourcing for social good fundraising. Any site that uses the mantra “If you don’t give back, no one will like you” is on the right track! Look for their fabulous IYDGBNOWLY T-shirts and set up a fundraising site for your favorite cause.

Kiva

Welcome to the world of micro-finance! Lend a global budding entrepreneur as little as $25 to provide an opportunity for sustainable business. Kiva supporters have already funded close to 600,000 businesses worldwide.

Catchafire

“What will your Butterfly Effect be?” Catchafire helps you use professional skills like marketing and PR on a pro-bono basis, growing your own professional contacts and helping social good organizations at the same time!

Give.Mobi

Let your favorite charity know about this resource, and check who’s here that you support. Since give.mobi’s mobile donation platform works on any smartphone or tablet, it’s simple to set up and use to give a real-time mobile donation (or pledge). Perfect for nonprofit events or to call out on radio or TV interviews due to its easy-to-remember name. Here’s @Lotay Yang’s Black Card Circle Foundation’s page.

KarmaGoat

Free your stuff, shop from friends, do some good! This works like Craigslist, with all proceeds going to charity. Got something too nice to just give away? Some electronics? A gift you’ll never use? Create some good Karma with it. It will get a new home and love, and a great cause will get a donation.

CharityNavigator

Along with GuideStar, this is a great site to research organizations. It’s similar to a Better Business Bureau, for charities.

SixDegrees

It really is a small world! A partnership between Kevin Bacon and Network for Good, Six Degrees helps you see what causes you have in common with friends and celebrities, and you can “pay it forward” with Good Cards that can be redeemed for charity donations.

VolunteerGuide

Self-directed Ideas and resources for volunteering for 15 minutes, a few hours, or on a volunteer vacation. Some easy 15-minute activities:

The moral of the story is – there are nearly unlimited ways to do good. These are a few easy, fun ones to get started with – how will you use them? Please let us know in the comments below!

Many thanks to Amy for her excellent and varied breakdown of many of the best online places to go to be able to offer your money, skills or time to those less fortunate than you.

Thank you for visiting The Top 10 Blog. If you like this post I hope you will share and if you would like to see more please Subscribe, Follow, Like and Add to your Circles using the buttons at the top of the sidebar.

About Amy Neumann:

Amy Neumann is a passionate advocate of using social media and technology for social good and is VP of Social Media Initiatives for Social Impact Consulting, a Los Angeles firm. http://www.facebook.com/SocialImpactConsultingLLC

For the past 17 years, she has been in executive internet and media sales, helping large corporations leverage media, marketing, and technology. After being an active advocate for causes in Los Angeles for 15 years, she recently relocated back to Cleveland, Ohio.

Amy is a social entrepreneur, developing several non-profit technology apps for use in the US and China to be released in the summer of 2011. Her affinity for Asian culture and history has led to studying Mandarin Chinese for several years as well as an interest in emerging philanthropy markets where technology can really boost donations and volunteerism.

A keen love of nature, adventure, and social media also inspired her to join 12 Twitter friends in a 3-week trek to the top of Mera Peak in the Himalayas in Nepal, April 2012 (which of course will be shared via social media).

Amy’s penchant for all things social media stems from seeing sites like Twitter and Facebook change to course of history, as well as help countless causes by galvanizing human passion.

*Image credit

Hand and Heart – Idea go / FreeDigitalPhotos.net