Integrating Your Website, Email Newsletter and Social Media Sites

Tomorrow I’m presenting a brand new webinar on How to Integrate Your Website, Email Newsletter, and Social Media Sites. It was the #1 requested topic in last fall’s survey of what you wanted to see on the weekly webinar series schedule.

I have to admit, it’s a rather ambitious topic for one hour. I’m in the middle of the PowerPoint deck now trying to find the sweet spot between giving you enough information to really make a difference in your online marketing strategy and giving you too many to-do list items that you run screaming from the whole idea of integration.

Here’s the framework I’m using right now. Please share any comments you have as I’m sure I’ll be playing around with this until sometime tomorrow morning! For those of you attending, I promise to have the handout available an hour before the webinar (but probably not much sooner!)

You can integrate your online marketing in three steps:

(1) Connecting

Make sure everything links to everything else. Do that by putting links into web and e-news templates, email signatures, and social media profiles. Use social media icons (search “free social media icon set” for tons of them) to make these links more obvious. If your e-news provider offers it, use the social media sharing links at the bottom of your e-newsletters (otherwise add your own).

Consider whether auto-updating makes sense. You can connect your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc. to update each other. Think about whether and how that makes sense given the type of content you share, how often, and with whom.

Ensure basic branding is in place. Your website, blog, e-news, and social media sites don’t need to be 100% identical, but it should be crystal clear that they are all produced by the same people.

(2) Strengthening

Think holistically about your online content creation. Integrate what you put out there by using an editorial calendar, while at the same time, recognizing which channel is best for what (e.g. email good for clear calls to action; social media good for awareness). Don’t  think of your website as something entirely different from your e-news, or your e-news as entirely different from your Twitter feed. Figure out what you want to communicate, and spread that across the channels in a way that makes sense.

Think about the paths. Think about how you want people to travel from channel to channel, and what they will see at each stop along the way. For example, if your e-news links to your website, what’s on that landing page? Does that landing page urge visitors to discuss the topic on Facebook or Twitter? If someone starts on Facebook, how are you encouraging them to sign-up for your e-newsletter? Again, it goes back to understanding how to get the most out of each channel.

Encourage multiple connections. Many of your fans will connect with you in multiple ways without being asked (e.g. they will subscribe to your e-news, blog feed and Twitter stream), but others will need some prodding. Connecting with people in multiple ways increases the odds that your messages will actually get through to them. You may need to offer some incentives (e.g. people on the email list get certain benefits, or get them first).

(3) Reinforcing

Learn from your metrics. Watch what’s happening along the paths that connect your online channels. Where are people coming from and where are they going? Are certain types of your supporters more likely to use one channel or another? What content produces the most interaction (e.g. clicks, comments, forwards, shares) in which channels?

Listen to the conversation, and bring in back into your content. You’ll learn a great deal from the conversation in social media that you can use to inspire and inform you e-news and web content.  For example, a conversation on Twitter can transform into a new update you send out via your e-newsletter. Blog comments can direct updates to other parts of your website.

Make sense? What’s most important? What’s missing? Please share your thoughts in the comments and I’ll see you on the webinar!

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2010 Predictions: Number 1 is I’ll Keep Referring You to Beth

I’ll share my three predictions for nonprofit marketing in 2010 with you in just a second, but here’s one prediction that I know for a fact will come true: I’ll keep referring you to Beth Kanter for all questions social media that are too difficult for me to answer. You all have a lot of great questions, so it feels like not a week goes by where I don’t send someone off to Beth’s Blog for answers. She will continue to reign supreme in 2010 and beyond.

Today is Beth’s 53rd birthday and with this post, I’m joining 53+ other bloggers in thanking Beth for all that she has given us, and will continue to give us. Thank you, Beth, for your great wisdom, insight, inspiration, prolific blogging, and most of all, your generosity to the nonprofit community! If you want to say thanks, Beth is asking friends to help her send 53 students to school in Cambodia, which is where she adopted her two kids. I’m making a donation right after I post this, and I hope you will too.

Now on to my other predictions . . .

