Upon arriving to the school, signing into our lobby, and being greeted, each parent was given an ipad.  Parents were told that the ipads would be used as part of the questioning process but in the meantime, to please explore the wonderful educational apps available to the students while waiting for the open house to begin.  Once we were ready to start, the parents were asked to click on the Twitter app on each of their ipads.  In order to facilitate the navigation of locating the Twitter app, we made sure that the Twitter app was anchored at the bottom of the ipads so that it would show up on each screen.  Prior to the open house, we created a Twitter account for each ipad with Twitter usernames like Davis Academy Guest 1.  Once the parent clicked on the Twitter app, they would see that they were already logged in with their unique username and could see a message welcoming them to the open house.

Once everyone was settled in with their ipad, I proceeded to explain that we really wanted to hear what the parents wanted to know.  Our hopes were that parents would feel comfortable tweeting their questions in an anonymous format throughout the open house.  This would serve several purposes: 1) while parents were in classrooms hearing from teachers and students, learning about the curriculum and seeing the classrooms, they could instantly tweet their questions that would be addressed later 2) parents would feel uninhibited in seeking answers to their questions and 3) it would demonstrate the ways in which we are incorporating technology into our instruction and encouraging students to share their “voice”.

As the tweets were being received, I tagged them with descriptors enabling me to generate a Twitter cloud.  An example of this is the question that was tweeted that said, “How do you meet the needs of diverse learners?”.  This question was tagged as “differentiation”.  After being in the classrooms, the parents returned to the media center where I displayed the Twitter cloud on a large screen.  The remainder of the open house consisted of the administration, the teachers, and current Davis parents addressing questions that were raised via Twitter.

Although we have had positive feedback regarding our open houses in the past, using technology in this way generated a new level of enthusiasm and excitement.  Providing the technology as a tool to encourage open communication while still allowing parents to get a strong sense of all that is offered at The Davis Academy, created an environment rich in collaboration and an environment that ensured that all questions could be addressed.  We are pleased with the outcome and will continue to explore innovative tools that will enrich our open house experiences.

Drew Frank is the Lower School Principal at The Alfred and Adele Davis Academy in Atlanta Georgia, where he previously served in multiple teaching and administrative roles in both the lower and middle school. Drew is a proud member of the Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI) cohort 5, and he has incorporated many of the constructivist and collaborative learning activities (spiritual check-ins, fishbowls, case studies, and consultancies) in to these and other school and faculty programs.  You can follow Drew on Twitter @ugafrank.

Today’s shift, which adds posts, photos, profiles and conversations from Google+ that are public or were shared privately with the person searching, is valuable for users because it brings “your world” (as Google refers to it) into search, aggregating all of the information you might be interested in seeking.  It’s valuable to Google as  further boosts the centrality of Google+ relative to other social networks (which for now are not included), and positions your search engine as the singular window into all aspects of your world.

If I’m planning a trip to Paris I might find in my search hotels, reviews, discounts, maps, historical info, and now tips from friends who have been there, or even become aware that someone I know will be there at the same time.

But more than the search engine as the window into the world, these changes position me as the center of the universe, with information orbiting me.  Helpful, perhaps.  But what are the implications?

The Filter Bubble

But the flip side of all of this is the narrowing of our worlds. Eli Pariser’s The Filter Bubble describes how because of the search algorithm (the ‘filter’), we don’t even know what is being hidden from us.  What we’ve done and sought in the past strongly influence what we are exposed to in the future “leaving less room for the unexpected encounters that spark creativity, innovation, and the democratic exchange of ideas”.

Now that’s not so radically different from the way we lived prior to the internet.  If I live in a particular neighborhood or my kids go to a particular school, I’m more likely to be friends with those people and remain in that orbit.

But other recent research shows that young people today, while fairly technically savvy, have not been taught skills to evaluate the information they find.  “Google’s a trusted web site,” says one British student in a BBC segment. She used the first result Google returned and didn’t really think about it any further.  While teaching a course at the high school Genesis program at Brandeis University a few years ago, I challenged my students to do a research project with limited access to resources:  Only books, internet minus Wikipedia and the top 5 Google search results, or anything.  As you can imagine, the results were vastly different.  The students who were limited in their online search had a much deeper understanding of the material because they were exposed to many more sources and forced to evaluate and synthesize the information.

