Michael Stein advises:

…here are two good articles that were published recently on the subject. The first is Should Your Organization Use Social Networking Sites? written by Brett Bonfield and published by Idealware. I like the way this article is divided into two parts, beginning with a discussion of why online social networks may not be a good fit for an organization, and then moving on to a second part that discusses opportunities of this new medium.

The second article is Eight Secrets of Effective Online Networking - Tips, tricks, and tools for using and managing your social networks wisely written by Beth Kanter.

Link: Two good articles on online social networks

This document is meant to be a short starting point for nonprofits to make a decision if Salesforce.com is a good choice for their nonprofit. It will give some introduction to what Salesforce.com does, and the benefits and risks involved in using it.

Link: Is Salesforce.com right for your Nonprofit?

Documenting your organizational procedures can be a big help, but this information often languishes in obscurity and goes slowly out of date. Jeremy Wallace talks about how wikis - easily editable websites - can help.

Link: Using Wikis for Internal Documentation

Does your organization show up on the first page of results in search engines like Google or Yahoo? The content and structure of your website can have a dramatic effect on how easily potential constituents can find you via search engines. This article explains how.

Link: 10 Steps to Being Found on Search Engines

Check out Idealware’s great “Consumer-Reports-style” articles on databases, websites, email and advocacy, and office productivity. They also offer for a very reasonable price online seminars on how to select software for your organization.

The more I work inside the dynamic world of web content management systems, the more I wish I hadn’t put off the implementation for so long.

A systems librarian’s account on why she decided to look into CMS, how she researched for and selected one CMS, and what it was like when she started to prepare it for her library. A great starting point for any small organization thinking about using a CMS.

Link: From Static to Dynamic — Choosing and Implementing a Web-Based CMS

Try to use Flash only where it is needed. Many rich media sites such as Google’s YouTube use Flash for rich media but rely on HTML for content and navigation. You can too, by limiting Flash to on-page accents and rich media, not content and navigation. In addition to making your site Googlebot-friendly, this makes you site accessible to a larger audience, including, for example, blind people using screen readers, users of old or non-standard browsers, and those on limited low-bandwidth connections such as on a cell phone or PDA. As a bonus, your visitors can use bookmarks effectively, and can email links to your pages to their friends.

Link: Best uses of Flash

Words matter. They always have. They always will. On the Web, words matter even more. The right words.

…If you want to design a new website, the first thing you should decide on is the words. Not the graphical design, not the software. No. The words must come first. Once you get the words right, you are half-way there.

Link: Your website: Just words?

Last month, a friend from Montreal wrote to me for suggestions on how to raise money for an organization she had come across several years ago in Peru. She was about to return to the country and wanted to bring good news in the form of a micro-philanthropy campaign that would support the organization’s community projects.The only problem: she didn’t know anything about micro-philanthropy.

Below are my suggestions to her. I’m posting them here as a resources to anyone thinking of raising money and support for an inspiring organization they meet while traveling…

Link: Raising Money for an Organization You Meet While Traveling