News Roundup-Mar.1

I was away for the weekend and came home to a plethora of articles and tweets. I sorted through, and foudn a few good ones. They are all social media related (of course) but definitely interesting and useful! Hope they help!

Social Media Promotes Your Business

A Blog is Your Home, Twitter is Your Happy Hour

And Now, Twitter Philanthropy

Social Media for Nonprofits Forum

Hey Everyone!

I felt there was a need for a dialogue to be happening regarding social media and nonprofits, where people can share ideas, connect with each other and chat about the struggles and successes of fundraising.

That's why I've created a Social Media for Nonprofits area at Ning. http://socialmediafornonprofits.ning.com/

Ning is a great social media program that lets you participate in discussion forums, write your own blog posts and notes and chat about what's going on. If you are interested, sign up and we can get chatting about nonprofits!

News Roundup-Feb. 27th

Hello Everyone! Hope there's a great weekend in everyone's future!

Here's a roundup of the news this week:

Calculating Twitter's ROI
Creating a Social Media Roadmap
Reality Check on Twitter
Social Media Marketing
Measuring the Results of Social Media Participation
Social Media Marketing and Web 2.0
Social Media Driven Fundraising

I promise next week to have less Social Media news and more diversity! Stay tuned for a blog post this afternoon!

Introducing Synthesis Communications

I am pleased to introduce Synthesis Communications, the brainchild of my business partner and I. Synthesis Communications is dedicated to helping small businesses and non-profit organizations to enhance brand recognition and achieve success.



This has been several months in the making and we are truly excited to share this venture with everyone.



Features of our website include:



About Us

Services

Ideology



and a Communications Checkup where you can receive a free analysis about your communications materials.



Feel free to drop us a note on the Contact page to share your thoughts and sign up for the mailing list, where you will receive media tips and tricks, free articles and more.

You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

5 Things I Learned From Podcamp

I attended a free conference this weekend called Podcamp. I had heard about it through Twitter and thought I would give it a shot. While I thought it was going to be an interesting conference, (or unconference as it's called), I didn't realize how inspiring and motivating it would be. I came away re-energized and focused about social media, nonprofits and my own business.

5 Things I Learned:

1. Nonprofits and Social Media are made for each other

As I talked through the day on Saturday about what I do for a living and how I believe nonprofits and social media are a good fit, I became more and more assured of the fact. I truly believe that nonprofits, especially small nonprofits, can leverage social media to increase donations, connect with prospects and most importantly, build a community.

2. Everything you do on the 'net can be tracked

I attended a great session by Sean Power (@seanpower) entitled Stalking Your Audience for Fun & Profit. It was incredible the amount of things you can discover about people by tracking them through the internet. Ireceived tons of great links and ideas.

3. It's important to think about the ethics of social media

When I walked into the Ethics and Social Media session by Dave Fleet (@davefleet), I was never expecting to have a hearty discussion about the consquences of ghost blogging. As a writer, I've done ghost blogging for several companies. It was interesting to hear the points from the other side. I think it's a topic that you can debate forever, but it opened up my mind to other ethical issues with social media and how they should be handled.

4. Ideas come from everywhere

One of the best things about a conference like this, is that even if you are hearing information you've heard before, it may spur something new. I spent several sessions jotting down ideas for my business and this blog. I recommend attending as many conferences as you can. It can help you jump start your brain and make you think of things you've never thought of before.

5.It's all about the people

Networking has such an ominous tone to me. It sounds too serious and a little intimidating. What I did instead was meet a ton of people from a variety of backgrounds and businesses. Some potential clients, others colleagues and mentors. Everyone I met was friendly and open to discussion.

Podcamp was a breather from the work, a chance to connect and a way to lasso those mythical beasts; creativity and inspiration.

News Roundup-Feb. 18th, 2009

As a result of a great discussion on www.philanthropy.com, I came away with some interesting links that I wanted to share:

If I Started Today by Chris Brogan This is a great article about assessing your audience and coming up with a strategy.

PEW Report This is a great report that really gets into details about how social media provides a return on investment.

A Brief Guide to Web 2.0 This has a breakdown of the major sites and lingo/buzzwords.