The bottom line here is the difference between information and knowledge.  We often confuse the two.  Google’s shifts may change the way we access information, but it is our responsibility to create our own knowledge.   And it is the responsibility of educators and parents to recognize that this process of knowledge creation and meaning making is different today than it has been in the past.  We must teach these skills, and illustrate to students the implications of Google’s decisions, lazy searching and the conclusions we draw.

Happy searching and socializing.  And don’t forget to get outside of your own orbit from time to time.

More on Google’s recent change:

Mashable: Google Merges Search and Google+ Into Social Media Juggernaut

Huffington Post: Google ‘Search Plus Your World’ Brings Google+ Into Search Results

New York Times’ Bits Blog: Google’s Social Move Attracts Critics

New York Times’ Bits Blog: Google Adds Posts From Its Social Network to Search Results

Two years ago I had a similar problem.  Trained as a lawyer, being a publisher and editor, I live in a world of words.  They’re important; they’re permanent.  I am accountable for what I write, and for what my company publishes.  Words will endure.  They need to stand on their own, be thorough, be accurate, be complete.

But Behrman House needed a blog, and as the leader of our firm I needed to contribute.  To share my views in that informal setting.  So write I did, but I did it in my old way: I wrote, edited got it vetted by colleagues, checked, rechecked, sometimes rewritten.  A short piece, with a quick thought, could take hours.  It just wasn’t worth it.

I thought back to my college days, where I wrote a weekly column for the paper. I just banged it out.  Every week, one evening.  Went the whole campus. It was pretty good.  And I had no fear.

So I made a decision: I’ll trust myself: write the damn thing, read it once, fix obvious errors, and post it. Simple as that.

So I tried it.  Truth be told, the first time I chickened out. Sent it to Dena Neusner, our Senior Editor, who can tear apart and rebuild my writing like no one else, and makes it 30% shorter on a regular basis.  She did her magic, and I decided I was done.  Posted it.  And, next time I didn’t even send it to Dena.

I’m writing this to all of you who grew up in my world, the world of permanent words, the world where every one of those words is equally important, and permanent.  And to all of us I say:  Just write the damn thing, and post it.  It will be liberating.  Think of it as conversation, not a permanent position. (Lisa Colton spoke at the GA of the “permanent beta,” and she’s right.)  It will never be worth it to spend a half-day on a blog post, so if that’s your standard, you’re censoring yourself—it will almost never be worth it to spend the time, and so you’ll never be able to share your views.

Just write the thing.

PS: I wrote this one on the airplane coming home from the GA.  Once, straight through—a half-hour.  Put it aside for a day, then spent another 10 minutes cleaning it up.  I’m done. I hope it’s good, and I hope you find it useful. If not, maybe I’ll be more successful with the next one.

- – - – - – - – - – - – -

David Behrman is CEO of Behrman House Publishers, the leading publisher of textbooks, software, and other educational materials for Jewish religious schools throughout North America.  Before joining Behrman House, he was a consultant with McKinsey & Co, in New York, where he served clients in the service, transportation, and not-for-profit sectors, and he also practiced corporate and securities law with Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York. He is a graduate of Haverford College and Stanford Law School, where he served on the Law Review.

Photo Credit: j&tplaman

Social Networking Gardening Tips:

Step 1: Seek out the gardeners. Find out who among the people you work with is blogging, tweeting, active on Facebook or LinkedIn, etc., by doing basic searches in those networks and asking around.  See which friends you have in common – you may be surprised and delighted at the connections you find!

Step 2: Watch their seeds and shoots. Subscribe to posts and friend these folks in whatever way you feel most comfortable (adjust your privacy settings as needed).  Put them in lists you can easily come back to (Twitter/Facebook), subscribe to blog posts via RSS, and bookmark whatever other sites might be relevant.

Step 3: Add sunshine, water, and fertilizer regularly. Schedule a regular time to focus just on networking with these groups.  Try taking ten minutes, two days a week, to go through the friend lists and RSS feeds you created and comment, reply, and retweet.  Share resources you think might add value to that person’s work and suggest people they may gain from being in touch with.  For some cases, it may be best to send a personal email or make a phone call to deepen the connection.

