Sherry Kirschenbaum

After the 10 Changes to Make in 2012 webinar, I received an email from Sherry Kirschenbaum about how her organization uses an editorial calendar to organize ideas for their newsletter and media pitches. I was so impressed with how Sherry was connecting such a diverse number of those “special months” to her organization’s mission and programs, that I asked her to show us how she does it. For more writing inspiration, be sure to sign up for our free monthly Writing Prompts email.  ~Kivi

Guest Post by Sherry Kirschenbaum, Media Manager at United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ

During her most recent (very excellent) webinar 10 Changes to Make in 2012, Kivi spoke about editorial calendars as a tool in media outreach. As senior writer/media manager at United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ (also known as UJC MetroWest), I am using the “mother” of all calendars, Chase’s Calendar of Events, to drive content for our monthly e-newsletter.

Some background: UJC MetroWest (which encompasses Essex, Morris, Sussex and northern Union counties in New Jersey) has been doing a monthly e-newsletter for the last several years. When I came on 15 months ago, the Chief Marketing Officer asked me to start thinking about a revamp to freshen things up.

Having successfully used editorial calendars in the past for both internal and external communications, I decided, among other changes, to look at Chase’s Calendar to see if there were enough commemorations throughout the year that dovetailed with our mission:

United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ stands at the center of a network of 24 partner agencies that support families in crisis; job search strategies for the unemployed; services for seniors, people of all ages with disabilities, and women in abusive relationships; Israel advocacy; formal and informal Jewish education; and experiences to ensure our Jewish future.

I occasionally needed to get a little creative, but in general, it has been a bonanza of ideas. It has also helped me to easily identify the most qualified person (in house or at one of our partner agencies) to write a 500-600 word piece that I am responsible for editing. An added bonus: our partner agencies really appreciate the opportunity to get free publicity.

The editorial calendar for the column, titled “Monthly Matters,” basically looks like this:

2011

October: National Financial Planning Month/National Disabilities Month. The executive director of Jewish Community Foundation of MetroWest, the planned giving and endowment arm of UJC MetroWest, wrote an article about the long-term personal and financial impact of endowments.

November: National Long-Term Care Awareness Month/Family Care Givers Month. An article on eldercare mobility by our director of Eldercare Services ultimately resulted in a mention in an Associated Press article.

December: Spiritual Literacy. I turned to the director of Health and Healing at JCC MetroWest, a partner agency. Ultimately, however, an article on the mind/body connection was deferred.

2012

January: National Mentoring Month. The director of our Young Leadership Division wrote an article on youngish adult leaders mentoring young leaders.

February: Youth Leadership Month and Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month. This month we will have two articles, one focusing on the impact of our teen leadership programs and the other speaking to I AM ABLE, a brand-new advertising campaign in the local Jewish newspaper.

March: National Social Work Month. This article will be written by a social worker at Jewish Family Service of MetroWest, a partner agency. Content still undecided, although we are leaning towards the ongoing stress on middle-class families caused by economic downturn. (The recession may officially be over, but many people in MetroWest would say otherwise.)

April: Autism Awareness Month. A piece by a parent of a child with autism whose life has literally been transformed as a result of UJC MetroWest programs and services. This piece will also be pitched to secular and Jewish media outlets.

May: Jewish-American Heritage Month. The director of the Jewish Historical Society of MetroWest, a partner agency, will focus her piece on the history and accomplishments of Jews in the MetroWest area, going back to the early 1900s.

June: National Camping Month. The coordinator of our One Happy Camper initiative will address the benefits of Jewish camping in Jewish identity formation.

In regard to my media manager hat, breaking the year down like this is very helpful in determining pitches for the media. For example, I am also using the article about the “I am ABLE” campaign as part of a pitch to Jewish media regarding Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month; the piece about stress on the middle class due to the economy will be pitched to local secular media outlets.

Sherry S. Kirschenbaum is senior writer/media manager at United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ. She can be reached at (973) 929-3084 or skirschenbaum@ujcnj.org.

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Kate Antoniades

In today’s guest post, Kate Antoniades shows how planning ahead and paying attention to what your fans, friends, and followers react to can make all the difference in your social media marketing. She also proves that social media can work at the local level.  Thanks Kate, for sharing a super easy way to improve your Facebook strategy!  ~Kivi

Guest Post by Kate Antoniades, Communications and Social Media Coordinator at Lollypop Farm, the Humane Society of Greater Rochester

Earlier this year, after a couple of years of keeping my Facebook and Twitter plans for Lollypop Farm in my head or scribbled on Post-its stuck to my monitor, I created a social media calendar in Google Docs. It’s become a very useful tool for planning ahead and for keeping track of what I’ve posted.

Soon after I started using the calendar, I began tracking the feedback rate for each Facebook post—the percentage that indicates the comments and “likes” per impression. (Each time a post appears in someone’s news feed, on the page itself, or in a page badge, Facebook calls that an impression.)

With about two months of data, I decided to use the feedback rate to find out exactly which posts made the greatest and least impact. Other factors, like the time of day or day of the week that something is posted, may affect feedback, but that was beyond the scope of what I wanted to examine.

I found that the majority of the 20 posts that fell below a .05% feedback rating could be placed into three categories: mentions of various events and classes (those that were unrelated to pet adoption), notices of holiday closings, and news of job and volunteer opportunities. We feel that these are important messages, but they don’t seem to grab the attention of our supporters as much as we’d like.

The 10 posts that topped a 0.75% feedback rating (ranging from 0.78% to 3.21%) were all one of two types. Many shared news of pets being adopted (either a single animal or many animals during a successful adoption event). Here’s one example of responses to an adopt-a-thon that found homes for a record number of cats and kittens:

The other posts that had a lot of impact—including the single most popular post of the two months I reviewed—were related to an online contest for animal shelters that awarded five platform dog beds. Our supporters got really excited about this contest because it offered them an easy way to help the dogs in our care. With just a couple of mouse clicks, they could vote and encourage their Facebook friends to vote, too.

We ended up winning the contest, and Facebook was certainly a major factor. These were some of our supporters’ reactions to the good news:

The conclusions I can draw from this close look at feedback rates aren’t earthshattering, but they serve as good reminders: Our supporters want to hear good news, specifically about pets being placed in new homes, and they want to know easy ways they can help.

Looking at these numbers has prompted me to share more of our “happy endings” and not let them fall through the cracks when I’m trying to encourage people to register for class Y or attend event Z.

The “easy ways to help” posts might be a little tougher to find—since the assistance we most often need involves adopting a pet, making a donation, or volunteering time—but perhaps I’ll suggest that our supporters search the web using GoodSearch or do their online shopping through iGive, both of which can send small sums of money our way.

Fortunately, I’ll get a good idea of how these posts are received—simply by checking the feedback rating.

Kate Antoniades is the Communications and Social Media Coordinator at Lollypop Farm, the Humane Society of Greater Rochester (Fairport, NY).

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Is your process for creating and distributing your nonprofit’s content (you know, the stuff you put in your newsletter, on your website, etc.) non-existent or always done on the fly? The ad hoc approach can work, but it only gets you so far.

That’s the conclusion that CompassPoint Nonprofit Services reached last year. Nelson Layag, project director at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, explains how they made the decision to get more organized, and what they are doing now, in our latest video interview on Junction C: Where Creating and Curating Meet Content and Conversation,

Nelson explains how they had both a strategy and some good ideas, but that they had not “operationalized”  how the work would actually get done. So they created a Communications Team, with the executive director, the project director, the grant writer, and the IT guy. They meet every two weeks to discuss what’s coming up, including the content for a new weekly e-newsletter. They want to limit that newsletter to four items, but keep it timely, so they only discuss a couple editions of the newsletter at a time. They also realize that at any given time, someone on the team will be out of the office, so other team members are empowered to make decisions, to keep work moving forward.

One important element of the new process has been the Editorial Calendar. CompassPoint turned to Holly Minch at Lightbox Collaborative for help with the design.  The calendar is a spreadsheet with projects down the side and communications channels across the top. Each month has its own tab. Check out the editorial calendar here.  It’s made a big difference but they continue to look for the perfect solution. “We’re finding some challenges as our list of projects grows,” says Nelson, “and we’re looking into simple project management tools (BaseCamp, Zoho) as an alternative.”

