Thursday, December 22, 2016

Some Yearend Thoughts on Social Media Marketing – ‘EEE’
It is axiomatic that social media are the most efficient, effective and economical vehicles to quickly reach a mass or targeted audience. As a result, it behooves small businesses, non-governmental organizations and their chief executive officers regardless of their formal titles to begin making plans to enter cyberspace.
With an average of 236 million active monthly users, Twitter by itself can help with your outreach. If you add other social media, then you will increase your chances of promoting your mission, projects, goods or services to all corners of the Internet.
As I have written in the past, social media is too powerful of an outreach tool to allow teenagers use to for their youthful exploits. Actually, 22% of Twitter users are over the age of 50. That’s almost 52 million people. Do you see a potential audience in that space?
If you haven’t yet begun tweeting, here are a few ideas about what you should do.
Sheena White, a copywriter and social media consultant, suggests that you should update your Twitter profile with the proper keywords. What is your claim to fame? What is your mojo? What is your expertise? What will your legacy be? Tell your audience what your tweeting mission will be. What will you be promoting?
“It’s perfectly fine (even recommended) to share personal details about your life or interests, but it’s essential to tell Twitter users exactly what you do (assuming you want them to find you for your products and services, that is),” White wrote.
While some experts advise that you create categories for your potential tweets, the serious work of NGOs and small businesses does not require such a procedure. You already know your mission and business plan so focus on promoting them. However, what you should do is track the hashtags that are favored and monitored by your audience, marketplace and shareholders, as well as those who have liked or retweeted your content. Both steps will help you build and nurture your cyber community.
White also offered ideas on how to build a community:
“Start by following the people who follow your competitors or other industry leaders (or similar nonprofits). You can also do advanced keyword searches to find people according to the kinds of things they’re tweeting or find people who have certain keywords in their bios.
“It’s going to be necessary at some point to unfollow people or else you’re going to hit a cap at 2k Twitter accounts. (To go beyond that, you can only be following 10% more people than are following you in return.) Just make sure that when you unfollow, you don’t do so quickly that they don’t have the opportunity to follow you back.”
Engage your audience, marketplace or community with your tweets and ideas. Ask them to join your conversation and don’t forget to join their conversation. When they retweet what you’ve tweeted, their followers have the opportunity to read what’s top of mind for you and thus you boost your outreach even farther.
While you shouldn’t be afraid to promote your business or civic work, also remember to address issues that are of importance to your followers. Offer ideas and advice, and retweet what others have written on the subject. In this way, as I have suggested in earlier posts, CEOs can become thought leaders – the person who will be sought for his or her sage observations. However, don’t polemicize. That is liable to turn off more people than attract new followers. Stay above the fray by showing your expertise rather than your bickering skills.
You should also reply to inquiries and observations about your small businesses or NGOs. Twitter is especially suited to this application because of its real-time character.
Joe Wadlington, another social media adviser, noted: “Twitter is a natural fit for customer service. It moves in real time, making it simple for customers to ask you questions, celebrate your business, or reach out if they need support. This season, a lot of people will be shopping on a deadline — making swift, easy customer service more important than ever. In fact, after receiving a positive response from a retailer, 77% of people on Twitter feel more positively towards that business.”

Send your examples
Join the conversation in cyberspace in the New Year and let us know your impressions. If you have examples of creative usage of social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

Fundraising
Fundraising is an important facet of the work of NGOs especially during the Holidays. Here is an earlier post about this important topic: http://boostingyouroutreach.blogspot.com/2015/01/fundraising-tips-forngos-fundraising-is.html

In case you missed this resource bonus
Here’s a bonus resource for NGOs and small businesses that has been popular. It is undoubtedly beneficial to use illustrations or photos to get your point across. You can take your own photo or draw your own picture. Hiring professionals to do so would be expensive as would be subscribing to a stock photo agency. But these websites of photos for your promotional or marketing campaigns offer free photos. Yes, free. Enjoy browsing these sites. Some offer paid premium alternatives.
Negative Space