Step 4: Bonus step! Find the other gardens where your gardeners’ seeds have taken root. Uncover the conversations where your colleagues and their work are being talked about that they might not even know of!  Set up a Google Reader or Google Alerts.  Go to Google Blog Search.  Type in the names of the people and/or institutions you work with and see what comes up.  If there are a few meaningful, relevant results in the search, subscribe to that search by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking the RSS link.  Check in on that RSS feed every now and again and share with those people the (good) news you found about them.

Some additional tips:

Be sure to subscribe to comment feeds on the blog posts you reply to so you can see where the conversation goes and easily follow up.

Use a consistent username across platforms so that folks will begin to recognize your presence and personality.  This will also make yourself more searchable in the future.

Put a pause between your fingertips and the keyboard – think about your voice, tone, and the value you’re adding to the conversation.  Be consistent.  If your organization has one, make sure to adhere to the guidelines of the social media policy, and develop that document as needed based on your interactions.

Don’t neglect IRL (in real life) and other media. Networks need to flow within and among different platforms to be truly effective.  Mentioning a Facebook post in a phone call, or a blog comment in a coffee date, then tying those conversations back to their original host platform can be a great way to weave people and ideas.

Serendipity happens! Being active in social media means you open up all kinds of potential for new connections – whether you plan on it or not.  Have an open mind and welcome the unexpected!

How have you found and cultivated the fertile areas in your organization?  What resulted from these interactions?

QR codes are created easily online on any QR generator site by providing the link, text, or other data that you want the code to contain.  I suggest using The QR Project or QR Stuff.com.  Basic QR codes are free from these sites, however customizable QR codes with a company logo or other graphics are available for a fee.

As a student at the University of Virginia, I have seen increased use of QR codes on flyers around grounds.  I can scan a QR code to sign up for the Fight Cancer 5K, ‘like’ Challah for Hunger’s page on Facebook, or find out more information about an organization.  I have walked around grounds and seen students seizing this opportunity, and have also started to use QR codes in my own organization’s marketing approaches.  QR codes are becoming more prevalent by users of smart phones, especially by people in my ‘millenial’ cohort.

I believe that the Jewish community can use QR codes effectively to aid in marketing and communication strategies.  The key to QR codes is they link printed physical material to online material.   So next time you’re printing up a flyer or newsletter, think about where you can include a QR code.  With QR codes, you can:

-Promote your organization creatively: The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) in Canada launched an iWalk mobile challenge where they asked participants to scan a QR code at registration that detailed instructions on two iWalk challenges: a trivia question and a challenge urging participants to take a picture at the event and email it back.  This event gave the UJA website over 500 hits and about fifty people chose to subscribe to receive future UJA event notices, promoting their organization in a creative way.

-Take an active step: TSA at the St. Louis Airport uses QR codes to link people waiting in security lines to their website, download an app that will tell them approximately how long security lines are at different airports, and a page that gives the most up to date information as far as what can be brought through security checkpoints.  Using QR codes in these ways, participants can actively connect to and engage with the organization or cause.

-Network: NTEN put a QR code on each attendee’s name badge at their 2011 Nonprofit Technology Conference with a link to their personal profile and contact information.  Attendees could network and get each other’s contact information by scanning each other’s QR codes.

Organizations are using QR codes creatively to coincide with their organization’s strategy and goals.  They key is creativity and pinpointing how to best utilize them in your organization.  Other examples include:

-On your next event program, put a QR code that allows users to sign up for your future events.

-Place a QR code at your event registration table that attendees scan to donate a specified amount to your organization.

-During your next mailing campaign, add a QR code that has participants start following your organization on Twitter.

Jewish organizations can use QR codes to increase social media in their marketing and communication approaches, shift focus from printed material to online content, and specifically engage those primarily online generations.  QR codes are gaining popularity in the social media world and will be on the scene for a while so start developing some fluency in the use of QR codes and begin to integrate use of them in your organization’s strategies.  It’s easy, cheap and a great opportunity to be (slightly) ahead of the curve!  Try it out and see how your organization will reap the benefits.

Kate Belza is the Darim Online student intern for 2011-12. She is a third year at the University of Virginia, majoring in religious studies with a minor in leadership. She is an active student leader at UVa Hillel, and co-founded a Challah for Hunger chapter at UVa, where they bake and sell challah and donate the proceeds to charity. She also serves as the fundraising chair for Relay for Life at UVa, and is Director of Philanthropy for her sorority, Alpha Phi. Kate serves as a student representative to the UVa Hillel Board of Directors.

