Social media primer

As the world of social media expands, so does the list of opportunities for using Web 2.0 tools to meet your business objectives. If you're interested in laying the foundation of a social media strategy, Michael Fruchter offers 35 tips for getting started, including:

• Register your domain name, preferably a dot com extension.


• Establish a Twitter account


• Produce content the people will want to share with others


• Work smarter not harder. Use the tools to help you manage and stay ahead of the pack.


• Blog postings, bookmarks, Flickr images and so forth should all be imported into a social content aggregation site, such as FriendFeed.com

View the entire list of tips on Michael's blog.

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Wiki your local politicians

If you've ever wished there was a central place to commiserate with your community members about its leaders, policies, and services, according to TechnologyReview.com your wishes may be coming true.

513connect is a site with a mission to allow individuals to collect, share, and comment on information on all 513,000 elected U.S. officials, right down to your village councilor and sewer district board member.

The site is the effort of American Solutions, a national grass roots organization based in Washington DC.

According to the article, "American Solutions has high ambitions of developing the platform into a free, open-content encyclopedia analogous to Wikipedia."

Read the article here.

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Technology as a Management Issue

In a recent article on Baseline, writer Faisal Hoque captures the crux of the DigitalNow message- a mission that is also a priority for the new American Administration as well as cross-sector organizations around the world:
"Information technology can do a lot to address the problems we face. After all, the Wall Street trading room, the doctor’s office and the anti-terrorism command center are, in essence, information markets. And the Social Security Administration, IRS and Federal Reserve Board are sifters of information. These agencies deal in vital information, yet they don’t do much better than many other organizations in getting their technology functioning well. It all comes down to management, pure and simple."

Read the entire article here.

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DigitalNow 2009: The premier conference for association leaders Early Bird Registration Ends 01/31/09!

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Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com

DigitalNow 2009 Program Announcement

Be Seen. Be Heard. Be Trusted.

DigitalNow 2009 workshops deliver these key learning takeaways:

• Use technology to deliver more services to more people for less cost


• Broaden your membership base by engaging the next generation of members today


• Adjust technology-enabled business models in an era of tight resources


• Hear from Association leaders who have adapted to successfully lead and manage during these tumultuous economic times

And that's just the beginning! We're committed to providing you with the information and tools you need now, so you can:

• solve today's problems


• position your association for the future


• gain hands-on experience with the tools you'll be making decisions about over the next 12-18 months



View the preliminary list of workshops at the official DigitalNow web site.

DigitalNow 2009: You can't afford to miss it.

Early Bird Registration Ends Soon!




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DigitalNow 2009: The premier conference for association leaders Registration Now Open!

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Revolution of Choice

There once was a time when your community had one grocery store - before they started calling them "supermarkets," and "megastores."

There once was a time when consumer choices were simple and limited. You could buy Brand X or you could buy Brand Y, and you were perfectly happy.

Then came the revolution of choice.

In the video below, an advertising agency creatively tells the story of how we've gone from broadcast media that promoted the same few products to families across the country as they sat around the television watching the same few programs, to a culture of immersive media where we are all constantly bombarded with seemingly limitless choices for how we spend our time, money, and energy.



If you are unable to view the video above, visit
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciSrNc1v17M

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DigitalNow 2009: The premier conference for association leaders Registration Now Open. Early Bird rates ending soon!

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2009 Web Predictions

Every year, the ReadWriteWeb authors at The New York Times make their predictions for the world of Web technologies and new media. What do they say is in store for 2009?:

• Yahoo sells to a big media company, but it won't be Microsoft


• Health web apps start getting attention from mainstream people and media


• Have cake and eat it too solutions will emerge as a strong option


• One or two interface developments will blow us away


• Professional twitterer becomes a real job.


• Consumer and regulatory backlash make online privacy into a key differentiator for major players.


• Streaming web video to the living room will go mainstream.

Visit NYTimes.com to read the full list of predictions in detail, and to see how the group scored on the predictions they made for 2008.

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DigitalNow 2009: The premier conference for association leaders Early Bird Rates ending soon!

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Are Social Networks Sinking?

A number of current factors are having an impact on the health and viability of social networking sites. According to Technology Review, dire market conditions have caused business-focused networking sites such as LinkedIn and Jive to slash workforce by 10 and 40 percent, respectively.

A lack of new solid small business plans, shorter runway for getting new ventures off the ground, and reduced growth potential are all coming to bear on the future shape of the social network landscape.

Even before speculation of the potentially profound effect of the economic downturn, some experts had already been raising concerns about how social media firms might make money.

Where will it all lead? In the absence of a solid business model to sustain social media firms, will they collapse? Will the smaller firms all be eaten up by giants such as Microsoft and Google? Read the article here.

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DigitalNow 2009: The premier conference for association leaders Early Bird registration ends soon!

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10 free brand-building tools

The only thing worse than when people talk negatively about your brand is if they don't talk about it all.

Whether you want to correct perceptions about your brand or if your goal is simply to get people talking, Dan Schawbel of Mashable.com recommends blending these popular Web 2.0 tools and practices into your reputation management plan:

• Google


• Blog Posts


• Blog Comments


• Social Comments


• Discussion Boards


• Twitter


• FriendFeed


• Social Search


• Interactive Search


• Your personal network

Read Dan's post.

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DigitalNow 2009: The premier conference for association leaders Early Bird Registration Now in Effect!

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Who is Gen Y?

Teresa Wu is a UC San Diego student who offers a view into the world of Generation Y. Whether or not she speaks for her entire generation is up for debate, but here is how she defines herself and her peers:

• We crave personal development


• We pursue unconventional paths


• We value company culture


• We?re not afraid to ask


• We embrace transparency


• We just want to do what we love

For a more in-depth discussion of how Teresa sees her generation and how some of her peers have responded, read the entire post at http://byteresawu.com

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DigitalNow 2009: The premier conference for association leaders Early Bird Registration Rates Now Available!

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Contribute to the DigitalNow blog. Suggest a blog topic, or reference an article or other item you think would be of interest to the DigitalNow community. Drop us a line at DigitalNow@fusionproductions.com