Tag Archives: Information Technology

Increase your nonprofit’s web marketing impact in 11 simple steps

Posted on November 23, 2010 | Leave a comment
Cover of "Inbound Marketing: Get Found Us...

Cover via Amazon

A few months ago I wrote a piece on “How to get started with Twitter to get your message out”. At that time, one of the books on my ‘must read’ pile was “Inbound Marketing” by Brian Haliigan and Dharmesh Shah, founders of Hubspot. I finally got around to cracking it open and thought I would share some of my observations.

Dharmesh and Brian were there at the start of the Social Media revolution and have created one of the most popular sites for people serious about growing their leads and customers from the web. Their aptly coined term “Inbound Marketing” denotes how conventional marketing has been flipped on its head with the emphasis on your customer finding you. Continue reading →

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Posted in non-profit, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur

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How to get started with Twitter to get your message out

Posted on June 3, 2010 | 2 comments

With the all the buzz about Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools, organizations feel pressured into incorporating these tools into their marketing arsenal. Non-profits specially are interested in leveraging social networks as cost effective sources of volunteers and supporters and are seeking ways to convert followers to funders and donors. All of them are looking for guidance in getting started.

Based on my experience working with a number of startups, and from discussions with several others, I have compiled a quick list of do’s and don’ts that I hope will provide some guidelines to help you get started. Continue reading →

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Posted in Information Technology, non-profit, Social Business, Social Ecosystem

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Assured Labor – creating a mobile marketplace for jobs in emerging markets

Posted on April 10, 2010 | Leave a comment

In the fall of 2007, a group of young potential entrepreneurs attending the course on Development Entrepreneurship at MIT struggled with a problem facing over half the developing world. As developing economies grew and provided new jobs, the infrastructure to communicate and broadcast the potential opportunities for employment was unable to keep up. The influx of migrant workers into urbanized centers provided a rich pool of available talent but the mechanisms for disseminating job needs were still rooted in the 19th century. Print advertising and, in extreme cases, roving cars with loudspeakers, were used in a scattershot manner hoping to attract potential candidates to interview for jobs. Online advertising wasn’t an option in most developing countries where internet connectivity was sporadic. The transient nature of most migrant and casual laborers made getting to the target audience even more difficult. Continue reading →

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Posted in bottom of the pyramid, Information Technology, Latin America, mobile technology, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation

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Social Media for Social Entrepreneurs

Posted on October 21, 2009 | Leave a comment

Panel Description for ForSE 2009

One of the most popular panels in the past and one that promises to be very interesting at ForSE 2009, is on Social Media for Social Entrepreneurs.  With Twitter and Facebook revolutionizing the business of marketing, can social activists lag behind? Successful grassroots efforts have helped spread the word to thousands, even millions. But the devil is in the details. How does one turn followers into funders? Motivate movements with your messages? And leverage social networks to create social change?

The experts on this panel have shown others how to maximize their impact with the latest online tools and techniques and they will help you figure out the right approach to integrating social media within your strategies.

Panelists

  • John Haydon, Social Media Consultant @johnhaydon
  • Dan Croak, Thoughtbot @croaky
  • Tushneem Dharmagadda, Director, US Operations India School Fund @tushneem

Moderator

  • Kate Brodock, Founder & Principal, The Other Side Group @just_kate

You can prepare for this panel by reading a thoughtful piece by one of the panelists, Tushneem Dharmagadda, on his blog that describes four tips for Social Entrepreneurs to leverage Social Media. For more advice and great posts on social media strategies, check out @johnhaydon and @just_kate blogs.

Finally the afternoon will include a real live interactive case study highlighting the challenges Lokvani.com, a South Asian community portal and e-magazine with over 40,000 subscribers, faces as it tries to integrate the new media tools into its online strategy. Join Lokvani team members and the content experts to help brainstorm ideas for solving Lokvani’s challenges.  The session will be moderated by Kimi Ceridon (@kalepatech), Founder of Kalepa Tech, a design firm with deep social impact experience.

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Posted in Conference, Information Technology, non-profit, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur

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Using cell phones to change the world

Posted on October 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

Jhonatan Rotberg, was sent to MIT by Telmex, one of Latin America’s largest telcos, and teaches NextLab where he tries to bring cellular technology to the other 90 percent of the world. One of the labs startups, CelEdu, offers cellphone-based games and quizzes to teach basic literacy skills in India. Ranjani Saigal from the TIE Social Entrepreneurs Group helped connect CelEdu students to Tara Aakshar. You can see some of their work in progress at the CelEdu site


A great article in the Boston Globe highlights the many ideas that have spun out of this lab. Some excerpts below – click here for the entire article.

In NextLab, Rotberg challenged students by asking, “Can you make a cellphone change the world?’’ And students have responded, creating nearly two dozen projects and three start-up ventures that have been working with communities in developing countries like India, Vietnam, and Mexico.

Dinube, a NextLab spinoff that was tested in Mexico last summer, provides payment services to people who don’t have access to traditional banks. “One of the powerful things about cellphones in Mexico is that there is a 75 percent penetration rate,’’ said Jonathan Hayes, a cofounder of Dinube. “But only 25 percent of the population has a bank account. So a cellphone-based system can fill a huge, important gap.’’

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Posted in BOP, bottom of the pyramid, Information Technology, international development, mobile technology, Poverty, Rural Development, Social Business, Social Ecosystem, Social Entrepreneur, social Innovation

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