Inspiration and Tools for Nonprofit Social Media

by Nathaniel Whittemore · 2009-11-13 14:04:00 UTC
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Web2.0 online magazine Mashable is currently currating its third annual Open Web Awards, a series of honors for the brands, companies and nonprofits that are making the most effective use of social media and the companies that are creating the best tools and platforms to help them. Hidden within the 50 categories and 500 nominees are some gems for nonprofits.

The top ten nominees for nonprofit use of social media are great examples of how to get creative and use social media like Facebook and Twitter to augment and accelerate a nonprofit brand, engage donors, or something else entirely:

- Spirit Jump
- Alex’s Lemonade
- A Billion for A Billion
- Frougal Dougal
- Lupus Foundation of America
- PETA
- Voices of Survivors
- Sports Grants Foundation
- Space Tweep Society
- Thank A Soldier

The social media "gadgets" profiled here have a variety of potential uses for enterprising groups, ranging from more effective link sharing to personal broadcasting tools for bloggers.

- Digsby (Digsby)
- AddThis
- ShareThis
- AddToAny
- Property-Bee
- Wetoku
- Tigerbow
- SocialGo
- Yoono (Yoono)
- WiseStamp (Wisestamp

For groups that are looking how to engage users in a more deep, rich, rewarding experience, there is a lot to learn from these examples of companies that have made great use of Facebook Connect, the platform that allows individuals to give third party applications access to their information.

- Girls Guide To
- Startlike
- OCBC Cycle Singapore
- JibJab
- OrgSync
- Digsby
- Test Tube Telly
- Gaia Online
- Pet Society
- The Gamers Force

See the full list here.

Nathaniel Whittemore is the founder of Assetmap. Previously he was the founding director of the Northwestern University Center for Global Engagement.
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