Every time I teach a Twitter class, I’m surprised at how many seasoned Twitter users DON’T use lists. A Twitter list is a curated group of Twitter users. It is an incredibly useful feature that makes Twitter much more manageable. You can create your own lists or subscribe to lists created by others. Here’s the help section…
You absolutely need to include contact information in your emails (and other forms of communication). Including a first name in your email subject lines and greetings instantly personalizes your message and warms the reader to its content. It’s an email marketing best practice. But lots of times the only contact information you have is an email…
I hear comments like these all the time — and these are real comments from our recent survey . . . I spend too much time doing things that aren’t important and don’t have time left for what really matters. My “do this eventually” list is growing and out of control. I am…
My first professional love is working with nonprofits on their communications and marketing — training, advising, and coaching them — I think of it as the sweet life. My second love is helping others who want to live that sweet life too by dedicating their consulting or freelancing careers to serving the nonprofit sector like…
Happy Friday! Let’s celebrate the end of another week with some Mixed Links… Just a reminder, we are hosting this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival and are taking submissions on how you share progress or communicate accomplishments. If you need some help spicing up your graphics, here are 5 Awesome Design Hacks to Create Highly Shareable Social Media…
A few weeks ago, the question of the week at Nonprofit Marketing Guide was “Where do you get your best writing ideas?” Your answers went from cleaning to riding in the car to making something with your hands. Me? I steal. And it’s great! Let me teach you how. It’s called a swipe file, a…
You may have noticed some strange code on the end of links you click in emails or from social media . . . things like utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email. But do you know why that code is there or what it is doing? Or that you should be using it too? UTM stands for Urchin Tracking Module, and the…
Here’s a question that came in last week . . . Hello Kivi, Do you have any resources that will help me to measure our communications effectiveness? Our numbers are increasing: clients served, sales at our thrift stores, donations, etc., since I was hired as the organization’s first Communications Coordinator a year ago. But…
Has your nonprofit communications plan come together in an ad hoc, on the fly, piece-by-piece kind of way? If so, you aren’t alone. Most nonprofits have added new communications channels one by one. Maybe you added an email newsletter to your print newsletter, and started paying more attention to your website. Then you started experimenting…
Miss me last week? Kivi and I were having a work retreat in beautiful Asheville, NC. Let’s catch up over some Mixed Links… We are hosting this month’s Nonprofit Blog Carnival and are taking submissions on how you share progress or communicate accomplishments. Sprout Social has released A Strategic Guide to Social Media for Nonprofits. Yes, it’s only…
Does your nonprofit deal with an issue that is not exactly easy to talk about? Try simplifying things for potential supporters with a few good metaphors. Here’s an example of a great metaphor from our free e-book, 25 Metaphors Nonprofits Can Use to Get Their Messages Across – and the Decrepit Dozen to Avoid, that shows how…
All this week, we are taking a look at what it means to be a CALM Communications Director (Collaborative, Agile, Logical, and Methodical). Today, let’s talk about being Methodical. You will always be short on time. You will always be surrounded by distractions. That’s why it is so important to be grounded in proven methods…
