For those of you at organization's grappling with a jump into social networking sites like Facebook, our pals over at the Wild Apricot blog have some helpful primers on how to maximize your presence. This time around, they've got a great "how-to" on setting up a nonprofit page on Facebook.

How does that differ from having a Group on Facebook? Well, they've got the answers. And, if this is your first foray into the wild and wiley world of Facebook, they've got a beginner's guide for nonprofits and some specifics on Facebook applications that can sassy-up your page too. Check it out!

To Tweet or Not to Tweet--that is the question posed by Michaela G. Hackner in TechSoup's online event: TechSoup Talks Twitter. Michaela, along with Marshall Kirkpatrick, hosted the free, all-day, asynchronous online event in the TechSoup Emerging Technologies forum. The forums event followed up TechSoup's webinar the day before and dove deeper into the uses of Twitter and the benefits and value that Twitter has to offer individuals and nonprofits alike.

TechSoup's Sarah Washburn captured a picture of her busy computer screen during the webinar (and posted it to Flickr, of course), while I did some "live tweeting" (live updates to the TechSoup Twitter account) during the webinar and periodically during the forums event. You can see all the event-related Tweets with the #tstweet tag here.

We talked about the ways that Twitter can be used to market your organization and discussed what mix of personal and professional updates you should have to effectively engage (and keep) a group of followers. Some attendees bemoaned the recent persistent downtime with Twitter and wondered whether other similar applications will capture Twitter's user base. We also chatted about using Twitter via mobile phones and how nonprofits have been using Twitter for international development and activism efforts.

Better late than never, so the saying goes. This "live discussion" with author and social marketing guru Seth Godin was posted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy a couple of weeks back.

The outcome of the conversation between Seth and the varied nonprofit org participants revealed some true nuggets of wisdom on how nonprofits can better use marketing (both on- and offline) to harness new audiences and rejuvenate the existing ones.

The questions ranged from tips on nonprofits entering the world of social networking to using cell phones to send text messages about action campaigns. Godin has a fun, to-the-point style in fielding them with zingers like this:

The ultimate spam is cell phone spam. If you send me an unanticipated, impersonal, irrelevant ad on my cell phone, I will hate you forever. On the other hand, if I sign up, if I raise my hand, to hear from you with alerts, then it’s hugely effective.

You have to be vigilant that your team doesn’t cross the line. Just because it’s important to them doesn’t mean it’s important to me!

As someone who's worked on the media/communications end of the nonprofit world for a few years, I know how difficult it can be to even catch the coattails of new media technologies and the way they influence how we communicate with our constituents. Even more difficult is staying on the cutting-edge of those technologies.

Mark your calendars for two free TechSoup Twitter events: TechSoup Talks Twitter: Webinar June 9 and Online Event June 10 .

Blackbaud announced yesterday that it is acquiring Kintera in an all-cash purchase price of approximately $46.0 million. Via press release:

The third annual NetSquared Conference at Cisco Systems in San Jose, CA, is in full effect! My brain is buzzing with all the interesting ideas and projects I've learned about and the innovative and passionate folks that I've met here. But if you're not here in person, there's no reason you can't take part in the action!

If your organization is looking to join the blogosphere, there are a lot of things to consider — staff investment, leadership buy-in, one blog or multiple, return on investment, and a host of other issues. Once the decision has been made to get your organizational blog rolling (pun intended) the task falls to someone (probably you!) to choose the right tool. With that in mind, today we will compare two giants of the blogosphere: Movable Type and WordPress.

TechSoup's online event: Online Activism: Social Media Tools for Social Change this Wed. sparked all sorts of discussions about how to use social networking tools effectively for your organization's goals. Hosts Heather Mansfield and Carie Lewis offered their experience and expertise on best practices for using a variety of different social networking sites from Change.org to MySpace to Facebook.