Joe agreed and invited me to sit on the panel. We pulled together a few more willing victims and, presto, a panel was born. Hope to see you there!

Social Media for Fun and (Non-) Profits
March 23, 2009 @ the Clocktower Pub

It’s a match made in heaven. On the one hand, you’ve got organizations that live on a shoestring. On the other, tools and tricks that give communicators access to massive markets at little to no cost. So why are so many non-profits struggling to find their footing in these new and expanding realms? How can a lowly communications person convince the higher-ups to embrace these technologies? How can a savvy organization tap into them to raise funds, spread their message and engage their memberships?

Join us on March 23 as we explore these questions with a diverse panel of guests from across the non-profit world:

The revolution will not be televised. But it will be on YouTube. And Second Life. And Twitter. And Facebook. While traditional media outlets struggle to carve out a new and profitable identity in an increasingly connected world, publisher Kim Elliott and the rest of the gang at rabble.ca have wholeheartedly embraced the social nature of online communities to spread their independent, progressive journalism. If there’s a non-profit more embedded in the online world, we’d love to hear about it.

You want to reach out to a membership comprised almost exclusively of accountants? Public service accountants, no less? Obviously you’d turn to WordPress, podcasts and YouTube, right? That’s what Joe Boughner did when he joined the Association of Canadian Financial Officers. Joe will be on hand to share his experiences as the man responsible for communications in a small organization that is dipping a tentative toe in the web 2.0 waters.

Academia is supposed to be on the cutting edge isn’t it? When the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada wanted to tap into the social media world, particularly for their flagship publication University Affairs, they brought Phillip Todd on board. Pretty soon, the magazine that covers Canada’s post-secondary institutions was brimming with blogs, podcasts and YouTube videos; and its parent association was building an election 2008 advocacy strategy around a tight message, sharable content, and everyone’s favourite publishing platform – WordPress.

As many of you know, my latest professional incarnation is that of a public servant. So for me, it was a very interesting presentation; he had a lot of useful tips about getting around the all-too-often restrictive rules that define government communications.

But the unstated take-home message, for me at least, is that running a government blog still requires a whole lot of swimming upstream. Colin is lucky enough to work in a small shop that operates at arm’s length from the main machinery of government, yet even he must find creative ways around the rules.

It is still all trying to make a blog fit within existing rules – the government doesn’t appear too close to creating rules specifically for blogs.

Until it does, I fear that folks like Colin will continue to be the exception, not the rule.