Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 041915

Mind Your Manners on Social Media

I’ve been promoting the benefits of social media for nongovernmental organizations and small business and it’s an activity that should not be overlooked. However, as with life, there are rules that should be followed so you will increase the chances of your success.

No one wakes up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and says, “I think I’ll be uncouth all day today.” Yet when you’re in a hurry to launch a project or distribute a press release or you’re dealing with strangers, you may overlook common manners that you grew up with. It’s not just about knowing these manners; it’s about being intentional in their use. Remembering your manners can make a difference between success and failure.

“Social media is ‘social’ and good manners will go a long, long way. When you represent yourself online what you say can easily be misunderstood. Take a bit of time and be thoughtful in your online habits. When you get frustrated that you need to spend 15 minutes each day in Twitter to connect with your ideal clients, remember the alternative, not very long ago in order to meet new people you had to travel, leave your house, I dare say…. get dressed,” observed Donna Cravotta, a social media consultant.

She suggested the following points:

1. Connect people with good information, smiles and other great people.

2. Shortening your words and using numbers instead of words is GR8T on Twitter, but not on Facebook or LinkedIn if you’re trying to convey a professional message on social media.

3. If you don’t want your client, competitors, stakeholders, your family to see a post, image or video, don’t post it. Sooner or later it will come around to everyone.

4. If more than one person is posting to your social media account, include info about them in your profile. You can also have them sign each update with their initial, so users can get to know who they’re listening and talking to. If the social media account pertains to your NGO or small business, then the chief executive officer is responsible for all content. If it is yours, then don’t allow others to post on it.

5. Thank people on social media and tell them you appreciate their information and help. You know, act like you would in the ‘real’ world.

6. When you see a list of ‘The Top 50 Social Media Tools,’ it doesn’t mean you have to use them all. Choose the one or few that work best for you, your product, your NGO and your customers and stakeholders.

7. Listening on social media is almost as valuable as participating. Pay attention to what’s going on around you.

8. Consider pros and cons of cross-posting your updates among social networks. Many of your followers will follow in more than one place, don’t overload them with the repetition.

9. Be your real self on social media. You are unique and that’s what attracts people to you, your NGO and your small business.

10. Add value to Follow Friday (#ff). Pick a great tweeter and tell your followers why you follow them.

You, your information, your NGO, your product and service, your small business are important so be polite when promoting them.

Finding Major Donors

NGOs face this problem very day. Finding major donors is a recurring calamity for all nonprofit organizations because donors are the lifeblood of your organizations. Small and large donors can keep your NGO alive and your projects active. You and your team often wonder where to find contributors so you can start a program or project. You approach this issue with trepidation and anxiety. Not everyone has a steady stock of donors so you must realize that you will have to search for donors in order to stay in business.

Andrea Kihlstedt, a fundraising consultant, advises “Yes, it helps if one or more folks in your nonprofit are on first-name terms with one (or more) wealthy folks. But if not, you can still build relationships with such people – it just takes a bit more time.”

She suggests a few steps such as:

1. Take field trips! In other words, take one or more tours of your community’s donor walls. Come armed with a camera or your phone and get pictures of them.

2. Make a practice of inviting your community’s leaders to your board meetings to talk about their experiences. Do this at every meeting and not only will your board learn a lot, but the speakers you invite will get to know your organization.

3. Your board members may think that they don’t have any wealthy acquaintances, but that’s probably not true. With that in mind, get them together for an old-fashioned brainstorming session.

Make concerted efforts to meet and create relationships with the wealthy prospects in your community not only when the need arises but every day.

Interesting Statistics

In total, Giving USA 2014 estimates that $335 billion was given to charity in the United States in 2013 by individuals, corporations and foundations.

36% increase in year-to-year in online giving on #GivingTuesday – a global day for giving, according to Blaukbaud. This year the day falls on December 15.

3.3 is the average number of nonprofit organizations that Generation Y donors give to, according to Next Generation of American Giving Report.

2.3 million nonprofits operate in the United States, 1.6 million of them are registered with the IRS, according to the National Center of Charitable Statistics.

Look toward the Future

Special conference the next generation of leaders – nonprofits, small businesses, politics. Friendship Ambassadors Foundation is presenting the summer 2015 edition of its Youth Assembly at the United Nations. For more information, visit: www.youthassembly.nyc

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 041115

Marketing Kits

Marketers for nonprofits and small businesses have at their disposal several packages with which they can promote their projects and products. Commonly referred to as kits, they help marketers tell their organizations’ stories along different lines.

According to Deborah Anderson, who was a corporate chief technology officer, there are five such kits.

Media Kit: If you take advantage of a website to promote or advertise your project, services or products, Anderson explains that the media kit is the best package to present to potential advertisers. Many sites include their media kit link to Google Analytics so that the advertiser and stakeholder could see the traffic stats, she wrote.

