We have been using Tumblr for a few years and in the hopes of inspiring you and your colleagues to consider creation of a Tumblr presence for your nonprofit by sharing some insights we’ve gained on using this very popular social network. Tumblr got going in 2007, and really took off a couple of years later […]
#FUNDRAISING: Trickle-Down Lives On at Nonprofits
If you haven’t yet seen Dan Pallotta’s 18-minute TED talk, the viral video of the month (April 2013) with more than 1.2 million views, here’s your chance. Pallotta, who founded AIDS Ride and raised $581 million for AIDS and breast cancer research over nine years, argues that philanthropy is being undermined by our beliefs about […]
#SM4NP: Scoop.it! For Information ‘Curation’ & Social Interaction
Last year we explored Pinterest, a social network that puts a premium on visuals and offers ‘pin boards’ of topics collected/bookmarked/’pinned’ by the user. The metrics on the platform show amazing growth over the last few months, and many are still waiting for an invitation to join up. Scoop.it! has, on the surface, a strikingly […]
#VIDEO: The Knowledge Fountain Promos
The Challenge: The Knowledge Fountain offers not-for-profit organizations a spectrum of short courses online covering fundraising, communications, organizational development, social media, and productivity software. It is a start-up venture co-founded by MKCREATIVE owner, Marco Kathuria and Don Akchin, of Don Akchin Strategic Marketing. The startup was looking for a cost-effective way to tell it’s story […]
#HOWTO: Establish A Tumblr Account & Why You Should Do So (VIDEO)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PUXnDZUcQY[/embed]
A while back we talked about the blogging platform Tumblr, and the series got a great deal of response from you our audience, and we really appreciate your interest and feedback! We want to step up that earlier discussion with a series of video how-tos that will show you a Tumblr account, what can be […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: What Makes Pinterest So Engaging? It’s So Simple.
Pinterest was released as a private beta in March 2010, which makes it something of a late-comer (or the ‘second generation?) of social networking platforms. Its mission was “to connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting,” and its modus operandi was to encourage people to ‘pin’ whatever they found interesting online […]
#VIDEO: Rob Wu of Causevox Tells Us About Developments In Online Fundraising (Part II)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cliy6mWf-30[/youtube]
Last month we posted our first interview with Rob Wu, co-founder of the online fundraising and social-media platform Causevox. We wanted to talk with him because Causevox rolled out the latest version of its platform late last year. Our conversation proved so interesting that we couldn’t contain it in one post, so today we bring […]
#HOWTO: Plan A Film Screening/Festival As A Fundraising Opportunity
As the year’s projects and fundraisers and festivals start rolling onto your computer’s calendar, you might be looking for an opportunity to host a one-off event that can bring much-wanted PR, good karma, and even some financial support. How about sponsoring a film screening? (MKCREATIVEmedia co-produced a film festival for one of our clients earlier […]
#FILMFESTIVAL: Green Guerillas Film Festival (2013)
The Challenge: Green Guerillas asked us to act as creative and marketing consultants and be co-producers of an environmental film festival in New York City at the Museum of the Moving Image, We had limited time and resources in which to both market the event and to produce it. Our Solution: MKCREATIVE co-developed a strategic […]
#DEVELOPMENT: How Much Cash Is Required To Land A Donation?
How often do nonprofits reach out to donors potential and actual online, yet have no real sense of how successful the outreach was? Did the time and money spent developing a program or launching a campaign prove to be worth the support? Dan Norris, founder of the online-analytics service Informly offers a tool to help […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Pew Research Keeps Us Up With Changing Faces of Internet
The latest surveys carried out by the Pew Internet and American Life Project are tracking both the most popular online social-networking platforms and the kinds of people who are using them. We enjoy sharing such findings with our readers because the information the folks at the Pew Internet group can help nonprofits refine their online […]
#SOCIALNETWORK: Are You Prepped For Rollout Of Facebook Graph Search?
Facebook’s Graph Search was announced a couple of weeks ago and it is being rolled out through the Facebook0sphere through February. Though many wondered if Facebook were challenging Google, the fact is Facebook is trying to rejigger how you can access information within Facebook, not how you wend your way through the tubes of the internet. […]
#COMMUNICATIONS: Postal Service Rates To Rise on 27 January
We have managed to put off the so-called ‘fiscal cliff’ for a couple of months, but we can’t avoid the changes in postal rates coming in a couple of weeks. Thanks to our fine business partners at Ecoprint in Silver Spring, Maryland, for the heads-up! The US Postal Service (USPS) has been on hard times […]
#HOWTO: Setup New Facebook Pages & The Types Available For You
With the adjustments and reworkings on Facebook over the last 6-odd months, it’s time to update our periodic series on Facebook pages − Next week we will continue with more information about the scuttlebutt around Promoted Posts. Facebook updates its interface and algorithms periodically. Usually the public response splits fairly evenly into the “love it” and […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: How To Promote Facebook Posts & Why You Might Not Want To
This past summer Facebook launched the opportunity to purchase ‘Promoted Posts’ that − for at least a $5 fee − would be promoted across the Facebookiverse. The more you paid, the more broadly the algorithms (aka ‘magic’) circulated the post. It was hailed by many for- and non-profit organizations as an opportunity to push through the background […]
#HOWTO: Setup A Pheed Account & Why It Could Prove Valuable For Nonprofits
Alright, I admit that when I first heard about one of the newest social networks out there, Pheed, I was underwhelmed. Are we not overwhelmed with social networks as it is? But both professional engagement and personal curiosity got the better of me, and I signed up. The interface looks rather like Tumblr, whose praises […]
#DEVELOPMENT: Do You Have Big Plans For Your Big Data? Not So Fast…
The latest buzz concept is ‘Big Data.’ Like most buzz concepts/ words, its definition leaves much up to the mouth of the speaker. Big Data, whatever the specifics, refers to the large amount of information that can be collected from online activity and exchange of information (on social networks, for example). The ability to aggregate […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Can Niche Online Networks Outperform Your Nonprofit’s Facebook Page?
