There Are No Secrets, Only Links...

Has it happened to you yet? You're going about your day when someone makes a remark that surprises you:

"Did you enjoy your trip to Disney with the your grandkids?"

You're not sure how they can know this about you. You hadn't mentioned your trip to them and yet they seem to know all sorts of details about it. Were they spying on you? No. Instead, someone has learned about you through online resources. Nowadays, privacy isn't what it used to be.

It can be as simple as posting a picture on Facebook. Someone in your network makes a comment about it and then the picture is visible to everyone in their network. Before long, your family vacation is known to a whole bunch of people!

The world has changed. Anything about you could be shared online. Is this a bad thing? I think it's mixed bag. Using services like, LinkedIn, a college graduate could network his or her way to a new job. But if that student has pictures on the web of doing a keg stand at a party, then that job offer might disappear.

Think about the image you want to project in cyberspace. Perhaps on this Mother's Day, the best rule to keep in mind is whether you'd be embarrassed to have your mother see any of your online adventures. If so, you may want to be less public in your online life.

Social Media & Nonprofits Survey

A new survey finds that more and more nonprofits are embracing social media, although many admit they need help. The research comes from the just released Nonprofit Social Network survey, which can be downloaded here. Close to 1,000 nonprofits of different sizes, budgets, and missions were polled (from 2/20/09 - 4/15/09) about their use of online social networking tools.

Facebook is the most popular tool, with about 75% usage. Next came YouTube and Twitter.

80% of the organizations have a staff member spend a quarter of their time on social media work.
40% have allocated funds for the effort.
55% plan to increase social media staffing.

Another trend shows that nonprofit leaders want to make their time spent on social media more productive. But 44% say they are being held back by a lack of expertise. As a result, 27% say getting additional training would make better achieve their goals.
To immediately improve your social media skills, take advantage of the learning tools on my Resources page at Social Media Nonprofits.