It almost seems strange to admit that in the years since TEDx has become the go to event amongst media, tech, and idea folk, today was my first time engaging this wondrous community of thinkers and influencers. You can read my recap of the 1st half of the day here.

But like so many moments in life, what makes the experience memorable are the people you meet. I met some great ones, many of them business owners like Jonathan Snyder, Bob Sandage and Doria Roberts, who were all willing to talk to me about the relationship between community and small business.

Click Here to See My Interview With Some of the Businesses and Business People Who Made TEDxAtlanta Possible!

Digital Sisterhood Month (#DSMonth) 2011 starts tomorrow. I had the immense honor of participating last year when DSM founder Ananda Leeke interviewed me on Digital Sisterhood Radio. I discussed my work and research at Spelman College where I served as the first ever social media professional and earned some pretty cool accolades. Since then I’ve had the opportuntity to study and work with the beautifully brilliant digital interactive artist Ayoka Chenzira.

In April, I returned the Digital Sisterhood love, inviting Ananda Leek to Atlanta to participate in Digital Doyennes an event I hosted featuring some of the top women of color ‘doing’ social media.  Following Digital Doyennes, I traveled to Istanbul with Dr. Chenzira for the debut of her latest digital interactive installation Ordinary On Any Given Day. I’ve just recently returned from Washington, DC where I did a week long intensive on online organizing and communications strategy through the New Organizing Institute. Now I am back in Atlanta exploring the world of transmedia narrative (not gaming) and media distribution via social networking and the cloud, a la Issa Rae.

I share all of this to note one significant idea-the importance of a concept like Digital Sisterhood. One-by-one women are advancing technology from the ground up. Moreover, the internet can be a cold, soul-less space. Digital Sisterhood in its short existence has created a community of warmth, learning, sharing, teaching.  A space to grow, engage, ask and explore together. A great deal of online lessons I’ve learned have come from women like Ananda Leeke, Jewel Figueras,who graciously share their challenges and triumphs as bloggers, connecting and communicating with other women and building a legit online presence. Via women like Lauren Miller and Rachel LaBruyere, I’ve come to understand the importance of engaging audiencs strategically using email and mobile.

The web is giving women  control of our images, our outcomes, our potential. It creates conditions where rural women can work from home…start businesses…I could go on. But if you follow my gist, its a new day for women and the web. Advancements in our personal and professional lives made possible by the internet have moved us to serry ourselves around innovative ideas, tools and concepts as they emerge. The Digital Sisterhood circle incubates women as we strengthen our digital wings and prepare to fly. Technology is a rapidly evolving discipline. Remaining at the forefront of what makes sense in practice requires constant access to information, ideas, individuals. We are women, we are tech, we are weaving a tangled and intricate network of women who quite simply, are winning  on the web.

What’s left is for us women to make ourselves 1000% more visible in conversations about technology. The tech industry may be male dominated, but women make up over 50% of regular internet users. If you are a barried breaking woman doing something wildy interesting or meaningful online, Digital Sisterhood is your month. Share your successes and submerge yourself in a tech savvy collective that is the Digital Sisterhood all month long during December. 

Created by: HackCollege

SOCIAL MEDIA SPECIALIST

Advancement Project’s national office seeks an expert in social media and e-activism to engage its target audiences, expand its online community and drive its campaigns across the social web.

Responsibilities:

• Manage all internet-based and multimedia communications.
• Develop and execute a clearly defined social media strategy.
• Manage and generate content for organization’s website, blog and social networking sites.
• Manage social networking platforms and cultivate growing communities to increase engagement, action and participation in the organization’s online initiatives.
• Plan, develop and implement strategic email campaigns.
• Identify, interpret and implement emerging social media trends and tools.
• Track and report on social media ROI and web analytics.
• Work with development department to increase giving through our website and social networking sites.

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree and experience in managing online content and digital strategy for advocacy campaigns.
• Familiarity with social media platforms and other digital tools and a passion for using these tools to drive action and engagement.
• Basic proficiency with HTML, CSS, and Javascript and experience with Drupal or a comparable open-source publishing platform.
• Familiarity with advocacy CRMs like Blue State Digital or Salsa Labs.
• Excellent writing, editing and storytelling skills.
• Ability to lead and influence others.
• Ability to quickly learn and troubleshoot new and existing technologies.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines and respond to shifting priorities.
• Ability to think and work independently.
• Knowledge of and interest in h education, criminal justice and/or racial justice issues a plus and experienced with effective e-campaigns.
• Ability to speak and write in Spanish a plus.

Salary based on experience; benefits included. Qualified applicants should submit their resume, two writing samples, and a list of three references by email to emaye@advancementproject.org or fax to (202) 728-9558.

VP Technology

Who we’re looking for

What you’ll be doing

• Technology leader and manager for entire engineering team.
• Hiring, both sourcing and keeping the rockstar bar always high.
• Communicating with product managers, designers and executive management on features and functionality.
• Designing, developing and releasing web scale applications in a true “start-up” environment.
• Help with coding on all levels of our stack.

Skills & experience

• You’ve built and scaled large websites and have experience on all stages of growth.
• Python engineer with knowledge of high-performance server applications such as Tornado.
• Experience with mongoDB, memcache, EC2.
• An excellent and clear communicator.
• Full-time in our NY office.
• You love music and might even dabble in making it.

Social Media Manager (Regular, Full-time, Exempt)

Location: San Francisco // Department: Online Community & Social Media Team

Type: Full-Time // Min. Experience: Mid Level

Position Summary:

TechSoup is seeking an experienced Social Media manager with a passion for innovation and a dedication to responsiveness to support our online community and social media team. In this role, you will be the forward-facing voice of TechSoup Global in our social media channels and will drive our various campaigns across the social web. You will help define our social strategy and report back on its success. You should be a strong marketer and have a passion for helping the nonprofit community get their technology questions answered. You should have an enthusiasm for networking and growing a community-base and an ability to communicate with technical staff. The Social Media Manager will work closely with other parts of the Online Community and Social media team and other teams in the organization to amplify the message of our partners and our organization to the broader nonprofit sector. This position reports to the Director of Online Community and Social Media.

Who We Are:

TechSoup Global (www.techsoupglobal.org) is a nonprofit organization that provides technology resources and knowledge to NGOs around the world. We offer a competitive nonprofit compensation package that includes full benefits.

Major Duties and Responsibilities:

• Engage TechSoup’s social media visitors and help them integrate into our larger community
• Foster relationships with and between nonprofit members and NP Tech influencers
• Assist team as point of contact to coordinate community related events and communications both online and offline (via social media channels, meetups, newsletter, blogs and community forums)
• Engage with topic experts and respected community members to help people find the answers to their tech questions
• Identifying, interpreting and implementing social media trends and tools
• Learning and engaging with current Nonprofit Tech social media practices
• Planning managing and implementing social media activities and campaigns
• Tracking and reporting back to team on social media ROI and stats analysis
• Develop and execute a clearly defined social media strategy
• Assisting team as needed with general documentation and graphic design
• Representing team at conferences, speaking publicly on social media strategy for nonprofits
• Growing social media channels and devising creative strategies for community engagement
• Updating all social media channels and growing those communities by managing conversations in them

Qualifications:

Experience
• 3+ years’ experience of hands-on social media community management in multiple communities
• Candidate must be actively participating in a wide variety of social media activities such as blogging, community development and management, social bookmarking, commenting, etc. and be well-connected with the broader social media world.

Knowledge
• Deep understanding of community oriented social web sites, apps, multiplayer games, etc.

Skills
• Proven communication and conflict mediation skills
• Outstanding community and publicly oriented writing skills
• Strong analytical, forecasting and research skills

Abilities
• Proven success of working with diverse cultures and people across multiple time zones and locations (virtually).
• Ability to lead and influence others
• Ability to multi-task and have a high tolerance for email and online communication
• Independent, self-motivated with the ability to see projects to a timely completion.
• Fast learner, attention to detail, good team player.

TechSoup Global is dedicated to creating and supporting an environment of openness, trust, and fun where people’s differences are valued and respected and where people of diverse backgrounds participate fully in the organization. We believe that the diverse cultures and perspectives of our staff will help us better serve our clients. TechSoup Global is an equal opportunity organization and will not allow discrimination based upon race, color, creed, religion, sex, marital status, domestic partner status, ancestry, national origin, weight, height, physical or mental handicap, pregnancy, medical condition, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, veteran status, AIDS/HIV status, age, or socioeconomic background.

