Many nonprofit organizations that are beginning to adopt Web 2.0 technologies consider them the “cool” part of their online communication. They look at them as a way to engage younger or larger audiences or to project an image of hipness.

But the reason social tools such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr have become so popular is that they make it incredibly easy for people to work together. Yet, if you look at the internal structure of many organizations, you’ll see that they communicate with one another through phone calls, printed notes and in-person meetings. True, there’s no substitue for face-to-face communication, but social tools can make it much easier to share information among your workmates.

For example, every time we have a meeting at Talance HQ, we have our intranet chat open to facilitate sending links or snippets of documents back and forth. We open a bulletin board for every project so the whole team can communicate about it, and we have a record of everything that was said. Our wiki keeps track of standard procedures and methodologies so we can access them any time, and make revisions when necessary. We use these tools in the office and with our team members who live across the country, and we do it because it’s entirely practical.

The majority of our social tools are built into our website (you do have a CMS, don’t you?). It’s the perfect place to build out a business, because everybody knows your web address, and it’s all centrally stored and accessible online.

Think about what you can do to make it easier for your employees to communicate with one another, and then give them the tools they need. You’ll very well find your organization runs better just by opening up new avenues of communication.

One of the best ways to get people to use your website is to ask them. As simple as that. Of course you can, and should, personally ask people to use your site. Tell them it’s there and ask for feedback. But there’s also a frequently overlooked widget that does the job for you.

A Share toolbar or button (see ours at the bottom of this blog entry) is adept at asking people to brag about you. You can plug it into your website, blog, or social networking page, and give people one-click access to share your best resources with their connections.

It’s a fast, cheap and easy way for you to boost traffic to your site.

[Have a question you’d like answered? Use the comments form at the bottom of this page to submit it. We’ll review your question before posting (don’t be shy about asking!) and get back to you with a response.]

One of the most common questions we’re asked here at Talance is: What is Drupal? It’s the technology that envelopes our every single day, but that doesn’t mean that everyone – or the common Web user – knows what it is. But it’s worth understanding, because a website built on Drupal can make your life a lot easier.

First off, let’s get the name out of the way. “Drupal” is a non-grammatical variation of the Dutch word “druppel,” which means “droplet.” It was invented by Dries Buytaert, who is Dutch, in 2001. It’s pronounced “DREW-pull.” Rumor has it he tried to call it “dorp,” which means “village” in Dutch, but made a typo when he registered it.

Drupal, in a phrase, is an open-source content management system. Now hold on, all of you now thinking, “But what do ‘open source’ and ‘content management system’ mean?” I’ll decompress that phrase.

Content management system

A content management system (CMS) is a used to manage the content of a website. It allows someone who may not know anything about how to create or edit webpages with languages like HTML, to manage the creation, modification, and removal of content from a website without needing the expertise of a Webmaster. Most CMSs include publishing, format management, revision control, indexing, search and retrieval.
(From SearchSOA.com Definitions)

Open source

Open source software is usually developed as a public collaboration and made freely available. It is intended to be freely shared and possibly improved and redistributed by others.
(From SearchEnterpriseLinux.com Definitions)

Those two definitions get to the core of what Drupal is. It’s a free piece of software that anybody can use to build and manage a website without being a technical genius.

The “free” part means that you don’t have to pay for license fees, as you would with a system built by a company like Microsoft. You only pay development costs, which boils down to much more powerful websites for much less money.

Websites built with Drupal aren’t any old brochure websites – you can really build on to these. Drupal websites incorporate blogs, forums, e-commerce functionality, contact management, donation management, social networking tools and a whole lot more. Here’s a sample of the things we regularly put into the websites we build.

Getting your website to work for you doesn’t have to mean a complete overhaul. Here are five small updates you can make without suffering.

1. Add a feedback form

One of the very best ways to get more use out of your website is to give its visitors a way to interact. If you add a contact form to your contact page (here’s an example), you’ll open up opportunities for accepting comments. It’s welcoming, will help limit spam, and can increase the amount of feedback you receive from your site. A pretty big payoff for something so small.

