By: 
Organizations are increasingly searching for innovative ways to get things done. Whether you are planning an event, launching an initiative, or building an online community, the “social web” provides unlimited access to services you can use.
As audiences and action shift to online spaces, there is a multitude of ways to achieve your goals quickly, effectively, and affordably.
The Wellesley Institute is proud to launch this first version of our Social Media Toolkit. Let us know what you think!
contact@wellesleyinstitute.com
Social Media 101
View more Microsoft Word documents from WellesleyInstitute.
Tactical Toolkit 2.0: Using the social web to build your online toolkit
View more documents from WellesleyInstitute.
Increase Productivity
- www.box.net collaborate, share and store web-based files
- www.glance.com on the spot webinars (7 day free trial) and desktop sharing
- www.googledocs.com– free with gmail. Collaborate and share your work.
- www.constantcontact.com – manage email marketing. Provides numerous templates and free trial.
Find Talent
- www.linkedin.com View profiles of potential hires, search jobs, and make connections. LinkedIn is a great place to advertise open positions.
Professional Development
- www.readwriteweb.com An excellent resource for all that’s happening in the social media world. Subscribe to updates and receive daily tips, links to articles, and support for navigating and maximizing the web.
- www.mashable.com Another great resource for all things social media related
Visuals and Design
- www.flickr.com– Add a visual punch! Through the advanced search function, access impressive and wide ranging creative commons (free) images. Create a public or private flickr group to promote events, create buzz, and share your story.
- www.lovelycharts.com – brings reports and documents to life
Networking & Community
- www.ning.com– Create your own social network (or join others). Ning is a great place to launch projects, and build a community with a common purpose.
- www.wetpaint.com -Build your own website, free and easily! Wetpaint sites include functions for blogs, wikis, forums, and networking.
- www.facebook.com –he world’s most popular social networking site is a great place to launch a fan page (see ours at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Wellesley-Institute/55488522490?ref=ts) Start a group, or start a revolution. Everyone’s here!
- www.twitter.com – The social web’s new darling lets you microblog (tweet), share links, attract followers and follow others. There are other applications that make managing your traffic and connect ions easier, including www.tweetdeck.com
- www.tweetdeck.com is like a visual dashboard. This application allows you to group your “tweeps” into segments that make sense. Our tweetdeck lets us monitor government agency updates, activities from our partner organizations, updates from media, and endless other channels created by us. Tweetdeck also helps us target our messages (tweets) to maximize effect.
Microsites
- Creating a microsite is relatively easy and doesn’t necessarily require the expertise of an IT person. Use your logos to retain branding and increase recognition. Microsites can launch quickly, allowing organizations to disseminate information or mobilize action campaigns quickly. Microsites provide specific, targeted information and can be a powerful way to raise awareness and take action. Microsites that link back to your main site provide a customizable platform connected to your repository of information. There are several platforms available, including www.wetpaint.com, www.ning.com, www.devhub.com, www.zoomshare.com and many others.
Share your work
- www.twitter.com – send links of your publications and media releases to a wide array of followers who follow you because you matter!
- www.facebook.com– did you know that a facebook fan page allows you to share links, videos, files and pictures?
- www.youtube.com– establish your own channel and go straight to video!
- www.slideshare.net–the world’s largest (and coolest) platform for sharing presentations. Taggable, searchable, and extremely easy to use. You can also import a slideshare widget and import this application to your own website.
Tell your story
- If you haven’t soared into the blogosphere, now’s the time. Blogs are the darlings of search engines as they are regularly updated and contain new content – be found! Free blogging platforms include www.wordpress.com, www.blogger.com (with a gmail account), www.movabletype.com (free NFP version), and www.livejournal.com
