Category Archives: Marketing

As you may know, I’ve had significant experience as an international volunteer. In some situations my presence was helpful to those with whom I worked. For example, the preschool I helped start in 2002 – 2004 in a rural town in the Dominican Republic has grown significantly over the years and, most importantly, is run entirely by Dominicans.

In other situations, my presence wasn’t as helpful. I remember volunteering in a favela in Rio de Janeiro in 2001, trying to learn Excel . . . in Portuguese. It was a painful experience for both me and the nonprofit. In fact, I probably learned more on the weekly bus rides to the nonprofit than the staff learned from me in all of the time I spent there.

Still, international volunteering can be a valuable experience, and it has grown in popularity over the years.

My latest Nonprofit Quarterly newswire offers food for thought to potential volunteers as they begin their journey.

A great restaurant is a community gem. So is a great nonprofit. The problem is, most restaurants fail. And many nonprofits should fail.

A small business owner I met while consulting to a nonprofit in South America.

And yet, people start nonprofits (and restaurants) every day. I once consulted for an organization that does fabulous sustainability work with indigenous communities along the Amazon River. The founder started the organization with the best of intentions. She had lived in-country for many years. She had a board of directors in the U.S. and in South America. But she didn’t have enough support, education, or resources to adequately fundraise. Neither did her board. As a result, she lost most of her life savings and the organization is going bankrupt. She is passionate about her cause but, unfortunately, passion isn’t enough.

The Huffington Post recently posted an article entitled: Passionate about a Cause? Start a Nonprofit. The author shared 5 tips for starting a nonprofit which came from Wasil Nilan, founder of the Get In Touch Foundation. Paraphrased, her five tips were:

• It’s hard work.
• Hire the right people.
• The Girl Scouts of America’s Bylaws are “perfect.”
• Use a strategic plan.
• Think big.

In many ways, she’s absolutely right.  However, the reality of starting a nonprofit is not as rosey as it may sound. I have a few more tips to add to the list.

Reasons to Start a Nonprofit
First, just because someone is passionate about a cause does not mean they should start a nonprofit. There are a lot of things people don’t often think about like: fundraising laws, filing annual tax forms, organizing and training a board, liability insurance for volunteers, and so much more.

Some of best reasons to start a nonprofit are:

• There is a documented need.
• There are no other organizations already fulfilling that need.
• There are no other organizations interested in partnering with you or starting a new program.
• There are funding opportunities which either exist or can be developed to help you meet that need.
• The founder(s) understand the legal, fiduciary, and long-term requirements.
• The founder(s) are at a place in their lives where they can dedicate the time and resources needed to the task.
• The goal is to fulfill the mission, not to be a founder

Writing Bylaws
Second, nonprofits are not a “one-size-fits-all” type of organization. The Girl Scouts bylaws may be perfect for them. That does not mean that they will be perfect for your organization. Bylaws should be written specifically with your mission and your organizational structure in mind. The bylaws for a Temple will be different from the bylaws for an animal rights organization which will be different from a human service organization.

Templates don’t work. They may be an easy way to get things going but as soon as the organization hits rough waters (which all do), templates fail miserably.  The bylaws, articles of incorporation, major policies and procedures, and all other founding documents should be written individually for each nonprofit.

Other Options
If you are passionate about a cause, it is important to help. Starting a nonprofit might be a good idea. More than likely, it would be better to find other ways to participate such as:

• Volunteer
• Donate money
• Join a board
• Start a new program at an existing nonprofit
• Help a nonprofit friendraise to gather support
• Talk to your elected officials about any laws affecting the cause

There are more than 1.5 million nonprofits in the United States. The annual giving and annual volunteer rate of the US and of various cities doesn’t change much over time. This means that as more nonprofits are added, more nonprofits are competing for the same amount of resources. Rather than add to the feeding frenzy of nonprofit startups, I would encourage you to first strengthen one of the many wonderful organizations that already exist. Volunteer. Donate. Join a Board. Then, once your feet are wet, you can make a more informed decision about whether or not to start a nonprofit.

If any of you are interested in the transition to Electronic Health Records, I had the opportunity to write a guest blog on the subject for Idealware. You can link to the post by clicking here. I didn’t mention this in the Idealware blog but I had the opportunity a few years ago to observe the EHR transition process when I worked at a large community clinic.  It can be a massive  undertaking but the benefits are truly astonishing.

If you don’t already know, Idealware is a nonprofit organization that provides technology related support and information for nonprofits. They have webinars, reports, a blog and more. They are definitely worth checking out, if you haven’t already heard of them.

Cheers!

Underdeveloped, a recent nationwide study by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services confirms what we already know: it is hard to find and keep a good development director. If you have one, beware: in organizations under $1 million, more than 57% of the development directors anticipate leaving the organization within two years. Unfortunately, the numbers weren’t much better for larger organizations.

The report offers a few key points:
1) Development directors have high turnover.
2) Positions often go unfilled for a long time.
3) It’s difficult to find high quality candidates for the position.
4) Nonprofits aren’t investing in the development and marketing activities overall.

