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Improve your marketing strategy with free insights generated by Google

Target audience: Nonprofits, businesses, NGOs, social enterprises, socially responsible brands, marketing professionals, cause organizations, social media managers, bloggers, individuals.

Guest post by Frank Anderson
GreenMarketing.tv

You’ve started a blog for your nonprofit, NGO, social enterprise or green business and included examples of your organization’s sustainability initiatives. You’ve highlighted your efforts to reduce your carbon footprint and green your supply chain in your marketing collateral. You’ve created guides for your customers of how to be environmentally conscious with your product.

You’ve laid the groundwork for your green marketing. But things are changing and news is happening fast and furious. There are always new things to be trying and new green ideas you can be writing about to show that your organization is on the front lines of the green movement.

What is Google Insights?

The tagline for the popular movie The Watchmen was “Who watches the Watchmen?” With Google, if you’ve ever wondered, “Who searches the searchers?,” the answer is Google Insights.

Google Insights gives people access to what people are searching for on Google. And before you start to cry privacy foul, this data is on a very high level and no personal data is being shared there. In other words, you can see what groups of people are searching for, but not individuals.

What can I do with Google Insights?

Google Insights is best used for three things:

• Seeing the general interest in the topics you are focusing on
• Seeing popular related news articles to give you an idea of what is going on within your focus
• Ideas for what other areas you could be focusing on

But first, you need to go to the site and start searching for something you are focusing your business on regarding green issues.

Let’s say you run a furniture store. Perhaps you’d want to search for “eco friendly furniture” or “eco furniture” (“green furniture” would obviously pull up some unwanted data). We want to start broadly as Insights works with very high level data.

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They say a picture paints a thousand words, and that may be the case. But if they cost the earth or you don’t have permission to use them, they end up painting nothing much at all.

When my mobile “career” kicked off in 2003 with multiple research trips to South Africa and Mozambique, I took the opportunity to start taking and collecting mobile- and technology-related photos. Back then people were beginning to take an interest in the impact of mobile phones on the African continent, and NGOs were looking to use photos on websites or in project proposals, newsletters and presentations. On top of that, people were just generally curious about what was going on.

That collection now stands at over 150 photos, and covers everything from people around the world texting or making calls to pictures of shops, signs, mobiles themselves and other interesting examples of mobile entrepreneurship in action.

The images are free to use – with attribution – by nonprofits or any other organization seeking to profile the social impact of mobile technology. Visit the kiwanja Mobile Gallery for the full gallery of images, and for details on how to credit their use.

Water, the Web and high storytelling & production values

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, foundations, social enterprises, cause organizations, businesses and their corporate social responsibility (CSR) divisions, video producers, educators, journalists, general public.

This is part three of our three-part series on how nonprofits can create engaging multimedia stories that motivate supporters to take a desired action. Also see:

• Creating compelling advocacy videos for nonprofits

• How to effectively use calls to action in nonprofit videos

With more than 1.3 million Twitter followers, 210,000 Facebook likes, and an extremely accessible and interesting blog called the charity: water log, the organization charity: water has successfully tapped the social media well, so to speak. We wanted to feature charity: water here because it is a nonprofit leader in social media and also because it embodies what it means for an organization to embrace all things multimedia.  

Stunning visual storytelling is the key to charity: water’s remarkable social advocacy and online fundraising success. In just five years, charity: water has brought clean, safe drinking water to more than 2 million people in 19 developing countries. 

Mo Scarpelli, charity: water’s multimedia producer, recently sat down with me and shared some secrets to their success. Some 70 percent of their contributions come from online donations and online fundraisers, so it’s no wonder the organization puts so much love into its digital efforts. Scarpelli noted that charity: water’s digital storytelling drives their success – it’s how they connects and keeps in touch with their supporters. It helps that their founder, Scott Harrison, is a photographer himself and loves storytelling.

Who do they reach?

charity: water uses multimedia to express heartfelt, character-driven stories about the water crisis and the projects their donors are helping to support. Scarpelli explained that given the wide selection of content available online, website visitors are likely to tune out if their visuals are not compelling and professional looking. Crafting stories in an interesting way that people can connect with has really paid off for the organization and the people it serves.

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Target audience: Nonprofits, foundations, social enterprises, cause organizations, NGOs, businesses.

There are three things I know about the nonprofit annual report: It takes a ton of time to put together beautifully, few people actually read it, but funders require it. The annual report is one of those pieces of communication and collateral that executive directors and development directors dread putting together because it is such a costly endeavor with relatively little return and short shelf life. It doesn’t have to be that way in the age of social. We’ve socialized constituent communication, websites, fundraising and events. Why not rethink the annual report into a social communication?