1. Social Media is Real Life so “IRL” Should Die

Everyone agrees: Social media is here to stay in one form or another. It’s changed forever the expectations people have about sharing information and opinion with others. People use “IRL” online as an abbreviation for “in real life.” In 2010, IRL is obsolete, because we all realize by now that when we communicate with each other online it’s just as real as when we do it in print or even face-to-face.

Social media isn’t a monologue, or even a dialogue, but a trialogue. Rather than isolating people, the use of social media and other online technologies increases how well-connected people feel to each other and to the causes they love. In 2009, we saw many examples of how online tools are bringing people together offline (Tweetup anyone?). Friends are the new filter for information overload.

If you still think of your online strategy as something wholly apart and different from your “IRL” communications strategy, you are doing it wrong. Stop, and learn to merge.

2. More Nonprofits will Experiment with Real-Time Communications

We expect current information and answers to our questions instantaneously. Mobile Internet access (e.g. smartphones) is narrowing the digital divide. We can get and give info/opinion anywhere, anytime, and now with a geographic overlay. New apps allow people not only to share, but to self-organize (e.g. FourSquare.com, GroundCrew.us, Plancast.com) Guess where I learned about two of these sites.

Can I read your e-newsletter on my Blackberry? What’s the most useful, timely, interesting or exclusive stuff you do? What would your supporters like to know in real time (is there something they’d like to track or be alerted about)? Can you deliver it via text messages or Twitter? Think about ways to share the here and now with your supporters, as it is happening.

3. To Succeed Online, You Have to Think Like a Media Mogul

You aren’t just a communications director. You are a content creator, a publisher, a broadcaster. Heck, you are your nonprofit’s resident media mogul. Instead of sending a press release to your newspaper, TV station, and radio station, you are producing your own e-newsletter, podcast, and YouTube channel. You even have your own versions of the 24-hour cable news networks — they are your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Your blog is your nonprofit’s reality TV show.

It’s a lot to manage, but try to manage it you must, if you want your supporters to really connect with what you are doing, and to make it a part of their own lives. This is communications in 2010 . . . it’s multi-channel, real time, transparent, and personal. It’s what people are getting in all other aspects of their lives and I bet the nonprofits that do it well will be rewarded with more attention from their supporters.

So what do you do with these trends and how do they affect your 2010 marketing strategy? That was the topic of last week’s interactive conference call. If you missed it, you can listen to the mp3 recording and download the two-page handout when you purchase an All-Access Pass. The handout includes basic, intermediate and advanced steps for addressing each of these trends.

Tags: 2010, trends

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5 Spots Left in Online Fundraising Bootcamp E-Clinic Weds.

There are five spots left in this Wednesday’s Online Fundraising Bootcamp – a special e-clinic limited to just 20 nonprofits. Want to join us?

End-of-year fundraising season is upon us. Are you ready to raise as much as you can online? If not, don’t worry. That’s what the Online Fundraising Bootcamp E-Clinic is for.

During this three-hour e-clinic (we’ll take two short breaks), you’ll learn about the must-knows and must-dos of the three elements of successful online fundraising today:

(1) A website with a great home page and a great “Donate Now” page.We’ll look at what you need on both your home page and your Donate page to inspire donors to give — and what you need to leave off. We’ll also discuss fundraising campaign landing pages. For those of you who don’t currently accept online donations or who are unhappy with a current provider, we’ll quickly review your options.

(2) A targeted email marketing program. A robust and healthy email list is directly tied to online fundraising success. We’ll review what goes in a good fundraising email message — and what goes in all of the other email messages you should be sending in between the times you ask for money. We’ll also review appropriate ways to say Thank You for an online gift.

(3) A social media presence to help spread the message. While email is essential to online fundraising, social media can also significantly boost your results, while adding new people to your circle of friendly supporters. We’ll look at how you can use social media such as blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, to support your fundraising campaigns.

Registration is $75 — a great investment in your online fundraising program. Learn more and register here.

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Free Teleseminar on Fall Email Fundraising & More This Week

It’s a busy, busy week of training, starting with a free Nonprofit911 call from Network for Good on Tuesday, then a webinar on social media skeptics, an online fundraising workshop for AFP, and a conference closing plenary session via webinar. If you are participating in any of these events, let me know. I’d love to hear from you before and after.

