Beth’s Blog

A New Year: A New Learning Journey Begins

Last Sunset of 2011

I spent a very quiet holiday with family at Half Moon Bay and taking a New Year’s hike on Ano Nuevo to see the elephant seals.     Nature hikes and down time with family are nourishing and replenishing.

As I watched the last sunset of 2011 fade over the Pacific Ocean,   I wanted to formally say farewell to Zoetica, the company I co-founded with Geoff Livingston and Kami Huyse that we announced in January, 2010 one day after my birthday, and one day before the Haiti Earthquake.     Geoff has moved on to working on exciting projects, including a book and Kami will continue the brand Zoetica working on strategy projects such as this important effort to keep .NGO domain in the hands of nonprofits.

Starting Zoetica came on the heels of  one of the most dramatic changes I made in my life in recent years.   In 2009,  I moved with my my family across country to California to become Visiting Scholar at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and wrote my first book, The Networked Project with Alison Fine.    In 2010,  I launched the Networked Nonprofit with a flurry of speaking and training gigs literally around the world, while also designing and facilitating many workshops, peer learning groups,  and coaching grantees as Visiting Scholar.

Here’s what is in store for me for 2012:

As Visiting Scholar to the David and Lucile Packard Foundation this past year (my 3rd),  one project I worked on was facilitating peer learning groups to test and develop case studies and frameworks for my next book,  Measuring the Networked Nonprofit” that I co-authored with KD Paine and editor, Bill Paarlberg.   The book will publish in the second half of 2012.    The book is a how-to guide for using measurement and learning to improve networked nonprofit practices.      Writing a book while testing frameworks in a peer group setting was a little like trying to change a tire on a moving car, but it is far more fun to create – and this participatory process – makes the material more customized for the readers.   I now look forward to further refining curriculum and workshops over the coming months.

I will also continue to follow my passion and calling as a trainer and capacity builder through my work as Visiting Scholar at the David and Lucile Packard Foundation working with grantees designing and facilitating capacity building programs that incorporate social media and networked approaches.   This year, 2012, will have a focus on designing and delivering capacity building projects with NGOs outside the US.  I will be working with a cluster of Packard grantees in Pakistan and India in collaboration with IIE.   I will also have the opportunity to be an instructor as part of a Women’s Leadership Program in Africa, in partnership with IIE.    And, will  complete my work on E-mediat project, a capacity building project in the Middle East.    Maybe my next book will be about something about Networked NGOs and capacity building methods …..

What are your plans for 2012?

TechSoup Global Summit Day 1: Networks

I spent today at day 1 of the TechSoup Global Summit in Mountain View with two hundred and forty people who work in the TechSoup Global Network around the world, plus other stakeholders.   I’ve been involved with TechSoup/Netsquared Network since its inception back six years ago and so it is nice to be part of the narrative arc.   This participatory event is offering two days of focused discussion about—how these networks, and the capabilities that power them, can be effectively leveraged to create greater impact.

A few months ago,  I had an opportunity to hear Marnie Webb and Rebecca Masisak, CO-CEOs of TechSoup Global share their lessons learned in developing, weaving, and stewarding two very different types of networks.  ( The presentation is here.)   One topic they discussed the challenge of networked governance and leadership and mentioned that they’d be holding this convening to talk about to “smush” the two networks together and have the networks design the best governance structure.

Photo by Glenn Hirsch

This convening is a stellar example of  an approach to building networks, dubbed “holding the space.”  It is a meeting designed to promote connections and discussions that lead to building a network.     Alan Gunn was the moderator/host and the participatory design did not disappoint.   Plus it is always a pleasure for me to observe “Gunner’s” facilitation techniques (I learn so much).

The started with some big picture frames.  Gunner lay the ground rules for participating and encouraging people to connect with people they don’t already know.   His welcome was followed by remarks from Akhtar Badshah who reminded us that technology disruption is our friend.  Next, Daniel Ben-Horin gave us the context of the TSG Network and hopes for the future that would emerge from the conversations over the next few days.

I was invited to facilitate an opening plenary with three people who have lived inside successful networks for a couple of years to think big about the power of networks.

First up was Diana Scearce of Monitor Institute.    I’ve had the pleasure of working with Diana as part of my work as Visiting Scholar at the Packard Foundation which has included the Network of Networked Funders.    Diana shared some of her insights about networked leadership and keys for successful scaling.