The media kit goes further than stats and allows for the insertion of media-related items that may be of interest to the advertiser, the sponsor, the radio show host, or TV host. Anderson said the key thing for the company to keep in mind is to define the objective or your market campaign. For example, is the objective to gain more advertisers on the site? If so, cater the media kit to those stats. If the objective to be interviewed on the radio or TV? If so, cater the media kit to demonstrating past appearances and media successes. What is the objective of your organization or campaign?

Press Kit: The press kit answers the question of who, what, where. Anderson suggests that a press kit would be the right kit for a product launch, a new website launch, or a project launch. The press kit includes information and items that the press may want in order to put write a story. That would include high quality headshots (which may also be included in the media kit) and audio files, videos, etc. Traditionally, these press kits were mailed or handed out, prior to the inception of the Internet. Now that the Internet is available, there is what is called the electronic press kit.

Electronic Press Kit: It’s an electronic or digital version of what would be included in the traditional press kit.

Brand or Identity Kit: The purpose of the brand kit is to create brand consistency. The brand kit is used within an organization and provided to contractors who are putting together marketing materials for the company. For example, it focuses on a style guide that dictates what fonts to use, what layouts, what images, colors, and more.

One Sheet: In the past, this was a printed sheet that included newspaper clippings and clips of gig appearances. Today, the one sheet can also be created online, as a digital piece. Is a concise press kit or media kit, but not a brand kit.

Previously, along these lines, clever marketers and advertisers offered the notion of a cocktail napkin or elevator ride presentation. This quick or one sheet kit, expressed on a 4X4-in. napkin or within the seconds in takes to ride an elevator, compelled the marketer to grab swiftly the potential audience’s attention.

“Now that you understand how all of these kits and promotional pieces are similar (and different), which ‘kit’ fits your business needs? It isn’t a bad idea to put together a version of all of them, but generally speaking, starting with one and doing it well, makes logical sense. You can always add the others, recycling components from the first, after you have mastered your first kit,” Anderson explained.

Fundraising

Nonprofit fundraisers are regularly challenged by developing intriguing ways of reaching out to their stakeholders. I uncovered an interesting solution in concept of community. Building a community, it has been said, is another term for fundraising.

“’This organization serves our tribe. I am giving. I invite you to join me.’ That three-part statement is the basis of many effective solicitations. We talk a lot about the second statement (endorsement) and the third (solicitation), but we don’t often discuss the first (community). If we can become more conscious and articulate about what that means, we will be better fundraisers,” opined Paul Jolly, founder of Jump Start Growth, Inc.

Understandably, community means different things for different organizations, Jolly said. For example, for global organizations, community is humankind. For local organizations, it’s a particular place. For schools – the families who share the values the school exemplifies. For arts organizations – people passionate about the importance of creativity and expression. For new organizations – people who are inspired by the founder’s vision.

What is the community that is served by your organization? Even small businesses have a community that they focus on with services and products. What do your communities expect from you and what do you want to deliver to your community.

“If your organization serves people who are excluded from the affluence that America can offer, then that ‘we are all in this together’ sentiment is all the more important. The most impressive service organizations I have seen are very protective of the dignity of their clients. Emphasizing the gulf between those who can help and those who need help does not serve anyone. And it does not lead to a sustainable commitment from donors,” Jolly advised.

Interesting Statistics about Contacts

4.5 is the average number of nonprofits that Baby Boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964) donate to, according to Next Generation of American Giving Report. It also said 3.3 is the average number of nonprofits that Generation Y (or Millennials—people born between the early 1980s and early 2000s) donors give to.

Look toward the future

Special conference the next generation of leaders – nonprofits, small businesses, politics. Friendship Ambassadors Foundation is presenting the summer 2015 edition of its Youth Assembly at the United Nations. For more information, visit: www.youthassembly.nyc

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 033015

Attention-grabbing Headlines

As nonprofit and small business marketers, you are obviously tasked to distribute their organizations’ messages, services or products to as many people as possible. You’ve probably devoted a significant amount of time to the “what” of your message. You’ve written a solid message, re-written it, revised it, shared it prior to distribution and then returned to it again until you are convinced 101% that it is impeccable.

But will it be read?

Oftentimes, the effort that you as marketers spend in creating the proper message is wasted because too few people read what you’ve written. If your message has fallen on blind eyes, perhaps the problem could be with your headline. It could be too long or not long enough. Did it address the message or did it miss the point? Was it cute or flippant or was it dry and boring? Or did you omit including a headline or subject altogether?

A great headline gets your audience and stakeholders to stop, read and share your content.

According to content writing coach Heidi Cohen, “Every marketer is looking for ways to get his or her content noticed on social media. This is particularly important for small businesses that lack the budget to support every piece of content with advertising and other paid marketing tactics. To capture your audience’s time and attention, you need a strong headline. As David Ogilvy (advertising executive known as ‘The Father of Advertising’) famously said, “On average, only 1 out of 5 readers gets beyond your headline.”

