There's a new way you can communicate with your team, constituents, or professional community about any content you find on the web. Reframeit is a browser extension that allows you to annotate almost any content you find on the web, and engage your network in a discussion about it.

ZDNet wrote up a great overview of the tool and its applications, and ReadWriteWeb also gave it a brief review. I think Reframeit opens a lot of possibilities for advocacy and service groups -- and definitely for educational institutions.

I'd love to hear comments about how you think you could use something like this in your work.

You've seen the tweets. You want the shirt. Now's your chance!

Keep your eyes peeled next week, because all month long, we're going to "fondle the hammer!" We'll be talking about social media tools just for the sake of how cool they are. (Because let's face it, they are wicked fun.)

Every day, we'll ask you to share the tools you use to listen, share, and build community. All we need you to do is tell us what tools you use, and why you love them.

You'll get two great rewards:

• First, you'll get the satisfaction of helping to build a curriculum that will help other nonprofits learn how to use social media effectively.
• AND, you'll get the shirt. (You know you want one!)

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: fr@nsI'm not normally an Oprah's Book Club kind of girl, but I happened to be trapped in a Starbucks with no reading materials for 90 minutes one day, so I bought "The Art of Racing in the Rain." Although everything jaded and cynical in me was annoyed by the sappy homilies, one bit really stuck with me: Your car follows where your eyes lead.

When it comes to our use of social media as a sector, I have to wonder, where are we looking? Where are we trying to drive? I hear a lot of general answers: we want to raise more money; we want to spread our message further. But I don't hear the specifics needed if we're going to do those things meaningfully. Having a Facebook group and a blog will not, on their own, raise more money for your organization.

Flickr Photo: husband unitIt's the day before a major holiday, so things are a wee bit quiet around here. Well, except for the iPod blaring Elton John. But quiet other than that.

I've finally had some time today to dive into the conversation that you, dear NTEN community, are starting on our Be the Media (name about to change) project.

If I didn't already believe in the wisdom of crowds, I certainly believe in the wisdom of THIS crowd. So many of you have contributed to the first module: Why Should Nonprofits Embrace Social Media (Or Not)?

Flickr Photo: kirstenvIf there are any "Laws of Blogging," then posting consistently is one of them. One of the keys to retaining and even increasing your readership is to post regularly. My own personal experience with the NTEN blog is that more IS better. The more we post, the more traffic we have, period. I'm sure there's going to be some point when this will no longer hold true, but for now, that's our reality.

Which means, of course, that I am now trapped. I've worked really hard over the last few months to become a (near) daily blogger. In fact, you're reading this while I'm on vacation because I made sure to have a few posts in the bank before I left. But being a daily blogger is a commitment rivaled only by kids and marriage. (OK, that's an exaggeration, but it is a lot of work.)

So I thought I would share some of my challenges, as well as a few of the things that help me out along the way. Mostly, though, I want you to write this post. Share with us. What are the strategies that you use to make your blogging work? What are the difficulties you encounter?

Here are my challenges:

I attended a free webinar last week on the new book, Groundswell: Winning in World Transformed by Technologies, presented by its authors, Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li of Forrester Research.

The book is geared toward the for-profit sector, but the strategies can be adopted by nonprofits in terms of building community, engaging activists, and even raising financial support around a cause or organization online.

I want to provide some of those applications and takeaways from the session:

LOLnptechNTEN members were sharing lots of great tips, checklists, and resources online last week.

Colin Delany, of e.politics, shared his Social Marketing "cheat sheet" for using Web2.0 tools for engagement and fundraising purposes.

If you're a do-it-yourself kind of nonprofit when it comes to designing your web site, you might want to check out Kivi Leroux Miller's "10-Point Basic Website Checklist for Nonprofits".

For anyone plagued by email delivery statistics (or curious about what your organization should be considering when it comes to email messaging), take a look at NTEN member and NTC speaker Bill Pease's helpful tips.

Marnie Webb provides a couple of posts about integrating Twitter into your communications practice: first, she brings Twitter into the virtual tool chest she's building for her readers, then shares a list of Twitter resources that can help you maximize your Twitter-effectiveness.

Speaking of Twitter, Rose Vines is the back-channeling star of the NTEN community. Fortunately for us, she shares her tips for using Twitter for good (documenting and sharing).

In other news, NTEN members are . . .

Every time I turn around, Carie Lewis and the fantastic team at HSUS are doing something else creative and fun that's also a great example of how to use social media for your cause. These NTEN members really get it. (If you're at the NTC, be sure to check out the session Carie is speaking at.)

This time, the folks at HSUS have an LOLcatz-style campaign for seals. To raise awareness about baby seals, they're sponsoring a photo caption contest. The judge? Nigel Barker from America' Next Top Model. (Don't tell anyone that I've seen almost every episode.)

So if you have a funnybone, check out LOLseals and submit your caption today. Over 14,000 others have in last week!

Flickr photo by red5standingbyLet's kick off February with some advice for getting your organization (or yourself) advocating for your cause with free social media tools.

First, there's Twitter. This tool should be familiar to the NTEN community by now, but just in case you're tuning in for the first time, Twitter is a free social networking/micro-blogging tool that allows you to submit short updates to your network via the web, your mobile device, or a third-party application; you also receive short updates from the network you're "following."

How to apply it to your mission:

• Update your volunteers, constituents, and friends with the latest news about your cause (a bill, a candidate, a campaign, an event, etc.).
• Organize attendees or participants at an event or project in real-time.
• Engage a community on a personal level -- Beth Kanter leveraged her network on Twitter to help her win the Giving Challenge.

You may want to read this article on Read/Write Web about Twitter's emergence as a viable communications platform. Note the helpful information and considerations for how to use it!