Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

5 Lessons You Can Learn from Children’s Books

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Books aimed at children have a lot to teach us too. It all depends who we are and what we wish to learn.

Are you a nonprofit organization? 

Find out what stories you should be telling. Can Your Nonprofit Tell a Story to Save Its Life? 

Learn how to tell those stories and suck the reader right in. What Nonprofits Can Learn from Peter Pan

Make sure your fundraising is not too hot, not too cold, just right. Goldilocks and the Three Nonprofits

Are you a marketer for either a business or a nonprofit?

Get inspired to make your audience feel the difference you can make in their lives. Putting On the Shoes: What Ray Bradbury Taught Me about Marketing

Are you a consultant, like me? Do you know what pleases your clients? Read:

What to Do When the Client Asks for the Moon

 

Now it’s your turn. What’s your favorite children’s book, and what have you learned from it about communicating?

 

 

Are You as Good a Communicator as Shakespeare’s Fools?

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The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be
a fool.
-Touchstone, As You Like It, V.1.2217

Shakespearean foolHope you have a happy April Fool’s Day!  In Shakespeare’s plays, fools are the great communicators.  They manage to say what no one else has the courage or the insight to say.  They get heard when men of sense get ignored.

Are you as good a communicator as one of Shakespeare's fools? Take this quiz to find out. Share on X
  1. The fools can say what they want because they have official positions at court.  What is your position with your audience?  Do they welcome what you have to say?
  2. The fools are truth tellers, fearlessly making fun of one and all.  Do your audiences know they can count on you for the truth?
  3. The fools keep an eye out for when they are tiring their listeners.  Do you know when your audience is ready to hear from you?
  4. The fools use humor and unexpected turns of the phrase to win their masters’ attention.  Take another look at your writing.  Are you always serious?  Can people predict what you’re going to say before they open the letter or the post? Or are you surprising and delighting them with your communications?

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.
-Feste, Twelfth Night,  I.5.328

 

What a Librarian Can Teach You about Marketing

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My friend Sam Musher is a librarian in a public school, but she knows marketing. Librarians can do it

Sam recently posted on Facebook:

Dear everyone trying to advertise events to teenagers: Make. A. Poster. I would love to post your event on my bulletin board! But I will not be creating a sign for you. Give me a PDF, or I’m out.

Look at the valuable marketing lessons Sam has packed into these three lines!

  1. Know your audience. Teenagers in Sam’s school will pay attention to a poster on a bulletin board. They will not give a sheet full of text a second glance. You have to know the people you’re addressing and what will attract their interest.
  2. Know your influencers. Sam is the person who can potentially show your event to thousands of teens. It would pay you to please her. You have to know the people like Sam who are in a position to spread word about your agency far and wide.
  3. Make it easy for people to do what you want them to do. Everybody is busy. Don’t ask for free labor.
    • If you want an announcement to go on a bulletin board, send a poster.
    • If you want news to go in a newspaper, send an article that’s ready to print–with a photo!
    • If you want people to forward your email, give them a one-click forwarding option.

And a final word from Sam: “Bonus points if the poster looks really good in black and white. A surprising number of us don’t have regular access to a color printer.”

Many people don’t have access to a landline phone, or a desktop computer: only a mobile device. Use the format that your audience will like.

 

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