Sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ have become a part of most American’s daily life, and nonprofit donors are starting to expect more social engagement from the organizations and causes to which they give.

Recently, PR Daily listed 10 reasons why nonprofits should be active on Twitter. We couldn’t agree more! Here are a few reasons that topped our list:

• You have something to say. You care about your company’s mission, have passion about the life-changing work you’re doing for the community, and others care about your causes. Now, spread the word about it.

• Your donors are on Twitter. If you start engaging on Twitter, chances are you will find donors. You’ll get to tell them about the great work their donations are helping to do for the cause– inspiring them to give more or spread the message to their own networks.

• You can build authority. By tweeting about your work and spreading awareness of your cause, you not only spark inspiration, but you also establish yourself as an authority on the work your company does.

Do you agree that nonprofits should be active on one of the world’s fastest-growing social media sites? Leave us a comment below.

Bolt PR | Public Relations | Social Media | Marketing | Crisis Communication

Raleigh, NC | Orange County, CA

It’s safe to say that 2011 was a year surrounded by social media buzz. PR Daily recently listed 8 social media trends that should be on your radar as we approach 2012. Here are just a few of our favorites:

• Social TV convergence – You can now “check in” to a TV program and then have conversations with people around the world who are watching the same thing. You can review the shows, talk about what’s happening, and listen to what others are saying. It works for movies and music, too. Plus, if the rumors are true and Steve Jobs’ last project was iTV, this will become huge next year.
• Social commerce – You can now check into Apple on Foursquare and pay for an in-store purchase using the Apple app on a smartphone. Starbucks also does this by using your phone at its at-register scanner. You’ll see more of this next year.
• New social networks – We know, there are already a ton of social networks out there, but there are some cool platforms, such as Pinterest, that are gaining traction. It’s still too early to see any results, but you should be aware what others are doing with new social networks.

What social media trends are you looking forward to in 2012? Leave us a comment below.

The report shows that Zuckerberg and company are responsible for two-thirds of all Web traffic referred by social media sites. What does that mean, exactly? Out of every 10,000 links clicked, 66 of them were posted on Facebook.

No. 2 and 3, according to the report, are StumbleUpon and YouTube. The remaining social networks—including big players like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+—barely make a blip compared with the traffic that Facebook drives. Facebook now has over 1,000 times the amount of referrals as Google+.

Does this data change the way you view Google+ buzz? Will you choose one social network over the other? Weigh in and leave a comment here.

Tributes to Steve Jobs continue to flood social media platforms and fill news reports around the world. It’s clear, Steve Jobs redefined the digital age and was an eloquent public speaker. To celebrate the life of one of the most insightful, brilliant, successful–and, yes–quotable geniuses in tech history, the Huffington Post compiled a few of his most memorable sayings. A few of our favorites:

• “Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” Stanford University commencement address, June 2005

• “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.” Stanford University commencement address, June 2005

• “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart. Stay hungry. Stay foolish.” Stanford University commencement address, June 2005.

• “My model for business is The Beatles. They were four guys who kept each other’s kind of negative tendencies in check. They balanced each other and the total was greater than the sum of the parts. That’s how I see business: great things in business are never done by one person, they’re done by a team of people.” Interview with 60 Minutes, 2003.

How did Steve Jobs impact your life? Please share a comment here; we’d love to hear it!

Read full article here

• Pumpkin Latte from Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf – It has rich flavor and is a delicious start to any fall Saturday. http://bit.ly/qM7fyj

• Burberry Cashmere Scarf – What’s not to love? It’s adorable and warm! http://bit.ly/nvetWx

• Fall colors – There’s nothing is better than the bright colored leaves and the smell of rain on the pavement!
  

• Halloween – This holiday brings out all the fall fun! Here’s a great costume if you haven’t made up your mind: http://bit.ly/nKbK0i

• Tim Burton exhibit at LACMA – Now until, October 31, check out this amazing exhibit – showcasing a collection of over 700 drawings, paintings, photographs, moving-image works, storyboards, puppets, and costumes.  http://bit.ly/iD73Pb

• Soup, soup, soup – As it gets cold and rainy, the Bolt team loves soup of any flavor!