About TechSoup Global:

TechSoup Global is working towards the day when every nonprofit and social benefit organization on the planet has the technology resources and knowledge it needs to operate at its full potential.

TechSoup Global, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, was founded in 1987 on the belief that technology is a powerful enabler for social change. Since that day, we’ve assembled a worldwide network of individuals and organizations that share this conviction. This network includes foundations and corporations, governments and NGOs, social entrepreneurs and volunteers. Together, these unlikely allies have developed sustainable, community‐driven technology solutions to meet today’s most urgent social challenges.

A guiding principle in our work is that NGOs are agents of change, not beneficiaries of aid. Our efforts are focused on creating sustainable communities, in which all participants are contributors, not on the redistribution of resources from the haves to the have‐nots. We believe that all participants have resources that, brought to bear on a problem, can result in real solutions. This currency of contribution underwrites all of our work.

Today, TechSoup Global has 200 employees, an annual operating budget of $27 million, and operates programs inAfrica, the Americas, Asia, and Europe through a network of independent, capacity-building NGOs. With support of leading technology companies, including Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, and Symantec, TechSoup Global and its network have reached more than 152,000 organizations, distributed 7.9 million software and hardware product donations, and enabled recipients to save more than US$2.6 billion in IT expenses.

Our other programs include NetSquared, an ambitious global experiment that empowers individuals at the local level to build and share innovative solutions to social problems. Today, the NetSquared community has tremendous reach, with more than 30,000 members and local events in 87 cities around the world.
TechSoup Global combined operations with GuideStar International, a U.K.-registered charity that promotes transparency and civil society organization (CSO) reporting.

In November 2008, the Council on Foundations selected TechSoup Global to design and host an equivalency determination information repository, now known as NGOsource. TechSoup Global was chosen in part because of its extensive international network and proven ability to offer eligibility verification services. In partnership with the Council, we are currently developing this new web-based service.

For more information about TechSoup Global, please visit www.techsoupglobal.org

‘Tis the season… Cold and flu season, that is.

We’ve all had to take a day or two off for illness. It goes without saying that the most important thing to do while home sick is to get better. However, some of us simply can’t sit around doing nothing while at home with the flu. Others don’t want to return to work to find a full in-box. Here’s how I stay productive and beat my cold at the same time:

• Choose tasks strategically. Only do from home what can’t be better done at the office. If you need a lot of real-time input from co-workers at work to do one task, but could easily do another on your own at home, choose the second task.

• Know your limits. There is no point taking time off to feel better if you’re going to run yourself ragged working from your sickbed. If you can only get half as much done from home as you could at the office, that half will have to do. Remember, you’re home to get better.

• Communicate with the office. Let your bosses and co-workers know whether or not to expect anything from you while you’re home sick. They’ll understand if some days you can work and others you can’t, but keeping them informed will help you and them be better prepared for your return.

• Working while sick is not mandatory. You choose whether or not to work while home sick. Remember, you’re home to get better. But if you’re home because you’re contagious and not because you feel bad, then maybe it’s smart to work on your deadlines.

With any luck, these tips will help make sure that returning to work won’t make you as sick as you were when you were home!

And remember, when you take a sick day, it’s not just to your benefit. No one is  better off if you give the entire office strep, so if you’re actually sick, stay home!

How do you balance getting-well time and work? Share your tips!

Paul Carlson is a Research Intern with the Candidate Project, a special initiative of NOI

Photo from mollypop, via Creative Commons License

Chances are you have a brand concept, cause or personality you wish to market to the public. Brand awareness is the key to marketplace success.Think about your favorite brands. Do you interact with them online? Why or why not?
Solving the quandry of how to make your brand visible and endearing to the largest number of customers quickly and cheaply requires social media. With over 800 million active daily users on Twitter and Facebook combined, using social media to get your idea in front of lots of eyeballs is a no brainer. Keeping the attentions of the eyeball owners requires a more thoughtful approach. Start with your brand goals. What is the ultimate goal of your brand? To be global? To be local? To be well recognized? To be well funded? Working through questions about your brand goals will begin to help you determine the ways social media can help you achieve them. For now, these are my top tips for strong and successful social  brand management.


