Last night at our monthly NetSquared Houston meetup, Felicia Bates and I presented on Injecting FUN Into Your NonProfit through visual, interesting, shareable content! We discussed several new free tools to help you generate this content and connect your community online.
See the slides below and we’ve included a presentation recap in this post as well!
When we say “FUN” we mean interesting content that people want to share! The more fun content you create online, the more your community will want to share it and help you broaden your reach online.
Social Giving is on the rise. In 2002 4% of donors gave online, while in 2012 65% gave online.
The average donation through social media continues to increase each year as well, as people are more comfortable donating online and more non-profits are taking advantage of new online tools.
Sharing Increases Donations – And People Want to Share NPO Content
Nonprofits who incorporate Social Media into a fundraiser generate almost 10 times more money raised than those who don’t.
And the best part? People want to share cause related content!
A New York Times Survey found that the number one reason people share something online is to give others a better sense of who they are and what they care about. This includes nonprofit causes and content!
Content: Think Interesting, Visual, Shareable – And Strategic!
When planning the substance of the content you can create online using these tools, remember to always keep strategy first. Focus on the goals for your online efforts with every plan you make. Whether you are increasing donations, volunteers, or awareness – establishing credibility and showcasing your motivations are key.
Ideas for shareable nonprofit content to create:
Show who benefits and the impact
FAQs & Q&A topics
Showcase your people – staff and volunteers
Cover Events
Stats & Education
Think Real Time
Say “THANK YOU!”
Ask for help from your community – ask them to share their stories!
The #1 Communications Challenge for nonprofits in 2013 is lack of time to produce quality content.
We have gathered a list of tools we are enjoying using to create content that will hopefully help you create some FUN interesting visual shareable content in a relatively short time!
Wordle (Wordle.net) generates visual word clouds based on content you plug in. You can plug in an RSS feed like your organization’s Twitter account or Blog to show what topics you post the most about, or copy and paste text from any document like a press release or yearly report to see what topics are most prevalent!
Tweet Charts (TweetCharts.com) provide real time data about any topic, hashtag, user, or phrase across Twitter. Use it to monitor and showcase what is going on around your primary focus topics or brand name – or to find influencers across those topics as well.
If YouTube were a search engine it would be #2 in the world. More people search YouTube each day than Bing or Yahoo.
Apply for the YouTube for Nonprofits program to gain access to additional features like graphics customization and clickable calls to action in your videos.
Don’t have video footage from your last event? Animoto (animoto.com) lets you quickly and easily turn images into video by creating animated videos based on images you upload. The interace is extremely easy to use – you choose the images, the transition options, and design theme and create a video that you can upload to YouTube.
This tool is free for up to 30 second videos and a pro account allows you create longer videos.
Vine (vineapp.com) is the newest Video Sharing app created by the team at Twitter. It is billed as the “Instagram of Video” and lets users post 6 second videos that play in a loop similar to an animated GIF. Videos are quick to make, watch, and share by your community!
GroupMe (Groupme.com) is a group SMS text messaging tool. You can use it to coordinate volunteers, committees, and board members by creating groups for each of those audiences.
Causes (causes.com) is a tool for driving change. You can start a cause for your nonprofit and manage anything from petitions to fundraisers, to polls.
Google Hangouts are on air video chat sessions between multiple people. With Google Hangouts you can create Circles, have conversations, and get your community and nonprofit talking and working together regardless of location. automatically records your session and posts to youtube. More on getting started with Google+ Communities
Each year in January, I spend time researching different market reports from 2012 to identify the upcoming trends within the technology industry. I use this information to predict what technology and marketing trends will most likely matter to the nonprofit association and open source community so I can give you insight without having to spend the time researching all of this data yourself.
I’m really excited about 2013 because I see a dramatic shift coming this year in the way we all interact with and think about information technology. Knowledge that was once proprietary or extremely difficult to gain is being pushed out onto the web in a volume that we can’t consume fast enough.
Take Coursera.org, for example, where you can take courses from Universities like Stanford, CalTech, and John Hopkins. For Free!!
Coursera is just one of dozens of online education platforms that have free (or nearly free) classes on virtually any topic. Add to this the important details that because the classes are offered through your web browsers – you also can access them anytime and any place with the added bonus of an online community from connecting with the other students who’re taking the class. Personally, I prefer the learning experience I get when I’m on Lynda.com or Codeacademy to that I received back in college. I predict that as more people gain access to the web through cheaper and faster mobile devices, more people are going to these online learning sites instead of paying tens of thousands of dollars in tuition.
Knowledge is Freedom
Knowledge is power when someone else knows how to do something you need done and don’t know how. When you know how to manage your own website, for example, then you can choose whether or not you want to pay for someone to manage your site. You also have the choice of how much you want to manage and how much you want to outsource.
Schipul Technologies has always believed that education is key, and provides tons of free training and resources for our employees and our community. This year, we’re really ramping up our training opportunities for clients and web developers looking for more Tendenci training. Keep an eye on our Events Calendar to find new webinars, in-person workshops, and other classes we’ll be adding this year. We’ll also be sharing more nonprofit website success stories and technology tips and tricks in our email newsletters and here on the blog.
