Social Media Training in the Hills

Break time

Had a very enjoyable day in the Adelaide Hills training 

with Hills Volunteering and Mt Barker District Council. 

There were attendees from the Private Sector, government Sector and Community Sector. 

We looked at Social Media. Some good questions came from the group:

• where does a "Tweet" go?
• how do we keep records in an electronic age when  data can be changed so quickly?
• do we need to keep records of Facebook conversations for legal reasons?
• Is Flickr safe for children?
• Where should I store photos? Flickr or Facebook?

Esme from Hills Volunteering

Image via CrunchBase

Workshop Participants

We also had a presentation about the facts behind the new Australian National Broadband Network like what the wires look like, the connections, the costs, the equipment. It is indeed very visionary and very different to what I thought. 

Was very excited by the provision of fresh fruit for lunch and snacks. Thanks guys!

I got an average of 94% which would seem to be "acceptable".

Any Perth people? I am in Perth in about a month and would LOVE to do a Social Media workshop if anyone would be keen to arranging that!

What do I need to have to manage volunteers?

There are several debates / discussions going on online right now regarding what the qualifications should be for those in charge of volunteers at a nonprofit, NGO, government program, etc. 

Jayne Cravens details her viewpoint in her blog. She says: "That's a hot topic right now, and there is a LOT of disagreement about it" 

She has links to all these various debates happening online right now. You can find her blog here.

World Changers: Norway

I send my condolences to the families of the young people of Norway who lost their lives at the hands of someone who chose violence to change the world.
Is anything worth the death of people?

What's the whole idea of a Facebook picture?

How often do you change Facebook pics?

From a study of 500 000 facebook users, the average Facebook user will change their profile photo 18 times this year! That’s three times as often as in 2006. Women twice as often as men. 
Why is this important? If you are reaching people through Facebook, you need to know what will reach them!

Have a look at this amazing infographics about Facebook and photos and the commentary on it. A few interesting facts:

• people seem to "recognize that having an online presence is now the norm and maintaining it is important"
• smartphones with "extremely powerful cameras" are the norm
• everywhere you go people are watching the world "through their cameras"
• 80% of Gen Y will "digitally manipulate" their pictures as they post compared to Gen X
• Under 30s will post pictures "anywhere and everywhere" compared to over 30s who are very careful where they post pictures
• People understand what a profile picture is and have come to expect other users to have realistic and current (very current) profile pictures, especially given the likelihood of their attending an event recently in which they probably took pictures with their smartphones.

Think about this. How often have you gone to a see a singer or a speaker or an author and their pictures are very much older than they are? I have been fascinated by how many people have commented when I have met them at conferences: "you look like your photo" or in some cases "you look much better/younger" (thank you) than your photo. Whereas I would get one comment like that a month at a conference, I now get it multiple times. People are looking at my pictures on multiple social networking sites. What is even more fascinating is that many of the same people who have instantly recognised me in a lift (elevator), conference centre corridor  or conference room have been  surprised to learn that I am Australian. While they have remembered my photo, some have clearly not taken everything in from the accompanying bio. 

Conference participants from NCVS 2011 this year. 

From some research undertaken on a  community newspaper by Abbie Schmid, Lauren Pinder and Harumendhah Helmy: "When a video or photo is uploaded to Facebook (not just linked to) people are more likely to participate in conversation and to read the story. If there is a visual aspect to the story, make sure at least one photo is uploaded."












Implications for a not for profit:

• we are a visual generation- think visual for everything- but also be aware some people are not naturally visual
• if you dont have an online presence, you are invisible (what I say in my trainings a lot)
• if you dont have a policy regarding photos for your agency, get one
• if you have not changed your online photo recently, then you will be seen as dull/irrelevant/out of date
• if you want to recruit people to volunteer for you, think what your pictures say about you!
• "Keep the community in mind when posting pictures or galleries" (Schmid et al)
• always make sure your hair and make up is good! LOL

Excuse me, while I go and change my photos (hows this one?)! 

Monday Motivation: 25th July 2011: Humour and Hope

“Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it.”  Bill Cosby

Made the Big Time!

My blog post about Google+ got mentioned by Jayne Cravens at Techsoup. TechSoup is a nonprofit that helps other nonprofits and public libraries get the technology resources they need to operate at their full potential.

 I was described as non-tech with an "insightful review".  Thanks Jayne!

