Jennie Bourgeois

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Here is a terrific post from the Online College: Connecting to Your Future blog.

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If you’re a consummate procrastinator–despite your best efforts to be otherwise–then you’ve undoubtedly waited until the last minute to start that research paper or read that book more than once. Here you’ll find a collection of resources that can help you cram for tests, understand the main ideas of a work of literature, do your math homework and a whole lot more so your procrastination won’t send your college career down the tubes.

Study Guides

These study guides can help you understand literary metaphors, summarize readings and give you the tools necessary to muddle through the densest of texts.

1. SparkNotes: Whether you’re reading Shakespeare or something a little more modern, you’ll find helpful study guides and notes on this site.
2. PinkMonkey: Here you’ll find over 460 study guides you can use for free to better understand just about any work of classic literature.
3. BookRags: This site is home to study guides and summaries aplenty, as well as information for research topics.
4. Bibliomania: Search through study guides on this site by title or author.
5. Study Guides and Strategies: Try out this site for some ideas on how to study better as well as some more specifically designed study guides for reading and math.
6. CollegeCram: This site is a great place to find social learning resources from study guides to shared notes.
7. Bartleby.com: Lose your book? On this site you’ll find a collection of many works of literature as well as helpful study resources as well.
8. Free Book Notes: This site is essentially a free online version of CliffsNotes.
9. Shmoop: There are loads of literature guides available on this site as well as other teaching materials you can use for learning.
10. LitSum: If you didn’t bother to do your reading, you can find basic summaries of well-known books on this site.
11. GradeSaver: On this site you’ll find a great number of study guides as well as example essays and other learning tools.

Study Tools

Use these study tools to quiz yourself, solve math problems and cram at the last minute.

1. QuickMath: Use this site to get answers to math problems quickly and easily over the Internet.
2. Cramster.com: Join study groups, get answers to your questions and find help with textbooks on this study site.
3. TutorLinker: If you are struggling to work on your own, use this site to find a tutor to help.
4. FlashcardExchange: Create, study, print and share flashcards of all kinds on this site.
5. PocketMod: Make your class notes small so you can take them with you and study them anywhere you go.
6. StudyStack: On this site you can use flashcards made by others or create your own to use.
7. Quizlet: This tool can help you study more effectively for just about any subject out there.
8. Flashcard Machine: Use this tool to build helpful flashcards so you can study better.
9. StudyRails: Try out a free trials of this tool designed to help keep you organized, help you study and eliminate those pesky distractions available when you do work online.
10. Mathway: Use this tool to get easy answers to your math homework or to double check your work.

Sharing Notes

On these sites you’ll be able to share your notes and get notes from others from classes you might have missed.

1. Notely: On Notely you can store and share your notes as well as keep track of your assignments and schedule.
2. MyNoteit: Use this tool to take, store and share your notes in an online format.
3. NoteCentric: Get notes from others and share your own on this site.
4. Stu.dicio.us: This site acts as a social note-taking forum so you don’t have to work alone.
5. NoteMesh: Fill in any gaps there may be in your notes with help from this site and your classmates.
6. ShareNotes: With this site you can look through class notes for free and also make a profit selling your own notes.
7. GradeGuru: Share and search for notes from your courses on this site.
8. StudyBlue: This tool makes it simple to keep track of your notes and connect with others who have taken or are taking your courses.
9. ShareCourseware.org: Find free lecture notes on this site.
10. FruitNotes: This site acts as an online notebook, making it simple to share work with friends, make voice recordings and even add photos.
11. Helipad: Sick of searching through your notes for important facts? This tool makes it easy to store and search through all your notes.

Reference

If you need to look up any kind of basic information from word translations to a more intelligent sounding word, these tools will help.

