 More of Beaconfire Bloggers' photos
|
More consolidation in the nonprofit software market today. Blackbaud bought Kintera for a staggering $46 Million in cash. It will be interesting to learn more about their short and long term plans for the software. But this could beef up Blackbaud’s offerings in the e-CRM space and provide more financial backing for further development of the Kintera suite. You can read more at MSN & Yahoo:
I know a lot of nonprofits who use Google apps. They’re easy to use, easy to deploy, and cheap. What’s not to like? …particularly for nonprofits on a low budget. However, there may be a consideration that is too easily overlooked, particularly for those nonprofits dealing with information and data of a sensitive, personal, nature. I’m talking about security. Baseline published an eye-opening article today (“Are Google’s Security Practices Up to Snuff?“) that might give some nonprofits pause – at least about some of the data/info they might be managing with Google apps. Is this a legitimate concern or a red herring? Sure would help if Google were more open about security practices and safeguards…
Our newest Beaconfire team member is Rahul Singh, who joins us as a Technical Lead. While his main specialty is as a .NET expert, to try and categorize him would be a mistake. Rahul’s talents spread across a number of technologies and his background has given him experience as a software designer, SharePoint developer, business process analyst, project manager, CMS creator, database designer and “Guru” for the Open Source Rainbow Portal Project. That’s the short list.
To say that Rahul has “hit the ground running” would be an understatment. His white board is already covered with diagrams and charts, his project plate is full, and he’s proven to play a mean game of Trivial Pursuit. We can’t wait to see what he does in his second week.
YouTube is one
of the cornerstones of the modern web. It combines some of the best things about the internet – it’s participatory, uses rich media, and has a variety of entry levels. It’s also completely free, a key element of anything that’s going to be influential online today (as the Times learned last year).
But it’s also earned somewhat of a reputation for being everything negative about the modern web – it’s seen as a time-waster, and those who argue against user-generated content need point no further than the popularity of videos of cats playing the piano while skateboarding (okay – I can’t find one to combine these, but it must exist).
Enter DocStoc. I’ve described it to many of my collegues as “YouTube for business,” meaning you can find a memo about a cat playing a piano while skateboarding it’s a place where users can share and peruse documents they find useful. It’s not entertaining (Oooo… invoice templates!), but it is a great example of the power of a participatory internet. While once a brand-new non-profit would have to go to a small business incubator or book to find a sample NDA, this allows them to go online to browse 23 pages of options.
I bring this up because we so often are looking for an example of a site where user-generated content doesn’t turn into a flame war or endless string of banalities, but rather something that other users can really value. Wikipedia’s another great example here, but because of a few minor but much-trumpeted inaccuracies, some still look at it skeptically (even though it’s been shown to be as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica).
So if you’re looking to start a small non-profit or business, or want an official-looking document, or just need to point to a user-generated content site your boss will approve of, give DocStoc a try. I can’t promise that it’s be kitten-free, but I can say that it’s at least intended to be useful.
A while back, Taylor blogged about her favorite FireFox browser extensions. I also use every one she mentions, and have since added a few more that I just knew the whole wide world would be dying to hear about.
One that Talor did not mention was FoxMarks, which used to be the best way to snchronize your bookmarks between different computers. But before I had a chance to add that to the list, along came Google Browser Sync and totally upped the ante. GBS synchronizes not only your bookmarks, but your cookies, history, and passwords. Not only is this convenient, but when you have to wipe your computer and start all over again (like I did over the weekend), it’s a total lifesaver!
Indispensible for a designer, Colorzilla adds a tiny eyedropper tool to the lower left-hand corner of your browser which, once clicked, allows you to sample any color on the page, or your browser. Saved as a hex color (“#ffffff”), text color (“white”), or RGB color (“R: 255, G: 255, B: 255″), you can then copy the values to your clipboard for use in Photoshop or a CSS file.
Since the journey to get content contributors to correctly identify PDF links as such in Web pages seems to be going uphill both ways in the snow, PDF Download is here to help. When clicking a link to a PDF a simple dialog pops up asking if you want to open the PDF, download it, or cancel. Neat.
