listening in a digital world

::assumptions

There are people out there who are interested in our issues.(whether we know them or not)

Those people are active in our communities.(whether we help them or not)

We want to engage those interested and active people in our work.(whether we agree with them or not)

That’s the heart of collaboration:Engaging with interested and active people to create change.

But first:you have to listen

::the steps

1. Set up your toolbox

The RSS ReaderGoogle ReaderBloglinesNetvibesFeedly

Brainstorm keywordsOrganization nameIssue areaSynonyms for issue areaOther nonprofit names in your spaceProgram, services, and event namesURLs for your blog, web site, online communityGeography

Set up your feedsGoogle AlertsTwitter SearchTechnoratiFlickrYouTubeBackTypeBlogpulseSocial MentionBoardReader

And a few other accounts…TwitterDeliciousBackTypeFlickrYouTube

2. Make listening a practice

Lurk for the first 30 daysReview feeds first thing every morningOpen interesting links in new tabsRead and follow linksSubscribe to new feeds“Share” the most interesting information

On Day 31, go into triage modeBe quick to mark as read“Share” or “Star” as the first level of interestBookmark in deliciousShare with short comment in Twitter

On Day 45, begin to leave commentsAdd value to the conversationDon’t be afraid to disagreeKeep to the point of the postPoint to relevant sources if you’ve more informationWatch the conversation develop

3. Regular time for reflection

Review the trendsWhat/who do you share?Where do you comment?Are topics of conversation changing?Are topics important to you increasing or decreasing in frequency?Where are the most interesting conversations happening?

Measure your influenceMining deliciousTwitterFollowersRetweetsLink activityReturn traffic

Aggregate your contributionsFriendfeedBacktypeDeliciousTwitter

SourcesWe Are Media: Tactical Track Module 1 http://www.wearemedia.org/Tactical+Track+Module+1nptech taghttp://delicious.com/tag/nptech

Thank youMarnie Webbhttp://www.techsoupglobal.orghttp://twitter.com/webbhttp://delicious.com/ext337http://ext337.org

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