Charity Chatter

Social Media Power Words?

Words YOU Should Use

Those of us who have taken marketing, PR and/or advertising courses, will recall the term "power words". We've seen how using the correct words and phrases can sell products, get people elected and change perceptions.

Dan Zarrella has done a great job of looking at what words, phrases, punctuation and parts of speech will get you "retweeted".  We'll get a look at the full report tomorrow.  For today, check out Dan Macsai's summary: 9 most effective ways to get retweeted. 

Big surprises for me?

1. The utter distaste we seem to have for TinyURL's
2. Help - seems to work well here, which is contrary to what we're told is effective in direct response.
3. Higher Reading Levels & more punctuation = more RT's. Again contrary to our DM teaching, which would tell us to be as simplistic as possible.

Not so surprising for me are the words that continue to resonate... You, Please, How To, Free etc.

How will you 'retweet' this story, based on this article?

Twitter: Reality TV meets Documentary?

Ken Burnett Made Me Think - Damnit!

Recently, Ken Burnett wrote a blog prompting us to think more about what we write on Twitter.  I thought his provocative blog overlooked some key points, so being the shy, unassuming kind of person I am, I wrote to him to share my thoughts. Ken posted an excellent summary of our exchange here.

I highly recommend you read both of the above links.  It gave me much pause for thought, not only about my personal and professional use of Twitter, but also about human behaviour, media and the recent trends we're seeing around the world.

I Like Gibberish!

I really do.  I enjoy seeing inside people's lives.  And lets be honest here... so does much of the world! Take a look at Reality TV. Whether it's Big Brother, The Biggest Loser, The Bachelor/Bachelorette and the list goes on and on. People are watching this stuff in droves. Twitter lacks the drama (for the most part) that is often provided on Reality TV, but it's real and people can connect and peek into each others lives in some way. I wonder if the same thing that drives the masses to watch that kind of TV, is also behind Twitter behaviour?

I Am NOT Just a Gibberish Junkie... Honest!

While I will admit to watching The Bachelorette and Gene Simmons Family Jewels, I'm also a huge fan of keeping informed by reading & watching various news sources, as well as a variety of trade magazines, books, blogs etc.  Twitter, in its own way lets me have access to both of these - great content and lglorious gibberish.  But what's the right balance?  Reality TV is a guilty pleasure. It's something you whisper quietly to people you trust not to judge you when you say... "I like that show". Unless of course you say so in your blog!

How Much Should I Tweet?

According to several sources that  I've looked up on the web, the optimal number of tweets per day is about 10 - 20 tweets. Here's one link.  MrTweet tells me that I tweet an average of 15 per day.  So I'm optimal right?  Well... no.  For some I tweet too much.  Is that good or bad? I guess it depends on who it bothers and who enjoys it. And is it the quantity or the quality?  For some the conversational and sometimes inane tweets I share are "gibberish".  For others they are fun, friendly and allow them to get to know me better.  It really depends on what your followers are looking for.  If you have a lot of followers with different expectations and goals, then it becomes increasingly difficult to please everyone.

What's A Twitterer To Do?

I don't know. I could make multiple accounts.  Currently I tweet from @laurie_pringle and @alscanada.  Many of the folks who follow me on ALS Canada, also follow me on my personal account.  Should I create yet another just for friends and buddies who might enjoy the more gibberish stuff I post?   I don't think so.  I really do believe that eliminating that aspect of the twitter experience makes twitter dull and lifeless.  Not to mention, managing 3 accounts isn't something I want to do right now, at least not for the sole purpose of separating out personal tweets.

My Current Thinking

So here's my current, but subject to change, thinking.  I'm going to give a moments pause to my tweets before I post them.  I'll ask myself the following:

• How much have I tweeted today?
• Is this better sent via Direct Message?
• Is it likely to be fun, interesting, helpful, or even minimally notable to anyone?
• What do the people who follow me care about and expect from me?

Some of these are hard to answer and it may or may not change the way I tweet, but at least I'm thinking. I still believe we're getting too caught up in some old "best practices" that aren't helpful or applicable to social media. It's really easy to ignore a tweet that I don't care about and I'd rather have more to ignore, if it means I enjoy more great fun and great content. However, some of those best practices are bloody good and even helpful to our goals and efforts in social media, whether they be personal or professional.