Our participation in online social networks seems well beyond the status of a ‘fad.’ In some parts of the world, people risk censure − if not their lives − to post important information on such platforms as Facebook and Twitter. These social networks are the current heavy hitters, of course. But what about developing people’s interests in […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: 4th-Annual Social Media Week Will Educate & Inspire Worldwide
The first Social Media Week went live in 2008, as Twitter was just hitting the mainstream and Lehman Brothers announced it was going bankrupt and would take down the economy with it. For better and worse, much has change. And Social Media Week continues to expand. It started to stress connectivity across continents last year, […]
#DESIGN: Is Your Nonprofit’s Logo Helping Your Cause?
Has your nonprofit (re)considered its logo recently? Does it present your organization with the color, the terms, the attitude you want to covey quickly to an audience? For most nonprofits, getting a meaningful and professional logo carries some heavy ambivalence: Of course you want people to recognize your organization, whether they see the logo on […]
#COMMUNICATIONS: NFC Means More Than Paying By Mobile Phone
Near Field Communication has been around for a few years now, though the most popular mobile device, the iPhone, does not (yet?) carry the necessary transmitters to take advantage of it. The technology requires its own dedicated chip to send and receive data. Thus far, Google’s Android phones have been taking the lead in the […]
#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 […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Sweat The Details, But Focus On The Big Picture
Ever feel like your nonprofit or small business is doing some pretty interesting stuff online to share the really interesting stuff you are doing in the real world − but no one seems to be hearing you? You are not alone in having those feelings, especially on a Monday − on a week that sees back-to- […]
#HOWTO: Establish Your Tumblr Account Preferences To Stay Organized
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l88GvCZ6Org[/youtube]
We have already presented videos on how to sign on to Tumblr and how to tweak the settings of your new blog − including how to ensure your activity on Tumblr is reflected in your Twitter account and on your Facebook page (though recent developments have limited the interaction between Twitter and Tumblr, alas). We want to […]
#MARKETING: Can Nonprofits Take Advantage Of Pinterest’s Open Platform?
We talked about Pinterest last week when we discussed the fact that the social-media platform has been opened to the public, who no longer need to wait for an invitation. The incredible growth of the platform, already the fastest growing social network in the brief history of such networks, is likely only to continue over […]
#COMMUNICATIONS: Pinterest Goes Public Though Gender Gap Remains
The big but unheralded news in social networks this past week was the fact that Pinterest went public − not an IPO, but the hitherto ‘by invitation only’ site is now available to anyone who wants to establish an account. Facebook started that way lo those six or seven years ago. How has Pinterest fared? […]
#DESIGN: How To Follow The Branding Guidelines Of Facebook
Corporations, small businesses, nonprofits, and even some individuals brand themselves with a specific set of colors and a type font or two and a logo. Usually those entities want the general public to use their logo, etc, as such use can mean free publicity. And certainly in the world of blogs and social networks we […]
#HOWTO: Customize & Brand Your Twitter Account
Twitter is perhaps the go-to social-networking site for anyone looking to share interesting information, tawdry gossip, breaking news, or knee-jerk reactions. Nonprofits should not only be using Twitter to broadcast their own pertinent information about their current successes and their upcoming events but also to share similar information about the efforts of their peers. Even […]
#SOCIALMEDIA: IOC Struggles To Corral First “Social Olympics” In London
The Opening Ceremonies went off without a hitch. Security concerns have been allayed thus far. The weather hasn’t been too bad. For Americans, we’ve had a few sub-par performances in the pool and on the gymnastics apparatuses, but so far, so good. Unless the issue is how this so-called “First Social Games” is going. The […]
#SOCIALNETWORKS: Let’s Check In With Foursquare For Nonprofits
We have talked about Foursquare, the social network and geo-tagging software that offers opportunities to share your experiences at businesses and organizations of all types. The platform is a comparative newcomer, having been launched by Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai in 2009. But as of this April its membership has swelled to over 50 million. […]
#MARKETING: Build Your Search Engine Marketing Strategy With Solid Search Engine Optimization
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r6–NfGKbsA[/youtube]
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 […]
#PROAGING: Majority Of Senior Citizens Online & Many More Using E-Readers
The fine folks at the Pew Internet and American Life Project marked a notable milestone in the history of electronic communications this past spring: “53% of American adults ages 65 and older use the internet or email. Though these adults are still less likely than all other age groups to use the internet, the latest […]