I keep hearing about nonprofits that are struggling with social media. You’re job is hard enough without not knowing how to use these free and powerful tools.
I want to offer you the opportunity to pick my brain for 30 minutes. We’ll talk through Skype or over the phone and you can ask me whatever you like about social media. This is a chance for you to learn. I won’t be selling anything. It’s all about helping you.
In my career, I’ve benefited from the wisdom and generosity of others and I want to continue the tradition.
Contact me to set up your call. I’ll take the first five to sign up.
It’s a tough time for nonprofits and I want to pass on some marketing advice. Follow this link to read a two part article that will change the way you think of potential supporters of your organization. While the it was written for the sales world, you’ll find a ton of applications for the nonprofit world.
Nowadays you have to be strategic. Let me know what you think.
Several studies have found that you have less than 10 seconds to capture a visitor’s attention on your hompage. So despite the fact that you’ve designed a wonderful website, they may never see anything more than the homepage. How do you get them to stick around and look around? Embed a welcome video on your homepage.
This is easy to do with YouTube. The video doesn’t have to be long. In fact, it can be better if it’s less than 30 seconds. Welcome people, put a face on your organization, and tell them a quick fact or two. That’s all you need to do. Click here to see an example of this kind of welcome video from my speaking website.
In the past I’ve talked about how nonprofits can get terrific exposure by having a Facebook fan page. Facebook is one of the most popular websites in the world. Doesn’t it make sense to associate your organization with it? Remember people are much more likely to see your updates on Facebook than on your website.
I Facebook "Like" You!
With that in mind, in the past you wanted people to become, “fans,” of your page on Facebook. But now things are slightly different. Facebook has switched out being a “fan” with “liking” a page. So you need to tell people who might want to join your Facebook presence to click the “like” button.
Facebook likes to make these occasional tweaks to its system even though they sometimes seem to be change for changes sake. Nevertheless, Facebook is a great platform for connecting with your followers.
You’ve probably heard about blogging but may not know how to get started. It’s an important and free social media tool that you need to use.
With the downsizing of the media, you’re going to have a much harder time getting coverage of your organization. Doesn’t it make sense to control your message and make sure it’s being heard by your supporters?
If it’s important to you to get a good return on investment of your time, then you need to invest in the presentation below. You’ll find out how to get started, how blogs can be multi-media platform, and how often you should be blogging.
Click on this picture to be taken to the online presentation.
Your nonprofit has spent a lot of time putting together a video about your agency. In most cases these run about five to six minutes in length. You’ve put it up on YouTube, which is a great social media tool. Maybe you’ve even embedded it your website. But then you stop. In this case you’re not getting as much as you can out of your video.
I’m guessing that your video is composed of several sections. Why not make each of these chapters into their own clips. So out of a 5 minute video, you might get four or five clips.
People consume information differently online. Some may not have the patience to watch a five minute video. But they will watch clips that are about a minute or two in length. Think of it like a restaurant that offers a lunch and a dinner portion of an entree. It’s the same food but it’s just presented in a different way.
In some cases, you’ll need to edit a slide to come before the video that can help set it up. Maybe in the big video, one segment is about mentoring. Pull that out and create an open that says something like, “mentoring minute.” Just a little bit of editing allows you to dramatically increase your video footprint.
Small and large videos should both be used and featured in your website. Maybe the big one goes on your home page and the smaller clips should be posted near the related programs.
Remember that social media marketing is not an exact copy of print marketing. Make sure that on your website or blog, you are limiting the number of words that you use. Pictures and video can sometimes say a lot more than just words.
Recently, on my speaking website I removed some copy and replaced it with a short, 38 second video. The goal was to create a short welcome that would also lay out the purpose of the website and my speaking business.
Through YouTube, I’ll be able to track the number of times people have watched it. I think the home page of the site now looks a bit more dynamic with the clip and also make the reader not shake in horror at having to read a lot of copy. Depending on the results, I may create a brief video for some of the other pages, that would give the basics about what the page is about.
YouTube is a free tool and embedding a video can improve the look and “readability” of your website.
Just about every child wants a puppy. Him or her dreams of bringing the pet home, having a great time, and fulfilling all of the responsibilities that comes with having an animal. Frequently that dream doesn’t turn into reality. After a few weeks, the excitement of having a pet wears off and then someone else has to take care of the pooch. And sometimes that means the animal doesn’t get the amount of love and attention it deserves.
For many nonprofits, social media is a puppy. Everyone is excited about Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter at first but once the “newness” of it wears off, it tends to be neglected.
In both cases, before you take on a new responsibility, make sure you have a commitment to nurturing and supporting either a puppy or social media strategy.
Social media is great because it doesn’t have to cost your nonprofit a lot of money. Here’s an example of a video that you can use as model for your nonprofit. It was the 4th of July and I took all of the pictures of the fireworks with a basic digital camera. No tripod or anything.
Later I edited them together and added some royalty free music. This comes with the iMovie editor but you can also buy royalty free music very cheaply from a variety of sites online.
Voila, your nonprofit can have an inexpensive video that you can easily upload to YouTube. Why not do this for your next event?
I keep hearing about nonprofits that are struggling with social media. You’re job is hard enough without not knowing how to use these free and powerful tools.
Posted by Ken Okel 
