September 30, 2009
As a nonprofit, you understand the importance of fundraising. And in today’s economy, raising money may be harder than ever. So should you use social media primarily as a means to bring in the bucks?
In my opinion, that’s a recipe for disaster and before long no one will be following your blog, your Facebook page, or your YouTube account. Imagine if you saw a friend at a party. How would you feel if every time you talked, he was always saying the same thing (or hitting you up for cash). Before long, you’d be trying to get away from that person.
Think of social media as less of a way to bring in donations and more of a way to build the relationship between you and your agency. The stronger ties are what can lead to first time gifts and larger donations. Mostly you want to pass on information about your nonprofit, in bite sized chunks, to your supporters. Tell them about your successes, your goals, and how they can become more involved with your agency. Train your readers to expect to learn something new about you every time you post something new. This trust will assure them that you’re not just after their wallets.
You can do things like make a case for funding for a specific need and then end the message asking for cash. So at least the message is still informative. But I would say out of every 12 messages you post, only have one of them asking for money.
If you’re sharing good information and engaging your supporters, you may find that you’ll need to do less asking for gifts than you ever imagined.
Additional Resources:
Leave a Comment » | 
blog, nonprofit fundraising, social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Social Media for nonprofits who want to use twitter, youtube and facebook, youtube | Tagged: blog, facebook, nonprofit, nonprofit communication, nonprofit marketing, Social Media for nonprofits, youtube | 
Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
September 28, 2009
Stumped for ideas about your nonprofit blog? Why not use a post to discuss your organization’s mission. Tell me why you do what you do.
So many organizations have a mission statement but they never share it with their donors or explain it in depth. Let your supporters know how you play an important role in your community. How are you different than all of the other nonprofits?
While it may seem a bit like bragging, it’s very important to share these things with your donors. It will make them feel good to support your mission. In today’s economy, you can’t be shy about showing that your agency is making a difference in your community.
Additional Resources:
Leave a Comment » | blog, nonprofit fundraising, social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Uncategorized | Tagged: blog, blog ideas, communication, in this economy, ken okel, nonprofit, nonprofit communication, youtube | Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
September 23, 2009
Social media may not be finger lickin’ good but it’s meant to be passed around as you would a bucket of chicken around the dinner table. The idea is that you want people to share your information with others.
One of the easiest ways to do this is to simply tell people to feel free to pass on your messages or links to them to their friends. It’s funny but for some reason a lot of people won’t do this if you don’t say that it’s fine to do.
It’s all about using your presence on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to reach current friends and perhaps generate some new ones. When a friend forwards something to me I’ll probably take a look at it. It’s a passive way to do some online marketing. In this economy, it can be a great way to connect with people.
Additional Resources:
Leave a Comment » | blog, nonprofit fundraising, social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Social Media for nonprofits who want to use twitter, youtube and facebook | Tagged: communication, facebook, in this economy, ken okel, nonprofit, nonprofit communication, Social Media for nonprofits, twitter, youtube | Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
September 22, 2009
If you’re still unsure whether you should move your nonprofit into the world of social media, look to those who are already doing it for inspiration. Go to sites like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook and search for nonprofits that are similar to yours. See what they’re doing online.
Can your organization duplicate their efforts? By duplicate, I don’t mean copy or rip off. But rather, can you walk a similar path to those who are a little ahead of you?
If you’re really impressed with an agency, give them a call and see if they can outline the amount of time and effort that goes into their social networking strategy. What’s been the return on their investment in terms of engagement or an increase in donations? The answers you receive should give you a much better idea if social media is a good fit for your nonprofit.
Additional Resources:
Leave a Comment » | nonprofit fundraising, social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Social Media for nonprofits who want to use twitter, youtube and facebook, Uncategorized, youtube | Tagged: communication, facebook, ken okel, marketing, nonprofit communication, nonprofit marketing, Social Media for nonprofits, social networking, twitter, youtube | Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
September 20, 2009
Does your nonprofit offer a service that you want people to know about? In the past you may have relied on an expensive advertisement in the Yellow Pages to get your message out. Now, fewer and fewer people rely on the phone book, so what can you do to reach your target audience? This is important, especially if they don’t know what you do.
In today’s economy, when people want to look for things, they use search engines like Google. Social media can give your organization a bigger footprint online and make it easier for you to be found. This is a major perk of social networking. Part of this is done through something called, tags. These are words that you can add to places like a blog post or a YouTube video. There’s usually a small box where you can enter these words. You want to think about words that describe what you do as well as phrases that people might search for.
Let’s say your nonprofit at offers child care services, including after school art programs. You’d want, in a YouTube video about a display of your student’s artwork, to use tags like: child care, safe place for kids, after school programs, art, artwork for kids. You would also want to include information like your city and your organization’s name. Now if someone, Googles, something like, “art program for kids in Miami,” then you’ll appear in the search results.
You may already be doing this through your website but having additional platforms to help promote your services will likely increase your search rankings. You may also want to see who comes up ahead of you in a search. What is your competition doing, in terms of social media marketing, that you’re not?
