Last Friday, I was honored to interview Danielle Brigida, Social Media Coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation, on my Blog Talk Radio show. In a webinar the day before the show, Danielle was a speaker along with the several others including co-authors Beth Kanter and Allison Fine of a new book called The Networked Nonprofit.
Beth and Allison mentioned on the webinar that they were having a “virtual launch party” for their new book on Monday. So, I hopped on the book launch party on Ustream.tv three days ago … just in time to almost see Beth jump into the pool. I say “almost” because the Ustream.tv stream stopped streaming at the top of the hour. So, I missed the big plunge. 
Why did she jump in the pool? She promised to jump in if someone bought 100 copies of the book. She tried to get Allison to join her, but I don’t think 100 books were enough for the co-author.
I jumped on Amazon.com and put The Networked Nonprofit book in my shopping cart … until I am able to reach the $25 limit for free shipping. The book costs $23.07. I’m sure you can relate to wanting to save a few bucks.
Fast forward to today (Thursday). Beth and Allison joined Philanthropy.com’s Web Editor Peter Panepento for an “After Launch Party” on Blog Talk Radio (BTR). Listening to the show from my computer, for some odd reason Beth’s voice came out echoey. So, I called in using the phone lineto see if the sound quality would be better.
To my surprise, at that exact time Peter was taking calls and said the line for the caller from area code 775 was now open. 775 is Tahoe/Reno … that’s me.
When I make up songs on-the-spot, I just start singing … and words and rhymes happen. The more I put myself in situations when I have to improvise, the easier it gets to trust myself that something decent will come out. So, I took this opportunity to make up a question on the spot about how the book was being received by organizations not using social media.
Funny what happened next … I couldn’t hear the authors’ answers. Somehow, the BTR phone-in line started playing some commercial instead. That’s all I heard … that stupid ad. Then, Firefox crashed.
Scrambling, I logged in with another browser. I dialed back in by phone a 2nd time and surprisingly got through. I made up a 2nd question off-the-top-of-my head about their plans for marketing the book. As soon as I stopped talking, again another BTR commercial started playing. I didn’t hear their answers.
So, I resigned myself to listening to the rest of the show and the echo from my computer … perhaps listen to the “replay” later to hear answers to my questions.
As I listened, a real question came to mind, one that I’ve been thinking about for a week since I noticed Danielle’s and the National Wildlife Federation’s many successes with winning social media contests. With 10 minutes left on the show, I called in a 3rd time.
This time, when Peter said “This must be Phil,” he also suggested that the ladies give me some sort of award – like a free copy of their book – for being the only one to get through when others couldn’t. “That’s the perfect segway to my question about nonprofits using contests in social media,” I replied.
This time, I was prepared to hear their answers. I was playing the show on my computer in the background with the volume turned down. When I stopped speaking and the commercial started, I hung up the phone and turned up the volume on my computer speakers. Great fun!
I look forward to reading the book!
If you want to hear the full show with Peter, click the play button below …
Oh, yeah … here’s one more fun thing that happened while I was scanning Peter’s Blog Talk Radio page “prior” to the show. I noticed an unrelated Tweet of mine scrolling by on the side of the BTR page …
Hmmm …
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