How Google+ Save The World!

Please excuse the sensationalism embedded in the title of this post. However, it is done so with good intention. Since Google+ became the latest and greatest (and shiniest!) new toy in social media, various blog postings and articles are eager to tout what's great about the platform, what's wrong with it and - of course - who is most important and popular on the network. Here's a sampling (though I encourage you to only skim these with an eye toward realizing how over-the-top and knee-jerk these posts may be):

• Already trying to measure who is the coolest (surely Klout will add this soon and the misinformed world of measuring online influence will get more confused and murky): Circle Count


• A knee-jerk reaction to how Google+ appeared initially, though changes will surely follow: The Google Plus 50


• How G+ means Facebook is in trouble and Twitter is dead!


• Why Google+ will change the world!!!

So what does this mean for your nonprofit? And why is the title of this post just as sensational? Well... the title was to get your attention. Hopefully I still have it. I don't want to mislead you, but rather I want to get your attention and - hopefully - keep you from making the mistake many will make with every new platform: Diving in way too fast.

What this all means for your nonprofit is... Take a deep breath. Learn about the platform. Listen to those using it. Play around as an individual and learn what works and what doesn't. Don't - don't! - make super quick decisions on how to use it.

G+ just may be Google's successful foray into social media (finally... remember Wave? Buzz?). But focus your resources on learning before you dive into the deep end. If you need further motivation to slow down on Google+, Google has announced they'll gradually be deleting non-human accounts (nonprofits, businesses, etc.) until they roll out business profiles at a later date. So if you do too much, it may be for nothing.

To recap - What are the most important things to do in the meantime?

1) Listen & Learn

2) Continue to do well on the other platforms (For example, you should really take a second and like my firm on Facebook) :)

Now is Really Gone - Chapter Draft

In case you have not already seen this, Geoff Livingston posted a link to a draft chapter for his sequel to the book Now is Gone. Welcome to the Fifth Estate will be a part of Now is Really Gone, slated to be released this fall in 2011. I share it with you for your information and so that you can provide Geoff any useful feedback. The chapter is embedded below, via SlideShare.

Welcome to the Fifth Estate

View more documents from Geoff Livingston.

Free Non-Profit Webinars - Week of 07/04

For the American readers, followers and visitors... Have a wonderful Independence Day!

Now... A list of upcoming free webinars identified by browsing the interwebs :) If you know of others please email me so I can add them or use the comments section to share the info.

Creative Commons: Not Just for Nerds
Wednesday, July 7, 2010

1:00PM Eastern

From: NonprofitWebinars.com

35 Ways to Maximize Fundraising through Your Website
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
2:30PM Eastern
From: NonprofitWebinars.com

With: Allan Pressel, founder/CEO of CharityFinders

Board Development: Five Steps to Getting Your Dream Board
Thursday, July 8, 2010
12:00PM Eastern

From: Ventureneer

Google for Non-Profits: Get Googley!

Thursday, July 8, 2010
1:00PM Eastern
From: Artez Interactive

30 e-Ssential e-Tips for Your Nonprofit: e-Strategy, e-Fundraising, e-Marketing, e-Newsletters, e-Advocacy, e-Store, e-Everything

Thursday, July 8, 2010
1:00 Eastern

From: Association of Donor Relations Professionals (ADRP)

10 Social Media Tips & Secrets
Thursday, July 8, 2010
2:00PM Eastern
From: TechSoup

The ABC’s of Starting a Nonprofit
Thursday, July 8, 2010
3:00PM Eastern

From: CharityNetUSA

I will also be presenting a webinar with HigherEdHero this week:

Locate Lost Alumni & Donors: Using Technology to Reconnect & Reengage
Webinar Price: $199.00 (U.S. Dollars)
Thursday, July 8, 2010
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Eastern