Maximizing group features for networking and engagement:

Tagging individuals in posts. This is an excellent means of publicly introducing two (or more) folks within your group.  Include bragging rights – what makes these members unique?  Give them a question to explore together, and encourage the dialogue.  This means you have to know your group – who they are, what they’re up to, what they need, etc.  Think:

• How can I encourage others to use the group in the same way, not just as a means for marketing/broadcasting information?
• How do I go from network weaver to empowering others to weave one another?

The power of pictures. Facebook is a “picture economy” (whereas Twitter is a “link economy”); pics are the most engaged content, the most in-demand.  Pictures are great conversation starters.  Tagging folks in pictures and asking them to tag themselves also increases engagement, puts a face to a name, and humanizes the process by bridging online and on-land worlds.

Questions and polling.  Thoughtful, simple, directed questions can be a powerful engagement mechanism.  Think about allowing others to add their own options to the poll – when is it appropriate, and when is it unnecessary or confusing.  Expect to get answers both in the poll itself and in the comments, and run with both!

Group chat. Facebook groups mostly function asynchronously, but a synchronous activity now and again can really rally the troops. (Note: this feature does not function with groups of 250 members or more.)  Consider the following:

• What are the deeper conversations your group seems inclined to have?
• Can you assign someone to host that conversation and empower them to lead the charge?

Docs. Docs are like super-simple wikis, and probably the most truly collaborative aspect of a Facebook group.  Because they are collaboratively editable, they are great for anything that requires a teasing out a group voice – agendas, statements or announcements, etc.

• Docs live in a designated place within your group and are therefore not as subject to the news feed, which is more timely.  Docs are great for posting information that you plan to come back to again and again.
• Conversations will naturally spring up in the comments section of your document.  It’s important to manage the flow between what is being written in the doc and what’s happening in the comments.

Events. Creating a group event for actual in-person meetings makes a lot of sense, but there are other ways the events feature can be used – general publicity, announcements, calls to action, booking a time for a group chat, etc.

• Events need not be restricted to members of the group.  Use them when you want to introduce a broader audience to your group’s good work.
• Bear in mind – events can be great, but tend to get lost in the new Facebook layout.  Timing is key.  Be conscious of who you are reminding of the event and how often.  Remember you can also post the event’s unique link to the group or your personal profile page.
• Finally, events, like docs, also have a comment stream attached.  Monitor accordingly.

Other big ideas:

Have a goal for the group, or at least a project everyone can rally around.  Give the group a sense of purpose.

No one person “owns” a Facebook group. It belongs equally to all the members and should be treated as such. (Think about using the Docs to build a group statement of values – decide as a community how you will use the group and treat one another while active in it.)

It’s easier to post than to reply. Engagement takes investment. Try setting aside a specific block of time every day or week to monitor and engage the group.  Ask other members to do the same – spread the responsibility around and see what kind of ROE (return on engagement) you get.

No medium exists in a vacuum. Think about the relationships between what happens in the group, on Facebook in general, over email, on the phone, in person, at events, etc.  To be truly effective, the online experience should be tied – topically, in culture, in voice, in attitude – to the experience(s) of the group in other spaces.

Groups don’t provide hard analytical data the way Pages do, so it’s up to you to gather both the qualitative and quantitative results. Consider asking:

• Who’s posting most often?  Who’s replying?
• What topics are folks posting about?  What topics are getting the most feedback and engagement?
• What times of day are people posting?
• Are members typically sharing links, photos, videos, event invitations?
• What else can you learn about your members through their activity? What do they care about?

How have you made Facebook Groups work for you?  What are your success stories?

As I began to wind down my work week in preparation for Shabbat,  my social media Friday began, a few months back, to take on a different form. I needed a wrap up of the social media week, just as Shabbat is the wrap up of my work week. Inspired by a radio “shock jock” who used to end each morning with a call-in segment called “What have we learned today?”, I decided to try asking this question on my Friday Facebook status. And so, every Friday morning, my status reads “It’s Friday! What have we learned this week?”