What topics do you want to learn more about? Tell us in the comments below or send us an email. Now, here’s the 3 tech trends I predict will be the biggest nonprofit boosters in 2013.
Avoid the “ooh shiny!” Syndrome in 2013
All three of my top trends are going to be familiar to you. There’s no surprise tech hidden in this blog post… and that’s because 2013 is going to be the year we all focus on simplification and education. Marketers are overwhelmed trying to produce enough content and users don’t have time to read it.
This year, instead of creating a new account for every “next big social media app” – spend time looking into your analytics to see what’s not working that well and cut it out. That’s why each of my predictions include some of the things to consider before you jump into the newest web trend. You’ve got a lot on your plate this year if you’re going to change the world, so be selective with your time.
Trend #1 – Online Video Becomes Mainstream
In the 2012 report released by the NPD Group, 45% of people in a survey said that the TV was their primary screen for watching online videos. In 2011, that figure was 33%. The report also discovered that online video viewing from PCs is declining, because more people are watching internet videos on their TV’s, instead of watching traditional television and cable programs. It’s pretty obvious to me that in 2013, we’ll see that number rise well above the 50% and online video becomes something families watch together.
Google’s been preparing for this for years and you can apply for the Google for Nonprofits program to get a premium YouTube Brand channel that offers additional tools to customize and promote your stories through video. If you already have a YouTube Brand Channel and are trying to figure out how to better utilize it, then check-out this cool YouTube Brand Channel Interactive Show And Tell Google and TED developed. Download the Playbook Guide: Youtube for Good to get started with Youtube for your nonprofit with great tips, examples, and advice specifically developed for nonprofit’s seeking to boost their engagement online through videos.
Should You Focus on YouTube This Year?
Videos are a great platform for telling engaging stories and driving action from people and are a perfect tool for nonprofits. Videos also take time, money, and a fair amount of expertise with filming and editing. Before you dive into a YouTube Brand Channel, you’ll want to evaluate your resources and compare them to the costs involved with managing the production process to create new and engaging videos regularly.
Large organizations probably want to get serious about allocating a portion of your budget for video marketing and make this the year you commit. Smaller and mid-sized organizations who haven’t done any online video marketing yet may want to start with making one video that they can embed on your website and share on your Facebook page to get an idea of what an ongoing video campaign would entail.
I wrote about nonprofit video storytelling in a blog post last year with great advice that still holds true. In addition though, new online video tools have been popping up almost daily that are inexpensive and easy to use. Here’s a few video apps I recommend that will introduce you to online video production and marketing:
Animoto’s Video Maker How- To
Animoto – I love how EASY it is to use Animoto and they offer free upgraded features for nonprofits. Check out the Animoto blog to watch other nonprofit videos created with Animoto.
GoAnimate! Videomaker – Sign-up for their basic plan (it’s free) and try your skills at making animated videos. GoAnimate also has a ton of Video Maker Tips on topics like selecting animation software and directing voice overs in your videos.
Wistia – Host your online videos here instead of YouTube when you need to keep your videos privately accessible by members or specific people. Wistia has a free plan that includes 5 videos, and integrates with other tools you’re already using like Salesforce, Google Analytics, and many social sharing sites, including Facebook.
Trend #2 – Leave Your Wallet at Home, Just Remember Your Smartphone!
Mobile Payments just might be the biggest disruptive tech in 2013. This technology is changing the economy in Africa at a pace never before seen, and Africa isn’t the only economically disadvantaged country that’s benefiting from mobile technologies. Ironically, the U.S. is one of the slowest countries to adopt mobile payments technology, primarily because the US banking industry already had a very large technical infrastructure in place that wasn’t compatible with mobile payment tech.
Americans are gradually adopting mobile payments, and Starbucks, in a partnership with Square, is leading the pack of businesses who’ve discovered how to profit from mobile payments, with a reported 7 million users paying for their morning cup of coffee with their smartphones. Mobile and web merchant account providers have been learning from the early adopters, like Starbucks, that the key to increasing consumer adoption of mobile payments means designing a better experience via “virtual wallet” apps for iOS and Android devices.
Square, for example, offers a free mobile wallet app that includes features for earning and tracking loyalty points from participating vendors, sending and receiving virtual gift cards, and reporting tools on how you’re spending money. Square wants to increase adoption of mobile payments by creating that emotional connection between a consumer and their virtual wallet; evident when you visit their website:
“A wallet holds credit and debit cards, half-punched loyalty cards, wrinkled checks, and ancient receipts. But a wallet should do more. It should help you discover great places and earn you rewards. It should help you build relationships, not just pay for things.”
A wallet that helps you build relationships? That sounds exactly like the kind of wallet a great donor is going to have, and that’s why nonprofits should start incorporating mobile payment options that go beyond the web page.
Things to Consider Before Jumping into Mobile Payments
Of the three trends I list here, mobile payments is the one that you definitely shouldn’t ignore. Why? Because it’s relatively cheap, easy to set-up and manage, and you don’t want to ever miss a donation opportunity. Gen Y and Millenials are growing up and growing ever more attached to their mobile devices, and they don’t have the barriers towards adopting new technology.
If you haven’t been taking online payments through your website, then this could be a great opportunity to jump into digital payments for donations. That being said, you still want to do the research to determine if and how your organization can benefit from mobile payment adoption. Here’s some tips to help you evaluate mobile payments:
If you aren’t able to or don’t need to accept financial contributions, then it’s probably safe to say you don’t need mobile payments.
You probably don’t need to spend the money to have a custom mobile app designed, however if you’re looking for options then you might want to check out LevelUp’s white label option which saves you time and money by giving you a custom designed app built on a pre-existing platform.
Sixrevisions has a great article that provides an overview of online payment processing including definitions of commonly used terms and reviews of 10 most common online merchant account providers.
Trend #3 – Tablets are More than Just Mobile, They’re Everywhere
Many nonprofit organizations have been using tablets for engaging with their constituents over the past couple of years. Museums, like the Smithsonian and Children’s Museum of Houston, incorporate tablets into their exhibits to increase interactivity with their members. Humanitarian organizations, like the Red Cross and FEMA, are using tablets for their mobile staff who need access to email and online tools while working in remote locations or regions that have had their infrastructure destroyed from natural disasters.
Even though many nonprofits have readily adopted tablets for mobile engagement efforts, most haven’t taken a look at how their own .Org’s website looks on a tablet, or more importantly, tried to complete their online donation form from a tablet. This past year, tablets were repeatedly out-purchasing smartphones, and I’m predicting that nonprofits will miss out on potential fundraising opportunities if their websites aren’t donation-friendly for tablet users.
What does your website look like on an iPad? How does it look on a 7″ screen vs 9″ or 10″? These are the kinds of questions you should have been asking in 2012, because there’s a great chance that visitors are looking at your website from a tablet now more than their smartphones. If you’d like to see some examples of great mobile sites for nonprofits, check out Nonprofits.org’s article on Nonprofits.org has a great article that shares three great mobile nonprofit websites http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/three-nonprofits-pioneering-responsive-web-design/”>Three NonProfits Pioneering Responsive Web Design.”
Tablets give you a faster browsing experience and longer battery life compared to smartphones, without sacrificing their portability. In addition to providing a better mobile experience than smartphones, tablets also tend to have lower prices for features than smartphones. You can spend $600+ for an iPhone5 or you can spend $400 for a Google Nexus and get a higher performance tablet that comes with more storage, longer battery life, and a bigger screen. Tablet prices are dropping fast too, with $100 prices being touted at CES this year.
Granted, the tablets don’t come with the ability to make phone calls – but who cares? We can download one of the numerous free (or nearly free) apps that allow us to have voice over IP chats and just hunker down in the nearest Starbucks or McDonalds for the free wi-fi. Check out Viber’s app, for example. I find it interesting that the only “downside” I can think of to a tablet versus a smartphone is the size – and if we go back to trend #1, you’ll recall that we’re rapidly moving our online video experience to the larger tv screens. We want the larger screen.
Tablets seem to have found their niche as the perfect balance between mobility, performance and screen size.
Should You Invest in Tablets and Mobile Tech?
I highly recommend you head over to Beth Kanter’s blog to find the in-depth answer to this question in the post: How and When Should Your Nonprofit Organization Invest in Mobile. It recommends you look at your site’s traffic sources and if you’re getting more than 20% traffic from mobile devices, then you should prioritize getting a mobile-friendly website design. If you’re getting less than 20% mobile traffic but the vast majority of your online community is reporting issues with using your site on mobile devices, you might also want to look at a redesign.
Tablets come with an entirely different interface from other devices, navigating the web using gestures. Finger swipes and taps interact with web pages different than a mouse and keyboard. Most websites, even those with responsive or mobile stylesheets, weren’t designed to engage with visitors that way. A recent survey done by Compuware.com on tablet user web experience expectations shared that not only did tablet users expect a website page to load in 2 seconds or less, tablet users also expected their tablet to perform as well as their laptops.
If you don’t own a tablet, I recommend heading to your local Best Buy or Fry’s and playing with some of the different models. Find one that has access to websites and go look at yours and other sites and try clicking through the sites and performing the same functions you would normally perform from your PC and Smartphone. In particular, try making a donation on your website from a tablet and see if you run into any roadblocks.
Did you run into problems testing your donations form using a tablet? If so – you probably will want to look at updating your site to a responsive designed theme. Want to go more in-depth with tablet design for websites? Here’s some great articles I recommend:
Find out the “Do’s and Don’ts” for tablet website design in this article on 1stwebdesigner.com, which includes tips like keep your website design simple, don’t use flash animation, and consider the information tablet users are looking for when they visit your site so you can highlight this on your homepage and in your site’s headers or footers.
Webdesign.tutsplus.com has a great article that teaches the 6 tips to remember when designing for tablets. The article gives realistic advice like how to design for fingers instead of mouse clicks, and designing for multiple orientations.
Check out the results of a 2013 Consumer focused survey by Accenture which evaluates the devices that are going to be the most popular, and shares the best tactics to use based on your audience’s preferred devices – download the PDF of the Survey and Read the Full Article on TechCrunch.com.
What Trends do You See Coming in 2013?
My predictions are based solely on my experience and research, and you most likely have a different perspective that I haven’t thought of yet. What trends do you see coming in 2013 that nonprofits should be paying attention to?