While not exactly a plugin, the Foxit PDF reader opens PDFs much faster than Adobe Acrobat and, when combined with the PDF Download add-on, makes it far less tragic when you accidentally click a link that you thought went to a nice HTML page and instead opens Acrobat and locks up your browser while downloading a 250MB PDF. Like I said, this isn’t really a plugin and does not require FireFox to run (though it is Windows only). It is very nearly a full replacement for the Acrobat Reader.
I recently had the opportunity to lead a roundtable on Blogging to Build Community and Financial Support at the Association Foundation Group’s Sixth National Conference on Association Foundations and Fundraising: Navigating the Association Foundation Fundraising Seas in Washington, DC.
As the format was a ‘hot topic’ roundtable, rather than presenting a PowerPoint deck, I brought my laptop and showed the participants some of my favorite applications of web 2.0/social networking technologies* by not for profit groups. Some of the sites we looked at and discussed include:
While checking out the cool things NFPs are doing online, I tried to convey a few key points:
*Wondering what some of these terms mean? Download A Brief Guide to Web 2.0 (presented as a handout at the conference).
edited at 1:35 pm 5/27/2008 to clean up some code problems.
RSS feeds are great. Tech-savvy users love them because they can receive site content and other information without wasting time checking for updates. Site owners love them because they mean that more users will consume their content (on that note, consider subscribing to the Beaconfire Wire feed). Unfortunately, this kind of convenience means that you’re missing one critical thing: everything else on your site that you use to upsell people once they arrive for your content.
That’s why non-profits
who have a significant RSS readership should consider ways to advertise their other services in their feed to push people to donate, take action, or join the email list. While visitors to your site will already be pushed this way by a strong information architecture, most feeds are pure content.
Several services exist to let you make more of your feed, by placing ads or links back to your site in your feed. Feedburner is perhaps the most popular, because it’s already widely used for other things. On the Beaconfire Wire, we use Feedburner to get stats on our feed and to add a few other neat features. And, as I wrote last year, it’s completely free. One feature independent bloggers will find useful is that it integrates with AdSense, allowing you to monotize your blog in another way. For non-profits who have specific links to include (like “Make a Contribution” and “Sign the Petition”), you can add custom “FeedFlares” at the bottom of each post so you don’t miss a chance to bring in more donors or activists.
So what if you’ve been advertising on the 
web in traditional ways, and want to diversify? Consider using a service like Pheedo to serve ads in a variety of content networks. Pheedo came to my attention in my NY Times feed, and they claim to have a pretty diverse network. Rates vary depending on the network you want to buy in – for sub-$5,000 purchases, you’re limited to buying in a network rather than choosing a specific feed or feeds, which makes it more difficult to segment your audiance – the site indicates that advertisers can make segmentation choices on a variety of criteria, but this may be restricted to larger buys. Update (5.28.08) – As Bill from Pheedo notes in the comments, advertisers can specify which segments of the network ads will appear in.
While RSS giveth, it also taketh away. New ways to promote your organization allow non-profits to expand their efforts to this space to take advantage of changing user habits. And as RSS becomes more ubiquitous, we’ll hopefully see an expansion of ways for non-profits to take advantage of it.
This post may not be about the Web or Non-profits specifically, but there isn’t a project or task in our day that doesn’t involve Word, Excel, or Powerpoint. So here it is.
Microsoft has announced that the Service Pack 2 update to Microsoft Office 2007 will include support for the ODF document format used natively by OpenOffice (free) and StarOffice (very affordable). Equally exciting is the news that users of Office 2007 will also be able to author PDF 1.5 and PDF/A documents without the need for an additional plugin such as Acrobat.
As a user of OpenOffice at home, I am already able to work easily with MS Word and Excel files while retaining all (or nearly all) of the form and function of the originals and preserve their native .doc and .xls formats. I’m just hoping that MS Office’s support for the open format will increase confidence to the point where more companies and organizations will feel secure enough to move to one of the free office solutions entirely. You sure can save a lot of money with free software, and OpenOffice is looking better all the time.
