Future:Media:Change

The 99th, 100th, or 101st International Women’s Day (depending on your math), was quiet on the web and avoided Twitter trending. However, Yahoo! jumped in where Google faltered with their own special logo and page celebrating women.

Should your non-profit be on Linked-in, Flickr, and Facebook at the same time? With so many social networks it’s often difficult to determine which combination makes sense for your organization. In cases like these, a little cheating is completely fine. This Social Media Cheat Sheet goes over the pros and cons of using some of the major social networks.

MobileActive.org have released a great new How to Guide to mobile security for citizen journalists who risk their own security to report on events in oppressive regimes.

Smashing Magazine is one of my favorite blogs for design news and opinions. It’s where you go if you are a font geek or want to see what’s happening in the online design world. They recently posted a really cool article reviewing some non-profit web sites from a design and usability point of view. Even a few sites like the Red Nose Day Campaign or the WWF, which have some of the best designs around got taken to task for a few design errors.

Since the days of Edward Bernays, marketing has attempted to convince consumers of their hidden desire to buy products. Have fifty years of manipulation run their course? Many leading members of the cause marketing industry feel that consumers are beginning to demand corporations not only provide quality products but also become responsible members of the community. Can your nonprofit afford to not become part of a cause marketing campaign? I spoke with three leading practitioners of cause marketing to find out.

We have a lot of snow in DC. Yesterday I saw people in snow shoes walking own the street. The grocery stores are empty and I haven’t seen asphalt for at least a week now. Trying to dig yourself out of the snow mess can be a major challenge, so the good people at PICnet devised a smart way of using crowd sourcing to help Washingtonians beat the winter.

The Haiti crisis brought to light the powerful fundraising possibilities that texting can offer to causes. But while the Red Cross did a fantastic job fundraising, not every non-profit will experience such phenomenal success.