NTEN Member David Neff, from the American Cancer Society in Austin, Texas produced this video to document a recent Tweet Up Blood Drive he helped organize through his local 501 Tech Club and Social Media Club.

Flickr Photo: AutomaniaIn the technology section of USA Today on Sunday, a lot of new folks learned about Twitter. The micro-blogging social network has grown from 200,000 users to over 2 million users in about a year, and individuals, companies, news outlets, fire departments, and nonprofit organizations have been using the free service to connect, inform, and engage.

If you joined us at the 2008 Nonprofit Technology Conference in New Orleans, chances are you experienced the usefulness of the tool, too. NTC attendees connected with each other, made social plans, got notes from sessions they couldn't attend, knew when free ice cream was being handed out in the conference lobby and when the coffee was running out during breakfast plenaries.

As the article frames it, Twitter is one of those tools that seems to be trivial and a waste of time -- until you try it for yourself.

There so many social media and network tools out there, it doesn't makes sense for an individual -- never mind an organization -- to invest time and resources into trying them all out. But Twitter might be worth a some time.

Here are a few highlights, low-lights, and applications of Twitter to consider for your own purposes:

Flickr Photo: bitzceltI just had a conversation with one of the organizers of the Twebinar, a summer series of webinars about social media hosted by Chris Brogan and Radian6. David Alston, from Radian6, picked up the phone (you remember those, don't you?) to respond to some of the questions I had emailed him about the Twebinar format.

I had expressed some confusion about the series, based on the first session I attended, the descriptions they provided, and the discrepancy I saw between the two. David was generous enough with his time to respond to some of these concerns.

Here's what I learned:

Flickr Photo: Johan KoolwaaijYesterday, we kicked off our Member Office Hours. If the rest of the office hours go as well as the first one, we're in for a lot of great conversation.

Jeff Forster from the Bayer Center for Nonprofit Management expertly led the first chat in the topic of Leadership. I think all participants would agree that it was as much fun to chat with and learn from each other as it was to get Jeff's insight. All around, a great conversation.

One of our biggest takeaways, getting your tech-nervous ED to try something new, may boil down to the oldest tactic of all: peer pressure. Here's an excerpt from that chat:

Flickr Photo: Capt KodakIt's not about the technology, it's about the people.

You are not marketing, you are building community.

In case you need to remind yourself, or others, of these principles, check out Twistori. It's a perfect example of what social media is all about: people. It exposes the humanity that makes social media so powerful -- our love, our hate, our thoughts, our beliefs.

The next time you're thinking about how to get your message out in social media, visit Twistori. Then think about how you can help inspire, motivate, and excite the people in your community instead.

Just learned about the new (dare I say adorable) Twitter mashup Twitlinks from Richard MacManus's post on Read Write Web.

Twitlinks can be defined in two simple steps:

• Tech People Talk about Cool Stuff
• TwitLinks Makes It Look Nice

You can subscribe to the RSS Feed (also available as JSON, iPhone, and Google Gadget), eliminating the need to follow all these tech industry folks individually, and receive fast bits of the latest technology buzz.

As Gary Brewer, creator of TwitLinks, told ReadWriteWeb:

"...as well as drawing links from the latest tech blogs, it also highlights some of the quirkier links these users post that would never see the light of day on sites such as techmeme."

I came across a blog post today that made me smile (and not just because of thejustgiving.com great vocabulary used across the Pond). It's a simple and straight-forward example of how easy it is for someone to use free, fast, online tools to raise money for his or her favorite cause. Here's an excerpt:

"I've just had a rather intense week of trying to use social media to raise funds and by and large succeeding. Inevitably this story involves blogging and tweeting and people I don't know very well being incredibly generous...."

David Harte, Digital Central project manager at Birmingham City University and contributor to the Birmingham Post's Business Blog, decided to try a spur-of-the-moment fundraising campaign one week before he ran in the London Marathon. He didn't have to raise money for a charity, but he decided he wanted to try to help his favorite, St. Mary's Hospice. His goal was £495, and he ended up raising over £300 (and he's still raising money for his cause online).

LOLnptechNTEN members were sharing lots of great tips, checklists, and resources online last week.

Colin Delany, of e.politics, shared his Social Marketing "cheat sheet" for using Web2.0 tools for engagement and fundraising purposes.

If you're a do-it-yourself kind of nonprofit when it comes to designing your web site, you might want to check out Kivi Leroux Miller's "10-Point Basic Website Checklist for Nonprofits".

For anyone plagued by email delivery statistics (or curious about what your organization should be considering when it comes to email messaging), take a look at NTEN member and NTC speaker Bill Pease's helpful tips.

Marnie Webb provides a couple of posts about integrating Twitter into your communications practice: first, she brings Twitter into the virtual tool chest she's building for her readers, then shares a list of Twitter resources that can help you maximize your Twitter-effectiveness.

Speaking of Twitter, Rose Vines is the back-channeling star of the NTEN community. Fortunately for us, she shares her tips for using Twitter for good (documenting and sharing).

In other news, NTEN members are . . .

In the midst of putting the final touches on the NTC, we hosted a Twitter Tutorial today, Twitter Me This!

We had a great lesson and conversation about how Twitter works and how it will function as the NTC back channel. Rosie de Fremery, Director of Management Information Systems for the American Jewish World Service gave us lots of great insights on how to best use the micro-blogging tool. Kari Peterson, Consultant and Official NTC Twitterator, informed us on how we can use Twitter at the NTC.

Want to know more? Check out the recording (and other useful links under Event Materials)!

We're looking forward to seeing you all in New Orleans! Oh, and be sure to follow 08NTC!

If you're on Twitter but don't follow Andy Carvin, you totally should. First, his tweets are REALLY informative. Second, they are often hilarious. Third, he may be the nicest guy on the planet. I know, because he let me bombard him with questions at SXSW and he's helped us figure out how to streamline Twitter usage at the NTC.

Our goal this year was to figure out a way to show ALL the tweets from folks at or talking about the NTC. Bless his heart, Andy showed us how to re-tweet any tweet with a keyword (in our case, the keyword is NTC) on our main Twitter presence for the conference: 08NTC.

I know some of you are interested in similar things, so I thought I'd share his instructions: