Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Is Your Image of Advertising Stuck in the Mad Men Era?

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Some nonprofits hear the word “marketing” and cringe.  After reading Mad Women by Jane Maas, I can understand why–and also why that reaction is out of date.

Speedy Alka-Seltzer character

Speedy Alka-Seltzer, R.I.P.

According to Maas, there was a revolution in advertising during the 1960’s.  Before that, “Hammers pounded away at the inside of an animated head while a voice-of-God announcer reported that Anacin cured headaches three ways.”  Cora’s Country Store poured Maxwell House coffee, Madge the Manicurist recommended Palmolive dish soap (“You’re soaking in it”), and Mr. Whipple couldn’t help squuezing the Charmin.  And of course, cartoon characters like the Frito Bandito urged us to eat too much salty food, while Speedy Alka-Seltzer offered the solution.

Maas says the old kind of advertising “believed the consumer was a moron.”  So nonprofits recoil.  Our supporters are not morons!  They are brilliant enough to appreciate us, aren’t they?

The truth is that very few people will know about our work, let alone appreciate it, unless we market it.  Marketing is more than advertising. But if we have an advertising model in mind, it should not be Speedy Alka-Seltzer.  Let’s not consult Don Draper or Peggy Olson.

What did advertising become, after the revolution?

  • Irreverent.  Don’t take ourselves too seriously, even if we work on serious issues.
  • Intelligent.  Give people ideas, not just slogans, in a way that is made to stick.
  • Honest.  Sometimes admitting a weakness is endearing.  Remember “Avis is #2.  We try harder”?
  • Informed.  Focus groups kept Jane Maas from trying to peddle a cheaper coffee, and proved that even if Shake and Bake was a hit, Batter Fry would be a disaster.

Some nonprofits have the budget to do extensive research before they create a program or seek to fund it.  All of us need to gather information about how our “great ideas” will play out with people outside the charmed circle of our staff and Board.  And all of us need to find the message that will resonate with people who don’t know or care about our organizations as much as we do.  It pays to advertise.

Listen Up! (If You Want to Succeed on Social Media)

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The secret to social media success isn’t in talking – it’s in listening.Image

That’s what Dave Kerpen, the author of Likeable Social Media, wants us to know.  Dave tells the story of the time he arrived in Las Vegas after a six-hour flight only to wait another hour at his hotel, just to check in.

Frustrated, I did what any social media nerd would do – I pulled out my phone, and tweeted the following: “No Vegas hotel could be worth this long wait. Over an hour to checkin at the Aria. #fail”

He goes on to  say, “The Rio Las Vegas tweeted the following to me: ‘Sorry about your bad experience, Dave. Hope the rest of your stay in Vegas goes well.’ Guess where I ended up staying the next time I went to Las Vegas?”

Listening for Nonprofits

Now, if you work at a nonprofit organization, you might be thinking: “How does this apply to me?  I don’t run a hotel.  I don’t even have customers.  Why should I spend time listening on social media?”

  • You may not have customers, but do you have donors?  Listen to social media to find out what interests them and what bothers them.  Then , when you’re thinking what to say in your newsletter and your funding appeals–and yes, your social media–you’ll have a much better idea what donors will read.
  • Do you have clients?  Suppose you’re an organization to promote better parenting and prevent child abuse.  On Facebook, a low-income parent agonizes because she must go to work and can’t afford reliable childcare.  You give her a list of childcare providers who will accept state vouchers and offer to help her apply.  Will the word get around that your organization is a great place to go?  What do you think?
  • Do you have programs?  Maybe you’re an art museum (like the Portland Museum of Art) that offers teachers the chance to bring art into the classroom–and students to exhibit their own art at the museum. Wouldn’t it be great to know what the teachers are posting about you on Facebook or Twitter, and see the pictures the students are putting up on Instagram?  If you thank them online, you will be like the Rio Las Vegas in Dave’s story.  You won’t be doing outreach to get people into your programs: they’ll be reaching out to you.

Don’t just post, tweet, blog, email, snap photos, or distribute videos.  Make sure someone at your organization is on social media listening.  Then, listen to what they find out.

Storytelling Can Be Good for Your Health

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When Deborah Young fell off a porch and broke her ankle, she fell out of her first career, too.  For eleven years, she managed a retail store, but now, the 51-year-old Young prepares other people’s taxes.

It’s not a great living.  She earns too little income to pay for health insurance, either for herself or for her 16-year-old son (who was born with a bone cyst in his left leg).

Enroll America volunteer

Telling her story to sign people up for healthcare

The Affordable Care Act should be a godsend for Deborah Young.  But when volunteer Rachel Perry showed up at her door in north Dallas to explain “Obamacare,” Young was skeptical.  “Affordable is a relative term,” she said.

Then Perry told her own story.

As reported in the Boston Globe, Perry told Young about “her identical twin sister, who was born without a left ear…Perry herself was diagnosed with Tourette syndrome at age 7.  Without the health care law both Perry and her twin could be denied health insurance, or be charged more.”

Telling her story made Perry’s message credible.  It made Young and her entire family want to listen and find out more.  Storytelling made them believe that a real person just like them had benefited from the service, so they could too.

Businesses are beginning to realize that storytelling will help them sell products.  Nonprofits have been using “success stories” to ask for donations for…it seems like forever.  But telling stories is a great way to move people to act, too.  If your mission involves changing people’s behavior, what are the stories you can tell that will make them want to take that step?

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