April 25, 2013

10 tips for crafting engaging tweets

Interact with your audience for maximum impact

This is another entry in our ongoing series on effective use of Twitter.

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, businesses, brands, bloggers, marketers, social media managers, individuals.

Guest post by Valerie J. Wilson

Tweets are a fantastic way to draw kindness and attention to a cause that matters. The key is to engage with your audience and to get them to respond. The more followers you have, the stronger your brand and awareness will be. The goal is for your followers to collect their posse and join efforts to create an even bigger impact.

Read on to learn about the most effective tips that will gain fellowship and followers.

Establish your objective

1Once you know what your objective is, you’ll be able to cater your Twitter account to accomplish the task at hand. There are lots of different types of accounts, but the two most common for organizations are for a) fundraising and b) information and awareness. Once your goal is clear to your team, you’ll be able to clarify that objective to followers. Continue reading →

April 24, 2013

Create a Facebook page fan gate for your nonprofit

Encourage likes by using exclusive offers

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

One powerful strategy for acquiring Facebook fans is to encourage likes by using fan-gating, where exclusive content is available only to people who have liked your page.

The critical part is the incentive behind the fan gate.

You have to offer something that’s valuable enough to overcome the hurdle of liking your Facebook page. Continue reading →

April 23, 2013

Is your nonprofit using responsive mapping?

Geoloco-on-iPad

Photo by ipadhacks (Creative Commons)

Reach your on-the-go audience with mobile tech

Guest post by Brett Meyer and Betsy Ensley
ThinkShout, Inc.

By now, you may be tired of hearing about how important it is to think about “mobile.”

For one thing, it’s a huge topic. Do you need to think about mobile marketing? SMS fundraising? Responsive design vs. a dedicated mobile site?

The answer is, of course, “Yes.” But then you get into problems of time, scale, and cost, because really, mobile needs to be thought of holistically, not in some piecemeal, “Oh, the Red Cross raised a lot of money, so we should do a mobile fundraising campaign, too” kind of way.

Just for fun, let’s review the numbers, because they’re becoming more compelling all the time. Up to 23% of all web traffic flows through mobile devices already. According to Pew, of American adults:

26% own an e-reader
31% own a tablet computer
87% have a cell phone
45% have a smartphone Continue reading →

April 22, 2013

Not too late to enter TechSoup’s Digital Storytelling Challenge

TechSoup-digital-storytelling-challenge
A winning entry in the 2012 TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge.

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, video producers, marketing professionals, general public.

Every spring about this time TechSoup does an amazing thing for the nonprofit community: It reminds us about the importance that visual storytelling plays in advancing causes and missions. And it helps us discover and tell our own stories by showcasing the best of the best in its Digital Storytelling Challenge. (The contest prizes aside, the acclaim that comes with being awarded one of the top award winners is certainly worthwhile.)

digital-storytelling-challenge

If you have a great video that you’ve created over the past year, or if you think you can pull one together on short notice, be aware that you have nine days left to enter your video in the contest.

As TechSoup says about the competition: “Without a good story, you’re just another cause in the crowd. But a good story also needs to be told in just the right way. Digital storytelling amps up your message with technology and powerful images.” Continue reading →

April 18, 2013

6 ways to optimize calls to action in your blog posts

Be clear, optimize and analyze for great impact

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, businesses, marketers, Facebook users.
When you think about calls to action on your website, you typically think about landing pages. For example, your donation page or your email sign-up form.

But how often do you think about the calls to action in the blog posts you’re publishing each week?

Before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s get one thing straight:

The chief purpose for your website is to encourage people to act. Whether it’s making a donation, joining your email list, signing a petition, or changing a habit, the purpose of your website is to encourage actions.

Here are six simple ways to improve the calls to actions in your blog posts: Continue reading →