Blogs vs. Facebook for Nonprofits

(My 100th post!)

Over the past few months, I’ve helped a couple nonprofit clients who are ready to move into social media decide whether to go with a blog or Facebook. (I’ll talk about Twitter strategies in a future post. It’s kind of a different animal.)

Most approach it as an either/or decision because of their limited staff resources. That’s a real concern. If you truly don’t have the staff time to blog at least once a week or make a Facebook update twice a week, you shouldn’t be considering either medium.

If you do have adequate staff resources, go back to your strategic communications plan to make this decision. You have to start there—with what you want to happen as a result of your communications efforts. (If you need help with strategic communications planning, here’s the first part of my four-part DIY series.)

Each organization has unique goals and needs, they have to drive your choice. Don’t be seduced into thinking that because everyone’s on Facebook or such-and-such an organization has a blog, that you have to do the same thing. Do it only if it supports your strategic communications goals.

Here are a few hypothetical examples of how different organizations might make this decision. (There are many factors to consider in these decisions, but because these are hypotheticals I’m going to  keep it simple.)

Nonprofit A relies mostly on foundation funding. It’s identified program officers, board members, and executive staff from current and potential funders as its key communications audiences, and the priority goal is to keep those people impressed with and supportive of its work.

Nonprofit B has a very different communications goal. That organization is dependent on individual contributions and volunteers, so it’s crucial to engage, feed, and continuously grow its fan base to keep support levels consistently high.

Nonprofit C has developed a brand that emphasizes knowledge sharing and leadership. One of its priority communications goals is to be recognized by local partners, peers, and other influencers as THE knowledge source on a particular issue.

With limited funds and staff time—where do each of these nonprofits begin branching out to more social media: a blog or Facebook? (For now, let’s assume they have no other social media presence.)

MY ADVICE

Here’s what I’d probably advise.

Nonprofit A–blog

Although Facebook can be a very engaging medium, given the demographics and motivation of senior foundation staff, I’m not sure Facebook is where they will go first to find out about a nonprofit’s work. I’d say, first make your website and email newsletters very compelling for this audience, and work up a series of personal interactions that gets your CEO in front of key members. If you want something more—then consider a blog.

Facebook is fun, but blogs can be more professional and credible sources of information for this particular audience. Once embedded (I recommend embedding blogs in websites in most cases), they also add badly needed dynamism to a website. I also believe that a blog can go farther in advancing your brand than Facebook can—after all you own and control it, not some third party.

Nonprofit B–Facebook

Not only can Facebook help increase the size of your fan base, it can encourage and enable peer-to-peer fundraising and individual contributions to your campaigns and volunteer participation. It’s an exciting interactive medium for cultivating relationships, but do think through the demographics of Facebook before making a commitment. The key here is full integration with your website, email, direct mail, and all other social hubs you eventually develop. Remember, Facebook is one step on a much longer path to lasting engagement. Clearly understand the tactics and media you’re going to use to guide that new Facebook friend down the path. Here are some interesting “onboarding” ideas from a past post.

Nonprofit C–blog

Effective knowledge sharing goes far beyond adding a report PDF to your website. We’re not talking about mere information dissemination. Knowledge sharing involves adding context and meaning. You can’t just give somebody something to read, you have to help them interpret it…and quickly, because no one has very much time these days. While Facebook is great for snippets, links, and photos, a blog gives you more control and space to do that kind of interpretation of information. It also provides comment interactivity, which can lead to new information and refined knowledge.

And for organizations interested in high leadership profiles, recognize there is a difference between popularity and leadership. Facebook leans more toward the former and a blog more toward the latter.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

In general, here are some things to consider when you’re making this decision for your nonprofit.

1. CONTROL  Facebook is owned and controlled by a third-party. It’s policies and practices are in constant flux and have to be kept up with. Branding is limited. Blogs are created, owned, and controlled by you. They can be completely supportive of your brand, and you have more control over the interactivity.

2. CACHET  Although Facebook makes it very easy to share your organization’s activities, accomplishments, and engagement opportunities, it’s not easy to convey your organization’s expertise. Consistently well-written, relevant, thought-provoking blog posts are better at that. If you want a reputation as a thought-leader, go for a blog not Facebook.

3. REACH  Facebook posts last a day or a week, blog posts last forever. You can build up a body of knowledge on a blog that people can use as a resource for years. Also, Facebook posts aren’t easy to share as blog posts, and although Google recognizes Facebook updates/custom tab content now, blog posts are probably going to rank higher on search engines.

Finally…

This doesn’t have to be an either/or choice. If your communications goals match up well with both Facebook’s strengths and a blog’s strengths, and you have enough resources—maybe try both. Just be very clear about what your audiences and objectives are for each medium.

One more thing—if you go with a blog, try to optimize it for mobile!

Late breaking news–today (Oct. 26) IdealWare published the 2nd edition of their free Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide–a fabulous resource that can help your organization make better informed choices about which social media you need most.

