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Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

3 Ways for Your Nonprofit to Become More Likeable on Social Media

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“Likeable” means friendly, thoughtful, generous, human. “Likeable” also means something that people will mark like on Facebook.  Nonprofit organizations need to be likeable, in both senses. 

Why must nonprofits be likeable online?  We have known for a long time that word of mouth defines who we are.  In the age of social media, a friend’s recommendation can travel farther–and faster–than ever before.  To keep on getting clients, Board members, volunteers, and donors,  we need friends who will speak up for us.

Dave Kerpen’s book Likeable Social Media  appeared in 2010 with a bold message: the same qualities that make us likeable in real life can help our organizations win likes on Facebook.  We don’t have to be Mad Men or social media gurus.  We just need to think like the people we are trying to attract and give them what need.

In 2013, many of us are still trying to master social media.  Here are three ways to read Kerpen’s book to make your organization more likeable.

  1. For education.  Are you on social media but not sure why, or what to do with it? Read the Introduction, then skip to the Appendix for a smart overview of the various social media. Then read the book, starting with Chapter 1 but going on to the chapters that interest you most.
  2. For inspiration.  Do you sometimes feel like your Facebook posts are the same old same old?  Are you tweeting more and enjoying it less?  Look for some of the stories Kerpen tells about everybody from Omaha Steaks to the Stride Rite Foundation.  Think. “How can we do something like that?”
  3. For action.  Maybe you get it about likeability, engaging your audience, and attracting support and respect by giving information away.  But how can you start moving your nonprofit in the right direction?  I suggest making the Action Items at the end of each chapter into your social media workplan.

“Whether your organization is already deeply engaged with its customers or is far from it, the process of becoming further involved starts with one person, and one action.”  -Dave Kerpen  You are that person.  Read this book and take your first step.

 

Thank-You Thursday: Take a Vacation

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Vacation proudlyThank you for taking a real vacation.

You will be happier and easier to get along with when you get back. Chances are, you’ll be healthier, too, and more productive.

But only if you take a real vacation. Not a “working vacation.” Not a “I’m splashing my kids on the beach and wondering if I should check my phone” vacation.

As Beth Kanter has pointed out, not all vacations are created equal. You only get the benefit of taking time to yourself if, first of all, you actually take it–and second, if you remove stress and replace it with something you really enjoy.

I’m in the communications business. I know how to plan my posts ahead. I could fool you into thinking that I’m at my desk today, and all the next week, instead of spending quality time with my wife.

I’m not going to do that. Know that today, this post is ALL you’re going to see from me. And for the next week, I’m going to be online less. If you write me, I’ll get back to you eventually.

Project Time Off is leading a national movement to transform American attitudes and change behavior. They hope to shift culture so that taking time off is understood as essential to personal well-being, professional success, business performance, and economic expansion.  You will find useful research, resources, and other information to help you make the case for taking your vacation time.

But if you work for yourself, don’t wait. Take a vacation. It’s the best way to say “Thank you” to yourself.

What to Do When the Client Asks for the Moon

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What do you do when your client–or boss–asks you to do something you don’t know how to do?

A friend who’s a social media consultant submitted a proposal to a new client.  She would make sure they had a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest, and write their blog.  The client asked, “What about data mining?”

“Data mining?” she thought.  “That’s not social media.  It’s not what I know how to do.  What should I say?”

The consultant turned to her friends in Phyllis Khare‘s and Andrea Vahl‘s Social Media Managers School for advice.  What they came up with was a strategy I call Many Moons.

What Do You Mean?

In James Thurber’s classic children’s tale, the princess is sick and won’t be well until someone gives her the moon.  The king turns to one expert after another.  They have no solutions.  All they can tell him is how big the moon is, and how far away, and how it’s impossible to give the princess what she wants.

At last, the king tells the court jester that the princess will never be well until she has the moon.  So the jester goes and asks her:

“How big do you think it is?”

“It is just a little smaller than my thumbnail,” she said, “for when I hold my thumbnail up at the moon, it just covers it.”

“And how far away is it?” asked the Court Jester.

“It is not as high as the big tree outside my window,” said the Princess, “for sometimes it gets caught in the top branches….”

“What is the moon made of, Princess?” he asked.

“Oh,” she said, “it’s made of gold, of course, silly.”

So the jester gets the goldsmith to make “a tiny round golden moon just a little smaller than the thumbnail of the Princess Lenore.”  And the princess gets well!

Asking-the-Right-Questions_620

Asking the Right Question

It turned out that “data mining,” like the moon, can be many things to many people.  What this client really wanted was not anything statistical.  They simply wanted to keep their ears to the ground and listen to what people on social media were talking about – and then to join in.

I would call that “social listening,” not “data mining.”  But that doesn’t matter.  My friend could give them what they wanted–and more–once she asked the right question.  And so can you.

When it sounds like the client is asking for the moon, remember you might have what they need right under your thumb.

 

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