#INTERVIEW: Debra Askanase, Socialbrite.org Strategist, Offers Useful Advice To Nonprofits Using Social Media
Debra Askanase, founder of Community Organizer 2.0, is an “engagement strategist” who consults with nonprofit organizations on digital media. She is also a strategist for Socialbrite. Her background includes a decade of community organizing experience, followed by seven years in community economic development. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: How did you get into digital media? Did you reinvent yourself?
DEBRA: Yes, but it also seemed a pretty natural progression. I started off as a relatively traditional community organizer with multi-issue/low-income organizations. I moved into tenant organizing as well, then into economic development. I saw many of the same skills in leadership development that I saw in community and economic development. I worked with low-income immigrant entrepreneurs to start businesses. After doing that for seven years, I became very interested in business, from the perspective of how business can change society. So I went to business school and there seemed to be a confluence at that point. Social media was just gaining traction – this was 2007 and Facebook had just opened up beyond the college crowd – and I made that leap, intuitively, that social media is really community organizing. Here’s an opportunity where I can use my expertise in business strategy that I had been doing for seven years and my understanding of how people come together to change things. And I wanted to bring that interest to nonprofits. My entire experience had been working with nonprofits, so I understood that world from the ground up.
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Blogs, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Development, Donor Acquisition, Facebook, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Twitter, Twitter, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#COMMUNICATIONS: Make Your Next Fundraiser An Online Conversation Too
A Twitter Wall adds dynamism to even the smallest event
Though weather in the mid-Atlantic continues to flirt with spring while staying surprisingly loyal to winter, it is the season to be planning summer festivals, fundraisers, and rallies. And if you really want to stay on top of your nonprofit’s schedule, start planning your end-of-year banquet as well (and use Tungle). But in this day and age, a nonprofit’s fundraising festival should be but one component of a multi-media plan to engage constituents, volunteers, and supporters both at the event and in the social networks of those attending.
We have recommended ‘Tweet Tables’ in previous posts, and today we draw on a really useful compendium of ideas from Trevor Jonas at Mashable.com.
Popularity: 2% | Category Advertising, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Events, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Gala, Geo-Location, How-to, iDevice, iPad/Tablet, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Mobile, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Public Relations, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Social Networks, Storytelling, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#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
#FUNDRAISING: 2011 Was A Good Year For Email Outreach By Nonprofits
With all the excitement about all the social networks and all the purchases that Facebook has been making lately, it’s worth remembering that not only do more ‘traditional’ media exist but they also can be of greater value than the newest platform that has all the media and investor eyeballs. Such should be especially remembered by nonprofits who might not have the resources to establish a presence on the latest Pinterest trend.
According to the latest eNonprofit Benchmark Study by NTEN (Nonprofit Technology Network) and M+R Strategic Services, a substantial email list and a well-crafted email campaign remain the most valuable fundraising tools in your charity’s box. Just how valuable?
Popularity: 3% | Category Advertising, Advice, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Crowdfunding, Design, Development, Donor Acquisition, eBook, eNewsletter, Facebook, Fundraising, iPad Apps, iPad/Tablet, iPhone Apps, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, Mobile, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Publications, Report, Resource, Reviews, Social Media, Technology, Web Design | | 1 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: 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
#INTERVIEW: Joanne Fritz, The About.com Website Guide on Nonprofit Charitable Organizations
Joanne Fritz is the guide to About.com’s “Nonprofit Charitable Organizations” site. A former high school and university teacher, she has also been a senior manager at two nonprofits and two universities. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: Is About.com a blog or something else?
JOANNE: About.com is sort of its own animal. It has close to 1,000 guides. Each guide is an expert in a particular topic area. Each of us has a mini-website that includes a blog. So when you first see, for instance, my landing page, it has the blog, but then over to the side are topics, and those links will generally lead you to articles that are meant to be evergreen information. We typically use the blog to keep up with what’s happening in the here and now. The articles go into more depth and are more like reference materials. We’re constantly creating evergreen content because most of our traffic comes from search, and they turn up on one of our articles. I usually blog at least three times a week. There’s a lot going on about nonprofits these days, so it’s a constant struggle to keep on top of it.
Popularity: 3% | Category Blogs, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, eNewsletter, Facebook, Fundraising, Interview, Marketing, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Perspectives, Perspectives, Publications, Social Media, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Writing | | 0 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#SM4NP: ROI From Social Media May Be Elusive, But It’s Not Impossible
If you search for information about how to measure returns on investment in social media, you will be quickly reminded about just how new social media is in the business and nonprofit economies. Mathematicians are still searching out formulae and quality-control gurus want to talk about the developments of relationships that will bring customers and donors a bit later down the road. One of the underlying themes, though, is that no one doubts the value of social media writ large, even as we try to quantify that value and/or make it predictive of our outreach.