Death to the Stock Photo

Picjumbo

Stokpic

Kaboompics

Startup Stock Photos

Freerange

Libreshot

Fancy Crave

Unsplash

StocksSnap.io

SplitShire

Life of Pix

Pexels

HubShot

Gratisography

Jay Mantri

ISO Republic

New Old Stock

Pixabay

Tuesday, December 6, 2016

Twitter Again Tops Social Media for Outreach
If you’ve haven’t been keeping up with latest statistics about Twitter usage or haven’t conducted your own reality check on Twitter based on your and your associates’ rapid-fire tweeting, then here’s the latest analysis that you can tweet.
Caitlin Houston wrote in Market Watch that Twitter is the most important social media platform today.
Twitter shares have gained 2.6% in the past month, which is not merely based on purchases of its stock but also an indication of its vast popularity.
There are more than 300,000,000 people active on Twitter and in the US alone in excess of 88 million people visit Twitter each month. That means almost 40% of the adult population (more than 1 out of every 3 adults) are using Twitter here in the US alone.
In the meantime, Facebook has suffered under a tsunami of fake news and amid this debacle, Twitter is at a turning point. Facebook has recently come under scrutiny for the dissemination of fake news that appears through its news feed and the effect it may have had on the election.
Twitter has stayed slightly outside this controversy. However, it is in danger of reaching its crossroads with the banning of user accounts, including the potential to ban President-elect Donald Trump, according to James Cakmak, an analyst at Monness, Crespi, Hardt.
To combat its fake news problem, Facebook has suggested third-party verification and using artificial intelligence, reported the Wall Street Journal. But Cakmak said he’s concerned that fake news will still get through and that this could lead to a suppression of news as users report content just because they don’t like it.
On the other hand, Cakmak noted that Twitter is a more democratic platform, which gives you as well as all users and news sources a kind of megaphone to the world. Additionally, it stands out because of the extent to which Trump used it during the campaign and after the election. Indeed, Twitter has a lot of solid, albeit controversial information, as well as deceptive trolls.
“Twitter is probably the most important social platform in the world right now from a societal perspective as the fake news debate lingers on,” Cakmak opined.
Twitter has the power to ban accounts, and has recently suspended accounts of white supremacists and others who promoted hate speech. It said it would ban Trump’s account as well, if his account tweeted something that constituted a violent threat, hateful conduct or other content in violation of the rules, according to several reports.
If Twitter makes the unfortunate decision to block Trump by filtering content, Cakmak said its value will go down “from both a business and societal perspective.”
So if you are using Twitter regularly, take a moment to reflect on the power of that tool. As I observed at the start of my Boosting Your Outreach blog, whether you’re a business or a non-governmental organization (non-profit), you’re still a business and must behave in certain acceptable ways in order to succeed. Your success is based on promoting your mission and attracting new stakeholders or promoting your companies and attracting new customers. Twitter, if used properly, adds exponentially to the odds in favor of your success.
You may be wondering how do I reach even a small portion of those 300 million who use Twitter? Stephanie Nissen, a social media observer, said NGOs, small businesses and entrepreneurs should create and use eight lists in order to boost their reach.
Twitter Lists, as defined by Twitter, are “a curated group of Twitter users.” Nissen pointed out that as a Twitter user you have the ability to create your own lists of users that fit a specific criteria that you choose or to subscribe to a public list created by another user. I’ll explain how in a future post.
Nissen recommends the following:
1. Your Team
If you’ve got employees, contractors, consultants and other team members who are also on Twitter, create a list to keep up with them and retweet their tweets.
2. Your Customers
Your customers are the only way you stay in business, right? So stay connected! (The same pertains to your stakeholders and advocates, if you’re a non-profit.)
3. Industry Influencers
Every industry has thought leaders and influencers that help move us forward. This Twitter list will help you keep up with what they’re tweeting about, help you to easily engage with their tweets, and get on their radar if that’s a benefit to your company.
4. Your Partners and Affiliates
This would be another private list to keep but it’s an important one to make. Partners and affiliates that support your business should be on a list all their own so you can not only support their efforts but also look for additional ways to partner based on their tweets.
5. Your Competitors
We always want to know what our competitors are up to in the cyberspace. This list should absolutely be kept private and it’s not meant for you to engage with these profiles.
6. Networking and Event Attendees
Personally, I’ve had great success with networking and event attendees lists. Create a list of people you meet at a local networking group and also at large conferences. You always exchange business cards, don’t you? So don’t just chuck them in your desk drawer. Incidentally, does your business card have your Twitter handle?
7. Content to Curate
A Twitter List with content you can curate is a huge perk for businesses because it will help you to never run out of content.
8. People Who Retweet You
When people retweet your content, add them to a list so you can keep up with them. If someone has shared your content once, they are more likely to do it again.
As I have encouraged you to do, tweet, retweet yourselves and retweet what others have tweeted. Invite people to join the conversation. Soon, the message will encircle the globe.
Share your ideas about boosting your outreach and we can discuss it online.
Something to consider for your New Year’s resolutions.
For additional advice, I’d like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

Monday, November 28, 2016

CEOs as Thought Leaders Reinforce Brands
A CEO, chief executive officer, owner, entrepreneur, chairman/woman/person, director, boss or anyone with a desk nameplate that reads “The Buck Stops Here” today is entrusted with more tasks than just running the company, paying attention to growing business, harnessing the best ideas to improve the business, driving sales, tending to quarterly profits, keeping tabs on competition, satisfying staff members, ensuring the longevity of the institution and others.
If those aren’t enough, today, the leader of a company, corporation, small business or nongovernmental organization (nonprofit) must also serve as an ambassador – the person who stands at the summit; the beacon that attracts others.
Karen Tiber Leland, a branding expert, elaborated this role by designating the CEO as the chief brand ambassador regardless if he or she wants the title or not.
One of the reasons for this direct correlation between the CEO and the business or nonprofit is that public and other stakeholders view it as such. Industry research has shown that 49% of a company’s reputation is attributed to the CEO’s reputation. You are your company and it is you.
Consequently, the CEO must maintain his or her official reputation on a blameless level while building a leader’s image separate from but connected to his or her occupation. Some have called it a symbiotic, parallel brand.
 “All CEOs have the daily opportunity and obligation to build their personal brand in service of their own and their corporation’s reputation,” observed Leland.
A recent survey by Meltwater Outside Insight titled “Fast Food Brands, Trends, Influences” is the latest study that highlights this valuable and important dual role of the person in the corner office.
“A company’s CEO is sometimes cast as the human representation of the brand. When Starbucks makes a commitment to values, Howard Schultz addresses the public with conviction and doesn’t shy from the camera. He reminds us that even the most noble set of corporate values and initiatives needs a person backing them up, not just a logo. As a result, he enjoys rock star status with his audience,” the report noted.
Among the clamor of corporate declarations, those that add a new perspective to the discussion, rather than disrupting, can be considered thought leaders – the holy grail or golden fleece of leadership. In a complex business or civic world, in which many things are considered at lightning speed, providing true thought leadership can be as valuable to a brand, company or NGO as the products, services or mission it is promoting. The thought leader sets the company or NGO apart and paves the way so that colleagues and subordinates can fulfill the mission statement or plan.
Establishing an individual – CEO, chair or director – as a thought leader requires consistent, diligent effort. Thought leadership success is based on a cumulative effect. Although thought leadership can and should have tactical elements that reveal the evolution of an idea from concept toward implementation, all thought leadership should be strategic at the onset. Thought leadership should be about a big idea that changes how people perceive the institution and world.
The following name should strike a warm chord in your memories. Walt Disney was a brand ambassador of historic proportions before digital technology. His name personified the company that he formed even after he stopped drawing his memorable cartoons. Disney became a thought leader about wholesome, family entertainment.
Leland, author of “The Brand Mapping Strategy,” opined: “All CEOs have the daily opportunity (and obligation) to build their personal brand in service of their own and their company’s reputation. In addition, many companies are beginning to realize that their executives need to have polished personal brands that highlight their expertise and knowledge to an outside audience.”
The personal brand can be the institution’s reputation, products, logo, image, sustainability plans or health policies, multicultural ideas, etc. The personal brand may not have anything to do with the institution’s primary business or reason for existence but it should be a concept that is valued by the audience or marketplace.
Being a thought leader, quite frankly, is a bestowed rank – the possessor earns it. CEOs and directors may aspire to be thought leaders, but the consumers of their speeches, rhetoric, writing, interviews, tweets and posts ultimately determine if they are or not. Organizations, be they civic, public or private, retail or Rotarian or nonprofit, need to have thoughtful leaders. Because of their positions, individuals creating perspectives and content have a leadership role and what they choose to do with their platform defines how they are viewed by consumers.
The most important commandment of thought leadership is “Thou shall not sell anything except ideas.” Selling during a thought leadership presentation, discussion, tweet or post is the number one sin, and conversely, not selling is the number one virtue. The latter leads to success and to being regarded as an expert by peers, marketplace, competitors and other stakeholders.
Other considerations are:
Thought leader is a person or firm that is not only recognized but also who profits from the recognition of authority.
According to Forbes, “A thought leader is an individual or firm that significantly profits from being recognized as such.”
Thought leader is an individual, company, or organization regarded as an expert in a specialized area or industry.
Thought leader is recognized by colleagues, competitors, customers, prospects and other stakeholders as having progressive and innovative ideas and as having been successful in effecting change.
Thought leader is one you think of first. The “go to” person.
Thought leadership should be an entry point to a relationship. It should help start a relationship where none exists, and it should enhance existing relationships.
Thought leadership should intrigue, challenge, and inspire even people already familiar with the company.
