In 2009, after 20 + in the non profit sector, I hung out my shingle as a social media strategy consultant and formed my company, Social Media Tools for Work & Learning. Like others, I saw the communication and relationship landscape change across the world as social web technologies were increasingly used to engage and deepen relationships with service users, customers, partners, donors and supporters.

I recognized that it was time for me to combine my expertise in the non profit sector (herein called social benefit sector) with my passion and experience for using social media strategies and tools in my programs. I knew that organizations would need help in figuring out how to shift their thinking as they begin exploring how to adopt and integrate social media strategies and tools into their organization.

Not having the in depth skills of a web designer, I was very pleased to form a partnership with Alain Hurtubise (iautomate). In addition to web site design, Alain’s consultancy focuses on major software development projects in the corporate enterprise sector. Alain is deeply committed to helping the social benefit sector accomplish their goals through the use of web 2.0 technologies.

Suffice to say, joining forces with Alain has being a great fit for both of us. When we take on projects requiring both our services, my  role is help the social benefit organization develop their online strategies, guidelines, policies procedures and tools. Alain’s role is to handle the design and development of the web site along with integrating the social media strategy and tools into the site design.

Together we mentor the organization’s staff on web 2.0 thinking and tools, then train them to use the content management system (CMS). Having the organization’s staff learn how to use the CMS, puts full control and ownership of the web site onto the organization and no longer are costly fees paid to outside contractors who know little of organizations purpose or Mission.

My in depth understanding of the social benefit sector coupled with Alain’s web design experience gives us the depth and reach to help  groups extend their Mission using the social web but don’t know who to trust, where to start, what are mine fields, what to expect and most importantly how can I measure the outcomes of my strategy.

In our first major web development contract  we were selected to design and develop the web site for the York Region Alliance to End Homelessness (YRAEH). We were fortunate in that YRAEH had just completed a major organizational strategic business plan. Their strategic plan included some clear goals related to networking and supporting communities of practitioners along with marketing their new business of serving as a catalyst for collaborative solutions to homelessness and poverty.

As I discussed in earlier posts, we have concluded that the open source software platform Drupal is the most powerful and flexible web design platform for our work. Drupal is supported by an extensive community of software developers and is becoming the platform of choice by corporate and social benefit groups around the world.

With the Drupal platform, Alain was able to design and develop the YRAEH’s collaboration and networking components. The software platform that the networking component operates within is called Open Atrium and is integrated within Drupal. Open Atrium has the flexibility of allowing you to set up independent web sites exclusively for your networking purposes. Large and small organizations seeking an internal private intranet or a public platform to engage groups or strengthen networking and collaboration capacities are discovering Open Atrium as a preferred solution to their needs.

The YRAEH site was successfully launched in November of 2009 and is steadily building it’s membership, collaboration and networking groups. the YRAEH staff quickly learned how to  enter their web site content without having to call their web site developer or outside contractor. The YRAEH staff are learning how to analyze the reports  generated by Google analytics and are listening to their members in the collaborative and networking groups.

Well, that’s my story of building our first networked Social Benefit web site. We see a bright future ahead for social benefit groups who are willing to embrace the social web using an open source platform like Drupal. For those organizations who wish to deepen relationships and include their members, partners, donors and service users in meaningful ways, Open Atrium can deliver all the networking and collaboration features you need.

Let me know what you think of networked social benefit web site and what we see as the key components needed to embrace the social web.

Brent Uncategorized cms socialweb drupal openatrium