Tweeting on Twitter

Twitter is my most recent venture into the online world of social networking. I avoided Twitter assiduously for many months, because the idea of stopping in my tracks to tell the online world what I'm doing (in 140 letters or less) seemed... I don't know -- wacky, maybe?

In case you think I'm kidding, here is what you are greeted with when you go to www.twitter.com:

Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?

But I forged ahead, because more and more people are asking questions about Twitter and whether or not it can help them with fundraising and donor management. In fact, I set up two accounts, one a personal one and one for CJW Consulting. And here's what I am finding:

Twitter is a great way to stay in touch.

I work a lot, so I don't think that my personal posts (referred to as "tweets") are that interesting. However, Twitter keeps my husband and me in much closer touch with very dear friends that live in Florida. We rarely see them and as we are four extremely busy people, it's not easy to be in touch by phone or even email -- but Twitter keeps us up to date with their daily lives.

After a few weeks of personal Twittering, I set up a new Twitter account for CJW Consulting (the account name is cjwconsult, if you're already Twittering and would like to follow us). I wanted to get a feel for how I might use the (free) service to let nonprofits know about our services. Once the account was set up, I searched on various keywords (nonprofit, non-profit, fundraising, etc.) to find existing Twitter accounts that belonged to people connected to the nonprofit community.

I located about 50 accounts and opted to "follow" them. This means that I get sent copies of all of their posts. Many Twitter users, when you choose to follow them, will then begin to follow you in return. The cjwconsult account currently has 21 users following it, with one or two more signing on every day.

To date, we are using the Twitter account to make available discounts on web services to people who see our tweets and sign up for a webinar or web training. We can also, if we choose, use Twitter to advertise our presence at conferences, participation in seminars or webinars (we've been asked to serve on a panel at the Chicago Fundraising Summit later this month, although the timing may not work out for that.)

I can see Twitter being a great tool for nonprofits. In a few seconds, you can send information about an event or a special need. You can drive traffic to your website by including a URL in a Twitter post. You can reinforce your message on a regular basis.

We've really just scratched the surface of what Twitter can do and how it works. If you are interested in more information, perhaps even a webinar about getting started and learning some of the tricks of the Twitter trade, please click on "comments" below and let me know.

Let's Link Up!

Social networking is all the rage online these days. Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and MySpace are some of the more popular among the literally hundreds of sites designed for this purpose. A Google search for "social networking nonprofits" returns over 22 million hits.

There are links to articles and blogs that will help you understand how social networking can benefit your organization. There are links to newspaper articles talking about how nonprofits are using social networks to raise money. Heck, you can even find people writing or blogging about how the death knell has already sounded for nonprofits and social networks.

I started small and am working my way up a bit. About a year ago, I created an account on LinkedIn, which was recommended to me. Over the course of a few months, I built up a profile and added a great deal of work experience and some personal information. Eventually I got into the habit of actively looking for clients to connect to, and reviewing my contacts' contacts to see if there are other people I should be connecting to. I now belong to a number of LinkedIn groups, all related to nonprofits. I receive regular emails listing discussion points and questions that group members have posted, and when I feel I have something to contribute, I post responses.

When people come to me to talk about changing jobs, I encourage them to use LinkedIn or something like it to begin building a network that can help lead them to jobs that might be a good fit for them. LinkedIn has its own job source and also connects its members to another, larger job source for additional opportunities.

When I joined LinkedIn I thought I had done what I needed to do in the social networking arena. But then I started getting requests to join people's networks on Plaxo, which sends me reminders when my contacts are having a birthday, leaving me no excuse to forget to call or send a card. A young woman that I used to babysit for now has a baby of her own and the only way to see his picture is to view her Facebook page, so I have just spent the last hour setting up my Facebook page. I'm completely sick of me, having just typed up all my interests, activities, favorite things, etc. But eight people have already added me as a friend, so I felt somewhat validated until I noticed that my friend David has 571 friends. He must have a huge postage bill when it comes time to send holiday cards.

I get the sense that it could easily become a full-time job to maintain a presence on a variety of networks. I'm also considering creating a webinar about social networks to help those unfamiliar with them get started. I'd like your help.

Please click on the word Comments below this post and let me know which online networks you belong to or are considering. If you have thoughts about the viability of a social networking webinar, I would welcome your thoughts about that as well.

In the meantime, if you're on LinkedIn or Facebook or Plaxo -- let's link up!

Drop.io

Not long ago, I asked a friend and colleague to help me convert some data from one format to another. It was a weekend, I was up against a deadline and it really wasn't possible for me to bring her the data and then go pick it up when she was done with it.

Because I don't often have the need for this type of assistance, I don't have FTP capabilities set up on our web site. The files were too large to send via email, even when they were compressed. I was settling in to an impressive feeling of despair when my friend suggested that I upload the files to drop.io.

Drop.io is a website that allows visitors to privately and securely share files by web, email, and other methods. Information "dropped" at the site is protected from search engines, and you can password protect your "drops", so the information is secure and accessible to those who need it and are given access to get it.