• Fall candle scents – We love that fall brings out the best scents.  It’s the perfect way to start the holiday season and keep our office smelling amazing! http://bit.ly/r7jIK1

Here at Bolt, we love supporting a good cause. We recently became excited about a good cause happening right in our own backyard that warms our hearts and gets us in the holiday spirit!

The Dana Point Chamber of Commerce, organizer of the Dana Point Turkey Trot, has just announced a military discount program for the 34^th annual Thanksgiving Day 5K/10K race. Effective immediately, all active duty Camp Pendleton Marines will receive a 50 percent discount on the Turkey Trot registration fee. In addition, the Dana Point community is invited to come together and sponsor a Thanksgiving dinner for the 5^th Marine Regiment personnel and their families. Mahé, a popular Dana Point restaurant located in the heart of the race course and surrounding event activities, will host the Thanksgiving Day dinner to celebrate the Marines and their families. Mahé restaurant will also be open all day on Thanksgiving to welcome runners, walkers, volunteers and their friends and family to enjoy food and beverage before, during and after the race.  Participants are invited to stop into Mahé for a beer or a Bloody Mary, as proceeds will benefit the 5^th Marine Regiment Support Group.

Interested in supporting a great cause? It’s easy. Donations to sponsor a Marine’s meal can be made through the Dana Point Turkey Trot website. Donations of any amount are appreciated to help support the Marine’s Thanksgiving dinner.

Camp Pendleton Marines interested in running should contact the Dana Point Chamber of Commerce office at (949) 496-1555 to receive the 50 percent registration discount. For more information about the 34^th annual Dana Point Turkey Trot, visit http://www.turkeytrot.com and follow the event on Twitter at http://twitter.com/turkeytrot and Facebook at http://facebook.com/danapointturkeytrot. And don’t forget to download the Dana Point Turkey Trot Cause Layout at… For every free download of the Facebook layout, Cause Layouts will donate $1 to the race.

‘Tweets, ‘Likes’ and ‘+1’s have become everyday conversation. With all the frenzy that social media has brought to our lives both professionally and personally – a few questions come to mind: which social media platform triumphs the rest? Can more than one social network influence a world?

With a reported 750 million global users, Facebook is currently the world’s largest social network and the social media king of the web. Its popularity has undoubtedly immersed itself in our society – with ‘check-ins,’ ‘likes’ and ‘tags’ – but can this king loose its thrown?

A new kid has moved on to the social media block: Google+. Within the span of a few days, Google+ opened its doors to the public, after only offering selective access for months. On the heels of the official launch, Facebook had an announcement as well: a facelift. The makeover included revamping its news feed to ensure all of your friend’s updates are front and center. Coincidence? Probably not. Facebook took one look at what Google was doing and jumped at the challenge.

With new buzz – rants and raves – circling both platforms, Google+ managed to out-announce Facebook this week by a wide margin. The search engine not only announced access to everyone, but it’s also offering an array of new features, such as turning ‘Hangouts’ into pseudo broadcast platforms. Within the last three months, Google+ has reached almost 20 million users and this expected to skyrocket in the coming weeks.

Although Facebook’s worldwide fan base is substantially higher, the social network is feeling the heat and the competition has officially begun.

One thing is certain, this is sure to be an entertaining match.

Will you stay loyal to one network or have a love affair with both? Will Google+ steal Facebook’s thunder or will it simply evolve to be MySpace’s evil stepsister? Can two kings share the social media thrown? The coming months will tell. Until then, we’ll be sitting ringside.

At a time when back-to-school shopping is top of mind for many, two San Diego organizations have joined forces to ensure youth have access to one of the educational basics: books. 

Cause Layouts™ (www.causelayouts.com), the first and only free marketing layouts that provide charities with Cause-Based Social Media Fundraising™ tools on Facebook®, announced its partnership with Traveling Stories, a non-profit organization that provides books to children who would not otherwise have access to them. At no cost to Traveling Stories, Cause Layouts designed and developed a customized Facebook layout to generate viral awareness and drive donations directly from supporters’ Facebook profile pages. But then Cause Layouts upped the ante. In addition to its $1 per download program for all charity partners, Cause Layouts will now match its own donation made to Traveling Stories for downloads up to $10,000.

