#INTERVIEW: Chris Forbes, Co-Author of Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits, Offers Great Advice to Groups
Chris Forbes is the co-author of Guerrilla Marketing for Nonprofits and a certified guerrilla-marketing coach. His varied background in marketing includes experience in the faith sector and work on five continents, and he has pioneered several media initiatives in public relations, television, radio and the Internet. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: What drew you to the marketing field?
CHRIS: I grew up in a marketing family. My mom had a product-administration service and worked with grocery stores and established networks with, say, free samples of food. When I was 14, she wanted me to dress up as Twinkie the Kid in a big foam-rubber costume to pass out Twinkies. When I was 15, she wanted me to dress up as Freddy the Fresh Guy from Wonder Bread. Then at 16, she asked me to be the Planter’s Peanut guy, but you have to wear leotards for that costume. I drew the line there.
Popularity: 4% | Category Advertising, Advice, Book, Branding, Campaigns, Case Study, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Interview, LinkedIn, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Perspectives, Pinterest, Public Relations, Research, Resource, Social Media, Social Networks, Strategic Marketing, Tumblr, Twitter, Twitter, YouTube | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#SM4NP: Scoop.it! For Information ‘Curation’ & Social Interaction
Yesterday we explored Pinterest, a social network that puts a premium on visuals and offers ‘pin boards’ of topics collected/bookmarked/’pinned’ by the user. The metrics on the platform show amazing growth over the last few months, and many are still waiting for an invitation to join up. Scoop.it! has, on the surface, a strikingly similar mission: to provide a webspace to present ‘magazines’ of (hopefully) related materials based on a user’s interests and what information she or he has ‘curated’ for his or her site.
Let’s look at Scoop.it, and to do so we must appreciate what this notion of ‘content curation’ means.
Popularity: 2% | Category Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Design, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Research, Resource, Reviews, Scoopit, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web Design | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SM4NP: How Is Facebook’s Timeline Doing In Drawing New Traffic?
We all like to be liked
Now that the Timeline feature has been up-and-out on Facebook’s individual and on organizational and business pages for a week or so, people are starting to dig into the metrics about how useful and/or successful Timeline has been. The proof of most things Facebook is in the metrics of those who visit and interact with the pages. Timeline’s strikingly graphical interface and the ability to feature content certainly seem to be huge draws. In some instances the numbers back the enthusiasm. But in other instances, they don’t. So what do we know so far about Timeline and increased engagement with organizational Facebook accounts?
Popularity: 3% | Category Branding, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Marketing, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Tumblr’s Advanced Features Won’t Overwhelm Ease Of Outreach
We have been working our way through Tumblr now for a few weeks in the hopes of inspiring you and your colleagues to consider creation of a Tumblr presence for your nonprofit. Tumblr got going in 2007, and really took off a couple of years later as twenty-somethings found in the platform a sweet spot of posting stories longer than those allowed by Twitter but short and quick enough to make sharing a breeze. Since then, organizations − especially those who want to present a lighter and strikingly visual face to their followers − have also gotten on board. See, for examples, Doctors Without Borders and Good Neighbors USA (whose Tumblr page is featured above). Both charities do critical work in the areas of health and economic support around the world, and yet their Tumblr sites put the visceral joy of such work front-and-center.
To develop your organization’s site, you might want to explore some of the more advanced features of Tumblr that offer all kinds of customization of look and behavior. We want to introduce a couple of those features here.
Popularity: 4% | Category Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Communications, Design, How-to, Marketing Skills, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Posterous, Public Media, Resource, Reviews, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Tumblr, Web Design | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Facebook Timeline Goes Public Tomorrow! Ready?
Are you ready? It goes live tomorrow!
Facebook has been rolling out its new ‘Timeline’ feature for a few months now, and we hope we have given you a helping hand with the changes. Timeline redesigns your social interaction into a chronological sweep that is also distinguished topically and physically (that is, by being placed in different sections of your FB home page). It allows an individual, a nonprofit, or a company to present a visual banner or ‘Cover’ to introduce themselves, and it offers greater opportunity to control the ‘Story’ on the page by giving users means to ‘back fill’ their histories.
And the fact is, Timeline becomes the default interface of all Facebook accounts tomorrow! If your charity is on Facebook, you need to be prepared. We found a couple of great sources to help you tidy up your page in preparation of the final stages of implementation.
Popularity: 4% | Category Advice, Blogs, Branding, Cause Marketing, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Resource, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Software Review, Storytelling, Study, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Video, Web Design, YouTube | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Facebook Opens Timeline To Organizations
On Leap-Day Wednesday Facebook took a leap to the social-media future for nonprofits and businesses by opening up features that had hitherto been accessible only to individuals. Those features – of which Timeline is perhaps creating the most buzz – will be hidden until 30 March if you wish, so you have time to play with the features and prepare your organization’s new public face. If you get yours up-and-running early, you can already push the publish buttons, as Livestrong has already done.