Several months in, our (no longer my) What Have We Learned This Week? community is thriving. Each week literally dozens of friends from around the world share their reflections.  The recognition of learning that has taken place ranges from the odd (“I learned about the reproductive system of a hen”) to the seriously reflective (“we can spend time weighing our day, debating its worth, or we can recognize all of the good in our day and count it as worthy!”), to the personal  (“To have a little more faith in myself than I might otherwise deem I deserve.”) to the proudly parental (“That my son is receiving a wonderful public school education from wonderfully committed teachers.”)

Beyond their individual reflections, the participants in this weekly ritual have begun to talk to each other, supporting (or challenging, such as the discussion on the difference between “fact” and “truth”) friends and sometimes strangers as we close our week together.  My Friday Facebook wall has become a safe place for introspection, joking, kvetching, and praying. We judge our own learnings from social media and from the rest of our life and, without judging one another we get the opportunity to learn from each other’s weekly journeys. And in the end, it’s the sharing of one another’s journeys that is what life, as well as social media, is about.

Judaism has a practice in which a person conducts a cheshbon ha-nefesh, a self-audit of one’s soul. Some people engage in this practice daily, others less often. During the Rosh Hashana season, it’s particularly apropos, as we look back on the year past and at the year ahead. We assess ourselves honestly, and we set our course for the future. Why not invite my Facebook friends to share their own cheshbon hanefesh on my Facebook wall?

May we all continue to learn and share, and may be all be blessed wish a shana tova u’metukah, a happy and sweet New Year.

So… What you have you learned this year?  Share your thoughts in the comments.

Arnie Samlan is a rabbi, Jewish educator, consultant, Jewish life coach, and aspiring DJ. Follow him on Twitter (@JewishConnectiv) and his blog (http://thenotoriousrav.blogspot.com Arnie is part of the professional team of the New Center for Collaboration and Leadership of The Jewish Education Project.

Darim is pleased to offer a webinar and webinar/consulting combo to help you tune up your Facebook Page for maximum impact this season.   REGISTER HERE or use the form below.

WEBINAR:  Friday, August 12th  1-2pm Eastern
In this one-hour webinar, we’ll walk you through how to use Facebook to engage constituents during this important time of year when you have more of their attention, including marketing your page, when to post, what types of updates are most successful, how to develop a content strategy for the holiday season, how to be personal with Facebook, and more. The webinar recording will be available to all who register to replay or revisit at your convenience.

CONSULTING PACKAGE:
To provide more support and customized attention, we’re offering one-on-one coaching for up to 8 congregations who want to review their current Facebook activities and strategy in more detail with a Darim consultant. Along with this one hour coaching sessions, you’ll receive a self-evaluation form that will help us identify your organization’s Facebook goals and current challenges using Facebook and a written follow up including tips and suggestions to help propel you forward.  Price includes the webinar for up to 5 representatives from your congregation.

Webinar:  Only $20
Webinar + coaching and support:  $150  (only 8 seats available!)

REGISTER FOR EITHER PACKAGE HERE. Or see the form below.

A great kick in the tush to get your Facebook house in order for the busy season!  What are you waiting for?  Sign up for the webinar, or the full package with coaching and customized support!

Our Presenter: Debra Askanase is founder of the social media strategy firm communityorganizer20.com. Debra blogs there about social media, nonprofits and community organizing. A frequent conference speaker, Debra can be found chatting away as @askdebra. Debra has worked with nonprofits for 20 years as organizer, program director, executive director and fundraiser.  Debra has worked with many Jewish organizations, synagogues, day schools and other organizations in the US, Canada and Israel.

I had the privilege of presenting a webinar to the Darim Online community June 1, 2011 about how to use Linkedin for nonprofits. When I was preparing for the webinar, two things struck me: why cause-focused groups may not work well on Linked (more on that below), and how much Linkedin offers. The presentation focuses on five ways to best utilize Linkedin professionally: be goal-oriented, optimize both your personal and company profiles, utilize groups, and use Linkedin Answers.

