Mark Horvath interviews Beth Kanter on social media time management, crowd sourcing, influence and fundraising.

How do you explain social media to the public, no matter what their level of understanding? This was the issue we faced crafting an "overview" of social media. From this experience, I offer five basic ideas that you have to utilize in order to convey the concept of social media effectively.

Do bureaucratic organizations stifle effective social media? Not necessarily! There are plenty of international, highly bureaucratic companies that use social media beautifully! It's not the amount of rule-following that prevents effective use of social media, but fear of change. In this post, I offer suggestions for approaching your bureaucratic organization to help them overcome their fear of change.

You have to commit to social media maintenance. Social media profiles are your organization's online homes, and you can't close up shop for a while, take long vacations, or fail to maintain them. This post examines the necessity of social media maintenance, and the repercussions of not maintaining your online homes.

Engaging on social media is NOT free. There are costs associated with video sharing activities, blogging, photo sharing, Facebook, social media campaigns, and more. This blog post discusses the many "hidden costs" of using social media for your company and organization. What are your costs?

How does your organization use the social bookmarking site Delicious? In this post, we discuss the ways that your organization can use Delicious for information gathering, intra company collaborative efforts, and sharing news with stakeholders.

How do you gather and process all the online information that you need to know? I've compiled and explained my news gathering and processing system in this blog post in order to share insights that I've learned. What I'm hoping is that, after you read this, you'll share yours in the comments or with your own blog post. I look forward to learning and sharing with you!

Why don't organizations create meaningful, strategic taglines? A tagline represents the mission of the organization, distilled into less than eight carefully chosen words. Company taglines, and professional taglines, should move the mission forward in all social media updates, and make networking more strategic and informative.

When recently presenting an overview of social media to a nonprofit organization, I was met with overwhelming fears and objections to using social media. This post addresses each concern one by one, revealing why you can't afford not to be active in social media.

How do you raise funds for a project with an eBook? In this interview with Jasmin Tragas, who created the eBook Worldshapers, Extraordinary Women Making a Difference to raise funds for a microloan program in the Philippines. In this post, I interview Jasmin about her experience raising funds through the eBook, putting the project together, and lessons learned.