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Community Highlight

Expanding Capacity, Maturing the Field: Darim Online and See3 Communications Together.
September 13, 2012
Blog Post


Jewish organizations, big and small, are prioritizing digital communications and embracing new models of leadership and organizational development. While this may seem like an obvious statement to some, for those of us who have been banging the digital drum for some time, it truly feels like we’ve finally reached a critical tipping point. The question no longer is “should we?”, it’s “how do we?”

The hunger for training, coaching, models to emulate, and savvy staff to power the work has skyrocketed.
Social Media Policy Workbook for Jewish Organizations
July 20, 2012
Article

Some organizations jump into social media with great excitement. Others with great trepidation. What we know is that the rules of engagement in social media are in many ways fundamentally different than those of other communication tools we’ve used in the past.  A good social media policy provides clear guidelines as to how staff should represent themselves and the organization when posting and interacting with the community, freeing them up to think more strategically. A social media policy is also likely to help leadership feel more comfortable with the less formal nature of social media by letting them establish boundaries for its use.
Jewish Day School Social Media Academy 2012-13
July 10, 2012
Article

The Jewish Day School Social Media Academy is an intensive program designed to help Jewish Day Schools advance their strategic use of social media in areas such as communication, marketing, community building, alumni relations and development.  

The full Academy runs throughout the 2012-13 academic year, and includes live events, online training via webinar, and private coaching and consulting for each school. We've selected a cohort of 20 schools to matriculate through an intensive training, coaching and project-based curriculum during the 2012-13 academic year. 
It’s not just about the money
May 20, 2013
Blog Post

As participants in the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy, we have faced many exciting challenges this year.  Getting our social media presence up and running was the first hurdle – daily posts, monitoring the likes, the reach, the insights overall – it has been a whole new world of lingo.
Facebook as a Tool to Drive Admissions

May 19, 2013
Blog Post

The opportunity to participate in the Darim Online Social Media Academy is one of the best things to happen to our school. When we started our school Facebook page about a year ago, we used the white paper titled Best Practices for an Admissions-Driven Social Media Strategy as our guide, and had a volunteer help us get started. The postings were sporadic, and did not have much consistency. Since we started the Social Media Academy, we have created an editorial calendar to ensure our posts are consistent with our branding, so that we can tell our story in a fun and compelling way. The result has been amazing. For months, our posts were reaching maybe 100 people, and now with the implementation of  the editorial calendar, each post is reaching between 200-500 people.
Power of Pictures: Lessons from the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy
May 09, 2013
Blog Post

We knew before joining the Academy that Facebook could be a great way to reach our parent body, but we just weren’t getting the response we knew was possible! Our first step after joining the Academy was to switch our Facebook profile to a page so that we could garner more likes from our parents and the broader community. Then we started thinking about what content would create the most buzz…
A Meta Learning Curve: Social Media to Promote a Blending Learning Day School
May 03, 2013
Blog Post

The Jewish Day School Social Media Academy is an intensive program designed to help Jewish Day Schools advance their strategic use of social media in areas such as communication, marketing, community building, alumni relations and development. 

I figured between having a Facebook account and teenage daughters, I would be ahead of the game in this process.  Yet even with my familiarity with social media tools, participating in the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy really put me into the shoes of our students. 

Leveraging an Internal Editorial and Social Media Calendar
April 19, 2013
Blog Post

One of the key takeaways from the Jewish Day School Social Media Academy is the importance of being organized with your social media, website stories and respective school themes. As a result, Gann Academy created an internal editorial calendar between the Director of Marketing Communications and the Web and Social Media Specialist.

This Google calendar, which can be accessed, edited and modified by both users, has been beneficial because:
Designing for Social: Nefesh b’Nefesh New Contests
March 14, 2013
Blog Post

Marketing is one thing.  Designing intentionally for social engagement is another thing all together.   This is a story of a very fun creative process that has resulting in two contests announced this week.
Surprisingly Easy to Quit My Synagogue
March 13, 2013
Blog Post

This blog is crossed posted from Living Lomed.

I belonged to a synagogue for twenty years. This year we made the decision not to rejoin. The reason? I was feeling less connected to a place that was putting control over choice. Concretely: Leadership would not permit the Shabbat morning prayer class I had attended for the past eight years to continue on a weekly basis. We could hold the class twice a month, but not every week.
The Neverending Haggadah
March 12, 2013
Blog Post

Every Passover, Jews around the world gather at the Seder table to re-tell one of the greatest stories ever: the Jewish Exodus from Egypt. As much as we love tradition, this year we are giving the Seder ritual a new twist—and we want you to join us!

So, how will this Passover be different from all other Passovers?
Storify: A University of Wisconsin Case Study
February 08, 2013
Blog Post

Four Rules for Maturing Your Field: The Bootcamp Model for Foundations, Associations and Umbrella Orgs
February 06, 2013
Blog Post

We’re already a month into 2013, and for many, those New Year’s resolutions are becoming a little less resolute every day.  It’s a curious phenomenon we all see each year in gyms, classes and homes. Individuals have the will to make BIG improvements, but without some guidance, clear goals and even a few incentives to get them over the first few big hurdles, successful outcomes are rare.

The same is true for entire communities that are organized around an issue and the umbrella organizations that support them.
Connecting: An Explicit Goal of Program Directors
January 09, 2013
Blog Post

Guest post by Laura Intfen, Member Services Coordinator at Congregation Beth Torah in Overland Park, KS
Project Mishpacha
December 03, 2012
Blog Post

You know how it’s always the best TV shows that get cancelled
"Have We Met Yet?" The Power of Casual Conversation for Organizational Engagement
December 03, 2012
Blog Post

Cross-posted from Deborah's weekly enewletter and column in the New York Jewish Week.
Jewish Journey Photo Books: Capturing Positive Jewish Memories
November 12, 2012
Blog Post

I was thrilled to be accepted into the Social Media Boot Camp for Educators.
Case Study: The Networked Nonprofit: A Prequel (Temple Beth Abraham)
October 25, 2012
Article

Editor's note: Allison is the author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, and co-author (with Beth Kanter) of The Networked Nonprofit.  Recently, Allison has been serving as the president of the board at her synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown, New York. This position has given Allison the opportunity to put her theory into practice, and to examine intimately the potential and challenges of synagogues as networked nonprofit.

Tilling the Soil: An Interview with Allison Fine
October 25, 2012
Blog Post

I've been following Allison Fine's work for years, and have so enjoyed how our paths have crossed in the Jewish community in recent years.  Allison is the author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age, and co-author (with Beth Kanter) of The Networked Nonprofit.  Recently, Allison has been serving as the president of the board at her synagogue, Temple Beth Abraham in Tarrytown, New York.
How Seattle Children’s Hospital Went Outside The Box With Its Facebook Page
August 23, 2012
Blog Post

Darim is hosting a blog carnival (a series of posts from various guest bloggers on a topic) on "Connected Congregations".  The following post from Shel Holtz (originally published on his blog and shared here with persmission) as such profound implications for how synagogues can be supporting and connecting and empowering their community and individual members.