How do I get started?

It only takes a few minutes to set up your myImpact profile and begin tracking your impact. Follow these three simple steps:

1. Register for a free myImpact.org beta account
2. Link your Twitter account to your myImpact account. You'll be guided through this step post-registration
3. Add your first entry through your profile on myImpact.org or through Twitter. A complete syntax guide for posting from Twitter can be found below.

What is myImpact journal?

By signing up on myImpact.org, you will have your own profile, accessed by clicking the “myImpact” tab or visiting myImpact.org/YourUsername. You can share this URL with friends or embed an RSS feed of your impact anywhere online.

Your profile will display your myImpact journal, a record of all of the entries you make describing your impact after volunteer activities. On the right-hand side, you will see your total impact for each metric, such as the total number of hours you have volunteered.

myImpact journal entries can be made directly through your profile page or through Twitter (see below). You can edit or delete these entries through your profile page at any time.

What is "Sign in with Twitter?"

Click the 'Sign in with Twitter' button that is presented post-registration to authorize myImpact to connect with your Twitter account. This will allow you to post impact entries through Twitter to your myImpact profile. The 'Sign in with Twitter' button will hand you off to a Twitter page where you will login with your Twitter account. This one-time authorization is a secure way of connecting your Twitter account with myImpact's Twitter account, @myImpact'. Authorizing your Twitter account will allow you to:

• Post impact entries through Twitter
• Find Twitter friends that are using myImpact or invite your Twitter friends to join

How do I post through Twitter?

There are two ways you can post entries to your myImpact journal through Twitter: through direct messages (which are private), or tweets that include the “#myImpact” hashtag in your public timeline. Here are some examples:

• Direct Message: "d myimpact I volunteered 3 hours today at the humane society”
• Tweet: "I volunteered 3 hours today at the humane society #myimpact"

Either way, your message should include an activity (volunteered), a quantity (5) and a metric (hours). Below you will find a list of the different activities and metrics that myImpact.org can capture right now. In the future, you will be able to add your own.

Currently, you can track six different activities with specific, assigned metrics (you must match spelling):

• Volunteered – hours
• Served – meals
• Raised – dollars
• Donated – dollars
• Mentored – people
• Planted – trees

It is important that the words are spelled correctly and that numerical values are used to assign a quantity (i.e. “30” instead of “thirty”). You can include other words in your tweet.

How do I add photos?

You can add photos from TwitPic (preffered), TweetPhoto or Yfrog to your Twitter posts for display in your myImpact journal. To post an activity with a picture from Twitter or your favorite Twitter client like Tweetdeck (link), follow these steps. These instructions assume you are using Tweetdeck or a comparable Twitter client that can automatically generate a link for a photo you upload and include it as part of your Tweet:

• Open up Tweetdeck, or your favorite Twitter mobile client
• Prepare your entry, like this: "d myImpact volunteered 4 hours at the humane society"
• Click the photo icon to either take a picture, or choose a photo from your device library. Note: photos taken in landscape mode will look better, i.e. your iPhone turned to the side
• The photo link will be appended to the tweet you send. If you're using Twitter and using Twitpic to upload a photo, you'd want the entry to look like this: " d myImpact volunteered 4 hours at the humane society http://twitpic.com/12345"
• Send the direct message to myImpact (or use the #myimpact hashtag in a tweet). myImpact will parse out the link to the photo, and you'll see a photo icon next to the entry in your activity journal.

There currently is no way to upload a photo directly through your myImpact beta profile. That feature is coming soon.

What if I don't use Twitter?

If you don’t have a Twitter account and don’t want to use one, you can still use myImpact.org by posting your impact entries directly through your user profile by clicking “Add Activity.” There will be more ways to add impact entries in the future, stay tuned!

Is myImpact journal public?

Yes. Even messages that are sent privately through direct message on Twitter display on your myImpact profile, which is public.

What if I make a mistake

When you sign in to your account, you can edit or delete any entries in your myImpact journal.

How do I connect with others?

On your myImpact profile, you will soon see a “Friends” feature. This will display all of your Twitter friends who are currently using myImpact. You will also be able to use this tool to invite others to join myImpact.

How do I share myImpact?

Click the “tell my friends” link on your profile page to send a message to your Twitter followers with a link to your myImpact journal.

You can also share an RSS Feed of your myImpact journal with your friends, install in your favorite reader or embed on your website or blog.

How can I change my username?

Right now, users cannot change the usernames they chose when they signed up or other personal information (such as email or zipcode). This will change in the future.

What if something does not work?

We’re in beta, which means we will be working to continually improve the site over the next few months and add new features. If you discover something isn’t working, you can let us know about it by filling out this form. We’ll be alerted to the problem and will contact you again when it is fixed.

What if I still have more questions?

Although we’ve tried to answer the most common questions here, feel free to connect with us by e-mail at support@myImpact.org. We promise to return your message within 24 hours.