Be sure brain is engaged before putting mouth in gear!

My father bought me a sign for my desk that said that when I was 10.  That goes to show you how our character traits are established long before we hit adulthood :)

So I'm going take a lesson from my Dad - about 30 years later. And I'm going to think a bit more, before I tweet. It'll be interesting to see what, if anything, changes in my twitter experience and if change occurs, how it impacts my twitter experience and the experience of those who follow me and ALS Canada.

Have a tremendous Tuesday!

P.S. I should also add a big thanks to Ken Burnett.  I was a bit hesitant to email him (but far too stubborn not to) due to his notoriety. He is fun and very gracious. Not quite the ominous figure I thought I might find.  Thank you Ken!

100 Incredible Philanthropy Blogs: +1

I was pleasantly surprised this week to discover that this blog was included in a listing of 100 Incredible Philanthropy Blogs.

Not only am I very grateful to be included on this list, I'm also delighted to find that amongst several blogs I already follow, this listing has pointed me to several new blogs that I will add to my regular reading list. 

Take a moment to check it out and you may also find some great new thinking and resources about the charitable sector and philanthropy.

One more quick shout out to Donnie Claudino and his new venture: Cause to Market Canada.  Donnie has just launched his Cause to Market Canada blog. No doubt you'll find some great cause related marketing stuff as he gets up and running.   Feel free to follow him on Twitter @DonnieClaudino.

As the world changes at an exponential pace - it's critical that the non profit industry thinks and moves in new ways.  Staying informed is the best way to stay ahead. 

Happy Saturday!

Summer of Social Good: How good is it?

In my last blog, I promised to discuss my thoughts on Mashable's Summer of Social Good. I may be stirring up a hornets nest, but it's OK, I have an EpiPen!

 

On June 20th's Mark Phillips from Blue Frog, wrote a blog on Mashable's Summer of Social Good. I agree, in large part with Mark's comments. However, I think there's something more missing that Mark didn't address.

 

Where's the passion?

 

Where's the connection?

 

Where's the beef?

 

Summer of Social Good has some of the most well connected social media personalities, combined with some of the largest and most well known charities in the world and the results are lackluster at best. here's what I think is missing, in addition to Mark's excellent suggestions:

 

Passion!

 

I don't get the sense that any one at Mashable really cares about these causes. I don't see any real passion for any of the causes. Perhaps I'm wrong? Perhaps because there are 4 different charities, with no real connection to social media or technology, it's just not obvious? 

 

Consistency 

 

There's no consistency in the message. Again, with 4 different causes, it's difficult to create consistency. We do have a social media for social good message - but none of these charities have an obvious connection to that topic, so it seems disjointed and lacks any real impact.  What do these organizations have to do with Mashable? Why should we care? Why does Mashable care? What is the uniting factor here? 

 

Connection

 

As I understand it, these charities were chosen for their broad appeal to Mashable's readers, followers and fans. They are familiar brands and causes. Everyone knows them and understands them. Familiarity isn't enough. It certainly doesn't mean people will give. It's easy for people on the web to point to a familiar charity and cause and say "yep that's important, I care about that", but that doesn't necessarily translate into action.

 

Inspiration

 

People give when they're inspired. They are most often inspired by someone who is passionate about a cause and who has a genuine desire to share their passion. There's no obvious passion, consistency or connection between these causes and Mashable. People don't appear to be feeling inspired. Why does this matter to Mashable? How is it relevant to them? Why do they personally care? Why are they so inspired by their charity partners that they want to inspire us? 

 

My Vision:

 

Rather than just critique, I'd like to suggest what I think might be a potentially outstanding alternative for the Summer of Social Good campaign. (full disclosure - I work for the ALS Society of Canada)

• Pick 1 cause - ALS (aka Lou Gehrig's Disease)
• Pick 4 or 5 ALS charities in different countries. (social media is global, make the initiative global)
• Coordinate and integrate the messaging, goals, tasks and strategy amongst all the participating charities and the Mashable team.

What does ALS have to do with social media?

People living with ALS become paralyzed and die with 2 - 5 years. There's no cure. In a very short time, they lose the ability to use their arms, legs, to speak... and ultimately to breathe.  Today, there are many assistive technologies that allow people with ALS to continue to communicate using computers.  For many people with ALS, technology and social media is a critically important social outlet.

This provides an incredible direct link that people who use social media can understand and connect with.  They use social media every single day for their own socializing. They're passionate about it. They understand social media relationships. It's a topic that fits with Mashable's content and passions.

People with ALS would be delighted to get involved and communicate on facebook, twitter and other platforms. Just as we get to know each other and make "friends" through our social network activities, people following the Summer of Social Good campaign would have a direct connection to the people that are asking them to help find a cure.

Relationships would be built. Connections would be made and people would experience their ability to make a difference through social media. What a concept!

ALS organizations struggle for media coverage. It's not "sexy".  I know that our organization would gladly provide support and work with all partners to ensure an integrated campaign that inspires, educates, informs and raises funds.

This is the basic formula that Mashable needs to create a meaningful movement: Passion, consistency, connection, and inspiration.

You can't fake these key ingredients, but when you have them, you can inspire the world... and thus far, the Summer of Social Good is uninspired and just doesn't feel like it fits. If Mashable can embrace a cause that has these key ingredients and then adds Mark Phillips' excellent ideas, they'll have an enormously successful Summer of Social Good.

Monetizing Twitter: STFU Stoopid!

I'm beginning to feel like my blog on this topic is becoming as repetitive as The Agitator's many sarcastic blogs on the Direct Mail is Dead topic. Perhaps if I say this 10 different ways, someone will hear it. Then again maybe not... but what the hell, I'm going to keep trying.

Twitter is NOT Direct Response

Let me repeat this. Twitter is NOT Direct Response! Don't treat it like direct response. It's not your cash cow. It's not your space to raise big dollars. There will be SOME charities who are well suited to running a good twitter campaign on Twitter and raise some direct dollars.  However, most charities won't be able to log on to their twitter account, ask for money and receive it. It doesn't work that way.

Look at Mashable's Summer of Social Good. These guys are some of the foremost experts on social media. Thus far, they've raise just over $8000.00 to be split between 4 charities. These are large well known charities, partnering with some of the most well connected social media personalities around. It's not doing well. And there's a good reason for that - which I'll discuss in a later blog.

Do you want to be monetized?

Lets look at this more closely shall we? Would you send out a Direct Mail to your donors and ask them how we can monetize them? Charity and not for profit professionals are posting on Twitter and social networking sites all over the place asking how to monetize their supporters. Guess whose seeing that? Your supporters!

Do you approach your major donors, corporate sponsors, volunteers or any other constituency and ask them how you can monetize them? NO - you'd alienate them immediately! 

Nobody wants to be "monetized" as an individual. How many conferences, courses, seminars etc. have you attended that review the motivations for giving? Have any of them said - people are dying to be monetized?  NO!

Engage, Inspire, & Empower Champions!

Twitter and social media is the place where your supporters hang out. It's a social space, like a local pub, a community gathering place or anywhere else that people congregate to laugh, talk, share stories, information and otherwise be.... social!

Do you remember Herb Tarlek, the corny, cheesy, sales guy everyone hated on WKRP in Cincinnati?  When you wander into social media spaces and ask about monetizing your supporters you become Herb.

People can smell a Herb Tarlek 10 miles away. Do NOT become a Herb! The corporate world moved away from the Herb Tarlek approach decades ago.  And the charitable and not for profit world appears to moving close to it.

Stop it - now! Stop talking about "monetizing social media" on social media. Your donors are there. Your clients are there. Your supporters, champions and friends are there. How much respect are you showing for these people when you refer to them in these terms?

Personally, I'm not giving to any charity who asks me for money without getting to know me. And they can all get to know me on social media. It doesn't take much. Send me some information, retweet something I've said, laugh at a funny link i've posted. COMMUNICATE WITH ME. 

STFU About Monetizing People

Just so I am clear.  People aren't cash cows. Nobody likes to be considered solely as a dollar figure.