Tuesday, September 15
Your Best Email Campaign Ever: 4 Steps to a Winning Strategy This Fall
During this free Nonprofit911 training call sponsored by Network for Good, I’ll be talking about what you can do this fall through your email communications to help set yourself up for bigger gifts in December.

Wednesday, September 16
Convincing Social Media Skeptics: “Selling” the Value of Social Media
You are ready to add social media to your marketing mix, but others around you aren’t so sure. Several people asked for help with the problem, so I’ve created this webinar to help you make your case. It’s on Wednesday at 1:00 p.m. ET (10:00 a.m. PT). Registration is $35 or included with your All-Access Pass.

Thursday, September 17
Online Fundraising Bootcamp
I’ll be in Raleigh, NC to teach this morning workshop for the Triangle Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals. I’ll spend the first hour going over the must-knows and must-dos for a successful online fundraising campaign, followed by on-the-spot makeovers for three organizations.

Friday, September 18
Online Marketing Basics for the National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies
I’m presenting the closing plenary at NACCRRA’s Professional Development Institute via webinar.

Learn more about my weekly webinar series and about asking me to speak at your event.

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The Making of “Do More Than Cross Your Fingers”

The American Red Cross wants every household to do three things: to build an emergency kit, to create a communication and evacuation plan, and to be informed about the disasters that are common in their communities. Fair enough, but how are they going to make it happen? By working the basics of a good marketing strategy: Defining their audience, creating a message that resonates with that audience, and delivering the message through channels their audience already trusts and uses.

Yesterday I spoke with Mark Ferguson, who manages the “Do More than Cross Your Fingers” campaign and other corporate partnerships for the American Red Cross. He shared some of the back story behind what you’ll see at www.redcross.org/domore, which officially launched yesterday.

Defining the Audience: Moms with Kids at Home

Mark says that historical research and experience shows that moms with kids under 18 living at home are especially receptive to messages about disaster preparedness. No surprise there — if anyone is going to care about the nest and the babies in it, it’s mom. But some recent research also shows that 82% of moms say they drive household purchases. So if you are trying to get a family to organize a disaster preparedness kit that will most likely require some purchases, reaching out to the people who decide what to buy makes sense.

Creating the Message: Testing the Campaign Slogan

But what do you say to a busy mom to get her to make this a priority?

Mark says that it was important for the Red Cross to come up with a message that spoke to moms but that also had broader appeal to the American public at large. Even if moms were the target, the message needed to be appropriate for a much wider audience as well.

It was also important, says Mark, for the message to start from where people are now and to help them move forward with their family disaster planning, regardless of how much they may have already done. Through their research, they knew that about 80% of families had taken one of the three key steps (getting a kit, making a plan, or staying informed) and this campaign was about moving them to take another.

To come up with the right message, the Red Cross hired the firm Catchword Branding which specializes in naming. They provided 1,000 possible slogans to the Red Cross, many of which were simple variations on one idea. Using a cross-functional team (marketing, development, disaster preparedness, field staff, etc.), the Red Cross whittled the list down to the best five. Those five were then tested through an online survey with Harris Interactive to find which one resonated best both with moms and with the public at large.

Of the five options, says Mark, one was in the form of a question and one played on the “heroes” theme that the Red Cross has used successfully before. Another one was deemed too snarky or too clever (survey respondents said it just didn’t sound like the Red Cross). The chosen theme, Do More Than Cross Your Fingers, stood out among the five with both moms and the public at large. “It was fresh,” says Mark, “but not in any way offensive.”

I think the message works for two reasons. First, it meets the stated goal of starting where most people really are, which is crossing our fingers. Second, it urges us to take action, to “Do More” and not so subtly points out that finger crossing is not really a valid approach, but without being pushy or preachy about it.

Delivering the Message: Going Where Moms Are and Using Voices They Trust

With a message in hand, the next decision was how to get it out to moms. “We know that moms are really active online,” says Mark, quoting a Nielsen survey this year that said that 20% of the active online population are moms aged 25-54 with at least one child living at home. Thus the campaign centers on redcross.org/domore and all of the other online and offline tactics will point back to that page.