1. Dictionary.com: Look up just about any word you could need the definition for on this site.
2. Wikipedia: While it won’t hold up as a citation on a research paper, it can give you a great starting point for your real research.
3. RhymeZone: Writing a poem or a song? This site will help you come up with great rhymes when you’re at a loss.
4. ArtLex: Look up art terms you don’t understand in this free online dictionary.
5. Webopedia: Don’t understand all those techie terms? This dictionary is here to help.
6. Dictionary of Algorithms: On this site you’ll find a collection of algorithms and other data structures.
7. Biographical Dictionary: Check out this resource for information on the lives of tens of thousands of people.
8. Roget’s Thesaurus: Make your writing sound fancier by finding synonyms in this free thesaurus.
9. BabelFish: Translate basic phrases and webpages from another language into your own with this tool.
10. WordReference: Look up words in English, Spanish, French, Italian and more on this site.
11. Visual Dictionary: If you’re more of a visually oriented person, this dictionary can help you understand a myriad of concepts.

Research

Augment and speed up your research with these helpful tools.

1. Ottobib: Simply enter in the reference information into this tool and you’ll get an instantly rendered citation in MLA, APA, and Chicago style.
2. Zotero: This Firefox extension can help you organize and track your research from beginning to end.
3. WizFolio: Manage your references and cite them when you’re done with this tool.
4. EasyBib: Use this tool to ensure that you’re citing your sources correctly when you turn in your paper.
5. Bibme: Add your reference material to this site and it will generate a bibliography for you.
6. CiteULike: This tool allows you to search for and manage a wealth of scholarly resources.
7. Delicious: Bookmark sites that look promising for research on this site.
8. Backpack: While designed with business in mind, this tool can be an excellent way to manage your research projects as well.
9. WorldCat: Find just about any book you could need using this site that searches the world’s libraries, letting you know where you can find it nearest to you.
10. Google Scholar: Use this search engine to scan through loads of helpful scholarly articles.
11. High Beam Research: Search through thousands of reputable sources for research materials using this site.
12. Diana Hacker: This site will help you to double check your citations to make sure they’re done correctly.
13. GoogleBooks: You can often find some extremely useful books you can look through for free on this site.

Writing

Improve your writing and get a little help in the process from these tools.

1. Viper Plagiarism Checker: Ensure that your work is free from any plagiarism by using this tool. With its help, you can make sure you’ve cited any resources.
2. Etherpad: Those who have to rush to turn in a group project can use this tool to work together at once online.
3. GoogleDocs: Take your writing with you whether you are at home or at the library with this online word processor.
4. Eduify: This site knows that writing isn’t always easy and offers tutorials, writing samples, help with citations and even stores your writing online.
5. Elements of Style: Check through this classic book to make sure you’re sticking to correct grammar and style.
6. Ultimate Style: Here is a more updated version of the Elements of Style you can look to for help.
7. Technical Writing: Those who work with more technical subjects should consult this guide.
8. WordCounter: This tool will tell you what words you’ve used most frequently in your text so you can make sure you’re not repeating the same things over and over.
9. Verbix: Use this tool to conjugate any English verb correctly.
10. Advanced Text Analyzer: Create a profile on this site and you’ll be able to use the text tools to analyze your work, determining a wealth of information that can help you improve your writing.
11. yWriter: Try out this word processor that’s designed just for writing stories and novels.
12. Scholar’s Aid Lite: The free version of this tool will give you a place to write your paper, organize your notes, cite sources and more.

Presentation

Use these tools to put together a last minute presentation.

1. Sliderocket: This online tool uses drag and drop functionality to make it simple to create great presentations.
2. Slideshare: Whether you’re working together or by yourself this tool will make creating presentations a cinch.
3. ZohoShow: Use this open source tool to build presentations, if you don’t have another program to do so.
4. Prezi: Create great presentations on the web using this impressive tool.
5. Jing: Use the free version of this tool to easy snap pictures of your screen and create great presentations.
6. 280Slides: Try out this presentation tool to make sure you’re prepared for your class.

Productivity

Remind yourself of your important tasks with these tools.

1. Ta-Da Lists: Create an easy-to-use to-do list using this free tool, a big help in keeping your work on track.
2. Toodledoo: Organize your tasks and improve your productivity using this tool.
3. 30 Boxes: This online calendar can help make sure you don’t forget upcoming due dates.
4. Stickies: As you’re doing your research, use these stickies to make notes to yourself for later.
5. Remember the Milk: Whether you want to track your social schedule or make sure you get all of your homework done, this tool can help.
6. HassleMe: This tool will incessantly remind you of tasks you need to get done so you have no excuses about forgetting.
7. Bla-Bla List: You can use this list-making tool to create your own to-dos or create a set for your group.
8. Diigo: This tool will help you organize all of your important research and keep everything easy to find.
9. WebNotes: Manage and make notations on your research using this time-saving tool.
10. A.nnotate: Try out this tool to make searching for and storing information on the Internet easy and more productive.

