Have you noticed that more nonprofits are using the power of petition lately?

After creating a petition, your group can get the word out quickly by using your already existing social media platforms.

Here is a tool to help you create an online petition and remain compliant with your nonprofit status:

In honor of  World AIDS day, December 1

please consider this action:  sign this petition

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Sponsored by: International Relief & Development

Of the approximate 1.6 million people in Mozambique positive for HIV or AIDS, the majority are women and girls. They live in a world where they have no power, and often aren’t given the chance to insist on safe sex.

International Relief and Development (IRD) created a program to help these women, with funding from USAID, the Canadian International Development Agency and the United Nations Development Program.

This program, called Women First, integrates gender-focused HIV/AIDS education with small business skills training. In doing this, IRD made it so that women don’t have to choose between educating themselves and supporting their families.

With World AIDS day coming just around the corner on December 1^st, IRD needs your support. Approximately 33.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV or AIDS, and the world needs organizations willing to help the less fortunate educate themselves on prevention.

Sign this pledge to show your support for IRD’s work empowering women with education around the world. Of the approximate 1.6 million people in Mozambique positive for HIV or AIDS, the majority are women and girls. They live in a world where they have no power, and often aren’t given the chance to insist on safe sex.

International Relief and Development (IRD) created a program to help these women, with funding from USAID, the Canadian International Development Agency and the United Nations Development Program.

This program, called Women First, integrates gender-focused HIV/AIDS education with small business skills training. In doing this, IRD made it so that women don’t have to choose between educating themselves and supporting their families.

On World AIDS day on December 1^st, IRD needs your support. Approximately 33.2 million people worldwide are living with HIV or AIDS, and the world needs organizations willing to help the less fortunate educate themselves on prevention.

this post also appears on the Cool People Care Nonprofit Resource Blog

We have had an incredible year.  While kicking about in the unemployment line from Oct 2009 – July 2010, I found out a lot about myself.  I’m dedicated to my family, my friends and my city.  I  volunteered a lot and ended up helping nearly 6 dozen nonprofits with marketing support through my family at Cool People Care. I met a lot of new friends and re-focused my long-term desire to for public service into a Nashville Metro Council campaign.

Joan and I are celebrating our 23rd Thanksgiving together and quite honestly I can’t even hope to have hope with out her.  She has been working as a volunteer with CASA Nashville, 2nd Harvest Food Bank and now Pencil Foundation, all while  going back to college for a social work degree and helping keep the packages going out and customers happy with the Cool People Care Shoppe. She set the steady pace and I just try to keep up.

I am profoundly grateful for the Tennessee Arts Commission’s technical assistance grant program that has allowed me to work with several fantastic Tennessee arts nonprofits.  I hope that they will continue the program on into FY12.  We will be talking to other state arts programs about similar services.

My work now flows to Carpe Diem Management through Cool People Care or Proof Branding and nearly a third of my time is spent as the New Media Director for The Transit Alliance of Middle TN.  I’ve had steady work from August-November and we can see that the decision to  scratch that entrepreneurial itch was a good one.

I hope to do more public speaking and workshops in  2011 – I’ll be exploring not only the social media strategy development sessions but also creating a new keynote based on my Living An Artful life series of blog posts, soon to be resurrected.

And… I’ll be campaigning!

I am thankful for faith, hope and love beyond measure.

photos: Cedar Hill Park lake: Madison, TN and Nancy & Joan VanReece on the off-the-beaten path art tour in rural Tennessee

This week  Cool People Care facilitated a workshop discussion with premium partner‘s Center for Nonprofit Management’s Young Professionals group.

Most of the 17 folks at the conversation were people that were in charge of social media platforms for their respective nonprofits. We talked about the importance of starting with a strategy and always remembering to identify the audience before starting the conversation.

Here are links to some of the tools we mentioned that we find helpful:

• Flip Camera Nonprofit Program – Flip Spotlight
• You Tube Nonprofit Program
• Hootsuite
• Tweetoclock
• How to stop Tweeting your Facebook posts

Questions from attendees:

I’ve had some staff ask me to update statuses and tweet several times a day and the CEO ask that we limit to one time per day as people don’t want us to take over their news feed.  What is an appropriate number of updates on an average day?

The river of tweets will roll by like white water.  The strategy should be wrapped around the type of conversation you are trying to shape on that platform.  Recognize when your twitter followers are reading and send relevant information at those times.

Try this: Send three tweets a day – 1. original content  2. a RT that relates to your mission 3. a tweet with a link that you can track.  Space out tweets as appropriate to your observation as to when your audience is listening.

How should the balance work between a team atmosphere and limiting the amount of time taken away from one’s job function to attempt to handle technical issues, whether those are facebook, youtube, my printer doesn’t work, etc?

I really believe that the development and implementation of a social media strategy should be included in your job description.  There should be a social media policy in place and only those with the authority to have the authentic voice of the organization should be on the platforms.  What do you think?

What do you do when you are asked to be in charge of social media, but your vision/knowledge/expertise are not the same as those in charge? i.e. You are being asked to blog, twitter, about things that are not relevant or purposeful?

Building relationships through social media, building brand awareness and creating loyal advocates of your organization is always relevant. If you are lacking content, take the time to go to each committee or department and ask them for the stories to tell.  If you can present a strategic plan to your supervisor that has measurable results you will be on the right track.

this blog post also appears on Cool People Care Nonprofit Resource Blog

Sometimes I run across a blog post that rings so true to the Cool People Care and Carpe Diem Management social media philosophy I just have to share it with you.  This time, it comes from a source close to home.  Please take the time to read the new Proof Branding blog post from Matt Cheuvront and chime in on the discussion …I’ll join you!

Social Media:

Changing Things or Making Change?

Having the time time to really employ a good ongoing monitored communications strategy is one of the most common frustrations among small organizations.  We often encourage clients to employ Hootsuite or a similar tool that will allow you to map out and preschedule your posts.

What we do not recommend is for you to view audiences on each platform as being the same. Your friends on Facebook and your Followers on Twitter should know that you are communicating right to them, where they are.  They have chosen to engage you there.  Remember, you are the party host shaping conversation, not blasting press releases.

If you have selected to send all Facebook posts to Twitter as an auto feed, please stop. The characters don’t work, the links aren’t trackable and it is frustrating for the Twitter follower.

This is how you turn it off:

If you are an administer of a Page, go here: www.facebook.com/twitter

Select your page and make sure the link is turned off, please.

To monitor quickly and preschedule with authenticity, we suggest using this application at Hootsuite:

How are you engaging you audiences differently?  What tools are you using?  Our research shows that on average, a Cool People Care Premium Partner spends a minimum of 5-7 hours a week monitoring and engaging Facebook and Twitter.

How much time do you budget to shape the conversation?

*Photo by Rob Williams

This post also appears on the Cool People Care Nonprofit Resource Blog