#TECH: Microsoft Surfaces To Shake Up Tablet Market & Challenge iPad…Someday.
We really like the keyboard idea
Full disclosure: We at MKCREATIVEmedia are pretty Apple-centric, even though we are aware that many of our readers are using Microsoft products to access the blog. So when we heard that Microsoft want to enter the tablet market, we thought, “well, that’s about two years too late.” But we also wanted to see how Microsoft handled the announcement/release and what they wanted to bring to the market − and we wanted to keep an open mind.
The Microsoft Surface was announced this week, and − unlike ‘iPad’ − we really liked the name. In fact, on the surface, the new Surface has lots going for it, not the least of which are the millions of schools, nonprofits, corporations, and individuals who already have a Windows computer and who might be more comfortable waiting for a Windows-built tablet before jumping into the market.
Unfortunately, even the early reviewers at the Microsoft Event are not so sure that’s what will happen.
| Category Advice, Case Study, Communications, Design, Event Review, Events, Hardware Review, iPad/Tablet, Marketing, Mobile, Opinion, Reviews, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Is Pinterest Of Value For Nonprofits? You Bet!
Pinterest can seem like an upmarket yard sale at first glance…
One of the hottest discussions about social-networking platforms concerns Pinterest, whose membership and engagement have exploded over the last year. From January to February of this year alone, Pinterest drew over 100 million new visitors to its site. The simplicity of setting up ‘boards’ and pinning things to them is surely part of the attraction. So too is the intensely visual way Pinteres’s users share their interests, products, and ideas, because we are hard-wired to absorb visual stimuli before we respond to other signals.
That said, much of what can be found on Pinterest seems to be of a commercial variety: books for sale, fashion trends, ideas to accessorize the home… Well worth sharing, but if such topics make up the majority of pins at present, what is the value of the platform to a nonprofit already striving to reach out via Facebook and other more established social-media networks?
| Category Advice, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Crowdfunding, Facebook, Fundraising, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Pinterest, Public Media, Public Relations, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#COMMUNICATIONS: Break The Sound Barrier To Encourage A Conversation
We welcome back Paul Jolly, Director of Jump Start Growth, Inc., a nonprofit fundraising and consulting firm in Washington DC. Today, Paul tells about the importance of breaking the sound barrier.
Back in 1947, US Air Force pilot Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 rocket/plane. Fighter jets break the barrier with ease nowadays, but it’s not the only sound barrier that must be broken. The sound barrier that a fund raiser hopes to break through is the sound of his or her own voice. More times than I care to remember, I have sat in the living room or office of a donor, hauling newsletters and annual reports out of my briefcase, talking about programs, accomplishments, plans. Blah, blah, blah. I am waiting for a signal from the person across the coffee table or desk, and he or she is waiting for me to stop talking.
| Category Advocacy, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Paul Jolly
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Facebook Adds Handy Scheduling Features To Organizations’ Pages
Facebook is not known for its simple elegance, and some recent developments might not change that fact. But Facebook developers have added some great features to organizational accounts and Pages. What kind of Page you want to have for your nonprofit or charity is an important early decision to make, but once you have one, you have much greater control over working with your account. For example, you can now schedule posts up to six months in advance (and delete them later − before they go out − if need be). Let’s take a look at those features and how they can be a real boon to your organization.
| Category Advice, Cause Marketing, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Connect Your Facebook Page & Your WordPress Blog For Seamless Outreach
Click to enlarge
Last week Facebook and WordPress announced a plugin that will link both social-media platforms: posts on your nonprofit’s WP blog will be updated in your nonprofit’s Facebook Timeline, and your blog entries can have ‘Like’ and ‘Recommend’ buttons on them. One of the great things about the WordPress blogging platform is indeed the plugin feature: most are free and open source. And though establishing a WordPress content-management system (CMS) is not the easiest thing to do, installing plugins is a snap as the established site does all the work for you!
So how do WP and Facebook talk to each other?
| Category Advertising, Advice, Blogs, Communications, Dashboards, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology for Nonprofits, Web Design, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: NTEN 2012 Report Shows Real ROI Growth Over Past Year
Click to go to the report
Okay, so you have been developing your nonprofit’s presence on the staples of social media new for a couple of years. Facebook page? Check. Twitter account? Sure. But how much time do you want to put into keeping up with those outlets? Has your organization seen any growth in volunteers or donors thanks to the outreach on social media?