Brainstorming and Organizing

Pull your ideas together and get your information organized using these tools.

1. Thinkature: This site allows users to create mindmaps of their ideas and easily share them with others.
2. FreeMind: Check out this free mind mapping software to better organize your ideas.
3. Bubble.us: Keep all of your material and ideas for projects in order with this tool.
4. WiseMapping: This open source tool makes it simple to lay out outlines and organize information for a paper.
5. Mapul: This tool takes a different approach to mind mapping, creating outlines that are much more organic in nature.
6. View Your Mind: Insert pictures, links and other information into your mindmap using this tool.
7. Gliffy: If a flow chart is more akin to what you need, then try out this free tool.
8. Mindomo: With this tool you’ll be able to organize, get productive, define goals and track what you need to get done.
9. Manage My Ideas: Try out this demo to get a leg up in organizing any project you’re working on.
10. DeepaMehta: Keep all of the information and ideas you’ve complied for your paper organized using this software.
11. The Brain: Pick your own brain using this mind mapping software that’s incredibly fully-featured.

Miscellaneous

From writing help to printable graph paper, these tools offer a range of assistance in finishing homework and projects.

1. ProBoards: Use these forums to post your homework and project questions.
2. Spreeder: Learn how to speed read using this site.
3. Printable Paper: Need specialized graph or printed paper but don’t have any lying around? It’s no problem with this site.
4. PDF Creator: This tool will help you to turn any kind of document into a PDF.
5. Box.net: Need to store some data online? This tool will make it easy to store and access the important things you need.

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Five Classic Ways to Boost Your Note-Taking

from Lifehacker by Adam Pash

Photo by JasonRogersFooDogGiraffeBee.

If your note-taking skills are suffering from summertime rigor mortis, now’s as good a time as any to throw a new technique into the mix. Let’s take a look at some new and old tools for improving your ballpoint repertoire.

The Cornell method

This oldie is a highly-regarded, very common system that makes it especially easier to retain information. By reviewing things as you go, you might even get away with less studying.

Divide your page into two columns. The left one (which could also just be the back of the previous page in your notebook) is narrower. You’re going to jot larger ideas in this column: the 5-dollar-words and big bullet points. In the right column, you’re going to take down as much information as possible. The right column is allowed to be messy, have pictures and tables—it’s not necessarily organized. To some students, it’s just regular notes. But as you go, record the main corresponding idea in the left column.

Every so often, cover the detailed notes on the right and just examine the main points and new vocab. See how much you can recite and explain in your own words. Then remove your hand and see how you did. Depending on the teacher, you might do this during lulls in the discussion or after class.

Some versions of the Cornell system leave the last few lines on each page for summarizing the whole page. Since what’s on a given page doesn’t necessarily group together nicely, I don’t recommend doing it. But summarizing can help you with wading through piles of pages when studying time comes.

For a more in-depth look at the Cornell method, take a look at our previous guide to taking study-worthy lecture notes.

Go visual

It’s tough to enter a classroom with colored pencils and still expect your fellow students to take you seriously. But unless you try it, you’ll never know if it works better for you. Forget the status-quo and try something visual. Color-code with different pens, pencils, and highlighters. You might not have seen a web-style map of ideas since elementary school, but mind-mapping is hailed as quite an efficient way to group data. It needn’t even be a rigid classification system—anything is better than doodling in the margins.

Switch mediums

For how tech-savvy our generation is, I still see surprisingly few laptops in classrooms. Try it out a few times and see if you like it. Particularly, if you’re the type who outlines, computers let you go back and organize information on-the-fly. Laptops also let you and your classmates AIM with real-time questions about the opposite sex the lecture. There are also programs made just for taking notes, sharing them, organizing them, etc. Wikipedia has a great table that compares them all, or you can take a look at Lifehacker reader’s favorite note-taking tools.

