Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) annual conference. The Nonprofit Technology Conference is THE event of the nonprofit tech industry. This year’s conference was held in San Francisco and was sold out! For me, it was great to see so many familiar faces, demo newer products and gather more insights and case studies from the field. I also participated in my first Ignite Session – a 5 minute presentation with automatically timed powerpoint slides. I don’t have my slides up yet, but you can read more about “Talk to Me Like You Know Me” in our latest newsletter.
This year’s conference really centered on social media strategy and engagement tactics – and evaluating tools from open source CMS to customized social networks. And, it was great to see everyone practicing what was preached in sessions. Do a quick search for the “09NTC” hashtag on search.twitter.com and you’ll see what I mean.
From a few key insights to some new tools, here’s what I found remarkable at the 2009 NTC:
- “Listening is everybody’s job, but it’s good to have a point person,” says Qui Diaz. Make listening part of your workload. Folks at American Red Cross and the National Wildlide Federation aside at least 5, but up to 20 hours a week for social media listening and engagement.
- Keywords are the secret sauce
- “We are nothing unless someone thinks we are something,” according to Danielle Brigida at the National Wildlife Federation
- “How do you use RSS like a rockstar?” In other words, how do you actually do all this listening? What tools and tactics do you use to monitor the conversation?
- Scan, do not read everything.
- Reserve time every morning to do your searches, just like you would reserve time to read the paper or industry journals.
- Use some of these tools:
- What metrics matter? Are “hits” obsolete?How do you incorporate qualitative measures?
- Brand your org in social media
- Wise words from Beth Kanter at her Listen, Learn, Adapt session:
- Document what you do
- Test and tweak
- Pick the right metrics
- Harvest insights
- Remember “Insight before investment when implementing” (Thanks to David Armano for that one)
- Planning for technology – review your prior year’s budget and P&L statement, do a physical and mental walkthrough of your organization, review your organization’s calendar for the year ahead
- Feel good about the work nonprofits do! Watch the DoGooderTV Nonprofit Video Awards Submissions and the winning video from the Children’s Defense Fund.
If you picked up any other great tips at NTC, please share them with us!
Thanks for taking such great notes!