This past December and January we ran two “Introduction to Twitter” sessions for individuals at our nonprofit member agencies who were interested in learning more about Twitter, the free social media tool.  The sessions were very well received and we were able to share some of Volunteer Victoria’s own story about how we have been successful with our social media campaign – in particular with our use of Twitter – since we began it last year.

The workshops were for beginners so we thought it best to start with simply talking about Twitter itself and why and how people use it.  Not surprisingly though, at ...

[Continue reading Hootsuite Makes Using Twitter Even Better]

As promised, this is the second and final installment of my Social Media Basics for Non Profits.  My previous blog focused on Facebook and Twitter.  Here, I will focus on the more visual aspects of social networking - looking at two popular social networking tools (YouTube and Flickr) and how people are using the internet.

While Facebook and Twitter remain excellent tools for conversation and building relationships, they are at a disadvantage in a world that has become increasingly auditory and visual. As more and more people start using new technologies, such as cell phones and computers, the internet and ...

[Continue reading Social Media: What is it and why should I be using it? (Part 2 of 2)]

Volunteer Victoria is pleased to welcome our new youth council volunteers to our social media team! The group first met in October to discuss how we could go about implementing social media as a part of our volunteer management and recruitment strategy. I was very impressed by the group’s insight and inventiveness, as well as their enthusiasm! This team had so many ideas to share, including offering input on everything from our current (and future) branding, to how we might more effectively manage our Facebook page. We are very lucky to have this group of talented volunteers helping us out with the Welcome Youth Council Volunteers!]

Over the past few months, as part of our Social Media Project, I’ve been extensively researching different forms of Social Media for use in the non-profit sector.  From this, I’ve pulled together the following information to help you to more easily find answers to your questions.

I thought I would start off with a quick run down of the Social Media tools we’ve been working with here at Volunteer Victoria (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and Youtube) and how they might help ...

[Continue reading Social Media: What is it and why should I be using it? (Part 1)]

In the Youth Program , we work with people under 30. Our approach to connecting with them generally relies on meeting face-to-face in classroom presentations, at career/volunteer fairs or when they drop by the office. Over the past year, we have realized that we need to start connecting with youth where they are at. Knowing that many youth under 30 are using Social Media made our decision to start the Social Media Project a no-brainer!

There are so many tools to choose from, but our research suggests that Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, YouTube and Flickr are good tools to get ...

[Continue reading Social Media Project]