Cohen pointed out the treacherous social media 90-9-1 participation principle:  90% will lurk, 9% will do something small (such as share) and 1% will create content or participate.

“Because you have such a brief opportunity to gain your audience’s attention, it’s important to have a strong headline that compels visitors to read and share your content,” Cohen observed.

All marketers must search for the strong headline and then capitalize on it by distributing it often as I have emphasized in previous blogs.

You can improve your headlines by heeding these tips:

1. Demonstrate value with numbers (dazzle the with numbers)

2. Find resources for inspiration (see what others have done)

3. Use your customers’ questions (listen to your supporters, customers, advocates, stakeholders)

4. Brainstorm potential headlines for options (ask for a colleague’s opinion)

Finally, don’t give away all of the message in the headline. Leave the gist of the message in the message.

Should Donor Communications be Personalized?

Should you abstain from the personal approach in writing to donors or other stakeholders? Should business communications be personalized?

Fundraising consultant Jay Love opines: “Personalized communication can result in revenue increases ranging from sublime to off-the-charts. But personalization takes a lot of time and effort, and not all organizations have the bandwidth. If you can’t personalize communications to everyone (which is obviously best), there are ways of segmenting out groups to focus on.”

Love suggests the following categories:

* As many as time allows

* All major donors (“major” as defined by the nonprofit)

* All repeat donors

* All first-time donors

* All donors giving above our average gift amount

* As much as our budget allows

However, new fundraisers may have a difficult time deciding who is who among contributors. The 2014 report from the Fundraising Effectiveness Project notes two criteria for helping you make a decision:

12% of the donors provide 88% of the funding

3% of the donors provide 76% of the funding

“So depending on your resources, one could easily argue for performing totally personalized communications on either that specific 3% or 12% and thereby impacting 76% or 88% of your funding.

If such personalized efforts are not already in place, the resulting impact could be dramatic. Either percentage is an excellent starting benchmark for nonprofits looking for a specific game plan to put into use.”

Interesting Statistics about Contacts

37% of nonprofits did not send an email within 30 days of sign up while 44% of nonprofits asked for a donation via email within 90 days of sign-up, according to Online Fundraising Scorecard.

Remember

Tweeting is like fishing. You wouldn’t drop one hook with a worm and hope for a catch.

Tweeting is like fishing. You need to cast and play the fish to catch a good one.

You need to tweet often and regularly to reach as many people as possible.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 032315

I’ve been discussing with you the importance of developing and launching a social media strategy in order to reach out to your stakeholders and consumers. I hope that you’ve begun laying the groundwork for embarking on such a campaign.

Social media can provide you with instant feedback and reviews about your plans which, in turn, can be re-distributed to others. If you really want to make a good impression on targeted prospects, be ready to respond to tweets and other online mentions with the right information.

It is equally important to take note of activity – your activity – that could turn people away from you, your organization and company.

I came across a post by Anton Koekemoer, a digital marketing specialist, who made the following valid observations about what your nonprofit and small business shouldn’t do:

1. It’s about interaction, not automation. Make sure that what you are tweeting and posting creates a conversation among people and that you can interact directly with the people in your network.

2. Don’t shout, listen or it’s not about you. When you start marketing your business or nonprofit projects, remember that it’s not about you, it’s about addressing your targeted audience and stakeholders’ questions and needs. Listen to them and start marketing and promoting the things that they desire. If you do this your projects and business will be relevant and potential prospects will increase.

3. It is not always about Search Engine Optimization – the process of maximizing the number of visitors to a particular website by ensuring that the site appears high on the list of results returned by a search engine – or SEO. SEO is all about receiving where social media is all about giving. Before you can receive, you must give. It is a proven fact that people will listen or react to people that they trust, like and know. If the information, services or products that you provide has value to your listeners, the chances are very good that they will follow you.

4. Design is important because it is the visual presentation of your organization or business. Stakeholders and potential clients will leave immediately if they do not like the design of the website. Make sure that your design is reader friendly and that your targeted audience will find appealing.

5. You should avoid inviting people to a Facebook Group without asking their permission – it’s only polite. The creator of a Facebook Group has the ability to add friends to the group automatically. Facebook Groups are quite handy if you want to create a targeted forum that can take customer concerns off of your Facebook Business page. If you add people without their consent, the feedback you will get will most likely be negative.

6. You shouldn’t tweet direct messages. Your potential audience will not appreciated being bombarded with direct messages and mentions without information regarding your projects, services or products. Don’t ping people directly on a regular basis if they didn’t ask for direct contact. This is most likely one of the easiest ways to lose readers.

7. Start a blog but don’t slack off. Blogging, like tweeting, trains your audience. Once they know you are offering information they need, they’ll return. If it slacks off, they’ll learn not to return. A blog should be one of the central points of your overall social media marketing campaign. Blogs capture the attention of search engines. Blogs are easy to use and disseminate timely messages to the world as they occur. If you use a blog for your social media strategy, the best thing you can do would be to blog regularly and never slack off. If a customer visits your blog and discovers that it was only updated back in 2010, he or she might get the feeling that nothing new will appear for any time soon. You don’t have to blog every hour, but keep it current.