Cultivate new supporters fast: A five-week “on-boarding” plan for nonprofits

flickr/benkessler

I’ve already mentioned in past posts Common Knowledge, whose highly useful webinars I regularly take (did I mention most of them are free?). This time I want to share part of a recent CK webinar on building your email list. I may get into that whole topic in another post, but what I want to share here is a brilliant strategy for quickly engaging new supporters who sign up with your cause and nonprofit through Facebook, your website, an email, or other channels that ask for email addresses.

These supporters have taken a huge first step—they’ve responded in some way to your communications and showed an interest in your cause. Now it’s up to you to get them engaged as fast and effectively as you can. CK calls this “on-boarding.”

One way to do that is to set up a rapid cultivation process through email. The example given in the webinar was a from a wildlife protection organization, but this strategy is widely applicable to other nonprofits.

The process kicks in immediately when the supporter gives you his/her email address, and lasts 5 weeks—with two emails sent each week (on Tuesday and Thursday) for a total of 10. Each email is educational and inspiring, with clear yet different calls to action. The whole sequence is structured as a ladder of engagement that creates much more knowledgable supporters and greater potential for their financial support.

The content of this 10-email sequence is all important. This is not just a means to a donation, it’s the opportunity to open the door to a long-term relationship with people who feel as passionately about your cause as you do. If your emails aren’t interesting, substantive, and valuable to your supporters—they’re going to be viewed as a nuisance and people will unsubscribe or not open them at all. (You need to track opens and unsubscribes carefully throughout the five weeks to gauge how successful your email content is. If lots of people keep unsubscribing or not opening throughout the first few weeks, you may have a content problem.)

To give you an example of how this might work, here’s the sequence of emails sent by the wildlife protection organization:

Week 1 Tuesday, welcome &  link to their organizational blog; Thursday, about seals with a link to their seals blog

Week 2 Tuesday, more education about threats to seals and a link to a petition to sign; Thursday, info about whales and a whale quiz

Week 3 Tuesday, info about orangutans and a video about them; Thursday, info about elephants and an audio about them

Week 4 Tuesday, more about elephants and a petition to sign; Thursday, a chance to pick their favorite endangered species and take a survey

Week 5 Tuesday, about bears and a donation appeal (the first, you notice); Thursday, more about bears, and another donation appeal

Again, you need to craft really great emails! This campaign triggered a pretty steady 21% open rate throughout the 5 weeks, which is a good sign that people remained engaged with the content. Compared with new supporters who were just mailed regularly scheduled communications, new supporters exposed to the rapid cultivation process took more actions and made first donations quicker.

And a word to the wise—once you’ve quickly engaged your new supporters, you have to keep them engaged! Be sure to immediately acknowledge their donations with a communication that tells them what their money is going to help you achieve. This 5-week process is only the beginning.You certainly won’t want to continue emailing them twice a weeks, but your long-term engagement strategy should be as thoughtful and effective as your short-term cultivation strategy.

This is a great way to increase your rate of conversion from supporter to activist to donor. Kudos to Common Knowledge for sharing it!

CC photo credit: benkessler

Mobile giving: 4 trends nonprofits should consider

flickr/closari

This is my second post based on information gleaned from a recent Common Knowledge webinar on nonprofit communications trends for 2011. This time the topic is mobile giving.

Many believe that mobile giving reached a tipping point with response to the Haiti crisis last year. This year, it may be poised to grow even more. Nonprofits should think about how they can leverage quickly evolving mobile giving options in their fund raising to make it easier for  supporters to donate. But remember, there are strengths and weaknesses with each option.

Make a habit of reading nonprofit tech blogs to keep up to speed with mobile technology. There’s also a Linkedin group: Mobile Technology for Nonprofit Organizations—a good place to ask questions.

The 4 big trends predicted are—

Text to give goes mainstream

Text to give—texting on a smart phone to pledge money to a nonprofit and paying for that donation as part of your mobile carrier’s phone bill—has definitely gained traction. It’s convenient because it alleviates having to enter credit card information on your phone. Last year, by the weekend after the earthquake, the American Red Cross had raised more than $10 million for Haiti relief through its text-to-give campaign. The limitation right now is that text to give pledges can’t exceed $10-$20 each. That has the potential to cannibalize larger gifts. There are other challenges nonprofits need to consider before adopting text to give, as captured in this Mashable post.

Apps and mobile support credit card giving

Kind of cumbersome on a tiny screen, but the option to type your credit card number into your phone and give securely is getting more prevalent on nonprofit websites and apps. One advantage is that your donation reaches the nonprofit significantly sooner than it would through text-to-give, where the mobile carrier is an intermediary.

Another development related to this is the popularization of QR codes (quick response) on mobile devices. You can create these codes free at several sites online (just search for create free qr codes). These are little square bar codes that can immediately link to a url (for example your Facebook page or a donation form), send a text message, or dial a phone number when you scan them with your phone. Just be aware all links should be to mobile friendly pages. Here’s a great post from Nonprofit Tech 2.0 on 22 creative ways nonprofits can use QR codes. (Update–there’s now research from consumer marketers saying that QR codes are too labor intensive for the vast majority of people. Few really use them.)

