Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Your Most Urgent Questions about Social Media-Answered Jan. 21

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"How can we use social media better?"

“How can we use social media better?”

Here’s a question I often hear as a communications consultant. Is it a question you’d ask? Would you like to hear the answer?

“My nonprofit organization is on Facebook and Twitter and even Instagram, but we don’t really know why. Everybody’s doing it, I guess. But what can we get out of it?”

If that sounds like your organization, then you should sign up for a free webinar: No Nonsense Social Media. Tripp Braden and I will be hosting it next Wednesday, January 21, at 2:00 EST.

Here are some of the things I know already we’ll be discussing:
1. What nonprofits most frequently ask me about social media
2. The big question you should be asking yourself instead
3. Why your supporters spend time on social media
4. Are you cuter than a cat video? Are your supporters as loyal as a dog?
5. The unique advantage that lets community-based nonprofits rock social media

Tripp will also ask me some questions of his own, and I’m looking forward to hearing those.

But some of the most important things we’ll be talking about during the No Nonsense Social Media webinar will be a surprise to me. That’s because we’ll be leaving plenty of time for your questions.

We know the challenge nonprofits face when trying to use social media. Let’s face it, you didn’t start working for a cause because you wanted to learn about social media. Your mission is what matters to you.

It matters to Tripp and me, too. Tripp is an executive coach who has works with many foundations, nonprofits, corporate foundations, and privately held businesses to create their best funding strategies for special projects and annual fund development. His corporate partners give in excess of a billion dollars per year to support philanthropic work around the globe.

He is actively involved in using social media to build stronger, more engaged communities. Tripp is actively involved in helping entrepreneurs decide what causes they can get more involved with upon retirement and before. He currently hosts two online journals that have over 132,000 leaders in their communities.

I worked as a senior manager at an anti-poverty agency for nine years. Through my practice at Communicate! Consulting, I dream of putting great communications within reach of every nonprofit organization. Communications is the “easy button” you can press for visibility, volunteer and Board recruitment, and fundraising. That includes social media, and I want you to know how to make those media your own.

You will get the chance to ask your most pressing questions about social media and get thoughtful, informed answers from people who understand the nonprofit sector. Just take a moment right now and sign up for the No Nonsense Social Media webinar.

Talk to you there!

5 Reasons You Need Great Communications Even If You Don’t Need Donors

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I want your opinionOkay, readers, I’m asking your opinion. Who’s right here?

The CEO of a large nonprofit organization recently said to me:

Our agency gets almost all its funding from government, not from donors. We get almost all our clients through referrals, not from publicity. We need good relationships with state and federal officials and with other agencies. We don’t need communications. If the person who does our website and social media were laid off tomorrow, I’d never miss her.

I think the CEO is wrong. Here’s why.

  1. Government funding for human services depends on public support. If you’re a rich industry and can buy influence, you can get government to act in ways that the public doesn’t support. Human services cannot “pay to play.” If the public doesn’t generally approve of what you do, there’s no reason for elected officials or bureaucrats to continue funding you.
  2. Public support can keep the budget axe from falling. At the federal level, the next Congress will probably try to cut whole programs–especially those that help the people who need help the most. Without public support, you’re an easy target.
  3. Public support depends on communications. Opinion leaders have to know, like, and trust your organization. It’s up to you to make sure they do.
  4. Good writing and social media strengthen face-to-face relationships. Even the people you “do business with” regularly may have a hard time explaining what you do. Giving them handouts and newsletters, and keeping your organization on their radar with email, website updates, and social media, helps them make good referrals (and speak well of you to funders).
  5. When you start something new, you need donors.  Most government money is restricted to specific purposes. Your agency may want to try something innovative, or pilot a program you’ve never run before. Getting a grant to do that might take forever. Having unrestricted donations lets you get started now.

What do you think? Are there agencies that don’t need communications, or is a great communications program a “have to have” for every nonprofit?

Communications Media Come & Go. How Do We Respond?

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manual typewriter

Someday Facebook will be replaced. It may not be Ello that replaces it. It was not Google+.

But something will come along that does what users want better than Facebook–or shows them new, exciting things to do–and Facebook will go the way of the manual typewriter.

What should we learn from the fact that communications media come and go?

One lesson is to value what doesn’t change.

If you learn this lesson, you will find out as much about your audience as you can, and figure out what they want to hear about, where, and how.  Then you’ll craft your message to make it stand out, and you’ll offer your audience a chance to take actions you want them to take (whether that’s eating differently, donating to causes, or marching on Washington).

A different lesson would be to keep track and keep up.

Focusing on your audience and your strategy will always serve you–but it may not be enough. If you’re trying to reach people by calling their land lines, for instance, you’re going to be missing a lot of people who exclusively use mobile phones.

You might decide that the ever-changing nature of communications technology means you simply have to keep track of the changes and keep up with the technology.

If you take this lesson instead, you still don’t have to fall victim to Bright Shiny Object Syndrome and chase every new, cool trend that comes along.

You will realize, however, that new technologies build on old ones. Imagine nobody had learned how to work a manual typewriter. There wouldn’t be anyone around today who knew how to use a computer keyboard.  Or, suppose you had a fax machine but no email. Other people would be able to join distribution lists, and you would be left out in the cold.

Pay attention to timeless truths. Keep track of the latest thing. Opposite ways of facing the same challenge. Is there a way to do both?

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