Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

Never Too Old for Social Media

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You, too, can become a digital native!

A bright and accomplished colleague wrote me with a troubling question. 

There was  a job opening my contact encouraged me to apply for. I hesitated because one of the requirements said “Digital native” which threw me off. My understanding of the definition is people who grew up with technology from birth, but I thought that would be age discrimination, so they couldn’t possibly mean it that literally, could they? Can I get your thoughts about this situation?

How would you answer her?  Here’s the gist of what I said:

You, too, can become a digital native!

“Digital native” is a tricky term.  It should mean someone who lives and breathes social media, someone who doesn’t have to think about how to use them any more than you have to think about how to send an email—and that could be a person of any age.

Sometimes it does (thinly) disguise an attitude that the agency doesn’t want to deal with older workers, which is against the law, as you know.  The more I read, the more it appears to me that age discrimination is easy to get away with and hard to prove.

I like your impulse to head off the criticism by showing what you know.  That’s what I have been doing on my blog, Twitter, and LinkedIn.  But realize that  I have been my own boss for the last few years, and you have a full-time job!

So, I agree that you need to pick your spots carefully.  LinkedIn is currently your strongest medium, and it would make sense to build on it.  If you’re asking me, I would suggest:

  • Get people to recommend you.  If your profile included at least one recommendation of your work at your most recent job and one at a previous job, that would help a lot.  If they can talk about your website skills, so much the better.
  • Post content that you have written.  You’re right, you’ll need permission to post materials you wrote for your job, and you can probably get that.  Have you written anything for outside publications in the field, or for conferences?
  • Use LinkedIn Groups to learn and to show your expertise.  Join some groups. Have them send you updates by email.  Click on links to read posts you find interesting.  “Like” posts and comments that you especially appreciate.  When you can add to the conversation, either by adding information/examples or by posing a new question that moves the discussion along, do so.  All your activity will show up in the Activity section of your LinkedIn profile, and the end result will be that when prospective employers look you up on LinkedIn, they’ll see you keep up with the field.

What would YOU tell her about avoiding age discrimination?

Take a Hard Look at Your Nonprofit Facebook Page

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Facebook like

Our nonprofit is considering doing a targeted Facebook campaign for more “likes” and to expand our mailing list. Has anyone used it, and has it worked for you?

Maybe you’ve heard this question before.  Maybe you’ve even been the one who asked it.

But there’s another question that any nonprofit organization should ask before investing more time on Facebook. Why should anyone like your Facebook page?  What’s in it for them?

We’re All Busy People

Remember that people are busy.  Even if they know you–even if they care about the problem your organization is trying to solve–they have limited time.  Spending some of it on you may mean spending less time on their friends.  Or their hobby.  Or sleeping.

Why is liking your page worth their while?  Will you make them smarter?  Will you make them smile more often?  Can they find unique information on your page?  Can they find other like-minded people actively discussing issues that interest them all?

What to Do First

Before going for more likes, take a hard look at the Facebook page you have.  If very few people have liked or shared your posts, and almost no one has commented,  does your base of supporters find it useful now?

If you’re not sure, ask them. That might give you the information you need on how to attract new supporters. It will surely tell you how to get your current supporters more engaged. 

Because you want more than “likes.”  You want a page that people can’t wait to visit again!

3 Ways Your Facebook Page Can Attract

Here’s a few ideas that might make your Facebook page a magnet for supporters:

  1. Post a provocative question, and prime a couple of your supporters to respond to it right away. Once they get the ball rolling, more people who follow your page may join in.
  2. Do a poll, and promise to let everyone know the results. (Again, plant a couple of quick responders in your audience.)
  3. Get someone who’s well-known in your community to tell the story of when your services (or services like those you offer) saved their life. Get local journalists to cover the story too, including the link to your page.

Frankly, it’s a waste of time trying to get new people to like your page until you have more reasons for them to come back to it regularly. “Because we want them to participate in our auction” is YOUR reason. You have to find THEIRS.

Should Your Nonprofit Invest in Social Media?

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Nonprofits invest social media

Source: Vertical Response

A business woman who’s exploring our nonprofit sector asked me: “If a nonprofit has to choose between investing time in establishing and maintaining a Facebook presence versus crafting content for SEO, where should the nonprofit invest its time?”

My answer? It depends on the audience you want to reach.

Why Nonprofits Shouldn’t Worry about SEO

Search engine optimization, or SEO for short, was all the rage a few years ago. Businesses (and some nonprofits) were paying good money to SEO consultants who promised to get them on page 1 of Google searches.

But most nonprofits shouldn’t worry about SEO. Here are three reasons why.

  1. You might not need to be found.  If you’re a nonprofit, these days you may already be serving more clients than you can handle! The Great Recession is officially over, but many people are still worse off and depending on nonprofits for help.
  2. It’s easy for them to find you. Surveys show that the single most common term people type into the search box when they’re looking for your nonprofit organization is…the name of your organization. They have already heard of you through word of mouth. It’s the word of mouth you need to boost–not the SEO.
  3. What do they find when they get there?  Improving the content on your website may get you better results for less money than increasing the number of people who ever happen to take a look at it

You shouldn’t worry about SEO–but paying just a little bit of attention to it might be worth your while.  Here’s a piece I wrote about “How To Get Found: SEO and the Small Nonprofit.”  It includes ten tips on getting more eyeballs to your site.  (But most of them are not SEO.)

Should Your Nonprofit Invest in Social Media?

So if SEO is less important, should nonprofits put more time and money into social media? You can’t answer a question like “Should we invest in Facebook” without answering these strategic questions first:

  1. Who are the audiences we’re trying to reach?
  2. Toward what end? (Once we have built up a nice, preferably two-way, relationship with the audience, what will they start to do that they weren’t doing before?)
  3. What do we already know about these audiences? What do we need to find out to give them what they’re looking for?

There is no point in using a communications channel if your audience isn’t using it. For most nonprofits, Facebook is the social media common denominator—but you don’t need to know about most nonprofits. You need to know what your specific audience uses and enjoys.

Putting First Things First

Let me be blunt: using social media at all could be a waste of time if you don’t answer these three strategic questions.

And even if you do have a fully-developed strategy, social media may not be the first way to put it into practice. You could invest in:

  • writing better permanent content for your website
  • creating a blog
  • cleaning up your email list and sending out email your readers really want to read

These are the basic building blocks of communications.

Before thinking about social media, make sure you have those building blocks in place. (Think of SEO as how you build them, not as a separate set of blocks.)

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