Facebook credits

Facebook introduced the concept of its own virtual currency—Facebook credits—last April. They allowed people to buy from $1-$100 worth of these credits to give to their friends for great status updates. This was the first small step toward a more widespread use of this kind of virtual currency by Facebook. Later in the year, two charities accept donations using Facebook credits for their fund raising campaigns. Recently, Facebook made credits mandatory for any gaming transactions. It’s pretty clear that at some point in the near future, Facebook will expand credits throughout the Facebook system (maybe even beyond!). In that case, people may be using credits instead of dollars to donate to a nonprofit through Facebook. (Are you ready?)

The advantage to Facebook is that it will take 30% off the top of many transaction fees. And to keep as much money as possible inside the Facebook system, they’ll also give better terms for trading credits for Facebook advertising than for cash outs. But, at some point, Facebook may also give nonprofits a break on transaction fees. Stay tuned.

Paypal Mobile Express Checkout continues to grow

Just launched last summer, Paypal’s Mobile Express Checkout is in the news because of Starbuck’s new app that lets customers pay by having a QR code on their phone swiped, which uses PayPal’s Mobile Express Checkout. It’s a convenient, safe way to make mobile financial transactions, but it’s not yet clear that the people who support and contribute to nonprofits are the segment of the population with Paypal accounts. Maybe that will change.

Smart mobile devices are an increasingly important platform for interaction with your supporters. Think about ways you can leverage this medium more effectively for fund raising. But don’t just jump on the bandwagon—do your cost/benefit research and make sure whatever option you choose supports your brand and your fund raising strategies. Here’s a good post (from MediaPost) to get you thinking about mobile strategy!

CC photo credit: closari

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Nonprofit video roars into 2011: Here are the trends

flickr/John Biehler

I just took a terrific, free, Common Knowledge webinar on the five big nonprofit communication trends for 2011. It was beyond great; it was inspirational! So thorough and well-grounded in strategy-first. I’m going to be sharing some of the major take-aways in my next couple of posts.

BTW—Common Knowledge hosts a weekly webinar series, usually free. I highly recommend them.

One of the trends that excited me most was the increasingly central role that video will play in nonprofit (and everyone else’s) communications starting this year. Two things are contributing to that fact: Technology’s making it easier to stream video and video production tools are easily accessible, simple to use, and affordable.

In the last several months, mobile devices like smart phones and pads have made huge leaps in their capacity to stream video, and internet providers continued to provide faster wireless services and increased bandwidth. Meanwhile, the flipcam and other small, simple video cams—and easy movie editing software included on most computers—have brought production capabilities to almost anyone. If you don’t have any one on staff who knows how to shoot and edit video, you can easily find someone to do it for you at a reasonable rate.

The big predictions

What’s going to be happening in the nonprofit world with video this year?

• Mobile video breaks out

Greater speed and capacity will have everyone viewing video on their phones or pads.

• Video advertising becomes more popular

Following commercial advertising trends that recognize dynamic is more effective than static, video ads will join SEO and banner ads as ways that nonprofits can cultivate supporters.

• User-generated video content goes mainstream

Your nonprofit isn’t the only one capable of producing video that can advance your organization. Your supporters can—and do—too. They’ll be looking for ways to help you tell your story through this medium. Invite them.

• Marketing video blossoms

Our lingering reliance on text and photos will fade further as nonprofit storytelling makes more and more use of video—a medium (thanks to TV) that everyone’s familiar with and one that humans find very engaging.

Your first steps

If you’ve never done a video before, start now! And probably, start small.

Produce a video in 2011. Take a look at all your communications strategies and objectives this year (and your budgets) and seriously consider which could be better met through a video. There must be at least one opportunity in there somewhere! (Read more about video strategy in my past post on it. Figuring out who you’re trying to reach and why is a critical first step.)

Find a videographer who knows how to shoot, edit, help create a story arc, and do effective interviewing. Work with them on your first production to learn the ropes.(BTW: The rule of thumb for budgeting is about $1,000 for each finished minute of video, but you can pay more if you want a really professional result.) Once you’ve been through the production process a few times, and have gained skills, you may be able to buy a small video camera and do production yourself.

Think in advance how you will use/promote the video, and what ROI you’re after. Will you put it on your website, in an email, on YouTube, on your social networking sites? Also think how the video will integrate with and support your other communications tactics. What response to the video will spell success?

Measure results against the ROI you outlined. By tracking these results, you can get better with each video production you do. You don’t have to be great right off the bat, but you do owe it to your supporters to get better and better.

I leave you with one statistic: Within the next three years, it’s estimated that nearly half of all the information on the internet will be streaming video.

Need any more motivation?

CC photo credit: John Biehler

12 New Year’s resolutions for nonprofit communicators

Flickr/alykat

1.  Spend no less than three hours a week listening online to what’s going on in your field and what’s being said about your organization. This is how you stay in front of the curve. (Be sure to include couple of good tech news blogs in your listening…NTEN, ReadWriteWeb, TheNextWeb.)

2.  Spend five hours in January scanning the web and social media sites of your organization’s main competitors and peers. You need to know what they’re doing.

3.  Attend at least two professional development activities a year in the field of communications, and at least one that will provide a deeper context for the work of your organization. Tune into one free communications webinar a month to keep your skills sharp.