World Changers: Africa

I get really excited by young people who are changing (or attempting to change our world). Started by a Gen Yer Laura McGilvray, Ghana Do Something Real is a network of people who are supporting New Life Orphanage in Ghana and the 35 children who call it home. The group have allowed uniforms and musical instruments to get to the orphanage.

The group have a very real Facebook presence and thanks to contemporary technology it waas able to translate that into a very real presence with a launch conducted in Australia having input with speeches and interviews and songs from Ghana via camera!

Check out their newsletter. They have set up a system to get donations straight to the orphanage from western donors. They prefer to send money to the orphanage rather than goods so as to show support to local traders in Ghana.

Google Plus Reviewed

Image via CrunchBaseLast week I was invited to join Google + which is the social networking app from Google available on the web, iphone and android.

If you have a gmail address- it is a cinch to log in. I don't but I did have a google account-that was just as easy! Automatically my blogs were listed on my Google+ page.

Google+ seems to have seven main features:

1. A main profile page 
2. The ability to easily organise friends into groups called "Circles".  I have groupings (circles) for friends,  family, acquaintances, people following me and work contacts. I love this feature. You can then send and share content with specific people in those circles. Facebook lets you organise people into groups too but Google+ makes it simple.
3. Sparks is like Google alerts combined with Google Reader. You select topics you want eg volunteer management, not for profit, trains, aeroplanes. Each topic gets its own sparks page and then thanks to the magic of Google, every time an article, posting or news report appears on the net with that topic, it will appear in my Google plus. I can then share any of that content with one or more individuals or circles.  I am thinking I can even set up a circle with all my A380 interested friends in it and share A380 stories with them quickly!
4. Photos can be uploaded in the same way as Facebook but sharing is a lot easier. I can easily share photos for a specific group eg niece's christening photos with my family only or pictures from a particular training with people from that training. Yes, you can do it on Facebook but Google+ has made it so much easier.
5. Streamlined video chat...this is also cool..its  a bit like Skype embedded into your browser
6. Huddles....a group messaging video chat..where you can get a group of up to ten friends who are in a circle to chat to each other...if it works well, this could be a great boon in our sector
7. The Google+ bar, which appears at the top of everything Google now, lets you add comments about anything you see on the web to your google+ stream (feed). It lets you switch between google documents, photos, calendar and mail.

So all in all, I like Google+ so far BUT I have around 2000 people connected through Facebook page and 543 on my Linked in. Why would I want to start again with this entire site? Well for a start Google has already got me. As I already use a Google blog, Google docs, Google calendar etc, then incorporating Google + is akin to falling off a log. So imagine when all the people with gmail add Google+ to their suites.

I do wish Google had taken that power and enhanced other systems. For example, I would have preferred to have Google add Sparks into Linkedin and Facebook asa feature rather than create a whole new site. To my thinking, if Facebook adds similar things as circles, huddle and sparks then the appeal of Google+ is reduced.

Finally, Google has a bad habit of dumping things that do not takeoff.  Look at Google Wave,  for example. Great idea but didn't take off because of its complexity. Google+ is much simpler but faces the formidable competition of Facebook. How long will Google allow plus to grow before it pulls the plug. Remember GoogleVideo?  Google Catalog search? Google Notebook? Google Mashup?

Anyone using it now? What d you think, will it take off?

Want an invite? email me!

Monday Motivation: 18th July 2011

I got a new baby nephew yesterday!!!!
Thats very motivating! He is 56cm long (thats almost two feet) and 4.6 kg (I think thats about ten pounds) so a HUGE baby. Mother and baby (and father and uncle) all doing well. Mum had no stiches!

Why do Not for Profit Managers outscore their for profit counterparts?

This article appeared in People First e-news for July, 2011.

Are managers of not-for-profit organisations second-class citizens when compared to their high-flying corporate cousins? Less skilled? Naive? Incompetent?

No! Nonprofit managers are often more effective than those in the corporate world. They deal daily with all kinds of complex situations, give advice to and accept advice from a range of people in the community, and generally keep the machinery running on the smell of an oily rag.

A survey by The Nonprofit Quarterly showed that, in 14 out of 17 leadership dimensions, not-for-profit managers outscored their corporate counterparts! (Interestingly, nonprofit managers tended to rate themselves lower than their peers rated them, while for-profit executives tended to rate themselves more highly than their peers.)

The survey included the following categories. Why not rate yourself alongside them?
1. Persuasiveness
2. Risk-taking
3. Demonstration of effectiveness
4. Vision

Why do you think managers in this sector fare better? Love to know your comments here or on the People First Facebook page