It's that time of year again - time to "Confess to Pick. Click. Give."

What does that mean? It means we want you to start thinking about - and talking about - Pick. Click. Give. on Facebook and in social media. And we want you to "Confess."

Confess that you're going to give a portion of your PFD in the coming year to an Alaska nonprofit - or several.

Confess that you're going to support a cause - or causes - that you believe in.

And by "confessing" to your friends, family, fans, and followers, you're letting them know that they, too, can give when they sign up for their 2012 PFD online.

Like last year, we're opening "The Confessional" to let you make your confession on Facebook. But that's not all...  [Read More... ]

Alaskans have been confessing the last few days on Facebook. Confessing to giving this coming year through Pick. Click. Give. when they sign up for their PFD online.

You can still confess until 11:00pm Alaska Time tonight (New Year's Eve) by RSVPing here: http://on.fb.me/confessit 

and you will be entered to win $500 toward an Alaska nonprofit of your choice on the PFD list.  [Read More... ]

Many of us have contributed to an Alaska nonprofit for the last year or two via the Pick. Click. Give. PFD charitable contributions program when we applied for our PFD online. But are we talking about it? We should – and you should, too! 

What Can You Do?

During the LAST 3 DAYS of 2010, we're asking our friends in Alaska to post a status update to their Facebook profiles or pages to announce their support of Pick. Click. Give. 2011. We also ask that you help spread the word by encouraging your Alaska-based friends to participate as well.  [Read More... ]

As we close in on the start of the new year, many nonprofits in Alaska are anticipating the 2010 Permanent Fund Dividend for good reason. This will be the second year that Alaskans will be able to check off one or several nonprofit organizations to support with a portion of their PFD when they apply online. Even $25 can make an incredible impact on the lives o Alaskans, especially if everyone picks, clicks and gives. Just see what Red Cross of Alaska, CASA, Wish Upon the North Star and Alzheimer's Resource of Alaska have been able to do with your contributions this past year.

This is also the second year that the Pick. Click. Give. awareness campaign is using social media to draw attention to the Permanent Fund Charitable Contributions Program.

In addition to the Pick. Click. Give. blog, there is also a presence for the campaign on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube and CauseCast which is a cause-related video sharing site.

There are several things that Alaska nonprofits - and any nonprofits - can learn from using social media for awareness campaigns.

There are several takeaways for nonprofits from a social media standpoint:

1. You Can Be Targeted. Social media can be effective as not only a global or national communications tool but can also be calibrated to be hyper-local and even hyper-rural. For smaller nonprofits whose scope doesn't reach beyond a state or a region or a town, social media can still prove useful and can be that finely targeted.

2. You Need to Pick the Right Tools. Not every social media tool is right for every nonprofit or every campaign. And you don't always start out picking the right ones, but as long as you monitor, measure and assess results from each, you can eventually zero in on the right ones. Even Pick. Click. Give. started out using a number of additional social media tools that eventually proved less useful in reaching Alaskans so we pared down this year to focus more energy on fewer, more effective tools. Holding onto MySpace was possible because it takes less resources to maintain than Facebook or Twitter. Holding onto Twitter even though the numbers may be smaller is a strategic move to be ready for the 3rd year of this program when more Alaskans will be used to Twitter communications. Twitter is still an excellent traffic-driver even before true interaction and engagement sets in.

3. You Must Coordinate Efforts. Social media tools can be linked together and coordinated in such a fashion that they can be utilized with a very small staff. Last year, one person ran the bulk of social media efforts in a few hours a week. This year, we are lucky to have one additional person devoted to social media a few hours a week and have better internal coordination with our project partners such as Rasmuson Foundation and the Nerland Agency (the ad agency that developed the programs brand and the PSAs). Social media cannot exist in a vacuum. All stakeholders in a campaign or project must be willing to keep social media top of mind and to keep the social media team in the loop in any marketing or communications discussion. And the social media team needs to know how to make the right noises at the right times to be noticed and not forgotten.

As Jordan Marshall of Rasmuson Foundation so eloquently put it, "The beauty of Pick. Click. Give. may be that it reminds people that they can make a big difference in peoples’ lives, so when they get the ask from the nonprofits they’re more inclined to act."

And that, too, is the beauty of using social media to remind people that the causes we are working to support truly matter to real people. People reaching out to and connecting with people. You can make a difference.

Pick. Click. Give.

How is your nonprofit using social media to reach out and connect?

A version of this post originally appeared on The Foraker Group web blog.

If you haven't been there yet, Pick. Click. Give. now has a Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/pickclickgive. If you are a member of Facebook personally, please become a Fan of our Page. Social media connections are an important part of the Pick. Click. Give. campaign!

