Take this tweet from Global Giving, using the blackout to bring awareness to its programs:

Need something to do during the #SuperbowlBlackout? Give light to 5 villages in India with as little as $25: to.gg/ao

— GlobalGiving (@GlobalGiving) February 4, 2013

Or PBS, who was vying for viewer’s eyeballs at the same time as the big game:

This might be a good time think about alternative programming. #SuperBowlBlackOut #WeHaveDowntonPBS — PBS (@PBS) February 4, 2013

Even our pals at Feeding America jumped in with a quick visual:

For many struggling w/ hunger, the choice between electricity & food is more than an inconvenience. ow.ly/i/1sVU4

— Feeding America (@FeedingAmerica) February 4, 2013

I bet they were inspired by Oreo’s lightening fast and spot on visual:

Oreo wins. Amazing. RT @oreo: Power out? No problem. twitter.com/Oreo/status/29…

— kimervin (@kimervin) February 4, 2013

 

All I know is that the creative and timely tweets in response to the Super Bowl blackout showcased perfectly the power of social media. It lets brands and organizations, who are truly participating and really know their audiences, show people that they are listening and dimensional. Knowing that there is a real person on the other side of that PBS or Oreo feed helps build a connection to the brand and mission. Hopefully in the long term, but certainly in those 30+ minutes in the dark. 

Read more:

AdAge – Marketers Jump on Super Bowl Blackout with Real-Time Twitter Campaigns

 

 

Movin‘ on up! How to design an Engagement Pyramid for your nonprofit.

Have you found yourself devouring Beth Kanter and Katie Paine’s new book, Measuring the Networked Nonprofit? We are too and just finished the chapter on building a Ladder of Engagement. In this post we’re going to share with you a tools we created for nonprofits to use in designing their own ladders, or in this case pyramids, of engagement.

In the  Ladder of Engagement chapter Beth and Katie profile three organizations, two real and one fictional. Through them they demonstrate how a nonprofit can build their communications and measure them to see if they are moving people to take increasingly more meaningful actions on behalf of their mission. We were thrilled to see local stars Grist profiled, and learn how they’ve consciously built a trajectory for audiences from ‘on-ramps’ with light weight content all the way to ‘policy level discussions’.  (For more on Grist & how they designed & measure their engagement check out this post from Beth Kanter.)

Simple but meaningful, here’s how Grist envisions people moving up their ladder of engagment.
Image: Grist & BethKanter.org

Are you salivating at the thought of having such a clear picture of engagement for your nonprofit? Beth and Katie lay out 6 important steps to building a ladder of engagement in their book. In addition we’d offer this worksheet, which we adapted from Groundwire’s  Engagment Pyramid. After you’ve read the chapter, or better yet the whole book, consider using this worksheet to create your own plan for engaging people in your mission.

Download this worksheet and start building your nonprofits own engagment pyramid

Start at the bottom of the pyramid and work your way up, listing what actions you expect your audience to take at each stage of the pyramid. Page two of the worksheet gives you examples of the types actions to list. A couple key things to consider as you work on this:

• Notice at the top of the worksheet how it says audience profile? That’s because your organization likely has different types of audiences you’re trying to engage. For example, the actions you want monthly donors to take is likely different from policy makers. Consider creating unique engagement pyramids for each of your organization’s primary audiences.
• The pyramid gets smaller as the actions get deeper. Your organization will literally be engaging fewer people the farther you move up. This isn’t failure, it’s how it works. As Beth and Katie say, “…you can’t define success as getting everyone to the top.”

Once you’ve completed this pyramid remember to add your measuring metrics to it. Without measurement this pyramid is static and you won’t know if people are in fact becoming increasingly engaged with your mission. In Measuring the Networked Nonprofit Beth and Katie suggest three reflection questions for when you’re measuring your pyramid’s effectiveness:

What are we doing/writing/posting that has convinced all those lurkers and low-level engagement folks to go to the next steps?

What is convincing them to care more about the organization or cause?

Which posts or tweets or videos contributed to this increase in engagement?

From Measuring the Networked Nonprofit

Beth Kanter and Katie Paine

What other tools have you used to build an engagement ladder or pyramid? Share them in the comments please.

Image thanks to Flickr:pasukaru76 , Grist & BethKanter.org

Disclosure: The links to Measuring the Networked Nonprofit are Amazon affiliate links.
We do get a kickback if you buy this awesome book via the link.