Perhaps success can be measured in hard, but not precise, numbers. Moreover, we should also consider social media as a ‘value added’ component to the core vocation of our nonprofit or charity, rather than as a fundamental element. How might we do both?
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Case Study, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Social Media, Strategic Marketing, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Link Your Tumblr Post To Other Social Networks
Social networks build connections and interactions, sometimes in surprising ways. Long before such networks were presumed to be online, nonprofits have strived to make connections, have friends influence friends, and spread their good work by word-of-mouth. Now that much of that socializing is taking place electronically, nonprofits need to offer numerous opportunities to disseminate their information. Plenty of evidence shows that a Facebook page is expected for nonprofits, even though little fundraising or communication will come directly from there. Blogging and Tweeting seem to encourage far more engagement than Facebook.
One of the many beauties of Tumblr is that it’s designed to link your blog posts to your Facebook, Twitter, and RSS feed. So you can keep the accounts your community already has running, develop a blog site via Tumblr, and easily connect the three or four! Here’s how:
Popularity: 5% | Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Geo-Location, How-to, Marketing, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Resource, Reviews, SEO, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SM4MP: Must Nonprofits Redefine ROI When Developing Social Networks?
When most of us, individuals and nonprofit organizations, consider social networks, we first think of Facebook. The 800-pound gorilla is said to be worth billions, and its membership grows close to a billion world-wide. For nonprofits, establishing a Facebook page seems a no-brainer. Features like Timeline, which we have outlined, allow organizations of all kinds to present a story of their development, their milestones, and their goals. The pool of potential Friends is so vast that an hour or two a week could bring in thousands, or millions, of new fans.
But will those hours result in a larger pool of donors or volunteers? Will friends of friends come to your Facebook page ‘cold’ and want to get involved? The numbers are not good. But should we even pay attention to the numbers?
Popularity: 3% | Category Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Development, Donor Acquisition, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Marketing, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Social Media, Storytelling, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter | | 0 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
#PUBLICPOLICY: Online Privacy Becomes Concern For Service Providers
Perhaps the most famous statement of internet privacy from 'The New Yorker' (1993)
Online privacy has been a notable concern for many citizens almost since the inception of the internet, and certainly we have often discussed the issue on our blog over the years. A decade ago, the question of privacy largely was answered with calm warnings to use common sense and with explanations of the averages working against anyone being able to assemble any meaningful aggregate of the real you.
But now not only do companies exist precisely to aggregate your online behavior, millions of us willingly offer our own aggregations via our social-network platforms of choice. Those who strive to ensure some privacy of individuals have been lobbying the federal government to block certain aggregations and pressuring companies to offer ever more powerful privacy controls to customers and members. What seems to be the state of the discussion now?
Popularity: 4% | Category Audio Interview, Blogs, Civics, Communications, Community, Facebook, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Media Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Politics, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Media, Strategic Marketing, Web and Print | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SM4NP: In Search For ROI, Can We Put A Number On A Relationship?
ROI can bring strong relationships as well as income to nonprofits
Who doesn’t want a high return on investment? Whether that investment is time or money, any business or nonprofit wants to see it put to good use and wants to see some reward for it. With the explosion of social media over the last five-to-seven years, we have watched a kind of bi-polar reaction to the development of an online/social media strategy. One tendency is to believe that with the new website and Twitter plug in, your organization’s work is done. The other is to strive to boost the number of Followers and Friends ever higher, though often be frustrated that each Facebook Friend is not donating each time he or she signs into their account. Perhaps we should envision a sweet spot between such extremes, for ourselves, for our clients, and for our constituents.
Popularity: 4% | Category Advice, Blogs, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Internal Marketing, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Newsletter, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Relations, Site Administration, Social Media, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Video Interview | | 1 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Time Those Tweets To Test And Build Impact
Earlier this week we introduced and reviewed a few social-media dashboards to help tame your organization’s streams of updates pouring in. Many platforms (like Hootsuite, TweetDeck, and SproutSocial) also offer the ability to schedule a series of tweets to go out over days, weeks, or months. This feature is obviously handy if your charity has a similar message or link that it wants to send on a regular basis (enter it once, schedule it for Tuesdays over the next month, done!).
But how does that timing feature work, and how could your nonprofit use it to your advantage?
