There are so many tools out there and new ones popping up everyday. I’ll try to list my favorites here with a brief description of why I love them so much.
SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook.com – What I like to refer to as “MySpace all grown up”. Great tool for growing an online social community. Facebook.com has put time and effort into developing applications targeting non-profits. Check out their Causes, Groups and Non-Profit Dashboard.
LinkedIn - LinkedIn is a robust, online business networking tool. I’ve found it incredibly helpful resource for getting my non-profit and social media questions answered. Top executives, non-profit and fundraising professionals, techies and everyone in between have a LikedIn profile and are available to become part of your network. It’s easy to expand your network by joining the various LinkedIn groups. Post jobs and search for postings. Everyone should have a profile. It’s free and it’s effective.
Twitter – Microblogging – that’s what Twitter is all about. And it’s fun too! Twitter is a great tool for sending small bits of information (140 characters) to friends or colleagues within your network. I’ve most recently seem Twitter successfully used at NTEN’s NTC conference. Not only did it keep us “in the loop” to all of the happenings at the event, it brought us together as a community – of Twitterers. You can follow posts or “tweets” and be followed. Twitter also comes with a suite of cool accessories like Tweetscan (tool that lets you search Twitter tweets by keyword) and Tweetaholic (displays Twitterers with the most followers). TinyURL is a must to use with Twitter as it allows you to shorten very long URLs. Give it a try and Twitter me!
NING - Ning.com is my new favorite tool. It’s essentially a network of social networks. And if you can’t find a network for your area of interest, you can start your own – and pretty darn easily! Their service is free and is a great alternative for building your own network from scratch. We’ll be taking it for a spin at GoodDogz.org and will let you know whether its as cool as it seems!
FUN STUFF
WooMe.com – Speed dating at its finest. I am the proverbial ball-and-chain, but this is an interesting tool for those who are wild and fancy free. But as my husband say, “It’s not OK to look.”
Geni.com – I love this little site. It’s a genealogical site which allows you to build a dynamic family tree with every detail you could ever want to include about your family. As you build your tree, you build a social network for your family. Pretty cute.