Focusing on the editorial process now means that CompassPoint staff are now much more cognizant of the “communications arc,” or the opportunities to communicate through a project’s life cycle. While they (like most nonprofits) have been good at announcing the start of projects, they’ve been inconsistent about following through and sharing what’s been learned at the end of a project.

“The communications arc helps us think a lot longer in advance and to see all of the various pieces,” says Nelson. “It’s a different way of working: We realize that we need to start earlier in the process to figure out how the communications can be most effective.”

Don’t see the video player? Watch it here.

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ASPCApro’s blog is one of my favorite nonprofit examples because it’s so friendly, useful, and timely. That’s why I was really excited to talk with Pune Dracker (rhymes with Moonraker), Director of Content and Editorial Services (she manages the blog and social media), and Valerie Sheppard, Director of E-Learning (she manages the e-newsletter) for ASPCA Pro. You are probably familiar with the ASPCA as one of the largest organizations fighting animal cruelty, but you may not know about ASPCA Professional, which is specifically for animal sheltering staff and volunteers.

Here’s my interview with Pune and Valerie, where they discuss how decisions about content are made, how they use editorial calendars and editorial meetings, and how they repurpose content. They also discuss how they leave room for ideas from their community and are encouraging more community-generated content.

Here are some examples of the Wordless Wednesday blog posts mentioned in the video.

Pune followed up our interview with some additional details and advice  . . .

Using Google Docs as an Editorial Calendar

“We have a separate one for each month; it’s an integrated schedule that includes all our communications channels—website, blog, Facebook, community site, newsletter, Twitter & internal communications. Info to be filled in includes author, editor, person posting, date posted and (for Facebook) time posted. I also added a notes column where we fill in when/how we promoted each article/piece—i.e. posted on an organization’s Facebook wall or left a comment on a blog we linked to.

This system allows us to be on top of our efforts to cross-pollinate content. We’re good at sending out consistent messages on all our channels, but we’re also able to see if there are additional opportunities—i.e. a new article on cat caging may be going up on our ASPCApro.org website in three weeks—can we plan a blog post on a related topic around that time so we can link to the article in that post—and vice versa.

I’m old school, so I also have a good old wipe-off board with a 60-day calendar just for the blog schedule in my office. I can get a better picture visually of what’s coming up and see if we’re doing too much/not enough of a particular content category and switch around accordingly. It’s also instant accountability—anyone can see the calendar in my office, so it’s a public reminder to keep on top of content development!”

Do as Much as You Can Ahead of Time

“This allows us the luxury of flexibility to switch around posts if we need to—i.e. if you don’t have that last photo you were counting on for a post, or if someone isn’t able to make a deadline in an emergency. And it also means I’m pretty much always able to say yes to last-minute requests for content creation. For example, we have a monthly Q&A on our blog featuring an ASPCA expert. I mapped out who’ll be featured when for the whole year, so I can do these pieces ahead of time. And if you can have some “evergreen” content in the can, ready to go if something falls through at the last minute, you’re so golden.”

Managing Five Blog Posts a Week

“For the blog, we publish five days a week, and I pretty much know the author and/topic for all blogs for the next two months. Anything more than that, you’re sort of defeating the purpose of a blog. Every month I check in with my weekly bloggers and ask if they’ll be out on business/vacation in the next month and need a day off. This way, we can find new content or switch our dates up. The idea is to have a good basic structure in place so you can play around and be flexible—and most importantly, be truly ‘bloggy.’”

Repurpose Like Crazy

“With a little tweaking, you can turn an article for your website into a blog . . .or a newsletter article . . . or a Facebook status! I’ve even transcribed people’s quotes from some video clips we couldn’t use for technical reasons into a blog. You may be thinking, “Oh, people are gonna be sick of reading the same thing again,” but honestly, they’re probably not reading your blog and your newsletter and your Facebook and your website—and if they are (and aren’t on your staff!), you should give them a medal, or at least tap them for a focus group—they can probably tell you a lot about how you’re communicating with the public! Repurposing is also working smart—you’re getting maximum reach for minimal effort. Let your content do double, triple, quadruple duty.”