What does this mean for you? Download the Traveling Stories Cause Layout and you can: customize your Facebook profile, show support for a great cause, and give $2 to help provide books to kids without paying anything.

Ready… go! www.causelayouts.com

Tell us about your favorite spots in San Francisco! Leave us a comment below.

On that note, we came together as a team to list out what we love about the PR industry, and what makes us crazy… in more ways than one. This is all in good fun, so we would welcome your comments and additions below, both from the PR pros and other professionals looking into this wild and fast-paced world.

 What We Love:

• It’s something new every day. From pitching USA Today to hosting beauty queens, or stalking on Facebook to taste-testing food samples, every day is a new challenge and experience.
• Seeing our ideas go from a fleeting brainstorm mention to a fully executed, amazingly successful campaign. In PR, there’s nothing more rewarding than helping move your client’s bottom line.
• The challenge of media outreach and getting reporters, editors and producers interested in learning more about a client’s product or service, followed, of course by securing the placement. Anyone can talk the talk, but we love walking the walk and seeing our clients’ names in bright lights and bold headlines.
• Leveraging our knowledge and relationships to help our clients land new opportunities they are excited about that they would not have known about or been able to achieve otherwise.
• The thrill of not knowing what the day holds. You can start the day off pitching to local trades and wrap it up with a white board (no longer white) packed with ideas for client’s exciting upcoming events.
• Seeing the team land an article or television segment that you know your client will be ecstatic about. When you walk away at the end of the day confident that the client is happy and hopeful…that is a good day.
• Someone new every day. Something new every day. And the hundreds of conversations spreading the word.
• Being ‘in the know’, whether through our connections, constant networking, research or insider tips. We get to know about the latest and greatest events, products, people and companies.
• Constant motion – no day is the same, PR is like a revolving door that’s constantly throwing things your way and always evolving. It’s always exciting and keeps you on your toes.
• Fueling a client’s success. (Hey, it’s worth repeating. It’s why we exist.) It’s so rewarding to see your hard work bring a client success and help them to achieve their goals/dreams/growth, as you achieve your own dreams.

 What Makes Us Crazy:

• Blackberry (now turned iPhone) addiction resulting in disfigured thumbs, crow’s feet, annoyed dinner companions and a compelling urge to always check for messages. It’s a blessing and a curse that the iPhone doesn’t have a blinking light!
• Pre-coffee meetings. Let’s face it, we are not morning people.
• Constantly reviewing and updating to-do lists in our heads. From sitting in a work meeting on a Monday morning to barbecuing at home with family and friends on a Sunday afternoon, things are always being mentally added, crossed-off and highlighted.
• The irrational anger we have every time we see a small business trying to make it through advertising. Sorry, but unless you have a big budget that can support months upon months of national advertising, we find it mind-blowing that small businesses would pay for ads when they could get that publicity in that media outlet, and numerous others, through a much lower PR retainer.
• Crazed ex-girlfriend syndrome. It’s a real thing, people. We call editors’ phones, scour the internet (Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter) to find out their likes and dislikes, and sit by our phones all day and check our emails just to hear their voice say, “that’s a great idea! When can we schedule the interview?” PR at its best J
• Your phone resembles a circus between all the lights and sounds coming from it. Between the calls, texts, calendar reminders, Twitter updates, Facebook messages, Google alerts, and media updates….it is a sight to see!
• Answering my alarm… or pretty much any other ringing sound emanating from my phone, car, house… the list goes on.
• Our feet will never look the same. Every PR gal knows it’s just part of the job to live and work in those fabulous 4-inch heels.
• Caffeine. Our lives revolve around it. It gives us insomnia, stomachaches, shaky hands, and, at times, nausea, but we just can’t live without it.

 Can’t type anymore – the phone’s ringing…