Kevin blogged last week about the upcoming Online Nonprofit Technology Conference that NTEN is hosting on September 16-17. I want to add a bit more to the discussion about it here.

First, TechSoup users are eligible to get a 25% discount off the registration price just for being part of TechSoup. Type "TS25" as your discount code when you register.

Here's a provocative question from James on the Social Actions community blogs: What if they don't know about social media? What is the point of a social media strategy if most of your nonprofit's constituents and supporters aren't aware of or interested in new media?

So, what is a progressive, hot-for-social-media non-profit supposed to do? Just use email (said with teenage sarcasm)?

The answer is - yes and no. If you only want to reach a small portion of people in the world (at this point), then yes, just use your Facebook Page to communicate with people. If you want to reach their brothers and sisters, then use email too. If you want to reach their mothers and fathers, then use direct mail too. It's called multi-channel.

But still, what if I really just want to use social media (said in 5 year old tantrum voice)?

Good question, and that mindset often threatens to rear its head when media-savvy people start talking about communications strategies. The possibilities of social media are exciting, but (and I think we all need to remind ourselves of this from time to time) so are the possibilities of traditional communication. I get excited by nonprofits adopting new, unusual, and even controversial social media campaigns, but I also get excited by a well-written quarterly newsletter or an unusual donor event. It's always tempting to build a campaign around a certain tool, but it takes an expert communicator to build a campaign around the audience. Meeting the audience where they are might mean a Twitter marathon and it might mean knocking on doors.

If your answer is yes, then here's a great resource for you.

In case you didn't know already, TechSoup.org has a new section available (through generous support for the California Emerging Technology Fund) that lists locations of Community Microsoft Authorized Refurbishers who not only provide quality, refurbished, low-cost computers in communities around the state, but they often can point you to places to learn how to use them as well as low-cost Internet services available locally.