The 2012 Nonprofit Social Benchmark Report from NTEN is the fourth in this annual series, which means the surveyors have enough materials to start identifying longer-term trends and to offer meaningful statistics as to how social networks are changing communications and fundraising for nonprofits and charities. Spoiler Alert: Nonprofit use of social networks is growing, and with that use most nonprofits are enjoying significant returns on investment (ROI). Still not sure you want to commit resources to it? Please read on…
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Donor Acquisition, Events, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Pinterest, Public Media, Public Relations, Report, Research, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Twitter, Video, Video Interview | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#GRANTS: Sony USA Offers Year-Long Support To Many Types Of Nonprofits
Nonprofits depend on technology for communication, internal organization, and creative outreach. Many of the tech corporations who design and build the cameras, computers, smartphones, and tablets for nonprofits also offer grants and other avenues of support for those nonprofits and charities. In this post, we turn to Sony USA, which offers numerous outlets where such 501(c)3 organizations can purchase Sony’s products at a notably reduced rate. But more importantly, Sony gives year-long grants to numerous organizations involved in the arts, community outreach and renewal, education, volunteerism, and health and human services.
| Category Advocacy, Civics, Community, Fundraising, Grants, How-to, Nonprofit, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALMEDIA: Facebook & WordPress Join Forces To Connect Blogging With Timeline
Click to enlarge
For some time one could link one’s Facebook and Twitter accounts, so that if your nonprofit updated its Facebook page, a tweet would automatically be generated − and vice versa. If your organization had a blog running the WordPress platform (as does MKCREATIVEmedia), you could install a plugin that auto-tweets your posts. And if your auto-tweets are connected to your Facebook account, the blog post would be tweeted, the tweet would be linked to your Facebook account, a visitor in Facebook could see the tweet, click the tweet and get to the blog post.
Confusing? Yes. Thankfully, developers at Facebook and at WordPress have developed a plugin to shorten that convoluted trip.
| Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Cross-Post, Desktop Apps, Facebook, Facebook, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Public Media, Publications, SEO, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Strategic Marketing, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Twitter, Web Design | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: How and Why To Develop A Google+ Page For Your Nonprofit
Tools for your nonprofit's outreach
Yesterday we looked at how to pin something of interest to Pinterest, and why such activity can draw many many eyeballs to that interest and then to your organization. One of the striking demographic facts of Pinterest is that the audience is strikingly female. Toward the other side of the spectrum is Google+, which is largely made up of males. Though the status and interest of Google+ remains an open question, we remain confident that it supplies a number of features that are not difficult to use yet create a well-organized presence for any nonprofit or individual.
| Category Advertising, Advice, Cause Marketing, Communications, How-to, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, SEO, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Video Interview | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: What Makes Pinterest So Engaging? It’s So Simple.
Pinterest was released as a private beta in March 2010, which makes it something of a late-comer (or the ‘second generation?) of social networking platforms. Its mission was “to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting,” and its modus operandi was to encourage people to ‘pin’ whatever they found interesting online to their own boards (e-bullentin boards, if you will). Within two years, Pinterest claimed over 11 million users, making it the fastest site/service to break 10 million subscribers.
How has use in Pinterest exploded and why might a nonprofit want to establish a presence on the site? The simplicity of administering and advertising your organization’s interests make it well worth the effort. Let us show you how:
| Category Advertising, Advice, Advocacy, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Dashboards, Design, Fundraising, How-to, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Mobile, Newsletter, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Pinterest, Public Media, Public Relations, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web and Print, Web Design | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#COMMUNICATIONS: Is Your Organization Moving At The Speed Of Mobile?
With the rise of the smartphone and its ability to be the computer for millions of people around the world, mobile technology is becoming more powerful and less expensive every few months. And with those technological changes come changes of habit and expectation. One of the changes we and many others have commented on is the rise of text messaging as a medium not only to spread-the-word but also to raise funds for nonprofits and charities. The response to the American Red Cross’s texting campaign to deal with the horrors of the Haitian earthquake of 2010 is usually seen as the watershed event.
How has the nexus between cell-phone use and fundraising been strengthening over the last couple of years?
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Boomers, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Development, Fundraising, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Mobile, Mobile, Newsletter, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Report, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Aging, Technology for Nonprofits, Volunteerism, Writing | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Twitter Continues To Expand Through Mobile Devices
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has brought us valuable statistics and reported notable trends in internet use over the years, and a recent report focused on the growing use of Twitter as a means of social networking. Twitter could be described as a social networking platform that punches above its weight class. Twitter turned six this past March, and by its own accounts has some 140 million users sending some 340 million tweets a day. For the sake of comparison, Facebook has over 900 million.
Yet Twitter’s political and cultural impact is almost equivalent, even if it has only 15.5% as many users. Note the ‘Arab Spring’ as a ‘Twitter Revolution.’ How does Twitter have such an oversized geopolitical impact? The same reason local nonprofits should be developing a presence on the social network.
| Category Advertising, Advice, Advocacy, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, Fundraising, Geo-Location, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Mobile, Mobile, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Public Media, Publications, Report, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: Scott Lenger Encourages Mobile Planning For Nonprofits At NTEN 2012
Last week Don Akchin posted an insightful interview with John Kenyon of NTEN about some of the trends he sees in social outreach and technology for nonprofits. On Don’s final question about upcoming developments, John stressed the fact that mobile communications are the next wave nonprofits have to be preparing for:
One thing I keep hearing more about and seeing more evidence about is mobile. If folks are keeping on top of their website analytics, every week they are seeing an increase in the number of folks accessing their site via a mobile device. A couple of things go along with that change. One is creating a mobile version of your site that is a pared down version and designed for mobile devices. The other is to be aware of the kinds of people using mobile devices and how they use them.
