The Internet, and it's not like what I'm writing here is news, is a wealth of information. The trick in making that work for your organization is to use a variety of tools to search for a deliver to you the things that are interesting to you, from an organizational perspective and then position yourself, or a team, to share the best of that information internally and externally.

First, open a few accounts

You’ll need to have aosme active accounts to be able to take the broader next steps. Even if you already have accounts at some of these services, I recommend opening some with a user name and password that you can share with others at the organization. This makes it easier to get help or transition the activities later.

1. Google Reader is a web application that helps you to manage and review web feeds from a variety of sources. Register for an account here: http://reader.google.com
2. Twitter is a microblogging application. But don't worry about that -- it's really a way for you to share, in 140 characters, updates, links or general observations.  Go to http://www.twitter.com and sign up for an account.
3. Delicious is a web application that allows you to save and share bookmarks. Sign up at: http://delicious.com Once you've logged in, visit the tools page at: http://delicious.com/help/tools  This will provide you with resources to make adding bookmarks easier.
4. Gmail is a web-based mail application developed and hosted by Google. Sign up at: http://gmail.google.com

Now, let's assemble our sources

In this section, we will concentrate on finding the information that is already out there and subscribing to it.  

1. Google Alerts is a service from (guess who?) Google that delivers news items to your mailbox or feedreader based on customized searches. Think of it as a search session that continues working for you. You can find out more about the service here: http://www.google.com/alerts?hl=en Now, set up a Google Alert and have it sent to your Google mail address or via Atom (it's like RSS) in your Google Reader account.  You can manage your Google Alerts (including subscription method) at: http://www.google.com/alerts/manage
2. Twitter Search provides a great way for you to see who is sharing what on the service.  While you can customize third party applications (like the excellent Tweet Deck) to group users or save search terms, you can use the search function in twitter, save it, and access the information from the web.  You can see twitter search in action here: http://search.twitter.com You can save searches, and click through to those, in the sidebar on your twitter home page.
3. Technorati is searches through a variety of "tagged" (self-described content) to find information that might be relevant to you. You can check it out here: http://www.technorati.com/ Put some search terms into the box. Spend some time reading the results and tweaking the search -- change words or add others -- until you feel like the first two pages gives you useful information. Once you've done that, you will subscribe to the search. Now click the "subscribe" link, grab the URL and subscribe via Google Reader.
4. Flickr is an online service that hosts photos. You can find it at: http://www.flickr.com Follow the same process as above. Search around for a bit until you find some relevant photos -- interesting, good and on target -- and subscribe to those (again, using Google Reader).
5. You Tube has a variety of videos and almost every topic imaginable. You know the drill now. Go here: http://www.youtube.com and play around with search terms and then subscribe to the results of your search in Bloglines.

Time to share the best with your colleagues

Now you have set up some search agents that are continually scanning services and the Internet for new items on your behalf. When found, these are delivered to your bloglines account and your inbox. Now, you need to know how to share these with internal and external audiences.

1. Read your assembled Google Reader feeds first thing every morning. Really. First thing. Every morning. When you see something that you think would be interesting to your audiences, follow the link so that it opens in a separate browser tab (that's not absolutely necessary but I'm here to tell you it will make things a whole lot easier).
2. If you are receiving Google Alerts via email, read them second thing every morning. Really. Second thing. If there's something that you like, click the link and open it (and, yes, you should open it another browser tab).
3. Now, and this is where that earlier delicious sign-up comes in, invoke the appropriate bookmark saving tool (from http://delicious.com/help/tools and save with an appropriate tag or four. 
4. To share?  Just point people to your delicious page at:  http://delicious.com/username (where username is your, you know, actual username). 

Ready to Advance

1. Talk back. You are finding a lot of good information, you are sharing it with your colleagues. Now start a conversation with the people who are providing you with that great information.  
2. Find others. See who else is using the same tags you are on delicious.  See who else is saving the same links. Add those people to your network. I'll add some screenshots to this page but, in the meantime, if you look around on a users page you'll see the "add to my network" link right under the search box on the left.  And, to find the people who saved a particular bookmark, click the highlighted number on the right of that particular bookmark (the number is how many people have already hit save).  
3. Share your delicious page.  That's what email signature files are for!
4. Broadcast to the world.  You know that Twitter account you signed up for?  It's time to do some microblogging.  When you are reading something too good to keep to yourself, send a short post out to let others know about the link (and use a link shortening service like bit.ly to make it easy to keep inside the 140 character limit and watch your influence grow).

Closing Credits

This handout would not have been possible without the following.

Resources

• We Are Media: Listening: http://www.wearemedia.org/Tactical+Track+Module+1
• Listening in a Digital World: http://www.slideshare.net/ext337/listening-in-a-digital-world
• 10 Ways to Use Web 2.0 to Change the World: http://ext337.org/file_download/9
• Newsmaster: http://www.masternewmedia.org/2004/02/19/the_birth_of_the_newsmaster.htm
• How to Monitor Your Social Media Presence in 10 Minutes a Day: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/4663//How-to-Monitor-Your-Social-Media-Presence-in-10-Minutes-a-Day.aspx
• The Marketing Role of the Biggest Social Networks: http://www.marty-collins.com/the-marketing-role-of-the-biggest-social-networks/

Related on this wiki

• Social Media Technologies: Do They Matter to Nonprofits 

Credits

• All the smart people that write about this stuff everyday. You can see the information they share at http://del.icio.us/tag/nptech
• I am Marnie Webb. I work at TechSoup Global (http://www.techsoupglobal.org) and am on the NetSquared team (http://www.netsquared.org). I also blog at Ext337.org (http://ext337.org). You can get a hold of me at: webb@ext337.org.