Although the announcement went out today, there’s already plenty of assistance to introduce the new features and make them work for your charity.
Popularity: 3% | Category Branding, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Web Design | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Schedule Staff & Manage Projects From Any Networked Device
Keeping you and your colleagues on schedule can be tricky if some of your organization’s work involves being on-site and meeting with donors. Add to that the annual fundraising gala or organizing staff for a booth at a fair and scheduling can become a nightmare. Thanks to ever growing wi-fi networks and smartphones, though, keeping staff aware of scheduling need not be so scary. We’d like to share two applications over the next week that are real lifesavers when it comes to keeping things on track around our office. Today let’s tackle Tungle.
Popularity: 3% | Category Advice, Branding, Communications, Desktop Apps, How-to, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Technology for Nonprofits | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#TECH: Facebook Timeline Rolled Out-Nonprofits Roll In
Last week a much-anticipated feature was released by Facebook’s developers. No, not the stock IPO (Initial Public Offer), but the Timeline feature/app that can turn one’s activities online into, well, a timeline. In one sense, one’s posts and posts of one’s friends (including organizations) created a proto-timeline. What the new feature offers is the opportunity for one’s activities outside Facebook to be brought into one’s Timeline, a development of what the folks at FB call ‘The Open Graph’.
The paradigm, and the opportunity to develop applications to link your nonprofit/business/media conglomerate/reading circle/music application…, was first presented in mid-January and now some 80+ such organizations have developed apps (the numbers shift periodically as more organizations make such apps, but some are blocked after being reviewed by Facebook). The numbers of nonprofits taking advantage of Timeline are not yet huge, but many are discussing how they might in the near future.
Popularity: 5% | Category Advertising, Branding, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Measurement, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Storytelling, Technology for Nonprofits | | 4 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Tech: Apple’s Reputation Gets Pulped – Deservedly So?
Oops...
Tweets often move faster than facts. True, the Apple web store was down for a bit yesterday, but when it came back up, no new iPad or iPhone 5. Indeed, the only notable difference I could see was the prominence of Apple’s report on ‘Supplier Responsibility‘ for 2012.
Which proved to be a ‘fortuitous’ move, given the fact that yesterday The New York Times published a scathing and in-depth report about workers’ conditions at technology-suppliers Foxconn in China. A significant portion of Foxconn’s factory in Chengdu exploded in May 2011, killing four workers. Which slowed output of iPad 2s, which caught peoples’ attention. Which inspired investigations into what was going on at Foxconn. Which are now coming to light and showing the terribly rough conditions at the factory/city. For which Apple is taking most of the heat. Is that fair?
Popularity: 5% | Category Apple, Branding, Campaigns, Civics, Communications, Environment, iDevice, iPad/Tablet, Marketing, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Public Relations, Technology | | 2 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Philanthropy: Livestrong Bucked Economy & ROI Expectations Via SM
The Great Recession hardly seems over, though most are confident that we have worked through the deepest part of the proverbial woods. Nonprofits, whose work is even more vital for many thousands of people during an economic downturn, suffered as well. But a few were able to fight the long dark night by sticking to a simple strategy that proved effective before the recession and even helped them expand their Return On Investment (ROI) through the downturn..
The case before us: Livestrong, the cancer-survivors’ organization and network that provides support for those getting treatment and help staying fit while living with cancer.
The yellow bracelets raised millions at $1 a pop, but the support stream from the bracelets was already slowing before the economic crisis hit. Instead of retrenchment, Livestrong went on the attack: it hired a full-time social-media ‘evangelist,’ Brooke McMillan, who remains the voice of the organization’s Twitter feeds.
Click image to visit the site
She has since expanded her team and coordinated their outreach with that of Lance Armstrong himself. And millions of followers later, the community amplifies the voices of anyone who participates in the programs.
The result? According to analysis by SocialMediaExaminer.com:
- The 2009 LIVESTRONG Challenge raised $10.8 million – a record for the 13-year event in a down economic year.
- Online store sales set a new record in the rough 2009 holiday season.
- LIVESTRONG collected 70,000 signatures for a healthcare petition.
- Twitter matching challenges have brought in hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The recession feels for most of us like it continues. But so does the sale of $1 wristbands, perhaps the icon of microdonations having a macro impact. FastCompany reports that some 7+ million were sold last year.
The scale of success of Livestrong is perhaps unique, but the strategies are not: Develop an authentic social-media voice as part of a larger outreach plan. Find little innovations that capture the spirit of your nonprofit and broadcast them to the world. Do not shy away from the challenges of a tough economy. Thousands are ready to follow your lead.