Within 5 minutes, I had created a space for my incoming and outgoing drops and within 20 minutes my friend had my data files on her computer. She returned the converted data files to the same secure private location, where I was able to quickly download them back to my own computer.

Best of all, the service is free!

I was thrilled to find drop.io and I plan on making it available to clients when we need to transfer data back and forth.

There are many services like this on the web, including archive.org, which I wrote about in my last post. If you know of web sites that can be helpful to your colleagues in the nonprofit community, please let us know. Click on the word "comments" below this post and tell us about the site(s) you've found to be of value.

What a Difference a Decade Makes

My husband Larry is working toward a Master's degree from Clemson University. As we live in Chicago and Clemson is in South Carolina, he's enrolled in the online program. This will be Larry's second Master's degree, as he earned an MBA in 1998. He's finding the process quite a bit different this time around.

Part of the reason for the difference is undoubtedly just the online versus standard classroom format. The rest of it is the technology.

Ten years ago, Larry was assigned papers which he typed up in Word, printed and handed in, literally, to the professors. He presented those papers to his classmates by standing up in the classroom and sharing his findings. He took tests in that same classroom, all essay questions that required a solid block of time to complete.

Last semester, his first at Clemson, was a completely different experience. The classroom has been replaced by a virtual chat room. Tests are multiple choice and are taken online by students at any time the student wishes. Students are given the opportunity to take practice tests to ensure the best possible grade.

As seems to be case with most of us, Larry was already familiar with chat rooms and online communication (that's how we met, actually, but that's a story for another day, perhaps), so he took those things in stride. Then he got to the assignment of the paper.

The students were told initially that they would be writing a paper and presenting it to their classmates. Nothing unusual in that for a Master's program, right? Then it was revealed that they would be putting together a PowerPoint presentation to use to present their paper. Next they were given instructions to record a narration for the presentation and synch it to the slide show. Finally, it was explained that the presentations would all be uploaded and viewed in a virtual reality environment.

To do all of this, the following pieces of software and/or websites were required: Word (to type the paper), PowerPoint (for the slide demonstration), Audacity (to record the narration), Archive.org (to upload the narration file to a public location from where it could be streamed to play along with the slides), SlideShare (to upload the presentation to a public location from where it could be displayed in the virtual reality space), an application within Slideshare (to synch the audio with the slides), and the software for the virtual reality space that was downloaded to Larry's computer.

Larry is without question the smartest person I have ever known, and he was more than capable of doing all of this. He wasn't particularly excited about it, though. I, on the other hand, with the "geek" part of my brain in overdrive, loved it all. I asked for permission to help with the preparation.

Sure, there was some frustration with the fact that it took me 3 days to get the audio synched to the presentation, but that turned out to be a problem in the synch tool, a fact we learned after MANY students emailed the professor in total frustration.

On the day the presentations were supposed to be viewed, Larry got stuck in traffic due to the lovely winter weather here in Chicago, so he called and asked me to log him in to the virtual reality space. While I was waiting for him to get home, I hacked around in the space, looking for the "treehouse" the professor had said he was "standing next to." I also learned how to make Larry's avatar fly, dance and walk, noting that he could fly and dance at the same time.

While I have to admit I can come up with no real practical use for the virtual reality space, I will be using the rest of what I learned last semester to see if I can use the technology to record webinar content with audio that can be viewed online and/or purchased. I've already started taking advantage of the SlideShare capabilities by uploading some presentations there and linking them to my LinkedIn account online.

Technology will always, I think, change and develop so quickly that we'll never be able to completely keep up. I've never been big on trying things when they're brand new -- working with nonprofits, I don't like to see my clients spend their resources serving as guinea pigs for software developers. I do, however, love finding technology that's been around for a relatively short time, long enough to have proven itself viable and useful, but new to me and able to help me -- and help me help our clients -- move in new directions.

It's Your Turn!

Today's post will be atypically (and perhaps mercifully?) brief, because really, I want to hear from you.



If you have attended one of our webinars during the past year and found it helpful, please take a moment to post your comments on the blog. If you have suggestions for ways to make them better, I'd welcome those as well.



To sweeten the pot and signal our appreciation for your time, we'll be randomly selecting five people for a free 2008 webinar of their choice.

I hope while you're here you'll read through the blog and visit the rest of our site.

Thank you so much for your time!

Paradoxical Juxtaposition

Paradox is defined as "one (as a person, situation, or action) having seemingly contradictory qualities or phases" and juxtaposition is defined as "the act or an instance of placing two or more things side by side." Therefore, paradoxical juxtaposition is the act or an instance of placing two or more seemingly contradictory things side by side.

Welcome to my world.

My husband Larry and I were married by a rabbi and a Presbyterian minister, standing together under a chuppah in a chapel. At the reception Larry began his toast by talking about mixed marriages and how many people think they can't work. He ended by saying that he and I are living proof that a relationship between a Cubs fan and White Sox fan can work and does work. We've also found that a marriage works between a democrat and a republican; a conservative and a liberal; a north suburban Chicagoan and a northwest Indianan; a soap opera fan and a wrestling fan...