4.  Learn how to use one new free online communications tool (with possible applications to your job) every month.

5.  Earmark serious time in the first quarter to 1) research and understand the needs and desires of your key audiences, and 2) improve your database.

6.  Draft a set of realistic, meaningful, and measurable communications outcomes for 2011. Create a baseline to measure those outcomes against by Jan. 1, 2011.

7.  Every time someone suggests (demands) a new publication, think strategically about other communications channels that might be more effective and cheaper before committing.

8.  Regularly review analytics for all your organization’s enewsletters, social media platforms, and websites to better understand what users value and what deserves more investment.

9.  Design an intentional, one-year “stairway” of communications and activities that lead each of your 2-3 key audiences from initial awareness closer to engagement, loyalty, and support.

10.  Thank people with sincerity at every opportunity, both inside and outside the organization. Don’t forget reporters. Talk in person to every key partner inside your organization once a week.

11.  Learn all you can about mobile—study what other nonprofits are doing in terms of optimization, apps, marketing, etc.  (Also keep your eye on how consumer marketers are using it.)

12.  Embody the values of your organization in every human interaction you have on the job. (actions=brand)

And most of all—while you’re doing all these things—remember your life is bigger than your job. Be kind and have fun!

If you’d like to contribute a resolution for nonprofit communicators, please add it in comments below.

CC photo credit/alykat

The CEO bully pulpit: Commentaries in the digital age

Flickr/southtyrolean

I’ve wanted to post for a while about one of my favorite media tactics for nonprofits and foundations. I guess it’s one of my favorites because I’ve been lucky enough to work with some courageous CEOs and executive directors who were willing to use their stature and credibility in the community to move the needle on social issues—everything from renewable energy to the importance of arts for school children.

I call this media tactic the bully pulpit, and you should only use it if you and your board are comfortable taking a public stand on an issue.

As more foundations and nonprofits understand that information is one of their chief assets, their leaders are using online tools like blogs and twitter to share their knowledge and perspectives with a wider audience. One simple sharing tactic is the submission of opinion editorials or commentaries to online media outlets—both mainstream and niche.

Most mainstream media have robust online websites, and nearly all include invitations for people from the community to submit opinion pieces or commentaries for online publication. Think about the media outlets—and don’t forget the specialty media—that are read by the audiences you’re trying to reach.

First, let me remind you that any tactic has to fit within your larger communications strategy. For instance, if you’re trying to change an issue frame on a particular issue, or bring new information and wisdom to light about a public policy, this tactic may be of use to you. If you’re trying to change public policy, this can work too, but be sure to adhere to nonprofit guidelines about advocacy.

Part one: Placing the commentary

This tactic actually has two parts, both equally important. First, you need to write and place the commentary. That involves five steps:

1) Clarify what you want to change (behavior, policy, awareness) as a result of the commentary and who can actually make that change (your key audiences).

2) Thoughtfully pick which media outlets reach those people and look over those outlets’ submission policies.

3) Think about timing (if you’re submitting more than one, do you want a blitz or a stream? Do you want to tie this to an event?).

4) Write a commentary tailored to each media outlet and the audience it attracts, which includes understanding your main talking points and path of persuasion, as well as the commentary guidelines for each outlet. Most op-eds run between 500-800 words.

5) Submit the piece online, including a brief explanation of who you are. (NOTE: Most outlets can take up to three weeks to publish op-eds. They may ask you for a photo.)

For each of the outlets you think are good matches for you key audiences, take time to read through the last few months of  published op-eds—both from  their editorial staff and members of the community—to get a sense of what kinds of issues and approaches each outlet is interested in. (Also, make sure no one has already written what you’re planning to write.)

Then do a topic search of their news for the past two months on the issue you want to write about. Pay special attention to what they’ve published about this issue in the past two weeks—there may be a news hook for your piece in there. For instance, if you want to write about education, it’s important to know that a new educational achievement report just came out last week—you may want to tie your commentary to that article.

Part two: Targeted recycling

Part two kicks in when the commentary is published. It’s great when visitors to the media website happen to read your piece, but don’t rely on serendipity for getting your key audiences to the website. Let them know once it’s been published through a short email with a link included. Don’t look at the email as a way to toot your own horn, think of it as sharing interesting content with potential readers. (Check to see if the media outlet requires link rights. Sometimes, these articles go offline after a couple of weeks unless you have obtained those rights.)

If you want to get even more personal, get reprint permission rights from the media outlet and send it out to key people with a personal note attached. (Be aware, reprint rights can cost money. Be sure to ask if they offer a nonprofit discount.)

More likely than not, this post-publication recycling of the op-ed is going to be the best way to ensure that those people you really want to see it actually do.

You can use online commentaries to create buzz by submitting different pieces to different media on the same topic in a short period–3-4 weeks. Or you can create a steady stream over a few months, or aim at quarterly placements that keep an issue in front of the public.

If you have any other advice for nonprofit leaders who write commentaries—please share it below!

CC photo credit: southtyrolean

Nonprofits: Become a personal “content” shopper for your audiences

flickr/Somewhat Frank

Content curation isn’t new, even though a lot is being written about it these days. Some nonprofits have been curating content on their websites and blogs for quite a while…maybe without exactly calling it that.

