Over the past couple of years many of us have become familiar with URL shortening services such as bit.ly. While these services can be great for shortening websites for use in social media, we’ve noticed them causing some problems when being used in email messages.

We recently had a client who was noticing that many of his recipients were reporting they weren’t receiving email messages he was sending. After some investigation, we noticed he was directing people to a specific page of his organization’s website in his email signature and the link was shortened using the bit.ly service. Many email filtering services place emails with shortened URLs into the spam folder - since you can’t tell where a bit.ly link is going from its address, it’s a common tactic for spammers to use them to send people to nefarious places.

To ensure that your emails make it to inboxes instead of spam folders, we recommend avoiding the use of URL shorteners. If you want to send someone to a website with a very long address, you can instead use the tools to insert links that are provided by most email tools. These allow you to embed the link behind the text of your choosing in a way that doesn't trigger the spam filters.

- Elaina Buzzell

Yesterday we kicked-off our free brown bag series with a workshop on keeping your website relevant. NPower trainer Christin Boyd and web consultant Patrick Tewson led the full conference room through a high level discussion of successful web content maintenance strategies.

I was pleased to hear them start the discussion by encouraging people to ground their content in their overall communications strategy by identifying key audiences and constantly asking yourself, “Is this content bringing us closer to reaching our organizational goals?” As a member of the NPower team that is responsible for web updates and social media content generation, I am keenly aware of how easy it is to lose focus of the “why” and “who” of online communications, so having that reminder is always nice.

The presenters shared some great tips and tools, including a spreadsheet to help content managers think through updates, track contact information for contributing subject matter experts, and set dates for evaluation and archiving of content. The spreadsheet is available for download, along with the slide deck from the workshop, in the knowledge center on our website. You can also follow the tweets from the day by searching the event hashtag - #npnwbb - on Twitter.

If you weren’t able to make it to the brown bag, but are looking to learn how to keep your website fresh, join us for our training next Thursday – Web Content Maintenance. This training goes into much further detail (3.5 hours’ worth) regarding the effective processes for creating, editing, formatting, publishing, and archiving content.  It’s offered at a low rate – just $35 – thanks to generous funding from Adobe. The class will also be offered on October 6 and December 5 in case you can’t make it next week.

As part of our community education efforts, we’ll be continuing our free lunchtime brown bag series with the next installment, Get Smart About Smartphones, on August 24. Register today to save your spot. Did I mention it was free? We’ll even provide dessert!

Thanks to everyone who came to the brown bag and contributed to the discussion. See you next time!

- Mandi Moshay

I had the pleasure of attending a convening yesterday of leaders and participants in the Communities Connect Network (CCN). The Network received a tidy sum of stimulus funding for its "Communities Connect Network Project" to provide training and hardware to community technology providers across Washington State, and they're going for it! NPower has been a CCN partner for a number of years, and if was fun to reconnect with old friends (David Keyes from the City of Seattle, Mike Crandall from the UW Information School, and Carole Fulsom-Hill and Luz Monroy from La Casa Hogar in Yakima...) and to meet new participants like library staff from Burlington, La Conner and Yakima Nation.  I'm excited about the social media webinars that NPower will be offering through CCN this fall, and even more thrilled that the CCN experience sets us up to extend the trainings to our nonprofit audience in Washington and Oregon.

Communities Connect Network Project

With leadership from EdLab Group and the City of Seattle's Information Technology Program, and in partnership with NPower Northwest and other training providers, CCN has big plans for expanding the capacity of public computing centers. As a result of the project, thousands of low-income families in Washington State will be able to access broadband services related to education, jobs, and health, as well as the civic tools that information technology provides. Participating organizations include public libraries and nonprofit organizations across the state. CCN is creating a new web-based portal to house information about the program and to provide a forum for participants to connect with each other. The portal is under construction, and a sneak peek provided yesterday by David Keyes from the City of Seattle had the room abuzz. For now, you can learn more about CCN at their current site at http://www.communitiesconnect.org/

NPower's Role

As a training partner in the Communities Connect Network Project, NPower Northwest will provide a series of social media trainings (101, 201 and 301) this fall to help public computing center staff and volunteers to better deliver on their missions. The webinars will help participants to use social media to communicate more effectively with clients and supporters, and do it in a way that is manageable and meets the organization's communication goals.

Details on the webinar content and access to registration for CCN partners will be provided on the CCN site soon. And for our general nonprofit audience, we'll be offering free brown bags based on the CCN Social Media 101, 201 and 301 series starting this fall as well. Look for announcements in our Plugged In enews and watch for the events on our training calendar.

Thank you to our partners at EdLab for hosting the convening this week, and for providing us with an opportunity to contribute to the Communities Connect Network Project.

- Peg Giffels

While the world is still atwitter with the excitement surrounding Google+, the team at LinkedIn has been gearing up to release an exciting new feature: Apply with LinkedIn. This new plug-in will allow employers to add a button to their websites that lets applicants throw their hat in the ring via their LinkedIn profile. Employers are given access to LinkedIn users’ full profiles, including resume information, recommendations, status updates, linked Twitter and blog feeds, and whatever other information the user has chosen to include.