I’m going back to work and plan to keep blogging & sharing.

A special update from Zan McColloch-Lussier, DJ & Idea Generator at Mixtape Communications

For the last 2 and a half years Mixtape Communications has been my hub for learning about social media and communications and then applying this new knowledge to projects with local foundations and nonprofits. Starting next week things are going to change a little bit for me and how Mixtape Communications works. I’m thrilled to announce that starting September 24th I’ll be the new Director of Marketing & Community Engagement at Food Lifeline, an affiliate of Feeding America. Food Lifeline leads our community with innovative and effective responses to hunger and I’m eager to apply the same traits to their marketing and community engagement efforts.

So how does this affect Mixtape Communications? Primarily it means that for the foreseeable future I’II will be taking a hiatus from consulting directly with nonprofits and foundations. Although I won’t be able to help nonprofits and foundations one-on-one I do plan to continue blogging and sharing resources, tools & tips via social media. I will also continue to speak and present on social media & communications.

As I get ready to embark on this new opportunity I want to thank all the great nonprofits and foundations that I’ve really enjoyed working alongside via Mixtape Communications. That would be you:  Springwire, Pride Foundation, a child’s right, Alzheimer’s Association- Western and Central Washington, Beyond the Bridge, Philanthropy Northwest, Friends of the Orphans, Bellingham Food Bank, Global Washington, Mt. Emily Safe Center, KING-FM, Potlatch Fund and Imago.

Here’s to taking all that you’ve taught me and using it to feed people with Food Lifeline!

Your pal,

Zan

Zan McColloch-Lussier

Knowing who your nonprofit is talking to keeps your communications targeted & relevant.

One of our favorite tricks for keeping nonprofit communications relevant is to have a specific person in mind whenever you write an e-newsletter, direct mail appeal or blog post. Today’s Free Tool Friday pick helps you visualize your donors, volunteers or clients.

Tool: Persona Template

About: Instead of trying to appeal to everyone the most successful nonprofits target their communication efforts to particular types of people. Keeping top of mind who your organization’s people are and speaking directly to them keeps you relevant and interesting. One trick to achieve this is to create personas of the people you are trying to reach and then revisit them whenever you’re creating campaigns or writing content. HubSpot recently shared a PowerPoint template for easily creating professional looking personas of the people your organization is speaking to. Although their language is all corporate (e.g., sales, customer, buyer) you can easily translate this to donor, volunteer, supporter. The template is laid out in a nice order, giving you a place for demographic information, thoughts on what they want and sample messages that would motivate this persona.

Get it: Go to HubSpot’s website to download the PP deck in exchange for your name and contact information.

Here is an example of a persona.

About Free Tool Friday

Image thanks Flickr:robellisphotography

Give credit for your organization’s success to your donors, volunteers & supporters.

When President Obama spoke at the 2012 Democratic National Convention he did exactly what every nonprofit should do: he gave his success away.

“So you see, the election four years ago wasn’t about me. It was about you. My fellow citizens, you were the change.

You’re the reason there’s a little girl with a heart disorder in Phoenix who’ll get the surgery she needs because an insurance company can’t limit her coverage.

You did that.

You’re the reason a young man in Colorado who never thought he’d be able to afford his dream of earning a medical degree is about to get that chance.

You made that possible.”

Although people would have cheered had President Obama said, “I helped a little girl in Phoenix get surgery” they wouldn’t have felt an attachment to that success and eager to help make the next one possible.

As nonprofits we like to tell our supporters and community how great we are and all the ways we are making the world better. Try flipping this and giving your success away to your donors, volunteers and supporters. When you position your organization as the conduit of change, as opposed to the sole reason for it, you’ll look behind you and see an eager crowd ready to lend their time, talent, money and voice to your mission.

Image Thanks to Flickr:markgoodwin

Today’s Free Tool Friday is extra special, because Noland Hoshino guest blogs & shares an awesome app.

Zan from Mixtape Communications is taking a break this month. Luckily Noland Hoshino has jumped in with this special guest blog post for today’s Free Tool Friday.

 If you’re like me, you’re overwhelmed by the abundance of good content and information online. There are so many great articles, and so little time to read them. You can go mad if you don’t have a system to sort and consume the goodies.