The Red Cross also wanted to emphasize that each family is different and so what’s in their emergency kits should be different too. Thus one of the key components of the website is a game called Prepare 4 that helps you build your own personalized kit.

“One of the goals is to make disaster preparedness simple and interesting,” says Mark, “Not just a brochure or ho-hum shopping list. We wanted something interactive and friendly.” During the game, you answer questions that help you build a kit that’s customized for your family, right down to including something fun for the kids to do while the power is out. At the end of the game, your list of items in emailed to you so that you can go gather up the items from around your house and go shopping for what’s missing.

You can also share what you are including in your personal kit with others in the My Kit section, as spokesperson Jamie Lee Curtis has done on the site via video. The selection of Curtis as the spokesperson is another move that connects well with moms.

The Red Cross’s social media maven Wendy Harman has been reaching out to  Mommy Bloggers (one of the biggest forces within the blogosphere) who have blogged about disaster preparedness before. They are also pursuing coverage in traditional print magazines focused on women and parenting. Cause marketing partnerships with Clorox (a brand many moms use daily) and FedEx (many moms also run small businesses and FedEx is already reaching out to NASCAR moms with the preparedness message) round out the campaign channels. FedEx is distributing disaster preparedness brochures and Clorox is sponsoring a radio media tour.

Measuring Results

Mark says that the Red Cross will use its annual fall survey with Harris Interactive on how well prepared American households are for a disaster to help measure the effectiveness of the campaign, including a survey later this month. They’ll compare those figures to a baseline survey completed in August.

No matter how big or how small your nonprofit may be, going through these basic steps in creating your strategy is always a smart approach. Just like with disaster preparedness, you have to do more than cross your fingers with nonprofit marketing too!

Tags: Red Cross

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ROI of Listening: 17 Things to Do with What You Hear

If you’ve already started incorporating social media into your communications strategy and have done any research on it at all, you’ve come across the advice to LISTEN FIRST.

What you are less likely to have found in your research is a practical list of what you can actually do with all of this new-found knowledge and perspective that you gain from building your listening network.

If you really apply what you are hearing, listening can become the cornerstone of not only your nonprofit marketing strategy, but your mission-oriented programs as well. Listening helps at every level: It can help your professional community thrive, your organization prosper, your individual programs grow, and your own personal career soar.

Here are 17 concrete actions you can take using what you learn from listening.

1. Better understand the people who matter most. Find, follow, and listen to the people who you think match the personas of your target audience, whether they are potential clients, funders, donors, advocates, or volunteers. Learn more about what interests them, what kinds of questions they have, and the language they use, so you can communicate with them in more meaningful ways.  It’s basic market research and if you listen for no other reason, this is the one.

2. Start conversations with potential new supporters. See who’s talking about your issues. Look at what else that person is saying online. If he looks like someone who would be interested in what your organization does, reach out to him with a personal message. Offer information or resources or invite him to an event. Open the door to a relationship just like you would to a personal friendship.

3. Answer questions and provide suggestions. People are constantly posing questions and talking about the challenges they face on social media and networking sites. Answer questions, offer suggestions, and become known as a good source of information and assistance. This is a great way to position your organization as an expert source.

4. Correct misconceptions. Is someone confused, misinformed, or worse, spreading rumors? Try to set the record straight by presenting your point of view in a non-confrontational way.

5. Find new partners. Discover who else is interested in and working on the same things you are, especially people and organizations you might have never known existed otherwise (e.g. they do what you do, but on the other side of the country). Share your successes, replicate theirs, and create new partnerships to get more done.

6. Measure the success of your communications. Are you trying to get the word out? See how well the message is spreading by monitoring who’s passing it on to others and how the message is changing as it spreads.

7. Feed your biggest fans. Build personal relationships with your biggest fans and give them what they need to spread the word about you (e.g., great stories, photos, videos, inside scoops on what’s happening in your field, etc.). These are the people who will not only introduce you to their friends and expand your circle of supporters, but also stand up and defend you and your cause if attacked by others, so keep them on your side.

8. Increase your own professional knowledge. Identify the leaders and big thinkers (I call them the “big brains”) in your field and keep an eye on the issues they are discussing and the resources they are recommending. It’s like attending a professional networking event without leaving your desk.

9. Keep tabs on your critics. Even if you choose not to respond directly now, keeping up with what your critics are saying will help you develop better rebuttals and fine-tune your messaging in the future.

10. Find your niche. It’s a competitive world, even for nonprofits (some might say especially for nonprofits when financial times are tough). By listening to what’s going on in your professional world, you’ll have a much better understanding of where you fit in, where you can fill gaps, and how you can stand out. And you must stand out – that’s what nonprofit marketing is ultimately all about.

11. Knock down your writer’s block. Not sure what to write about in your newsletter or blog? Read what others in your community are talking about and then write about the trends you see, draft a response to something you found particularly interesting or offensive, or summarize the best points others are making on a particular topic.

12. Pick up a reality check. We all make assumptions each day, but when you make too many, you know what happens: “You make an ass out of u and me.”  (I thought that was so profound when I figured it out at age 10!) Road test your assumptions by putting them out there and listening to the responses you get.

13. Spot programmatic trends earlier. By consistently listening to the “raw feed” you’ll be able to pick up on trends related to your work long before they transform into conventional wisdom. You can adjust your programs accordingly, and when others finally catch up, you’ll be considered on the cutting edge.

14. Respond rapidly to flare-ups. Listening puts you higher up in your own personal fire tower, so when a potential firestorm sparks, you can get water on it much faster than if you were on the ground, miles away.

15. Learn the lingo. Learn what words your target audience is using. The language that your clients use, for example, is often very different from the language that professionals in the field use. The reverse is true too: If you are trying to break into a new community, professional or otherwise, listening is a good way to pick up on some of their jargon and buzzwords.

16. Be relevant. If you want to be considered a player in the space you are working in, you have to be relevant. And to be relevant, you have to understand where people are right now.  Listening helps you keep up with what’s happening to the people who matter to your organization’s success.

17. Give good customer service. If your nonprofit is in the business of providing direct services, the people you serve are not unlike customers at a commercial establishment. Several commercial brands from Dell to Comcast are using social media listening on a near-constant, real-time basis to answer customer questions and address complaints, and you can too.

Want more? Join me for Who’s Talking About You and What Are They Saying? Listening to Online Conversations, a 60-minute webinar on Tuesday, September 8, 2009.

Have more practical uses for what to do with what you hear? Add them by leaving a comment on the blog.

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What “Trust Agents” Means for Nonprofits

I read “Trust Agents” by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith this weekend. It’s about, as the subtitle says, “Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust.”

I’m talking about these concepts in the book I’m writing on nonprofit marketing, so I wanted to see how what Chris and Julien advocate for the business community might translate to the nonprofit world. While they use Beth Kanter as an example of the “Archimedes Principle” — leveraging your network — that’s really the only mention of our sector.

I would sum up the basic thesis of the book as “Be there, be helpful, don’t ask for anything, and eventually it will pay off.”  It’s essentially a guide for how to be human through your computer or nice guys finish first in social media. There is actually a section titled “The Importance of Being Human” and an “Action” list for how to be human that includes things like “Remember to ask about other people-first” and “If you mess up, remember the three A’s: acknowledge, apologize, act.”  In another section they give advice on making eye contact and smiling at in-person events. Though they claim that “the nerd is mostly extinct,” a lot of the book feels like “Chris and Julien’s Advice for the Socially Inept.”

But, of course, the reality is that a lot of people and businesses are trying to use social media as their own personal hype machines, and therefore they aren’t acting like good human beings and end up turning off a lot of people. So, I understand the emphasis on netiquette in the book, especially in regards to social media, even though those weren’t my favorite sections.

Here’s what I think nonprofits will find most useful in “Trust Agents” . . .