New to Tendenci? Looking for a refresher? Have a new board member, volunteer, or staff member you’d like to train up? Register now for one of our free in person classes!
2013 is in full swing and we’re getting things started right by ramping up our Tendenci Training Classes! We’ve added SIX new Tendenci 5 Training Events to the calendar!
These events will be hands on training in our offices in Houston, Texas covering the Tendenci 5 software platform with our team members.
These classes are FREE but space is limited, so please Register to reserve your spot using the links below or the Tendenci events calendar!
See all upcoming Tendenci Events on our events calendar at Tendenci.com/events
See all upcoming Tendenci Events on our Tendenci Events Calendar at Tendenci.com/events
Questions? Let us know!
If you have any questions about this workshop, if it applies to your website software, or suggestions for future Tendenci Live Workshop events, then contact us and we’ll help you out!
In this post: A review of Tendenci communication pipeline features for social media, email marketing, and RSS feeds
The eleventh day of Christmas is typically reserved for pipers piping, so in this post we’ll go through some pipes that your Tendenci website can feed to and from your other online channels!
Your Tendenci Website is the Hub of Your Online Presence
Your website is your homebase online. This is really the only place on the web that you have full and absolute control over. Social media platforms evolve and change (and change terms of service), but your website is your own. Adding content on your website also gives your domain the SEO benefit of your fresh, relevant content – instead of adding SEO clout to someone else’s site.
Use the content on your website to fuel your online communications like social media, email marketing, your blog, etc.
Coming up on a big event? Post a news story about the speaker, photos of last year’s event, and share the content on social media to send people back to your website and spread the word about your event.
Stat: Tweets that include links have 86% higher engagement, one study found.
Example “Pipes” to and from Tendenci
The Tendenci Videos Module
The Tendenci Videos Module allows you to embed videos from virtually any online video application (YouTube, Vimeo, UStream etc.) directly on your website (that has your branded template). You can then post the link to the video across your social media platforms and send them to your site instead of the video sharing site.
Tip: Search Engines have a hard time seeing the contents of videos. Add descriptive Titles, Description, & Keywords to add text around the video to tell search engines what it is about and optimize the page for pertinent keywords.
Social Media Feeds into Tendenci Templates
Social Media can be easily integrated into the template of any Tendenci website. The example to the right shows a sidebar that dynamically updates based on the organization’s social media profiles, including allowing visitors to like the organization on Facebook and the latest content automatically pulling in from Twitter.
Social Media Content Sharing from Your Tendenci Website
Your site visitors can easily share articles, pages, stories, jobs and photos through the embedded Facebook Like button and Google +1 button.
Example Facebook Like automatic integration in the Tendenci Articles Module:
RSS Feeds by Module
Did you know that every Tendenci module has its own unique RSS feed? For most modules, you can just add /feed/ to the end of the module URL to see the latest items.
Tendenci Photo Albums –yoursiteURL.com/photos/feeds/latest-albums/
Video Feed –yoursiteURL.com/videos/feed
Events –yoursiteURL.com/events/feed/
News –yoursiteURL.com/news/feed/
Articles –yoursiteURL.com/articles/feed/
You can make these RSS feeds available to your visitors, incorporate them into other websites, or pull them into your email newsletter to showcase your latest content like latest Articles, News, Photos, and upcoming Events.
At right, an example newsletter with a feed of upcoming events
Merry Christmas from Tendenci!
We’re celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas with daily previews of several new Tendenci Features coming to your association website in 2013! Join us each day to preview these feature updates for your website!
We love to hear your questions and comments about Tendenci, the open source CMS for Associations – leave a reply below in our comments section or send us your thoughts via email to support@tendenci.com.
Between the hours of noon and five yesterday afternoon, one of our mail servers went down and was not relaying email from some Tendenci 4.1 and Tendenci 5.0 websites. We have updated the effected sites to point to a new server and all notices should now be sending properly.
The mail server effects email notices sent through the website. For Tendenci 4 Clients, the mail server also effects newsletter sends. If you queued a T4 newsletter to be sent yesterday, it remained in the queue and was sent yesterday evening.
We apologize for the inconvenience. Below are instructions on how to review the email notices generated from your website:
How Do I Know if My Site was Effected?
You can review the notices created from your Tendenci website following these steps.
If you are a Tendenci 5.0 Client:
Be sure you are logged in as a superuser and hover over Quick Links to choose “Admin Backend”
Scroll down to the Notifications box and click “Notice emails”
Or you can navigate to this page directly using the URL: yourURL.com/admin/notifications/noticeemail/
This will display a list of all of the email notices your site should have sent. Look for any notices dated yesterday (January 2, 2012) and click the name of the notice to read the contents.
If you are a Tendenci 4.1 Client:
In Tendenci 4 there are a few reports that log activity that should have resulted in an email notification. Review the following links to make sure you didn’t miss anything yesterday:
Contacts Report Displays Contact Form Submissions by Day
The most common email notification you will receive is when someone submits your Contact form. To review your site’s Contacts Report – from the Dashboard, click “Reports” under the Tendenci tabs. It will be listed as the first report.