Apply with LinkedIn might make you think twice about the information you include on your LinkedIn profile (maybe time to change that profile pic?), but will certainly make it easier to apply for jobs with the early-adopting companies that use the plug-in. Considering that nonprofit organizations employ about 10 percent of Americans, news of this feature’s availability will likely be music to the ears of nonprofit staffers responsible for recruitment.

Despite being less-talked-about than Facebook, Twitter, or even Google+, LinkedIn can be a dynamic tool for nonprofit organizations – and with staff members devoted to developing services for nonprofits, we can look forward to the site improving as time goes on.

If you’re on LinkedIn, you can connect with NPower by becoming part of our new group (recently started post re-brand). We’re excited to share a lot of great resources for our nonprofit colleagues on the world’s largest professional network.

- Mandi Moshay

Ah…summer in the Northwest. Just when we all get accustomed to sunny days and 70 to 80 degree temperatures, Mother Nature yanks it all away. But – sunshine or not – summertime often brings with it a slightly slower pace in the office. People take vacations, deadlines seem to stretch, and there’s actually time to breathe and think. What better time to pursue a little professional development? Get out of the office and learn something!

NPower has a slew of great training classes and brown bags coming up. Here’s a few to get you started, and you can check out the training calendar on our website for more:

FREE Lunchtime Brown Bag – Keep Your Website Relevant – THIS WEDNESDAY: Learn tips and tricks to keep your site up-to-date and avoid having to do a massive overhaul every time an update is necessary. We’re bringing dessert!

Web Content Maintenance – 8.4.11: Updating your web content can be a daunting task. This training class will help you establish processes and checklists to make it easy. The last class sold out, so reserve your spot today at 50% thanks to funding from our friends at Adobe.

Salesforce Foundations – 8.11.11: Whether you’re exploring potential database systems or new to Salesforce, this introductory training will give you all the basics and highlight the advantages of this dynamic CRM.

InDesign Intermediate (two-part class) – 8.12.11 and 8.19.11: If you’ve got the basics of InDesign down but want to take your skills to the next level, this class is for you. We’ve broken it into two parts to make the information easier to digest. And it’s 50% off thanks to funding from Adobe!

Photoshop Foundations (two-part class) – 8.22.11 and 8.29.11: Learning the basics of Photoshop can take your amateur photos from ho-hum to “holy cow!” Learn your way around this amazing tool in two sessions, giving you time to tinker in between and bring your questions to part two. This class is also 50% off thanks to funding from Adobe.

There’s much, much more on our training calendar, and even more to come. Check it out now and come back often.

- Mandi Moshay

Are you one of the early-adopters of Google+? I was invited a couple weeks ago by a friend and signed on to see what all the fuss was about. I must admit that I was reluctant to sign on as I shudder to think about having another social networking site to monitor. But the more I've played around with it and read articles about it's intended purpose, the more I have begun to buy-in to Google+ and its potential as a collaboration tool.

There are a ton of great articles out there, so I am not going to attempt to re-invent the wheel here. But, I wanted to share this slide deck from Vincent Wong at first-time tech founder. This series of slides is responsible for my Google+ ah-ha moment, and hopefully it will help others understand Google+'s place in the social landscape. Psst...it's not about taking down Facebook! Enjoy:

- Mandi Moshay

It’s been about three months since we launched our new website, npowernw.org, and we still have stars in our eyes over what we believe to be one of the most beautiful websites out there – but we’re a little biased. Our web and community engagement teams met recently to revisit the site and discuss, having used it for a while, what’s working, what’s not, and how we can keep it relevant.

Why am I sharing this with you? To let our nonprofit readers know that we here at NPower understand the challenges you face when it comes to website updates: lack of time to keep up on Google Analytics; having a long wish list of web features that you might not have the cash on hand to implement; and finding the energy to keep the content fresh and engaging.

Lucky for you, we’re here to give you free help. Yep, I said free! Next Wednesday, July 27, we’ll be hosting a lunchtime brown bag workshop, Keep Your Website Relevant, and we’d love to see you there. We’ll be discussing simple strategies to maintain your site, and you’ll have the opportunity to connect with your nonprofit peers to learn what tips and tricks they have up their sleeves to make web maintenance easier.

View the workshop description on our site to learn more and for a link to register. Bring your own lunch and we’ll provide the dessert. That’s right – a free workshop and free dessert! Why? Because we believe in the work you’re doing to better our community and want to give you all the tech tools necessary to get your job done.

Can’t make it to the brown bag? Check out our Web Content Maintenance training on August 4.

- Mandi Moshay

Yesterday we tweeted an article about use of QR codes within nonprofit organizations and it got re-tweeted more than any other post we’ve put out this week. It looks like the nonprofit community is really interested in what can be done with these funny squares as our familiarity with their appearance grows and more and more people download QR reader apps.

Some of you might be asking, “What is a QR code?” The answer is this:

QR stands for “quick response” and this strange-looking little square is a barcode that holds encoded information, commonly URLs. By downloading a QR reader app, smartphone users can take a picture of the code and have it read and decoded. If you try your app on the above code, you’ll be directed to the donate page on our website (feel free to take a minute and make a contribution!). The codes can be generated for free on a number of websites (I usually just Google the phrase “QR code generator” and click one of the many links that come up).

