Free tool of the week: CommonCraft tutorials on social media tools

flickr/dorineruter

Need to introduce your staff or anyone else to social media tools?

CommonCraft offers a set of nine very short (3-4 minutes each) beautifully simple YouTube tutorials in plain English that appeal to even the least experienced among us. They really are small works of genius. Use one a week at your staff meetings, then spend a few minutes talking about possible work setting applications.

The videos include: RSS, social media, social networking, social bookmarking, online photo sharing, blogs, podcasting, twitter, and wikis. Here’s the one on wikis to give you a taste.

CC photo credit: dorineruter

Free tool of the week: Social Media Wiki

 

flickr/Neil T.

A few months ago, under the wise, creative guidance of Beth Kanter and NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network), the We Are Media project created a wiki toolkit for nonprofits interested in using social media tools to advance their causes.

It’s a terrific place to start understanding these tools (simple youtube tutorials), and to get ideas on how other nonprofits have used them successfully. Topics range from social bookmarking and monitoring to blogging, podcasting, and micromedia. Resources offered appeal to all levels of expertise—including absolute beginners.

The toolkit is rich enough, but don’t skip the strategy modules covering things like storytelling and evaluation metrics/ROI.

It’s a wiki, remember, so if you know of great online resources that should be included, submit them!

Photo credit: Neil T.