Normally, I'd include NTEN member accolades in my weekly round-ups, but there were just so many NTEN folks represented on Mashable's list of the 75+ Environmentalists you should follow on Twitter, I figured it merited its very own post.

Of the individuals noted, most were celebrities in the journalist, blogging, and entrepreneurial spheres, but we're so proud to see NTEN superstar Danielle Brigida listed! Follow Danielle @starfocus.

The real representation comes in the list of organizations, which makes sense, because the work you all are doing is in conjunction with your organizations. Many of you maintain both individual and organizational profiles, leaving the "cause talk" to your org profiles. We were impressed (but not surprised) to see these Green orgs on the list:

Flickr: kool_skatkatIt's been a little while since I posted one of these members-online round-ups. Let's just say I've been saving up for a really good one.

There's been a lot of sharing of tips, examples, and resources among NTEN members in our online community lately, so I want to highlight those today.

There was a question on the DC 501 Tech Club and NTEN Discuss lists about Facebook vs Twitter. Here are some of the resources members shared to help tackle the question:

In a scenario ripe for Hollywood exploitation, protests have erupted in Guatemala over the slaying of a lawyer. According to Xeni Jardin at Boing Boing:

Protests are taking place today in Guatemala City to demand justice for an attorney who was assassinated on Sunday, and who claimed in a posthumously released YouTube video taped before his death that if he were to die, it would be at the orders of Guatemalan president Álvaro Colom.

All sorts of applications of technology are tied up in the protests:

• The video making the claims was posted on YouTube, making it widely available and difficult to suppress.
• The protests are currently being live streamed, with intermittent police interruption.
• There is, inevitably, a Twitter hashtag used by the protesters.

Now, if only somebody could whip up some code to send the Twitter stream through a machine translator so I didn't have to rely on my rusty Spanish...

Flickr Photo: mil8One of the downsides of social media is that absolutely anyONE can say absolutely anyTHING at any time about you or your organization. And they will.

I've always been of the mind that people are going to talk about you anyway, so you might as well use the tools that let you take part in the conversation. Then it happened to us -- and my "get over it" stance feels a little less easy.

I'm kind of mad at social media, and I'm not quite sure what to make of it. Here's what happened:

Flickr Photo: TravlrAfter I sent out a message announcing our Drupal Webinar Series, my in-box filled up with "Isn't the first one of those scheduled for Inauguration Day? Aren't you going?" messages. It was only after I started composing an auto-responding "Hey, buddy, some of us have to work" snark that I realized I was jealous.

While we will be projecting coverage on the wall here at the NTEN office, those of you actually attending can help the rest of us share in the inaugural experience, social media-style.

We're still days away, but you can try to make the time go faster by participating in Slate's "The People's Inaugural Address", an experiment in collaborative writing. Then, you have to get there, which may be no easy task. To help:

Believe it or not, we're less than 24 hours away from finding out who the next administration will be. Finally.

While the campaigns are busy getting their last arguments in, on the ground, we're preparing for an anticipated record turnout. Record turnout sounds like a good thing for democracy, but it could come with record problems.

Justice Brandeis said that sunshine is the best disinfectant. Now, you can shine your rays on the voting process, highlighting any issues you encounter at the polls: Allison Fine and Nancy Scola have developed TwitterVoteReport, a site that collects "tweets" from Twitter users with news from their polling places.

Danielle Brigida, National Wildlife Federation

As social media grows in popularity, one fact cannot be ignored: if used well, it can generate impressive amounts of traffic and increase engagement around your cause or organization. If ignored, however, it can lead to tears of anguish and people punching their computers.

I spend a lot (and I mean a lot) of time trying to figure out how to use social networking, bookmarking and news sites to enhance the National Wildlife Federation's online presence. The work I've been doing with my large non-profit can be translated to even the smallest message.

There are several key techniques for dispersing information effectively. These overall strategies aren't anything new in the marketing world: Social media is just a new way to do old business. The tools may have changed, but the need for knowing your audience, having an end goal, testing theories, and acting on lessons learned remains the same.

Flickr Photo: paurianMuseums get a bad rap as purveyors of the past. I'd guess most of us, when we think about museums at all, think about dusty old things. But the very best museums tie all that old stuff to the world we live in today, and the future we're creating.

It's a lot like our roles as non-museum nonprofits: we sift through all the information and data out there to find what matters for our communities -- and make it relevant.

Part of that is the selection process, choosing what we'll showcase. The other part is how we design our display, or communicate what we're showcasing.

Another way of saying this: How people get your message is as important as what you're saying.

Flickr: Si1veryEarlier this summer, our 501 Tech Club friends in Austin, TX helped organize a Tweet-up blood drive with the Austin Social Media Club with great success: new folks made their way to donate blood after hearing about it through Twitter.

They're at it again this month -- September is Hunger Action Month -- helping to organize education and donation opportunities for the Austin community in the first ever Ham-Up Tweet-up.

NTEN Member David Neff, from the American Cancer Society in Austin, Texas produced this video to document a recent Tweet Up Blood Drive he helped organize through his local 501 Tech Club and Social Media Club.