If I had to offer three tips about using Linkedin effectively, they would be:

• Think about why you and your company want to be one Linkedin, and how you use it will follow
• Identify a combination of 10 keywords and keyword phrases that best describe you, and 10 others that best describe the organization. Integrate these keywords and keyword phrases into your personal and company profiles
  
• Complete all employee personal Linkedin profiles to 100%, as well as the organizational profile
  

Start with your Goals

The key to using any social media platform effectively is to use it to meet your goals. Decide first why you (or your organization) would want to use Linkedin (such as finding collaborators, funders, or colleagues). Once you know why you want to use Linkedin, how you will use Linkedin follows. For example, if you want to use Linkedin to connect with foundations then you might:

• search for people who work at those foundations
• join groups that they have joined and participate
• ask for introductions through mutual Linkedin connections
• use Linkedin Answers to ask a question about contacting foundations

Identifying your goals will dictate your Linkedin strategy.

Optimize your personal profile

One aspect of optimizing your profile is completing it fully. Be sure to include your photo, a summary of who you are, keywords and interests, and a summary of what you’ve accomplished in every position. It’s also important to have at least five recommendations, since you can search Linkedin by number of recommendations.

Use the “advanced search” option to understand how you can be found, and include those in your profile.  Some of the search parameters are by industry, geographic location, number of recommendations, and position titles.

Optimizing your profile also means placing important phrases and keywords within your profile. Think about 10 to 15 keywords and keyword phrases that describe you professionally. Specifically, place keyword-rich content within the summary, specialties, and interests sections.

Optimize the company profile

If your organization doesn’t have a company profile, create one on Linkedin. Identify the 10-15 keywords that best describe your organization, and integrate them into the company profile for the profile to be search-ready. If your organization has a blog or Twitter presence, be sure to add those to the company profile to personalize the company. Also, if you want to highlight specific products or services, do so through the “new products and services” feature.

Utilize the power of groups

Real connecting happens within groups. Search for groups related to your profession and industry. I also recommend joining groups your professional colleagues belong to as well. If a group is inactive or not valuable, leave. If it is, spend time within the group answering questions and offering help. When you find yourself in an interesting discussion, invite your colleagues to connect with you personally on Linkedin after the discussion has concluded. I tend to see the same group of people commenting on group discussions, which helps me to  know them through our participation.

When groups are managed by nonprofits, and the discussion is about the nonprofit or a specific cause, they tend to be inactive. I looked at many public nonprofit-administered groups while researching this presentation, and most were very inactive or not lively. (I cannot comment on private groups, though.) I suspect that cause-specific or nonprofit-specific groups aren’t very active because Linkedin users want to discuss professional issues, not organizational mission. I also think that mission-based discussion has limited appeal while industry-based discussion has much broader appeal and basis for discussion. Additionally, Linkedin is not best used as a platform for recruiting people to become direct stakeholders; there are other platforms much better suited to cause-focused discussions.

There appears to be two exceptions to the inactive nonprofit-administered groups rule: One is Autism Speaks, which has a very lively Linkedin group, though I’m not able to comment on why this is the case. The other exception seems to be professional associations. For example, the alumni group of the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust (a youth business mentoring program) is a very active group for business class alums to connect with others and possibly do business together.

Linkedin Answers

Linkedin Answers is both a wonderful research tool and means to find new connections. By subscribing the the RSS feed of a certain category of questions (such as Social Entrepreneurship) you can stay up to date on the latest industry discussions, and also answer questions yourself. If your answer is selected as the “best answer,” you win the “best answer” designation, which enhances your professional credibility. Also, questions reach the entire Linkedin community, not just your personal connections.

Other Linkedin goodies

I love looking at what’s going on in the Linkedin labs. Most recently, I’ve enjoyed Linkedin Maps (visualize your own network) and Signal (trending news stories shared by your connections) from the labs. Check back each month for new labs products.

Resources

Joanne Fritz of nonprofit.about.com published a great article with many tips for nonprofit professionals using Linkedin. Fast Company also published an article with five Linkedin tips you didn’t know. Read the excellent Net2 Think Tank discussion about using Linkedin for change. Allison Fine interviews Amy Sample Ward and Estrella Rosenberg on how nonprofits can use Linkedin on the December Social Good podcast. Drop in on the informative weekly Linkedin Twitter chat at 8pm every Tuesday, hosted by @LinkedinExpert and @MartineHunter.

If you’d like to watch the recorded webinar that I presented with Darim Online, you may view it here.

What is your Linkedin tip? What is the most useful thing about using Linkedin that you’ve found?