QR codes are one of the newer, fancier arrivals on the technology bandwagon that nonprofits are hoping to utilize effectively. Here at NPower, we used our first QR code on a volunteer recruitment flier that was taken to the SMC Seattle event last week. The code directed potential volunteers to a survey that would assess their skills and determine if they might be a good match for our Day of Caring volunteer project. It made sense because the URL for the survey was long and wonky, and would not be effective if it were printed on a hard copy flier. The link to the article above has some other good examples of how they can be used.

Has your organization found interesting uses for QR codes? Share them in the comments below.

-  Mandi Moshay

“Make big plans...that's the best way to make big things happen. Write down your plans. Share them with trusted colleagues. Seek out team members and accomplices. Shun the non-believers. They won't be easily convinced, but they can be ignored. Is there any doubt that making big plans increases the chances that something great will happen? Is there any doubt that we need your contribution? Why then, are you hesitating to make big plans?”

- Seth Godin

Here at NPower Northwest we’ve been making big plans. We are audacious enough to think we can significantly impact our communities by empowering and supporting nonprofits to work toward their missions through the optimal use of technology. Some say we can’t do this, but we believe that through hard work we can do it.

Later this summer we’ll be transitioning to a more robust and flexible managed services model providing scheduled support and proactive management of your networking infrastructure. This work has me energized! We’ll be able to expand the core set of services we’re providing to clients, increase the quality of help desk support, and free up our consultants to do the important strategic work our clients need to allow technology to drive their long-term plans. Isn’t this what we all want—more bang for our buck?

And that’s just the start. Over the last month I’ve been sharing our big plans and the reception we’re receiving has been amazing. We’re excited about the community members who are willing partner with us and the thought leaders that are coming our way.

• Liesl at Oregon 211 offers to introduce us to the some key leaders in eastern and southern Oregon as we build our service area expansion strategy
• Lynn from Points of Light Institute recruits NPower to serve as a pilot sight for the newly created AmeriCorps VISTA TechCorps program  to build technology capacity in small poverty alleviation organizations
• Marie from Meyer Memorial Trust offers wisdom on the potential of technology to build capacity and change our communities, and then introduces us to their grant manager
• TechSoup convenes NPower leaders from across the country to discuss ways to expand the delivery of technology services to the sector, both nationally and internationally
• Microsoft volunteers help us create a digital storywall that we can offer to our nonprofit partners as a way to share their stories online
• John (Amazon) and David (Microsoft) offer to help create a services catalog which will serve as the foundation for our Best Practices work

It’s remarkable to me that as soon as you make big plans, the right people start showing up to conspire with you. I’m excited about the work we’ll be doing together.

- Alison Carl White

Having been at NPower for nearly six months now, I am proud to call myself a geek. I say that because it is not at all uncommon for me to get excited about the potential of a fancy schmancy new database. In fact, I experienced that excitement just a couple weeks ago when I sat in on a database training with some staff members from Friends of Youth.

Friends of Youth is a nonprofit agency that provides safe places to live and emotional support for youth and young adults in challenging circumstances.  The organization provides services to at-risk youth and homeless young people at 20 sites in 17 cities throughout the Puget Sound area. In 2010, they served over 6,000 youth and their families through their four core programs. You can imagine tracking that many clients would be a difficult task, but accurately reporting on their widespread community impact would be essential to securing the necessary funding to continue to provide critical services. Friends of Youth looked to the power of technology to help them manage their work.

Friends of Youth’s Program Information Manager, Jon Griffus, has been working with NPower contractor Richard Saunders of Gaia ICT for a couple years on the development of an incredible new, fully customized database called Youthforce. Built on the Salesforce platform, Youthforce is a sophisticated case management system that tracks outcomes across the agency, generating reports that detail the incredible impact the organization is making in our community. Because Salesforce is highly customizable, the end result is a system that has layouts specifically designed for each unique program area and views that are personalized based and each individual’s role within the organization. Basically, each employee sees only the information they need to see, allowing them to focus on their specific role in service delivery without being bogged down by a data overload.

As with any new technology tool, this database will take some getting used to. Staff members in the training I attended were engaged, and seemed to believe in the potential of the new system. Of course, they had a lot of questions about how it all worked, and how it would change the way they carried out their day-to-day tasks. As an observer, I was able to objectively look at the new system and get excited about its incredible potential to change the way Friends of Youth does their work, and I knew immediately it would make them an even more effective agency. But, as someone who has had to learn new databases several times in my life, I know that adopting the solution will take time and that, for some, buy-in will not happen overnight.

In the meantime, I offer congratulations to Friends of Youth on their cool new system, and wish them luck learning the ins and outs and getting in the habit of using it. If you want to learn more about Youthforce and how the project came to be, check out our case study.

- Mandi Moshay

NPower will be closed on Monday, July 4th in observance of Independence Day. We'll be back at it on Tuesday the 5th.

Have a great holiday weekend and be safe out there!