Of course, for those of us working in the sector, we aren’t surprised. The development and marketing programs are usually the last funded, the first cut, and the least respected. . . Unless of course you have a good development director.

A good development director can make all the difference. They alleviate pressure on the CEO to raise funds, they attract supporters to the agency, and they can teach the staff be mini-marketing and development agents (also known as brand agents).

A good development director is hard to find. According to the report, “One in four executive directors (24%) say their development directors have no experience or are novice at ‘current and prospective donor research.'”

What makes a good development director? In my mind, there are a few essential elements.

• Ability to raise money (a given, right?).
• Ability to translate the mission into something tangible for each donor.
• Ability to challenge others to think more deeply about their role in philanthropy and our human experience.
• Ability to align the fundraising activities with the goals of program staff.
• Ability to help staff of all positions see their role as brand agents.
• Ability to keep track of, acknowledge, and report on just about everything and everyone under the sun.
• A strong sense of internal ethics and integrity (not as much of a given as you’d hope, unfortunately).

I’ve met some amazing development directors and I’ve met some very shady ones. The worst thing I ever heard one say to a board was, “If you don’t have a personal story with one of our clients, just make one up. The donors won’t know anyways.”

A good development director is also in high demand. S/he is probably being recruited by larger organizations that can pay more.

So what should nonprofits with a good development director do? Hug them! We can ‘hug’ them by providing the tools they need.

Hug your development director:

• Engage board members in development
• Allow them to hire staff or at the very least recruit interns
• Invest in software and training
• Pay decent wages
• Say thank you

This is critical. As the report says, “If nonprofit leaders don’t adopt this major shift in thinking and come to embrace fund development as a central and valuable part of their work, rather than an unpleasant distraction, fundraising success will continue to elude too many organizations.”

How do you hug your development director?

I recently caught up with Teresa Krauss, Senior Editor at Springer, at a quaint little restaurant in Siena, Italy. We were both in town for the ISTR conference and serendipitously stopped at the same café to enjoy a bite of Italian cuisine.  As we talked, I realized that Teresa had some great tips about publishing academic articles that would be rather handy for everyone, including nonacademics like nonprofits and bloggers.

Essentially, Teresa believes that every author – even those publishing exclusively in print – needs to be SEO savvy.   Even if it’s print, it’s being sold and searched for online.

SEO, as you may know, stands for Search Engine Optimization. It’s what an author needs to do with their article, book or book chapter to be found at the top of the results of a search done in search engine like Google or Google Scholar. If someone searches for your name or the topics you write about, will they find you? In today’s web-based world, let’s hope they do.

There are simple strategies that can help your article to be found easily through Google and other online searches.

Here are a few tips I learned from Teresa:

1)      Be careful with your titles. It is best to write a short title which explicitly states what the article includes. Don’t be cutesy. Be concise and clear. For example: “Nonprofit Management Strategies” is far more SEO friendly than “Planning for the long term.”

2)      Get serious about key words. The key words are an important flag that directs potential readers to your article rather than the thousands of others out there. If you’re thoughtful and specific about your key words, you will increase the likelihood of being found. For ideas on what key words to use, Teresa suggests checking the articles of topics similar to yours. What words did those authors use? That might be a good starting point.

3)      Talk to your editor about other languages. Ask the journal editor if you can submit an abstract in a language other than English (presumably one you’re fluent in). If at all possible, Teresa highly recommends doing so. Not everybody is doing their searches in English –especially if you research is being done in a country where that language is spoken – having this other abstract would be ideal.

4)      Get online. Seriously. If you aren’t on social media by now, you’re missing out. Twitter and Facebook isn’t just about Perez Hilton gossip.  There are fabulous intellectual discussions happening on social media and YOU should be part of it, as should your research and/or message. There is wonderful networking amongst professional colleagues. There are tremendous opportunities to share your knowledge, ideas, passion with the world. And, there is the potential for generative connections. So get online. We’ll see you there!

Teresa talks about publishing in academic journals and books but you can see that the tips she shared apply to bloggers and nonprofit organizations.

For example, on this blog I think that I do a good job of using key word tags but I should probably take her advice on writing more concise titles. You can see from my blog list that I tend to go for cutesy. For example, my favorite titles are ones like: “social media policies as beach reading” . . . Fun title but not SEO optimized.

One quick note for nonprofits in regards to tip #3: You may be thinking, “I don’t write abstracts so this doesn’t apply to me.” To you I would offer a thought: – you may not have abstracts, but you do have websites. It’s important to think about what language you are using for your website. I know many nonprofits that have an English website but say they don’t have enough money for a website in the language their clients speak. That’s okay – you don’t need a whole new website. You can just add a couple of pages to the website you do have (using the language of your clients) and make sure that the key terms that describe your services are included on those pages. If those pages are in another language, it may increase the number of clients that can find you online.

