The Swedish International Development Agency has launched “The World Log” a new catalogue for web content related to aid and development content. It lists blogs, videos and photos by geography and topic – and it looks really pretty! Great chance for high level exposure The site is still a bit buggy (sometimes the user interface switches to Swedish so you have “Läs mer” instead of “Read more”) but if you have anything to do with aid or development, then you should definitely[...]
Last week I gave a presentation at the IFRC’s communications managers meeting about social media in general and how we should use it. Below you find the largest part of that presentation. I removed the bits that were focusing very much on internal processes and steps that need to be taken in-house in order to make social media work. (Red Cross Red Crescent volunteers and staff can download the complete presentation from FedNet, the IFRC’s extranet.) I hope you like it.[...]
Before every general election in Germanythe “Federal Institute for Political Education” (bpb) releases the “Elect-o-Meter” (Wahl-O-Mat) a simply web-application that asks your opinion on current political issues and then compares your answer with the party platforms. With general elections only three weeks away, the new version of the Wahl-O-Mat was released on Friday – and this time even in English. If you ever wondered whom you vote for if you were German – try the “Elect-O-Meter“. Missed chance for social[...]
I recently had the honour to be in charge of a whole-day social media workshop in Solferino, where the idea for the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement was born. This was part of our 150 year celebrations. It was really interesting because the 50 or so participants where from extremly different countries and backgrounds, as behooves an organization with 186 member countries. It was absolutely fascinating to see that how social media is just as interesting to someone from Belgium[...]
I just discovered that, the day after I posted “We are not funny – why nonprofits suck at being viral”, Mashable’s Josh Catone published “Top 10 YouTube Videos for Social Good”. This is a great list and I really recommend that you watch all of them for inspiration. While I don’t want to duplicate what he has already done, here are my top three – and my two cents for each of them: Because we are all connected I think this[...]
Lately I have been present at a lot of pitches where someone from my organization would tell an agency: “And we need a viral video”. At that point you can always see someone on the agency’s side flinch because that person knows: we won’t have the guts. As long as we are aiming for safe we will never create something that gets passed along like crazy. Yes, as a non profit organization you will always find people who are sympathetic[...]
Rebecca Leaman has created a list of “100 Online Tools for Non-Profits”. What I like most about it: she doesn’t focus on the cool and trendy but on the workhorses that help to run any organization.
