Change

mac by Marcin Wichary
A Brief Guide for Mac Switchers/Try-ers (No Laments, Please!):
[Via Web 2.0 Expo]

Wow, CNET’s Rafe Needleman sure raised a ruckus with his Mac switcher’s lament article. If you are thinking about moving from a Windows PC to a Mac and want to avoid the feeling of lament, read on, I have some advice that might help you make the change.

This is a really helpful article for those making the switch. It covers all sorts of useful viewpoints that can be applied to anything creating a large-scale change.

Don’t make the shift cold turkey if you can. Talk with people who are experts. Talk with others in the same situation. Use communities to help. Take classes and read books.

These approaches work with almost any change. They are not really Mac-specific in their underlying usefulness. The use of human social networks is critical for the rapid implementation of any novel process.

These approaches use social tools to help make a personal change. It can be as simple as getting a new camera or buying a new car. Implementing an innovation works best when the social aspects of change are used.

These are use of subject matter experts, local mavens and community leaders. Moving the information of change around a group rapidly is the best way to guarantee rapid uptake of new technologies.

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Tips for any web site

bee by Noël Zia Lee
Using Social Media Efficiently: 52 Tips from Beth Kanter:
[Via TechSoup Blog blogs]

Wow. Beth Kanter has impressed the heck out of me again. She’s participating in Convio’s Now is the Time campaign of New Year’s resolutions for nonprofits and technology (along with our very own Robert Weiner who’s own resolution post is here.)

Beth’s New Year’s resolution is to use social media efficiently and she offers up 52 great tips on how to do so. And if you try one each week for the next year, maybe we can all be better communicators, have more effective and engaging campaigns, and mobilize our supporters for greater change. New Year’s resolutions always make me dreamy.

Some of my favorites from her list include:

Do an annual ROI for your blog (and other social media activities) using benchmarking and metrics.
Don’t set up a presence on every social network in the world all at once.
If you are not reading blogs and Web sites in an RSS Reader, make that your New Year’s resolution.

read more

These rules are not only for non-profits but are important for anyone who is using social media to connect people or move information around. Many of these can be adapted to either non-profit or for-profit situations.

The key is capturing the right metrics. Web 2.0 approaches create a treasure trove of data that can be effectively mined to learn just what is working and what is failing, leading to effective solutions. So do not only have a plan for getting Web 2.0 tools up and going but also have a plan for mining the data they produce.

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