“Being social is the big keyword in social media marketing. You can be social in your activities online without broadcasting your sales pitch every time over the heads of your targeted audience. Build their trust first before you start selling and provide value first before you start marketing,” Koekemoer advised.

Social media, Twitter, Facebook and blogs are serious outreach tools that can help you build your reputation and organization. It should be used responsibly.

International Expansion

There may come a time when your NGO would like to expand overseas and establish an office or affiliate in a foreign country. There are a host of questions and issues that you’ll have to deal with beyond the customary visa, cultural, logistic, economic and administrative ones.

In today’s unstable geopolitical situation, you also have to contend with specific post-9/11 anti-terrorist laws. A good place to start having your questions and concerns answered is this website:

http://grantspace.org/tools/knowledge-base/Nonprofit-Management/Establishment/international-operations

Interesting Statistics

10% of charitable giving in the USA was earmarked for health organizations, according to Giving USA.

8.9% overall percentage increase in online funding during 2014 in US, according to Blackbaud 2014 Charitable Giving Report.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 031315

A new study about fundraising conducted by Dunham+Company/Campbell Rinker published in a blog on miratelinc.com points out that fundraising appeals to all age groups equally.

According to the study, the percentage of donors aged 66 and above, who made a donation online in 2014 has doubled from 29% in 2010 to 59% last year – considered a remarkable increase in just four years no matter what sort of adoption rate one is trying to measure. In fact the report verifies that the current rate of 59% is virtually identical to the 60% figure for those aged 65 and below.

Fundraising experts who viewed the data concurred that the age of donors now has extremely little if any relationship to their likelihood of making an online donation to a nonprofit organization or NGO.

Rick Dunham, president and CEO of Dunham & Company, observed about the report: “The trend of older donors giving online has definitely accelerated in the last two years. From our perspective, charities must seriously consider that an older donor is now just as likely to hop on to their website to give as a younger donor. This means charities must do all they can to optimize their website for ease of use as well as streamline the giving process to better serve these older donors, as donors over 60 are a prime demographic for giving.”

An aging population that began using the Internet a decade and a half ago still uses it so consequently that demographic is still involved in all of the online activities that it once was.

Consider these facts:

1. The percentage of North Americans who are regularly online has increased from 62% to 88% over the last decade;

2. The percentage of all visits to websites from mobile devices has increased about seven-fold in five years from 5% to more than 35%;

3. The percentage of nonprofit funding donations online are growing at a rate of between three or four times the overall growth rate for the industry annually

4. The percentage of people who have ever made an online donation or mobile donation is growing by about 15 percent each year

Additionally, researchers note the growing mainstream acceptance, trust and use of the internet across all demographics. The point at which 50% of people in North America were “regularly online” occurred about 16 years ago, when you stop to consider that someone aged 50 at that time is now 66 and someone who was 60 is now 76 it’s easy to understand how such a rapid shift is taking place among the older demographic especially when coupled with the ease of use for newer websites, changing technologies and smartphone/mobile device use.

The Performance Imperative Campaign. I came across these interesting guidelines on a website by way of Guide Star USA and Leap of Reason. It deals with things that inspire great organizations to make great impact. High performance is defined as the ability to deliver over a prolonged period of time meaningful, measurable, and financially sustainable results for the people, stakeholders or causes that your organization is in existence to serve.

Among the tenets are:

1. Courageous, adaptive executive and board leadership;

2. Disciplined, people-focused management;

3. Well-designed and well-implemented programs and strategies;

4. Financial health and sustainability;

5. A culture that values learning;

6. Internal monitoring for continuous improvement;

7. External evaluation for mission effectiveness.

Is your organization capable of satisfying these points?

Twitter is a contemporary water cooler or cocktail lounge. A vibrant community where small businesses and nonprofits/NGOs find leads, promote projects, raise funds and congregate as thought leaders to discuss timely topics.

Interesting Statistics

3% of charitable giving in the USA was earmarked for environmental and animal organizations, according to Giving USA.

5.8% of charitable donations in the USA went to small nonprofits/NGOs, according to Blackbaud 2014 Charitable Giving Report, which also pointed out that 17.4% of overall giving in 2014 occurred in December.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 030915

As an NGO or small business, you are compelled every day to convince someone to join your cause, donate funds or sample your product or service. Sometimes you succeed and sometimes you don’t. The numerous efforts are frustrating.

Charlotte Beers, former CEO of Ogilvy & Mather, observed: “Taking part in the adventure of persuading others, sweeping them up into an idea, an unexpected action or an unproven vision, is a wonderful experience. The ability to create excitement all around you is what leadership is about. Listen to the sound of leadership; it is you being eloquent, powerful, convincing, compelling and forceful. It is not for the faint of heart, but the outcome is inevitable if you care enough to ignite a spark, which will grow into a flame.