See this guy to the left? Charities are looking more like greedy Mr. Burns than charities. When you talk about monetizing Twitter (or any other social media) you're talking about monetizing PEOPLE!

We're supposed to care about our supporters. We have missions that usually include spreading awareness about our cause and raising funds to help us achieve our mission. If we share information, listen to people. communicate WITH them, EARN their respect, admiration, and trust, they will be inspired to act and become champions. It's not a short term "ask and receive" proposition.  If you really want to monetize people - get out of the charitable sector and become one of those multilevel marketing folks.

Waiting it out

Do you expect an acquisition mailing to be immediately profitable? Do you expect a newly launched Major Gift program to be immediately profitable? Do you launch any kind of business or charitable venture (except perhaps an event, which I would argue is often not at all profitable) to be immediately profitable? NO! Anything we do that is worth doing tends require initial investment, hard work, effort, relationship building and much more before it produces results. 

If you're sitting back and waiting for someone to create a magic "monetization" template, you will miss the boat forever. The organizations who succeed at this aren't doing it over night. They've jumped in and invested and learned how it fits and works for them. They invested in people.

Back To Basics: Love Your People!

If you love your people and you treat them like the good people they are... If you take genuine pleasure in communicating with them on social networks - you're ahead of the game. There are many things you can do to maximize your IMPACT on social networks. Many ways to inspire, engage and empower champions and emerging champions - but before that happens, you have to respect them and love them.

Step one in demonstrating your genuine appreciation for people - is to stop talking about them in terms of monetization.  Have I said this often enough yet?

I'll share more steps later - but lets see how many of you can observe step one for awhile, before we go further.

So in short - today's lesson is:

1. Social media isn't a thing - it is people.
2. People are nice and want to be inspired and help.
3. People don't want to be monetized and get really pissed when you talk that way about them.
4. If you view people as "monetization" you suck and your charity will suffer.
5. If you love people, respect people and treat them like people - you rock and your charity will thrive.

Thank you and have a great day!

Au Contraire: Marching to my own Guru

The delightful and very bright John Lepp of Idea Design wrote an excellent blog post about the worship of Fundraising Guru's. I started to respond and realized I was writing a blog.  Thus was born a new blog, inspired by John - my morning Guru.

Who are the Fundraising Guru's?

I named my cat Guru.

He inspires me every day. Nothing phases him and he can swat a fly 6 feet in the air from a standstill.  He reminds me daily of how incredible life is. He inspires me daily to be more caring and empathetic. He fills my life with daily lessons of patience, excellence and reminds me of how wonderful it is to "just be" what you are.  He's my Guru.

People are great and I think every one of us has "guru moments". I've learned great lessons from a homeless man on the street and a man dying from ALS, amongst many others. We put too many people on pedestals and hang on their every word.  I see brilliance and excellence in people without a smidgen of fundraising experience.  I've learned to be a better fundraiser from all kinds of people, both with and without fundraising experience.

Look Out - Contrarian Ahead!

How much learning, brilliance and inspiration are we missing because we simply assign brilliance to everything a particular person does? Or worse, we put a criteria on where to look for brilliance?  Is it really brilliant? Does THAT really make them a Guru? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

Sometimes, I think it's just a circle jerk of people looking to suck up to the perceived Guru's. There I said it. And no doubt, I've just pissed a lot of people off. Not the first time. Won't be the last.

There are a lot of fundraisers, consultants and other very experienced not-for-profit types who bring a wealth of experience and guidance to the fundraising world. I'm enormously grateful for their willingness to share. However, they aren't always brilliant and insightful. Sometimes, their perspective isn't brilliant at all. It's just a perspective.  Sometimes I think they're right.  Sometimes I think they're wrong.  And sometimes I think they've missed the point entirely.

They are people. They have opinions. Their opinions ought to be considered - AND - they ought to be tossed out when they simply don't apply to your experience and/or your own unique ideas and perspectives.

The best Guru Brilliance comes when you don't expect it

I'm not going to set a criteria on who is and isn't brilliant. I'm not going to name anyone, except my cat "Guru". I'm simply going to remain open to brilliance and excellence everywhere and from everyone. And when I find someone or something who gifts me with a "Guru Moment", I'm going to value it and learn from it.

Be open to ideas everywhere. But mostly - be willing to think critically regardless of what the experts say. Sometimes the best Guru - is you.

Who Cares!?

I've been pondering this blog for ages and wasn't sure it was writing. It seemed obvious to me. But after reading and responding to John Lepp's blog at Idea Design, I thought it was worth writing.

Who cares about you and/or your organization?

Is that the question?  Well yes, it is. But to answer it, I think the better question is who do you genuinely care about?  And more than that, we have to ask the following:

Why should they care? How do you inspire them to care? Where do you connect with them? How do you connect with them? Who can help you connect to them? What do they want? Why do they want it? How can you help them realize their goals? Do you really care about them? What do you do to show them you care? Do they know you care?

If you care enough to ask and answer these questions, the people you genuinely care about will ultimately care about you. It's hard to measure caring in our analytics defined world, but there's no doubt in my mind that there's a direct correlation between how much you care, how much others care about you and how well you and your organization are doing.

Relationships are reciprocal. Think Supertramp.

Wow Me - Fast!

How long is your blog post? Your you-tube video? Your Newsletter?

How much time do you need to get your message across? Hopefully it's less than the commercial break on TV.  Or your message and the way you've presented it, is so powerful and engaging that I'm willing to ignore the TV to absorb your communication.

It occured to me tonight as I watched a NFP you-tube video that I have completely integrated my evening TV time and my evening internet time.  My laptop is on the coffee table (or on my lap if I'm reclined) and the TV is on. 

There aren't many shows that I'm engrossed in, but there are a few that grab my attention. I'm embarrassed to say which ones they are - so  I won't!  My point here is that, while I think I'm pretty special and unique, there are probably millions of other people doing exactly what I'm doing.

If you post a you-tube video on social media or send an email, Eblast or some other digital communication it better be good enough to distract me from a favourite TV show - OR - it should be brief enough that I can watch/read/listen to it, in its entirety during the commercial break.  If I pause your video or go back to the TV, I may or may not return and/or I may or may not get the full impact of your message.

Ideally, it's both great and fits within the commercial time.  

And on that note... I'm going to return to my regularly scheduled programming. Have a great night!

Dinosaurs & Dodo's: Will you exist in 5 years?

I wrote this blog last night and saved it for editing today. Today, Marnie Grona at Imagine Canada, tweeted the following video. It puts it all in perspective for me.  I am very concerned that charities who do not remain fluid, diverse and capable of adapting to new technologies and demands of the world, will ultimately disappear.  Watch the video, read the blog. What do you think will happen to charities who say: "we don't have time to talk to people" - or - "our donors don't use the internet"? Will you and your organization survive these "exponential times"?

Direct Response - creating unrelatistic expectations?

I think that direct mail and direct response have created very dangerous perceptions and behaviours within the charitable sector.  We seem to think that we need only ask people to give us money and they will. Send a letter, knock on a door, make a phone solicitation and "poof" money magically appears. Hooray! How easy was that?

Unfortunately, that's not working quite as well these days, but we keep doing it. We look at a new initiatives and expect DM style, immediate payoffs, but "the times they are a-changin" (anyone hear Bob Dylan in their head?).  Socio-economic conditions change. Technologies change. People change. They want to be involved, consulted, engaged, inspired and talked with (not to or at).  Many charities don't seem to be doing this well - if at all.

People give to People

We hear this time and time again and yet, it seems we don't actually HEAR it.  This was also the mantra of our sales team in my corporate life: "People buy from people".  When times got tough, we'd cut support staff, we'd cut IT, we'd cut everywhere - but we'd maintain sales people and in some cases, even grow the sales team!

You can not treat social media, planned giving, major gifts, events and most areas of fundraising like a nameless, faceless cash cow. You have to talk with people. You have to build relationships.  You have to earn the right to ask for their support! This was also a big part of our corporate sales process - it was our last check before asking: "Have I earned the right to ask for their business".

You would never, ever, approach a total stranger in a bar, or at a sporting event and ask them to marry you right away.  (Denny Young said that and I've stolen it) OK maybe if you had a few drinks you might - but even drunk you'd be shocked if they got up and started walking to the chapel.

