If you want me to follow someone, put them in a list.

Yes… a very big deal.

How lists will completely change how we use Twitter

• Users can follow a list without having to follow all the users on that list.
• Third party applications will use lists in fun and interesting ways.
• Sites like Listorious will feature a variety of content based on lists.
• Twitter lists will give users additional ways to create value for their followers.
• Twitter lists will add an additional social proof element to all Twitter users.
• Twitter lists will change how we follow streams.

This short video covers how to use lists and why

Also see:

Twitter Lists for Nonprofits

How non-profits can take advantage of Twitter Lists

Seesmic Desktop Adds Support for Twitter Lists

Video: How to use Twitter Lists in Seesmic

Top Twitter Lists

As of last night, there are over 2900 different social networking applications – just for the iPhone! And in the queue are thousands more – from augmented reality apps to healthcare-information apps. In short, it seems that there’s a massive land grab for us mobile consumers.

Small business FTW

I used to think that the future of the mobile consumer market was largely owned by companies like iTunes, Verizon and Pepsi. But now I think it’ll be owned by places like In A Pickle, the breakfast place around the corner from my house.

Three smart dudes and a chick

For the past few weeks I’ve been playing a site @joewaters pointed out to me called foursquare started by Dennis Crowley,
Naveen Selvadurai,  Harry Heymann and Mari Sheibley. Briefly, foursquare is a cross between Twitter, Yelp and Milton Bradley’s Monopoly. It allows you to make real-time connections with other folks [Twitter] who rate their visits to local restaurants, retailers and other local businesses [Yelp]. You also get kudos in return for “good consumer behavior”. For example, if you have the most visits to a coffee shop, you become “The Mayor” [Monopoly].

Is this thing on?

Every time I’d ping foursquare when I visited Panera Bread or Starbucks (which gets posted on Twitter) I received no offline response from these businesses. Not even a “thanks for stopping by”. But I wasn’t surprised. Foursquare is new and someone has to make the doughnuts. I thought, “How can these businesses using foursquare to get closer to their customers?”

And when I became the Mayor of Panera Bread in Watertown, I half jokingly asked, “where’s my effin’ bagel, Panera Bread?!”

In A Pickle, on the other hand thanked me for my Yelp review 26 minutes after I posted it!

Guess where I’ll be Mayor next?

I’m working with a client on optimizing social media for their website. When I first started working with them, I noticed that they had many inbound links from various social media sites, but no links going from their web-site back to those social media sites. When I pointed this out, they asked: “Shouldn’t we be focused on bringing people to our site and not away from our site?” I answered “Yes, but don’t you also want to keep those people engaged?”

Why two-way connections are important

(thanks, @problogger)

Potential customers find out about your organization in many ways. From a search on Google, a review in Yelp, or a Retweeted link. They also have different ways of buying. And while a few first-time visitors might have an immediate need for your offering, most of these folks won’t buy anything on their first visit. But are they gone forever? No.

If they are interested, they’ll want to stay connected. And they’ll want that connection on their terms, not yours.

Constructing an outbound road

• Get a Facebook Page and put a fanbox on your site.
• If you’re on Twitter, put a follow me button on your site.
• While we’re at it, get a blog – it’ll have an RSS feed folks can grab.
• If you’re a museum, have an outbound link to your Flickr gallery.
• If Plurk is your home, put a link on your site.
• Make sure these connection points show up on every appropriate page on your site – not just the home page.
• Put social media links in your email newsletters.

Again, it’s all about giving customers, donors and prospects multiple ways of opting in to you and what you offer.

I know I missed something. What two-way roads have you built?

A big part of nurturing and building your community is about giving. You always thinking about your friends: “What do they need?”, “How can I promote their agenda before mine?“, “How can I build valuable connections between people?”. You single-minded focus on on them – on giving – is why they love you.

I’m a giver too. That’s where I find meaning, and as far as I can remember, I’ve always been that way. But like most givers, I find it hard to receive. For example, when I had the flu last month, I refused help – even though I couldn’t get out of bed – for three days! My girlfriend, Kate had to practically break into my place with chicken soup.

Selfish Giving

When Kate was finally able break in using a crow bar, I saw a big smile on her face. I saw that, like me, she is also nourished by giving. Receiving happens simultaneously when when we are giving. And by refusing her help, I was being selfish.

How to take

Take from your readers: While sifting through my Feedly reader this weekend, I saw Danny asking his readers about his blog design: “I’d love for you to help me one way or another, if that’s okay with you?” Simple, short and human.

The 20 or so comments in 12 hours that proves two things:

1. Danny has a lively community who cares.
2. Danny values their input.

Take from their inbox: Then April emailed me and a few of her friends asking for help. “If you’ve got a few minutes and you’re willing, I’d love to have you answer this: Do I really need to be blogging regularly if I’ve got a service-based business?” Of course, I was happy to offer my experience which she published along with other responses. This made me feel valued and included among her close friends. She took, and by giving I received.