On the other hand, if you already use a laptop, try the pen-and-paper route again. Let loose a bit and see how that goes. Try scribbling out mistakes and drawing arrows everywhere. Or try one of the visual techniques above, most of which are difficult on a computer.

Shorthand

Notes are probably the only place in the classroom where internet slang is commendable. Trying some new shorthand is a really geeky way to slightly tweak your engravings and get you amped about taking notes again. Here are a few resources to get you started:

A Guide to Alternative Handwriting and Shorthand Systems
Shorthand Shorthand Shorthand

My favorite method is called Teeline—anyone can look at this one and learn a few things. It’s mostly based around removing unimportant letters and making complex letters easier to write quickly.

Instead of converting entirely to shorthand, you might try translating just some of your most-frequently used words into a shorthand “language” that takes less time to write.

If you’re taking notes on the computer, supercharge your repetitive typing with tools like our very own text-replacement application Texter (Windows) or TextExpander (Mac).

Don’t

Oh goodness! Don’t take notes? How controversial!

Well, it couldn’t hurt to relax every once in a while. Especially in small classes and seminar situations, staying engaged through discussion and questions might do you better than scribbling every word.

Here’s another way to avoid taking notes: Record your lectures. Digital recorders can capture hours of audio. Sit back and just listen. After class, you can play it back at double-speed and take notes in half the time. Take that, engineers!

The school-bound productivity nuts at weblog HackCollege will be joining us all week to offer their perspective on making the most of your Back to School regimen.

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• MindMapping Using Simple Idea Mapping Software [Mac] (makeuseof.com)
• 10 Must-Dos for the First Week of College [Back To School] (lifehacker.com)
• Study Methodology (slideshare.net)

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ManualsOnline.com is an online source for various types of resource information and manuals for consumers. This website helps you locate user manuals, how-to guides, installation instructions, and tutorials from thousands of manufacturers and hundreds of thousands of products.

Locate hard-to-find user manuals, discover new features, and realize the potential of the products you rely on. ManualsOnline pairs self-help and product information with a growing community of engaged product owners.

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• Search For The Manual You Need With Manuals Online (makeuseof.com)

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I accidentally stumbled across this site while doing some Internet research and thought that they provide a pretty neat service to both bloggers and blog readers alike. RSS Hugger connects people to blogs that may be of interest to them and the appropriate RSS feeds for those blogs.

Here is some information from their website -

rssHugger is a unique website that aims to bring bloggers and readers together. rssHugger aims to provide blog owners with a unique easy-to-use way to promote their blogs by sending them traffic, building backlinks for search engine optimization, as well as attracting new rss subscribers if the content is interesting to the reader. rssHugger aims to help visitors be able to easily find blogs that write about subjects they are interested in. These subjects include: internet marketing, making money online, charity, sports, gambling, and many more. If the visitors find a blog that they had not previously heard about, they can easily add it to their RSS readers or bookmark it.

RSS Hugger is a paid service for bloggers to have their blog’s RSS feed listed with them. However, they offer bloggers an option of posting a review of their site in leiu of paying the listing fee with them. I think that is a pretty equitable offer.

So, if you have a blog, or enjoy reading blogs on in a particular subject area, check out RSS Hugger and discover some new blogs that may open new doors and information gateways for you!

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Does the idea of having all of your non-perishable grocery store items delivered to your door with FREE shipping sound good? What about e-mail reminders when you are running low on laundry detergent or toliet paper and need to re-order, or being able to place an order online and get the order within 2-3 days to your doorstep?

If that does not sound good enough — you can also click on free digital coupons and save money on the items you purchase. AND… finally … what if I told you their overall prices were about the same (or in some cases maybe even less) than your average grocery store’s prices? No kidding!

I just placed an order through the online site, Alice, and I have to say … I am hooked! I placed a beginning order for some of my basic “stuff” like cleaning supplies, plastic baggies and paper products. I simply did a search for things in their system currently with a coupon attached and took advantage of the great deals on the products that I tend to use.

I received the order in 3 days all neatly packaged in one box. What a great service! Will definitely be using them on an ongoing basis.

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Great article from posted by Steve Roesler in his blog which details research from Oxford University about the top ten most irritating phrases. Check out his called “All Things Workplace”. He has some really good information to share.

