Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Make 2018 a Better Year at Your Nonprofit

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resolutions 2018

10 easy ways to communicate better in 2018

Happy New Year!  As the calendar changes, we think about changes we’d like to make, in ourselves and our work.

Here are ten resolutions that every organization should make to improve their communications in 2018.

  1. Google yourself. What are the first things people see about you? Would you support the group you see on screen?
  2. Take charge of your brand. Create your own reputation through the news you make and the stories you post.
  3. Cultivate local reporters.  They work too hard: if you feed them human interest stories and photos, they’ll be grateful.
  4. Everyone in your organization speaks for you.  What are they saying to their friends? Do they have stories to tell your supporters?
  5. Your website: keystone of all your communications.  Ask an outsider to click through it. Is it easy to navigate? Informative? Fun?
  6. Facebook is a party, not a meeting.  Find ways to get your fans talking with each other.  They’ll come back more often and like you better.
  7. Which social media should your group use?  Depends.  Who do you want to reach?  Where do they go when they’re online?
  8. Horror movie: “I mail to dead people.” In January 2018, take people off your postal and email lists if you haven’t heard from them since 2016. Mark their records inactive in your donor database.
  9. Photos: not just for breakfast any more. Your readers want to consume photos at every meal, from print newsletters and annual reports to online posts. Videos hit their sweet tooth!
  10. Your good name is your most valuable asset.  What’s it worth to you?  THAT’S the return on investment for your communications.

2018 is The Year to Make More Money

Resolutions are not made to be broken! You can do #1 right away–as in, the moment you finish reading this blog post. The other items will take time, so make a plan.

For instance, to put #5 into action, who are you going to ask to review your website, and will you get their feedback in person, or by email, or…?

As your communications consultant, I can help your nonprofit make 2018 the year you communicate better with your donors and raise more money. Let’s talk about how. Email me at [email protected] and let’s start the new year right.

Are You Talking to ME, Nonprofit?

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Communications strategy begins with a simple question.  Before you write–before you start talking–before you post, tweet, blog or pin, ask yourself:

“Who are my audiences?”

Find your specific audience!

Don’t talk to the crowd. Find your specific audience!

I do mean “audiences,” plural.  At different times, you may want to get the attention of any of the following groups:

  • Members
  • Clients
  • Donors
  • Prospects
  • Elected officials
  • Regulators
  • Board members
  • Volunteers
  • People in a certain age group
  • People who participate in a certain activity
  • Residents of a certain neighborhood

You have different relationships with each of these groups, so it’s crucial to identify who you’re talking to at the time.

Different Voice for Different Audience

Would you talk with your mom the same way you talk with your boss?  Unlikely–unless you want Mom to feel hurt, or your boss to feel confused.

Then why would you talk to Board members who have sweated for your organization for years the same way that you speak to people who might just give you their first donation if you give them a good reason why?  You wouldn’t, I hope!

Figure out the specific audience or audiences you are trying to reach before you figure out what you are going to say.

When You’re Talking AND When You’re Writing

Speaking to a specific audience is just as important when you’re “speaking” in print, or in email, or on the internet.

It won’t work to say, “I’m just going to write to the general public.” There is no such thing! If you aim at everybody, there’s a good chance you’re going to reach nobody. Speak to one audience at a time. The others can listen in.

You want to do the detective work to understand as much as possible about the people who are interested in your nonprofit. Especially, you want to know what hurts them and spurs them to act.

And when you’re sending out appeal letters–as so many nonprofits are doing this time of year–look at your donor personas and write to a specific audience. (And call them what they want to be called.)

 

When the Client Asks for the Moon

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What do you do when your client–or boss–asks you to do something you don’t know how to do?

A friend who’s a social media consultant submitted a proposal to a new client.  She would make sure they had a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and write their blog.  The client asked, “What about data mining?”

“Data mining?” she thought.  “That’s not social media.  It’s not what I know how to do.  What should I say?”

The consultant turned to her friends in Phyllis Khare‘s and Andrea Vahl‘s Social Media Managers School for advice.  What they came up with was a strategy I call Many Moons.

What Do You Mean?

In James Thurber’s classic children’s tale, the princess is sick and won’t be well until someone gives her the moon.  The king turns to one expert after another.  They have no solutions.  All they can tell him is how big the moon is, and how far away, and how it’s impossible to give the princess what she wants.

At last, the king tells the court jester that the princess will never be well until she has the moon.  So the jester goes and asks her:

“How big do you think it is?”

“It is just a little smaller than my thumbnail,” she said, “for when I hold my thumbnail up at the moon, it just covers it.”

“And how far away is it?” asked the Court Jester.

“It is not as high as the big tree outside my window,” said the Princess, “for sometimes it gets caught in the top branches….”

“What is the moon made of, Princess?” he asked.

“Oh,” she said, “it’s made of gold, of course, silly.”

So the jester gets the goldsmith to make “a tiny round golden moon just a little smaller than the thumbnail of the Princess Lenore.”  And the princess gets well!

Asking-the-Right-Questions_620

Asking the Right Question

It turned out that “data mining,” like the moon, can be many things to many people.  What this client really wanted was not anything statistical.  They simply wanted to keep their ears to the ground and listen to what people on social media were talking about – and then to join in.

I would call that “social listening,” not “data mining.”  But that doesn’t matter.  My friend could give them what they wanted–and more–once she asked the right question.  And so can you.

When it sounds like the client is asking for the moon, remember you might have what they need right under your thumb.

 

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