Daily Thoughts 8/5/2011

Lady in White - Portrait of Mrs. Théo Van Rysselberghe, 1926, Theo Van Rysselberghe

Daily Thoughts 8/5/2011


On the train to work, I read a little bit more of The Successful Business Plan. Right now, I am reading about keeping track of technology. I also read some more of Counterinsurgency by David Kilcullen and Blue Ocean Strategy. Right now, I am reading three books at the same time.


Today has been fairly quiet. I checked the donations, updated the Twitter and Facebook account, and checked the displays. This morning, I wrote a summary of the Social Media for Nonprofits conference. It was interesting going over some of the strategies that might work.


Some of the ideas which seemed to stick with me were that all the different communication channels needed to be linked together in a complete plan; Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, email, and website. This plan includes a complete story which people can follow easily so you can raise money and gain advocates. Part of the raising money and gaining advocates included finding people who would spread your message, making sure you have pictures of what you are buying with donations, and keeping thorough track of statistics for all your communications.

This is a list of Slideshare Presentations from Social Media For Nonprofits.  It covers more than what was at the conference.  http://www.slideshare.net/SM4nonprofits/presentations


I have been taking the time to talk to different people about our Social Media strategy.

On the way home, I finished reading Counterinsurgency by David Kilcullen.  This is a very politically charged and interesting book.  I don't really think that I have the military or intelligence background to really comment on the contents.  My undergraduate degree was in cultural anthropology.  I was surprised at the amount of material related to ethnography in military actions.  It made for very interesting reading.

I also spent a little bit more time reading about Blue Ocean Strategy.  It is not so much about competing with other businesses but creating alternative pathways to new markets and reaching out to people who have not used your product before.

Web Bits

September is National Library Card Month.
http://www.ala.org/ala/conferencesevents/celebrationweeks/card/CRipken_PSA_FINAL_8.5x11.pdf