What do we want most to sustain our nonprofits? Loyal donors, natch! How do we get them? Oh, that’s simple. We badger them for gifts. When they give, we warehouse them in our database. We then send a form letter (pretending it’s personal because we use their given name and indicate their gift was earmarked…
October 15th marks the one-year anniversary of the community based Occupy movement. Since philanthropy is about creating a caring community, I’m taking a quick break from my current series of posts about boards and fundraising to remind us what we need to do to fully occupy philanthropy and connect with our best donor prospects as…
Jargon is the opposite of constituent-centered writing. You must avoid it because it’s not constituent-centered. I could stop here, but I won’t. Because most of us use jargon all the time without being aware we’re doing so. Why? Because we only know that it’s ‘bad’ and to be avoided. Yet how can one…
Are you confused by all of the “must have” on marketing options? It’s a virtual on storm of choices out there, raining tweets and posts and pes and pins and stumbles. Weathering the storm requires forethought. But armed with the proper rain gear – and these 5 little-known facts — you can happily create a…
has been likened to the shop window of the 21st century when it comes to brand awareness.(Although this analogy came pre-, which arguably is even like window shopping of yore). Just as consumers increasingly research their purchases on to obtain the best deals, so too do prospective donors increasingly research nonprofits on. So…
Just because you’ve always done it one way doesn’t mean you should continue to do so. This week Seth Godin exhorts us to adopt a new paradigm in Strategy Matters More Than Ever. It’s not what you do (the potentially bren thing) but how you do it (the potentially bren process/attitude) that separates winners from…
Embrace the centrality of content marketing to your success; then simply tell stories. Stories draw us in. They make us want to be transported. That’s all there is to it. Duh! I don’t see a lot of articles I wish I’d written, but Why content marketing will make your small business sexy is one of…
Without music, life would be a mistake. – Nietzsche Today I’m thinking about voices. And how we “give voice” to our feelings and values. And how we “voice our objections” and/or our support. And how, together, we can “make beautiful music.” And how, apart, we feel disconnected. When we’re separated from a d one,…
Despite rumors to the contrary, e is still going strong and shows no signs of weakening. Recent data from the Pew Research Center shows it’s the bedrock of on engagement by those 65+, and many of these folks are your major donors. And there are plenty of younger folks who engage via e as well.…
I just returned from a two-week vacation in which I unplugged. Guess what? This crazy planet filled with crazy people kept somersaulting all around the sky. It didn’t stop. There’s no way to stop it. And guess what else? I relaxed. I even got a little bit bored. And that was a good thing.…
Here comes this month’s *SMIT (Single Most Important Thing I have to tell you). Don’t make the mistake of not trying to raise funds on because you keep hearing that the only money being raised there is for disaster relief. First, it’s not true. Second, the exception proves the rule. You may be the exception.…
For years nonprofits have worked from the “inside out” in terms of prioritizing constituencies to target. It was accepted wisdom that effective fundraising was an “inside out” proposition and that we should work our networks beginning with those with the greatest reasons to give (e.g., board members, clients, family and friends). As resources allowed, we’d then…
It can’t all be about ‘push’. We’ve also got to ‘pull.’ Recently I’ve been writing a lot about social media. It’s an important tool for engaging with our supporters. But let’s not forget that what makes technology sing is not the technology; it’s the people behind the technology. Successful technology is about bonds, not bells…
Here’s what folks most enjoyed reading over the last month (plus one special “extra” tidbit): • S’WOT’s Up? The Future, That’s What: Your Crystal Ball for Business Success — How to identify trends, anticipate change and be open to opportunities that will encourage success. This post generated an unprecedented amount of very productive discussion on…
Here comes this month’s *SMIT (Single Most Important Thing I have to tell you). After a month of discussing content marketing, and using a blog as the hub of your marcom strategy, this month I’m channeling a wonderful post from Marketing Profs about Six Content Marketing Opportunities You’re Missing. Thank you Daniel Kuperman! Confession: this…
Hard to ignore, isn’t it? I hate personally*. Never liked it. I abhor their privacy policies; the burden is placed on the user and one has to be vigilant about checking changes made to their settings on a regular basis. They know too much about us too. Plus there’s the fact that it’s so…