Photo by Glenn Hirsch

Next to speak was Johnny Celestin who created the Haitian Fund for Innovation and Reconstruction, a network with a goal to strengthen Haiti’s public and nonprofit sectors.     The first thing he did on the stage was to say,  “The first lesson in working with networks is that if someone already doing something well, let it go and do something different.”   He then tore up the first page of his remarks, saying that a lot of what he was going to say was already said.

The next point he made was “Networks are about trust.”  He then walked into the audience and asked people not to turn around to look at him, but listen to his voice.   And the final point he made about networks was the importance of connections.  He then called out people he wanted to connect with and how the connection was important to his network.

Annie Leonard, the director of The Story of Stuff Project, shared a rich story about they have built a global network of activists around the film. Akhtar Badshah captured the story in this blog post. Her final point was that working as a network is fun!

The rest of the day was spent in small group discussions framed around different issues.   The photo was from a session to discuss strategies for avoiding “networked silos” and building networks of networks.   I also participated in two other sessions, one about communities of practice moderated by Holly Ross, and one on philanthropy.

Practical and Tactical Social Media for Nonprofits

If you are wondering about the chart, it came a cool free tool called “Export.ly“  It will analyze your Twitter audience, Facebook  page, and even your email box by grabbing the data and dumping it into a spreadsheet.  You pay per export and right now you can pay with a Tweet.

I used it analyze the Facebook page.  It compliments the data that you get from Insights – it lets you aggregate and analyze the comments and posts from your page.   It is particularly useful if you want to easily get a list of your active fans and follow up.  It also help you analyze your content strategy beyond posts on the wall posted by the admin of the page.

Here’s the top posts for February.

4 Social Trends Impacting the Future of Online Fundraising
2-Plugged In: Boomers
Time Management for Nonprofit Social Media Professionals: What’s Your Best Tip?
How Networked Nonprofits Visualize Their Networks
Top 10 Young Nonprofit Bloggers to Watch in 2011
My LinkedIn Network Map – a set on Flickr
Donate $5, $10, or $25 to Lights. Camera. Help. to Provide a Video Workshop for Five Area NonProfits
SpreadFast Social Media Planning Guide

Come join us for Practical and Tactical Social Media for Nonprofits in the Zoetica Salon this month.

A Couple of Good Resources

January is Tune Up month in the Zoetica Salon, an online space for free peer learning about nonprofits and social media.   Here’s a few good resources shared on the wall in the past week.

Book: My colleague, Micah Sifry, has written a book, “Wikileaks and the Age of Transparency.”   The theme of transparency was an important idea in the Networked Nonprofit and I can’t wait to read Micah’s thinking about the transparency movement.  You can pre-order the book and get 15% off.

Editorial Calendars: Use a social media editorial calendar. Identify all your platforms, themes, and schedule it. It is way less stress to know what you’re going to publish for the week versus having do it on the fly.   It also helps with celebrating organizational milestones via social media.  Holly Minch shared this excellent template.

Strategy Tune Ups:   Geoff Livingston shares his strategy tips on how nonprofits can break through the social media clutter and get stakeholders pay attention (Julie Pippert talks about the importance of passion) and a framework to think about your social media strategy.

Social Media Initiative Guide: This guide from Spreadfast, a social media management tool vendor, has some great tips and ways to think about Key Performance Indicators, tactics, and metrics.  A big shout out to their new Director of Social Media,  Jordan Viator.

Benchmarking: When assessing social media performance, many nonprofits want to benchmark their social media results against other similar nonprofits.    Here are a couple of nonprofit and social media benchmarking resources.  I like to see a digital IQ study focused solely on nonprofits – one that analyzes it by budget size.  In lieu of that report,  here’s a quick list of nonprofit facebook pages that rock (for example this shoutout landing page from GLIDE)identified by folks participating in the Zoetica Salon in response to a question posed by Holly Ross at NTEN and Kivi Leroux Miller’s Nonprofit Communications Trends e-book.

A Fresh Perspective: Steve Bridger shares this post that offers nonprofits five suggestions for giving their communications strategy a fresh look.

TechSoup Global Storytelling Challenge: Susan Tenby shared this post about the “TechSoup Global Storytelling Challenge” -  part competition, part instructional – an opportunity for your organization to win some great prizes and improve the way you share your story.   More here.

Personal Productivity at Social Media: Kami Huyse shares this informative video and deck about productivity in an age of distraction.