Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Social Media: Starting Small

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starting small

Start with what you can handle

If your nonprofit organization is large enough, you may have staff specifically assigned to social media.  if it is new enough, you may have started online before you opened an office!

But many nonprofits are not large, few are rich, and only a few have social media in their DNA.  You may be one of the many saying to yourself, “I know I need to do something with social media, but how do I start?”

I’ve been there.  A few years ago, I was the only communications person at a community-based nonprofit organization.  (I was also the development person, and the outcomes person…but that’s another story!)

I knew that my agency couldn’t possibly do Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube, and the next new thing that came along–let alone do them well.

Here’s what I think will work for you: start small.

  1. Start with your website.  It’s not social media as such, but everything you do leads back to it.  When someone arrives on your website, will they find something that’s valuable to them?  Is your site attractive and easy to navigate?  And a really simple thing that too many of us overlook: do all your links work?  If you can do only one thing online right now, it should be to improve your website.
  2. Know your audience. You don’t have time to send out messages at random hoping some of them will touch your readers’ hearts. Click on the link for a humorous guide to audience research.
  3. Think about your objectives. Let’s imagine you succeed beyond your wildest dreams in getting the audience you address actually to pay attention.  What do you want them to do as a result?  Try to narrow it down to one primary objective for each specific audience.  I know how hard that is.  Do it anyway.
  4. Now, pick one medium.  Ideally, it should be the one your supporters use. If they’re on Facebook, choose Facebook.  If it’s Youtube, choose Youtube.  Practically speaking, you will probably pick the medium that your supporters use most which your organization uses already.  However you pick, do pick one, and only one–and then concentrate single-mindedly on learning how to use that medium better.

Give yourselves at least six months to become really good at connecting with your supporters on just one of the social media you use.  That’s do-able, isn’t it?  Try it and watch your influence grow.

Here’s Your Communications Strategy. Fill In the Blanks.

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Your organization needs a communications strategy.  Why?  For a lot of the same reasons why Kivi Leroux Miller recommends having a content strategy:

  • To focus on your supporters’ goals.
  • To make your readers think of you as a welcome guest who shares expertise.
  • To take your random content and turn it into a larger story.
  • To make your communications boost your programs and your fundraising.
  • To get results.

Developing a communications strategy takes time and patience.  But who has time these days?  And patience, too, is rare.  So, here are seven statements that make up a communications strategy.  Read them.  It will take one minute.

  1. A key audience we’re trying to reach is ___________.
  2. If we engage with that audience successfully, they will do ___________.
  3. A typical member of that audience has these characteristics __________, and cares about __________, and their favorite way to get information is _____________.

Therefore:

4. Our key message to this audience is __________.

5. We will communicate with this audience primarily through __________ and secondarily through __________.

6. The resources we will use to put this strategy into action are __________.

7. We will measure our progress by __________.

Are you aiming at more than one key audience?  Rinse and repeat.

What It Takes to Fill In the Blanks

Seems simple, right?  And it is.  But surprise, it will still take time and patience!  Chances are, people inside your organization have different ideas who the key audiences are.  You’ll have to list your audiences (current and desired), then discuss them, in order to make one or two your priorities.

What do you really want from the key audience you have in mind?  Do you want them to be your brand ambassadors and spread the word about your good work?  Are they potential volunteers?  Are you looking for major donors among this audience?  “All of the above” will not do.  What’s the first step you want them to take?

And so on.  To fill in the blanks, you may need to do research.  (Who are these people, anyway?)  You may need to shift time and money away from some other project to make your communications strategy feasible.  It’s a big undertaking.  But when you can write a strategy statement like this one  you will have taken the crucial first step:

Example: A key audience we want to reach is grandparents of children in our school.  If we engage them successfully, they will make annual donations and meet with us about including  the school in their wills.  A typical grandparent is Janice, 68, a widow and recent retiree who’s active in her church, rides a bicycle everywhere she goes, and cares about leaving a healthy planet to the next generation.  She keeps in touch with her family via Facebook but hasn’t followed any organizations on Facebook yet.

Our key message to Janice is that she can involve her grandchildren and their friends in learning about the environment through our school.  We will post photos of children engaged in learning, recycling, and gardening on Facebook, along with links to relevant policies, curriculum, and publications.  We will also include these themes on our website and regularly scheduled emails.  We will need teachers and aides to take photos, and the development director will work with the PTA president to produce other content.

We will measure our results this year by how many grandparents follow the Facebook page and comment on or share posts.  By next year, we will measure the number and amount of this audience’s donations to the annual appeal and the number of in-person meetings to discuss planned giving.

Does your organization need help to fill in the blanks in its strategy?  Please pose your questions in the comments section, and let’s see how we can help each other.

My Generation…and Yours

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3 generationsDoes the title of this post mean anything to you? If so, chances are you’re a Boomer.

Baby Boomers are the people born between 1946 and 1964, and there are a lot of us. People born between 1965 and 1980 are often called Generation X—“X” as in “unknown.”

And people born since 1980 were once called Generation Y (because they came after X). Now, they’re better known as Millennials. And all three generations are reading what you write.

Now, I don’t want to exaggerate generational differences. Not everything changes in fifteen-to-twenty-year intervals! The advent of cable TV and YouTube means that there are younger people discovering I Love Lucy and Monty Python’s Flying Circus all the time. And you don’t want to fall into stereotypes. There are people in their 50’s who love Sarah Silverman and Lena Dunham, and people in their 20’s who can’t stand them.

If you really want to reach an audience across generations, though, follow these rules:

Http://www.trippbraden.com/2015/04/21/my-generation-and-yours/

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