First decide on the purpose(s) of your blog. Anyone can have one, but without engaging content and calls to action it’s not going to take you where you want to go. And your purposes should be reader-centric. Purposes that don’t count: Everyone else has one. My boss/board member told me to do it. I like…
Now what? Blogs – and social media of all stripes – are not the end goal. They’re a lot of things. Fun… Annoying… Exciting… Time sucking… Sexy… Leveraging… Awareness creating… Teaching… Seducing… and let’s not forget –Bonding! As discussed in Part I and Part II , they can create relationships like nobody’s business if we…
Are you leading engagement with your tribes? Lots of interesting Q & A during last week’s webinar about blogging our way to increased constituent engagement. Particularly around the relative merits of blogging vs. engaging on and other social media. Our constituents’ agenda is often a quest for meaningful social interaction; a tribal connection. At…
In the webinar I hosted earlier this week I was asked: “Why have a blog if we already have ? With limited staff resources and ability to actually spend time writing one of these, can’t I just have discussions on and generate excitement that way?” Well, sure. You can spend your time creating…
Yesterday I had the opportunity to present a webinar about nonprofit blogging. It was a privilege to connect with 163 registrants on, and to take some time as a community to explore why nonprofits should blog, how we can (1) get started; (2) keep it up, and (3) use our blogs as a hub for…
The #1 reason people don’t give is because they aren’t asked. The #1 reason people aren’t ready to be asked is because they don’t know enough about you, aren’t engaged enough with you, and just don’t keep you top of mind. A blog can help you change all that. Learn why yesterday’s website is today’s…
In Becoming a Futurist Leader, Jill Schumann speaks directly to the reasons I SWOT analyses. They’re all about loing at the present to divine the future. And leaders need their crystal balls to identify trends, anticipate change, and be open to possibilities that will enable them to work effectively and have greater impact. …
Here’s what folks most enjoyed reading over the last month: •10 Things You Can Do on You Haven’t Considered: Don’t Miss the Boats PART 1 – It all starts with determining your goals; then optimizing your use of the site to assure you attain your objectives. •10 Things You Can Do on You…
Make your blog blossom Blogging. This month I’ve talked a lot about it. So, before April showers turn into May flowers, let’s discuss once how we can water our own blogs – either as individuals or businesses – so that they blossom and grow. They’re a great tool, but only if used effectively. Don’t…
Oh, no… don’t get lost! Before we hit “publish” – whether it be a blog post, e-newsletter, on appeal or even a tweet or post – we should have made a list and checked it twice. In other words, we want to make sure we’ve included everything we intended to include. And we want…
has been likened to the shop window of the 21st century when it comes to brand awareness. Just as consumers increasingly research their purchases on to obtain the best deals, so too do prospective donors increasingly research nonprofits on. So how we manage our social networking presence is of prime importance if we want…
Yesterday’s post offered tips one through five, plus 19 steps you can take to work to your business or organization’s advantage. Today we have five tips, plus 11 additional steps. REMEMBER: Before your take your first step determine why you want to use . As with everything else, to paraphrase Lewis Carroll, if…
I was recently asked what I thought of . Is it here to stay? Truthfully, I don’t know. I just started. I do know it’s the fastest growing social medium right now, and it’s easy, it’s popular, it’s visual and it’s pretty powerful. It resonates with the “scrapboing” crowd (i.e., lots of women between the…
celebrated its 6th birthday on the first day of spring, 2012. A year for must be like a “dog year”, because with over 500 million users, it is already the largest one-to-many open communication platform on the web. That’s BIG business. As has matured, it’s a great time to consider ways to…
Of all the killer social media engagement tools out there, none beats the blog. As the song from Disney’s Cinderella claims, it’s “the thingmabob that does the job.” If you’re at all in doubt, check your dubiousness at the door. Businesses that write on their blog regularly receive 55% website visitors and have 437% …
Tried and true fundraising strategies are great. Layering on social media can pump them up and make them better. Think of social media as putting your mother’s fundraising on steroids. Don’t we want to be the best? And it not only makes you stronger; it’s completely legal! Innovation takes us to the next level –…
We must begin to think of our brand as a platform from which all dialogue ensues. It is in this context that content creation and content marketing strategy becomes important. That is, unless you’re Seinfeld, and you think you can succeed in engaging your constituents in a conversation about nothing. It worked brilliantly for him;…
