Tag Archives: google plus

Using technology to be better trustees

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In 2010 I wrote a blog post about using social media/ online tools to be better trustees. New technologies have emerged since then and, reminded by a similar post from Karl Wilding, I thought it might be time to revise the post.

What’s the usual structure of your trustee meetings?

You get sent the papers a few days before, everyone has been too busy to look at them, you waste time reading documents and going over old ground, there’s disagreement about who was meant to be doing what and in the end no major decisions are made?

If that sounds like your board then there is help out there and technology might offer a solution. Continue reading →

How would you tell someone to get started with social media?

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Last Sunday I was involved in a Twitter conversation with watfordgap, kanter, magicroundabout and others about how much time voluntary organisations have to devote to using social media.

Twitter screengrab

Paul Webster (watfordgap) made a comment that perhaps we should be encouraging organisations to start out in social media by introducing them to things like Google+ or Pinterest. I find myself disagreeing with Paul on that point and I wanted a few more than 140 characters to say why.

Before writing anything I want to make it clear that I’m not saying I wouldn’t advise organisations to use Google+, Pinterest or anything else. I hope that after working through what an organisation wants to achieve, who they’re trying to reach and what resources they have available then I’d help them to pick the best tools for the job, whatever they may be.

I’m also talking specifically about working with staff at organisations at the start of their social media journey and not individuals interested in social media for personal reasons.

The thing that I always focus on is the tools that will give them a thorough understanding of how social media works and what will give them the biggest return for the amount of time they’re able to give to it.

In my experience of working with organisations, when you get hold of someone to show them what social media’s all about you don’t have very long to grab their attention. If they don’t get some kind of benefit from it – either connecting with someone, sharing a piece of information or finding something out – very quickly then you’ve lost them. Sustained benefit from social media comes out of the personal connections and conversations with people you meet through the sharing and talking.

The other thing to consider is that they need to use a tool that will give them a return on the precious time they have to give to social media, whatever their indicator of success might be.

In my mind the answer to this is almost always Facebook and Twitter. Facebook works because of its ready made networks and with a well set up page, regular updates and clear promotion it can bring big returns for organisations. Twitter similarly is very quick to get benefits if you jump in and start talking to people.

My issue with sites like Pinterest and Google + is that although there are undoubtably benefits to some people, there just isn’t the established audience yet to make it a good use of time for organisations with limited resources. Pinterest particularly misses out on that key element of just chatting.

Anyway, that’s what I think. I’m sure you’ll tell me what you think.

Beth Kanter has also written up her thoughts on whether charities should jump onto new tool bandwagons http://www.bethkanter.org/early-wait-google/.

Hanging out is where it’s at

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Last Friday I hosted a Google hangout for “charity” freelancers. Spurred on by what I’d seen at barcampnfp, it was partly a learning exercise to try out Google hangouts and also a way of building up a virtual network of freelancers that work (predominately) with charities and community groups etc.

Despite a huge amount of interest on Twitter the week leading up to the hangout there were only four of us taking part in the end. Even though we were a small group I think it helped when trying out what the hangouts could do.

Simon Cope, Paul Henderson and Steve Bridger all dropped by to say hello.

Google hangout screenshot

The quality of the video and sound on the hangout was really good and you can see from the screenshot above that everyone taking part appears on the right hand side as a medium sized thumbnail with a larger shot in the centre of the person speaking at the time.

On the far left of the screen was where you could take notes from the chat and also where you could access documents to collaborate on. The two types were Sketchpad, which incorporated drawing tools, and Notes for standard documents. I didn’t look to see if you could open up other types of documents, spreadsheets etc.

One of the other nice things about having a hangout rather than using Skype is that it can be both public – so anyone with an interest can attend – but it can also be private between just those people you choose to invite. All to often on Skype I’ve found that you make yourself online to talk to someone but then suddenly there’s an influx of calls or IMs from other people wanting to talk to you. Google hangouts seem to give you a bit more flexibility about your visibility.

As well as the technical side of hosting a hangout it felt like a really nice way to touch base with people, particularly if – as with freelancers – you’re often at home on your own. With everyone looking at the screen at the same time it was a good idea to have a theme to hook our conversation around so there weren’t too many awkward silences.

I’d really like to do one again, definitely on a set topic, and definitely with not too many people. Luckily the maximum for a hangout is 10.

How did you find the hangout? How do you think you might use them in the future?

Hosting a Google hangout for charity freelancers

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I went to barcampnfp on Friday and – as usually happens at these kinds of things – what I got most from the day was meeting up with friends old and new and just talking about what it is to be working in this sector. We all sit at our desks every day, working hard, with little opportunity to bounce ideas off of others.

One of the tech sessions that really got me thinking was on Google plus and we had a hangout with other npf voice people from around the world.

I had an idea about combining these two things – the value of spending time with other freelancers and trying out Google plus hangouts as a learning exercise.

So… I’m scheduling a hangout for next week and here are the details:

Who is it for?

Although everyone is of course welcome, the idea is that it is very much for freelancers working with charities (comm groups, CICs, networks etc, you know who I mean).

The sense from talking to others was that it would be more valuable to focus on specific themes around the issue of freelancing (costing, agreeing contracts, project planning, time management etc) rather than specifically about technology… although I’m sure that’ll creep in!

When is it?

Friday 24th February (next Friday) at 11:00am (UK time) until about 12:00pm I guess.

Where is it?

I’ll start the hangout from my Google+ page gplus.to/LouiseBrown. I’m new to using hangouts so there might be an easier way of doing this. I know you can schedule a hangout if you make it open to everyone but I’d rather the only people that found it were specifically looking for it. If you know of another way of doing in then please leave a comment below.

Using the hangout with extras feature I can give it a name so I’ll call it “Charity freelancers virtual meetup”.

Do feel free to add me to your circles and then I know you’re there, I’ve set up a freelancers circle to try and capture everyone that showed an interest in this.

[ETA - apparently you can have a max of 10 people taking part in a hangout, anyone got thoughts on how to include more?]

What’s the theme?

Well the one thing that always comes up is around pricing. How do you decide what your rate is? How do you work out how much you need to bring in? How do you negotiate costs? What tasks should you be charging for and what should you do for free? Is it OK to charge different prices for different clients? I hope that sounds of interest to people.

Even if you don’t particularly want to talk about any of these things please do still pop by to meet the community of charity freelancers out there.

What is my role in all of this?

I am just the person who had the idea but I don’t by any means have the answers. Do please join in and take control if you feel you have something to say.

I hope to see at least one other of you on Friday!