While this is likely good news, the announcement was also met with a healthy dose of skeptecism.
A recent post on
the Official Google Blog provided an interesting look into how ads are stacked up on the right side of your Google searches (and on the content network):
In the general case, where ad qualities differ, the price an advertiser pays for a click will depend on its Quality Score relative to the quality of the ad below it in the auction. Roughly speaking, an ad that has twice the quality of another ad will tend to get about twice as many clicks, and will only have to pay half as much per click as the competing ad.
This is an important departure from what some consider the conventional wisdom with regard to search engine marketing: that the way to get a lot of views and clicks is to bid high for each word and work hard to convert on the flipside. Rather, this suggests that since ads with a higher quality score will win more often and cost less per click, it’s more important that you provide a high quality ad on a few of the most relevant keywords than to cast a wide net to keywords that are only tangentially related and lower your overall quality scores.
I’ll go into some tips on how to boost your quality score, and, by extension, the effectiveness of your SEM program, below the fold…
Less than a decade ago, commercial enterprises were worried that consumers would be reluctant to use their credit cards to make purchases online. Today, online fundraising brings in 40% of the individual giving revenue for high-achieving nonprofits. So what’s in store for the future? Here are three challenges that are shaping the future of online marketing and fundraising. What other challenges do you see?
Cross-channel integrated marketing: High performing organizations are leveraging all their assets in an integrated way, driving users from online emails to offline action and offline invitations to online relationships. There is no one-size-fits-all linear approach to acquisition and conversion. This is putting tremendous pressure on marketing professionals to think more deeply about how to provide meaningful and effective conversion paths for their supporters. Beaconfire is focused on helping clients integrate their promotional and call-to-action efforts to maximize the potential of the online space without losing the “tried and true” methods of yesterday.
Push versus pull relationships: Internet users are becoming more and more savvy, increasingly using RSS feeds, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogs to stay abreast of information and are less committed and influenced by emails from constituent groups. Because of these new “pull” mechanisms – where users choose what they want, when they want it and through fairly anonymous social media/network sites, “pushing” emails is becoming increasingly less effective. This change in consumption behavior and online relationship formation is requiring organizations to position content, calls to action and donation appeals much more creatively than ever before and distribute to more places than ever before. No longer can you “post on it on your site and they will come.” Now, we must produce it and distribute it where they are, often times without knowing who they are.
Monetizing social space: Despite the enormous popularity and rapid growth of social space including networks and the blogosphere, there are yet to emerge proven, repeatable, scalable ways of raising significant funds through these “democratic” networks. Issues of organization or political spam are entering the discourse about how to effectively utilize network growth and user-generated content in a fundraising campaign and also maintain the high quality and trusted relationships with constituents. We are testing various tactics and monitoring emerging best practices, taking the risks with our clients that are required to be the trailblazers.While most of the discussion of video used by the Presidential campaigns this cycle has focused on Obama and Clinton’s effective use of video to share speeches and ads with users (see this post on how Obama uses YouTube to bypass the culture of sound bytes while this post discusses how both he and Clinton make good use of their raw footage), there’s also been an undercurrent of parody videos that’s designerd to be forwarded, even if it’s less influential.
Prompting this post was a video combining two of the more well-known (at least online) figures in the battle for the Democratic nomination: Mike Gravel and Obama Girl. While one is an pre-packaged phenomenon nearly universally loathed by Democrats and Republicans alike (see this study – 51% of Democrats were irritated by the videos while 41% were embarrassed) and the other is a former senator who shared the stage for several early debates, they actually have a lot in common.
Both trade not on serious policy issues or even trivial gaffes, but on being different enough to break out from pack. Both also make use of pop culture as a segue to promote their own videos – while Gravel’s is often several decades removed (see this video), Obama Girl draws source material from other YouTube celebs.