Thought leadership is simply about becoming an authority on relevant topics by delivering the answers to the biggest questions on the minds of your target audience.
Thought leadership should be about a big idea that changes how people perceive the world.
To achieve such a vaunted status, the CEO must devote time to scouring the internet, searching for relevant issues or ideas, joining conversations, initiating new conversations, inviting others to join the conversation, and offering new ideas – but not polemicizing.
Making the CEO’s idea viral, that is enveloping the world or at least the marketplace at lightning speed, is the goal of those that want to become thought leaders. As the Meltdown survey noted: “A viral conversation is like lightning. You don’t know where it’ll strike, and it rarely strikes in the same place twice. If you want to capture it, your gear needs to be optimized and ready to shoot, because it’s not a subject that’s going to stop and pose just for you.”
Leland elaborated: “Any time day or night, you need only turn on CNN or check out Twitter to see how wildfire-fast information (and disinformation) can spread. As the lines between company and CEO reputation blur, and increasingly ridiculous amounts of information on individuals become readily available in just a few clicks, CEO reputation management is a mandate.”
Linda Forrest, another branding expert, alluded to social media’s important role in this process. Leaders of startups that evolved into well-known leviathans of today did not enjoy the benefit of social media. “The difference is that now, with social media so pervasive in both our personal and professional lives, it’s more important than ever to appreciate that business partners, shareholders, prospective customers and investors could be watching. Today’s indiscretions or meltdowns could be tomorrow's headlines. Or even headlines years from now,” she said.
Leland urged all CEOs and directors that have chosen the path to thought leaderships to participate in social media. “In our continuously connected, always-wired world, customers, employees and shareholders have a constant hunger for – and access to -- information about a company and its executives. Being a social CEO is a necessity for any leader who doesn’t want to get left in the online dust,” she wrote.
In the digital age, thought leaders must be involved in all traditional outreach venues as well as cyber ones, such as Twitter, Facebook, websites, etc., with their names prominently featured in the titles and URLs. They must be prepared to post, tweet and creatively retweet their ideas several times a day in order to boost the chances of reaching as many followers and soon-to-be followers as possible.
CEOs of corporations and corporate-type NGOs have the luxury of staffs to assist with this important task. Other entrepreneurs, owners or activists must add to their daily troughs this essential assignment.
Something to consider for your New Year’s resolutions.
For additional advice, I’d like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Don’t Forget Importance of Social Media Strategy
Since launching this blog on how small businesses and non-government organizations (or non-profits) can boost their outreach, I touted the benefits of tapping the distinctive attributes of social media and encouraged readers to take advantage of Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Instagram, Pinterest and other venues.
Additionally, I simultaneously advised my audience about the importance of developing a social media strategy before venturing into cyberspace. My guidance was understandable. Any serious plan or project that entrepreneurs and civil society leaders are contemplating must be preceded by a comprehensive strategy discussion beginning with addressing the question “why do we need social media to boost our outreach.”
Among the questions that you have to decide for your organizations are:
1. Why do we want to be involved in social media?
2. Which platforms are best for you organization?
3. What do we want to say to our readers, stakeholders, customers, audience and how often?
4. Who will comprise the social media team?
“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,” I wrote in a February 25, 2015, post.
For a refresher you can refer to that post as well as those on March 1, 2015, and March 4, 2015.
I recently read a similar article advising businesses – and by association non-profits – about the need to create a digital marketing strategy. Liz Alton, writing on an IBM marketing website, noted that with the wide array of marketing solutions can lead to greater opportunities to connect with the marketplace, advocates and other stakeholders. However, she continued, without a clear strategy “it’s easy to invest a lot of resources and money without any tangible return.”
Citing a surprising statistic, Alton wrote: “A study by Smart Insights found that 47% of businesses are doing digital marketing without a clear strategy, which makes it impossible to successfully navigate today’s integrated omni-channel and real-time-data-powered digital environment.”
Alton recommended that entrepreneurs and NGOs consider the following points:
1. Align your digital marketing with your bigger business goals. 
2. Get your team focused on what’s important. 
3. Prioritize your technology investments. 
4. Dedicate the right resources. 
5. Focus your customer intelligence initiative. 
6. Minimize duplication and waste. 
7. Build a better customer experience. 
8. Continually improve your performance. 
9.  Experiment with new approaches. 
10. Integrate and optimize your digital marketing. 
“Digital marketing is no longer optional. Customers are looking for brands online – from seeking basic information to looking for support and interaction. Don’t become one of those brands that’s failing to make an impact because it’s being pulled in too many directions. Create a strategy that will let you define your goals, focus your resources behind your most important business objectives, and reap real rewards from your digital marketing efforts,” Alton concluded.
  