…and the Top 10 Things You DON’T Want to Say are:

1 – At the end of the day

2 – Fairly unique

3 – I personally

4 – At this moment in time

5 – With all due respect

6 – Absolutely

7 – It’s a nightmare

8 – Shouldn’t of (it is “shouldn’t have”)

9 – 24/7

10 – It’s not rocket science

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I attended this workshop on 6/19/09 presented by David Dombrosky with Carnegie Mellon University. He gave some really terrific information in this workshop. I will try to summarize some of the information and share some of the resources he provided.

• Need to try and increase capacity with free and low cost solutions

• Web 2.0 – provides many things as free services now. There 3 types of “free”

1. Freeware – software loaded onto your computer – no fees ever
2. Freemium – partially free for a limited version, but have to pay for full version or access
3. Open Source – code for software provided free and programmers agree to build applications using this code and provide the applications for free as well.

• Examples of Freeware

1. Irfanview - views and converts graphics, images, videos, etc.
2. Aviary – free web-based program similar to Photoshop
3. Firefox - free browser
4. Thunderbird – free e-mail client

• Examples of Freemium

1. Quickbooks – gives simple version free, can upgrade for full version
2. Huddle – free collaboration, project management, live conferencing, document sharing, etc. but has a version that provides additional options for a fee and removes ads
   
3. YouSendIt – Can send larger files that are too big to go through e-mail. It is free for a limited basis, but has a paid version with more options.

• Open Source Example

1. Open Office – the largest open source program available. Does everything MS Office does but for free.

• Free does not always mean easy to use – may have to relearn somethings when using a free version.

• Also -free versions usually have inadequate tech support available. May provide forum for members of community to help each other.

• Open source code requires someone who knows code to manipulate and update it.

• Tech Soup – provides DEEP discounts on hardware and software for non-profits. For example, MS Office was advertised on Tech Soup for non-profits at $20.00 and a refurbished laptop computer was advertised at $288.00. Only 501(c)(3) non-profits are eligible. Tech Soup does have some limitations such as may only be able to purchase from a vendor once per year, etc.

• Tech Foundation – connects you with software and technical service providers. Has Geeks for America program. Works with non-profits in placing a Geek with them for 1-2 years and they are paid for by Tech Foundation for their time working with the non-profit.

• CTC Vista Project – pays technology individuals to work and to be hosted by individual non-profit organizations usually for 10-12 months. Requires a small match (less than $5,000).

• Google is known as the “King of Free” Google can:
  

1. Provide e-mail with your own domain name for a professional look
2. Provide additional things for free that specifically for non-profits
3. Share and collaborate in real-time on documents with team members which streamlines the communication process.
4. Produce Google Wave which will be coming soon and will have a huge impact on how we work and collaborate. Will have bugs at first to work out.
5. Offer Google Groups to share e-mails, documents, calendar, etc. Similar to a listserv
6. Google Grants – for non profits – allows you to advertise on Google for FREE. You have the ability to select your own keywords that when people search on your topic, your organization will pop-up for them. You can pick all the keywords that applies to your non-profit. Google Grant provides you up to $10k per MONTH of ad words advertising for free. This maximizes the ability for people to find your organization. One non-profit saw a 3x monthly increase in their web traffic with the use of advertising on Google through their Google Grant. Great utilization to advertise the site, special events, fundraisers, etc.
   
7. Google Checkout – free pay system. It is cost effective and can process donations or purchases online in a secured format. It is more cost effective and some people fee more secure using Google than Pay Pal for some reason.

• E-Mail Service Providers (ESP) - Non-profits can send out under 10k e-mails per month for FREE through Vertical Response. No need to pay for the other service providers such if sending 10k or less e-mails per month. If sending over 10k per month, non-profits would only pay the amount for those that go over 10k.

TIP: Don’t send out e-mails to people with more than 20 people. Yahoo, AOL and others will automatically label your e-mail or entire domain name as spam and will not allow any future e-mails to go through. When you use an ESP service you don’t have these types of issues because they can mass e-mail out and not be flagged as spammers.

• Donor Management System - maintains information on all donors, history of gifts, contacts of donors, provides reports, etc.