Or navigate directly to yoursiteURL.com/en/users/reports/contacts.asp
Look for contact forms that came in January 2. Each block represents a contact form, click on the block to view the user’s information and contact form notes.
Other Tendenci 4 Email Notification Reports:
Pending Actions – Displays all pending submissions that require approval – yoursiteURL.com/en/actions/search.asp
Event Registrations – Displays list of Event Registrations – yoursiteURL.com/en/calendarevents/registrations/search.asp
Membership Notices – Displays any Membership email notifications – yoursiteURL.com/en/memberships/notices/logs/search.asp
Thank you for being a client!
We apologize for the inconvenience, and are happy to help answer any questions you have.
Contact us at support@tendenci.com or (281) 497-6567 ext 411
ON THE SIXTH DAY OF CHRISTMAS… TENDENCI’S GIFT TO YOU: Six Free Plugins Specifically for Associations!
One of the unique benefits Tendenci’s open source CMS gives Associations is the fact that the software was developed specifically to meet your association’s unique and complex requirements, without making your life harder. Our plugins are also designed with your needs in mind, not the corporate world’s requirements like most apps first to market are.
We’re incredibly excited to be able to announce new plugins coming in 2013 that will super-charge your Association’s website! And did we mention that they’ll be absolutely free?!
Here’s an Inside Sneak Peak at 6 New Plugins Coming to Tendenci Sites in 2013:
Donations
Need a way to start accepting donations on your website immediately, without the hassle of building custom forms? If so, you’ll love our Donations plugin! Our donations plugin automatically creates a donation form for your association and integrates the form with your website’s merchant account and invoice modules.
The Donations Plugin Provides Instant Integration with Your Website’s Payment Processing Module!
The donations settings are customizable and enable you to add the different programs and chapters at your Association, select what payment types you accept online, and set preset donation values – or leave the donation value blank and let Donors enter their own dollar amount.
Your Donors can Specify Which Chapter or Program Their Gifts are Delivered to!
Staff
The Staff Plugin offers your team a place to showcase their skills and introduce your website visitors to the people at your association who work tirelessly for your cause. Your staff can add their personal social media and blog profiles and share their work experience and skills. The Staff plugin puts Faces to your Association for new site visitors and shows who’s behind the work you’re doing.
Committees
Tendenci Committees are special User Groups you can create with this new plugin that helps you manage your Association’s different committees on your website. With the Committees plugin, you’ll be able to create committee groups on your website and easily populate the committee’s officer positions with your users’ information. Members of a committee can find contact information for other group members and share files and content through your Association’s website.
Increase Team Collaboration with Tendenci Committees!
Study Groups
Study Groups Bring Your Members Together for Learning!
Study Groups are another type of specialized User Group that your website users can join or be assigned to. The Study Groups plugin is great for Associations who need an online place for sharing ideas, discussions, files, and lesson plans and managing your training and study groups through your website.
Case Studies
Use Case Studies to Share the Good Work You’re Doing with Supporters!
Tendenci’s Case Studies plugin gives you a pre-formatted content module to share your success stories and showcase the work your nonprofit association is doing in the community. There are 3 separate rich-text editor (WYSIWYG) boxes plus custom image fields to upload photos that communicate your story. Case Studies is designed to make it easier for you to quickly write new content on your website that will increase your fundraising efforts.
Here’s an Example of How to Use Case Studies for Your Association or NonProfit website:
* Overview: This field is where you’ll share a few sentences (or more if you’d like) about the specific campaign or fundraising project. You might want to include the goals that you were hoping to achieve, and any specific challenges you faced.
* Execution: Use the execution field to describe how your association solved your challenges, and achieved your goals. For example, if you’re showcasing a recent fundraising campaign for a new homeless shelter, talk about how you were able to raise the money successfully. This is a great place to thank your donors and perhaps include special mentions to any volunteers, staff, and corporate partners/sponsors who helped with your success.
* Results: Did you succeed at your goals stated in the Overview? If so – share! Use this field to say what happened, and using the example in the previous execution section – include stories of the homeless people who now have a shelter to stay at because this will communicate to new visitors what your mission is best and help drive new donors and memberships.
Speakers
We originally developed the Speakers plugin for our 2011 user conference at SchipulCon and now we’re updating the module so you can showcase your big conference Speakers on your website!
Use the Speakers plugin to add multiple images and more details about your speakers such as their bio and links to their social media networks. Site visitors can quickly search the Speakers module to find out more information about your presenters plus the module makes it faster for you to promote the thought leaders that your events attracts!
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM TENDENCI!
We’re celebrating the Twelve Days of Christmas with daily previews of the all new Tendenci Features coming to your association website in 2013! Join us each day to “open new gifts” filled with feature updates for your website!
We love to hear your questions and comments about Tendenci, the open source CMS for Association’s – leave a reply below in our comments section or send us your thoughts via email to support@tendenci.com.
Last week, Google launched a new feature for the Google+ social media platform call Google + Communities. I’ve been exploring the new Google+ Communities’ features and settings,and I thought I’d share what I discovered with you.
What Are Communities?
Think of Google+ Communities as forums or groups where people can discuss a common topic of interest. Anyone who is a member of the community can read and write new posts within the group.