Send your examples
If you have examples of creative usage of social media to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.
I’d also like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

In case you missed this bonus
Here’s a bonus resource for NGOs and small businesses that has been popular. It is undoubtedly beneficial to use illustrations or photos to get your point across. You can take your own photo or draw your own picture. Hiring professionals to do so would be expensive as would be subscribing to a stock photo agency. But these websites of photos for your promotional or marketing campaigns offer free photos. Yes, free. Enjoy browsing these sites. Some offer paid premium alternatives.
Negative Space

Death to the Stock Photo

Picjumbo

Stokpic

Kaboompics

Startup Stock Photos

Freerange

Libreshot

Fancy Crave

Unsplash

StocksSnap.io

SplitShire

Life of Pix

Pexels

HubShot

Gratisography

Jay Mantri

ISO Republic

New Old Stock

Pixabay

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

Use Social Media Creatively to Boost Outreach
Social media, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram and the other cyber venues help establish awareness about your nongovernmental organization and small business so you can boost outreach.
Due to cyberspace’s ability to disseminate your vision instantaneously, you can likewise boost awareness about your projects, services and products instantaneously.
However, your tweet or post must stand out from the multitude of similar actions if they’re to reach readers near and far and be successful, establish your brand, expertise, mission, and vision.
The solution is to be as creative as you can with your tweets and posts, messages, content and use of visual media. If you plan to take advantage of social media – and I hope that you’ve begun planning how to enter cyberspace – you and your staffs need to get much better at using social platforms and technologies to build lasting relationships with consumers, supporters and stakeholders. You must start creating truly innovative strategies. Just keep in mind that more than 1.4 billion users are on Facebook and over 645 mission use Twitter for starters. That’s a lot of targets to reach.
Here are some examples that I have found that should spark your creativity:
Hashtags
These symbols, also referred to as number or pound signs in the common world, are the devices that allow your tweet to go beyond the horizon. These signs accumulate in Twitter’s database, where they stay forever pinned to your message. They can be tracked and you can build a community of followers. The Twitter handle @ performs a similar function with the addition of directing your message to a specific target in addition to everyone in twittersphere.
I read that social media was “a twitter” during the blizzard of 2015 that slammed the East Coast. One fast food eatery, Five Napkin Burgers, decided to use the already trending hashtags and a photo of one of their delicious burgers. Now, who would think that anyone would go out in a blizzard just for a burger?
Lo and behold, people did. Capitalizing on topics that are already trending on social media is a great way to increase exposure for your posts, especially if you have a clever take on the topic. In other words, for greater exposure for your information, announcement, comment, service or product, combine it with popular hashtags. Marketers call this strategy “newsjacking” and use it as a way to be seen by everyone following the popular trend.
Staff Members & Employees
Recently, Mei Mei Street Kitchen in Boston was showered with awards and recognition for its creative ingenuity and use of sustainable ingredients. Two of its employees were featured in Zagat’s 30-Under-30 Awards. The restaurant management enthused about the award on social media, naming names and publicly congratulating their team.
Everybody likes to be mentioned in tweets and posts. Everyone likes to be in pictures. Promoting the people behind any organization or business is a wonderful way to humanize the experience for followers, supporters and customers. It gives your NGO or business a human face. Whether or not your team is winning awards, posting pictures from “behind the scenes” of your staff members or employees doing what they do or sharing funny anecdotes about them can make followers feel more connected to the business and the people that make it possible.
Engage Followers
Social media’s success in building your outreach is based on its ability to help you build and mold a community. The members of the community that you build or that you joined is that you have similar values and needs, and you share what you have learned and seen with your followers. In addition to sharing, you can also pull information by asking fun or serious questions, encouraging responses and engaging your followers.
Followers are more likely to remember the content of a post or tweet if they interacted with it in some way.
Social media is not merely about telling your followers what’s happening at your NGO or business. It’s also about listening to their feedback. Platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and others are a great way to create a two-way dialogue with your audience. Ask questions about issues that are dear to you, projects or campaigns that you will launch, products and services that you’re offering to inspire followers to engage with your posts and to interact with you rather than simply scrolling down the page.
Health Problems
Recently, The New York Post printed a story about a woman who used social media to get well.
According to the newspaper, New York City teacher Kristen McRedmond, social media wasn’t just a way to distract herself from cancer treatment — it may have saved her life.
McRedmond, who works at Avenues, an elite Chelsea private school, was diagnosed with stage 4 colorectal cancer in 2012. “I was under the impression I had one tumor, and that was it,” McRedmond, a 37-year-old, told The Post. “They wound up finding spots all over.” She spent four years in and out of remission before things got worse in August.
Her only hope was to get her hands on an IV medication being tested at some hospitals on breast-cancer patients that her doctors hoped could treat her rare type of cancer. The only problem: Her insurance wouldn’t cover the treatment, and getting on a clinical trial would take more time than she had.
She estimated the medication itself would cost $50,000; any scans, bloodwork and additional treatment required would be extra. “I said, ‘My cancer is not going to bankrupt my family,’ ” insisted McRedmond,
She decided to take her message to cyberspace and spread it via social media not only for her benefit but also for untold, unknown others. Parents at the school, where she works, told others via social media, who told still others and the message soon reached critical mass.
McRedmond began treatment in October and hopes her experience will advance doctors’ understanding of how to treat colorectal cancer and solicit help.
Bad News Sticks like Glue
In reporting its latest quarterly financial results, Chipotle Mexican Grill ended up showing how its economic recovery is coming slower than many expected. One financial expert noted that social media is the culprit for the damage the fast food restaurant is still experiencing after making about 500 people sick in 11 states.
And while many newspapers headlined Chipotle’s report as “food safety woes take toll,” the perceptive expert suggested that Chipotle’s problem is social media, not the financial press.
“It increasingly looks like outbreaks of foodborne illness are much harder for a chain to overcome in the social media era,” financial expert Don Burrows wrote in InvestorPlace. “Intuitively, at least, it makes sense. And every time CMG struggles with same-store sales, it adds more anecdotal evidence to the case.”
Since the six outbreaks it experienced last year, Chipotle has been investing in both food safety and marketing programs. Analysts say it has won back most of its most loyal customers, but still have problems with customers on both coasts who have other fast casual options. Consumers have used social media to remind their followers of Chipotle’s grief more than the restaurant’s efforts to correct its mistakes.
If you have an example of a creative use of social media, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.
I’d like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:
Bonus
Here’s a bonus resource for NGOs and small businesses. It is undoubtedly beneficial to use illustrations or photos to get your point across. You can take your own photo or draw your own picture. Hiring professionals to do so would be expensive as would be subscribing to a stock photo agency. But these websites of photos for your promotional or marketing campaigns offer free photos. Yes, free. Enjoy browsing these sites. Some offer paid premium alternatives.
Negative Space

