I rounded up useful links over on the Forum One Tech blog: Getting your Organization on Facebook

Its safe to say that we're all firm believers in open communications and collaborative tools. But organizations have some fear and trepidation in opening up and trying something perceived as risky. I think the main fear is rooted in "losing control" of a message, without understanding that your are actually part of a two-way conversation with your audience. And even if you choose not to participate, people will still go on talking about you. So, its refreshing for me to read how the American Cancer Society made the leap and has slowly changed to taken advantage of new tools to become more accesible and collaborative. Its noteworthy also in that this change was not mandated from the top, but evolved and spread throughout the ACS as its staff began internally using tools like flickr, del.icio.us, and blogs. Blogging played a key role in reaching out to supporters and keeping them engaged with ACS events. The whole post on Personal Democracy Forum is worth a read, and I'll pull out my favorite quote here to whet your appetite.

Unlike most traditional organizations, according to Erin, the senior staff of ACS ultimately decided that they "weren’t going to freak out about what people said about them." And since so much of the posting is done by volunteers, such as the event site on Flickr, ACS organizationally is not responsible for what gets posted. In other words, the more ACS lets go, the more successful the cancer community becomes by participating and owning their cause more.

The post also suggests that any organization can begin by scanning to see what people are saying about you. Are you doing that already? If not, why not?

Network-Centric Advocacy showcases the kind of rich data GasBuddy's network of volunteers collects. GasBuddy can then turn around and provide incredibly rich and detailed graphs and maps, with data going back to January 2001. The simplicity of their model, getting people to report the local price of gasoline on the web, drives participation. Think of how this enterprise might be approached by government or business, it wouldn't work as elegantly. One close analog, is how the Federal Government calculates the CPI, for which it has to hire people to visit stores and record the price of various goods.

How can your organization tap into this? Is there a simple way that people can contribute to your mission online?

A new report suggests that you ignore bloggers at your own peril. Bloggers, despite making up a tiny proporation of all Internet users, have a disproportionate measure of influence because they are actively engaged.

More than half of the internet users on the continent are passive and do not contribute to the web at all, while a further 23% only respond when prompted. But the remainder who do engage with the net - through messageboards, websites and blogs - are helping change the national conversation, say researchers.

How can policy or issue-focused organizations use blogs? (And scare their Communications Director?)

• Setup a single blog and get key staff, particularly those working on specific issues, to write articles for a blog. They could write these as emails that the blog editor later puts online. As your blog grows, you can spin off more focused blogs


• Find bloggers who share your interests and goals and do everything you can to support them. Make yourself available as a resource for interviews and provide publications or other materials that the bloggers can use. Promote their blog on your own site.


• Comment on blogs related to the issues you work on, participate in these online conversations. Use them to link back to relevant resources on your own site.