We’ve been talking a lot about all the wonderful opportunities social media provides to us for building relationships with our communities. While this is true, usually every icious piece of peanut-buttered toast has the potential of falling sticky side down. peanut-buttered toast, social media can lead us into sticky situations if we toss it…
DetailsWhen is the last time you asked someone who didn’t know your organization to go to your website and try to make a donation? Do it! Why? Because your donate button shouldn’t be as hard to find as the button in the traditional children’s game. It should be easy to spot, on just about every…
DetailsCome gather ’round peopleWherever you roamAnd admit that the watersAround you have grown… It’s true. It’s harder and harder to navigate and stay above water (and to raise a buck). Accept the fact that it’s difficult. Move on. Because we have choices of mediums, it’s tempting to declare one or strategies ‘dead’; therefore,…
DetailsMy last post was about the importance of making a good first impression with potential donors. If you want to keep these folks, it’s equally important to make a good second impression. Sadly, someone who should know better recently blew it with me. And I hesitate to call them out, because as a nonprofit professional…
DetailsA recent Forbes article described ‘5 Ways to Make a Killer First Impression ’ It’s not only prospective employers or on matches who form an instant opinion of you. It’s also true for prospective supporters. We should be dating our donors! Here are the suggested 5 ways to make a positive first impression, with implications…
DetailsI’m pondering the difference between ‘customer service’ and ‘social engagement.’ When we think of the former, we think Marshall Fields and Nordstroms – very early 20th century — the granddaddies of a strong, retail service mo where “the customer is always right.” When we think of the latter, we think decidedly 21st century – social…
DetailsWhat if you don’t write poetry because it’s not black and white and must be interpreted? What if you don’t understand and you’re a straight shooter who doesn’t like ambiguity? What happens when the bleak days of November turn the landscape shades of grey? You feel a dampening, sense a darkening, taste dryness and feel…
DetailsWhen you see an “occupied” sign on a restroom these days, do you think of it differently? Personally, I picture folks camped inside with tents and generators and coing pots and placards. Whatever else the Occupy movement has accomplished, they’ve certainly changed the meaning of the word for all of us. It will never be…
DetailsLast evening I attended a panel, hosted by The Bay Citizen and The Bosmith, about the foodie culture in the San Francisco Bay Area – and beyond. Inevitably, the conversation turned towards the transformative impact social media has had on the foodie movement. With just a simple tweet, hundreds of people can instantly learn where…
Details“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.” Lewis Carroll Communication should have a purpose. We should know where we want to go, and what we hope to get out of all the strategies we’re putting into place. Merely setting a goal for the number of tweets we’ll post…
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