Make Your Own Game. They suggest that you look at your situation as a game, and find ways to hack it. Don’t be afraid to try new approaches. I like this concept a lot, even though I’m not a gamer and many of their computer gaming examples went right by me.  But this is the same idea I’m getting at when I tell nonprofits that they need to become their own media moguls and stop wasting tons of time trying to get press coverage. You can be the publisher and broadcaster now. Making your own game is how you stand out, which is really the core message behind Nonprofit Marketing Guide: helping your nonprofit stand out in the crowd. That’s one of our slogans. I think the game metaphor is another great way to get this concept across. This is really a must-do in today’s nonprofit marketing and fundraising environment.

Online Friends are Not “Move Your Couch” Friends. I know many nonprofits are struggling with understanding who and what their new online friends are to them. I’m still working on my book chapters on this, so I’m not sure how I will end up framing this exactly, but the way that Chris and Julien put it is that a friend online is not a sales (or fundraising) prospect. Just because you are now friends on Facebook doesn’t mean that a fundraising appeal will be welcome. Becoming a friend online means that person is now open to a conversation with you, but because you are being human (see above), asking for money is not what you want those early conversations to be about. Instead, you want them to be about learning about each other’s interests, being helpful, etc. If people in your organization are really having a hard time knowing what to do with your online friends, this book can definitely help.

Be “One of Us.” Along with the game metaphor, I also like this concept a lot. Chris and Julien are saying that you really have to see yourself as and behave as a member of the community you are trying to reach. You do that primarily by being helpful to others and not expecting anything in return. They also talk about being “Agent Zero,” where you build this network of networks around you and about “Building an Army” around you of people who you empower to help you.

When nonprofits try new approaches like social media, it’s often easier to convince skeptics of the value if you can relate those new approaches to your current job description or an element already in your strategic plan. If that’s the case with you, then the Agent Zero and Build an Army chapters will be particularly helpful to you, because they most closely align with what nonprofits do all the time — building networks of supporters around the cause and rallying volunteers and advocates to make it happen. But at the same time, caution Chris and Julien, never forget to remain “one of us.” No matter how much influence and trust you eventually weild online, you want to remain one of the guys.

Adopt a “Yes, and . . .” Mentality. It’s very easy for nonprofits to adopt a defensive posture and to fear competitive voices. After all, if that other group down the street gets more attention, then they might raise more money, perhaps money that you think is rightfully yours. I find that nonprofits also tend to dwell on the negative possibilities too much, especially related to using social media. You hear “Yes, but . . .” a whole lot. Chris and Julien advocate that you instead adopt a “Yes, and . . .” approach. Instead of getting stuck on the negatives, move the conversation forward with a new contribution.

“Trust Agents” is a very quick read, and while you’ll need to do some translating to the nonprofit world, if you are interested in how your nonprofit can use social media over the long-term to stand out and to build support for your cause by becoming a trusted voice in your community, it’s worth checking out.

More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)

This Week’s Webinars: Get More Web Visitors & Content Creation Strategies

Just a quick reminder for you about this week’s webinars at Nonprofit Marketing Guide . . .

Tuesday, July 21: Attracting More Website Visitors: Traffic Building Tips for Nonprofits

What good is a website that nobody uses? Learn about proven tools to lure visitors to your nonprofit’s website, including defining your keywords, search engine optimization, and linking and content strategies. I will co-present this webinar with David Westbrook of  Dew Point Productions. This webinar is ideal for people who are responsible for the website, but who don’t necessarily understand all of the techie language. We’ll show you what you need to do, in plain English, to attract more visitors to your website. Registration is $35, or free with your All-Access Pass.

Thursday, July 23: Content Creation Strategies: Making the Most of Your Writing, Photos, and More

Learn how to generate, organize, and maximize content for your nonprofit’s communications program. We’ll talk about editorial calendars, where to get ideas for content, using technology to speed up distribution, recycling content into different formats for different audiences, and more.  As of right now, 558 people are registered. I hope you’ll join us, but even if you can’t make it live, feel free to register anyway, and you’ll get a link to the recording about 48 hours after the live event. Free Registration!

More Goodies: Get Kivi's Nonprofit Marketing Tips E-Newsletter (2-3 times per month)