These websites and online platforms are places where people socialize. They aren't there to give you money.  They don't know you. They didn't even invite you. They are there to socialize, learn, share, laugh and do the things we do in social spaces and at parties etc. Why don't we measure the success of these things the same way we would a planned or major gift cultivation?

Do what it takes & make the time to talk to people

If you are so over extended in delivering your charitable programs, research, and/or services that you can't talk to people - cut them, now!

I know, I've just said a horrible thing - but lets put it another way.  If you're not talking to people today, you may not exist tomorrow. Nobody will benefit from your good works if you don't exist. Better to cut back today, and cultivate for sustainable growth tomorrow than to put all your fundraising resources into grabbing all the low hanging fruit you can until the well runs dry and your organization is dehydrated into extinction.

I've heard way too many people say "I don't have time to have conversations" or "I don't have time to learn all this new stuff".  Make time - or hire someone who can do it.  Do what it takes and find a way to do it.  You're not doing your organization or the people who depend on your organization any favours by doing otherwise.

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater...

I'm not suggesting you stop your direct response.  I have enormous respect for the amount of research, effort and data driven results that have made direct response programs successful.  However, if that's all your doing and you're not spending time visiting people in person, creating an online presence that allows your organization to chat with people, building relationships and preparing for the future - then to quote Donald trump, you're fired. (or at least you should be)

It's a competitive market. A very small Canadian population is being asked to support a large and growing number of charities. Do not expect other initiatives to perform the same way as your DM efforts do. They're not the same and direct mail is becoming increasingly less effective as the generations shift and new technologies emerge.  As the current generation of happy, direct mail donors disappears, how will you replace them? If you're not talking to people and expanding your organizations personal relationships - how will you know where to find new supporters?  How will you know what those potential donors think, want, care about... and how they want to give?

Dinosaurs and Dodo's

Dinosaurs & Dodo birds are incredible creatures.  I am fascinated by them... but they don't exist anymore! I think it would be a damn shame if good charities, doing great work, ceased to exist because they based their fundraising expectations on tired old ideas destined to end up in a museum alongside dinosaurs. 

Make hard decisions today. You may have to cut some services. You may have to help fewer people (for now). But in the long run, you will not only be here, you'll be doing more things for more people.  And you will probably have a lot more fun getting there. People are nice.  Especially, when you show a genuine interest in them. Try it! I promise you'll like it - and you'll be around in 5 years to enjoy it.

Your Social Media Personality

I have found all the social networks very easy to adapt to.  I'm comfortable with them.  In fact, I downright enjoy them.  As I pondered my comfort and enthusiasm with these various information sharing, personality exposing online places, I realized why I am so comfortable with them. I spent years playing MMORPG's.

What the... is an MMORPG?

MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplay Game.  The most well known of these types of games today is World of Warcraft.  I played that when it first came out for about a year.  Before that was Star Wars (which I didn't like much), Asheron's Call (both I and II), with a little dabbling in Dark Ages of Camelot.  This was what I did for fun - throughout much of my 30's.

These games require large amounts of people to build "guilds" (aka teams) who work together, compete against each other, kill big scary creatures, other players and manage personal and guild economic ventures.  You have to work hard and be good at something and build relationships in order to align yourself with other good players and succeed in the games. You do all of this online, in real time.

It struck me that this is very much like online networking and social media.  You have to give to get. You have to provide value. And along the way - you have fun with people.  If you aren't good at something; if you aren't capable of leading and/or following, people won't take you along for the various adventures.  If you're not a pleasant, fun and/or interesting person - people don't want to be around you and again, people won't bring you along for the good adventures.

A good gamer is smart, strategic, spontaneous, adaptable, creative, cooperative, competetive and willing to take risks and invest time in building relationships. Those are the same characteristics that I see in people and organizations who are doing well online.

Personality Counts

The organizations that succeed in social networking will have a good strategy and great execution, but they'll do more than that.  They will have an online personality.  The people that manage their online efforts will be capable of projecting their personality through little typed words on a computer screen.  They'll give value to the people who read those words - and they'll be fun, pleasant and interesting.

So if you're looking for someone to help with your social media and online efforts - maybe you should consider looking in some unconventional places.