Their latest video was a collaboration between the two – check it out:
Now, I don’t see videos like this really moving votes. Unlike relatively clever parodies done by the major campaigns (one of Hillary’s best videos pokes fun at herself, Bill and Tom Vilsack), Gravel’s videos are mostly just a way to get attention for a campaign that otherwise would have been forgotten, while Obama Girl is mostly there to sell stuff on her website.
But despite their similarities, I’m far more amicable to Gravel than to Obama Girl. It’s probably not because he’s a candidate – I don’t watch a ton of candidate videos, particularly from the minor candidates. Instead, it’s probably that they’re just plain fun to watch. As I commented to a colleague today, I really like Senator Gravel because he’ll do his own parodies. Whether it’s dumping a rock in the pond, remaking schoolhouse rock, or telling Obama that the election is now down to the two of them, he gets his message out while being entertaining.
Obama Girl, on the other hand, is a joke that may have been funny when she first came out, but now is just sorta creepy. She’s too slick, and her videos just try too hard, plus it’s the same basic premise every time – we get it: you have a crush on Obama. Her videos seem so commercial, while Gravel’s feel so grassrootsy. Plus she pushes the sex angle way too far for my taste – it’s just not something I’d really pass around the office.
So as the nomination contest wraps up, we’ll hopefully see a lot more user-generated parody video this election. While it may not be as vital as Obama’s full-length speeches or the DSCC’s web ads, it’s an important element to get the rank and file engaged and talking about the election. Plus it’s just fun to send around on a Friday afternoon.
Some of my favorite Gravel Ads below the fold, and to see more of Beaconfire staff favorite videos, check out this post.
Admit it, you’ve always wanted answers to burning questions like:
With the launch of APS Physics Central (http://www.physicscentral.org/), you can ask the experts as well as get information on a wide variety of topics in physics. This is a site geared towards middle and high school students to get them excited and engaged in the world of physics as well as learn about how physics relates to their everyday life (but the curious grown up will fit in too!)
Find experiments to try at home, view photo galleries of physics images, and read the “buzz blog”.
Since coming back for South by 
Southwest, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about sponsored posts by bloggers. There were several events there that made me think about the topic, from Jeff Jarvis and others lampooning clumsy astroturfing to meeting the folks at Izea who run a pay per post service with a strict ethics code to attending a session on SEO for social media that mentioned that paid blogs can quickly bump up your Google rank for a new campaign. And I think that we’re finally reaching the point where the idea of blogging for money may be finding the right equilibrium to work.
The key requirement that bloggers and the rest of the social web seems to be asking for is disclosure. They don’t mind if you’re paid to shill for a product, just that you point out that you’re doing so. This is little different from the long-standing practice on political blogs of requesting that users disclose if they’re paid by a campaign when posting and commenting – it helps users understand the context and take the remarks with the appropriate amount of salt.
I look at some of the ways to provide this disclose, as well as why non-profits should consider paid posting, after the jump…
We’ve had the very good fortune to add two more people to our staff in the last couple of weeks. Shiloh Stark and Elizabeth Engel add their experience in the nonprofit and association sectors to our pool of talent.
Shiloh comes on board as a Production Specialist with the Online Campaigns & Marketing team. He will use his knowledge of CMS and CRM tools, Google analytics and social networking tools to ensure creative, timely execution of our clients’ campaigns. Shiloh has a dedicated career in the nonprofit sector, having worked with National AmeriCorps Association, Whitman-Walker Clinic and, most recently, Public Citizen, where he was the Web Manager in the Health Research Group. When not dedicating himself to his clients, Shiloh likes to spend quality time with his pet hermit crabs, Spider and Walrus.
Elizabeth Engel joins us as a Senior Consultant, bringing years of experience in a broad range of nonprofit and association management and consulting. Most recently, Elizabeth was Manager of Not-for-Profit Consulting at RSM McGladrey. Prior to that, she was Vice President of Marketing for Consortium for School Networking, and Director of Member Services & Technology for the American Political Science Association. When she’s not filling her duties as a member of the American Society of Association Executives and the Center for Association Leadership, Elizabeth is pursuing her new passion…trying out for the D.C. Roller Girls.