Content curation is filtering, selecting, and/or remixing and reorganizing online content, typically to meet the needs and interests of particular audiences.

Why is this practice valuable? Because none of us has time to comb through the web for the bits we’re most interested in. Think of this service as akin becoming a personal shopper for your audiences—someone who finds the stuff they love and pulls it conveniently together for them, saving them hours, frustration…and 500 bags!

Ever since Clay Shirky’s observation about information overload being a problem not of too much information but of filter failure, folks—including the corporate sector—have begun paying more attention to the crucial role of filtering quality content to serve their customers/supporters. Now that about anyone can publish and the web is rife with information of questionable quality/credibility, this filtering role has taken on even more value.

If you look around, content curation is everywhere—from “10 best restaurant” recommendations to magazine features on sustainable gardening tips to blogs that provide the latest tech news for geeks. Remember, this isn’t just collecting, it’s selecting. Good curation is more than aggregation. Your supporters want you to provide them only with the cream of the crop.

It also involves organization. Using the personal shopper metaphor—you have to decide whether your clients prefer to view outfits (where the shoes, tops, bottoms, etc. are put together by you), functional categories (all the shoes, all the tops, etc.), or everything grouped by color. You want to make it as easy for them as possible to understand what parts of your content they’re going to like the most.

If you want to get more intentional about curation, first become your key audience. Think from their perspective about what information they want and need related to your issue or cause. What will help them make the decisions they face in their lives? What will reward them and make life easier? What will amaze and delight them?

Here are a few examples of blog and website curation that hit the mark. They’re audience-centric, selective, and presented in a way that provides enough information about relevance and significance for viewers to decide what links to click. These examples range from simple lists to broader topical contexts.

• Wild Apricot blog’s monthly list of free webinars well serves their audience of nonprofits interested in technology and social media. Professional development content is very relevant (especially the word FREE). They further help you filter your interests by telling you both the date/times of the events and a bit about the topic, so you can go right to the content that fits your schedule and interests.
• The Nature Conservancy’s Cool Green Science blog curates news and information about conservation and climate change, covering everything from migratory birds to coral reefs and rain forests. They include original content, links to interesting online features, news from around the world, and reader comments. But it all centers on conservation , their core work.
• The National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There blog helps parents think of creative ways to get kids away from their computers and video games to spend time outdoors. They want young people to build a relationship with the natural world that will benefit both the kids and the planet…and develop potential future donors to NWF!
• Another great curatorial site is mnartists.org, an online marketplace for Minnesota artists and a clearinghouse for almost anything art related that’s happening in the state—from competitions to concerts to community events. Because the site’s so good at curating content useful to artists, it’s built a large, active following.

My curatorial aim in tweeting is to share the best resources and advice I find in my daily online reading about nonprofits, communications, and social media. The intended audience is nonprofit communications staff, and my goal is to do some of the heavy “sifting” for them. Organizations can use Facebook the same targeted way. You already know that from all the pages you’ve “liked” that provide you with continuous content related to a favorite book, TV program, movie, celebrity, etc. Even advertising is curated on Facebook.

As repositories of important information, nonprofits and foundations can be great content curators. Not only does their knowledge about their causes allow them to spot the best online resources, but they can also curate their own original information.

For example, does your website categorize your information by type—publications, links, news releases, speeches, video? Why not gather your best resources from those categories on specific topics of interest to your audience? (Few viewers come to your site eager to learn about your publications or news releases, they’ve got a subject in mind.) Put it all in one place for them—and that includes links to your social media channels if they contain relevant information. (Don’t forget the share buttons!) Here’s an example from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation—a news page on multicultural health issues for journalists who write for Latino and African American readerships.

Another way to curate content is to display it by its popularity. You can do this by tracking clicks or by actually opening up your content to “Like.” It may feel risky, but it will be a great source of intelligence (rather than guesswork) about what kinds of content matter most to your audiences. Lots of retail sites have already begun to display their most Liked wares (e.g., Urban Outfitters). In the nonprofit world, Wild Apricot blog does a great job of this—allowing viewers to vote on which content they like best and then highlighting that content each month.

Chances are you’re already doing some kind of content curation on your website, blog, and social media. I hope this post helps bring sharper focus to that practice. It’s crucial expertise to have as the amount of online information grows every day.

CC photo credit: Somewhat Frank

Tactics—Step 4 in strategic communications planning for nonprofits

flickr/popculturegeek

This is the last in my series of posts guiding nonprofits through strategic communications planning. So far, I’ve tried to help you figure out your true communication objectives, your key audiences, and the kinds of messages and interactions that can motivate them.

Now we move to tactics—selecting messengers, communications channels, and timing. Deciding on tactics is usually pretty easy when you’ve done the hard work outlined in the first three posts. As you well know by now, my mantra is spend 80% of your time on strategy and 20% on tactics. You won’t be sorry.