+Communities have three user levels: Owners, Moderators, and Members. Owners and Moderatorsmanage theie community’s content and memberships and maintain the Community’s atmosphere by deleting spam, curating content, and ensuring the Community’s members stays on topic.
Why? Because +Communities Make it Easier to Read and Share Content that You’re Interested In
Google +Communities also let you more easily segment your +1 sharing so only people interested in the same things you’re sharing will see them. You can share daily posts about new android app news in the Android +Community and share your favorite vegan recipe with the Vegan +Community without having to bore all the Android App Omnivores with your vegan recipes.
This offers marketers a way to segment our online content sharing using the interests of our online fans in new ways, and I’m excited to start testing in the new year! Be sure to look for follow-up posts from Schipul in 2013 once we’ve had time to experiment more with Google +Communities and collect marketing campaign data.
How are +Communities Different from +Circles?
+1 Buttons on Websites Now Include Your Communities in the Dropdown Options for Sharing Content
Google+ Circles give you tools to more easily segment the People and Brands that you follow on Google+. This is great because you can put a person in multiple circles based on their interests or how you know them and then send messages to circles that aren’t sent to everyone on your list or posted publicly on your Google+ feed.
With +Circles, the people within your circles don’t have any way to know they’re in certain circles and they don’t get to opt-in or opt-out from circles you’ve placed them in. This means if you add a client to a circle you use to share content related to a topic like Cancer awareness, and the person isn’t interested in the topic, they have no way of removing themselves from seeing your cancer awareness news unless they stop following you altogether.
With +Communities however, people join a community around a topic they’re interested in and share content and stories related to that topic with the members of that community. The result is a much needed relief from the flood of social media content streaming across our feeds on topics from friends that we don’t really have an interest in.
This is great for both individuals as well as Brands because it increases engagement online with content and people who share our interests.
Get Started with Your Own Google+ Community
Now I’m going to walk through the instructions for creating a new Google+ Community. You can expect to spend about 5-10 minutes setting up your new community before it’s ready for you to invite others and start new conversations.
You’ll want to have the following items handy before you get started to save some time:
A few sentences or a short paragraph that describes what your community is about
The address of your community’s location if you want to list a physical address (for example – the Netsquared Houston +Community posted it’s location for its monthly meet-ups.)
A photo or image to use for your +Community profile (your image must be at least 250 pixels wide by 250 pixels height)
First Steps – Login to your Google Plus account
From your Google Plus profile, look on the left side list of navigation icons for the new Communities icon and click to go to the +Communities main page. On this page, you can see the communities you’re a member of, discover new communities you might be interested in, and of course – Create a new Community.
Look for the big red button that says ‘Create a Community†and click:
A new screen will pop-up asking if you want to make your community public or private. You can read more about the different privacy setting options included in the How to Create Google+ Communities help file from Google.
** Once you’ve selected the privacy settings for your community, you cannot change them. **
You have 4 Community Privacy Options to choose from:
Public / Open Membership – Content and members of your community are completely public and searchable / Anyone who wants to join your community can simply click to join without any moderator approval needed.
Public / Moderated Membership – Content and members of your community are completely public and searchable / People can request to join and a moderator must approve the request.
Private / Hidden – Your community’s content and members are completely hidden from search / The owner and moderators have to specifically invite people in order for them to find your community and become a member.
Private / Searchable – Your community’s content and activity is completely hidden from search, but your community is searchable / People can search for your community and request to join, and a moderator must approve the request.
To set-up your Community’s privacy settings, click to select either ‘Public†or ‘Privateâ€. Each option has additional settings that will display beneath your selected setting, including naming your Community*:
* Google Plus uses unique ID numbers for user profiles, Brand pages, and Communities. This means that you can name your Community anything you want, regardless of whether or not another community has the same name. You can even create multiple communities of your own, each with the same name… (if you can think of any reasons why we might want multiple communities with the same names, let me know in the comments below!)
For Public Communities, you can select to allow anyone to join or require a moderator to approve new membership requests.
Private Communities have the options to either remain completely hidden from searches or to allow people to search for and find the community to request to join (*private communities content and members are always hidden from search)
Second Steps: Set-Up Your +Community Profile
Press “Create Community” and you’ll arrive at a page where you can set-up your Community’s profile. This is where you’ll need your photo and description.
Add a tagline (optional) and image or photo for your +Community profile
Click on the “Edit” links to add your Description and location
You can click the “Save” button or the “Done editing” button – either of them work. If you click “skip” then you will still have your community, you just won’t have a custom photo or details about your community yet. This is always editable later on.
Once you’ve customized your profile, you’ll be able to share your new Google Plus Community with others and invite people to join:
Congratulations – You are now a Google + Community Owner!
Managing Members, Moderators and Content
Now that you’ve set-up your community, here’s how to find and use the tools for managing your community to keep the members engaged and the content spam-free.
1) Use the+Community Search Bar to search inside a specific community:
2) Use the “Actions” buttonunderneath your +Community’s profile photo to access the dropdown menu with settings for inviting new people, sharing your community, editing the community, and more options. This is where you’ll go to edit your community:
Owners and Moderators will have more options than Members, and the settings you’ll find here depend on the privacy settings for the +Community.