Sign the petition! Share your story! Send a letter! We’ve all been called to action by these popular techniques a million times–and while they continue to work, there is so much more we can do to gain and keep the attention of supporters. Join Michael Cervino and Ali Cherry on May 15th for an online webinar on “9 Creative and Effective Engagement Tools and Techniques.” Read more and RSVP today.
Editor’s note: 
Periodically, we do a survey of Beaconfire staff to get impressions on a variety of non-profit technology issues. All opinions expressed here are solely those of their authors. With so many social networks out there, every one appeals to a different audience. This week, we thought we’d ask: Which social networks do you have a profile in?
Eve, Creative Director: Facebook, Linked in, and Dogster
Lynn, Principal Consultant: Facebook and LinkedIn
Jeff, Principal Consultant: Facebook (more lurker than active but have over 100 friends), LinkedIN (I use this quite a bit for connecting with former colleagues, partners and even for recruiting), Terrapin Alumni Network (have profile but found few of my college classmates were on yet. It was early after its launch so worth another look), and MySpace (I believe I have a profile but haven’t used it but once).
Michael, Principal Consultant: The active ones are LinkedIn & Facebook for me.
Kate, Administrative Assistant: I currently use Facebook regularly, after having canceled my Myspace profile a few months ago. I also have a random smattering of profiles on blogs and other things that may tangentially be considered “social networks,” but they’re ill used, so I’ll leave them out.
Andrew, Project Manager: Facebook and LinkedIn
John Brian, Marketing Consultant: I’m on Facebook every day, Flickr once a week, LinkedIn once a month, and Twitter when I go to conferences and such as a way to micro-blog. I was really pulling for Essembly to make it, but it never got anywhere.
Taylor, Software Engineer: I only use Facebook. When it first opened up I was attracted to its privacy settings and it seemed much more reputable than myspace. As it has loosened up, i.e.:
I have considered ending my account, but what it boils down to in my mind is that if you are careful and stay informed about your privacy settings and how they change then fb is a fairly secure place to be. It is also an incredible networking, information sharing and social media tool.
Tim, Functional Consultant: In order from most used to least:
Erika, Operations Manager: I use LinkedIn. It’s not only a great way to keep in touch with former colleagues, but it’s also a useful recruiting tool. It enables me to post job openings for Beaconfire and send them out through my network (or post directly to the entire LinkedIn network). Personal referrals are still the best way to find a job and, from a recruiting standpoint, it’s always better to find candidates who are recommended by people you know and trust. It reminds me of the old shampoo commercials — you tell two friends, and they’ll tell two friends, and so on, and so on.
Brad, Functional Consultant: Actually use: Facebook, LinkedIn. Have but don’t use: MySpace, Friendster, Yahoo Mash, Twitter (might use Twitter more). Also, it’s not a social network exactly, but I use Highrise to manage my contacts
Ali, Marketing Consultant: Amazon, LinkedIn, Facebook, Delicious are my four big ones.
Elizabeth, Senior Consultant: I use Facebook and Linkedin pretty extensively. ASAE has started their own internal social networking feature, and I’m cooperating, but I think the horse may have already bolted on that one (there are multiple ASAE and association groups on both FB and Linked). I joined Naymz because several people asked me to, but I never use it. And the DC Rollergirls are all on MySpace, so I keep up with derby news there, but I don’t have a profile set up.
Mark, Functional Consultant: Here are mine:
Marissa, Functional Consultant: I’m in Facebook and Goodreads, though I use Goodreads more as a place to maintain the list of books I want to read, rather than a social network.
Kristin, Project Manager: Linked in, Facebook, Yahoo Groups
With new social networks popping up every day, this is bound to increase. In case you’re keeping score at home, of the 16 Beaconfire employees who answered, 15 included Facebook and 12 included LinkedIn!