Your messengers

Often, nonprofits—satisfied they’ve figured out what stories and messages their audiences would find motivating—skip an important step: thinking carefully about which messengers pack the most punch. They can be as motivating as the message sometimes.  Here’s a past post of mine that encourages nonprofits to be strategic in picking messengers—including unusual suspects. The only thing I’d add to that post now is that—thanks to social media—your supporters can and will be some of your most important messengers. Take a look at this case study post from Nancy Schwartz about priming them for that job.

Choosing channels

The medium is a messenger too. The channels you pick also influence the audience’s reception and response to your communications. (If all your communication uses one-way channels, that sends your supporters a pretty clear message you’re not very interested in them.) Channels have proliferated like rabbits over the past few years. It’s difficult to keep up with them (and who they are most popular with), but keep up you must. Ways to do that include:

1) follow a few good tech news blogs like NTEN, The Next Web,  Mashable, TechCrunch, and Google’s public sector blog

2) subscribe to the RSS feed of the Nonprofit Marketing Zone, where someone is sure to be covering nonprofit uses of the latest communications tools and channels

3) find and follow blogs that specialize in popular social media channels, like John Haydon who covers the latest developments on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter as they relate to nonprofits. Beth’s Blog is another must follow if you’re trying to keep up with new channels and their nonprofits uses. Think about following good business tech sites, too, like allfacebook and mobilemarketingwatch.

4) check out my del.ici.ous list of free and low-cost communications tools, which I keep adding to all the time

Finally, look over IdealWare’s new The Nonprofit Social Media Decision Guide, a great, research-based report about which new communications channels are best for which kinds of audience and outcomes.

Social media have changed the communications landscape forever, shifting power and stirring new expectations among your audiences. Still, these new channels are just tools—like websites, publications, direct mail, emails, media stories, and old-fashioned letters and telephone calls. Your plan should consider the full breadth of communications tools, their strategic uses and relative costs. Don’t  dismiss the personal touch as old-fashioned. As digital communications become more and more dominant, a handwritten note or telephone call makes a very powerful statement.

In the end, the best channels for you are the ones that are: 1) most popular with the audiences you’re trying to reach, 2) best matched to the objectives of your communications—whether that’s getting a crowd to an event, enlisting volunteers, changing public policy, or raising money; and 3) doable for you, in light of your staff and budget limitations. (That last item is darn important.)

Timing is everything

That old saying holds true for communications planning as well. Even if you have clear objectives, understand your audiences, and use the best messengers and channels—timing your communications flow is key to success.

What you’re after is a steady, even stream of communications using multiple channels. (This is general advice; the specific preferences of your audiences are always the determining factors.) Timing is a delicate balance, you don’t want to be seen as a spammer or a nuisance, but you don’t want them to forget you. You probably  don’t want three communications to arrive one month and none for the next two. Nor do you want to wait until your end-of-the-year fund raising to communicate. If you can, keep up the drumbeat all year and please, don’t make every communication an “ask” (not even every other communication).

Channel integration is a critical part of timing. The more they hear from you in a variety of channels (that are popular with them)—the more they’ll remember you and have a chance to interact with or respond to your communications. Just be sure to think through how each of those channels can reinforce the others in your tactical flow.

Message integration is also important. Think about your annual communications plan as a building wave that moves your audiences closer to you and closer to action. Within that big wave there are smaller waves that add momentum. You can create an engagement path for them month by month. And you can choreograph those little waves to resonate with their shifting interests throughout the year. What messages and information might be most resonant in January—after the holidays at the beginning of a new year? What would they be most interested in as spring approaches or as the school year starts? Look how retailers shamelessly leap from one holiday to the next in their promotions. Don’t emulate them! But learn from them—they are tuning into the shifting interests of consumers throughout the year.

Once you have a tactical plan for the year, don’t get so married to it that you miss late-breaking opportunities to tie your communications to news happenings. But try not to overuse these or they can lose their punch.

Start now

Late summer is a great time to start your 2011 strategic communications plan. I know the temptation (and pressure) is for nonprofits to go into full fund-raising mode in the last two quarters, but get out of the trenches long enough to take in the long view. Devote adequate time to planning next year’s strategy and budget. You will be so grateful in January.

I didn’t want to end this series without pointing you toward two other helpful resources—The SPIN Project’s Strategic Communications Planning guide (pdf) and Nancy Schwartz’s nifty Nonprofit Marketing Plan template.

Lastly, thanks for your patience. I realize it’s taken me a while to finish up this series. I hope you find it useful!

Earlier posts in this series:

Strategic communications planning for nonprofits: Step Three—Audience research and messages

DIY stratetgic communications planning for nonprofits: Step Two—Key audiences

DIY strategic communications planning for nonprofits: Step One—Objectives

Creative Commons photo: popculturegeek

The Empty Package–Nonprofits, Social Media, and Content Strategy

flickr/minxlj

I’m delighted to see recent data about the nonprofit sector’s leadership in adopting social media.

I’m also a little worried.

We’re all familiar with the knock-out Facebook pages, Twitter streams, flickr albums, and YouTube channels of large nonprofits who have become models in the use of social media to grow and engage supporters. I love keeping track of what they’re doing…thanks in part to Beth Kanter and others who share these organizations’ experiments and growing wisdom with us.