Death to the Stock Photo

Picjumbo

Stokpic

Kaboompics

Startup Stock Photos

Freerange

Libreshot

Fancy Crave

Unsplash

StocksSnap.io

SplitShire

Life of Pix

Pexels

HubShot

Gratisography

Jay Mantri

ISO Republic

New Old Stock

Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/

Monday, October 24, 2016

‘Oops’ Isn’t a Suitable Apology for Spelling Errors
“I don’t care what the newspapers say about me as long as they spell my name right.”
P.T. Barnum, the great American showman, was right on both counts. Publicity is great, any kind of publicity – good, bad or other. But the most important consideration in publicity is that your name is spelled correctly.
That sage advice also applies to us who use social media to tell the world about ourselves, our NGOs, and our products and services.
Misspellings are the bane of writers. We all try to avoid them by writing carefully, proofreading, using automated spellcheckers and perhaps rereading. But despite our vigilance and best efforts, errors still manage to creep into our writing, tweets and posts, even when we write simple, common names.
I’ve personally experienced it. I’ve been called “Igor,” which I never was, and I was once renamed in an email “Iwhore.” The writer did not rectify this gross blunder so I had to write and correct it much to the chagrin of the very red-faced perpetrator. So, one bit of advice when you misspell someone’s name, especially that important someone who you are soliciting for a sponsorship, donation, membership or support, apologize and correct the name in a new email as soon as possible.
Don’t miss a second. Just fix it.
“Whether you’ve misspelled a word, ignored a complaint, said something silly, given horrible advice or over-used hashtags, social media blunders can turn off your audience, almost forever. Unfortunately, making typos is one of the most ignored blunders in social media networking these days. Most of us ignore and a lot of us form an impression,” writes social media adviser Sunita Biddu.
As small as they might be, spelling errors can really hurt your credibility and by association your organization’s and business’ credibility and integrity. You may excuse yourself that a typo here and there may be okay, but many of typos are not and how many in one email, tweet or post is many in the eye of the beholder.
Typos indicate to your audience that you are not serious and consequently that you, your organization or business, and message may not be serious as well.
“The moment a consumer sees misspellings or other general errors, they begin to question the credibility of not only the product but also the website and company,” warns social media consultant Marianne Chrisos.
Chrisos pointed out that there is a direct correlation between your typos and a decline in your prestige.
Citing a study published by the BBC, Chrisos noted that a single spelling mistake on a website can cut a company’s online sales in half. That means the business could have potentially had 1,000 sales (as opposed to the 500 that it really received) if you had fixed that spelling error of “staplar” to “stapler.”
Conversely, flawless writing, even in Twitter’s 140 characters, will go far in telling your readers a great deal about how professional you are, how serious you are about your messages, NGO or business, and you much you respect your audience.
If you notice a typo in your tweet or post, update and correct it immediately after you post it. You can use the edit function or you can delete it and repost a corrected version before people start liking, commenting on and sharing it.
Spelling errors are going to happen even to the best of us, but try to keep them to a minimum. Review your writing before you press send. An extra comma here and a misspelled word there may not seem like a big deal, but it does make you look sloppy. Also, it is wise to keep posts, tweets and emails as grammatically sound as possible, just like your letters were in the old days.
You risk a great deal by leaving grammatical or typographical errors that may look small but nonetheless will raise questions about your credibility in the back of your reader’s mind.
Just because you can type quickly and post comments and messages almost instantly doesn’t mean you should neglect grammar. You may legitimately feel you have to post a comment hastily but that doesn’t give you the right to overlook grammar, language and spelling. Haste has driven me to zealously post an interesting discovery in order to share it with followers and to attract new ones. However, if you don’t take a moment to give your post a second look before sending it, you are showing you were in such a rush that you failed to take into consideration your readers’ interests.
Your rushed work may also deliver confusing and detrimental messages. Simple errors such using “to, two, or too” interchangeably or replacing “there” with “they’re” or “their” will change the meaning and damage the effectiveness of your message. These minor mistakes distract your potential readers, prospects and customers from the real message and this could be harmful to your organization or business.
And don’t fool yourself. People take great pleasure in noticing typos and mentioning them to the culprit, supporters and competitors across cyberspace. The Germans have a word for it: “Schadenfreude.” At the time this can be very annoying and you just wish they’d go about their business without bothering you. But actually typos always matter, and those who inform the authors and editors of this are undertaking a great service.
“Another reason that fixing typos always matters is that by allowing them to fester away on websites or social networks, and in emails or text messages, we, as a species, are dumbing down. We’re letting mistakes stand, refusing to fix them even when we’re told they exist. This fosters the idea in the collective minds of the mainstream that typos are harmless,” observed Dave Parrack, the tech news and entertainment editor of MakeUseOf. “Once typos are accepted as an inevitable part of our everyday lives it’s a slippery slope down the dumb scale until we’re gruffly grunting at each other in the same way our evolutionary forebears once did.”
Finally, we, laptop, social media writers, have been trained like Pavlovian dogs to accept automated word replacements of spell check programs. The short answer is, don’t trust automation. Oftentimes I have caught in the nick of time an automated substitution that made no sense. Deactivating that function may prove helpful.
The long and the short of it is simply be careful not to leave typos in your wake and you’ll boost your outreach. Otherwise, you may be caught is this unpleasant situation:
A man received message from his neighbor.
Sorry sir I am using your wife. I am using day and night. I am using when u r not present at home. In fact I am using more than U R using. I confess this because now I feel very much guilt. Hope U will accept my sincere apologies.
Man went home and had a big fight with his wife.
Few minutes later he received another massage.
Sorry Sir spelling / auto correct mistake ... it's not wife but WIFI.
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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Benefits of Social Media for NGOs
Twitter is recognized as a powerful outreach tool and, according to a survey by Non Profit Tech for Good, some 79% of non-governmental organizations or non-profits believe that social media is effective for creating social change.
Truthfully, creating social change is the mission of civil society regardless of individual group’s niche mission. Civic activists have organized themselves into a variety of groups that strive to create social change to improve humanity by advancing what it has designated as important such as the environment, education, health, equality and others.
Consequently, savvy NGOs have embraced all forms of social media to raise awareness about their causes, promote issues dear to them, and, most importantly, raise funds to do what they do for another day, week, month, or year.
Once a tool for teenagers, now social media, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and others have moved into the mainstream, where they are playing a significant role in helping NGOs fulfill their missions or launch new projects. It’s free, easy to use, and can be updated without fuss or extra costs.
Furthermore, the non-profits that use social media have discovered that their staffers, audience, donors, municipal officials and other interested stakeholders use social media as well. Actually, there’s a whole universe of users.
Consequently, social media is the fastest, easiest, simplest, most reliable and least expensive way to share your information or appeals with them.
Noteworthy NGOs are not different from successful small businesses. Both need to reach out to an audience or marketplace, they have a clear idea of their mission and target audience, market and readers. Social media can help NGOs in three ways: telling your story in your tweets or posts, raising awareness and soliciting donations, and interacting with donors, other activists, officials, academics and stakeholders.
Whether your NGO is local or global, and whether the need you serve is in your neighborhood or country or around the world, social media can be a powerful tool to deepen relationships with the people in your community who are most interested in your mission – or who should be interested in your mission if they knew about it.
However, reaching out via social media is not as simple as tweeting and forgetting it. You have to develop a comprehensive plan of tweeting or posting with dedication. It would serve you well if you designated a single staffer to handle social media. If you’re not serious about your activity on social media, you won’t be taken seriously. If you tweet once and then again in a couple of weeks, you’ll only attract to your cause your staff members that have been instructed to monitor social media.
You need to designate prospects and influencers and then aim your information at them.
Kiera Wiatrak, an independent social media and digital marketing consultant, observed: “Prospects are your leads – the people who would buy your product or service. Connecting with them is the ultimate goal, but you can’t do it without a network of influencers, who are people, brands, publications and other outlets who have influence in your space. You need them to build your credibility and spread your message to get your prospects excited about what you can offer.
“This dual focus is crucial for an effective social media engagement strategy. Not just your engagement, but your messaging should cater to both these audiences. Think of prospects and influencers as the peanut butter and jelly of your engagement strategy – you can’t have the iconic sandwich without both condiments in place.”
Though her advice pertains to small businesses, it can also benefit civil society.
As you tweet and post, cast your net wide so you catch your targets’ professional interests as well as pastime activity. Are they having e-conversations with other NGOs? If so, what are they talking about? Research how the demographic group that exhibits interest in your mission functions as a consumer and citizen, relates to local or global issues, and uses social media, and then join their conversations in addition to initiating your own.
When you’re just getting started, you should be varying your messaging, your networks, your prospecting techniques and your overall strategy to get your foot in the door everywhere. Then, track your results so you know what’s happening with your tweets and posts, and who’s reading them.
Compared with traditional outreach media, social media may be slow in producing results. You may have to develop a creative touch to tweeting and posting the same information while using different words. Rather than thinking of social media as first-person chat, think of it as a conduit, with the goal being to prepare each prospect to be ready to accept your call-to-action.
Make a library of relevant hashtags and Twitter handles and use them with every tweet. Remember social media’s quid pro quo: If you are befriended, followed and retweeted, then do so to those that favored your outreach.
And don’t forget the call to action. You may want your audience to continue reading your posts, or you may want them to subscribe to your e-newsletters, or you may want them to join your campaign, or, most importantly, you may want them to donate to the cause.
In any case, regularity, frequency and consistency are essential to your social media success. After all, the world is spherical and you want to be sure to reach as many people as possible during their waking hours.
Social media is not a precise science, and social media engagement is even less predictable. There are many consultants and bloggers – like me – offering advice on how to use social media but ultimately you, the user, will determine how best to take advantage of it after you’ve practiced the basics.
But once you’ve jumped into the deep end of the social media pool, don’t abandon your efforts. Pursue them with a passion.
I’d like to invite you to visit my Thought Leadership website:

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Promote the SDGs and You’ll Build Your Business – Unilever Get’s It
Following up on my two earlier posts about promoting the Sustainable Development Goals as a means to build your NGO or business success, the other day I came across a column in The Huffington Post by Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever and chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, on this important global topic.
Unilever, perhaps among many corporations worldwide, understands the long-term value of the SDGs. While it is certainly a giant among corporations, Unilever’s corporate sustainability culture offers many doable ideas for small businesses and civil society.
Polman pointed out that humanity today is being offered a unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to take a giant leap in improving the lives of everyone on earth for generations to come.
He said this opportunity exists in all facets of our lives – trains and other forms of transportation, offices, and the energy that powers our homes.
“But it’s also an opportunity for us to decide what we value, as we make decisions that determine the fate of the world’s natural infrastructure, from forests that clean our air to the soil that produces our food,” Polman wrote.
Unilever’s Polman is not unique among corporate leaders that display an acute sense of corporate social and community awareness. The United Nations Global Compact members and participants of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development undoubtedly include scores of likeminded executives. In their quest to improve the quality of life on this planet and, yes, to grow their businesses, they understand that the SDGs provide beneficial opportunities for everyone regardless of their beliefs, preferences or prejudices.
“Only sustainable infrastructure – one that refuses to trade long-term sustainability for short-term gains – will bring about the transformative change we need,” Polman continued. “It is key to our ability to deliver the promises of prosperity and sustainability at the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).”
With the adoption last week of the Paris Agreement on climate change, the global community proved its “collective ambition to further limit global warming and preserve our future,” he wrote.
Indeed, as with the SDGs, sometimes called 2030 Agenda, which was adopted a year ago, and the work that has transpired since then, global organizations, national leaders and multinational corporations have demonstrated their understanding for the need to promote all 17 SDGs. (Click to see all of them: http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/).
However, this understanding must trickle down to hometown officials, civil society and small businesses for it to become truly effective and useful. Only after the SDGs are universally embraced by all vestiges of humanity, will there be a chance for their successful attainment.
Polman wrote there is an explicit link among a sustainable infrastructure, development and climate change, and investing in them will yield greater global results but choosing an opposite path, he warned, will lead to economic, social and environmental losses.
The Global Commission on the Economy and Climate report, cited by Polman, estimates that, across man-made and natural infrastructures, the need for investment stands at $90 trillion in the course of the next 15 years – the UN’s deadline for implementation of 2030 Agenda. Two-thirds of that sum has been earmarked for emerging markets, he added.
As with many projects, Polman pointed out that money alone isn’t enough. The report talks about a commitment and an action plan that is based on a partnership of public and private sectors – another prominent buzzword of the SDGs.
“We must tackle price distortions, including fossil fuel subsidies. We must have the right policies and institutions if we want to create the right conditions for investment. That will facilitate investments in clean tech. And, crucially, we must accelerate the greening of the financial system,” Polman suggested.
He wrote that land is a great example of how the international community can manage and invest in a sustainable infrastructure for economic, social and environmental gains. “Its use – and misuse – is at the heart of the challenge for food, fuel and fiber,” he underscored.
Highlighting the interconnectivity of the SDGs – as I wrote in my past two posts – that offer something for everyone, Polman noted that the land issue alone addresses Goal 2 to end hunger, Goal 8 for those who depend on land and forests for their livelihoods, and Goal 15 to protect, restore and promote ecosystems and forests.
“If we know that land is key to a prosperous and equitable future, we also know that our current approach is not sustainable,” he cautioned, alluding to current mistakes.
Polman elaborated that for developing countries land use remains the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, making agriculture a key focus at the United Nations climate change meeting in Marrakesh in November 2016.
“With the right policies and institutions in place, we can fill the $150-250 billion gap needed to restore and conserve agricultural land and forests,” he wrote.
Polman warned that governments have only two to three years to make the right decisions regarding land, forests, cities, energy and transportation because interest rates are currently at record lows, and affordable financing is available and technology is rapidly changing. That means, the advantageous window of opportunity, even for hometown officials, small businesses and civil society, while still open, could suddenly close to the detriment of all.
Polman said this is also a critical time for Unilever, a multinational diversified corporation with interests in food, and similar companies. Its ability to operate in the long run, source water, energy and commodities to produce goods depends on today’s decisions.
“Indeed, the type of infrastructure we choose to invest in today will determine our future for the next decades. We could be locked in to drastically different scenarios, impacting every aspect of our societies and economies, from how we source our energy, food and water, to how we value the environment and the people who depend on it. By investing in sustainable infrastructure we can choose a sustainable future,” Polman explained.
Decisions made today by global organizations and civil society, national governments and hometown officials, and multinational corporations and small businesses will affect sustainability and the lives of humanity and our neighbors for generations to come. There’s an obvious trail of interconnectivity that substantiates my outreach premise: Promote the SDGs, and, in turn, you will promote your NGO or business – and improve the wellbeing of your communities and neighborhoods.
By exhibiting an interest in humanity’s livelihood, humanity will return the favor by exhibiting an interest in elected officials, civil society and big and small businesses.
Unilever has wisely cast its fate on the side of sustainability. There are probably other companies such as Unilever and I’ll bring their stories to you in future posts.

Meanwhile, as you launch your SDG projects and campaigns, promote your efforts via social media. You will build followers and awareness of your valuable work. If you share the information with me, I’ll promote it as well.