Hopefully this has given you some food for thought. Now that I’m back in the states, I know there are things I’ll be doing differently as the result of this information.

Ciao!

In a national report on philanthropic practices entitled “Is Grantmaking Getting Smarter?,” GEO (Grantmakers for Effective Organizations) shared some interesting findings. These findings will hopefully spark the interest of funders and, at the same time, warm the hearts of nonprofit executives. However, they leave me with a question: should funders listen more?

When looking at long term sustainability, the GEO has learned that there are three types of funding support which are most associated with nonprofit success.

3 Critical Types of Support:

1)     General operating support (unrestricted support)
2)     Multiyear support
3)     Capacity-building support

Why are these types of support so valuable?
In a similar report also funded by GEO, Nancy Burd argues that when funders focus only on short-term programs, nonprofits have an incentive to focus on the short-term and therefore may miss opportunities to work on both the organization and the mission long-term. Basically, they focus on the day-to-day and miss the internal and external opportunities which help them survive and thrive.

What does this look like?
More than 60% of nonprofits have less than 90 days cash. This means that most nonprofits are especially vulnerable to lows in funding cycles, economic downturns, and other external factors.  We’ve seen this. After the 2008 economic crash, many smaller and/or unprepared nonprofits folded. The hand-to-mouth business model doesn’t work for for-profits and we shouldn’t try to make it work for nonprofits.

Funders must listen to nonprofits.
A core message from GEO’s report is this: when funders listen to nonprofits, their funding is more closely alighted with long-term success because their funding more closely mirrors the three core types above.

Specifically, the GEO has found that:

• When funders used grant reports to foster learning, they increased multiyear support.
• When funders sought input from grantees and the community, they increased operating support.
• When funders solicited advice from a grantee advisory committee, they increased capacity-building support.
• When funders listened to grantees and the community, they increased capacity-building support.

This is great. It means that when funders listen to grantees and the community, funding more closely aligns with long-term success.

My Question: Why is this news?
I struggle with this information. From my perspective, I believe most nonprofit executives see multiyear, operating, and capacity-building support as key to long-term success. . . We’ve been talking about and asking for it for years. Nonprofits’ budgets need to account for the electricity bill, the administrative costs which undergird the sexy programs, and building the capacity of our staff, bolstering quality of programs and preventing turnover. These cold facts are usually not the ‘stuff’ that sells donors on a nonprofit; however, they are the ‘stuff’ that makes achieving the mission a possibility.

Yet, if we as practitioners know this, why don’t funders? I know many, many funders who do listen and who do understand the inner workings of nonprofits; however, this data clearly shows there is more work to be done. . .

How can we foster deeper understandings between nonprofits and funders which, hopefully, will increase the kind of support that makes a long-term impact?

Share your ideas here or at www.facebook.com/JennysJunction.

The giveBig San Diego is over and the results are astonishing:
$2,109,640 was raised through 6,175 gifts in 36 hours. For those of us following along via Facebook, it may have appeared as if the campaign was run on social media; however, a closer look at the top 10 fundraising organizations shows a different story.

The Campaign Overall

Time frame: 36 hours
Dates: Dec. 14^th at 7am to Dec. 15^th at 7pm
Total raised: $2,109,640
Total  nonprofits: almost 400
Total number of gifts:  6,175
Average gift:  $342

The Top 10:

The top ten nonprofits raised $568,664, approximately 27% of all funds received. The average raised by the top 10 was $56,866. I follow many nonprofits on Facebook and saw that they were active in the campaign. In fact, I saw so many Facebook wall posts about the campaign that by 8am on the day it began I was ready to turn Facebook off.

My assumption was that much of the money was raised through social media; however, that is clearly not the case. The table below demonstrates that only two of the nonprofits tried to actively engage their social media communities in the campaign. Those two – Voices for Children and Just In Time Foster Youth – each posted about the campaign 11 times. This began shortly before the campaign kicked off and ended just afterwards.

Several other nonprofits made a couple of postings  but many made few or no postings. In fact, I have to wonder if their social media staff person even knew it was happening. . . how much more successful would they have been if they had tapped into their online networks. Remember – the average Facebook user has 150 friends. If a nonprofit has 1,000 fans, their extended network is 150,000!

Social Media & the Top 10:

The question is, if social media was not a primary component for most of the top ten . . .  how did they raise all of that money? My guess is that these nonprofits planned ahead.  They probably did one or more of the following:

• Asked core donors to give during this time frame
• Asked several major donors to give during this time frame
• Coordinated the ask with already planned annual fundraising campaigns
• Sent out an eblast to their supporters
• Included a link on their website

This does not negate the overall importance of social media to online campaigns, including this one. Here are some of the benefits of social media:

• Donations from those who many not have given before
• Donations from friends of friends, asked through social media
• Larger number of smaller donations
• Increased awareness – I saw the names of many nonprofits I had never heard from, many of whom came across my news feed from my friends rather than from the nonprofit itself
• An opporutunity to have a conversation about the work you do and why your followers should support you

Blending Online and Offline Fundraising

Our lives today are a blur between online and offline. . . fundraising is too! You can see from the list above that online fundraising must be combined with traditional fundraising methods and strategies.