“Leading through persuasion is a form of communicating that must be learned. In fact, it has to be learned, for if you can’t persuade or convince others, you cannot lead. It helps to focus on the response you hope to evoke rather than just what you want to say as a way to counter your own reluctance to ask others to change. Of course, laying out the response you want is a central part of good communication, but in the goal of leading others, you are also always after one very specific response: ‘I never thought of it that way.’”

Repeat for yourselves Beers’ remark: “The outcome is inevitable if you care enough to ignite a spark, which will grow into a flame.”

To elicit an enthusiastic “I never thought of it that way” response, Beers encourages nonprofit activists and entrepreneurs to be prepared to express your own excitement, keenness, the leaps you’ve made from logic to an imaginative new proposition, the size of which is yet unknown.

She pointed out that you are not trying to sway people against their will but to present them an opportunity to see things anew, differently, from another angle: “To create change, to invent a new future, you have to be vulnerable, to show passion and belief in an unproven idea, and to risk failure by pursuing it. You, the initiator, have to find a delivery style that allows you to communicate your conviction in a compelling, inescapable way.”

Beers advises that you deflect skepticism, shake away reluctance to embrace a new idea, or break through indifference. In order of ascending artistry, her list of tools that leaders use to carry the flame, includes:

* Threats or consequences

* Passion, pathos

* Humor, wit

* Imperfection

* Surprise

* Wonder

“With every step you take to be clear about your own place at work and in every opportunity you seize to claim that place, you can become clear and communicate memorably and become more of a leader. Such clarity is surprising and often impressive. Speaking passionately from the very center of who you are is compelling, forceful, persuasive: that’s what leadership sounds like,” he said.

Everyone sends out numerous emails every day to people who know us and to unknown people. The subject line of your email is what will entice the addressee to read the email or overlook it. There are specific words, expressions or styles that you should use in the subject line to attract recipient – or to avoid.

Ryan Pinkham wrote: “Those less than ten-word phrases that can often make or break an email marketing campaign that took weeks to put together—aren’t they a joy to create?

“I wish I could tell you that somewhere out there is the perfect subject line, one that could send your open-rates skyrocketing and make opt-outs and spam reports ancient history, but I can’t. I can tell you, however, that creating almost perfect subject lines is possible and it starts with understanding certain truths about your readers—15 truths to be exact.”

1. People won’t act unless told to do so

2. People are skeptical of most emails

3. People do NOT like to have their time wasted

4. People respond to numbers

5. People are more likely to act when they feel a sense of urgency

6. People care more about the sender than the message

7. People hate being misled

8. People want things to be personal, just not too personal

9. People want you to share your expertise

10. PEOPLE DO NOT RESPOND TO CAPITAL LETTERS AND EXCLAMATION POINTS!!!!

11. People are starting to think much more “socially”

12. People don’t want to be left out of the conversation

13. People actually do like being teased

14. People have needs, questions, and concerns

15. People hate being sold to

These 15 truths are generally intended for recipients that you don’t know.

Interesting Statistics

16% of US charitable donations go to educational organizations; and 10% go to health organizations, according to Giving USA.

58.4% is the retention rate of multi-year donors, according to Reactivating Lapsed Donors, Target Analytics. So if you have a donor for a few years, chances are that you’ll keep him or her.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 030415

Successful outreach, marketing and fundraising require knowledge of who you are approaching, your stakeholders, supporters, politicians, audience and customers. In previous blogs I’ve pointed out that even female and male donors must be approached differently for them to reply positively to your information or campaign. And it is incumbent upon you to know the differences.

If you ask, as many of you have asked me, where do I start, where do I look, what should I write, then you haven’t begun researching your stakeholders. Nothing wrong there. But you should remember that your first step can’t be fundraising. The first step is research, rock-solid research so that you know who you intend to reach and you are ready to outreach and spread the word about your organization.

Kyle Chowning, marketing strategist, wrote that to create a successful, comprehensive marketing strategy NGOs and small businesses must consider what he calls the “5 ‘Ps’ in your marketing mix: People

Product (project, goal, mission)

Price (reaction)

Place (location of project’s implementation)

Promotion (who to reach your stakeholders, audience, customers)

“Building a strong marketing strategy for your proposal or plan is important to winning new business regardless of what your product or service is. Taking the time to answer these questions will likely lead you to success,” Chowning wrote.

However, he cautioned, “Don’t do this: one of the biggest mistakes people make is guessing the answers to the marketing mix questions. As I mentioned, marketers pursue and use data to build rock-solid marketing strategies.”

Social Media 101—Conclusion

Conclusion of my discussion of the basics of launching your social media strategy. If you have already done so, don’t worry, treat this as a helpful review.

·         The first step to planning any addition to an organization should be setting goals. Before joining the social media world, your organization should have an understanding of its goals for:

The social media team at large,

Each social platform, and

Individual team members.

