Salsa Scoop

Salsa 1.8.5

Today we released Salsa 1.8.5, including 9 fixes and features. You can see the complete release notes here. Hit the "Read More" button to see this release's highlight.

 

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04:07 PM Mar 31, 2011 - 173 comments permalink

Social CRM Fun at 11NTC

At NTC I sat in on two panels discussing Social CRMs with very different views in both.

While the first social CRM panel (#11ntcsocialcrm) (moderated by Steve Backman (Database Designs) and featuring Debra Askanase (FirstGiving), Laura Quinn (Idealware), and Judi Sohn (C3)) focused mostly on what monitoring tools would be useful in building the perfect SocialCRM, the emphasis was being places on the tools and technologies above anything else. The panelists discussed the reasons why a supporters social media activities are important to use alongside their donation and standard CRM activities. 

Opening slides featured a terrific visualization of how a unified CRM saves an organization time and resources.  Debra Askanase discussed the use of social media plugins from Facebook and Twitter and how the analytics from these plugins can be used to help determine how active your supporters are on social networks.  The session's highlight was the discussion of what the perfect Social CRM would look like and how it would need to include engagement and monitoring activities to merge the two into one interaction with the supporter.

In contrast, the other Social CRM panel entitled "Let's Go Stalking: Fun with Social CRMs!" (#11ntcsoccrm) focused on the concepts behind a Social CRM - the processes an org puts in place and how you become a part of this.  It was almost as if the first panel was talking about Social CRMs as technical tools we use (like Spredfast and SmallAct) and the other panel looked at Social CRM as an evolving concept of monitoring and conversing with your supporters.

The second Social CRM panel featured nonprofit leaders in the social media space: Carie Lewis (Humane Society of the United States), Danielle Brigida (National Wildlife Federation) and Alan Rosenblatt (Internet Advocacy Center) all of whom offered several great takeaways for organizations struggling to manage their identities online. 

Carie Lewis spoke of her experiences as the initial social media hire at HSUS and how she used free services like Google Alerts and Tweetbeep to monitor the organization's brand online.  She recommended that organizations make sure to setup alerts for the following:
    •    Your organization's name
    •    The acronym
    •    Prominent Staff names

As Danielle Brigida pointed out, a social CRM is part of the interconnecting of the social monitoring and engagement process across departments at an organization.  This is a concept that makes a lot of sense to nonprofits that have a staff of one or two managing their social media operations.  Key measurements like knowing how often you are mentioned online, how often your content is shared and by whom, are ways to create your own social CRM within the organization. 

The panelists at the second panel stressed the importance of using listening and monitoring concepts to go where the conversation is happening.  As Alan Rosenblatt said "you may not have time for social media, but social media already has time for you".  By that he obviously meant that regardless of whether or not you are engaging people online, they're out there talking about you.  Best to find them and make sure they're involved.

A social CRM is an evolving concept that will become more and more important in online organizing and engagement in the near future.  Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks aren't going anywhere. People will perform traditional activities like email blast and fundraising more and more through social networks, and organizations need to do whatever they can to make sure they're prepared for the conversation by taking the first steps and listening.

 

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12:33 PM Mar 28, 2011 - 53 comments permalink

Remembering you're human

Susan Gordon, Non-Profit Coordinator with causes.com, gave a number of tips and examples for engaging supporters through social media more effectively last week at NTC.

She started by reminding us that online fundraising appeals should not be treated the same as direct mail campaigns. For one thing, it's really difficult to create communities through the mail. Even if I donate and get a thank you note, I'm not going to feel as connected to your larger community. The great thing about social media with regards to fundraising is that we can create online community and keep our supporters engaged, which means they'll be more likely to care about, connect with, and financially support a cause.

Fundraising isn't the only facet benefiting from social media, because social media activism is not just about bothering people to donate money. It's more about showing people how you're impacting the world, and, ideally, engaging more supporters in the conversation.

One common misconception, Gordon noted, is that we need a huge supporter list for our social networking to be effective. In fact, it can be just as, if not more beneficial to have a small group of truly dedicated super-activists. Some smaller nonprofits have even managed to recruit their staff and volunteers from their online communities.

The best ways to communicate with your online communities

Communicate ... 

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01:38 PM Mar 24, 2011 - 1 comments permalink

Prodding an elephant

NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference was the biggest ever this year with registration of 2008 individuals. Every session I attended was informative and engaging, inspiring ideas for change and new ways of thinking about nonprofit advocacy and Salsa's role in the conversation. Dan Heath's presentation on making change was a refreshing and entertaining example of llama.

The author of Switch and a columnist with Fast Company, Heath said that though change seems difficult, we still manage to jump into change often, whether getting married, having children, getting over polyester fashions or moving somewhere new. These sorts of changes usually inspire smiles, but we still think of "change" as a terrifying thing.

Heath offered ways to think of change that are less terrifying, breaking his process into smaller steps and inviting us to change how we approach making change. Explaining that we use two parts of our brains when committing to change, Heath outlined how the emotional part of our brain is like an elephant while the rational part of our brain is like a rider of the elephant. The rider really thinks he or she is in charge, but if the rider ever disagrees with the elephant… trouble.

Even if you convince a number of people logically to support your viewpoint, there is an elephant in the crowd that's perfectly ... 

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01:16 PM Mar 21, 2011 - 3 comments permalink

Embed any YouTube video with a secure link

Have you ever wanted to put a video on your secure Donation or Events page, but been frustrated by security issues?

Well, no longer!

The fine folks at YouTube have now provided the option to embed any YouTube video using a secure link!

 

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06:29 AM Mar 11, 2011 - 232 comments permalink

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