Summary: Change of address, new phone numbers, new jobs- let's face it, your alumni and donors are not easy to keep tabs on. But with the increasing popularity of technologies like Facebook & Blackberries, along with an increased reliance on email- the task of locating, connecting, and reengaging your lost alumni and donors has just gotten easier. Join us for a 60-minute webinar where you and your colleagues will discover:

• Strategies to locate, reconnect & reengage lost alumni & donors
• Facebook & LinkedIn: Utilizing social networks to reel them back in
• Using iPhones & Blackberries to engage your mobile alumni & donors
• Employing email & blogs in your alumni & donor outreach efforts
• How other schools are using technology to reengage lost alumni & donors

Finding Leads (aka Donors) with Social Media

Blogs and other news sites regularly provide guidance and insight on how businesses can improve their social media efforts. As a corresponding resource for the non-profit world, More Donors finds the best and most timely topics to share through a pair of non-profit spectacles. This takes a look at how businesses are using social media to find leads, but reconsidering the practices for finding donors. Previous postings of: Through Non-Profit Eyes.

How to Use Social Media for Lead/Donor Generation:

...51% of Facebook fans and 67% of Twitter followers said they were more likely to buy the brands they like on Facebook or follow on Twitter, strengthening the argument that social media is one of the most important emerging channels for lead generation. - Mashable.com

1) Continuously Point Users to Your Content

Obviously, part of your role in engaging constituents is to provide useful content. Once the content is out there, you need to make sure your collective social media presence directs people to the information. Posting links to full articles illustrating your expertise take the engagement beyond your basic Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn post. Some good examples from Oxford below:

2) Promote Your Social Presence with Social Links

While this may be from the syllabus to Social Media Marketing 101, it is worth highlighting as part of this topic. You cannot find donors via social media if they can't find your social media landing pages. Good examples from Texas A&M (see lower right of image) and Music Rising:

3) Monitor Conversations about Your Brand and Competitors

You must listen to know how you are being viewed on the medium.

Social media is changing the ways brands approach marketing. Instead of broadcasting messages, brands are starting conversations and engaging individuals.

Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, and other aggregation tools are good for keeping track of various topics.

4) Respond to Customer Constituent Questions and Feedback

You can listen all day, but if you don’t act on your learnings, you will lose an opportunity to generate a meaningful conversation with a consumer that may be considering trying out your brand. Take action when you come across a useful comment, and make sure you clear up any customer questions when they arise. - Mashable.com

5) Use Your Offline Skills

How would you treat a donor who walked in your door with a gift, called or wrote to complain, or asked you to make a case for support? Take those skills and answers and use them as you see questions arise on social media. If you engage and quickly address issues or answer questions, more people will be inclined to take part in your conversation.

What are some of your tips and techniques for using social media for lead generation?

Happy Social Media Day!

I have obviously documented the fact that there is a plethora (a word I learned from the movie Three Amigos... see video clip below) of holidays - popular, odd, humorous and obscure - that can be repurposed for philanthropic reasons. Today is another holiday... one that Hallmark actually did not invent, but is new nonetheless - Social Media Day!

Through Non-Profit Eyes: Mashable's weekly social-media tools

Every week Mashable.com summarizes their stories and blogs of the week on social-media tools. As a resource for the non-profit world, I take it each week and share some of the applicable tools through a pair of non-profit spectacles.
1) If you dig through one of their postings, you will find the following tool at the bottom of a list. Twibbon allows followers and fans to add a logo of support to their profile pictures. Great tool for building fan bases and getting your followers to spread the love.
2) Maximize the reach of your content via social-media. Mashable gives you some great info, all of which is directly applicable to non-profits. Click here.

