Congrats to Megha Bhagat, Winner of HP Laptop/Printer Bundle Contest that I ran on my blog last month.  To enter the contest, readers had to share their "Theory of Change."   Megha is a passionate human rights advocate in India and also lawyer.  Her blog is here.  

Here's her theory of change and social media:

The other day, Matt Sharp shared this link to a social media policy generator called the Social Media Policy Tool.  It asks you 12 questions mostly having to do with control and then spits out the biolerplate for your policy.  It reminded of the Postmodernism Thesis Generator could spit out a thesis for you in minutes.

Here's the social media policy I created for Beth's Blog.  Obviously, this is a just a beginning, not an end.  The language, of course, needs to be customized to your particular situation and the biolerplate included may not be relevant.   The process around policy - that is the discussion, buy-in, and education - is so critical for effective use of social media.  You could do your organization a disservice if you think that the written policy that results from this tool is your final product.   And, also it doesn't give you the best practices and tactial tips.

Creating a social media policy or any other organizational policy requires three steps:

1. Establish the policy: Determine the policy and what you want to accomplish
2. Educate: Important to train or make employees aware of the implications
3. Enforce: Less about the top down control, but the fact that you need to consistently use the policy – shouldn’t sit in a drawer

The social media policy tool helps you with part of the of step 1.  

I think it is also very useful to review other organization's policies.  Altimeter Group has a good collection (although mostly corporate) on its wiki.  I wrote a post almost a year ago with a summary of what should go in a nonprofit organization's policy as well as a roundup of nonprofit and government policies.    So, it is a good idea that if you use a short-cut like the policy tool, that you review other policies and think specifically what is needed in your organization's policy.   There is also an operational aspect of the policy - all the tips and best practices that should be incorporated.

Does your nonprofit have a social media policy?  How did you create an effective one?   How did you educate people?  How do you operationalise it?  Have some thoughts?  Netsquared is running a thinktank on this topic and you contribute your ideas here.

Resources from Beth's Blog:

Don't Moon People With Cameras or Atleast Hide Your Face While You Do It by Beth Kanter
Red Cross Social Media Policy and Handbook: A Case Study by Beth Kanter
The Pooch Porch Policy:  Does Your Nonprofit Need A Social Media Policy by Beth Kanter

See my other posts on social media policy

Social Media Policies

• ASHA (nonprofit) social media guidelines
• Intel Social Media Guidelines
• Blog Council Disclosure Best Practices Kit
• IBM Social Computing Policy
• Charlene Li's Wiki of social Media Policies
• MindMap of Social Networking Policy Discussion
• Laurel Papworth: Social Media and PR Crisis (had lots of policy links)
• Laural Papworth:  40 Social Media Policy Links 40 Guidelines for web 2.0
• Robin Broitman, Social Media Policy Super List

Mashable, Should Your Company Have A Social Media Policy
Dave Fleet,  External Policies
Dave Fleet,  Social Media Policy Series
Dana Theus, Air Force Blog Policy Case Study
Peter Campbell, The ROI of Flexibility
Steve Heye, I Believe in the ROI of Flexibility, Don't You?
Colin McKay, Secret Understand Guide to Social Media Adoption
Mashable, Facebook Can Get You Fired
Mashable, YouTube Can Get You Fired
Sachachua, Gen Y Social Media in the Workplace Guide
Drew McLellan, Who Really Owns Your Social Media Persona
Mashable, How To Manage Multiple Social Media Profiles
Phil Gerbyshak, Fired for Facebook and Twitter
Nonprofit Management Library, Internet Acceptable Use Policies
BeaconFire  Technology Policies that Make Sense in a Web 2.0 World

I'm knee deep in creating some new workshop curriculum. I like to use videos as part of the instruction to trigger discussion or something at the end as a group bonding mechanism.   Something that has eluded me is how to directly embed the YouTube Video.  I've always had an elegant solution - include a hyper link to the YouTube Page.

I just discovered a way to embed the video directly in a slide.  It isn't that hard to do and the above screencast will show you how.   You need Powerpoint 2007 and a live Internet connection in order to make it work.   This trick, along with being able to Tweet from Powerpoint   is definitely going into my Trainer's Bag of Social Media Tricks.

• PolicyTool for Social Media
• List of Nonprofit, NPO, NGO Websites Using Drupal » The ENGINE Blog » ENGINE Industries: Atlanta, Georgia Web Design
• AboutUseCaseMaps < UCM < Foswiki
• multi-mechanize – Project Hosting on Google
• Online Backup from Backblaze
• Data Robotics, Inc.
• EC2StartersGuide – Community Ubuntu Documentation
• Amazon Web Services Developer Community : Amazon EC2 API Tools
• Migration Tips | Acquia
• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud
• EC2 and Ubuntu – Alestic.com
• WordPress › SyntaxHighlighter Evolved « WordPress Plugins

We in the nonprofit marketing world spend a lot of time planning and holding events.  We should spend an equal amount of time assessing the mountain of data they generate - and using that information to inform our future strategies.  More measuring to learn and plan, please!

That’s the point made in a new eBook sent to me by Jono Smith of Event360 (and formerly of Network for Good - we miss you, Jono!).  It’s called Analyze This: A Nonprofit’s Guide to Event Fundraising Analytics.  You can download your free copy here.

