Take it from veteran reporters. Your press release goes directly to the trashcan if the headline includes the words “anniversary,” “award”, “fundraiser,” “benefit,” or “annual,” among others. If you think these types of events are newsworthy, you’re not thinking like a reporter. How about if you’re promoting your own organization’s achievements and successes? Take a lead […]
#DESIGN: How To Follow The Branding Guidelines Of Twitter
When is a bird not a bird? When it’s a trademark that has been manipulated and falls outside of the branding guidelines established by the trademark holder. In this case, Twitter. Birds of a feather? Not for that poor Twitter bird: perhaps no other icon in modern business is both better known and abused well […]
#COMMUNICATIONS: Keep Storytelling In Forefront, Whatever Platforms You Use
Oprah Winfrey likes a book. BOOM! It’s a best-seller and a big movie. Justin Bieber retweets something that catches his eye. POW! It’s trending huge for forty-eight hours! Who wouldn’t want that kind of attention? Well, often nonprofits and charities don’t want that kind of attention. The best/worst case of this kind of virality is […]
#MARKETING: Build Your Search Engine Marketing Strategy With Solid Search Engine Optimization
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) includes numerous tools and plug-ins that help (first) web crawlers and algorythems find your organization’s website, so that human web searchers can then find your site via Google, Yahoo!, Bing, etc. Optimization means (in part) key words are placed in specific parts of the website’s code and banners to ensure that […]
#DEVELOPMENT: Social-Networking Is Good, But Conversation-Building Is Better
Difficult to say that social networks have already grown to be mature means of communication. Moreover, some platforms shoot wide and far (vis Facebook for everyone), while others target a specific subset of the social-media community (vis Epernicus for the scientific community). Figuring out how to negotiate those platforms can seem daunting. But we have […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Unifying Your Strategy By Diversifying These 5 Key Points
As we move into the second half of 2012, especially into planning for the fund-raising campaigns of the holiday season, nonprofits also should do a checkup on the face they are presenting on their social networks. Get yourself in the mood to question, re-align, edit… and then get into your Facebook account. The folks at […]
#FUNDRAISING: The Holiday Season For Donations Begins Now. Ready?
The pools are open and busy. The grill has cooled down since the July-4th Picnic. The MLB All-Star Game is tonight. It’s July. One of the traditional/old-fashioned ways to disrupt the heat is to hold a “Christmas in July” party, and your nonprofit or charity should be having one. Why? To celebrate the good work […]
#COMMUNICATIONS: In Outreach, Less Can Be More If You Avoid 3 Common Mistakes
With the still-growing panoply of social-networking platforms out there, one can easily feel overwhelmed with trying to keep up with all the hottest topics on the coolest sites. To add to the pressure, each new platform has its own subset of skills to master, which requires time and energy you thought you’d spend raising donor […]
