The Houston Arts Alliance concluded a three part workshop series called "T3: Tech, Tools, and Tips on Social Media & Web 2.0" at the Houston Technology Center. The goal of these workshops was to teach non-profit organizations and individual artists about new technologies and how to use tools to maximize productivity, build capacity, and develop audiences. T3 Workshops covered three broad categories: Web 2.0 & Social Media Primer; Work Your Online Networks: MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc.; The Blogosphere & Micro-blogging.

Taught by Grace Rodriguez, President of Ayn Brand, the workshop attendees represented a cross section of Houston’s arts industry from the Alley Theatre, Association for Advancement of Mexican Americans (AAMA), Contemporary Arts Museum, Da Camera of Houston, Fresh Arts Coalition, Galveston Arts Center, Glasstire, Golden Cat Silk Company, Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, Houston Grand Opera, Houston Museum District, Houston Museum of Natural Science, Houston Youth Symphony, Institute of Hispanic Culture, Jazz Education, Mercury Baroque, O’Michael Studios, Opera In The Heights, S.W.A.M.P., Samskriti, Spacetaker, The Ensemble Theatre, The Heritage Society, The River Performing & Visual Arts, Virtuosi of Houston, Voices Breaking Boundaries, and Writers In The Schools.

Please visit www.43marks.com/aynbrand for resource links and presentations regarding the T3 Workshops. The Houston Arts Alliance will continue the next round of Social Media workshops in Spring 2009. For more information, contact Jerome Vielman, Assistant Director of Grants & Services at 713.527.9330 ext. 117.

With so many voices in the blogosphere and so many sources of information, one of the best ways to pull it all together and organize your sources in one place is to use a reader to subscribe to RSS feeds.

CommonCraft explains it this way:

For our Social Media/Web 2.0 Workshops (hosted by the Houston Arts Alliance at the Houston Technology Center), we use 43marks.com to organize and share both relevant links and RSS feeds. You can also use RSS feeds to bring valuable information into your blog, as we do on this blog in the sidebar widgets.

Microblogging refers to the posting of brief updates about what a person is doing, observing, thinking, feeling, tasting, working on, railing against, irritated about, …and so on. Microblogging tools allow you to answer, “What are you doing?” RIGHT NOW. Because of its emphasis on the immediate experience, microblog posts tend to be more personal. So how does this help you and your organization or business?

The answer to that question depends on which microblogging service you use. Here are the top three:

• Twitter - The most popular and widely-adopted microblogging service, Twitter allows you to post updates - “tweets” - via SMS text message, the website, or third-party desktop clients. Because it was designed to be used with mobile devices, each message is limited to 140 characters. In addition to its broader audience, the advantage of Twitter is its use as a research tool via crowdsourcing and the numerous applications that have been developed to maximize its utility.
  
  
• Tumblr - Tumblr is microblogging software designed specifically to make it easy to post in small bites. When you create a new post, Tumblr makes it easy to share quotes, bits of chat conversations, music, video, photos, and links through pre-made templates. Many bloggers who already have a regular blog use Tumblr as their “link blog,” posting article-length pieces on their regular blog while pointing to offbeat internet discoveries on their tumblelog.

Other microblogging services worth mentioning are Pownce, Plurk, Jaiku, and Yammer. Pownce is like a robust version of Twitter, allowing you share files with friends and add more information about yourself on your page, including other social networking profiles. Plurk is Twitter on a timeline. Jaiku is the Google-bought version of Twitter. Yammer is the business-oriented version of Twitter: only other members of your company - or others with the same email url - can join your group, so conversations stay internal.

Microblogging tools can be used for your organization in the following ways:

• To research trends and hot topics
• To share links to blog posts, articles, press releases, pictures, videos, podcasts, etc. (or to share the actual material, as opposed to just the links)
• To keep in touch with colleagues
• To track projects: work in progress, milestones, etc.
• To learn what “thought leaders” are thinking
• To get event notices
• To learn of opportunities
• To meet and commune with like-minded people
• To blow off steam (stress can be a killer!)

As with all social media, you first have to determine the goals you want to achieve for your organization; then test each service to find which one helps you best achieve them.

General Blog Features :

• Brief entries running one to three paragraphs in length.
• Two to three columns per page, with new content added to the largest column - the “main” or “body” column.
• Sidebars featuring blog navigation (often via categories, archives, or tag clouds), links to other blogs and/or sites, previous posts, or readers’ comments.
• Many links within blog entries to other blogs, websites, press releases, articles, photos, and audio and video files.
• Frequent updates, with updating schedules from several times daily to two-three times each week.

Examples of Effective, Well-Designed Non-Profit Blogs :

• Girls For A Change (http://girlsforachange.typepad.com/national/) : Vibrant, relevant, engaging, and informative blog with links to all points of contact at social networking sites
• FirstBook (http://blog.firstbook.org/) : Very clean, easy-to-read blog, with clear links to the organization website and donations page
• March of Dimes “Share Your Story” (http://www.shareyourstory.org/) : Engages people and builds community for the organization by allowing constituents to create their own blogs to share stories

How to Make Blogs Work for Your Organization :

• Summarize and link to articles, images, videos, podcasts, webinars, or other resources online that are relevant and appealing to your audience.
• Encourage audience (or selected blog users) comments and feedback on critical topics.
• Invite experts in your field to contribute as guest bloggers.
• Get timely information out : try “real-time” reporting from a conference, field visit, or legislative session.
• Cross-promote and re-use all the content you create for your website, print materials, and e-newsletter.

Develop an Audience :

• Add your blog headlines and link to your organization’s home page.
• Add your blog link to all promotional materials, including your social network profiles and email signature.
• Syndicate your blog via RSS format. When you syndicate your organization’s blog content (RSS=real simple syndication), people can subscribe to it using a “reader” or “news aggregator” to automatically retrieve the latest stories from your non-profit (and thousands of other sites and blogs).
• Form a blog network with colleague organizations to share blog links and run your headlines on their websites, and vice versa.
• Comment on other blogs, re-post other blogs’ highlights, and use trackback (a link back to the original entry that you’re commenting on) to strengthen your network and motivate audiences when important issues need attention (such as pending legislation).

… And finally, integrate it into your routine and make it a habit.

In answering that question, Twitter users have a great opportunity to share - and thereby promote - what projects they’re working on, what events they’re attending, etc. Just as important, they are able to find topic experts and like-minded people to “follow” to learn about new trends, ideas, and opportunities.

Twitter allows people to select their own community, then determine whether they’d like to participate in it actively through information sharing, replies, and direct messages, or passively through reading “what everyone else is doing.”