It's social media, of course. It's overtaken adult entertainment as the #1 activity on the web. Which explains why we've been going to social media workshops more often than the grocery store these days. (Twitter is trendier than organic milk, anyway.) Yesterday, we hit up an International Special Events Society DC presentation at the Long View Gallery. Like any self-respecting social media event, it kicked off with a YouTube video, filled with gems like these:

• If Facebook was a country, it would be the world's 4th largest.
  
  
• Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers that the entire population of Ireland, Norway, and Panama.

The panelists: BizBash's Amanda Abel, O'Keefe Communication's Lauren Marley, and Regeti's Photography's Amy Regeti, who run ISES DC's Facebook, Twitter, and blog, respectively. We have to say the ISES chapter may be on to something by actually teaching its members how to use tools (especially while feeding them french toast). A couple tips we picked up:

• Don't be afraid to give away some of your “secrets” and insider intel.

• You can never friend too many people.

• Avoid selling. It's almost as bad as telling people what you ate for breakfast (unless it's french toast).

Organizations should have a bare minimum of three months reserve funds, according to accountant and auditor Scott Denligner, director of CBIZ MHM (and son of former WaPo sports columnist Ken Denlinger), whom we met at the Center for Nonprofit Advancement yesterday. If you experience peaks and valleys, lack revenue diversity, or are susceptible to downturns, you should definitely have more. Talk to your board about the size of your reserve funds and keep it consistent over time. Side effects of reserving too little, he says, may include: job loss, program cuts, and salary freezes.

For a quick and dirty test to figure out how well your organization can pay its bills, divide your current assets by your current liabilities. To be financially comfortable, Scott says this should be at least a two-to-one ratio. If it's less than one-to-one, you're losing money. If it's three-to-one or beyond, stop being so stingy! Just kidding, but maybe it's time to invest some. Scott tells us the industry benchmarks are 2.97 for public charities and 2.36 for trade associations.

ASAE's Ron McNally and Kiersten Walker with Chroma Graphics' Shelly Presley and IQ Solutions' Jeanette Naiman at an ASAE happy hour at BlackFinn Tuesday night. Shelly and Jeanette help head up the association of association's "Special Events Action Team," which sounds like every local news teams combined. They tell us all ASAE happy hours will benefit a charity from this point forward. Wednesday's cause: Toys for Tots, which helps explain why we tripped over a Mr. Potato Head. What isn’t explained: They still make Mr. Potato Head?