I am like a digital squirrel (Craig Newmark should be proud). I like to gather information and store them on one of my many cloud applications, like, delicious, Evernote, Dropbox, Pocket, and Google Reader. However, sometimes I forget where I stored the information and have to search for it.

Well, there’s a tool that merges all of your cloud applications into one folder called Hojoki. I know. Awesome, right! Hojoki brings together activity feeds from apps like Basecamp, Box, Google Calendar, and more. The best part, it’s FREE and they have a mobile app for both iPhone and Android.

But there’s more. You can create a work folder and collaborate with your colleagues. If you’re gathering or have already collected articles and information for a project , you can use Hojoki to merge your individual folders together (but still keep your cloud sources separate). Once you’ve created a workspace, you can use the search feature to find a specific article. This will save you time from archiving your own information.

Try Hojoki. It’s NUTS!

Thanks, Noland! Get more updates and smarts from Noland by following him on Twitter or Pinterest or swinging by BcauseMedia.com.

About Free Tool Friday

Creating good survey questions takes both art and science. Get some help with the science part from today’s Free Tool Friday.

The advent of online survey tools, like SurveyMonkey and Survey Gizmo, have made it easier than ever to ask our supporters and communities for their opinions and thoughts. And yet creating survey questions that get at the data you really need and make sense to the user are  not an easy to create. Today’s Free Tool Friday pick gives you a shortcut to good questions.

Tool: SurveyMonkey’s Question Bank

About: SurveyMonkey’s Question bank gives you tons of questions to use in your surveys that their professionals have given the thumbs up to.  According to them using these questions will, “minimize bias and give you the most accurate responses to your survey questions.” When you log into SurveyMonkey and create a new survey you can pick a category, like demographics or customer feedback, and then choose which of their certified questions you want to use. They even have a nonprofit category which has some solid questions for volunteers, event attendees and donors.

Keep in mind that you could always use this tool to create your survey and then design it in your favorite survey tool.

Get it: Go to SurveyMonkey and sign up for a free account. You can find the Question Bank questions when you design a new survey or find out all about them in this post. While you’re there we’d suggest downloading their extensive guide on smart survey design.

About Free Tool Friday

Image thanks to Flickr:bilal-kamoon

I’m looking forward to moments with my family like this one from last summer.

Things will be quiet on Mixtape Communications’s blog, Facebook Page & @zanarama’s Twitter feed over the next month. Here’s why.

I absolutely love my work. I get to spend a ton of time on social media learning about the latest trends and tools and then sharing those with nonprofits and foundations.

I also believe in taking a break. A real break. Not just an “I’m checking email while at the lake break.” But a whole month without Twitter, Google+ or email. (Yes, there will be occasional personal Facebook use, but not much). Breaks like this help me recharge my creativity and be productive the rest of the year. This annual break is also an important component  of my goal to ensure I’m running these tools  instead of letting them run me.

It goes without saying that I’m incredibly lucky to be able to take time off like this.

I’ll unplug starting on August 5th and will stay that way until September 5th. I’ll spend lots of time with my kids, get outside every chance I get, tune up the ukulele and read some of those books that are piling up.  I’m not going to lie – I’ll be craving a Twitter fix for the first few days. But I know that eventually I’ll be able to think in more than 140 characters.

Turns out I’m not the only one who does this. I read recently about danah boyd, a Microsoft researcher, who deletes all the emails she receives while on break. Just this week I got an email from Ameena Falchetto saying she’s on a social media blackout. And even Silicon Valley is encouraging people to turn it all off on occasion, according to this New York Times article.

As much as I’m looking forward to my time off I’m equally looking forward to getting back to all of you and Mixtape Communications with renewed energy and creativity in September.

Do me a favor – don’t post anything too interesting while I’m gone. OK?

Zan McColloch-Lussier is the DJ & Idea Generator at Mixtape Communications. 

The 1,2,3 Marketing Tree is easy to fill out & will get your brand on track.

Ever wish someone would simply break down for you all the elements that make for a strong & effective brand? Wouldn’t it be great if that was a free and well designed resource too? You got it – it’s Free Tool Friday!

Tool: 1, 2, 3 Marketing Tree Lite from Claxon

About: The 1,2,3 Marketing Tree lite asks you all the right questions, and just the right amount too, to get you the information you need to create a thorough and effective brand for your nonprofit or foundation. No time to get bogged down in a big huge marketing assessment? Want to make sure your messages & brand are still on track? This is your simple and effective go-to tool that leads you through defining the what, who, & how of your brand. The folks at Claxon know their stuff and have designed this really nice workbook is such a way that you’ll actually enjoy working on your brand!