Did you follow along with the campaign? What organizations did you see that did a particularly good job of engaging their social media community? Please comment below.

Here are a few I thought did a good job of keeping followers engaged.

• Mama’s Kitchen
• San Diego Asian Film Festival
• Voices for Children
• US Mexico Border Partnership Program

Want to learn more about online philanthropy? I’ll be offering a special course on online fundraising beginning in January. Check back for details!

Believe it or not, the US lags behind other countries – including many developing nations – in the use of online fundraising and mobile technology. But one thing is for sure: online philanthropy is here to stay. Nonprofits are beginning to get on board by developing robust social media communities and by creating many opportunities for online giving.

But . . . many nonprofits still have  questions and concerns about online giving. What is it? How is it done?

Network for Good recently published a useful infographic charting a 10-year evolution of the online donor. This infographic shares some of the key changes in online giving.

Here are some of the trends:

People are more comfortable giving online than ever before. Ten years ago only 4% of people had given online. Today, more than 65% of people have given online. 65% is the majority. This means that a) people are more comfortable giving online now than they were ten years ago and b) that nonprofits are creating more giving opportunities online.

Online giving is great for emergency needs like disaster relief.  While only 1 in 10 gifts in 9/11 were given online, a full 1 in 3 gifts to the recent Japan earthquake relief efforts were given online or through mobile technology. In this way, online giving allows for “impulse giving.” However, do not think online philanthropy is only for spontaneous gifts.  A well-planned online fundraising campaign operates with many of the same strategies as a traditional campaign including: it has a beginning, middle and an end; it has a goal; it engages donors in the celebrating the progress; it may start out with a lead gift to get the ball rolling; and it incorporates donor appreciation as often as possible.

Small gifts add up. According to Network for Good, the average online gift through their system was $226 ten years ago. Today it is $73. One explanation of this, according to Network for Good, is that “Giving has gone mainstream.” This means that everybody – not just the wired wealthy – gives online. Many nonprofits are telling me that the younger generation is giving online. In fact, this generation is giving significantly (with respect to their income levels).  For them, it is all about the relationship. Online giving, largely fueled by social media, is a relationship-centered approach.

Social media is key. According to the Wired Wealthy report, almost 70% of online donors was some sort of relationship from charities; however, they rarely visit the charities’ websites. What does this mean? It means the charities must find to them. One of the best ways to do this is through social media.  By building a strong, engaged online community, nonprofits are setting themselves up for future successful online fundraising.  

What can an nonprofit do to increase online philanthropy? Stay tuned for next week’s blog and an exciting opportunity to increase your online giving in 2012!

P.S. Do you have questions about online fundraising? Ask me on Facebook and I’ll be sure to answer!

A well-written social media policy can increase your effectiveness online and save you time and legal fees. A poorly written social media policy will get you one step closer to a lawsuit.*

What makes a social media policy effective?

Four key elements:

1)     The team. A social media policy cannot be written by one person alone. It must be unique to your organization and ideally should include input from many different people on staff including: the CEO, development/marketing, volunteer department, program director, digital natives, and a social media savvy lawyer. The team approach ensures that key areas of risk are managed properly and that, because you’ve already established a common goal and values for your social media activity, any challenges that may arise are handled appropriately.

2)     A Dual Focus. Social media policies should have two components. The first component addresses what staff is doing during work time for work-related business. The second component provides direction to staff concerning their personal accounts and should discuss a) what they are allowed/not allowed to do from their personal accounts during work time and b) any guidelines you might have for how they discuss the company on their personal accounts.

3)     The Basics. There are some basic elements a social media policy will need to include; however, it is wise to not add too much detail in a social media policy. The network sites change frequently. If your policy is too specific, they the policies will quickly be out of date.

4)     The Process. A good social media policy will focus on developing processes for social media including: self-evaluation, staff training, and strategy development and review. By focusing on process rather than content, staff is empowered to stay fresh, be creative, and self-monitor the risks.

For sample social media policies as well as helpful tips and hints, click here.

*Note: this is not legal advice. Your “Team” should absolutely include a social media savvy lawyer.

Calling all nonprofit board members and executives!

The 8th Annual Nonprofit Governance Symposium, hosted by USD’s Nonprofit Institute for Education and Research, will be held January 6-7, 2012 in San Diego, CA.

This annual event is an opportunity to look at nonprofit governance from a practical, real-world perspective. Participants walk away with information they can implement Monday morning.

I am excited to co-present “Online Fundraising: The Anatomy of an Online Ask” with Donald Stump of North County Lifeline. 

There are many other incredible presentations. For a full listing, click here. All attendees will receive conference materials for all presentations.

This year we’ve actually broken the Symposium out into two themes – one for each day. Friday focuses on practical  board services topics such as meaningful engagement, succession planning and creating positive energy. Saturday focuses on money and how to bring it in, manage it well, keep it legal, and advance your cause.