But I see a slew of other nonprofit social sites that remind me of empty packages. They can be beautifully wrapped sometimes—with great visual branding. But once you get beyond appearance to substance, there’s no meat, no content strategy. They’ve jumped onto the social media bandwagon without much of a plan.

Content freshness is a well known value by now; most organizations try to tweet and update often. And some of the pages look great. My concern is that there’s often so little evidence of a content strategy. Much of the time, it’s impossible from reading the content to know who the intended audience is or what the purpose of the communication is. That’s a bad sign. It tells me they’ve focused on paper and ribbons, and not the gift inside.

For example:

Twitbook

So many Facebook pages regurgitate Twitter streams, and vice versa. (Also true for blogs and FB.) That’s time-efficient for the administrator, but it can be a turn-off for your followers to find the same things in both places. Twitter, Facebook, and blogs are different tools with different strengths and uses. Think through your strategy for each of them, because they aren’t interchangeable. Maybe, for your organization, they should even be aimed at different audience segments.

My, me, mine

I run across a dozen Facebook pages a day that are simply a series of updates by the organization about its own news and activities. Even with clever text and good photos, those updates read like a PR newswire. There’s certainly a place for some of your own news on your Facebook page, but this medium is about conversation and community. If someone talks about themselves all the time, it’s not a conversation (in fact, it’s boring). Having 4,000 followers and no comments or posts from anyone else isn’t a genuine community or a successful Facebook page. Engagement is what you’re after.

Willy Loman lives

Too many nonprofits still try to use social media as a selling  instrument. They look at these communication channels as one more place they can tell you how important they are and what kind of impact they have–in hopes you’ll donate or volunteer. That selling approach—even if it’s done well—isn’t appropriate for social media. Use it on your direct mail, maybe even on your website donation page, but not on Facebook and Twitter. Social media require a service mentality, not a sales mentality. You really have to care about helping your followers in some way—making life easier for them, solving their problems, getting them where they want to go, helping them feel good. This is not to say these tools can’t be used at some point to help raise funds, but build your community first—and build it honestly. As one strategy guru said recently about content—”It’s not what you sell. It’s what you stand for.” (You know all those lofty values your organization shares on your website? You should be living them out through your social media.)

Cha-ching cha-ching

Many nonprofit Facebook pages are geared toward fund-raising, with donate widgets everywhere, sometimes in two or three places on the landing page. That might work well for websites, but social media aren’t websites. Lots of Facebook group pages and other pages are exclusively aimed at raising money for short-term crises and projects—I’m not really addressing those. I’m talking about organizational pages that are seeking to get more engaged followers, to build online communities. Maybe you don’t need a “give” message on every single social channel. Shouldn’t there be more places and occasions when you aren’t asking your followers and friends for something, but offering them something? Like the most relevant and significant content?

Nonprofits should heed the movement toward content marketing in the for-profit sector—where companies are starting to understand that telling people how important their brand/product is isn’t as effective as actually being important to them. So, instead of shouting out product benefits, they’re starting to create and curate social media, email, and web content that explicitly meets their customer’s wants and needs. There’s purpose behind every piece of content they put out there. They’re building stronger brand loyalty by letting their customers help drive that content.

I’m not suggesting that nonprofits turn to content marketing—but that they come up with a more disciplined strategy for their social media content. Content is your most powerful reader engagement tool! You can’t afford to randomly slap up photos, updates, videos, and tweets. You can’t just talk about yourself, you have to bring your friends and followers into the conversation. You can’t aim at everybody, you have to know who you’re trying to reach and why. You can’t expect followers to do something for you, at least until you’ve done something for them (and more than once).

Think about the purpose of what you’re tweeting, posting, and updating. This is not to say everything has to be deadly serious or a version of your organization’s key messages–but you should know why you’re sharing a piece of content and what outcomes you’re hoping for from which audiences.

I’m going to close with a great content strategy example.

The nonprofit blogger John Haydon has started a Facebook page that does only one thing—answers people’s questions about Facebook. It doesn’t promote his consulting services—it embodies them. There are no self-promotional ads or come-ons—he simply shares his considerable insights about how to use Facebook by answering questions his friends ask. (He brands himself as The Facebook Guy, which even takes his name out of the equation yet creates a well defined niche.) Even more—the content is personalized. His answers help one person at a time solve real problems.

What’s not to love? John has combined two of the most powerful friend engagement strategies out there—content marketing and personalization. You have seen the future.

My next post will be about the potential of content curation for nonprofits. (No, I don’t believe “Curation is king.” But it can be part of your overall content strategy for websites, blogs, and social media.)

PS: I will also soon wrap up the final installment of the strategic planning for nonprofits series from earlier this year. Thanks for your patience!

CC photo credit/minxlj

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Strategic Communications Planning for Nonprofits—Step Three: Audience research and messages

Flickr/3fold

Now that you know who your key audiences are and what you want them to do—it’s time to take a closer look at what kind of experiences and communications motivate them. Step three in the communications process—what do they need from you?

What kinds of communication can you generate that will involve them in your cause and lead to them taking the desired action? It’s not about broadcasting one-way messages, then sitting back and waiting for results. Trying to manipulate people through messages doesn’t work—we’re all too jaded from advertising.

