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In preparation for tomorrow night's Baltimore Drupal Meetup I've been thinking of different topics to address. By putting some out beforehand I hope to stir up some ideas and best practices for discussion.

1. Version  Control: Following the rest of the Drupal community we've been moving to GIT. GIT makes branching a lot easier. With larger projects our releases are organized into sprints. This means a release every two weeks. How do you leverage branches to manage releases?
2. Configuration Management: This is always a hot topic. In Drupal all your configurations are trapped in the database where they can't be put under version control and synchronizing between different environments is next to impossible. Features can get you 80% there. How do you use features? What do you do for the other 20%?
3. Data Management: We worked on a site with IBM where someone had set up a database backup to GIT every hour. Brilliant! This way when you do a GIT pull you get all the file updates AND the database. A quick drush bam-restore and viola! You're in synch. How do you use the backup and migrate module? 
4. IDEs: I use Eclipse to edit code. Though there are many times (usually when I'm staring at an hourglass) I'm tempted to just use emacs or vi. How do you get the most out of Eclipse? Do you use a Php Debugger? Any favorite Eclipse plugins? Do you use some other IDE?
5. Testing: A while back @greggersh showed me cucumber. It's brilliant. Write your test in plain language before you write code and you got your use cases and testing scripts. But if you're writing test scripts for Drupal chances are you're using SimpleTest. Do you use automated testing? If so what?
6. Drush: If you're not using this amazing command line tool now you will be. How do you use drush?

Engaging with their greater community

Nonprofits are typically the kings and queens of networking and cross promoting with one another, because they have to so they can survive. Most are out there for the greater good and can easily compliment one another despite the possibility of being in “competition” with one another. That is such a fine line for businesses in the for-profit world, the idea of marketing together with another similar business is daunting and seems counter-productive…but in the social media world it is seen as strategic.

Asking for awareness over money

Nonprofits thrive on donations, but they flourish more with awareness. They know this, so they ask for it over money when it comes to social media. Sure, they solicit donations for their causes, but they still say thank you the same way for sharing their messages that they do for money.

Manners go a long way on the internet and those manners get nonprofits support whether it’s big or small. The same way nonprofits need to know when to ask for money, businesses need to know when to sell and when to give the spotlight to a cause or industry news.

They know their voice

One of the most challenging aspects of defining a business’ online identity is finding their voice. You must find the accurate tone and language to convey what your business is and what you may be passionate about, whether it is related to your craft or not. Nonprofits are inherently passionate about their cause and the industry associated with it.

I’ve been planning events for over ten years, and well if you include the countless family extravaganzas and rallying together volunteers for ridiculous tasks that number is probably doubled just on frustration and learning the hard way alone.

Remember putting together events without social media, you know when you actually had to go out and talk to people or pick up the phone? It all has changed, but that does not mean your strategy should be all that different. The “build it and they will come” philosophy just leaves you with an empty room and eventually your ramblings about “what went wrong” leads to blaming the current economy.

So, here are my four mistakes of event planning with some easy suggestions to make your next event a success:

Relying on Facebook

Do not rely on Facebook for anything at all. I currently have over 20 event invitations in my Facebook inbox. I can barely tell what is relevant to me, I might be missing out on a killer art show or concert, but I wouldn’t know because some band from Texas invites me to all their gigs even though I’m over 1,500 miles away and my one aunt only uses Facebook to invite me to events that are “inspirational stories”. 

So what do you need to? You need to send emails, you need to use other websites, and you need actually call and invite people. The Internet is there to assist you, it is not there to do everything for you.

No central location for information

You need one place to direct possible attendees for information, not a Facebook page, an event, a ticket site, and your website. Don’t get me wrong, you need all those things but you need to be directing everyone to one place, and that one place is your website.

The real price of free events

Having a free event can seem appealing, however you’ve added no value to your event. If someone just doesn’t want to get out of bed that morning or something else comes up they have lost nothing in that exchange for other plans. You, the planner, on the other hand have empty seats and considerably less attendance. Of course, if you have a reputation for stellar events or were blessed with an amazing speaker or two, you might be ok.

Missing fundamental details

So there’s two weeks until your event and you are still figuring out the major details? This, my friend is not a good sign. You should have your major who, what, when, and why covered and publicized at least a month a head of your event, the sooner the better.

Navigating the email marketing world can be a headache. I know this because I spend most of my time working with MailChimp and Constant Contact for my client’s email marketing campaigns… writing, finding the right images, and editing. Let’s not forget link checking and most of all making sure the email will display correctly once it is sent out into the world.