Several nonprofit organizations have done just that, transforming the paper annual report into a video report, and reinvigorating it in the process. Video is a natural medium for storytelling, and that’s what the annual report should be.

There are some significant benefits to a video report: lasting content on the Web, video footage for reuse and changing a report into a discussion. Here are four organizations that have done just that. I was lucky enough to correspond with Nathan Hand of School on Wheels and Derek Weidl of THEMUSEUM, who offer editorial comments about their organizations’ video reports as well.

THE MUSEUM

1THEMUSEUM’s Report to the Community (See video at top.)

THEMUSEUM, a children’s “unmuseum” in Kitchener, Ontario, has a mission “to scan the globe for fresh cultural content and use it to stage experiences that stimulate transformative connections for our audiences.” As such, it isn’t surprising that they created a video annual report that expresses the creativity of what happened at the museum in 2011. It’s a lot of fun to watch, too.

Beth Kanter posted THEMUSEUM’s video annual report to her Google Plus stream, and quite a conversation ensued. Beth commented that the video seemed a bit long, with a lot of insider information. Derek Weidl, the video creator, agreed that “scope creep” played a role in length. One solution might be two versions of the report: a shorter video for external use and longer video for internal use with more insider jokes and  insider news.

Derek Weidl adds that the video has succeeded in a number of ways: “It inspired some donations that we weren’t expecting. It provided a great engagement point online (especially twitter) where people relived some of the great moments and events we’ve had over the past year. It’s been already used in some important meetings with potential sponsors/partners to great effect as it really captures what we’re all about. Also, an underrated part has been the reaction by staff members. Since it involves every staff member, it has reinforced their love of our organization. After we first screened it at our AGM, the staff insisted upon multiple viewings – we all watched it 5 times without a break (not kidding)!

The Sunlight Foundation

2Sunlight 2010: The Year in Review

The Sunlight Foundation offers a snappy mix of text, images from the year’s work, and video footage from its political advocacy work. It conveys achievements and highlights in 2:24, provides a lot of information in a short amount of time and keeps your attention.

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6 easy steps to getting started with mobile donations using Obopay

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, businesses, brands, communications managers, business development managers, chief technology officers.

Guest post by Brannon Cullum
Movements.org

The past few years have seen a sharp increase in the popularity of text-to-donate services. Using mobile phones, users can text a keyword to a short code number in order to make a charitable donation. The text-to-give donation is then typically added to the user’s monthly phone bill.

The majority of previous text-to-donate campaigns have been largely the work of well-established organizations and corporations like the Red Cross. In particular, the campaign to raise funds for Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake drove a lot of attention to mobile giving. But mobile giving is no longer limited to large, well-known organizations.

In October 2010, mobile payment provider Obopay launched a new service that enables nonprofits of any size to access mobile donations. Obopay touts two benefits of its new service: users can donate as much as they like (previous services were limited to values under $100) and the money is transferred much faster (previous services usually required 90 days to process donations).

Note: Right now, Obopay’s service is only available to organizations in the United States. Also, Benevity Social Ventures, Obopay’s software partner, charges a 7% transaction fee for all charities using the service. This means that for every dollar donated, your group will receive $0.93.

In this how-to guide, learn how to set up a text-to-donate program for your organization. Have you used one before? Give us your feedback in the comments section!

Decide if mobile donations make sense

1With your team, brainstorm about why you want to launch a text-to-donate service. What added benefit will you and your supporters get from it? How will you promote the campaign? Will your supporters be more likely to donate via their mobile phones than through more traditional means?

Understand how Obopay’s system works

2 You first must apply for a keyword on Obopay. Once you’ve received your keyword, you can start promoting it to your supporters. A supporter then sends a text with your keyword to a short code and receives an SMS reply with a link. Then, the supporter clicks on the SMS link and donates to your cause using their debit card or by entering their mobile number and PIN. All payments (minus the transaction fee) are then auto-deposited into your organization’s bank account.

Sign up with Obopay

3 Point your browser to http://www2.obopay.com/merchant/text_to_donate.php and click the “Apply for your Keyword” button. You will need to provide your name, phone number, e-mail address, a description of your business or purpose for your keyword, and the keyword you are requesting. You will then be asked to verify your phone number. You have the choice of either answering an automated call from Obopay or receiving a text message from Obopay with a code that you will be asked to enter on the website.

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Advice on the approaches to live streaming for your nonprofit and the most popular tools to use

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, businesses, brands, cause organizations, event planners, technology managers, individuals.