Popularity: 4% | Category Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Dashboards, Desktop Apps, Events, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, How-to, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter, Web and Print | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#HOWTO: Efficiently Monitor Your Organization’s Busy Social Networks
Need help taming those updates and retweets?
So many claims on the time of a nonprofit staff, and only so many hours in the work day. We might be temped to carry our work home with us, but aren’t the lines between work and family already blurred enough? If you want efficient tools for monitoring and updating your business’s social media, we’d like to suggest a few dashboards that can cull your various accounts into one place, allow scheduling of posts, and offer ways to save and/or reply to specific messages.
Let’s start with a couple of freebies, then move to some heavy-hitting services that require payment.
Popularity: 3% | Category Apple, Cause Marketing, Communications, Crowdfunding, Facebook, How-to, iDevice, iPad Apps, iPhone Apps, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Media Review, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Public Media, Reviews, Site Administration, Social Media, Software Review, Technology, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter | | 0 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
#SM4NP: Beware Not Of SM But Of SM Snake Oil & Silver Bullets
Should you? Must you?
If we aren’t careful, we might be entranced to believe social-media networking platforms have been around for quite a while. I mean, if Facebook is valued at $5 billion in its Initial Public Auction, then surely it’s a tried-and-true company that still has room to grow. Right?
Before you jump over to your E*Trade account, you might ask yourself “What has Facebook (or Twitter, for that matter) done for me?” That query, if you are a nonprofit or a small business, can be tricky to answer, unless you started with a plan and with some measurable goals that can be stood next to what you have in fact done. And sometimes, what you want done can get a nice push from social media but social media won’t necessarily do the heavy hauling. And that’s ok!
Popularity: 4% | Category Advice, Blogs, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community Gardens, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Interview, Marketing, Marketing Budget, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Site Administration, Social Media, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Technology for Nonprofits, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#SocialNetworks: Primary Politics Offer Models For SM Strategy
Click to enlarge
As voters in New Hampshire head to polls to divvy up delegates for the Republican Convention (and the uncontested Democratic one), all the candidates are doing what Barack Obama did so singularly in 2008: developing social-media strategies meant to expand their bases, to parry jibes from their opponents, and to launch a few of their own attacks. In sheer numbers, the Republicans have turned the tables on their Democratic counterparts: According to Jennifer Steinhauser of The New York Times: “Republican House members have more than twice as many followers as their Democratic counterparts — about 1.3 million versus roughly 600,000 — and are far more active on Twitter with more than 157,000 individual Twitter messages, versus roughly 62,000 for Democrats.”
Nonprofits are not competing for votes in a similar antagonistic dynamic, of course. But donations and volunteer hours are finite entities, and the fact is nonprofits of all stripes now must challenge themselves to raise their social-networking strategy to challenge for every engaged constituent. The return on investment (ROI) might not be votes,
Popularity: 2% | Category Advice, Campaigns, Case Study, Cause Marketing, Civics, Communications, Community, Development, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Marketing, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Newspaper Article, Nonprofit, Politics, Public Relations, Social Media, Twitter | | 0 Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, PhD
#Interview: Gail Perry, Fundraising Consultant, Trainer & Author of Fired-Up Fundraising
Gail Perry is a fundraising consultant and trainer and the author of Fired-Up Fundraising: Turn Your Board’s Passion into Action. She is a highly sought speaker and writes a popular blog. Her most recent venture is an online coaching group. The interview was conducted by Don Akchin, a principal of Nonprofit Marketing 360 and a frequent contributor to the MKCREATIVE blog.
MKC: What are the issues that are keeping your clients awake at night?
GAIL: I think the economy is just a huge issue. People are worried about whether they can raise the money they need or not. But I’m also seeing a really interesting problem. My consulting clients are struggling to learn how to take donors who are identified as potential major prospects and bring them into the major prospect arena by closing a gift. It’s a very delicate, step-by-step, intuitive process to bring a major donor along. That’s a lot of what I’m teaching my clients, all these little subtleties of developing that type of relationship.
Popularity: 31% | Category Blogs, Campaigns, Cause Marketing, Communications, Community, Cross-Post, Crowdfunding, Design, Development, Direct Mail, Donor Acquisition, E-Mail, eNewsletter, Facebook, Facebook, Fundraising, Grants, Grants and Funding, Interview, Major Gifts, Marketing, Marketing Skills, Measurement, Nonprofit, Nonprofit, Permission Marketing, Perspectives, Perspectives, Research, SEO, Social Media, Sponsorship, Storytelling, Strategic Marketing, Twitter, Web Design, Writing | | 1 Comments
Written by: Don Akchin
#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