Here's your weekly dose of TA. Enjoy.
Tools and Resources
- 26 time-management tricks I wish I'd known at 20. Read. Bookmark. Share.
- 10 Social Media Branding Strategies Every Business Should Follow (including nonprofits). Read and implement.
- Need transcription services? Try Descript, "Transcripts in under five minutes for 7¢ / min." It's
powered by Google Speech, which means you get state-of-the-art transcription accuracy. Audio is synced to text, so you can always hear the sound beneath the words - and search audio by searching text. If you need the perfection that only human-powered transcription can provide, upgrade to White Glove for 24 hour turnaround, just $1 per minute of audio.
- The Checklist for Plain Language is most awesome. Seriously, bookmark the page and refer to it often!
At work
- Rad Campaign's Facebook Changes You Need To Know About is a must-read:
Facebook has been rolling out changes and new features that are impacting the nonprofit community. Here's what you need to know:
- Facebook began demoting individual posts from people and Pages that use engagement bait. What's engagement bait? It's statuses like, "Like this if you can't start your morning without a cup of coffee!" The point of limiting this is to encourage "more authentic" sharing, and reduce spammy, sensational, or misleading content. Asking people on your Facebook page to share your content may also trigger Facebook to demote your posts.
- Nonprofits fundraising on Facebook will no longer be charged 5% in fees. 2% covered the cost of vetting, operational costs and fraud protection, and the other 3% covered payment processing fees—Facebook will now absorb these fees for accredited nonprofits. Individuals fundraising, on the other hand, will still have to cover their own fees.
- There's also a new Fundraiser API, which allows nonprofits to integrate their Facebook fundraisers with the fundraiser on their websites. This should make for a more seamless experiences for your constituents, especially if you've got a large engagement across Facebook.
- You'll begin noticing an "i" button next to select articles in your News Feed which will provide users with additional context on those articles, including Related Articles, in an effort to squelch misinformation and fake content.
- Almost 70% of US managers are scared to talk to their employees: Guess what. The same percentage of employees are not engaged at work. This is not good for people and businesses/organizations. Thankfully, this article provides help. Read it.
- Millennials are more perfectionist than other generations, but it's not their fault: The takeaway from this most interesting article:
For managers, the study results might signal a need to pay more attention to the wellbeing of the youngest workers. Exploiting the extreme zeal of fresh-faced employees is a time-honored corporate tradition, but it might be more prudent (and humane) to make sure those newbies are feeling supported, that they know it's okay to take chances and fail.
- The Library of Congress Will No Longer Be Archiving All Public Tweets
- How The Wrong People Get Promoted And How To Change It:
That the business world may be filled with managers who unwittingly drive their people away is at the heart of Gallup’s 50-plus page report "State Of The American Manager: Analytics And Advice For Leaders." What the research reveals is that organizations consistently choose the wrong people for management roles, and pay dearly for it through poor engagement and costly turnover–and the inevitable decline in overall performance.
But Gallup also discovered what distinguishes the very best managers–new and truly groundbreaking insight into the talents, motivations, and practices of bosses who make workers want to stay.
Learn something
- Advanced Crowdfunding Strategies, January 10: Free.
- Tech Trends 2018, February 1: Free.
- Nonprofit Data for Beginners, Thursdays in February ($120): Some of what you will do in this multi-session course:
- Consider what questions you need your data to answer.
- Learn how to define your goals and develop processes for collecting your data.
- Explore the many places where you can find useful data.
- Learn how to manage your metrics and data so that they remain useful over the long term.
- Dive into case studies of real organizations using data to make decisions.
- Consider what questions you need your data to answer.
- Altruism, Empathy & Efficacy: The Science Behind Engaging Your Supporters, January 31 (free):
Every day, social impact practitioners trying to do good in the world work to activate audiences based on assumptions they have about what drives people to support causes. Often these assumptions come from a little bit of experience and a lot of what social scientists call confirmation bias, our tendency to seek out data that confirms what we already believe to be true. But it turns out that many of the assumptions we make are only partially borne out by science. This webinar and the applied literature review research it's based upon, will explore the concepts of altruism, empathy and efficacy and how we can best use these ideals in our everyday work to activate cause supporters.
- Last but not least, here's the Wild Apricot list of free webinars: 37 Free Nonprofit Webinars for January 2018. Some that look particularly useful during the first half of the month: The New Volunteer Manager's Toolkit (January 9), Legal Rules for Digital Advocacy You Need to Know (but probably don't) (January 9), and Engaging the Volunteer of the Future (January 11).