In partnership with my friends at Personal Democracy Forum, I have had the great pleasure of working with the Avi Chai Foundation since last May. Our engagement has two sides; working with the foundation staff to help them use social media, and developing efforts to strengthen the ability of their grantees and community, particularly Jewish day schools, to become more adept at using social media to build and strengthen their own networks.

The foundation has been very courageous and forward thinking about using social media. They are sunsetting in 9 years and want part of their legacy to be a growing “tribe” of Jews that are connected with one another and Judaism. It’s a fascinating notion. They’re not interested in leaving buildings and legacy organizations but want to leave the capacity of a network of people to continue to grow and thrive.

We are beginning with a set of experiments with day schools including a training academy for which we will have the great fortune of working with Darim Online, a video contest and online fundraising match.

The foundation has taken concrete steps to enter the social media waters. Staffers have started tweeting. Deena Fuchs, the director of special projects and communications, came up with a great idea yesterday. For the next two weeks, the staff is going to have a contest to see who can gain the largest number of new friends on Twitter. We couldn’t decide on a prize. Any ideas?

In addition, we agreed on social media policies to provide guidance for staff and boundaries for management. A very interesting point that someone brought up at the meeting is that these really are communications guidelines, that there shouldn’t be an artificial distinction between policies related to social media versus traditional media.

Here are their policies. I think they’ve done a great job of keeping them simple, manageable and direct:

The AVI CHAI Foundation Social Media Policy

AVI CHAI encourages staff and Trustees to be champions on behalf of the Foundation, LRP, day schools and overnight summer camps. The rapidly growing phenomenon of blogging, social networks and other forms of online electronic publishing are emerging as unprecedented opportunities for outreach, information-sharing and advocacy.

AVI CHAI encourages (but does not require) staff and Trustees to use the Internet to blog and talk about our work and our grant making and therefore wants staff and Trustees to understand the responsibilities in discussing AVI CHAI in the public square known as the World Wide Web.

Guidelines for AVI CHAI Social Media Users

1. Be Smart. A blog or community post is visible to the entire world. Remember that what you write will be public for a long time – be respectful to the Foundation, colleagues, grantees, and partners, and protect your privacy.

2. Write What You Know. You have a unique perspective on our organization based on your talents, skills and current responsibilities. Share your knowledge, your passions and your personality in your posts by writing about what you know. If you’re interesting and authentic, you’ll attract readers who understand your specialty and interests. Don’t spread gossip, hearsay or assumptions.

3. Identify Yourself. Authenticity and transparency are driving factors of the blogosphere. List your name and when relevant, role at AVI CHAI, when you blog about AVI CHAI-related topics.

4. Include Links. Find out who else is blogging about the same topic and cite them with a link or make a post on their blog. Links are what determine a blog’s popularity rating on blog search engines like Technorati. It’s also a way of connecting to the bigger conversation and reaching out to new audiences. Be sure to also link to avichai.org.

5. Include a Disclaimer. If you blog or post to an online forum in an unofficial capacity, make it clear that you are speaking for yourself and not on behalf of AVI CHAI. If your post has to do with your work or subjects associated with AVI CHAI, use a disclaimer such as this: “The postings on this site are my own and don’t represent AVI CHAI’s positions, strategies or opinions.” This is a good practice but does not exempt you from being held accountable for what you write.

6. Be Respectful. It’s okay to disagree with others but cutting down or insulting readers, employees, bosses or partners and vendors is not. Respect your audience and don’t use obscenities, personal insults, ethnic slurs or other disparaging language to express yourself.

7. Work Matters. Ensure that your blogging does not interfere with your other work commitments.

8. Respect Privacy of Others. Don’t publish or cite personal or confidential details and photographs about AVI CHAI grantees, employees, Trustees, partners or vendors without their permission.

9. Don’t Tell Secrets. The nature of your job may provide you with access to confidential information regarding AVI CHAI, AVI CHAI grantees, partners, or fellow employees. Respect and maintain the confidentiality that has been entrusted to you. Don’t divulge or discuss proprietary information, internal documents, personal details about other people or other confidential material

10. Be Responsible. Blogs, wikis, photo-sharing and other forms of online dialogue (unless posted by authorized AVI CHAI personnel) are individual interactions, not corporate communications. AVI CHAI staff and Trustees are personally responsible for their posts .