Believe it or not, we're less than 24 hours away from finding out who the next administration will be. Finally.

While the campaigns are busy getting their last arguments in, on the ground, we're preparing for an anticipated record turnout. Record turnout sounds like a good thing for democracy, but it could come with record problems.

Justice Brandeis said that sunshine is the best disinfectant. Now, you can shine your rays on the voting process, highlighting any issues you encounter at the polls: Allison Fine and Nancy Scola have developed TwitterVoteReport, a site that collects "tweets" from Twitter users with news from their polling places.

Danielle Brigida, National Wildlife Federation

As social media grows in popularity, one fact cannot be ignored: if used well, it can generate impressive amounts of traffic and increase engagement around your cause or organization. If ignored, however, it can lead to tears of anguish and people punching their computers.

I spend a lot (and I mean a lot) of time trying to figure out how to use social networking, bookmarking and news sites to enhance the National Wildlife Federation's online presence. The work I've been doing with my large non-profit can be translated to even the smallest message.

There are several key techniques for dispersing information effectively. These overall strategies aren't anything new in the marketing world: Social media is just a new way to do old business. The tools may have changed, but the need for knowing your audience, having an end goal, testing theories, and acting on lessons learned remains the same.

Flickr Photo: paurianMuseums get a bad rap as purveyors of the past. I'd guess most of us, when we think about museums at all, think about dusty old things. But the very best museums tie all that old stuff to the world we live in today, and the future we're creating.

It's a lot like our roles as non-museum nonprofits: we sift through all the information and data out there to find what matters for our communities -- and make it relevant.

Part of that is the selection process, choosing what we'll showcase. The other part is how we design our display, or communicate what we're showcasing.

Another way of saying this: How people get your message is as important as what you're saying.

Flickr: Si1veryEarlier this summer, our 501 Tech Club friends in Austin, TX helped organize a Tweet-up blood drive with the Austin Social Media Club with great success: new folks made their way to donate blood after hearing about it through Twitter.

They're at it again this month -- September is Hunger Action Month -- helping to organize education and donation opportunities for the Austin community in the first ever Ham-Up Tweet-up.

NTEN Member David Neff, from the American Cancer Society in Austin, Texas produced this video to document a recent Tweet Up Blood Drive he helped organize through his local 501 Tech Club and Social Media Club.

Flickr Photo: AutomaniaIn the technology section of USA Today on Sunday, a lot of new folks learned about Twitter. The micro-blogging social network has grown from 200,000 users to over 2 million users in about a year, and individuals, companies, news outlets, fire departments, and nonprofit organizations have been using the free service to connect, inform, and engage.

If you joined us at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans, chances are you experienced the usefulness of the tool, too. NTC attendees connected with each other, made social plans, got notes from sessions they couldn't attend, knew when free ice cream was being handed out in the conference lobby and when the coffee was running out during breakfast plenaries.

As the article frames it, Twitter is one of those tools that seems to be trivial and a waste of time -- until you try it for yourself.

There so many social media and network tools out there, it doesn't makes sense for an individual -- never mind an organization -- to invest time and resources into trying them all out. But Twitter might be worth a some time.

Here are a few highlights, low-lights, and applications of Twitter to consider for your own purposes:

Flickr Photo: bitzceltI just had a conversation with one of the organizers of the Twebinar, a summer series of webinars about social media hosted by Chris Brogan and Radian6. David Alston, from Radian6, picked up the phone (you remember those, don't you?) to respond to some of the questions I had emailed him about the Twebinar format.

I had expressed some confusion about the series, based on the first session I attended, the descriptions they provided, and the discrepancy I saw between the two. David was generous enough with his time to respond to some of these concerns.

Here's what I learned:

Flickr Photo: Johan KoolwaaijYesterday, we kicked off our Member Office Hours. If the rest of the office hours go as well as the first one, we're in for a lot of great conversation.

Jeff Forster from the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management expertly led the first chat in the topic of Leadership. I think all participants would agree that it was as much fun to chat with and learn from each other as it was to get Jeff's insight. All around, a great conversation.

One of our biggest takeaways, getting your tech-nervous ED to try something new, may boil down to the oldest tactic of all: peer pressure. Here's an excerpt from that chat:

Flickr Photo: Capt KodakIt's not about the technology, it's about the people.

You are not marketing, you are building community.

In case you need to remind yourself, or others, of these principles, check out Twistori. It's a perfect example of what social media is all about: people. It exposes the humanity that makes social media so powerful -- our love, our hate, our thoughts, our beliefs.

The next time you're thinking about how to get your message out in social media, visit Twistori. Then think about how you can help inspire, motivate, and excite the people in your community instead.

Just learned about the new (dare I say adorable) Twitter mashup Twitlinks from Richard MacManus's post on Read Write Web.

Twitlinks can be defined in two simple steps:

• Tech People Talk about Cool Stuff
• TwitLinks Makes It Look Nice
  

You can subscribe to the RSS Feed (also available as JSON, iPhone, and Google Gadget), eliminating the need to follow all these tech industry folks individually, and receive fast bits of the latest technology buzz.

As Gary Brewer, creator of TwitLinks, told ReadWriteWeb: