I've been collecting good resources on social networking tools in my del.icio.us account and point to a few good ones I find every week for my NpTechTag Roundup over at Netsquared. So, I've attempted to pull out a few introductory articles, books, research, and blogs that might help inform your experiments!
Read Allison Fine's Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age (I reviewed here).
This article on idealware, Using Social Networks to Stop Genocide by Ivan Booth is an excellent and detailed case study.
Danah Boyd writes about Social Networking Tools and Media. You should subscribe to her blog to keep up. She has organized some of the "best of" content here and her research papers here, which is a good place to get grounded and context.
Marc Sirkin writes the NPmarketing Blog and Katya Andresen writes the Non-Profit Marketing Blog - both of them write about nonprofits and social networking tools. Too other must-read blogs are Getting Attention by Nancy Schwartz and Spare Change by Nedra Weinrich. ( Note, Nedra writes about "social marketing" which is different from 'social networking," but her blog has valuable information for both topics.) In addition, several UK bloggers are focusing on nonprofits and social networking tools are also must reads - Steve Bridger, David Wilcox, and Nick Booth.
Several NTEN Affinity Groups have formed around social networking tools, including one called Social Networking Tools. In addition, I set up a Flickr for NonProfits - we are sharing information and also have a little sandbox over at flickr for experiments
For tactical suggestions, I'd recommend the Influential Interactive Marketing's Blogs, Social Media Optimization Tips.
[Editor's note: Many of these writers and their blogs are highlighted on this webpage.]
Source: http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2006/11/meet_tuesday_fr.html
