I work at the Resource Center, a project of ETR Associates funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). We provide a comprehensive website of resources for volunteer and service programs focusing on topics such as volunteer management and program management, with particular attention to the needs of CNCS grantees.ETR Associates also operates another project funded by CNCS, Learn and Serve America's National Service-Learning Clearinghouse (NSLC for short).
I'm flying solo for this workshop, but I've invited other members of my team, and of the NSLC team, to participate virtually if they would like to, by becoming co-authors of this blog.
How our organization is currently using social media
We have jumped in with both feet - probably because I enjoy using social media myself, and our funder would like us to advance in this arena, so I have been the one spearheading the effort. So far we have a presence on:
Our new webmaster is also working on creating a Facebook fan page for us.
My personal experience using social media
I love it - I have addictive tendencies, what can I say? I enjoy interacting with people online, personally and professionally, and lately it's become a way to "drink from the firehose" as people say, of really, really relevant information that helps me do my work better. I've blogged a little bit about this on one of my newer blogs - Swimming in a Sea of Social Media. One thing I haven't been good about is maintaining a blog or creating a consistent personal blogging presence. I want to, but it is a lot of work. I think this is why microblogging has started to appeal to me.
What do you hope to learn from the workshop?
I think I have a pretty good intuitive grasp of how to represent my organization on social media platforms. What I'm most interested in learning from this workshop is:
- how to create and implement a listening strategy (uniquely difficult for us as our generic name, "the Resource Center" does not lend itself to listening!)
- how to craft a policy so that other members of our team can confidently begin to participate and so that we can maintain a consistent voice
- how to measure results, outcomes, etc.
- how to determine how much human resources are required to keep up our efforts
- how to determine if we are doing enough/not enough/too much right now and are there yet more venues we should be participating in
what a terrific introduction! Looking forward to finally meeting you next week
ReplyDeleteThanks, me too, of course. Just checked the participant list http://www.wearemedia.org/Feburary+Workshop+Participant+List it has grown over the weekend - looking forward to reading them all.
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