Get it: Go to Claxon Marketing & download the lite version of the 1,2,3 Marketing Tree (it’s right there below the paid version, which is really, really worth buying. Really.).

About Free Tool Friday

Meet these for-profit bloggers & resources that can help your nonprofit

They may not write exclusively for non profits, but there’s lots to learn about social media and marketing from these folks.

We’re lucky to have so many smart and good people who freely share what they know about nonprofits and social media and marketing. You probably already follow and read blogs by Beth Kanter, John Haydon, Kivi Leroux Miller, Nancy Schwartz and many more nonprofit specific bloggers. (If you don’t, get on it!)

But what about people who write and share about social media and marketing for the corporate world? Often for-profit marketing is too focused on ‘sell, sell, sell’, making it hard to translate to philanthropy and our unique ways and needs.

I’ve sorted through a lot of these people and companies and created this list of social media and marketing leaders who are sharing great content that’s applicable to you, nonprofiteer. Of course this list is not exhaustive, but instead these are the people and organizations that I rely on the most to deliver the best information and resources.

Awareness, Inc. – A ton of businesses publish white papers and reports, many of which are just geared towards getting your eyes (and email address) on their site. Awareness’, however, are full of great information. Check out the full list on their Pinterest page.  We particularly liked this one on killer strategies for Pinterst & LinkedIn and this one on building a social media team.

Jay Baer – Jay is the co-author with Amber Naslund of The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social, and has a keen eye for how business is adapting to become social. Sign up for his short email that he sends out every weekday about one current thing happening in social media. It’s a great way to stay up to date without being overwhelmed.

Amber Naslund

Amber Naslund – Jay’s co-author of The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social, Amber is one of the smartest, most compassionate and honest people writing about social media and its impact on our lives and businesses. Her blog is a must read for anyone who spends the majority of their day tweeting and facebooking for an organization and wants to do so as a human and not a robot. Start with her post on navigating personal and professional boundaries on the Web and you’ll be hooked.

Mashable’s Social Good section – Mashable is the go-to source for breaking news on social media. In addition to specific sections devoted to Facebook and Twitter they also have a section of their blog on philanthropy and social good. They’re especially good at uncovering and sharing viral videos, like this one about a family fulfilling their brother’s last wish to leave a huge tip  or the make-up tutorial that’s really a domestic violence awareness video.

Francisco from Social Mouths

Francisco Rosales – Francisco blogs at Social Mouths and is one of those people that produces so much great content that you’ve got to wonder if he ever sleeps. He’s one of the curators that I count ot to discover and share new trends and tools Although I should read his blog more regularly, I follow him on both Facebook & Twitter, because he shares tools and tips that are all killer and no filler.

Mari Smith – I imagine that Mark Zuckerberg has left Facebook in his will to Mari. She is incredibly passionate and excited about Facebook and without her most of us would have no clue how to use it well, either personally or professionally. She’s your go-to person every time Facebook makes an update, as she’ll explain it to you promptly and in a way you understand. She’s a genuinely nice and caring person too!

Co.Exist - This side venture from Fast Company magazine highlights ‘world changing stories and innovations’, most of which focus on technology in some form. They regularly profile nonprofits that are adapting to use technology better. Read this regularly to be inspired by how the world is changing and flex your thinking about how your organization is going about its mission.

Brian Solis

Brian Solis & the team at Altimiter Group –  Research galore! I think Brian and the team at Altimiter Group have a crystal ball with an ethernet cable attached to it. They are always a few steps ahead in predicting what’s coming next in social media and mobile trends and aren’t swayed by fads or gimmicks. Be sure and read their free reports on topics like content marketing and how to handle multiple social media accounts at your organization.  Brian is a deep thinker and his latest book, The End of Business As Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution, is a great read for Executive Directors who want to understand how our culture and businesses are changing with social media.

Here’s hoping that you find a new favorite resource or blogger amongst this group. Mixtape Communications’ blog will be a bit quite during July and August so how about spending time getting to know one of these fine folks?

Who do you turn to for marketing and social media advice? Share in the comments who your favorites are so we can all follow along.

Image thanks to Brian, Amber & Franciso & Flickr:baggyjumper

Special thanks to Sierra Club Jobs for help with the title