So which provider should you choose? Sure, it is all on personal preference and expertise. I openly admit that I favor MailChimp over Constant Contact on the basis of usability and the fact they provide quirky links and quotes to lighten the mood (things like “Stephanie, May the chimp be with you” and this video). But there are some features of Constant Contact I wish MailChimp had.

Over the next few weeks I'll be posting about exploring the difference between the two regarding: media, editing, usability, and more.

But before I get into details – which do you prefer and why?

Related Posts:

Using Email Marketing & Website Contant for Community Building

Since the release of the new Facebook groups interface back in the Fall, I have been creating, monitoring, and participating in several groups. The major changes to the way Facebook groups function made me wonder how interactions would change or what new conversations would spark.

Without even actively seeking out new Facebook groups they have followed me wherever I go. Between taking classes with Marketing Profs University, virtual office space for I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody's Business, and trying to build bridges in the fragmented Maryland music scene with Maryland Music Network - checking in with Facebook groups has become a part of my daily routine.

Logo by: Michael Muccioli

I created the Maryland Music Network for musicians and promoters in the Maryland area to join forces and network. As of today, we have nearly 400 members who post about shows, equipment for sale, opportunities, and community news. The discussions have been lively, debate heavy, and somewhat productive. While there are a lot of voices in one room, important conversations and new projects have been born on Maryland Music Network's Facebook wall.

Could these types of conversations happen without this Facebook group? Probably, but this group has given musicians and other music industry professionals a virtual room to sit in and network across genres and location.

Three Things I've Learned from Facebook Groups

Easy sign up within Facebook's interface increases membership 
Instead of trying to move users from where they are comfortable within Facebook's framework, keep them there right there. Not only do most people check Facebook every day, users will not have to remember to log into another site for updates.

Great for non-traditional offices
Convenient place for virtual office space - whether it has a professional or water-cooler tone.

Terrific for questions
Social media has always been a great place when you are looking for an answer, Facebook groups are perfect to reach out to a targeted audience for topic-specific questions. 

You've convinced your boss to give you the time to go to a conference, registered, booked your flight and hotel. You're ready to go. But have you really thought why you're going? Whether your attending a business lunch, meetup or a conference explicitly setting goals guarantees making the most of your time.

For an IT conference like DrupalCon goals might include gaining specific knowledge, meeting Dries Buytaert or having a beer with "the king of denmark”. It's best to keep the number of goals to 2 or 3. [Warning: Business Jargon] Goals should be as Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound.

Here's my 3 goals for DrupalCon Chicago.

Goal #1: Become a contributor to Drupal

Even before we identified Drupal as our platform of choice we knew that open source was going to be at the heart of our business. The strength of the community sold us on Drupal so getting involved is important. Though I may not nail this one down by the end of the conference a brief conversation with Dries has given me a path to success and I'm hammering away at it.

Goal #2: Meet freelancer Drupal developers to collaborate with

Small companies like ours depend on partnerships and relationships. We have a growing network in Baltimore and DC that includes a wealth of talent but the local Drupal community is small and we sometimes need to bring on freelancers to expand our capacity. Dries has said, “The demand for Drupal talent continues to exceed the supply”. While this is true, Drupal developers tend to prefer freelancing rather than being tied to a desk. This works in our favor. I've met a handful already and I've organized a Freelancer Speeddating BoF (Bird of a Feather) during the conference to accelerate the process.

Goal #3: Learn more Drupal best practices for module development and site deployment

This goal is a bit typical but it helps to have some specific questions to get answered. I've already attended some great sessions on deployment tools and what I don't learn from sessions will get taken care of by cornering conference speakers and uber-geeks.

Having these goals in mind has guided what sessions and activities to attend. They've motivated efforts to meet people and fed topics for conversation. Most of all, having goals will help me get the most out of DrupalCon.

In 2009 DrupalCon DC had 1400 attendees. This year there are around 4,000 attending in Chicago. Growth around Drupal has been explosive to say the least. 1.7% of web sites are built with Drupal. How does a community based project like Drupal maintain a vibrant, fresh community while scaling to enterprise proportions? How does an open source project manage this kind of growth? 

During this morning's DrupalCon keynote Dries Buytaert, the inventor of Drupal, answered this question introducing a middle management layer into the maintainers organizational structure. It seems there's no avoiding the corporate org chart. Coincidentally, I had grabbed Clay Shirky's book “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations” to read on the plane and just read a section describing the history of the corporate org chart. I hadn't really looked closely at the conference schedule so I didn't know that Shirky is tomorrow's keynote speaker. I'm curious what he thinks.