Guest post by Christina Johns
Director of New Media, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews

Live streaming is an area of new media getting a lot of attention lately. Live streaming can have a positive impact on your community when done right and integrated with existing social media communities or websites, but there are some important questions to ask before diving in.

Is it the right kind of event for live streaming?

There are several different ways to use streaming technology. You can decide to stream an event live as it happens, or have a scheduled airing of a prerecorded event. If you are just getting into live streaming, I would suggest starting small with a prerecorded airing of an event, speech or conference session. Once you have the basics down you will feel more comfortable moving on to the more “live” live-streaming events. You can also get started with streaming prerecorded copyright free video as well.

Do I need someone with expertise in video production?

Nope! Live streaming is designed for all. How complicated and fancy you want to get is all up to you. You can also easily host your live streaming event on a blog, website or any HTML editor with very little effort or know-how.

What streaming platform should I use?

There are several providers that you can use to stream your content. The two major players in this area are Livestream.com and Ustream.tv. Both of these platforms have paid and free options. Both platforms also offer mobile integrations and social API options. I prefer using Livestream for its in-event chat functionality, and I also find it more intuitive than some of the other streaming platforms out there.

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Website, email newsletter and Facebook Page head the list for US nonprofits

It seems that many nonprofits have their priorities in order for 2012. According to the 2012 Nonprofit Communications Trends Report from Kivi Leroux Miller, they are putting their website as a top priority, followed by email marketing, then Facebook.

This makes sense when you remember that:

• Your website is where you have the most control around your brand.
• Email is where you get most of your online donations.
• And Facebook is where you get new donors and volunteers for your nonprofit.
• Direct mail is still very important though!

At top is the infographic showing where nonprofits are putting their chips in 2012.

What are your priorities in 2012?

These nonprofits are teaming up with corporations to make a difference

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, businesses, brands, CSR professionals, marketing managers.

Guest post by Daryn Sung-Lee, for Vivanista

At Vivanista we believe that we all have a bit of philanthropist inside us. Beneath the protective masks we put on lays the innate desire to do good. Cause marketing, where a company partners with a cause like breast cancer research or a charity donates funds to tsunami relief, enables regular people to consume mainstream products while doing their small part.

Although there’s nothing like good old-fashioned hands-on philanthropy, it does give causes and nonprofits the visibility and marketing resources they couldn’t get on their own. eBay, the world’s largest e-commerce company, is breaking ground in the world of cause marketing. They started an in-house cause called Giving Works in 2003, which allows eBay users to donate money to any cause of their choice. Basically, users can choose to donate money along with a purchase, or donate a percentage of whatever they sell to an organization. In this way, eBay has made it incredibly easy for thousands of nonprofits, big or small, to receive funds and visibility.

Last year Microsoft’s Bing search engine received the Cause Marketing Halo Award, given by the Cause Marketing Forum, for their partnership with DonorsChoose.org. With the cause of education in mind, both organizations sponsored a contest called Our School Needs, where students from schools across the nation sent videos, pictures and essays explaining their schools’ needs. Bing and DonorsChoose were responsible for donations and projects in schools across all 50 states. As a result of the contest, children gained a familiarity with social media tools like Twitter, blogs, playlists and YouTube, which they used to submit their schools to the contest.

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Target audience: Nonprofits, foundations, social enterprises, cause organizations, NGOs, brands, businesses, Web publishers, educators, general public.

If your organization’s Facebook Page no longer has the growth and activity it did when you first launched it, you’re not alone. Many nonprofits have experienced the similar flat-lining due to shifting priorities, turnover or ineffective strategies.

The good news is that you can start fresh with a few proven strategies to revive your Page:

Use a Like Box

1This is what you might call low-hanging fruit. Adding a Like Box to your website might just be one of the easiest and most effective ways to create more attention for your Facebook Page. Likes gained though a Like Box can also be tracked via Insights.

Promote your Page in emails

 
2Hopefully you haven’t been neglecting your email list in addition to your Facebook Page. Assuming you haven’t, make a habit of linking to your Page in the sidebar or footer of your emails, and also in mentions of your Page in the email body.

Promote your Page’s stories in emails

3Another powerful way to integrate your email marketing with your Facebook Page is to regularly highlight specific discussions on your Page wall that you think your subscribers will find useful. You can get the permalink to any update by clicking on the date (as shown below).

Post diverse kinds of content

4Like you, your Facebook Page fans have certain preferences for the content they like to engage with and share. Some love photos, others love links. Posting a wider variety of story types will eventually get you in more news feeds. And never underestimate the power of simple questions.

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