Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

All Hands on Board for Social Media

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Let’s say you’ve made the decision: you want your employees on social media.

Many handsIt took some courage to arrive at that decision.  You’ve heard the horror stories  about what can happen when things go wrong.  But you know that people will talk about you online, no matter what.  It’s better for your organization to be a part of that conversation.

And there are great advantages to being there:

Why Get Your Employees Involved?

You could assign your social media to just one person, or just one department.  Why should you get as many people involved as possible?

Because your employees are a source of all the good stuff you can share on social media.  Success stories.  Fascinating facts.  Good advice for people looking to use your products or services, and fast responses to people who have questions or complaints.  Inside looks at  how the organization works.  In short, everything that would make people follow you on social media.

How to Get All Hands on Board

Let’s face it: your employees are already busy.  If you ask them the wrong way, they’ll see social media as just one more task they have to do.  What’s the right way to get them involved?

  1. Ask for their stories.  People like to be listened to. Make a habit of asking your staff about successes, challenges, and memorable or funny things that happen during work. Write the stories up for your website or newsletter…or ask them if they’d like to write their own stories. You can do that even if you’re not yet on social media!
  2. Let them create a social media policy.  Provide templates–you can find some at the link–but let them discuss the issues and come up with solutions that fit your company.
  3. Have and share a strategy.  Make sure that employees know what the organization is trying to do.  Empower them to figure out how to do it.
  4. Provide training.  A person may be active on her own Facebook account, but that doesn’t mean she’ll recognize opportunities to post to the agency’s.  Brainstorm.  Provide examples.
  5. Welcome mistakes and learn from them. You can’t know in advance what will work with your specific audience. Even highly paid “social media experts” goof.  As long as everyone is sticking by the policy, expect mistakes, allow for them, and reward learning.

Has your organization already empowered employees on social media? How did it go?  If you share what you learned, you will be doing us all a favor!

How to Win Loyal Supporters

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Call it a funnel.  Call it a cycle. However you see the process of winning loyal supporters for your nonprofit organization, there are three steps you want those supporters to take.

Know. Like. Trust.

No matter how strong you, your programs or services may be, you will still be ignored by prospective donors, volunteers, and other supporters until they know, like, and trust you.

My colleague Patrick McFadden wrote about this for small businesses.  It is just as true for nonprofits.  So, do you want to be ignored?  If so, you can stop reading right here.  If you want supporters, though, read on!

The “Know” Stage

It’s a truism: people can’t support you if they don’t know you.  So how do we get our nonprofits to be known?

  • Word of mouth. If their friends tell their friends about you–face to face or through social media–that’s the most powerful recommendation.
  • Blogging. Answer the questions people are wondering about and they will come back for more.
  • Social media.   Yes, you can use Facebook, Twitter, etc. to put your words out there, but it’s even better to find people who should be supporting you and actually talk with them.  That’s why they call it “social”!

The “Like” Stage

Just because they know your organization’s name doesn’t mean they want to talk with you.  (You’re not trying to pick them up at a bar.  You want a real relationship!)

So, you must get permission by a) being likeable and b) giving them a good reason to want to hear more.

“Likeable” is Dave Kerpen‘s trademark.  The same qualities that make us likeable in real life can help our organizations win likes on Facebook (for instance). We ought to think like the people we are trying to attract and give them what they need.  Read his book for good advice on how to do just that.

What should nonprofits give their prospects to get permission to email them? Patrick McFadden suggests we “give” them:

  • Easy ways to find what they need on our websites (including landing pages designed just for them)
  • Information in their inbox–news they can use
  • Expert advice in the form of an ebook

The “Trust” Stage

While you’re developing “the Know” through articles, posts, and referrals, “the Like”  through your website, newsletter, and ebooks, you’re still not fundraising.  Be patient.

As Patrick says, “Trust is perhaps the most important step and yet it’s not one you can simply manufacture through one or two tactics – it comes together through a collection of things.”

  • Write blog posts that readers are eager to read.
  • Deliver your newsletter or email updates consistently.
  • Educate.  Don’t promote.
  • Post content on your website that’s so valuable reputable websites will link back to it.
  • Participate in social media by sharing great information and helping others find what they want.
  • Help your prospective supporters before you ask them for help.

What’s one thing your organization does to get supporters to know you?  Like you?  Trust you? Please share it below in the Comments section.

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.

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