Thanks for Pune and Valerie for the behind-the-scenes look!

This is the first in a series of interviews on what I call Junction C: Where Creating and Curating Meet Content and Conversation.

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Here are a few writing prompts to get you thinking creatively about March topics. If you were on our Nonprofit Writing Prompts email list, you would have received these a month ago. I’ll be sending out the writing prompts for April on March 3, so if you’d like to receive those, get on the mailing list now.

Special Days on the Calendar

3/2: Dr. Suess’s Birthday. Have a favorite story that’s really a bigger life lesson related to your cause? They read The Lorax out loud at graduation when I received my Environmental Science degree at Cal . . .

3/8-9 : Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras (the 8th) and the Start of Lent (the 9th). Mardi Gras is a celebration of feasting and excess right before the season of Lent, which is a period of fasting and repentance. What would a Mardi Gras mask for your cause look like, and what would someone who wants to make a difference give up for Lent? What’s the feast/famine in your field?

3/13: Daily Savings Time Begins. We are springing forward, which means losing an hour of our lives (OK, not really, but it sure feels like it). What would you do if you could get that hour back? It’s supposed to be about better use of daylight, so what can your supporters do with all their extra sunlight?

3/17: St. Patrick’s Day. You have lots of ways to connect here: think luck of the Irish, green, leprechauns, beer, and shamrocks.

3/20: First Day of Spring. Woo-Hoo!! Lots to work with here, which brings us to our metaphor for the month.

Metaphor of the Month

Spring as a season is itself a metaphor. What about your cause or your work is like . . .

• Hard ground softening
• Tulips poking through
• Animals coming out of hibernation
• Snow caps melting
• Buds and blossoms
• Triumph, rebirth, renewal

Pop Culture, Events, and News

South by Southwest, the music/film/interactive conference is March 11-20. Peruse the session topics for what the hipsters think is hot right now.

March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament starts March 15, with the Final Four on April 2 and 4. Does your organization or field have its own version of March “madness” or can you put a twist on the idea of brackets?

Major League Baseball teams are in Spring Training. What’s the equivalent in your field? Opening Day is March 31.

Source of the Month

Go to Alltop.com and find the topic most closely related to your mission, either via the search or by clicking around on the main categories or the alphabet. For example, you’ll find Alltop pages on animal rescue, climate change, racism, homeless, human rights, science, violence prevention, and lots of other topics in between.

Once you find your page, skim through all those headlines (these are blog post headlines you are perusing.) Do you spot any trends? Anything that you could riff on? Scanning an Alltop page is great way to take the pulse of your field.

Want tips like these monthly, delivered a month in advance to your inbox? Sign up for our free Nonprofit Writing Prompts.

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Yesterday I taught a webinar called “Content Creation Strategies for Nonprofits: Making the Most of Your Writing, Photos, and More.”  More than 650 people registered from 46 U.S. states and 22 other countries. (Pass this on to your nonprofit friends in Alaska, Delaware, Mississippi and South Dakota – we missed them!) Nonprofits are clearly very interested in how they can do a better job creating and managing content.

I compare nonprofit communications directors who need to create lots of content for different audiences to busy parents who need to make sure their families are well fed throughout the week. The solution in both cases? Make-ahead meal planning.

Just like you create a weekly menu, shop and do some prep work on the weekend to make cooking during the week faster, you should use an editorial calendar, tag material you might use later as you find it, plan how you’ll make and bake new content (I say shoot for 50% new material), and then work on ways to reheat and remix that content to create the rest. I also share some of my favorite tools and short-cuts for organizing, creating, and repurposing content. We are currently compiling the list of favorite tools that more than 300 live participants on the webinar shared with us and will post that soon.

Below are the slides from the presentation. If you’d like to watch the recorded one-hour webinar, register as a free member of Nonprofit Marketing Guide’s Learning Center. That will give you access to this webinar, including three sample editorial calendar templates, and other free resources on the site, including the “First 100 Days of Your New Nonprofit Marketing Job” e-book.

Get all of our webinars and e-books for one price with the All-Access Pass! Get a full year for $465, or 90 days for $145.