Guest Blog Post by Dylan Nord, We-Care.com

1. Tell stories

Think like a journalist; your followers are counting on you to entertain and inform them with relevant content, and the best way to give your message power is by telling a genuine story. Tell your supporters about your recent campaign to raise awareness, or your recent delivery of text books to Africa, or the $10,000 grant you just received. Charity: Water found that their most successful content was “Stories from the Field”.  People connected to stories like that of Helen Apio who felt beautiful for the first time in years thanks to her accessibility to clean bathing water. (more…)

Thanks to the generous support of our sponsors, a limited number of full scholarships are available for small nonprofits looking to attend the upcoming Social Media for Nonprofits conference in Atlanta, November 17, 2011. The scholarship is good for one full registration only, it doesn’t apply to travel, lodging or other incidental expenses.

Interested candidates should post no more than three sentences as a post on our Facebook page, describing how your organization hopes to benefit from better leveraging social media. You also need to get 5 people to “like” your post! Preference will be given to organizations with budgets under $500,000. Please be sure to include the following pieces in your post:

• Your organization’s name
• Your organization’s website address
• Your email id, so we can inform you if you are selected or you can send us an email at ritu@socialmedia4nonprofits.org

So let us know— how can a better understanding of technology, and social media in particular, help you better serve the community? And as a bonus, if you get 10 of your friends to like or comment on your post, we’ll give you another ticket!

See you in Atlanta!

Guest Blog Post by Lisa Rau, Co-founder & CEO, Confluence

It is too easy to forget how miraculous the Internet Age is. We take for granted having all of human knowledge literally in the palm of our hands. But let’s remember – having our activities and locations always available to other people or programs – while scary, makes possible applications we simply can’t conceive of yet. I start to be thankful that the Chinese wish / curse “May you live in interesting times” came true for me, and see from Wikipedia that there is no such Chinese saying! As a part of the very tail end of the baby boomers, it took my son to introduce me to the internet memes – including the meme of memes.  My personal favorite is the three wolves howling at the moon – see “Think a T-Shirt Can’t Change Your Life? A Skeptic Thinks Again (NY Times, 5/24/09)” (more…)

Guest Blog Post by: Christina M. Samala, Director of Online Strategy & Media

The United States isn’t broke; we’re the richest country on the planet and a country in which the richest among us are doing exceptionally well. But the truth is, our economy is broken, producing more pollution, greenhouse gasses and garbage than any other country. In these and so many other ways, it just isn’t working. But rather than invest in something better, we continue to keep this ‘dinosaur economy’ on life support with hundreds of billions of dollars of our tax money. The Story of Broke calls for a shift in government spending toward investments in clean, green solutions—renewable energy, safer chemicals and materials, zero waste and more—that can deliver jobs AND a healthier environment. It’s time to rebuild the American Dream; but this time, let’s build it better.

If you’d like to remain engaged in this very important issue, please sign up for the Community of Action! Each month, we’ll ask you to get behind a critical campaign or participate in an event or even help create a cooperative art project, all with the goal of winning investments in a better future.

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