#BeGoodBeSocial

I spent yesterday at Social Media for Social Good, a day of workshops and talks exploring digital and social media for charities and voluntary organisations. My talk was about digital participation but we covered lots more besides. Here are three tweets from the day that I particularly enjoyed.

"Organisations need to be online because people are online." #BeGoodBeSocial @BIGScotland — Iona B-B (@IonaBB) March 31, 2014

Spot on. Whilst a significant minority of people are offline or lack basic online skills, for the vast majority the internet is part of day-to-day life. Any organisation that wants to stay relevant has to show they can work with their clients, supporters and staff in the digital world as well as face-to-face.

The mobile phone for nfp's is the perfect 'impulse capturing device' @Collette_BBE #begoodbesocial — Blackbaud Europe (@BlackbaudEurope) March 31, 2014

The shift toward mobile devices is one of the big trends in digital today. As well as providing an always on, always present connection to the web, the smartphones that many of us now carry have huge potential for things like fundraising, viral campaigning, and more.

"A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song" Maya Angelou #begoodbesocial — #BeGoodBeSocial (@BeGoodBeSocial) March 31, 2014

This came up in a talk from Kate Higgins about blogging. She reminded us that some of the most engaging blogs are the ones that explore different perspectives, and that share stories as they are unfolding rather than just reporting after the fact. As ever, a shiny website is nice to have - but great content is what matters!