Click here to register today! Last year the event sold out.

Thanks for all you do to advance San Diego’s nonprofit sector.

“You don’t have to be a Veterinarian to own a pet and you don’t have to be a political expert to lobby,” says Pat Libby, recent author of the Lobbying Strategy Handbook and Director of the Nonprofit Institute for Research and Education.

Many nonprofits avoid lobbying and therefore lose valuable opportunities to advance our missions and our sector. Many think, “Lobbying is what they do, it isn’t what we do.”

Pat disagrees passionately. She argues that lobbying is less complicated than many nonprofits believe. It is 100% legal. And, it’s effective.

Let’s look at the legal concerns. In 1976 the IRS was asked, “How much lobbying are nonprofits allowed to do and still preserve their status as nonprofits?” The answer was, “An insubstantial amount.” But . . what exactly is an insubstantial amount? We don’t know.

However, if nonprofits file a 501(h) election, electing voluntarily to meet an expenditure test, the amount of allowed lobbying is spelled out quite clearly. Lobbying expenditures then are reported annually on the beloved 990, providing the IRS, CEO, and the Board with the peace of mind transparency brings.

Overall, this is great news:
1) If you fill out the form you get concrete answers about what the dollar limits are for nonprofit lobbying. Just remember to put tracking systems into place before you begin.
2) You don’t have to waste a lot of time on the form. In fact, if there was an award for the simplest IRS form ever invented, the 501(h) might win. It’s only two questions.

This means that your time can – and should – be spent on actual lobbying, not on forms. . . but don’t worry.

Lobbying isn’t complicated. Pat’s book offers a 10 step process for effective lobbying. These steps include everything from research, branding, coalition building, media, and – of course – working with elected officials. Most of these steps are skills the average nonprofit CEO already possesses. Pat also encourages nonprofits to ask lawmakers’ and their staff for guidance in the process. If you’re on the same side of the issue, you’re partners.

Lobbying is effective. The book provides a series of real world examples provided by students in Advocacy class taught as a part of a Master’s Degree in Nonprofit Leadership and Management. Many of her students successfully passed on legislation. Being an alumna of the MA program, I’ve met many of these former students and can vouch that they were surprised at how simple the process was despite in many cases a lack of prior experience.

Why should nonprofits lobby? Pat argues that lobbying is our democratic responsibility. As nonprofits, we have a special responsibility to our constituencies. We also have a special opportunity to mobilize the community. Remember, many organizations can and do lobby effectively. Our world is a better place for it.

This post is a part of our “Stay Tuned” blog series where I interview experts on a variety of topics. If you have a topic you’d like to see covered, please add it in the comments below.

Today I am sharing exciting news. As you know, I’ve been working in and consulting for nonprofits for many years. This week I am launching a new service – webinars.

I’m passionate about social media policies. I’ve read so many horror stories about policies that were written badly or weren’t written at all. I hate to see nonprofits get into trouble when it can be avoided.

This webinar series will help. Here are the details:

Webinar #1: Essential Components of a Social Media Policy FREE
Thursday 10/13 from 11am – 11:30am PST
Everyone knows we need a social media policy but few know what to write. This webinar will explain the key elements of a social media policy. It will provide ideas on what to include and what you should absolutely never include (unless you want to be sued). You’ll also receive resources and sample policies.

Webinar#2: Before you Write the Grant: Three Steps to Starting on  ocial Media $35
Thursday 11/3 from 11am – 12pm PST
There are three things you must do before you start on social media. We’ll review these three steps and provide practical tips on how to get your agency started in social media without over committing yourself.  We’ll look at metrics and evaluation. We’ll highlight best practices from agencies local and national.  When you write that grant, you will be confident your program design will get a funder’s attention.

Webinar #3: The 7 Social Media Mistakes Most Nonprofits Make (but you can avoid) $35
Thursday 11/17 from 11am – 12pm PST
This webinar will cover the 7 mistakes most nonprofits make on social media and how you can avoid them. These mistakes can damage your reputation at best and lead to law suits at worst. The good news? You can easily avoid them. The discussion will run the gamut from marketing to fundraising, policy to employee education. We’ll highlight best practices and provide tips you can use right away.

Upcoming Webinars include:

• The 9 Laws Companies Most Often Break on Social Media
• Social Media for Execs and Board Members . . .Let’s talk about privacy
• Online Fundraising: Paving the Way to Success

For more information or to register: https://jenniferamandajones.com/webinars/
To receive emails about upcoming webinars: Click Here

Please share this information with anyone you think might be interested. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Have an idea for a future topic? Add it to the comments below.

The National Labor Relations Review Board recently released a 24 page report concerning 14 social media related cases. There are 2 key lessons every employer should learn from this report. . . . Read on.