3) Create PostCategories to keep your +Community’s Content organized:
If you click on the “Edit community” link from the Actions dropdown menu, you’ll be able to create new post categories and use these categories to help community members find what they’re most interested in.
3) Create +Community Events to promote activities going on within your community to members:
Just like Google+ allows you to add and share events from your user profile, you can also add events to Communities. Just click on the “Events” menu option on your profile sidebar to create and manage events.
4) Click the “View All” link on the right side of your +Community Page to access the control settings for member permissions:
This link takes you to a list of all your members and you can view next to their names if they are a member, moderator, or the Owner:
5) Start a Hangout with members of your Community using the “Start a new hangout” button on the right side of the +Community page and connect instantly via your webcam and mic with other members of the community. Head to Google’s Hangouts page for more information about how to get started using Hangouts.
6) Control Email Notifications from Your +Communities with the notification setting on the +Community’s profile sidebar:
By default, the little bell icon next to the Actions dropdown menu is turned off. Switching it to “on” will allow the community to automatically send individual emails to your Google+ primary email address for each new activity or post within that community. This can be really annoying if you’re a member of a community with a thousand people all posting daily. I’m hoping Google will eventually provide better controls for receiving these notices, but in the meantime – you might want to turn this off for communities you aren’t moderating.
Create a Gmail Filter to Save Headaches
I’ve received over 200 emails from Google+ communities since I started exploring about 3 days ago. This is a giant spam headache, and to help me keep important emails at the top of my inbox instead of these individual +Community notifications, I created a filter in my Gmail for all emails that are sent from: “*@plus.google.com”. This filter sends these emails to another folder and skips my inbox.
There’s another benefit to +Communities for Brands and individuals alike: participating in other communities besides the one you created! You can participate in other +Communities on topics that are of interest to you or related to your Brand to reach new prospects, find interesting content that you can share with your other social networks, and reach a larger audience online that’s interested in the same topics you are an expert in.
Here are a few +Communities that I’m a member of and recommend you check out:
Netsquared Houston +Community – the community where people come together to share ideas and find solutions that accelerate the impact of social benefits within the Houston Community
The success of SXSW’s March event each year has brought a year-round calendar of mind-expanding events like the 2nd annual SXSW Eco conference a few weeks ago. SXSW Eco brings participants together to focus on areas of Sustainability. The popular SXSW format, panel discussions and meetings over the three days, allowed experts to share their ideas, successes and challenges with audience participants. I was able to attend a variety of sessions including one important to both Schipul and our clients who use technology to support their business or non-profit.
The Good, Green & Shocking Truths
Panel Summary: Many factors such as planned obsolescence, consumer trends, and updated technology contribute to e-waste becoming one of the largest societal waste segments. Exactly how recyclable are our electronics, and what are the most responsible methods of disposal?
The panelists discussed the history of electronics recycling in Texas and the ways their organizations, alongside our state’s legislature, have gradually increased the ease of recycling for businesses. The panel shared the different local electronics recycling programs and explained which programs were legitimately using state approved certifications and processes so that Houston business owners could confidently select a certified recycling center.
History of Electronics Recycling in Houston
15 years ago in Texas, most waste was being shipped overseas, and low grade metals were one of the main waste products. Within the last ten years, we’ve seen this change as more businesses are seeing the value of sustainability programs. Granted, some of this was instigated by policy change. For example, Texas passed the 2008 Computer Take Back Law making computer manufacturers responsible for providing recycling to residents and small businesses.
In 2011, there was only one certified center in Houston and now there are 5 certified centers indicating a move towards easier and more responsible waste management. The increase in facilities comes from businesses who provide recycling services moving towards end of life asset management for businesses, including refurbishing and re-use as much as possible, and encouraging recycling when re-use is not possible. Combined with policy changes, taking out the hazardous materials and doing the right thing has become a profitable business focus. Recyclers also recover more value when possible for the business or consumer than they did in the past.
E-Waste Sustainability in Houston Today
Yesterday’s technology included much more solid metals waste and was larger (think old Desktops). Today’s recycling stream allows removal of metals and proper disposal. Current electronics are smaller and more efficient in their production. This already eliminates some of the bulk of recycling. Both of these are results of policy changes bringing a change in practices and new business opportunities.
Clive Hess, President of CompuCycle – Houston’s first R2 recycling center, brings success stories that share how CompuCycle has expanded their services to include data management and data sanitization, and provide better opportunities for Houston businesses to incorporate sustainability programs. At CompuCycle, many recyclers now securely erase, sanitize and provide warranties on products they resell. No products are sold as-is, but only with a warranty and if it can’t be sold with a warranty, then it is recycled.
CompuCycle also participates in the unique recycling challenge called the WhatIf? campaign where you can donate your eWaste and they will hire and train individuals to recycle the components. This creates jobs and training for a local non-profit organization. The plan is to continue beyond the campaign as a sustainable endeavor, but they ‘need your junk’ to be successful.
Seek Out R2 Certified Recyclers
Most companies are not quite educated yet on R2 certification and the panel shed some light on how to evaluate and find the right certification options for your business. There’s still a long way to go for the recycling industry to be a recognized standards bearer and the EPA encourages companies to find out if the recycler you’re considering is certified by an accredited, independent certification auditor such as the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board.