What is a Facebook Page?

Does your nonprofit organization have a Facebook Page?

Because Pick. Click. Give. is an awareness campaign and NOT an individual person, we've set up a presence on Facebook - the most popular social network on the Internet - using a Facebook Page. A Page on Facebook is different from a Profile which you as an individual might have as a Facebook member. Pages are for companies, organizations, products, celebrities and other entities or individuals wanting a more professional presence on Facebook.

Some organizations - including many in Alaska - have set up Profiles instead of Pages. They may have done this a year or so ago when Pages weren't as prevalent, and they have probably built a large friends list over time. Unfortunately, if an organization has a Facebook Profile instead of a Facebook Page, they are at risk of losing the content and contacts they've accumulated because they are in violation of Faceboook's Terms of Service i.e. the fine print in your Facebook user agreement. Facebook regularly disables Facebook Profiles that they deem a violation of their rules.

You can immediately tell the difference between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Profile because Pages have Fans while Profiles have Friends.

An important difference between a Facebook Page and a Facebook Profile is that a Page is publicly accessible to people who are not members of Facebook so it becomes a powerful Web presence for your organization that shows up in Google Searches. Facebook Profiles are only accessible by your Facebook Friends which means someone must be a member of Facebook and then send you a Friend request (which you must accept) in order to interact with your organization through your Profie.

Benefits of Using Facebook Pages

How can your organization benefit from a Facebook Page?

Many nonprofits are limited in budgets and resources for outreach to constituents, donors, the media and the public. While a web site can serve as an effective destination for an organization, many people these days consider web sites as places for background and archived information rather than an active and dynamic communications tool.

Also the money and time costs of designing, building and maintaining a web site can be a burden, particularly if an organization's site was not designed with an easy-to-use content management system. Many nonprofit organizations are saddled with outdated web sites where they are at the mercy of Web developers for even the most simple updates.

Other organizations use their web sites as repositories of information, for a list of services, to house a calendar of events, but when it comes to outreach, they are relying on an electronic newsletter - or even a print newsletter - to get the word out about their organization and important events. These days, a web site by nature is too static - and often too overloaded with information - to serve as a consistent outreach tool for shorter, more frequent messages.

While a blog is a useful tool to publish content more frequently, a blog can also be a burden on an organization's resources if they aren't equipped to publish content on a very regular basis.

A Facebook Page doesn't demand the same kind of content publishing and is instead a more conversational resource where shorter bits of information - usually with a link to additional information - is the norm.

Using a Facebook Page Effectively

At the very minimum, here are a few things you should do with your Facebook Page:

1. Connect your blog to Page. If you have one, add your blog's RSS feed URL to the Notes section of your Facebook Page so when you post to your blog, it automatically updates your Page.

2. Add Facebook Events. If you hold events, particularly regularly occuring events, you can use the Facebook Events feature to augment your Page. The Events tool integrates with your Page, and you can use it to spread the word about classes, meetings, etc. using a tool that makes it easy for others to invite their own Facebook friends to your event.

3. Link to Resources. While Status Updates can be intimidating for some people, updating your Facebook Page doesn't have to be hard. Connecting your blog updates your Page status as does adding new events. You can also post links to relevant resources including those on your organization's web site as well as others on the Web.

4. Respond to Comments. As you gather more Fans on your Page, people may start commenting on your Status Updates. A quick response is always appreciated and helps strengthen relationships. Your response doesn't have to be long - just an answer to a question or acknowledgement of what they've said. While it is important to interact with your Page Fans, don't feel obligated to respond to every single comment, but don't ignore them all either.

5. Favorite Like-Minded Organizations' Pages. If you are visiting another Alaska nonprofit or company Page that you think might be relevant to your own Facebook Fans, you can click on the link on the upper left side of their Page and choose Add This Page to My Page's Favorites. Then add their Page to your Page. This will appear in a box on the left side of your Facebook Page Wall with their logo and a link to their Page. It is appropriate to ask them to Favorite your Page back, however, reciprocity is not an obligation here.

Facebook Pages are easy to set up and easier to maintain than a web site or blog. They also give you a direct communications channel to the people who you serve or who you want to reach with important messages about your organization. And when one person interacts with your Facebook Page, that action can be seen by dozens or even hundreds of their Facebook Friends giving your organization an instant and exponential reach beyond your own contacts.

Does your Alaska nonprofit have a Facebook Page and is on the list of qualifying organizations for the 2010 PFD Charitable Contributions Program? If so, please include a link to it in comments so we can Favorite it on the Pick. Click. Give. Page.