#1 Identify the Proper Tools
Facebook nor twitter may be the best online venues for you to cultivate a brand loyal following. Providing a service geared toward tenured executives? Linked In may be a better platform. Mommy blogger? Blogher, MothersClick or Mom Cafe, could prove useful. Don’t look at just the social media outlets you have heard of, look for those that speak to target demographics or communities of like minded individuals. Look at your brand and who you know it will appeal to. Find out where those people hang out on the web and build your toolbox from there.


#2 Do Some Cyber Stalking
Find out what are your competitors doing with social. Just because they are using it, doesn’t mean they are using it well. Take time to see how many platforms they are engaged on. Do they post regularly? Do they have an active following, do they have any following? See who they’re followers are, and also who they are following.  Observe if they are having more success on one social networking site than another and consider why that may be.

Scour social media sites for persons you want your brand to appeal to online. Talk to them before you follow them or ask them to follow you. A blind or reciprocal follow is basic twitter etiquette. Yet, a loyal follow often springs our of an interactions. Chatting up a potential new follower encourages them to relate to you and your brand in such a way as they will likely take and action if called to do so. Socially successful brands have build a movement their followers feel connected to and a part of. They know on the other side of the screen, a person is there and they listen.

#3 Reverse the Psychology
What do you want people to say about your brand?Push these ideas out into the social space consistently.  Give your followers language to send your brand verbally viral. Ask your followers to tell you about your brand in their words. This gives you an insight to how your brand is being received online and if your message needs to be tweaked for social audiences. Tell them the number one reason social media users should be attracted to your brand. Explain how your brand enhances their (social) lives and helps them to have more authentic experiences online and off.  More than that, be on the web. The social media web. Don’t say I don’t do social, but I know  my brand needs it. Brand promotion at its best is self driven and shameless. It soars when its coupled with a bit of wit and edge. With so much activity happening in social media so quickly-what can your brand do to stand out against the noise? Knowing your way around the social web helps you answer this important question. You know your brand best. Be willing to sell it and tell it via social media.

#4 Go From Online to On the Ground
Create exciting opportunities for followers to interact with your brand in their real lives. Reward them for sharing personal brand experiences on social media with their networks. Build a brand ambassadorship amongst your followers able to extend your brands momentum beyond and between campaigns. You can’t be everywhere, but your online followers and your brand can. Empower your online community to promote your brand wherever they are. Sell them on the benefit of doing so through online and offline interactions.

#5 Go Beyond Social Media
Think of your brand as the center of a full fledged campaign. Identify all the places your brand needs to be seen outside of the web to have momentum and impact. Find connections between your brand and unexpected partners to extend your brands reach. What other new clever, savvy ideas are people on the web interested and intrigued by? Where does your brand fit with the current season, news topic, or hot new trend? Convince your social network, that its about more than the  bottom line. Doing so does drastic good in how your brand is remembered.  

By now you’re skimmed my disappointment in CNN’s CNN Dialogues: Living in the Age of Social Media.

The ONE highlight was Baratunde, in all his wit and humor. Having come across him via the Onion and weekly episodes of Black Folks Don’t. (Thanks NBPC!) I was so delighted when a question from the audience basically chastised Black people for their online foolery. Black Twitter is regularly the source for top trending topics, most of them wildly irreverent. Baratunde did an excellent job of defending Black Twitter by stating the obvious. “Twitter is a medium that rewards what is clever, new, as well as, piling on.” (As in, oh this person has 3,000 followers, I should probably follow them too.) Moreover, Twitter has now put a microphone in front of conversations that typically took place in private Black spaces. Read: Barbershops, parks, the front porch. Baratunde further stated, “you have Black people ready to denounce this activity, (online hijinkery) because they’re not that kind of Black or they don’t identify with “these” Black people.”

At the end of the day, our social media interactions should all be in fun. Especially on Twitter. Hosts of African-Americans who use Twitter do so via mobile, which means for the first time we actually have access. The commenter attempted to make the point Blacks aren’t using Twitter in the same [successful] capacity as whites. Baratunde responded by saying, “if there is one exception, its not true and in this case there are several.” Amen! Anyone who has knowingly or unknowingly come across some great comedy including #theplate, #simpinsaturday and my personal fave #ifblackpeoplewereonthetitanic, has Black Twitter to thank. Twitter is a medium of vast capabilites, be they commercial or comedic. If we want youths and particularly those of color to do something more productive w/ Twitter, MAYBE we should start teaching our kids about social media.