·         “The first thing we did was to define a purpose. What is the purpose of starting a community? Over the past two years, we’ve heard, ‘You’ve got to be in social! You’ve got to be in social!’ A lot of companies are doing that, but they don’t know why,” said Kailei Richardson, manager of strategy and social media expert at Point Roll.

·         Planning a strategy for each social platform was key for planning the role of the social media team. Study the mechanics of the platform before deciding all are good for you or one.

·         After an organization has defined what the social media team should be and who it should include, the next step is to survey available internal resources and allocate them appropriately. This includes employees, funds and equipment.

·         Create a social media policy. A social media policy is a great way to set your company’s expectations for social media use in writing for all to see — either internally or externally (or both). In most cases, it’s a legal and organizationally necessary to have a social media policy to set the tone for employees and the community.

·         The policy must also address your mission, projects, products, image, brand, stakeholders, audience and customers.

·         Communicate effectively across your organization. Just because a team is labeled the “social media team” doesn’t mean they have to exclusively use social media tools to communicate with each other and the rest of the community. Senior management must be included in the process.

·         Whatever you do, once you launch it, don’t belittle it as a passing adolescent fad. If you do, you will have wasted time and money. More ominously, you may fail and bring tarnish your organization’s image. If you treat it seriously as you would any phase of your organization’s work, you will be primed for success.

Social media can be helpful but we have to know why we want it and have a plan. Wanting it because everyone else has it is not enough and can be detrimental. With a plan, social media won't turn into a plaything. I also think that senior management should be prepared for it and familiar with the concepts and lexicon so you can hold your own during the discussion, launch and implementation. One tweet is not enough, you should join the conversation and invite others to join your conversation.

Hope this has been helpful.

Statistics

NGOs & nonprofits contributed to the US economy $887.3 billion or 5.4% of the GDP.

Small businesses share of GDP constitutes 46-48%.

Not bad for local entrepreneurship and grassroots initiatives.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 030115

You’ve got mail! Actually, a lot of email.

According to The Radicatti Group Inc., more than 100 billion emails were sent and received in every day in the business world in 2013. This incredible number is expected to grow and reach more than 132.1 billion by 2017. On the consumer side, 82.4 billion personal emails were sent and received in 2013 and this total is expected to dip to 74.5 billion by 2017.

That is an astounding total: 182.4 billion emails per day or 2.13 million emails per second.

With this phenomenally large number of emails traversing back and forth in cyberspace, what should you do to ensure that your e-correspondence, outreach or fundraising campaign is read by its intended audience and not relegated to the spam or junk folder?

Jay Wilkinson, a digital marketing guru, noted: “In nonprofit email marketing, there’s not much worse than creating an engaging campaign, building a compelling message, and then ending up in someone’s junk folder. So how do you avoid that? You need to know what triggers spam filters. Here are three ways to get your messages delivered to someone’s inbox and stay out of their spam.”

* Don’t send attachments

* Watch your graphics

* Watch your words

“Some words associated with spam and they may land you in someone’s junk mail, particularly if used in the subject line. Risky words include free, prize, bonus, buy, purchase, promotion and deal. Also, watch your punctuations—exclamation marks are especially risky in subject lines, as are words in ALL CAPS. When you build your next email campaign, focus on delivering the right message to your audience, but be mindful of what sends the wrong message to spam filters. A great campaign that gets labeled as junk mail will be sadly ineffective,” Wilkinson recommended.

Be careful with your email and you’ll achieve winning results in your campaigns.

Social Media 101 – Part 2

Continuation of my return to the basics of launching your social media strategy. If you have already done so, don’t worry, treat this as a helpful review.

·         Take the slow and steady approach. Pick one or two communities, projects, products or industries that are important to you. Determine your key goals and define who will be responsible for keeping activity going day in and day out. This new marketing is far from free. If you are large enough, you may have to assign more than one person to handle this project. But senior management cannot stay apart from this ongoing assignment.

·         Don’t measure success by follower counts. Growing your community is important, but you should be focused on who’s engaging with you and at what levels. In the long run it’s more important to have a devoted enthusiastic community. Organic growth matters.

·         Social media doesn’t equal self-promotion. Two things are important: Need to show who is behind the company (or organization) and need to focus on customers and not the company or organization. Ideas, professionalism, knowledge, education and engagement are important.

·         Search across the web for people looking for similar help or ideas and then begin offering advice and information.

·         Learn from the experts. Just because something worked for one nonprofit or company doesn’t mean it’s going to work for your organization. You’ve got to learn from the work of others, while tailoring their experiences to your own particular needs, goals and customers.

·         Get help without relinquishing your identity. You, president, owner, EVP or GM, simply can’t be an expert in everything. Be in control of establishing the relationship with your community and create networks. Play a large role in defining the message and content for all our communications, as well as engage in every tweet and blog comment directly.

