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What: Webinar – Get Started on Facebook Many nonprofits and libraries are using Facebook to interact with their constituencies and reach out to new audiences – but what’s the best way to get your organization started on this hugely popular social networking site? In this webinar, Kami Griffiths will interview social media consultant John Haydon, who will walk through the essential steps to establishing and managing a successful Facebook presence for a nonprofit or library. We will also hear from Gabe O’Neill of Kids Are Heroes, who will share lessons learned from developing their own Facebook page. Get practical how-to information, learn best practices, ask questions, and leave with action items that will help you create an engaging Facebook presence for your organization. This webinar is for people who are beginning to explore Facebook and have questions on how to get started. We’ve been hard at work putting the finishing touches on Soapbox 2.0.10, the latest upgrade to your website management system. What do those numbers and dots mean to you? Two things: powerful page titles and slick slideshows. Both available now. And both part of the Soapbox service you’re already paying for. Let’s dive into the details, shall we? Read the juicy details at our Help Desk. If you have any questions related to your version of Soapbox or on these particular features, give us a shout! You have a very large video file, pdf or document… or you have a large number of smaller files. These can become too large to store on your web server, and they can quickly push your beyond your bandwidth allowance. So, what do you do? One solution worth considering is Amazon’s S3 cloud storage solution. S3 allows you to store large amounts of data at a surprisingly low cost. Additionally, the cost structure is scalable, so you will only ever pay for what you use. All that means is that it is a service that allows you to store data in the “cloud” in a way that is fast, cheap and reliable. We often recommend Flickr to clients as a robust photo management tool because it’s fast, easy to use, and offers nice-looking slideshows that can be easily embedded on webpages. But no-profits looking for more sophisticated slideshow options might consider checking out a new tool we just found called PhotoSnack. While Flickr focuses on photo sharing and organization, PhotoSnack takes online photo album displays to another level. They have a variety of slick, professional-looking photo albums and slideshows that can be embedded on your site. See some examples here. Free accounts are limited to 250mb and are branded with the PhotoSnack logo, but a premium account is available with 5GB storage and no branding for just $99.99/year. If you know a site using this or have tested this out on your own, let us know how it goes! Are you thinking about revamping your website but not sure where to start? Are you working with a web developer but wonder if you’re paying too much? With all the tools and strategies available, it’s hard to know where to start and what to expect. Attend this free webinar on Thursday where Allen Gunn, Executive Director of Aspiration (one of our partners!), will share valuable information about:
This will be a basic-to-intermediate level overview of the website development process and ideal for decision makers, board members involved in the process, and accidental techies. The webinar is this Thursday, the 17th, at 11am PST. You can join here. If your holiday calendar isn’t full yet, we’ve got something to fill it with – PICnet is reinstating Soapbox Tuesdays, a monthly forum held at our offices for Joomla and Soapbox users. We’ll discuss the up and coming, answer your questions, brainstorm, and give feedback where needed. We’re excited to create a space where people can bring their lunch and their questions to chat about how technology is changing the non-profit world. As the year wraps up, it’s time to gear up for last minute changes to your Non-Profit Soapbox and Joomla Web sites. What better way to do this than by sharing some lessons learned with your fellow Non-Profit Soapbox and Joomla! users at PICnet! When: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 We hope to see you there! Click here for more details.
The cookbook is available via Packt Publishing. Well-written and thorough, this reference book will not only help introduce new Joomla! developers to the Joomla! framework, but can also serve as a great reference for experienced developers needing to brush up on some best practices. Full disclosure: I was one of the technical reviewers of the book. Check out the book online, and order it as a holiday gift for that Joomla! lover on your list, or for yourself! Some of you might have heard of the Young Professionals Network. Well, did you know there is a version for those of us working in the non-profit sector? I belong to the DC chapter of Young Nonprofit Professionals Network (YNPN), a group dedicated to really making as much information as possible available to those in our field through job fairs, seminars and networking happy hours. It’s amazing that there’s a forum out there to focus on younger people that are dedicated to the missions of many unique and important organizations. At these events, it’s great to hear different stories about the struggles and triumphs that all people in the non-profit world experience. Of course, I would be remiss to attend these events and not mention PICnet’s services, so I always have a quick blurb about us in the hopes of spreading the word about who we are and what we do. At the end of the day, even though I don’t make a sale, it’s still great to spread our mission and see how what we do aligns so clearly with what many non-profits need. I think attending the YNPN events are a great way to create a community for non-profit organizations located all over the city. It’s amazing to learn how many non-profits could really use a website revamp, and once they learn PICnet does it for such an affordable price, they are quick to ask more about us. For more information on YNPN and to find your local chapter, click here. As the number of Facebook users climbs by the thousands every month, the college-age group who first supported its growth seem to be losing interest and turning their attention elsewhere. While these users aren’t deleting their Facebook accounts altogether, they do appear to be spending less time on the site and exploring new communities and places to connect with their friends. According to at least one source, a significant portion of them are now revisiting Twitter, the micro-blogging site that limits your updates to 140 characters. So how does this affect your nonprofit’s social media strategy if everyone is competing for Gen Y’s attention? The first thing to note is that Facebook aging is just a side effect as it becomes more mainstream, which may actually be a good thing for your nonprofit. Depending on your target audience, this may mean leveraging Facebook as a way to reach and engage your audience is now more powerful than ever and it could boost support for your cause, and even online donations. For starters, make sure your Facebook page caters to your audience and has clear objectives and action items for users. For more tips, check out this recent NY Times article (aimed at small businesses, but applicable to any organization). Second, if support from Gen Y is crucial for your nonprofit (whether for donations, volunteers or spreading the word), it might be time to explore some other options to make sure you are keeping up with your users. As always, it’s most important to find the right match between your objective, message, medium, and audience to achieve your goals and see successful results. Still need more tips? Let us know! The holidays are fast approaching. In fact, they are close enough that you might just be peering at this post through a ring of yellow stickies on your monitor with notes like “Draft holiday fundraising appeal” and “Update mailing list for big $$$ push” alongside “Figure out what the heck to get mom this year.” Before the holiday stickies completely obscure your monitor, we wanted to toss out an idea for you to consider. How about adding a video appeal to that big $$$ push to set your organization apart from the crowd? You can. It’s free and easy and allows you to leverage the tools the good folks at YouTube provide beyond just embedding videos into your site. Take a moment to learn about YouTube’s Nonprofit Program to see how you can turn video views into donation dollars. Interested in some inspiration? Jump straight to their Video Campaign Tip Sheet for some examples that just might cause some early holiday cheer. Check out our Help Desk for more posts like this. |
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The holiday season is all about delicious foods and favorites, right? Well, this new recipe collection may not have your typical ingredients list and steps to preparing Grandma’s peach crumble, but the 
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