Popularity: 4% | Category Blogs, Branding, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Development, Events, Facebook, Fundraising, Health, Healthcare, Marketing, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Social Media, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Interview: Howard Adam Levy, Principal of Red Rooster Group
Howard Adam Levy is Principal of Red Rooster Group, a New York City-based branding, marketing and design agency for nonprofits. Howard, who began working with nonprofits as a graphic designer in 1991, founded the agency 10 years ago. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVEnonprofit blog.
MKC: What is most challenging about branding nonprofits?
HOWARD: Nonprofits face a wide variety of constituents, from clients, referral sources, donors, partner organizations, board members and others. So a lot more is involved in reaching out and developing messages and strategies for each of those audiences.
Businesses, especially small businesses, can make unilateral decisions on their marketing. Nonprofits are typically more consensus oriented. And particularly when it comes to the brand, you really want to get everyone’s input and have a feeling that everyone is contributing to the process of what we’re all about. So you need a process that can build consensus in a politically neutral environment and get everyone feeling really good about the brand and their role as brand ambassadors.
Popularity: 6% | Category Blogs, Branding, Campaigns, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Design, Donor Acquisition, E-Mail, eNewsletter, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Graphic Design, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Perspectives, Publications Design, Slide Presentations, Social Media, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Web Design, Writing | | 1 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#Interview: Michael Stein, Author, Blogger, & Veteran Nonprofit Technology Strategist
Michael Stein, Senior Account Executive for Donordigital, is a veteran nonprofit technology strategist whose areas of expertise include online fundraising, email messaging, email list growth, blogging, website content, mobile messaging, and social media. With Nick Allen and Mal Warwick, Michael wrote the groundbreaking 1997 book Fundraising on the Internet: Recruiting and Renewing Donors Online.
The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVEnonprofit blog.
MKC: How did you get into this field?
Michael: About 20 years ago, I was working for an environmental group just as the Internet started to emerge. I got in on the ground floor, building bulletin board systems for Greenpeace activists and others tracking toxic chemical emissions around the U.S. I helped build the pioneering Internet provider called IGC.org that trained nonprofits to use the Internet, which then morphed into the first experiments in online fundraising on the Web for Rainforest Action Network. In the mid-1990s, I hooked up with legendary direct mail fundraisers Mal Warwick and Nick Allen, and we started to think about what the future of fundraising might look like with the evolving Internet. Together we wrote the first book about fundraising online.
Popularity: 9% | Category Advertising, Advice, Blogs, Branding, Campaigns, Communications, Community, Copyrighting, Cross-Post, Database, Development, Donor Acquisition, E-Mail, eNewsletter, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Interview, iPad/Tablet, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Public Relations, Social Media, Storytelling, Technology, Tools, Twitter, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#Interview: Nedra Kline Weinreich, Social Marketer, Author, and Owner of the “Spare Change” Blog
Nedra Kline Weinreich is a widely recognized expert on social marketing (not to be confused with social media marketing). Her book Hands-On Social Marketing: A Step-by-Step Guide is considered a classic, and she blogs about social marketing issues at the Spare Change blog. Her consulting clients include federal, state, local and international organizations. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: How do you define social marketing?
NEDRA: Basically it’s using the tools and techniques of commercial marketing and applying them to health and social issues. It’s focused on changing behavior. We’re not as interested in just raising awareness or changing attitudes, we have to stay focused on behavior change. That’s our ultimate goal, our bottom line.
(more…)
Popularity: 4% | Category Advice, Blogs, Book Review, Branding, Campaigns, Case Study, Communications, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, How-to, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Resource, Reviews, Social Media | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#interview: John Burke of VisABILITY and owner of the “Nonprofit Branding” Blog
After distinguished careers in a variety of nonprofit organizations, John Burke and his wife, Janice Gavan, founded VisABILITY in 1985 to supply logo-imprinted branding products to public radio stations for on-air fundraising premiums. Today their company is the primary source of promotional items for public radio programs and stations nationwide. John is the primary author of the Nonprofit Branding blog. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
Popularity: 4% | Category Blogs, Branding, Communications, Cross-Post, Design, Development, Donor Acquisition, Fundraising, Graphic Design, Interview, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Public Media | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#Tech: QR Codes Offer Easy And Appealing Access To Your Nonprofit
You’ve probably seen a growing presence of QR (‘Quick Response’) Codes in your daily life: they can be found on price labels at numerous ‘big-box’ stores, they are often included on public boards and advertisements (like at bus stops or outside sports stadia), and they are starting to show up in traditional print media like newspapers. QR Codes are, in fact, gateways to a wealth of e-information, and your organization should be using them too.