This 18-page guide is designed to help event fundraisers move beyond only reporting the past and start using analytics to predict the future. A case study featuring the Komen Global Race for the Cure highlights how analytics helped formulate the steps the organization took to transform their highly attended event into a strong fundraising event.

For example, the guide explains that if you are struggling to build a reliable analytics program, start by looking at these key questions:

• What metrics are most important to your nonprofit?
• How does event fundraising impact those metrics?
• What are you currently measuring?
• How can you change those to take advantage of more information for more insight?
• What decisions will you make as a result of those metrics?
• What behavioral change is required?

I urge you to read it, because as I explained in my last post, knowing what worked and learning from what worked should be an approach we take much more often.  Seriously.

Yesterday was the second day for a meeting with a community of practice of people interested in network effectiveness convened by Monitor Institute.  I learned so much and quickly wanted to share a few insights.

I heard first hand from Eugene Eric Kim about strategic planning at Wikipedia.  One of my favorite quotes: "At the end of the day, networks are piles of people.”  

As he shared the story, I had some questions about weaving offline/online collaboration within networks. 
We most typically think of the offline/online as a sequence somewhat like this:

• Small group meets face-to-face - builds trust
• Uses online space to continue work inbetween face-to-face meetings

I started thinking about how a lot of the online collaboration was taking place on the social web is between people who had never met each other and after they work together may meet each other.  In my own experience, I've connected and collaborated with people online who I had never met face-to-face and these have been pretty rich experiences.  I've also worked in the other direction - starting with a known group meeting face-to-face and then incorporating online tools to deepen or further our work. 

So, it raised some questions in my mind:

• What is unique about online collaboration that begins online before a face-to-face meeting?
• Can it be effective without ever meeting or do you need that face-to-face to build trust?  Does that have to happen first?
• How can you effectively weave offline/online work in a network?  Is it different depending on the intention or structure of the network?
• What are the nuances?

Eugene Eric Kim's answer: No difference between weaving networks face to face and weaving networks online. But space does matter, and affects how you interact with people. We can have the power to shape the space. You can build trusting relationships on line, not just face to face. What we need to catalyze networks is conversations.  

I tweeted some of his points using the #networkf and there was an interesting discussion with people not in the room.   Eugene Eric Kim pointed to the presentation above, plus this post further explaining online/offline collaboration differences.

He argues the point that trusting, meaningful relationships are possible online. Online collaboration can be just as effective as face-to-face.  I'm thinking it is another one of the contextual elements you have to look at - and perhaps a matter of sequencing.   Eugene's main points are:

On Saturday, I was delighted to have an opportunity to attend and speak at the SexTech 2010 Conference. If you are wondering what Sextech is, it explores research, policy, education, implementation, and evaluation of public health programs that use new technologies to enhance sexual health of young people.  The conference participants are a mix of people from nonprofits, schools, policy centers, researchers, universities, government, and young people.   I had heard about the conference last year and really wanted to attend.

I participated in a morning keynote with Marc Blinder, Bobby Jones, and Ryan Wilson.  Geoff Livingston, my business partner at Zoetica,  moderated the session which was called "Social Media Rockstars: Widgets, Apps, Contests, and More.  Marc kicked off the presentations sharing some thoughts about best practices for social media infused campaigns,  I talked about effective social media for nonprofits,  Bobby Jones gave a fantastic presentation talking about generations and young people, and Ryan Wilson shared some thoughts about prize Philanthropy. 

I was really excited to finally meet Ryan Turner who I have known virtually since 1995, but had never met face-to-face.

I also had the opportunity to finally meet Andre Blackman who I met online while researching a talk on nonprofits, social media, and health care. Andre has a deep knowledge of this space and pointed me to many great examples.

Andrew Blackman was co-presenting with Leslie Ann Bradshaw, JESS3, in a session called "New Media Strategies for Engagement.  Their presentations rocked and I've included them below.

A couple of reflections. It is always fun to do a panel when the majority of the audience is Gen Y and Gen X - and they are using tools like live streaming and Twitter.   The back channel during the panel was fabulous.  And, I knew this audience pretty well from having worked with organizations and networks that focus on sexual and reproductive health. 

I've been trying to internalize some of the tips and techniques that I have been learning from reading Cliff Atkinson's book on the back channel and teaching trainers.  One technique is to plan what you're going to say as a series of Tweets.  In order to do this, I decided not to use slides and so I could engage more with people in the room.

The other thing I've been practicing lately is not scripting out word for word what I am going to say, but be a little bit more improvisatory.   I read about how Larry David, creator of the show Curb Your Enthusiasm, creates the show.   The scripts aren't scripts, but outlines.  The actors improvise their lines.   I think this is a more engaging way to speak, although to do it well it takes practice and you have to really listen to the audience and adjust.   Having a lively back channel helps you do that.

Enter your nonprofit's video created in 2009 in the 4th Annual DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards. Awards will go to organizations of all sizes, including a special award for Best Innovation in Video. 

And if you win?  Your nonprofit video will be featured on the YouTube homepage, receive a grant from the Case Foundation, get great prizes from Flip Video and the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), and have your work showcased at a screening in Washington DC.

March 19 is the deadline. A panel of judgets (including me) will select finalists to compete in a public vote. Winners will be announced on April 10 at the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in Atlanta.