In the not-to-distant past, most communicators thought of messages like packages. You wrapped the package as beautifully as possible, stuffed it with carefully honed messages, and sent it off to the right people. That’s no longer enough.

Today, look at your communications like seeds. You plant them, hopefully in the right soil at the right time, but that’s only the beginning. If relationships sprout, you need to nurture them over time…paying attention to problems and opportunities that affect them and trying to be of genuine service. That’s how your messages and interactions can grow into actions that benefit your organization and the world.

So, how do you figure out all this stuff about your key audiences: what stories they need to hear about your cause, what kinds of experiences they pursue and value, what their preferences are, what motivates them, and what turns them off?

You do research—either directly with audience members (surveys, interviews, or focus groups) or through online resources (like those listed below) that can help you draw a more generalized picture of your target markets.

The internet is a wonderland of free, DIY audience research tools. It takes some time to unearth what you need, but it’s essential that you understand as much about the people you’re trying to recruit as followers, activists, or donors as you possibly can. This is a step that nonprofits too often skip. My advice–don’t. You might have been able to get away without audience research in the old communications paradigm, but not in the new social media paradigm where authentic relationships rule. To serve people well, you have to first understand them.

Why don’t many nonprofits bother with audience research? It’s easier for staff members to assume their own preferences and beliefs mirror those of their key audiences. Most of the time, that’s not true. Unless the demographics, psychographics, and now sociographics of your staff are identical to your key audiences, you need to do research. You need to find out what they value and support, how they prefer to communicate, what sources they find most credible, and what they think about your organization and cause. You also need to find out where they already are online. (Go where they are, don’t just ask them to find your website–it’s called “in-reach.”)

One useful way to build a better understanding of your major audiences is to create written “personas” for each one, describing them like they are individuals. Here’s a guide from Nancy Schwartz on how to create and use personas in your communications.

And here are some great places to start researching your key audiences online.

• This lifespan grid from Cultural Studies & Analysis can be a big help in writing personas.
• Quantcast is a free tool that can help you start to understand the geographic, demographic, and lifestyle profiles of your current website traffic. Just put your website address in the box, and voila—you see who’s already interested in your organization…age, gender, location, affinities, etc.
• Forrester’s Groundswell Project site offer a free social technographics profile that you build by filling in three pieces of information for each of your audiences: age, country, and gender. You then get a bar graph showing you the percentage of that audience that engages in six levels of interaction with social media technology. Based on 2009 research data, this is a good first step to understanding how receptive your audiences are to social technologies.
• Another resource for technographics/sociographics is the ongoing series of reports issued by Pew Research Center as part of the Pew Internet and American Life project. You can quickly gain insight into usage of the internet and individual social media tools (like Twitter and Facebook) from Pew’s statistics and infographics.
• Steve Cebalt’s ebook is more broadly focused on all kinds of communications research that nonprofits with small (or no) budgets can undertake. But I encourage you to look it over—it’s full of good tips, especially if you’re interested in doing your own research, like online surveys, to find out the interests and preferences of your audience directly from its members.
• Likewise, Free Range Studio’s “Know Thy Audience” whitepaper focuses on surveys and focus groups, but also contains great info on how to decide what questions you need to answer about your audiences.
• To find out what people are thinking about your organization, track online mentions of your organization’s name, the names of your top executives and flagship projects through google alerts, and in social media through the free tool Social Mention, which includes Twitter and Facebook.
• Scan my post “10 free ways to get to know your key audiences better” for other ideas, some of which can be built into your routine operations.

Once you feel you have a good understanding of each of your major audiences—you’re in a much better place to think about what kind of communications they’re going to find most motivating. Recall your action goals for each audience. Now brainstorm what kinds of issue frames, stories, and messages would resonate most effectively with each audience—taking into account all you’ve learned about them.

In messaging—often one size does not fit all. For example, if you’re working in the field of community development, political leaders may not need to hear the same story that foundations need to hear. One may resonate more with long-term regional resource conservation and the other with the uplift of neighborhood residents. Likewise, in environmental advocacy, suburban moms may need to hear a slightly different story than rural landowners to help them understand the urgency of land protection. In youth development, parents may need to hear about the consequences of ignoring critical brain architecture development in their teen children, while legislators may need to hear stories that convey lost potential to a state workforce.

One important caveat—don’t segment the message so much that one of your messages contradicts others, or is inappropriate for your other key or general audiences. All your communications should dovetail and reinforce each other, even if they have slightly different emphases.

By the way, although few of you may have the luxury of testing your best guesses about frames, stories, and messages with your target audiences—if an opportunity arises, grab it. It can save you money and time.

As we move to my next post—choosing messengers—you should already have figured out as part of your strategic communications plan:

1. the concrete changes you want to make in the world,
2. which audiences can drive those changes most powerfully,
3. exactly what actions you want your key audiences to take,
4. what the characteristics of each of those key audiences are, and
5. what frames, stories, and messages they will be most receptive to.

You are definitely past the hump! The rest is fun…

Here are links to my first two posts in this series, if you missed them.

Step 1: What do you want to happen

Step 2: Key Audiences

CC photo credit: 3fold

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