community organizing tools from the experts webinar
DESCRIPTION
In honor of NTEN's August 2014 theme of "Tools," we’ve invited several of our beloved Tech Club and Community of Practice organizers to give short presentations about their favorite community organizing tools. Tools and processes covered will include: * Post-call communications to build community and extend discussions: Attendees will takeaway an easy post-call process that extends conversations, deepens impact, and broadens community. * Microsoft Office workflow for mass mail: Learn a workflow for sending personalized mass emails that will not be filtered into promotions tabs or deleted as junk, but rather drive event sign-ups. *Text expansion utilities to make your fingers fly: We spend much of our days typing the same thing over and over, but a text expander app can remove the drudgery from your life and make you appear to be the fastest typist ever! * Screencasting with Jing: Learn how to record presentations using the free tool Jing to share images and short videos of your computer screen. * Engagement with Twitter and Storify: Twitter chats present a great way to engage your supporters and volunteers in an accessible, consistent, and fun format. Storify lets you represent those conversations in a visual and dynamic format. * Collaborate from afar with Google Docs: Learn how to use Google Docs to create, share, and collaborate on event planning documents and more.TRANSCRIPT
Community Organizing Tools from the Experts
501 Tech Clubs
Free! Local! Informal!
Communities of Practice
Free! Online! Topic-related!
Awesome Volunteer Organizers
<3
Brett Ashley Crawford, Ph.D.
Arts Management Community of Practice
Post-call/Tweet Chat Communications
• Storify :
Post-Call Communications
• Blog about it:
Build Community & Extend Discussions
• Share broadly & strategically– Timing
• within a week
– Content– Audiences
• NTEN CoPs• Your audiences
– Personal– Organization
Chad Leaman
NetSquaredVancouver
Microsoft Office workflow for mass email
• Stop laughing! There is a good reason!– Targeting a small, distinguished group– Between CRMs– Many contacts to invite were not properly tracked
(had to dig for information)– A mass mail and a direct mail had already been sent,
to poor results– Emails from a person > emails from a mass mail
program
How signups were going
Microsoft Office workflow for mass email
Outlook – become boss
Word – write simple copy
Excel – build the list
Unplug ethernet
Merge
Personalize
Plug in and send
Excel Build the List
• The standard contact fields • I also added columns for the process:
– First Email– Snail Mail– Personal Mail– Phone Call– Can’t attend– Confirmed
Word – Write simple copy• I wrote it as my boss would. Couple short sentences:
Hi «First_Name»,I wanted to personally invite you to the Neil Squire Society’s 30th Anniversary VIP event. It is a private reception for supporters on June 18th at the Vancouver Club from 5pm to 8pm. Please let me know if you are able to make this event. You can RSVP on our website (http://www.neilsquire.ca/30vip/) or email me.You’ve been an important part of our history and I hope you are able to celebrate with us.Gary
Outlook – Become the Boss
• http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb676368(v=exchg.141).aspx
Unplug Ethernet
• Because mail merge puts everything in Outbox
Mail Merge
• Under your Mailings tab in Word
Outlook - Outbox
• Change the Send As / “From” on each one.• Can delay the send time (so you don’t look like
a spam bot to mail servers)• Spend 15 seconds to personalize.
– After event did this process again, added a picture of them to the email.
Plug in and send
They came!
What I learned
• This took process drove 70% of signups. The mass mailer and direct mail before this drove 20%.
• People will email back saying yes, or no and why not (I’m away but wish you the best). They don’t go to signup form linked.
Eli van der Giessen@elijah
NetSquared Vancouver
TEXT EXPANSION UTILITIES
YOUR SECRET PRODUCTIVITY WEAPON
THE PROBLEM
DANGER 1
DANGER 2
HOW IT WORKS
HOW I USE IT
EMAIL ADDRESSES
• eli@v => [email protected]• eli@t => [email protected]• eli@n => [email protected]
HOW I USE IT
MAILING ADDRESS
“Haddress” turns into
Elijah van der Giessen306 - 111 10 Ave WVancouver, BC V5Y 1R7
HOW I USE IT
“oorientation” turns into…It was great to talk with you today. Let’s build on the momentum and get your new group started quickly.
PrioritiesWhat is the name of your group? What community do you want to represent with your name?Once you reply I’ll set up your meetup group. Do you have a meetup.com account yet? If not please create one.Please create a user account on NetSquared.org - this is the first step to adding you to the organizer map.Please review the organizer’s overview. This provides a good introduction to NetSquared and starting up your group.Once you’ve completed steps 1 to 3 please email me back and I’ll tell you how to setup your organizer page on http://www.NetSquared.org
Per our call, I also wanted to share the following resources with you:NetSquared logos which you're welcome to use or remixExample community surveyIdeas for event formats and topics- including slides for you to use or remix at your first event (bottom of page)Tips for using Meetup.com
You are also welcome to reach out to other organizers around the world via the Organizer Google Group (you’ve just been invited in!) as well as share with and learn from other organizers via the Organizer Handbook.
The next step for you is to schedule your first monthly event.
Please let me know how things go for you in starting your group - and don't hesitate to reach out if you have any additional questions! I look forward to hearing about your first event soon!
Best,
GETTING FANCIERCursor insertion points
Eli’s Stats
TIPS
• Start URL abbreviations with a comma:– ,a = <a href=""></a>
• Prevent conflict with regular words by staring most abbreviations with a duplicate letter– Bbio = biography expansion snippet
• Start with frequently used pieces of text, like your email, address, phone number, etc.
I WANT IT!
Paula Jones
NCTech4GoodRaleigh, NC
Jing by TechSmith
How can you use it?
• Capture an image• Record on screen video (5 min max)• Various uses:
– Screen shots for whitepapers, tutorials, and documentation
– Staff/Volunteer on-boarding, training videos– Tip of the week– Embed video or images to your website, blog,
social networks
Praan Misir
Community Building COP#Commbuild
Twitter and Storify
When planning a Twitter Chat
• Scope out the landscape! (Chatsalad.com)
• Participate in other Twitter Chats!
• Use a Management tool
Storify
Storify
Regina Walton
SFTech4Good
Intro: Google Drive/Google Docs
Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service provided by Google.
It enables user cloud storage, file sharing, and collaborative editing.
Intro: Google Drive/Google Docs
What do I use it for?
Everything.
Really…
Resumes, cover letters, presentations, spreadsheets, word processing docs, forms, etc.
Where to find it?Google’s Drive Guide: https://www.google.com/intl/en/drive/
Once You Find It...Google’s Drive Guide App page: https://www.google.com/intl/en/drive/using-drive/#start
Similar to MS Office and OpenOffice
It’s very similar to Microsoft Office and OpenOffice.• Most commands are the same• Can import and export documents.
Where can you use it?Google Drive on the web
Use Google Drive on the web to store and organize all your files. You get 15 GB of free storage across Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos.
Google Drive on your mobile device
If you’re on the go, you can still access all of your files. Just download Google Drive on your phone or tablet and you’re all set.
Google Drive on your computer
Download Google Drive on your Mac/PC to keep files on your desktop synced with your files stored on the web. This means that anything you share, move, modify, or put in the trash will be reflected in Google Drive on the web the next time your computer syncs.
From “Get Started With Google Drive” - https://support.google.com/drive/answer/2424384?hl=en
How-To Create and Use Docs
Creating Google Docs: http://www.gcflearnfree.org/googledriveanddocs/4.2