3) Boosting your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) via a YouTube channel. The basic steps suggested by author Mitchell Harper are:

a) Choose your topics - For non-profits this decision can vary. If you are a service organization you can highlight the service you provide and education can highlight various topics - right? Maybe. The key here is to use topics that will generate traffic and make the case for support. If there are current topics or viral videos that you can respond to and stay on topic, do it. Run the topics by your donors and potential donors to see what impact they would have on support.

b) Record the videos - A decent flip, high-definition camcorder is not that expensive any longer. You can then edit your videos and load them to YouTube. If you need guidance on video-editing software, PC Magazine has a nice page with reviews and pricing.

c) Optimize for VSEO - Not unlike tagging blog postings and photos, YouTube videos can be tagged. The title, description and tags are where you generate search engine results. If you can repeat key terms multiple times in the title, it will help your search scores. Harper uses the following example:

Let’s say your company sells shoes and you just recorded and uploaded a video about “casual sneakers.” You want to use the phrase in the title twice to maximize SEO impact –- once at the front and once at the end, like this: “Casual Sneakers — How to Choose Casual Sneakers 101.”

In the description, you should always include a link at the beginning back to your website. It should be followed by a short description of the video and the benefits of watching it. Be sure to use words that will be commonly searched for by your audience. In the example above that may be run, jog and shoes.

As for tags, Harper hits the nail on the head:

Finally, for tags, repeat your key phrase and common variants. Similar to website SEO, stick to 10-15 phrases. For phrases with more than one word, make sure you enclose them in double quotes, like this: “casual sneakers,” sneakers, shoes, “jogging shoes,” “walking shoes,” “men’s shoes,” casual-sneakers.

d) Build a Base of Viewers - Obviously, post to Facebook & Twitter and link to the video whenever and wherever appropriate. Tag prominent users, donors, and fans that will be able to share/retweet to large audiences. If you have any celebrity followers get them involved (if appropriate)... and by celebrity, I don't mean Paris Hilton has to be a fan of the local SPCA... Consider "proportional celebrities." If you're a community foundation in a college town, can you get the mayor and college president to post/tweet about it?

You can also use your video as a reply to other popular videos. As Harper notes:

...search YouTube for the exact phrase you want to rank for (in this example, “casual sneakers”). Click on each video that comes up and post your new video as a “video reply” to those.

4) Profile Picture tips - Let's take a look at these profile pictures first, as examples. You may want to click on the image so you can get a better look. Note - these are all university or college profile pictures for the respective institution's official Facebook page.

Unless your brand is represented by a random squirrel or guy catching a frisbee, I can't imagine the pictures on the right serving well as profile pictures. That being said, the images on the left are outstanding - they are crisp, appear to be consistent with institutional branding and have an "official feel" about them.

Other tips for the profile picture:
a) Use a high quality image.
b) Be consistent across all social-media (Visit Malaria No More and their social-media pages for a great example of consistency).
c) Know the dimensions. Each channel has different restrictions - use those dimensions to your advantage. For example, the tall and skinny picture for Facebook works well for exposure (see Baylor profile pic above) , where as the short and wide version will suffer (see the top right profile pic above).

• Facebook: Use a .JPG and make your picture exactly 200 pixels wide so Facebook does not manipulate the image. The thumbnail will be a 110X200 zoom on your profile picture - keep this in mind when selecting/designing your profile picture.
• Twitter: Use a square .PNG image. It will be shrunk to a 73X73 image, but you'll want to make sure it is at least 250X250 in case users/followers click on the image to check it out in detail.
• YouTube: Use a square .JPG image. It must look good at 88X88 and 60X60 - make sure it looks good at both and then load the 88X88 version. (if you do not use .JPG, it will be converted and may not look as nice)
• Flickr: Use a 48x48 .JPG.
• Google Buzz: Use a high-quality, square .JPG. that looks good when scaled to 45X45.
• LinkedIn: Use a .JPG - one that is 80X80 for the profile picture and 100X35 for a company/org page (...which I think are odd dimensions, LinkedIn brass... but that's a rant for another day).

Other useful links from the week in Mashable:
Photoshop Tutorials on YouTube
Small Companies Engaging Reporters

Images courtesy of Facebook.com, Twibbon,com, & Mashable.com