Boosting Your Outreach: September 2017

Thursday, September 21, 2017

Another Example of Twitter’s Effectiveness as Outreach Tool

Are there any more “doubting Thomases” about Twitter’s effectiveness as an outreach tool for non-profits and small businesses?

I have written on this topic in several Boosting Your Outreach blogs. Tweeting and social media are powerful marketing tools that shouldn’t be left in the hands of frivolous youth. Social media allow business owners and civil society advocates to make contact with customers and stakeholders. And, most importantly, in many cases you can expect a reply or reaction even from a large entity.

Here’s another example.

A couple of weeks ago, while out for a brisk morning walk, I spotted a tattered American flag fluttering in the wind outside a local Burger King. I was annoyed. Why was Burger King disrespecting Old Glory?

So I took a photo and composed a terse tweet about what I saw.

On September 11 I tweeted: Burger King should teach store managers to respect Stars & Stripes and not display torn flags. Palisade Ave @CliffsidePark @BurgerKing

I used the appropriate Twitter handles “@” for the town and the fast food restaurant so that my tweet gets as many as possible views. I included my photo of the flag.

A little more than a week later I was pleased to see that a clean, new flag replaced the tattered one. I decided to compose another tweet about the correction not only to express my thanks to Burger King but also to spur a conversation and create a sense of community. My latter considerations are key goals of tweeting.

On September 20 I tweeted: Notes by @Twitter work. Earlier I tweeted pix of torn US flag by @BurgerKing in @CliffsidePark NJ. BK read msg and raised new one. Thanks.

Again, I used the appropriate Twitter handles to attract followers of Burger King and Cliffside Park. I also thanked the restaurant chain for heeding my message.

Start a Twitter campaign about your small business or NGO. You can’t lose. But you can surely succeed. You’ll need to practice writing composition to get your message and targets, Twitter handles and hashtags within the 140-character limit.

Photo on the left shows the torn flag and the one on the right, the new flag.

How will you use tweeting?

Join the conversation in cyberspace about boosting your business and outreach by using Twitter and social media and let me know your impressions. If you have examples of how you tweeted to boost outreach, let me know about it and I’ll help you spread the word about your success.

Something for Free

I recently found a list of 199 amazing free or cheap online tools for nonprofits – and perhaps small businesses – from Wildapricot.com. Take a look and see if they can help your organization.

https://www.wildapricot.com/articles/199-free-or-cheap-online-nonprofit-tools

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

http://thoughtleadership.yolasite.com/

If you’re looking for advice on recruiting, company handbooks and other human resources topics, I’d like to suggest to you this interesting website:

http://hrtiebreaker.yolasite.com/

Scroll down on the Boosting Your Outreach blogsite to read or reread older posts.

Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Texting is also a Useful Business Instrument

In the past, I have written that social media is a powerful tool that shouldn’t be relegated to adolescent whims. Small business owners and non-governmental organizations can and should use them according to their needs.

Another so-called teenage cyber toy that fits this category is texting. Youth is incessantly texting quickly regardless of what else is happening around them. Texting is also an advantageous business tool. However, there are so dos and don’ts.

Business or official texting is just what it sounds like. It’s texting as a business or a non-profit, as one cohesive unit. It’s like texting your friends and family members but with your organization built for an office.

Business owners and NGO leaders will probably use a computer more than a phone for business texting, mostly because you’re probably sitting at a desk when you’re at work. The computer’s also easier to use for the average business owner or civic activist.

The communications tools at your disposal include company phone, company email and company text number. And you’ve assigned one person to monitor all three tools.

Since everyone is texting, businesses and NGOs should also text on behalf of their companies.

“As long as actual humans are manning text conversations – just like you would normally text with anyone – then you’re good to go,” according to Kenneth Burke of TextRequest.com.

We’ave gotten so used to the concept of texting that your customers, members or stakeholders would rather text than call.

Burke further observed: “Nobody wants to be left on hold. As of a couple years ago, 89% of consumers wanted another customer service option. Most people these days don’t answer phone calls. And people respond to texts in about 90 seconds, on average.”

For many of us, business texting is a welcome option. While we and our associates won’t drop other forms of communication, Burke continued, “Reports show that people enjoy having it as an option, whether they need to reach a business or the business needs to reach them.”

Furthermore, due to the high rate of response, your return on investment in a texting system is quite high.

Texting, a very flexible tool, can be used to communicate with another person, business associate, civic leader, team, employee, client, sympathizer, elected official or stakeholder. You can text one person or you can create groups for multiple recipients.

Its most powerful use is the “push” concept of driving your audience and followers to your websites for new and updated information about your activities in order to boost your outreach.

Here’s a short list of what small businesses and NGOs can use business texting for:

Generating leads
Boosting mobile engagement
Following up with leads
Customer service and support
Closing sales
Confirmations
Internal / employee communications
Collections and accounts receivable
Scheduling, rescheduling, and confirming appointments
Check-ins (sales, customer success, etc.)
Membership solicitations or renewals
Meeting announcements or rallies
Fundraising campaigns
Website updates
New blog posts
New civil initiatives and projects
Reactions and replies to common issues
Initiate a conversation with clients and stakeholders