I've spent the last 24 years (since I was 6) working with or for nonprofits, helping them find effective ways to use software -- seemingly a most impersonal tool -- to make them more effective at raising money, a very personal process. I find that many people think of me as something of a geek, and that's probably true, although I do not converse in techno-speak.

Because I "get" software, it's generally assumed that I like all things technical, and it's true that I'm intrigued by new toys. Most recently, I have been looking at the Kindle. This is a product being sold by Amazon.com. It's a wireless device that allows you to instantly download books, newspapers or magazines into the device. It never has to be connected to a computer -- apparently the technology is like that of a cellular phone. Once the text is downloaded into the Kindle, you can read it.

I read a number of reviews of the Kindle and every one talked about how easy it is to read the "pages", how the screen is lit in a way that does not produce glare, even when used outside in the sunlight. I believe it holds about 200 books. It's about the size of a paperback book and is very lightweight.

The Kindle has become my latest technical obsession.

When I travel, I usually take 3-6 books with me. This is kind of a pain, particularly on a plane when I finish one book and need to select another one. They add weight to the luggage, take up space, etc. So a Kindle would be great, since I could have all my reading material in it.

Between Larry and I, there are probably well over 1000 books in our house. And they are pretty much all over the house. There are books in every room in our house, including the kitchen. With the Kindle, you buy the book texts from Amazon and they get downloaded to the device. Even if you remove a book from the device, Amazon maintains your "library" so you can download a book you've purchased at any time -- forever. Of course I understand that I would not have a way to get all my existing books into a Kindle library unless I bought them again, but at least this could stop the madness.

I'm presuming that I could buy new books as soon as they come out in hardcover without having to pay as much as a newly-released hardcover book would cost. There are a few authors that I like a lot and I always pre-order their new releases.

This device could save me money, help me avoid more clutter in my home, get me new books faster, and of course it would be a very cool thing to have and play with. So why, you ask, do I not already have one?

I learned to read when I was three. From the time I could read "Sad Mrs. Sam Sack" (She was sad because she had 10 children and a husband and they lived in a small house. Every night she went to bed sad. She went to see a wise man and he had her bring lots of animals into her house; first 10 rabbits, then 10 cats and 10 dogs, etc. Finally one night she went to bed sad but got up MAD. The next day she kicked all the extra animals out and the house seemed much bigger.) I have luxuriated in books the way other people luxuriate in a bubble bath or some other indulgence.

Somehow I feel that part of the experience is actually holding the book: turning the pages, going back and rereading something particularly interesting or beautiful, truly getting lost in a book. It's hard for me to imagine that the Kindle would provide the same experience.

It's also possible that the $350 price tag has something to do with my hesitation.

Still, despite all this, I will likely have a Kindle before the year is out. I will buy it for the convenience, portability and the fact that it's a cool new toy to have. It will live in the house, next to my well-worn copies of To Kill a Mockingbird, Gone With The Wind, all of Shakespeare's works, all of Agatha Christie's novels and short stories, all the Harry Potter books, my Civil War books, the Wizard of Oz books that were my mother's when she was a girl and are now mine, and many more.

I love a good paradox.

Milestones

As we inch ever closer to the 15th anniversary of the day this firm began, I find myself thinking again about how it began. I wish it was an impressive story, filled with detail about how I wrote a detailed business plan, did many hours of research, painstakingly created a list of potential clients, prepared eloquent marketing material, etc. In fact, I did none of those things.

I had been working as an account manager for a company that sells fundraising software. The company, like most companies, had gone through some ups and downs during the 5 1/2 years that I was there, and my fortunes there had also gone through some ups and downs. The last "down" came at the end of 1992, when my manager left to take another position and they closed the Chicago-area office and moved me to a sales position. Four months later... well, to be blunt, I quit in a huff after a conversation with the company president to which I took exception.

I gave two weeks notice and used that time to decide what to do next. I loved working with nonprofits, so I thought about ways that I could continue to do that. Work for a consulting firm? Go back to fundraising? Find another software company? Nothing felt quite right, but some tiny part of my brain was saying that I could do what I had been doing, on my own.

Work for myself? Set rates that did not have to cover a lot of overhead? Choose to work with clients in whose missions I believed? Be able to set standards for service that I felt clients deserved?

It sounded better and better...

So I took a look at my financial situation. No savings, and if I included my final paycheck, vacation pay, a little bit from a 401(K), I figured that I had enough to live on for six weeks. Ideal for a business venture, right?

Okay, I thought, I'll give myself six weeks to generate enough work to support myself. When I run out of money, I'll get a "real job".

I was very lucky. I got a few contracts right away and I had a built-in base of prospective clients, people who had worked with me over the last 5 years who knew me and liked the way I worked.

And so, incredibly, on May 15th CJW will celebrate its 15th anniversary. And I will celebrate the fact that I still don't have a "real job".

This is not a job. It's a labor of love.