·         Since social media is still an evolving area in society and business, there aren’t any set steps for success. Social media requires and allows experimentation. Take time to experiment. While there are many suggestions and recommendations across the web, many of these pointers are specific to certain types of businesses or industries.

·         One area of social media that can be discussed with relative consensus, though, is how to define a social media team’s role in your organization. While there are varying paths that can be chosen, they all stem from the same considerations: the goal of social media, who should be involved, what the responsibilities include, and how the strategy should be implemented. Furthermore, it is important to note how the social media team will interact with the organization, company, stakeholders, customers and community at large.

To be continued in the next blog.

Statistics

72% of charitable donations in US come from individuals.

6% of charitable donations in US come from corporations.

15% of charitable donations in US come from foundations.

63% of donors want to know how money will be used.

Are you prepared to address these issues in your fundraising campaigns?

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs & Small Businesses 022515

Social Media 101

Since I launched my Boosting Your Outreach blog, I have been encouraging the dynamic use of social media. Indeed, Twitter, Facebook and the other outlets are effective, efficient, convenient and popular means to promote your projects, missions, nonprofit organizations, small businesses, products and services.

By providing information about yourselves and joining existing conversations, your NGO or enterprise grows in reputation and acceptance.

I would like to return to the basics and guide you through some important points for consideration before you launch your social media strategy. And if you have already initiated it, don’t worry, treat this as a helpful review.

You’ll be interested to know that even though social media is globally ubiquitous and has been for several years, there are any consultants, universities and other educational institutions and adult continuing education programs that offer classes on the basics of social media (even email). There seems to be a never-ending stream of interested users.

Among the questions that you have to decide for your organizations are:

·         Why do we want to be involved in social media?

·         Which platforms are best for you organization?

·         What do we want to say to our readers, stakeholders, customers, audience and how often?

·         Who will comprise the social media team?

While you are deliberating about the points above, take into consideration what others are thinking about or writing on this subject.

·         Managers choose to delegate these tools to interns or specialists. Delegating is a way to avoid the subject and assigning an intern to do this is not always in the best interest of the company. Don’t underestimate the power of your tweets. In previous blogs I cited the immense reach of individual thematic tweets. And as for interns, they may know how to tweet information about rock stars but do they really know your issues, industry, stakeholders, customers and mentality to follow almost everything about your work?

·         Social media offers unique opportunities. It offers a direct way to talk with clients and communities on a daily basis. “Talk with” is important because it implies that you are sharing, listening and joining an existing conversation. You’re not just hurling information into cyberspace. You are actively contributing to building a community.

·         Customers, clients, stakeholders and audience know best what is important to them. Social media has little to do with you; it’s about your audience, customers or whomever you’re trying to reach. Think like your customer and stakeholders think. You have to stay on top of what is happening so you can join the conversation and even guide it.

·         Not sure where your customers are on the social web? Just ask them. Survey their thoughts and views. Read existing literature. Ask me.

·         Social media isn’t necessarily free. You can set one up without paying a dime. However, even though there’s a very low price tag to enter the game, social media is far from free. It requires time, energy, and effort. It’s an everlasting commitment to create interesting content, list to conversations, and respond. You cannot tweet once and hope most of your targeted receivers read it. You’ll win the lottery before that happens. You must increase your odds that your tweet or idea is read by as many people as possible.

To be continued in my next blog.

In previous blogs I wrote that successful fundraising can be conducted via social media. Having said that, don’t abandon all other traditional and modern forms of soliciting financial support. That would be foolhardy.

However, deciding how much time you should devote to fundraising via social media is a wise business exercise for nonprofits and NGOs.

Heather Mansfield in “Mobile for Good: A How-To Fundraising Guide for Nonprofits” observed: “The amount of time that a nonprofit can invest in mobile and social media depends on capacity. Small nonprofits that are not in a position to hire a part- or full-time new media manager should limit themselves to one or two social networks and place the highest priority on their website, email communications, and online fundraising campaigns. Mobile and social media are powerful, but when implemented on a small scale, the power is overshadowed by other more traditional online campaigns. Often small nonprofits try to be active on more than two social networks by sharing the responsibility among staff. While this is possible, it does require a concerted effort and cooperation among all staff that content be distributed effectively and consistently. There still should be one person who is given the directive to research and then communicate best practices as they evolve to other participating staff.”

After deciding, take note of the time – note that it’s not minutes but hours – other organizations have committed to social media for fundraising.

“Even though 61% of nonprofits spent more time than previously utilizing social media in 2013, less than 2% invested more than 21 hours a week. Thus, if your nonprofit is not willing or able to hire a part- or full-time new media manager, then you have to select carefully the social networks that your nonprofit can realistically and effectively maintain. For years social media has been considered free, so executive staff did not make necessary financial investments and consequently many communications and development staff now find themselves with many of the above job duties added to their list of job responsibilities, but without official recognition. This is an unsustainable approach to mobile and social media that puts a great strain on many communications and development staff,” Mansfield wrote.

