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By Robin Fisk

A June 2009 study from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research found that 89 percent of nonprofits are using some form of social media, and these organizations now are outpacing businesses and even academic institutions in their adoption of social-networking tools. With more than 400 Web sites and tools out there, according to research conducted by David Nour , managing partner of consulting firm The Nour Group Inc., how do nonprofits and associations know where to start? How do they to determine what components fit into their social-media marketing strategy? This article will offer some information on internal versus external social media tools and how organizations can take advantage of them, to maximize their marketing efforts.

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Saw this sign boarding a plane yesterday and couldn’t help but to think about how truly dysfunctional some of our regulations are.

1. Do we really need to be reminded that jet fuel is bad for us?
2. What’s the alternative – drive from coast to coast, or maybe we can go back to horse drawn carriages?
3. I wonder how much time, money, and effort it took to pass this proposition?
4. How many people are writing down that URL to check it out later?
5. Who’s benefit is this sign anyway?  The consumer who has little to no option at this point (at the end of the jet bridge boarding a plane), the state, the airline, the sign manufacturing company?

Power doesn’t’ corrupt; powerlessness corrupts!  Look around your office and ask – are your efforts adding value or wasting time.  One is vibration, the other – forward motion!  Don’t confuse the two!

Great flowchart found at TypeCut

So, are you?

I attended an incredibly sad funeral this morning – of a vibrant life cut way too short.  As I arrived early and watched what seemed to be a very diverse group of attendees – young, old, senior executives to personal friends, I couldn’t help but to wonder about the vast array of lives this person had touched.  Throughout the moving service, I wondered less about what this person accomplished and much more about how others described him – the rich, loving life he lived.  I found myself pondering what seems to be a cliché, yet worth asking:

If this were my funeral, who would show up and what would they say?

I’m convinced more than ever that few will care about the size of my house or bank account; they will be there because of the portfolio of real relationships I invested in – personally and professionally.  You see the person who passed away, wasn’t a whole lot older than I am – another reminder that you can’t take any given day for granted!

Who would you most like to see at your funeral and what would you want them to say?  What will you do to make 2010 count?  What are you doing to invest in those relationships today?  That’s something LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can’t do for you!

Business Expert David Nour
Speaks At Leadership Symposium

Jim Prevor’s Perishable Pundit, January 5, 2010

Each year, the PMA FIT Leadership Symposium—presented in partnership with Cornell University—provides the industry with a unique form of leadership development. The program brings experts who are not experts in the produce industry together to stimulate the intellectual juices. This is very important because otherwise the industry stays in its internal feedback loop. New ideas, new ways of thinking and new ways of confronting challenges and finding opportunities combine with great networking to cause the program to attract many returning participants year after year:

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