The panelists agreed that Education will become key for Chief Sustainability Officers in companies and for your Chief recycler in your home. The people who fill these roles will want to seek updates and stay informed with both the changes within the recycling services corporate world as well as with Federal and State policy changes. Some rrecycling businesses are only registered and will include this as part of their marketing materials, but doesn’t mean they are certified for recycling responsibly.
Our future should include policies that put pressure on electronic manufacturers to build upgradeable devices and longer life cycle products to reduce waste. But, this will require individuals to let their lawmakers know how to write these policies. Lawmakers listen to their constituency and particularly parents.
Want to Help Improve E-Waste?
Manufacturer’s need collection goals and the public needs easy locations to drop-off.
Require retailers to provide information about recycling to consumers.
Require state agencies to recycle assets via certified vendors.
Find local R2 Certified Recycling facilities in your area.
Concerned about the future of materials in your landfills near your children? Let your State Representative know your concerns. The EPA’s website also has a list of Recycling Resources where you can go to stay up to date on changes in policies and find tools to help individuals and businesses develop and implement sustainability programs at home and in your office.
Silver Lining for Urban Mining – Urban mining and rare earth metals can be found locally instead of offshoring with other countries. Opportunities exist for job creation and has even been part of the lawmakers focus in Colorado for underserved markets. A de-manufacturing site provides jobs for disabled or underserved markets, and a refurbishing site can provide high-tech jobs for engineers. Recycling E-waste is a reverse supply chain position taking one part and producing many parts from the whole. The recycling industry is a consumer driven market. Imagine what happens if everyone started sending all electronics to recycling? It would be an influx of materials. A typical middle-income household has four or more devices per person in their home. Game consoles, cell phones, old iPods, CRT screens, printer, etc.
Business is good for current recycling facilities. What happens when there is no longer a market for glass or other low grade materials? There are electronic parts that have value such as copper, gold and metals, but it is getting harder to handle materials such as glass, lead and plastic. Panelists were quick to suggest as invention increases, there is opportunity with the challenges. Glass is now used in aggregates for road construction to help the roads last longer with addition of silica to increase life span. Reground ABS plastics lower the cost of many manufactured items. There will be a greater need to find opportunities like these for our increased e-waste.
Take Action Recycling your Electronics
Find a certified recycler near you, and find your representative. Have eWaste? Let us know and we can help you find the means to recycle responsibly!
Over 20 teams will be competing – creating Gingerbread Masterpieces out of completely edible materials. Come out in the afternoon to see all of the completed pieces! Judging begins at 3 PM – this is also when you can vote for you favorite team. (We hope you’ll vote for us!)
Local food trucks It’s a Wrap, Ladybird, Monster PBJ, and Porch Swing Desserts will be on site selling food.
Full Event schedule:
9:00am Teams check-in
10:00am Competition begins
10:00am Kids Construction Zone Opens
12:00pm – 2:00pm Santa!
3:00pm Judging and public favorite voting
4:00pm Awards
Hansel and Greatness Competes Again!
At last year’s Gingerbread Build Off we created a Gingerbread version of the historic Houston landmark the Alabama Theater, complete with vintage movie posters made of fondant and decorated with edible markers. This year we hope to top last year’s creation!
In a time where we have elections that lead to a change in our laws and weather events that affect millions in unpredicted ways, we are again reminded of the importance of people. Without each other, we have nothing. With each other, though, we are capable of doing things that previous generations thought impossible.
I am thankful that we live in a world where we continue to push forward by developing new things.
‘Things†here can have many definitions. Some things are tangible consumer devices that bring us joy. Things like iPad Minis and 50″ 3D televisions. Other tangible things include healthcare robotic devices used for advanced surgeries. Or they can include larger things like the Tesla S, Motor Trend’s car of the year.
Things can also be new services. Khan Academy is changing the ways students learn. Uber is changing how people get private transportation in cities. Even simple things like booking a night in another city are made cheaper and better with services like Airbnb.
Things can also be ideas. Some ideas are new, like Rolling Jubilee’s idea to abolish millions of $$$ of debt. Or an idea that currency can be decentralized with Bitcoin. Or even an older idea of One Laptop Per Child that aims to empower children through education.
I’m thankful that we have all these things. I’m very thankful that we didn’t have many of them 10 years ago. Why? Because we have innovated.
The last 10 years have not been easy. We (as a country and a planet) have had economic challenges, fought in wars, and yet we have continued to innovate.
I am most thankful about the things I can’t list here. The things that I don’t know about, that only live in the labs or minds of people around the world. Things that will become a big part of my life or of the life of someone 10,000 miles from here.
I am thankful that we have continued to move forward, and we will continue to move forward.
Each year in January, I spend time researching different market reports from 2012 to identify the upcoming trends within the technology industry. I use this information to predict what technology and marketing trends will most likely matter to the nonprofit association and open source community so I can give you insight without having to spend the time researching all of this data yourself.
![E-Waste dumping - photo by Curtis Palmer](http://farm1.staticflickr.com/139/345897594_272bf58cc9_n.jpg" width="320" height="240 "E-Waste dumping - photo by Curtis Palmer")