There is a certain sadness seeing an idealistic, scrappy, pure open source project like Drupal growing up. But after hearing about the challenges releasing the latest version I completely understand. Other large open source projects like Linux have had to adopt similar structures. Even in my son's preschool you see how hierarchies natural appear in human endeavors. Ironic that while Drupal helps organizations become organic its success forces it to become more hierarchal.

Related links

http://association.drupal.org/blog/kieran/Drupalcon-growth-Ideas-from-300-to-30000-participants

In 2009 DrupalCon DC had 1400 attendees. This year there are around 4,000 attending in Chicago. Growth around Drupal has been explosive to say the least. 1.7% of web sites are built with Drupal. How does a community based project like Drupal maintain a vibrant, fresh community while scaling to enterprise proportions? How does an open source project manage this kind of growth? 

During this morning's DrupalCon keynote Dries Buytaert, the inventor of Drupal, answered this question, introducing a middle management layer into the maintainers organizational structure. It seems there's no avoiding the corporate org chart. Coincidentally, I had grabbed Clay Shirky's book “Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing without Organizations” to read on the plane and just read a section describing the history of the corporate org chart. I hadn't really looked closely at the conference schedule so I didn't know that Shirky is tomorrow's keynote speaker. I'm curious what he thinks.

There is a certain sadness seeing an idealistic, scrappy, pure open source project like Drupal growing up. But after hearing about the challenges releasing the latest version I completely understand. Other large open source projects like Linux have had to adopt similar structures. Even in my son's preschool I've seen how hierarchies are essential to human endeavors. Ironic that while Drupal helps organizations become organic its success forces it to become more hierarchal.

Related links

http://association.drupal.org/blog/kieran/Drupalcon-growth-Ideas-from-300-to-30000-participants

One of the more interesting challenges of software development is that whether it's for business automation or creating a web site technology, it touches business processes. Technology can't fix a flawed or or outdated process. Technology can automate, improve efficiency, provide metrics, facilitate communications, deliver information and a bunch of other things but there's nothing worse than getting half way into a software project only to find that your fighting against a tide of broken business practices. The same goes when you decide you build a new web site. Prepare before you build. Here are a few things to think about.

Message

Define your value proposition, mission and goals. Who are you? What do you do? Who are your customers? What can you do for them? What's the call to action?

Branding

By the time you get around to building your web site you should have some branding in place even if it's just a logo. You should also know your audience and what image you need to project whether it's classic corporate or fun loving startup.

Web Strategy

Great, you want to get on the web. Why? What business need does it fulfill? Once your new site is up who's going to maintain it? Content will need to be written and new functionality will need to be added. Who are you going to call for support? Be realistic. Delegate and plan for maintenance and growth.

Plan

You might not need all the answers to get started but you're going to need to ask the all the right questions. Ideally, you'll have your information architecture laid out and the major content written. Spend time on designing navigation. You've got seconds to capture interest.

Execute

Find the right help and get a new web site up and running quickly. You don't have to get everything right the first time but make sure you have a good foundation. There's no avoiding it, your site needs to be in a content management system like Drupal. A good foundation facilitates future growth.

Evaluate

Things on the web move quickly. You'll need to stay flexible. Revisit how your site is meeting your business goals on a regular basis, collect data, and find what's working and what's not. The agile nature of the web makes it easy to ditch what's not working and build on success.

The social web space is simultaneously attached and fragmented—mostly everyone is present, but not connected. Sure, everyone is on Twitter and Facebook, but how do you find your community? Whether your community is mainly offline or is thriving already on social media, it is important to have certain portals of information available on the web or by email.

Over the past several months, I have been assisting the Highlandtown Arts & Entertainment District by developing content for their website and monthly newsletter. The quest began with the question-- How do you pull your community together online?

Highlandtown's Arts & Entertainment District (a.k.a. ha!) is the largest arts district in the state; encompassing Highlandtown, Patterson Park and portions of Canton and Greektown.  This organization meets monthly with community members and artists to organize the promotion and planning of events within the district. How do you keep such a buzzing community connected? Well with monthly email newsletters and actively updating website content—that’s how.  

Actively updating your website’s content gives your visitors a reason to check back in on your business or organization. For Highlandtown Arts, their active website gives artists and neighbors the information they need for upcoming events, contests, call for entries, and more. While your website acts as the information portal for your business or organization, a regularly schedule email campaign allows your organization to feature clear call to actions and useful information for your subscribers.

Highlandtown Art’s newsletter now includes vibrant content that features local artists and organizations to their email list with a monthly spotlight and event listing. These new features keep their mailing list connected to the Highlandtown Arts District, whether they are near or far.

Dynamic websites and email newsletters filled with rich content are easy ways for communities to stay connected and well-informed of events and opportunities. What other techniques do you use to keep your community connected?