Content curation is one of the new buzz worthy terms you’re hearing a lot about these days. And it’s for good reason. With so much information at the buffet , we need some help figuring out what to select. To pick an ‘object’ and add ‘beauty’ and meaning to it, we need curation from sources…
Is your content pushing up daisies? It should be. That’s the way to grow and blossom. I call it the R.I.P. Content Marketing Strategy: (1) Relevance; (2) Ideas; (3) Plan. [Coincidentally, adhering to these principles should bring peace of mind so that you can rest easy in the knowledge you’re doing the right things (relevance;…
Is your content pushing up daisies? It should be. That’s the way to grow and blossom. I call it the R.I.P. Content Marketing Strategy: (1) Relevance; (2) Ideas; (3) Plan. [Coincidentally, adhering to these principles should bring peace of mind so that you can rest easy in the knowledge you’re doing the right things (relevance; ideas) in the right ways (plan).] So, to mimic Do,Re,Mi from the Sound of Music:
Content is king. What this means is that information is power. A recent webinar by Social Media Today(you may need to register on the site to hear the audio), How Content Marketing is Changing Everything, highlights the challenge for marketers today. We must not only iver the right information, in the right place, at the…
Successful nonprofit development (both fundraising and marketing) is all about persuasion. One of my favorite bos is Daniel Pink’s To Sell is Human. His premise is that we’re all in “sales” on a daily basis. Whether it’s simply trying to get your kids up and out the door in the morning or persuading your boss…
The Case of the Incredibly Shrinking Technology My last post was about e, and how it’s not going away any time soon despite the ascension of social media. We have to do both. In fact, we have to do off as well. Most of us don’t like this fact. We have to work longer…
is still the number one reason people go on. It still commands the highest return on investment of any on media. It’s a much bigger deal than , which has about 860 million users last time I loed. , growing by leaps and bounds, is at about 500 million. has about 3.1 billion…
We’re leaving too much of our audience cold, despite the fact that we now have content plans. Brian Solis of the Altimeter Group bloggedon a new report released by his colleague, Rebecca Lieb, “Content: The New Marketing Equation Why Organizations Must Rebalance.” A principle take-away is that, while we’ve been conscious about creating what…
What do you do when a donor leaves a negative review on , Yelp or ? Do you just chalk it up to one whiny person, ignore it, bury your annoyance and move on? If so, you’re missing an opportunity. You can turn unhappy campers into loyal, repeat campers. Research shows that when customers are…
…and see what tomorrow brings. Sometimes the lights all shinin’ on me; Other times I can barely see Lately it occurs to me what a long, strange trip it’s been. The digital revolution we’re a part of is trippy, for sure. There’s so much we should do, and it’s evolving at the speed of light.…
Listen up. In “No” is not the end of the conversation Chuck English channels the old Dale Carnegie manifesto, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and reminds us of the significance of listening — showing genuine interest in others and encouraging folks to talk about themselves. This has always been the key to success,…
We’re a nation afflicted with remote controlitis. With so many marketing channels from which to choose, we constantly switch from one to the next. We don’t focus as much as we used to, and we’re certainly not loyal to one media over another. First, a moment to define this disease. You suffer from remote controlitis…
Today I have an article in The Bridge discussing the importance of actively embracing strategic donor relationship-building management. Seriously, there is nothing important you can do this year. It’s all about relationships – and it takes some work to build and sustain them. What are you doing to show your donors you know them?…
What is a genius and what does it take to become one in your professional and/or personal life? Let’s toss out the notion that this is about IQ. Thomas Edison famously wrote “Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration.” Simone de Beauvoir wrote “One is not born a genius, one becomes…
We’re seeing a lot of predictions for how fundraising and nonprofit marketing will play out in 2012. They’re all interesting, and merit some consideration and reflection. Today I’m engrossed by a recently released 2012 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report from Kivi LeRoux Miller. It’s worth downloading a , but here are some highlights with a few…
We’re in the era of ‘Big Data.’ The digital revolution has made it so there’s and information that can be acquired and stored. We’ve gotten really good at collecting data. It’s everywhere. But use of data is not. In fact, at the moment less than 0.5% of all data is ever analyzed and…
I’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…