• NonProfit Technology Network (NTEN) and Idealware – You can join NTEN for a small annual fee (about $50.00) and have access to a multitude of non-profit information. They survey thousands of non-profit organizations all over the country. They created a consumers guide on donor management systems for non-profits and also provide recommendations based on price, usability, etc.

• Customer Relationship Management System – This is different than the donor management system. This system includes ANYONE in contact with your organization such as media outlets, donors, funders, volunteers, clients, and all others. It is an All in One management system.

The following 2 Customer Relationship Management Systems are Free for Non-Profits:

1. CiviCRM
2. Sales Force (provides up to 10 licenses per non-profit)

• Content Management Systems – allows you to manage your website without knowing code. It is based on modules that will do certain things. They have a catalog of features available. This eliminates the bottleneck of waiting to update text or to use a web master for editing tasks.
  

There are 4 Open Source Content Management Systems available:

1. Word Press – easiest to use, but most limitations
2. Joomla
3. Drupal
4. Drone

NTen also has survey results on the different open source services that are available as well.

• NPower – provides consulting to non-profits about technology.

TIP: Always ask companies if they have a non-profit discount available. Many times they do, but don’t advertise it.

David was kind enough to provide his entire Power Point training available online. You can access a copy of his workshop slides here.

This was really a wonderful training with a wealth of information and resources provided.

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This workshop was the second workshop presented on 6/16/09 by David Dombrosky for non-profits. The topic of of this training focused on the use of social media. Here is a summary of the presentation.

- Create strategy with social media
- Social media is a tool, not a magic bullet
- You don’t have to use it all, but try a few before deciding what works best for you
- See how much you can do, and do well — the use of social media needs to be consistent

Web 2.0 was a shift in Internet theory. People now not only read, but are multi-directional in their communication and provide user generated content.

Many software moved from being hosted on your own machine to being through the Internet with the use of web apps.

Much more content sharing is available as well as publishing. (i.e., N.Y. Times can directly e-mail an article or share it with other people).

We can also share our own content such as audio, video, podcasting, etc.

Social Networking links content to people. Online directors, peer reviewing (i.e. Netflix), etc. to provide recommendations to other people.

Blogging – Blogger, WordPress, Live Journal, etc.
MicroBlogging – Twitter
Photo/Video Sharing – Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, DivShare
Podcasting & Audio - iTunes, DivShare
LiveVideo Stream – Livestream, Ustream

Web 2.0 is not about marketing, it is about engaging people in conversation. It is a dialogue, not a monologue. It can lead to marketing results.

Need to have transparency about how things work. Need to share information and be engaging, not try to sell to people. That turns them off.

Some content management systems also inlcude a blog module.

Microblogging has a 140 charcater limit (Twitter) and this is based on text messages from cell phones.

To follow someone on Twitter means that when they make updates, you can see that in your Twitter feed.

A 140 character message = Tweet

When you forward a Tweet = (RT) ReTweeting

Sending a private message on Twitter = (DM) Direct Message

1992 – we did not do e-mail
1981 – we did not do voice mail

People will adopt to technology or be left behind.

Need to select the right tool for the right type of engagement.

Mr. Tweet looks at followers and finds critical mass. It finds other people who are similar to who you are already following.

Consistency is important. If you want to maintain awareness.

Consistency does not equal frequency. Restrain from sending out 30 messages a day. Your messages will feel less important when so many come through a day.

Non-profit organizations can have a YouTube channel. This allows you to have your own branding, logo, look and feel of the page. It customizes to your organization and hosts all of your videos.

Vimeo is first to use HD. Some are starting to use this instead of YouTube.

DivShare allows you to post up to 10gb a month. You can do photos, videos and audio. Will automatically create for you a player that you can put on your web site without having to create a podcast.

Podcasting on iTunes is available. Individuals can subscribe to it and they are generally free. It automatically updates when new information is available in the podcasts you are subscribed to. It is easy to put into an Ipod as well. Individuals are not tied to listening on a computer or through a website only. If not during regularly scheduled audios on a consistent basis you may not want to set it up as a podcast.

Live Video Streaming - this is free and only requires a camera. You can set up your own channels through a service such as LiveStream or UStream. It allows people to comment and ask questions. It is used for conferences, meetings, etc.