Mobile was a major topic at NTEN’s annual conference this past April in San Francisco, and they have been posting videos about that very topic so we all can share in the knowledge. What is your organization doing to prep for mobile?
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Design, Fundraising, Geo-Location, iDevice, Interview, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Public Media, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video Interview, Web Design, Webinar | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: StumbleUpon An Early & Still Independent Social Network Web Searcher
Creating social networks before anyone knew what they were
In 2001, long before ‘social network’ was a concept bandied about by anyone trying to explain what brings together more than a half-dozen people, four young Canadians wanted to start a company and then build a product from it. They chose their embryonic search-engine project called “StumbleUpon.” Within a year the search engine had over a million users and StumbleUpon now claims over 25 million of them. Recently, StumbleUpon (SU) released an add-on called ‘Paid Discovery’ that behaves rather like Google Ads, except “your entire web page is your ad. StumbleUpon doesn’t serve typical display ad formats, such as pop-ups/interstitials, banners, or other invasive forms of advertising.”
But what is this popular yet lesser-known service, and how could it be a useful service for a nonprofit?
| Category Advice, Communications, Community, Desktop Apps, How-to, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Nonprofit, Public Media, Research, SEO, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Software Review, Technology | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#INTERVIEW: Derrick Feldmann, CEO of Achieve, Discusses The Millennial Impact Report Coming June 11
Derrick Feldmann is CEO of Achieve, a creative fundraising agency that produces The Millennial Impact Report, an annual research study of Millennial Generation donors. (The 2012 report will be released on Monday.) The agency also hosts the only national virtual summit, MCON, on Millennials annually. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: You have made Millennial donors a specialty. Isn’t it a little early to be worrying about the Millennial donors?
DERRICK: Absolutely not! If we have an expectation that this generation of 20- to-30-year-olds will be future significant supporters of our causes, we have an expectation now to involve them. If you are an educational institution, if you are a nonprofit, if you are planning a capital campaign in the next ten years, and you want more donor support, you had better start working with them now. There is an imperative to work with this generation.
Organizations might not have them as a focus because they may not have the largest capacity to give right now. It’s been a bit tricky for some organizations to figure out parallel tracks of involvement for constituents who don’t necessarily have large capacity but in volumes could give a lot.
(more…)
| Category Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, E-Mail, eNewsletter, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Grants, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Report, Resource, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Special Series, Strategic Marketing, Study, Twitter, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#GRANTS: HP Gives Well Above Its Peers Of Similar Revenue
Let’s face it: HP has had some hard times in the printing and computing world. It has gone some time without a CEO over the last few years, and the board has bought some assets that don’t seem much like assets (Anyone seen a Palm Pilot lately?). And in the upcoming year, some 30,000 jobs will be cut by the corporation. Yet I write this post not to bury HP but to praise it, for Hewlett-Packard has been a major corporate donor and socially-engaged company for some time. In 2011 the company brought in about $127 billion in revenues last year, and it gave over $100 million back out through its “Global Innovation” organization. For comparison, Apple drew in $108 billion in the same year, and invested about $0 in corporate philanthropy.
Could your nonprofit benefit from assistance from Hewlett-Packard?
| Category Civics, Community, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Grants and Funding, Nonprofit, Sustainability, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Volunteerism | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#COMMUNCATIONS: Blog Loud & Proud & As Often As Content Warrants
A truism/maxim/cliché that has long inspired me whenever I start a new project is, “You can fight without ever winning. But you’ll never win without a fight.” The statement inspires me because it prepares me for the possibility of not succeeding while reminding me that the only failure is not being willing to try.
And blogging definitely started that way: Could I draw readers? Did we have the material necessary to interest people over the long term? What sorts of conversations could MKCREATIVEmedia help to inspire? With so many great blogs out there, wouldn’t it be easier not to jump into the ring?
Well, a bit over two years on, we’d like to share a few things that have learned in the competition and from it too.
| Category Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Site Administration, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: Why & How To Send One Text Message To Your Nonprofit’s Constituents
Ever more people want to communicate with their mobile devices, and they want to communicate on their mobile devices with text messaging. The distinction between those under about 25 and those older is striking − with the under 25s responding to emails, and even aural phone messages, with text. But even those who actually make calls with their cell phones find text messaging a convenient way to share practical information quickly.
Nonprofits are (slowly) starting to take advantage of text messaging as a means to encourage engagement and to inspire giving. One of the first crises/campaigns to get noticed for its use of text was the the American Red Cross’s response to the earthquake in Haiti. But many charities are working up ‘text lists’ to rival their ‘email lists’. The question is, how can a smaller nonprofit easily send out messages to its constituents without contacting them individually?
| Category Advice, Advocacy, Apple, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Crowdfunding, Fundraising, Geo-Location, How-to, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Mobile, Mobile, Nonprofit, Report, Resource, Social Networks, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD