Web 2.0 Personal and Business Productivity Tech Tools

Note: this post on web 2.0 tech productivity is tailored for an inner city youth organization, but should apply fairly well to non profit organizations of all shapes and sizes.

Mini-needs analysis

• What are your communication needs now?
• What publications do you create now?
• How can you repurpose that content?

Communication: Content Managment Systems

• Wiki-content management/collaboration/communication/training
• WordPress-content management/collaboration/communication/training
• Ning-social networking/collaboration/communication/training

Other Social Tools

• Delicious-social bookmarking-saving and sharing websites/urls
• Slideshare-communication/marketing-for saving, sharing, and watching powerpoint presentations (slidecasting)
• Linked In-Answers, groups, widgets, and search
• Google Docs-Collaborative Documents
• Flickr-photos and art
• Vimeo/Viddler/Brightcove-video
• Skype/DimDim/Etc-Video Conferencing
• RSS-Really simple syndication
• RSS Reader-news headlines/educational headlines
• Widgets-distribution/modular content spread

Principles and Trends:

1) Wisdom of Crowd

2) Crowdsourcing/crowdsourced content (User generated content)

3) Long tail

4) Feedback Loops/Data aggregation

5) Visual communication

6) Usability

7) Search/Findability (SEO and vertical search engines and changing algorithm)
8] Modularity of content/Spreadability of content
9) Trust/Expertise/Authority (amount/depth, quality, online friends, social proof)
10) Storytelling (multimedia storytelling)

11) Community (the network effect)

12) Tagging

Principles to Keep in Mind about Social Media

1) Decentralized (Small pieces loosely joined)

2) Long tail

3) Shiny Toy Syndrome (Gardners Hype Curve, Crossing the Chasm)

4) Life/work balance

5) “Friending”/Social Graph

6) Dont forget email

7) Consistent user name and password (although for the organization vs. for you.  At the moment I would make these for you–because you can always make them for the organization later)

8] Time management, batch processing, and delegating

9) Having objectives and a plan  (What is relevant? Who is my audience?  What does success look like?)

Communication Categories & Purposes:

1) Internal communication

2) Training and learning

3) Marketing and communication to various audiences

4) Productivity

Who is the target to this social media project?

1) Existing clients (youth/moms & dads)

2) Future clients
3) Community leaders (teachers and other social service outlets)

4) Volunteers (age groups segmentation/time with organization segmentation)

5) Donors (segmentation?)

6) Press

7) Other youth, Christian, or nonprofit organizations (lessons learned, successes, etc)

To get a better idea of the social media landscape, this social media ecology diagram may be helpful. I don’t recommend using them all, but rather focusing on 2 to 4.

Any take aways?  Communication needs can this fill?  How can you recycle/repurpose/repackage content?