Additional Resources:
Leave a Comment » | blog, nonprofit fundraising, social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Social Media for nonprofits who want to use twitter, youtube and facebook, Uncategorized, youtube | Tagged: communication, facebook, in this economy, ken okel, marketing, nonprofit, nonprofit communication, nonprofit marketing, Social Media for nonprofits, social media strategy, social networking, youtube, youtube ideas | Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
September 16, 2009
As we’ve discussed in the past, with Twitter, you only have 120 characters to get your message out to your supporters. In our last post, I discussed the importance of ReTweeting, which means that you forward someone’s message to another Twitter subscriber. They then can pass it on even further.
Imagine that you’re in charge of a food drive. You could do a post about how you need canned goods. Having it passed on by so many could be a very effective way to collect a lot of food.
But there’s something you have to remember and when I heard this explained to me the other day, I almost fell out of my chair because it seemed so obvious: Make sure your original message is only about 120 characters long. Why? Because the remaining spaces are needed for people to ReTweet your message properly. If you don’t keep the size around 120, then when they try to pass it on, some of your message will get cut out. That could include some critical info about your nonprofit, like where you want people to drop off their canned goods.
I guess this is an example of where less (characters) is more (impact.)
Additional Resources:
Twitter and Nonprofits
Leave a Comment » | social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Social Media for nonprofits who want to use twitter, youtube and facebook | Tagged: ken okel, nonprofit communication, Social Media for nonprofits, twitter | Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
September 14, 2009
A Retweet is something you do on Twitter. It’s simply a way to pass on someone else’s Twitter post. While your nonprofit may not do much of this, you’ll hope that others will pass on your Tweets to their network. Imagine if you need to get the word out on a problem. Twitter is great way to reach a lot of people fast.
To Retweet
-
Copy and paste the message you like into your Twitter stream: End hunger by supporting the XYZ food drive next week.
-
Then add the letters, RT, followed by the “@” symbol and the post’s creator’s Twitter name: RT @KenOkel: End hunger by supporting the XYZ food drive next week.
It’s considered poor form to forward a Tweet without giving the creator credit for it.
Next time, we’ll talk about a mistake a lot of people make that makes it impossible for their messages to be ReTweeted.
Additional Resources:
Twitter & Nonprofits
A Great Tool For Shortening Links
Writing for Twitter
4 Comments | social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Social Media for nonprofits who want to use twitter, youtube and facebook, Uncategorized | Tagged: nonprofit communication, retweet, RT, Social Media for nonprofits, twitter | Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
September 9, 2009
Social media sites like blogs, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter can help direct more people to your website, which is a great thing for a nonprofit. Are you curious about how much traffic is coming your way or the overall effectiveness of your website?
In the past, this kind of analysis would have cost you a good amount of money. Now you can get it for free through a website called, website grader.
It’s very easy to use. Go to the site and enter your web address. You’ll soon receive a rating and detailed report behind that rating. You’ll learn everything from how well your site stacks up against the rest of the web to the readability level of your site (Guess what? You don’t want that to be too high.). You can also look up your competition and see what they’re doing right or wrong.
This is an investment of a few minutes that could really help your online presence.
Additional Resources:
Leave a Comment » | blog, nonprofit fundraising, social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Social Media for nonprofits who want to use twitter, youtube and facebook, youtube | Tagged: facebook, ken okel, nonprofit, nonprofit communication, nonprofit marketing, Social Media for nonprofits, twitter, youtube | Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
September 2, 2009
I love social media and for me it’s the coolest thing since sliced bread. But for some nonprofits, their experiences with Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube tastes more like moldy bread. What went wrong? Usually the organization tried to use social networking, didn’t know what it was doing, and gave it up after a few frustrating weeks.
Here are some things to keep in mind before you start your online existence. If you can’t make these commitments, then I think you may want to rethink your social media strategy.
Time: Do you have a staff person who can make a regular contribution to your social media plans? Do they have a backup for when they’re out of town and sick? Really consider how much staff time you can afford to designate toward this project.
Vision: Do you have a clear idea of what you want to get out of social media? Define your goals and then make sure that you’re working toward achieving them. It’s possible to stay very busy but not achieve anything.
Commitment: In the nonprofit world, a lot of unexpected curve balls can be thrown your way. If things get busy, will social media take a backseat? If you’re going to start using social media, you need to stick with it. Simply doing it for a week and then not touching it for a month will not help you build stronger relationships with your donors.
Additional Resources:
Leave a Comment » | blog, nonprofit fundraising, social marketing, social media, Social Media for nonprofits, Social Media for nonprofits who want to use twitter, youtube and facebook, youtube | Tagged: blog, communication, facebook, is social media a waste of time?, ken okel, marketing, nonprofit, nonprofit communication, Social Media for nonprofits, social media strategy, social networking, twitter, youtube | Permalink
Posted by Ken Okel