Related Articles: Getting your Board on board with Social Media

Creating a Blogging Strategy

How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media to Their Advantage

New Features

Hello All! Happy Friday!

Just wanted to share with you a couple of new features that are popping up on the site. The first is the News of the Day section on the left hand side. Featuring the latest marketing and media news of the day, this section is a great way to get all your marketing news in one place. Don't worry about wading through everything that's out there; I'll do it for you.

The other new area is Book Review. In the coming weeks, I will be reviewing marketing and media books for non-profit organizations.

Upcoming Blog Posts include:
Getting your Board on board with Social Media
Email versus Print Newsletters
Setting up an Email Campaign
Glossary of Social Media terms

If there are any topics you are interested in, please let me know and I will discuss!

Also, if you would like to receive my monthly newsletter full of nonprofit marketing tips and tricks, please email: lindsey@lindseypatten.com

Guarding Your Communications

This just appeared in the Globe and Mail! (Thanks to J-Source for the tip via Twitter)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090211.wspeech12/BNStory/National/home

The details are these: The Southern Chiefs Association are alleging that racist and hateful comments have been posted on the CBC website in the forum. Now the CBC's forum is moderated, meaning that technically those comments should not have been posted. As the moderator of my own message board, I can see quite easily how messages can be missed.

So how does this affect non-profits? This immediately made me think about blog moderation. If you have a blog that recieves comments, will you choose to moderate them all? If so, have you alloted the time to do so?

It's just another step you have to think of when planning out your blog.

The Smartest Brands in Social Media

Got this article of of RedWire.com's Twitter. Very interesting!

http://mashable.com/2009/02/06/social-media-smartest-brands/

Twestival!

Twitter is the hot new thing but many non-profits are wondering if it can actually be used for their organizations.

Look no further than Twestival!

According to their website:
On 12 February 2009 175+ cities around the world will be hosting Twestivals which bring together Twitter communities for an evening of fun and to raise money and awareness for charity: water.

Here's the Toronto website, where you can get all the information:

http://toronto.twestival.com/

And a great article from one of the organizers about how Twitter can help raise money:

http://erinbury.wordpress.com/2009/01/28/how-to-throw-a-global-event-in-140-characters-or-less/

Charities Still Doing Business According to Globe and Mail

I found this article via Imagine Canada's Twitter and found it very interesting. Basically, it states that organizations are still receiving donations, despite the economic crunch.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090203.wcharities03/BNStory/National

It raises the question; is the economy in Canada as bad as we think?

And how does this affect smaller, local charities?

I have no doubt this is a debate that will continue to happen throughout the year.

For me, I feel it's more important than ever for charities to present themselves in the best manner possible for donors. This means whether it's your direct mail campaign, newsletter or website, ensure that your donors are getting the most out of your communications.

Charity websites lacking in donor engagement

I was reading the Village Vibes (the http://www.charityvillage.com/ newsletter) and came across this fast fact, which I found interesting:


Fast Fact: Charity websites lacking in donor engagement January 26, 2009 A recent UK study analyzing the websites of 15 major charities found that, overall, while most were following best practices of usability and design, few were using techniques to create a loyal, online visitor community. The study looked at 26 different factors and gave each charity a final score based on their performance in each area. Average marks were high in communicating the charity’s key message (78%), containing fresh content (78%), and having an easy-to-use search function (100%). But overall, only three charities were able to score above 70% on the entire survey, and none of the charities surveyed sent follow-up e-mails to donors within 30 days of a donation. -- dotMailer

Here's a link to the full article:

http://www.precisionmarketing.co.uk/Articles/258324/UK+Charities+fail+to+create+loyalty+.html

I find this interesting because the main comment is not about the content or design, but rather the follow up procedure. When building your website it's important to think of everything from all angles. If you are having a donation page, how are you receiving those donations? And how are you following up with the customer?

This applies not only to websites, but all of your communication materials. After you write a blog post, do you just leave it and move on to the next project? Will you reply to comments on the blog? What if you have to moderate comments? How will you deal with someone who is not as kind?

It's important to keep every aspect of your communications in check or you risk looking less than stellar.