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:
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
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