Weekly Clairity Click-it: Marketing, Viral Social Media, Nonprofit Management and Decisionmaking

Click-it!

Here’s this week’s Clairity Click-it, the most intriguing and thought-provoking of the more than 100 articles I seem to read every week – all in an easy-to-“click-it” format with links to posts from an eclectic array of online resources, often sourced from more than one discipline, as I believe we can learn a lot from our colleagues in other sectors.  Of course, I add in a few comments of my own.

Let’s begin:

Marketing

Click-it: Be Significant. This is an awesome cartoon with commentary from the always inspiring and thought-provoking Hugh MacLeod (if you’re not subscribed to receive his daily cartoon, you should be). It’s written for sales and marketing teams, and applies in spades to sustainable fundraising. It’s not sufficient to get that first (usually token) gift. You’ve got to become significant to your donors. I used to always tell my major gifts officers their goal was to get their donors to want to adopt our charity as another one of their children. You take care of your children. True?

Click-it: Magic beans (three steps to a successful marketing promise). Seth Godin reminds us of the keys to effective branding: (1) You must first engage with folks who will be receptive to your offer (reminds me of the fact that I never even noticed there were so many baby supply and children’s clothing stores until I had my own baby – there was absolutely no point in trying to sell to me prior to that event); (2) You must demonstrate a need for what you do (of all the social services agencies out there, why does yours have to stay in business and why should I help make it happen?), and (3) you must actually accomplish what you promise you’ll do (and let supporters know so they’ll share your success with their friends).

Viral Social Media

Click-it: 7 Ways Nonprofits Can Benefit from Facebook Hashtags. John Haydon has to be the world’s expert on using Facebook for nonprofits, and in this post he tells you exactly how to use (and not use) the latest FB innovation. And while you’re on the Socialbrite site where this post is found, also check out What’s good virality for my Facebook Page? It explains how virality is essentially a measurement of your content’s quality, and why you should measure your virality against yourself and not against your competitor.  Check it out!

Nonprofit Management and Decisionmaking

Click-it: Come and Go – Building Experiences, and then Letting them Go. From one of my favorite change of pace blogs, Delivering Happiness, comes this post reminding us that to move forward we must let go. You can take this on a personal or organizational level. I’ve found nonprofits to be notoriously slow at embracing change, yet the world and technology are moving so fast that those who stay in the same place will fall further and further behind. Noteworthy quotes: “We cannot always control what happens, but what we do have control over is how we react to what happens” and “It’s not about not holding on to anything so much as it is about holding on to the right stuff.”

Click-it: 21 Stupid Things You Can Stop Doing [Infographic] This comes from Kivi Leroux Miller, and please don’t miss it.  It hits a lot of nails on the head.  You simply don’t realize how much time you’re wasting and how many resources you’re applying to the wrong things.  It’s all here and, if you’re like me, you’ll feel the shock of recognition when you read this.  My advice: Pick just two of them and begin to do them differently on Monday.  Seriously!  Then report back to us on which ones you choice. Please?

The Clairity Click-it is a weekly publication linking to insights inspired by the 7 Clairification Principles that help you “clairify” your values, stories, branding opportunities, social marketing channels, support constituencies, engagement objectives and resources. Your comments are welcomed!

If you’re interested in worksheets and exercises to help reinvigorate your approach to your work check out my 23-page Special Guide to Unlock Your Nonprofit’s Fundraising Potential which builds on these 7 Clairification Principles.

Photo: Flickr, Isaac Torronterra