First, some background. For those of you who may not know, The National Labor Relations Act was enacted in 1935 by Congress. It has three primary purposes: protect rights of both employees and employers, encourage collective bargaining, and curtail harmful private sector labor and management practices. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal agency which ensures these rights are protected. The NLRB is composed of a five member board, each appointed by the president for five-year terms. The board serves as a quasi-judicial body in making case decisions based on administrative hearings.

The term “protected concerted activity” is used to describe the rights of employees to act together on matters which concern the terms and condition of their employment, including the right of one employee to act on behalf of other employees. When the act was written, such activity mostly took place in person during face-to-face conversations. Today, much of “protected, concerted activity” can and does take place online.

It does get tricky. There is a fine line between what is and is not protected, especially where social media is concerned. Just because an employee is ranting online about an employer, does not mean the rant is “protected concerted activity.” Some determining factors include: are other employees involved in the discussion (and how so)?, and is the employee acting on the behalf of other employees?

The report released on 8/18/11 by the NLRB provides some insight for CEOs determining social media policies for their agencies. I highly recommend that any CEO or HR Director make the time to read this document, located on their main website.

Two key lessons from the memo are:

• Four of the cases reviewed found that the activity was protected by the NLRA. In five cases, activity was not found to be protected by the NLRA.  Bottom line: employers should not make policies which limit (or appear to limit) employees’ right to discuss issues concerning terms and condition of employment with other employees and with the media. . . Be very careful when you tell employees what they can or cannot do on their own time.

• Five of the cases reviewed in the memo found the employer at fault for overly broad policies. Bottom line: policies should be specific enough to be applicable. . . Is that vague enough for you? For tips on creating policies and for sample policies, visit my Social Media Policies resource page.

I will continue to watch for and pass along to you any important updates from the NLRB.

Food for thought: your best policy for social media may not be your social media policy at all. Perhaps your best policy concerns how you resolve grievances. This is both a written policy (or policies) and an organizational culture.

For more information about creating social media policies, visit my Social Media Policies Page.

More than 70% of American professionals are overwhelmed by information and 40% said they were near a ‘breaking point’ according to a 2008 study.

We are pummeled by information all day long. It’s no wonder we often return home at the end of the day tired and with little energy for friends and family.

Information overload is a tremendous brain drain. Research studies indicate that the USA wastes hundreds of billions of dollars in the time people spend processing information rather than creating.

How do we stop the information overload? How do we redevelop our creative energies? Here are some simple yet effective tips.

1)     Focus your energies. Do you know what your professional and
personal goals are? Do you know what strategies you will use to achieve them?
Do you have a timeline? Answering “Yes!” to these three questions will allow
you to focus your activities on creating the life you want. . . . Wait – this sounds counter intuitive. If we’re trying to be creative, why would we write a script?  The answer is simple – once you’ve committed your intentions towards a goal, it is easier to say no to the millions of bytes of information (and funny videos) that don’t get you closer to where you want to be.

2)     Harness technology. Sites like Hootsutie, Social Oomph, Media
Funnl, TweetDeck, and Threadsy can help focus social media energies by
streamlining multiple accounts. . . . But don’t lose track of the important people!
It’s smart to separate friends from acquaintances. This will help ensure you stay
up to date on your friends’ lives and never miss a birthday.

3)     Take a walk. Studies show that when we spend time in nature, our memory improves and we think more effectively. If you find it difficult to fit
exercise into your daily routine, try getting up 20 minutes earlier or taking a
stroll during lunch. The trick is to get exercise – preferably in nature – on your
calendar before the rest of the world places demands upon your precious time. When I am working at a computer all day, a brisk walk every couple of hours is an amazing rejuvenator.

4)     Invite a friend over for dinner. When we spend large amounts of
time online, our brains’ capacity for reasoning is exercised but important qualities like empathy are left underdeveloped. Literally. This has been proven by neuroscience. Sharing a meal with a friend is a great way to nourish our bodies and our souls.

5)     Take a break. Yohaku literally translated means ‘white space.’ It is a Japanese term which refers to areas intentionally left open as an invitation for the observer to enter.  It is a space of contemplation and of rejuvenation.  According to Diane Dreher, author of the Tao of Womanhood, a Yohaku
break might be just the thing we need to manage information overload. A Yohaku break might include reading a good book under a tree, cooking a healthy meal, allowing plenty of time between meetings, or spending time with a loved one at home and without commitments. It doesn’t matter what constitutes a Yohaku break for you so long as you take one. Regularly.

At our core we are creative beings. If it isn’t harnessed, information overload can jeopardize our creativity. However, when our values are in alignment with our actions, it becomes easier and easier to whittle down the information overload and create the experiences in life we want.

When organizations venture into social media, it is often with their eyes closed. A forward-thinking Gen X or Gen Y staff member says, “Hey, can I try this?” and off they go. . . Unfortunately, there is something missing: social media for professional use is not the same as media for personal use.

There are a myriad of decisions that need to be made up front and throughout the process. From HR to IT, these decisions require the combined expertise of your entire team. Rarely can they be made by one person alone.

Who should be at the table and what role do they play?