Take on Twitter: Twitter is an answer box. I got an iPhone last week (yay for me!) and wanted to know what the best Twitter app was. So I asked Twitter. Ashley, Seshu and Doc jumped in with their answers. Was it good for them? Maybe.

What’s been your experience?

I was on the phone yesterday with a prospective client who expressed concern from her board about losing control. “I know that we need to eventually start blogging and tweeting,” she said. “but our board members are concerned about losing control.” She went on to describe what I think are extremely valid concerns:

• Social media will open the flood gates to criticism about the organization.
• Social media will take away their control over the brand image.
• They won’t be able to control the resource requirements needed to do it right.

After listening to her concerns, I half-jokingly asked: “What if we showed them that they won’t lose any more control than they have now – no matter how much they dive into social media?”

“What do you mean?”, she asked.

Loss of control is a non-issue

I went on to explain that, for the most part, the issue of control has not been effected by the advent of social media.

Potential donors still have complete control over two things:

1. Whether they choose to donate money to your non-profit or not.
2. What they say to their friends about your non-profit.

And likewise, non-profits still have control over many things:

1. The price of their products (donations and how they are spent).
2. Who buys their products (channels of fundraising).
3. How they treat their or donors.
4. How they treat their employees.
5. How much value they create in their community.

->Also see visual.

Only the volume has changed

The only thing that’s different on both sides is that the volume has been cranked up to ten. A bad experience now gets posted on YouTube. And a great experience gets retweeted.

How companies can control social media

A customer’s experience of a product is largely controlled by the company. And even in the case where a customer has a crap experience because of a “bad apple” employee or an honest mistake, the company still has complete control over making things right. In this sense, companies have a substantial ability to “control” what people say about them.

For some organizations though, it might be easier to blame social media than to admit losing control over the business.

What do you think?

The Facebook Group Wall

Groups will have a Wall summarizing all the activities of people within the group and a Publishing bar similar to profiles and Pages.

As soon as a Facebook user joins the Group, the wall updates with a Publisher allowing them to share video, links, photos or just a status.

The Facebook Group News Feed

The other big tweak to Facebook Groups is the News Feed. As with Pages, you will now be able to see your friends activity within specific Groups. For example, if Jon Aston shares a video on the 12for12k Facebook Group, it will show up in my News Feed.

What do these changes mean?

These enhancements to Facebook Groups will make it easier for members to connect with each other and keep up with the latest activity in the group. Group members will be able to connect back to the Group page through links in their News Feed. They’ll also be able like, comment and share posts on the Groups wall.

For non-profits, this means better tools to build community – and a bigger community than just your supporters. It means more opportunities to connect with the members of many Groups on Facebook. In sum, this means a bigger platform for the causes for which you’re fighting.

How will you use the new Facebook Groups?

Joe Waters is the Director of Cause Marketing for Boston Medical Center. Each year his team creates Halloweentown,  family-friendly event that will raise over $800,000 for BMC. Their success is the result of cause marketing, where non-profits and corporations work together to create value (money, exposure, new donors / customers) for each other.

In this video interview, I ask Joe:

• What is cause marketing?
• How does Boston Medical Center use cause marketing?
• How does cause marketing create cross-promotion for corporations?
• How will you measure Social Media ROI?
• How can a non-profit get started with cause marketing?

Also see: Countdown to Halloween Town: Pinups to the People

Questions? Comment below or reply to @joewaters

Kids vs Global Warming is a non profit organization founded and led by Alec Loorz, who is now 14 years old. They educate other kids about the science of global warming and empower them to take action.

Through educational presentations, community activism projects, multi-media, and leadership training they remind kids that THEY MATTER!

If Blog Action Day ever decided to give out their own Nobel Peace Prize, Alec would get my vote!

Please join their Facebook Group to find out how you get involved.

—————————————

Back in July, I partnered with givezooks! on a webinar called “10 steps to Nonprofit success on Twitter”, which enabled me get to know their management team. They work hard, love what they do, make software that’s easy top use,  and promote the heck out of their client’s fundraising campiagns. But maybe many of you haven’t heard of givezooks!?

Who is givezooks!?

givezooks! makes fundraising tools that handle online donations while allowing donors to share and promote their actions on Facebook and Twitter. The service also turns supporters into fundraisers by allowing them to create their own personal fundraising page. So when friends of that supporter donate money on their page, they can also share that action on Facebook, Twitter or email. Empowering supporters to do “social fundraising” is what makes givezooks! so powerful.

Gift cards as donations

So when they recently announced a partnership with Plastic Jungle to accept giftcards, I felt it was worth sharing on my blog. This gives more options for donors, which means more money for non-profits!

Here’s how it works

1.	Donor donates a gift card to a givezooks! online fundraiser.
2.	Gift Card is processed by our partner, Plastic Jungle.
3.	Plastic Jungle will then convert this gift card to cash, and send a check to the nonprofit.
4.	The donor will then receive an electronic thank you note (that will also serve as a tax letter).

For more information and live examples, please check out the givezooks! website. They also have some pretty cool webinars on using social media.