2. Make menus consistent

Clicking through the pages of your site should not cause motion sickness. Yet some websites have inconsistent navigational menus. Sometimes they actually jump around. Sometimes the options change. Sometimes they don’t even work. Make them consistent and reliable, and you’ll find more people will be clicking around.

3. Limit what’s on your homepage

You wouldn’t stuff all your house’s furniture into the foyer, would you? Same thing with all the content on your website. Put your front-page stories on the homepage, and tuck the rest of the information where it logically belongs.

4. Add some links to and from your social networking accounts

Many organizations have well-used Facebook, MySpace or Twitter accounts, but you’d never know it from the website. Do some cross-linking, and add some links on your site. (Note: Join for the Talance Facebook Fan Club, and we’ll give you some lovely social media icons.) People can learn more about what you do, and they can subscribe to your accounts and receive updates and reminders.

5. Launch a blog or microblog

Even if you update it just once a week, a blog is a great add-on to a website. It increases your chances of telling the world what makes you so great, and it keeps people coming back for more.

[Have a question you’d like answered? Use the comments form at the bottom of this page to submit it. We’ll review your question before posting (don’t be shy about asking!) and get back to you with a response.]

[Photo credit: A blue lock for George by Darwin Bell, on Flickr]

E-mail lets you send a message to one person or a list of people you select. A discussion board lets you post a message to a group of members (usually). Twitter, on the other hand, lets you post a message to anybody in the world who wants to read it.

This got a participant in our recent presentation Does Twitter Matter for Nonprofits? asking:

When you broadcast, can you broadcast only to people who are following you?

It’s a great question, and one that we’re frequently asked. The short answer is yes.

Twitter explains best with this passage (which I shortened a bit. You can read the whole explanation here):

When you sign up for Twitter, you have the option of keeping your account public (the default account setting) or protecting the account to keep your updates private. Public accounts are visible to everyone. Protected accounts aren’t. Only approved followers are able to see these profile pages.

To protect your profile:

1. Log in to Twitter
2. Click Settings
3. Scroll down and check the box next to “Protect my Updates”
4. SAVE your changes.

When you navigate to your home page after protecting your profile, you’ll see a notice reminding you that your profile is now protected.

If you have a public account and you protect it, all updates after the time of protection will be protected.

Congregations have been wild to know what Twitter can do for them, proven by the powerful turnout at two presentations I’ve given on the topic.

The uses are many, but here’s a quick run-down of what I’ve found in my work with churches and synagogues, divided into clergy members (rabbis, preachers), administrators and youth group leaders. Find more tips by following Talance on Twitter, and of course, send your own.

Clergy

1. Inspirational thoughts – quotes from scripture or elsewhere
2. Motivational thoughts – calls to action and service
3. Be available to those who need you, when they need you
4. Learn more about your congregants
5. Reach out to people who aren’t able to attend your services
6. Network with other clergy members
7. Gather ideas for sermons
8. Send prayer requests
9. Identify needs for support in your community
10. Get feedback on sermons and programs

Administrators

1. Call for volunteers
2. Notifications of schedule changes
3. Event notifications
4. Event follow-ups
5. Promote newsletter
6. Promote blog
7. Promote website
8. Find out about successful events at other churches or synagogues
9. Organize events by communicating with volunteers and staff
10. Poll members on success of programs and services

Youth Group Leaders

1. Reach out to texting-addicted membership
2. Drive people to your Facebook group or MySpace page
3. Send reports to parents while on youth trips
4. Send reminders to forgetful youth
5. Make it easy for teens and kids to tell friends about events
6. Tell kids about programs
7. Send congratulations and kudos to members
8. Make it easy for shy kids to communicate with the group
9. Share camp stories and pictures
10. Send birthday wishes

People frequently ask me why it’s worth it to start some kind of social media program, such as beginning a blog, setting up a Twitter account or establishing a Facebook group. I can go through case study after case study to show why it can offer a good ROI, but I came across this useful analogy on the WebWorkerDaily blog yesterday:

You would never leave a business meeting, lunch, coffee, etc., without exchanging business cards with the other party, would you? Even if it’s a sales call that wasn’t particularly promising, you leave the card, and hope your name comes to mind when they need something down the road.

