Via Mashable, comes this report from Tube Mogul, Web Video Marketing--Best Practices. Some key take-aways: The "Secret Formula" They've devised a "secret formula" for developing an online video: "Secret Formula" - .5C + 15.M + .20T + .15P = Success 50% C = Content and Production - this is storyline, style lightning, production, etc. 15% M = Metadata - the text title, keywords, descriptions, and categories that help people find... Read more →

From Career Distinction comes a nifty little tool that will calculate your "online identity score" and help you determine how effective your online personal branding efforts have been. When you go to the site, you're instructed to run a Google search, enter in the total number of results returned, determine how many of the results on the first three pages relate to you and then how well you think these... Read more →

Thinking about launching a blog for your nonprofit? How would you like to get 6,312 subscribers to your new blog in one day? This Copyblogger case study from Brian Clarke offers some powerful lessons in launching your blog with a bang, based on the experiences of Tom Kuhlman and Articulate, a company that sells rapid e-learning software. Offer Value to Existing and New Readers There's a tendency for most nonprofits... Read more →

Last week I posted on RSS-enabling your website so that visitors can subscribe to your regularly updated content. As I mentioned in that post, and as Laura Whitehead brought up in comments, RSS only makes sense, though, when your website actually provides timely news and information. If your site is simply an online brochure, then RSS isn't going to do much for you. This got me to thinking about the... Read more →

I was checking out the Open Learn project this morning (a topic worthy of its own blog post) and came across their competition to remix/reuse their content, which led me to an interesting little tool--Feedcycle. Feedcycle enables you to publish serialized RSS feeds. In other words, subscribers can sign up to receive a series of blog posts, podcasts, videocasts, etc. automatically delivered daily. As subscribers sign up, they will be... Read more →

Next week I'm going to be teaching a client how to use Typepad to maintain a simple website I developed for her organization. I was looking at pulling together some reference materials to leave behind after my demo when it occurred to me that the best reference material would be a screencast of how to use the site. Enter Screencast-O-Matic. (Note if you want the entire lowdown on screencasting, check... Read more →

A couple of interesting studies re: email use and our responses to it, via Jeremy Dean of PsyBlog. The Impact of Capitalization and Emoticons on Perceptions of Email Apparently, depending on your personality type, proper use of capitalization and the use of the smiley emoticon can make you seem more likable. According to one study cited by Dean (Byron and Baldridge, 2007): They found that, sure enough, using correct capitalisation... Read more →

Robin Good has a nice guide to using YouTube to promote your organization. His suggestions: Create and customize your own channel. Choose your niche. Create short form viral content. Tag and categorize. Create niche-targeted playlists Promote your video with YouTube email and bulletins. Leave video responses. Join or create YouTube groups. Chat in the streams Use active sharing. As always, he has good examples, clear instructions and additional resources. Even... Read more →

Small (and not-so-small) nonprofits have a lot in common with small business. They have work--a lot of it--that needs to get done and they don't usually have the time, energy or resources to devote to their online presence. At the same time, they know that since most people go to Google to find just about anything anymore, they recognize that if they aren't online, they have a problem. A great... Read more →

I spent yesterday with my college freshman daughter who revealed to me the extent to which FaceBook has taken over the social lives of teens and twenty-somethings (with the "older folk" coming on fast). Let's just say that if it's not happening through FaceBook, then it's not happening. By sheer coincidence, I'd used the train ride into NYC to read (among other things) Fast Company's profile of 22-year old (!)... Read more →