• Marketing Director – provides input on branding, constituent relationship management, and integrating activities with overall marketing plan
• IT Director – provides input on computer security, technical support
• HR Director – monitors employee related issues that may will arise
• Programs/Sales Director – ensures that activities meet predetermined objectives
• Staff responsible for online activity – brings new ideas and concerns to the group, helps the team membersbetter understand the “online underworld”

If it is just you and you don’t have a team to assemble, make sure you are thinking through decisions with each of these hats in mind.

How should decisions be made?

Most of the initial decisions about how to brand, how to interact with constituents, establish goals, and manage risk should be made at the group level. Why? Because social media is uncharted territory; there are not many precedent setting court decisions that can guide our decisions. Activities must be both tempered by the experience and prodded by the enthusiasm. It is a delicate balance.

Your team doesn’t have to do this alone. Be a snoop. Take time as a group to look at the sites of other organizations similar to yours. Look at what they are doing well and what they are not doing so well. Look at major brands like Coca-Cola or the Red Cross. They pour marketing dollars into social media. Learn from them (and save your money).

What decisions need to be made?

There are many, many decisions that need to be made should you decide to explore the cyber world. Unfortunately, from a legal and risk management perspective, we don’t yet know all of the questions. We must tread lightly.

Some decisions will need to be made upfront. What follows below are a list of some of those decisions.

• Why do we want to be online? What do we hope to accomplish? How will we track our success?
• What resources are we willing to invest?
• How willing are we to allow the online communities to engage with our brand, thus potentially losing control of our messaging?
• How will we handle negative comments?
• How will we safeguard client privacy?
• How will we safeguard our employees? Intrinsic to this question is how public will the employees themselves be in our activities and, should that employee’s personal accounts eventually be connected to public accounts, what challenges can be expected?

Many more decisions will need to be made on a daily basis by those tasked with maintaining the sites and activity. Some of these decisions will have far reaching consequences. How staff responds to a negative post will impact the trust you have with your online community. Up front, you can establish values and guidelines; however, there may be difficult decisions that need to be made. If the staff responsible for the activity has the expertise of your team available to support him/her, their decisions will be enhanced.

Still other decisions will need to be made in the months and years ahead, as the online world changes, as court decisions come down, and as your organization changes. We don’t yet know what all of those questions are or will be. Keep your original committee close. If they are continuously informed about what is going on, they will be in a better position to help the organization make better decisions down the road.

The old adage applies: “failing to plan is planning to fail.”. . . only in this case, instead of just planning you are safeguarding your organization by “planning how to decide, even when the questions aren’t yet clear.”

Want more information on where to start? Read: Social Media: Start Here.

Just starting on social media? It is tempting to want to be everywhere. Either everywhere, or nowhere. If we try to be  everywhere, we are quickly overwhelmed by the hundreds of choices and billions of conversations. If we go nowhere, we lose valuable opportunities. Is there a happy medium?

With hundreds of social media sites, no business can afford the time to be on every site. It is important to make sure you are on the right sites for you. Which ones will expand your portfolio? Which will generate new leads?

Here are three simple questions to consider:

1)     Where are your people? If your target audience is on MySpace (even though MySpace is losing clients by the droves), you want to be on MySpace. If they are on YouTube, well, that is the place you’d want to be. How do you find out? You ask. You can ask your constituents in casual conversations or conduct a quick poll on your website or enewsletter. You can conduct a quick focus group or ask your staff. You can also visit the social media sites and investigate. . . . who uses the site? What kinds of conversations do they have?

Of course, question number 1 assumes you can identify your target
audience. If you cannot describe your target audience, you might want to figure that out first. Then come back to social media. We’ll be waiting.

2)     Forget your people, where are most people? Three of
the most popular social media sites are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. If you want to start somewhere, those three are a safe bet.

Facebook has more than 500 million members and those members are spending more time on the site in 2011 than they did in 2010. Facebook users span the generations.

Twitter has more than 125 million members. This may seem insignificant compared to Facebook, especially when you realize many of those members are not active on their accounts. Don’t be fooled. Chadwick Martin Bailey, a Boston based consumer research group, reported that consumers are 67% more likely to purchase brands they follow brands on Twitter.

LinkedIn has approximately 80 to 90 million users. This group of social media users is arguably more professional oriented compared to other social media sites. It is a great opportunity to map out your personal network and see what connections might be made with people from your friends’ networks.

3)     How do we want to interact with people?  Once you know where the people are, ask yourself, how do I want to interact with them? If you are the kind of company that does not welcome customer engagement and feedback, social media might not be the best place for you. A website would give you a better one-way platform.

If however, you are open to truly engaging with your constituents,
research the sites identified in questions #1 and #2 above. Here are a few questions to ask:

• What kinds of conversations are happening on this site?
• How do people interact with one another?
• What kind of maintenance would it require?
• Where are my competitors and how are they interacting with
  everyone?
• Do we have the skills necessary? For example, a blog requires
  writing skills. Video sites require video skills.
• What kinds of challenges might we anticipate with this site?

