We don’t often discuss here on our blog about how we actually manage our blog, so we thought we’d – of course! – write a blog post about it to help other organizations that would like to start or enhancing their blogging practices.

At Volunteer Victoria we have five staff members that regularly write posts for this blog. On top of the posts that Lisa, Lori, Leanna, Lornna and I create (I’m lucky they let me help since my name doesn’t begin with ‘L’!), we also bring in volunteers from our programs as much as we can to help out and present a different voice ...

[Continue reading Crafting Great Blog Posts]

I was so pleased to recently coordinate a “Get Creative with Social Media” workshop for Volunteer Victoria, facilitated by Mandy Leith. It pleased me even more that I was able to attend the workshop with  my mother, Elaine Cougler. Her adoption of and enthusiasm for social media tools to further her writing career is proof positive that social media is being used and enjoyed by people of all ages. Here is her guest post about attending the workshop:

Last week, Mandy Leith, “media-savvy storyteller, documentary filmmaker, social media strategist, media educator, founder of [Continue reading Telling Your Organization’s Story with Social Media]

This article first appeared in Volunteer Victoria’s E-Link newsletter on March 11, 2011. Sign up for E-Link and keep current with news and information from Volunteer Victoria.

When Volunteer Victoria developed its Social Media Policies a year ago we shared these widely with our member agencies as we realized that few organizations had guidelines in place.

Since that time there has been a virtual explosion in non-profit uptake of social media tools for everything from information sharing to marketing and fundraising. With this rapidly increased use of social networking, we’re frequently being ...

[Continue reading Social Media Policies to Share]

I would like to thank this week’s guest blogger, Janis La Couvée, for once again sharing her insights with us.  If you are at all familiar with the social media scene in Victoria, you will definitely have heard of Janis. 

Janis is a financial services professional with a long history of community involvement, particularly in the areas of capacity building, public relations and the arts.  Long before social media was in vogue, Janis was connecting people and building community. Social media has just made it easier to do!

She has graciously offered to share her Social Media Year-in-Review ...

[Continue reading 2010 Social Media Year-in-Review]

Sincere thanks to our guest blogger Janis La Couvée for sharing her thoughts on using social media to promote events. Janis is passionate about bridging online and offline communities to effect positive social change. You can follow her on Twitter at @lacouvee.

In April 2009, like many other individuals in the community, I was a social media neophyte; but when an acquaintance at a business breakfast mentioned that people using Twitter in Victoria were actually meeting face to face, I had an “aha” moment.

For over 20 years I have been actively involved in the community, organizing events, committees and ...

[Continue reading Using Social Media to Promote Events]

 A little birdie helped us out recently to learn more about nonprofit marketing.

The graphic birdie image pictured above sits in the “1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree”, developed by Mills Communications Group’s founder Erica Mills, who was in Victoria in mid-July to teach a workshop for Volunteer Victoria.  Erica delivered “Nonprofit Marketing: Make the Most of What You’ve Got!” to a collection of our member agencies – and the workshop was a fantastic success.

Nonprofit Marketing: As easy as 1, 2, 3]

This post first appeared in Volunteer Victoria’s E-Link newsletter. Sign up for E-Link and keep current with news and information from Volunteer Victoria. We welcome your feedback and suggestions.

With the Internet at our fingertips, we tend to look on-line for our information and resources these days. However, Volunteer Victoria has a very comprehensive library of non-profit resources. These include publications on board development, non-profit management, fundraising, volunteer management, organizational development and more.    The Management of Nonprofits 

 At the top of our reading list this month is The Management of Nonprofit and Charitable Organizations in Canada, second edition. Written ...

[Continue reading A Few Good Books]

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)]

Having done extensive research on Social Media over the past five months or so, I was somewhat reluctant to attend Margaret Hoegg’s beginner level presentation on Twitter. Contributing significantly to this reluctance was the fact that, of all the social media I had researched, Twitter seemed the least desirable to me. Margaret managed to change my mind, however, as she pointed out the very tangible benefits of Twitter.  I have since started using Twitter extensively to promote my personal blog. So, I have converted to Twitter. Let me tell you why.

The benefits of non-profit organizations’ (NPOs) use of Twitter are ...

[Continue reading Twitter Seminar]