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 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 →

April 11, 2013

25 SMART social media objectives

How nonprofits can use SMART goals to chart impact

Guest post by Beth Kanter
Beth’s Blog

Using SMART objectives for nonprofit communications strategies is not a new idea. Spitfire’s useful SMART chart planning tool has been used by many nonprofits over the years.

SMART Objectives are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely objectives. The Aspen Institute’s Continuous Progress blog points out they come in three flavors:

Tactical: Tools and techniques
Results: Money, time, or other tangible result that can be converted
Capacity: People, content, workflow, learning Continue reading →

April 3, 2013

Visual guide to successful Facebook page updates

Infographic illustrates how to post your way to Facebook success

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

Pagemodo recently published a beautiful infographic that covers the basics of how content functions on Facebook.

And although your page might differ (always measure!), they’ve outlined some pretty useful places to start if you don’t know what works for your audience:

Posts made on Facebook between 8 pm and 7 am get a 14% higher interaction rate.
Caption this photo posts on Facebook get 5.5 times more comments.
Posts with calls to action get 45% higher interaction on Facebook.
Positive content on Facebook gets more likes, while negative posts draw more comments. Continue reading →

March 27, 2013

3 ways nonprofits can use Facebook apps to motivate donors

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, fundraising pros, marketers.

Guest post by Jim Belosic
CEO, Shortstack

Anyone who works for a nonprofit knows all too well about the donation scramble. This is why creating an impactful Facebook Page should be an integral part your marketing efforts is a no-brainer.

Facebook serves as a doorway to donors, allowing nonprofits to provide brief updates and news bites to constituents. It’s also a one-stop shop for photos, success stories, and calls to action, which reinforce the mission. Plus, Facebook is a favorite tool among nonprofits because of its low, low price of … free!

Using custom apps like ShortStack can help increase donations during fundraising campaigns. Check out these three ways that nonprofits can use Facebook apps to motivate donors. Continue reading →

March 13, 2013

How to build awareness for your campaign

Photo courtesy of unicefiran (Creative Commons)

Social media, data & messaging are among the key ingredients

Target audience: Nonprofits, cause organizations, foundations, NGOs, social enterprises, social media strategists, educators.

Guest post by Mary Joyce

Whether you run a nonprofit, a social enterprise or a cause organization, it’s likely that at some point you run up against the barrier we’ve all faced: How do I get the word out about this amazing campaign?

Here are seven steps that we’ve found make a good blueprint on how to build visibility and awareness so that you can then move people to take action and create impact.

Identify your targets and supporters

1There are two types of audiences that you most likely need to take action for you to achieve your goal: targets and supporters. Targets are the people who have the direct power to give you what you want. They are often officials who have the authority to make policy changes. The target could be a government minister or the principal of your school. When the target takes action, your goal is achieved. Continue reading →