The other day I wrote up a collection of information for a non-profit starting to get into social media. Thought I might as well share it more broadly.
Blogs can be free – for example
- Blogger – https://www.blogger.com/start – It’s free and totally WYSIWYG, plus there’s lots of information on how to use it.
- WordPress.com – http://wordpress.com/ – A stronger more flexible host, that requires some know-how but is basically WYSIWYG. Again, tutorials and videos are available; use Google & search for them.
- Both of these require only people to learn how to use them and then to write, post pictures etc.
- You can also pay for experts to run blogs and for more expensive systems. I’d go for the simplest, that is, Blogger, if I were you.
Chat rooms,
- What do you want chat rooms for?
- If you just want a way for a group’s members to communicate, check out Google Groups – http://groups.google.com/?pli=1 – It’s free, email-based and asynchronous. People send to their Google Group and it goes to all the members, who can then reply if they want to.
- If you do want to talk to a small group all at the same time, you might try Skype – http://www.skype.com/ – also free
- There are other ways to set up chat rooms, too, but that’s a start.
Ask an expert forum,
- Probably you should just set up a FAQ on a wiki where people could share expertise.
Social networking site
- Ning is a very good free one – it does take time and expertise to set up and maintain – http://www.ning.com/
Webinar,
- I’ve never used Vyew – http://vyew.com/site/product/vyew-in-action/uses – but this could be what you want – again, someone would have to know or learn how to use it.
- I’ve attended webinars that were run with WebEx for literally thousands – http://www.webex.com/ – but it wasn’t entirely satisfying and it isn’t free.
- You might want to check with local podcaster and webinar producer Donna Papacosta – http://trafcom.com/services.html#webinars
Webcast,
- Again, what do you want it for?
- If for live webcasting, check out Ustream – http://www.ustream.tv/ – free, but time and expertise required
- If for presentations or tutorials, check out SlideShare for PowerPoints – http://www.slideshare.net/ – it’s free and only requires the creation and uploading of slide shows
- Screencasts are interesting – people get to see what’s on your screen and hear you speak – Jing – http://www.jingproject.com/ or Screenr – http://screenr.com/ – both are free but you have to learn a little to use them
- Also, if you create a video, you can upload it for free at a number of sites, including YouTube and Vimeo
- You might find VoiceThreads interesting too – http://voicethread.com/#home
Podcast,
- There’s lots on Google about podcasting, and it’s easy enough to add an audio file to a blog post – here’s some information – http://computer.howstuffworks.com/how-to-podcast.htm. There’s free recording software called Audacity – http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ – and lots of tutorials available on it. It takes a while to learn.
On-line seminars
- See webcasts
Almost all the costs for the ones I’ve mentioned are people-based – needing only expertise and/or time to learn
Joan Vinall-Cox, PhD
JNthWEB Consulting – http://jnthweb.ca/
Social Media & Learning
https://joanvinallcox.wordpress.com/my-e-portfolio/
Halton Peel Communicators Association – http://www.hpcaonline.org/
I find words fascinating so I checked out what WA offered me. Much to my surprise, it offered me –
Remember what the one you want now looks like, but not its name?
See the handle bars in the middle? Pull them down.
And now you can see all the tabbed sites. You can close with the same handlebars.
Neat, eh?
Joan Vinall-Cox