Once you’ve answered these three questions, should have a good sense of where to start.  Now the fun begins.

 Got 5 minutes to spare? Here are 5 different 5 minute PR ideas to try.

1. Get LinkedIn! Sign on to your LinkedIn account and look for new friends. Comb through your friends’ contacts for potential contacts. While you are there, write a quick recommendation for one or two of them. Hopefully, they will repay the favor.

2. Say thanks! Write a quick thank you note to someone whose relationship is important to your work. If you cannot think of a reason to say thank you, “Thinking of you” is also appropriate.

3. Ask for feedback. Sign on to your Facebook account and ask your fans for questions they have about your company. Later, answer those questions on the Facebook page and in your newsletters. While you are on Facebook, check out what your competitors are doing online.

4. Give kudos to a reporter. Shoot a quick email to your local reporter to congratulate him/her on a story in today’s paper. Reporters may not always open an email with press release but I’ve never seen one ignore an email with the subject line: “great article”.

 5. Check in with your clients. Take a moment to talk with clients or donors. Ask them how they found you and what they like best. Do they have any concerns or ideas you can help with? A quick conversation today can inform your activities tomorrow.

A formal PR strategy is an absolute necessity; however, it’s nice to know that if you only have 5 minutes, you can still make a difference.

Do you have a 5 minute PR Strategy? If so, please share it below.

We hate junk mail. It is the last thing we want to see in our inbox and the last thing we want our customers to associate with our product.

 Here are 6 easy steps to help keep your enewsletter in compliance with CAN-SPAM Laws.

1)     Tell the truth. Your “from”, “to”, “reply”, and “subject lines” should all be accurate. Recipients should easily tell which company or person sent the message and what they can expect to read when they open it. Be truthful and transparent. It’s the law and it is good business.

2)     Call a spade a spade. If your email is an advertisement, it must clearly say so.

3)     Don’t hide. Your email must include your physical address which should also be a valid postal address. Post Office Boxes or rented mail boxes are okay. This is nonnegotiable.

4)     Ask permission. Participants should opt-in to your enewsletters.  Double opt-in processes provide an added layer of legal protection to your business.  Opt-in mailing lists take time to build but ultimately are more profitable than the alternative. Why? Recipients who have opted-in actually want to read what you are sending them. They are less likely to unsubscribe or mark you as spam, and possibly more likely to refer you to a friend. . . tell me, isn’t that the kind of list you want?

5)     Let ‘em go. Your message must state how the recipient can opt-out. It should be clearly stated and be easy to find. An opt-out mechanism tied to an e-campaign should be valid for at least 30 days. Requests to opt-out should be honored within 10 days. It is appropriate to let the recipient know their request has been honored.

6)     Don’t pass the buck. Even if you wanted to, the law is clear. Your email marketing is your responsibility and you cannot contract that responsibility away. If you send out spam both you and the company that you hired to send the message may be legally responsible.

CA-SPAM Act of 2003 was signed into law by President George W. Bush. The full name of the bill is: Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing Act of 2003. It was originally focused on pornography but Senator John McCain added a last-minute amendment which included businesses.

For more information on CAN-SPAM laws, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s Website.

Six. That’s right. Six. There are six components to a successful enewsletter. Here they are:

 1)     A good subject line: the job of a subject line is to get the email opened. It is short and compelling. Don’t write a subject line minutes before sending the email. Wait. Put some thought into it.

 2)     A compelling reason to read: a good enewsletter is about the reader, not your product. If the reader knows that your enewsletters contain something interesting, funny, or useful, they will open it. If it pertains to them or engages their attention, they will open it. If they open it, they will remember you. . . . But if your enewsletters talk only about your product or service, very few people will open it. They may get bored and even unsubscribe.

 3)     A call to action: include a call to action. It can be as simple as, “Have questions about [insert your service]? Call me at 1-858-123-4567.” Or “Please forward this to a friend who might appreciate our services.”

 4)     Consistent branding: how do readers know it’s you? A few seconds may be all the attention they can spare. Make it count! The email should have your logo and photo. The colors and fonts should be consistent with your branding. It should have your contact information in the body of the email. The “from line” in the email should say your name, not your company’s name.  Readers should know in an instant that this enewlsetter is from you.

 5)     A link to connect to you on your website and social media pages: people connect in a variety of ways. Don’t think of enewlsetter clients as only connecting with you via enewsletters. They may also be on Facebook or Twitter.  They may want to search your website to see if you offer additional services. Link. Link. Link. Everywhere.

 6)     Compliance with CAN SPAM laws: this is last because if you’ve set up your enewsletter and your mailing lists properly, you are already in compliance. Plus, you’re offering compelling content (#2) so everyone is opening your email and no one is marking you as spam.

 Enewsletters aren’t rocket science but they do require some thought. When done correctly, they offer your clients content which they appreciate, an opportunity to engage with you through whatever platform works best for them, and a friendly reminder of how much you value their relationship.