In building a strategy for the use of social media, it is referred to as the Pyramid of Engagement. There are levels of engagement moving up the pyramind.

Curators – moderate a forum for social media content; offers contents, etc.
Producers
Commenters
Sharers
Watchers – largest group

We should be targeting our social media efforts on the Watchers and Providers and provide information that the Watchers want to know.

Social Networking – connects people online to share personal or professional information.

74% of nonprofits have presence on Facebook. Facebook is based on friends concept and connecting people. Highest number of Facebook users are between the ages of 35-50.

Some of the kids are moving to things like Meebo and Penguin.

Not many non-profits are on Myspace.

Some associations are on Linkedin. This is more about colleagues and professionals and has a look and feel more like a resume concept.

Using Facebook

Profiles are for People
Pages are for Institutions and Organizations (has fans as followers)
Groups are more membership controlled in who can participate and join and take part in discussionsm

If a non-profit wants a presence then they want a Page or a Group

When using Causes on Facebook, they are limited in their ability to communicate with people who are following them. Causes can create a badge and can show how much money the Cause has generated.

Some Causes will only get visability and some will get donations. For example, Keep the Arts in Schools has 1 million fans and they raised $17k. It identifies a specific purpose, and activity that people can donate towards.

To generate donation with Causes on Facebook you have to be very clear about what the funds will be funding … specifically what project.

Pages look and feel like Profiles. You can do some different things through Pages. Pages can automatically be updated when there is a new post made to your blog. It can connect directly to your blog so that you don’t have to replicate that process.

Pages provide areas for discussion. You can add applications that are relevant. You don’t have the ability to do that with Groups.

Anyone can be a fan with a Page and can engage in a Page.

To control who can post and participate use a Group.

If you want to talk to a specific group of people, then you can invite them to a Group. Access is limited to just those people and is limited in what it can do.

Pages have more capacity to do more things.

Events in Facebook – you can create an event and can invite people to attend and people can then RSVP. This does not always work for all people. Free events it tends to work really well. The higher cost the cost of the event the lower the return.

Facebook ads are becoming more relevant. Can target users by geography, age group, keywords in their profiles, etc. May use ads for major fundraising drive. The cost of their ads is approximately $.20 per click on the ad. No Grants are available for Facebook ads.

You can build your own social network in a program such as Ning, Groupsite or Socialgo. In these programs you can change the look and feel with your own branding and logo. However, you are not using an already established user base and it will take a lot of effort to build your user base. You can make better use of an already established user base.

You can add a Share This Widget to your website so that people can send by e-mail, text messaging or Facebook your articles and site information.

You can create your own widget for people to put on their sites that can then link back to your site.

You can build widgets in Google.

Be sure to share your own content across all of the social media platforms that you are using. Maximize you connections with people. Promote through all devices being used.

RSS – Really Simple Syndication – feeds are pulled together with readers (i.e. Google Reader). Can easily scan articles quickly.

Most media sources have feeds available. If you use Blogger, you can create a feed. Some use it as alerts so when someone uses my name or product or brand, I can manage what people are saying about our products or services.

You can generate an RSS feed for most anything including a calendar, blog, web site, etc.

Feedburner with Google will generate a feed for you.

Google Analytics is free to use. It tells you information about who is accessing your site and where the are, how long they stay and what sites are they coming from to your site. You can track your Facebook ad and it will chart its success for you.

If you have pages that no one uses or that readers routinely stop on, you will notice those patterns in the reports and you will see what is working and what is not working on your website.

By 2012 people will be accessing the Internet by mobile phones more than by the use of laptops and desktops. We must design for mobile web. Mobile web is more action/task oriented and not much reading based.

David was kind enough to offer his entire Powerpoint presentation for this session as well. You can access it by clicking here.

Beth Canter has a terrific blog for nonprofits on Social Media.

There are free monitoring tools to see what people are saying about your organization as well.

This was another excellent presentation and I am very glad that was able to attend.

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Such a wonderful idea!  Simple make some homemade cookies or brownies.  Put a couple in a ziplock baggie and then print out these wonderful thank you cards and staple over the top of the baggie.  Cute Cute!

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