In other words, social media is not a toy but rather a serious tool to help NGOs, nonprofits and small businesses boost their outreach, promote their projects and missions, reach stakeholders and customers, and raise funds.

If you’d like to know the recommended hours for each platform, contact me.

* There are 1,409,430 tax-exempt nonprofits, NGOs in USA according to National Center for Charitable Statistics. Is your organization part of that fraternity?

* NGOs, nonprofits and small businesses: In today’s highly competitive and over-saturated humanitarian and mercantile environment,  in order to successfully promote your mission, services, products you have to provide more, better, faster.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach

Today’s Tips for NGOs 022315

A great deal of outreach nowadays is done via email and social media – even among NGOs, nonprofits and small businesses. However, to reach your stakeholders and audience, you must be familiar with their communication and social media habits.

Earlier, I advised that in order to promote your issues and projects that you must tweet or post often throughout the day because not only do we exist in a global, round-the-clock village, but also because your targets may not be reviewing tweets when you’re attempting to contact them. But if you’re tweeting often the same information you have to use clever wordsmithing to “beat” the Twitter system that rejects re-tweeting.

Kate Prince suggested five ways to increase engagement with your target audience and stakeholders.

“Many marketers busy themselves growing lists, fans and followers, but ignore a metric that creates mobs of raving supporters. It’s called engagement, and it can boost your brand lift by over 300%,” Prince wrote, noting that valuable stakeholder engagement is all about quality and quantity.

1.  Know where stakeholders are – know which social media platform or communication method they favor.

2. Know what they’re looking for – don’t mismatch content and stakeholders.

3. Time is money – be on the money – timing is important so you should be extremely conscious of what you can offer and how best to accommodate the demands of your stakeholders or audience to be up-to-date.

4. Be consistent and reliable – once you’ve got your audience’s attention, it is crucial for you to be consistent. Your message, imagery, brand and even methodology should be consistent with stakeholders’ expectations.

5. Social is a two-way street – If you commit to blogging once a week, posting twice a week and tweeting once a day, don’t forget the importance of sporadic engagement with your stakeholders. You should remember to join their conversations everyday by listening and responding to their conversations.

NGOs and nonprofits need updated, comprehensive lists of individuals and foundations that could be contacted for donations. Fortunately, wealthy people in America, at least, are getting richer and more generous, according to Quentin Fottrell, personal finance reporter for MarketWatch.com.

Citing the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Fottrell wrote that America’s 50 most generous donors made a total of $9.8 billion in charitable donations last year, that’s 27.5% more than the $7.7 billion given in 2013. The 10 most generous contributors (individuals and couples) combined to give the majority of the money—more than $6.2 billion, or 64% of the total amount.

“The boost in charitable donations was partly due to an increase in the number of technology entrepreneurs under 40, three of whom gave more than $500 million each. The median age among the top 50 living donors is 73; the oldest living donor—retired banker David Rockefeller—is 99, and the youngest--Sean Parker, co-founder of file-sharing site Napster—is 35,” Fottrell wrote. “Of the top 50 donors, 12 couples or individuals on the list come from technology, 11 from finance, four inherited their wealth and three made money in real estate. In all, tech donors accounted for 47% of the money donated by the top 50.”

Here are the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s most generous donors in the U.S. last year:

Bill & Melinda Gates

Donation: $1.5 billion.

Ralph C. Wilson Jr.

Donation: $1 billion (bequest).

Ted Stanley

Donation: $652.4 million.

Jan Koum

Donation: $556 million.

Sean Parker

Donation: $550 million.

Nicholas and Jill Woodman

Donation: $500 million.

Michael R. Bloomberg

Donation: $462 million.

Rachel Lambert (Bunny) Mellon

Donation: $411.3 million (bequest).

Sergey M. Brin

Donation: $382.8 million.

Paul G. Allen

Donation: $298 million.

Research these names and prepare fundraising appeals to them. You may succeed in securing additional funds for your NGO or project.

The next UN DPI/NGO Briefing will focus on youth, the backbone of the future of the United Nations.

Titled “Partnerships for Success: NGOs, Youth and the UN,” the Briefing will be held in Conference Room 2 at UN Headquarters in New York City on Thursday, February 26, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm (1100-1330).

The session will be moderated by Dr. Bill Hunter, director, International Outreach, Lehigh University. Participants will include: Viktoriia Brezheniuk, World Federation of Ukrainian Women’s Organizations; Amanda Nesheiwat, Foundation for Post-Conflict Development; Gabriela Taveras, Seton Hall School of Diplomacy and United Nations Association of the Dominican Republic; and Joy Ukaigwe, ENDA Tiers Monde (Environmental Development Action of the Third World).

The session will be webcast on http://webtv.un.org.

Contact me for more ideas and guidance.

For a global view of what NGOs are doing, please visit my Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/BoostingNGOOutreach