At the very least, having a social media presence makes you available. Why not show up where people are looking?

[UPDATE: It's ready! Pick up your copy here http://talance.com/social-media-report-2009.]

If your nonprofit isn’t using social media yet, it’s time to think about it! A new report from Talance due February 2009 explores how non-profits in Massachusetts are using social media – or if they’re using it at all. Sign up for notification.

The report is based on a benchmarking survey conducted in November 2008 among Massachusetts non-profits and covers:

• Social media adoption rates
• The importance of social media for non-profits on fund-raising, marketing and community-building
• How people are learning about social media
• Future trends in social media

A few early results reveal:

• While more than half of respondents are familiar with blogs, the majority are only vaguely familiar with microblogging sites such as Twitter
• 65% of respondents either are currently using or plan to use blogs
• Only 20% consider social media unimportant to donor engagement

Free Findings

Anyone can request a free executive summary of the survey results when they become available in February. You can also order the complete text, including charts and graphics. Sign up to receive notification of publication so you can reserve your copy.

This report will be updated on a regular basis. We are conscious that things are changing incredibly quickly in this industry. If you feel there are other questions or information that should be included, please contact us.

I like to think I'm fluent in English, being born and raised in America and all. But sometimes I feel like I'm learning a new language: technospeak. Every industry is rich with its own jargon, but because so many people use the Internet, the technology industry's jargon frustratingly works its way into common speak (remember when we all laughed about the word "blog"?). You don't need to know what all this terminology means (like undercooked spaghetti not all of it will stick), but here are what I consider the top five most important tech terms that are worth learning.

1. SEO (search engine optimization): “… the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via … search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it 'ranks,' the more searchers will visit that site." From Wikipedia. See blog postings on SEO.
2. Open source: “… a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process.” From the Open Source Initiative. Software code that is created under open source guidelines (such as Drupal – our CMS of choice) is open to anybody to use without licensing restrictions.
3. RSS (Rich Site Summary or Really Simple Syndication or RDF Site Summary, depending on who you ask): “… a format used to publish frequently updated works – such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video. An RSS document (which is called a 'feed', 'web feed', or 'channel') includes full or summarized text … [that] benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an 'RSS reader', 'feed reader', or 'aggregator', which can be web-based or desktop-based.” From Wikipedia. Here's the Friendly Web Tools Blog RSS feed and instructions on how to use it.
4. Microblogging: “… the practice of sending brief posts to a personal blog on a Web site, such as Twitter or Jaiku. Microposts can be made public on a Web site and/or distributed to a private group of subscribers. Subscribers can read posts online or request that updates be delivered in real time to their desktop as an instant message or sent to a mobile device as an SMS text message.” From SearchMobileComputing.com. Follow Talance on Twitter.
5. Social network fatigue: “The ennui induced by persistent solicitations to join new social networks. It is especially acute in those who are already members of more MySpaces than they can remember." From Wired.

[This week, the blog is looking at the way technology is used by President-elect Barack Obama. It's a good learning experience, no matter who you voted for. Check out these other presidential posts.]

One of the things I’m frequently telling our clients to do online is to create a community, and one way to bring people together is through images. I love Flickr for this. It’s a great way to share pictures with people who were at an event, and also help others who didn’t attend experience what it was like. I’ve recommended Flickr groups for public rallies and congregations that are trying to drum up interest in future events.

President-elect Barack Obama’s Flickr account is interesting for showing a behind-the-scenes look at a campaign. I especially like to look at the Election Night slideshow. His campaign photographer David Katz snapped pictures backstage all night of the Obama family waiting for the election results to come in.

It’s remarkable not only because of how amazingly cool and calm everyone looks, but also because it feels so intimate. You feel like you’re there with them, waiting backstage for the big Yes or No moment to arrive.

The next time you have a charity run, fundraiser or other event that you’re hoping to draw interest to, put it up on Flickr.