Though its presence seems really to have expanded only in the last 2-3 years, the code was developed in 1994 in an effort to pack greater information into the traditional bar code. The bar code can hold up to about 20 numbers, whereas the QR Code can hold over 7 thousand numbers, and letters, in its hypnotic black-and-white cubes.
How does one gain access to its treasures? What makes the QR Code useful? And how might nonprofits benefit from a technology designed to assist packaging warehouses and logistics?
Popularity: 5% | Category Advertising, Advice, Branding, Communications, Design, Graphic Design, How-to, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Publications Design, Social Media, Technology, Web and Print | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Interview: Sarah Durham, Nonprofit Communications Strategist & Author of “Brandraising”
This interview series is produced with the generous support of the Nonprofit Marketing and Fundraising Zone.
Sarah Durham left the world of corporate communications and marketing in 1994 to launch Big Duck, an agency that works exclusively with nonprofit organizations to help them communicate effectively so they can fulfill their missions. She is the author of Brandraising: How Nonprofits Increase Visibility and Raise Money through Smart Communications (Jossey-Bass, 2010). The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: First of all, as Chico Marx once asked, “Why a Duck?”
Sarah: I think the true answer is deep and Freudian and subliminal, but the conscious answer is, when I was starting Big Duck, I was leaving Disney Consumer Products, where I had worked on some of the branding issues around Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy and Pluto, and I think I had the mice, the ducks and the dogs in my head. I wanted to come up with something that had the personality I was going for – creative, playful and sort of open-ended and flexible. (more…)
Popularity: 4% | Category Advertising, Advice, Blogs, Book Review, Branding, Campaigns, Case Study, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Direct Mail, Facebook, Facebook, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Perspectives, Public Relations, Publications, Research, Resource, Reviews, Social Media, Twitter, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#SocialNetworks: Are We Seeing Pushback on Google+?
The launch of Google+ (G+) remains an ongoing, by invitation only, event. The evolutionary rollout has given the latest social-networking site a caché of security and exclusivity that (lest we forget) Facebook enjoyed about five years ago. But is Google out to replace Facebook in the hearts and minds (and peeves) of the world’s social media junkies?
In recent days, a number of commentators say ‘No.’ Not only is Google+ not expressly trying to do so (at least not any time soon), it also is using some of the very techniques that got MySpace, then Facebook, to the top of the SM ladder.
Popularity: 3% | Category Branding, Communications, Community, Facebook, Marketing, Media Review, Opinion, Social Media, Technology | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Tech: Memorial Day History & Technology To Get You Home
Image by Eddie Coyote (Flickr)
Memorial Day in the US sits on the opposite end of the calendar of most of the western (post-)industrial nations who celebrate it on November 11. While theirs marks the end of hostilities from The Great War (aka World War I), ours marks our Civil War, and was begun to create an opportunity for reunifying a divided country.
US General John Logan, who instituted the event as ‘Decoration Day‘ in 1868, sought to give a moment’s reflection on the war dead without undue bias toward the victorious US army over the Confederacy. Indeed, his proclamation stressed a strikingly American emphasis on the familial and the local:
In this observance no form of ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
Popularity: 3% | Category Advertising, Branding, Geo-Location, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Newspaper Article, Social Media, Software Review, Technology | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
How-to: 7 Tips to Set your Slide Presentations on Fire
Image via Wikipedia
We’ve been providing PowerPoint and conference support for many of our clients since the early 1990s (some recent examples of our work can be found here) and while the technology may have changed, the core elements that make a good presentation great still remain: compelling content, a good “story”, professional coaching, and speaker practice — lots of it.
Shonali Burke at Socialbrite.org posted a great article reminding us how to best approach not only putting a slide presentation together but also how to deliver it. I can attest to the fact that many speakers still don’t “get it” and continue to assail us with dreadful content, awful presentation skills, and horribly-designed slides. Shonali’s article, once read and absorbed, should guarantee that “Death by PowerPoint” will be a thing of the past in your organization.
Click here to read the article.
Popularity: 3% | Category Advice, Branding, Communications, Design, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Slide Presentations | | 0 Comments
Written by: Marco Kathuria
Communications: A Beginners Guide to the Social Networking Services
Image by Getty Images via @daylife
Leading Age (formerly the American Association for Homes & Services for the Aging) has published a useful guide on their website: it’s a quick look at what social networking is, why you should use it to connect to others and share resources, what the various services do for organizations/individuals, and why one would prefer one service over another. It’s a quick read and will help young and old alike know the difference between a “Tweet” and a “Twit.”
Popularity: 6% | Category Adult Kids, Advertising, Aging, Assisted Living, Branding, Communications, Direct Mail, Facebook, Geo-Location, Grandparents, Independent Living, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nursing Home, Permission Marketing, Public Relations, Research, Resource, Retirement Living, Seniors Life, Social Media, Twitter | | Comments Off
Written by: Marco Kathuria