Maureen Dixon Communications

Social Media Tips

Maureen Dixon — Thu, 13 May 2010 17:57:54 +0000

For the past year I’ve been following Social Media for nonprofits on various blogs and newsgroups. Here is a great point I just picked up from Darius Goes West–a small nonprofit that raises money to support research of the fatal genetic disease, Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD)–as written in a blog post by Beth Kanter. Beth is probably the top Social Media Blogger and Consultant in the country.

According to Logan Smalley, founder and co-president of Darius Goes West, “We’ve met a lot of people over the years both offline and online. We try to keep a personal connection with everyone we meet and who helps us along the way. Relationships are very important.” They also used humor and “cliff hangers” in their posts to keep their readers engaged. Finally, he advised, don’t make every contact an ask. Be sure to acknowledge your followers, and celebrate successes. “You have to stimulate an emotional incentive for people – so they feel a sense of pride and joy when they forward your organization’s story to their friends.”

For the full story see: AGC Conversational Case Studies: Darius Goes West: Inspiring fans to share their story with pride and joy

Web 2.0 – The Open Brand

Maureen Dixon — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:16:49 +0000

Kelly Mooney, in her book, The Open Brand, uses the acronym OPEN to describe the key factors that change a brand from closed to open. In an open brand the company/organization creates an experience for users that is:

On-demand
Personal
Engaging
Networked

The On-demand experience is “characterized by efficiency, ease, control, findability and instantaneousness.”

The Personal experience is “characterized by acknowledgement, dialogue, customization, privilege and popularity.”

The Engaging experience is characterized by “participation, belonging, immersion, entertainment and inspiration.”

The Networked experience is “valuable to those seeking creative and influential interaction…. The earmarks of the networked experience are self-expression, ego gratification, portability, community and meaningful change.”

These are good benchmarks for nonprofits to use when evaluating how they use technology to interact with their stakeholders and to get their mission out to the broad community. The Open Brand is a great explanation of some of the principles of Web 2.0 thinking and approach. I highly recommend it.

2009 Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report

Maureen Dixon — Sun, 03 May 2009 17:30:43 +0000

One of the things that was presented at the Nonprofit Technology Conference was the Nonprofit Social Network Survey Report. This report summarizes the responses of 980 nonprofit professionals about their organization’s use of online social networks. Both large and small nonprofits responded.

The report includes data on nonprofits use of sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn, and about building and using social networks on their own websites (called house social networks). The report can be downloaded at the NTEN website.

Some highlights:
·86.2% of the respondents’ organizations have a presence on at least one commercial social network, and 30.6% have a house social network.
· Facebook is the most popular of the commercial social networks (74.0%). Next, in order, is YouTube (46.5%), Twitter (43.2%), Linked In (32.9%) and MySpace (26.1%).
· Survey respondents use their commercial social networks for:
o Traditional marketing (80.5%)
o Word-of-mouth-marketing (72.7%)
o Market research (43.1%)
o Delivering programs or services (35.5%)

One of my interests is to see who is conducting fundraising activities through social media channels and what their results are. According to this report, a very small percentage of organizations have done this, and with what I would consider low results so far. 29.1% of organizations reported using Facebook and generating $500 or less in fundraising revenue over the last 12 months. A tiny percentage used Facebook and MySpace to generate $10,000 or more (1.2% and 0.3% respectively).

The full report is worth reading. It goes into more depth on the topics covered above, and also addresses staff time and fiscal resources dedicated to commercial social networks; how nonprofits think they can make their networks more productive, and whether or not they plan to increase staff time and fiscal resources to social media networking.

2009 Technology Conference for Nonprofits

Maureen Dixon — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 04:12:01 +0000

The 2009 Nonprofit Technology Conference is in process at the San Francisco Hilton April 26-28, 2009. The conference is organized by the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), an organization that “aspires to a world where all nonprofit organizations skillfully and confidently use technology to meet community needs and fulfill their missions.”

The conference is sold out, but there are still numerous ways to get the information:
Twitter: Follow 09NTC to get all the updates from the conference as they happen. Use #09NTC in your tweets.
Flickr: Look for photos from the conference tagged 09NTC.
Podcasts: Interviews with NTC on podcasts. You can find them all in iTunes — or on the NTEN blog.
Ready Talk is offering six NTC sessions as webinars.
Causecast.org is offering live streaming of another six sessions.
Live blogging will also be going on during the sessions.

For information on all of this go to http://www.nten.org/ntc-live.

Why Web 2.0?

Maureen Dixon — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 01:58:54 +0000

You may be asking yourself why your nonprofit should consider Web 2.0 technologies for marketing and outreach. After all, you’ve got limited staff time and financial resources, and you need to make the most of what you have. In an article titled: “Why Every Nonprofit Should Embrace the Web 2.0 World,” Adrienne Royer of frogloop.com gives her top five reasons why nonprofits benefit from using Web 2.0 technologies.

1. You need to be where your target audiences are. Consider it like an interactive 24-hour news cycle. It’s where people go to gather news, resources and discuss issues.
2. It’s a cheap and easy way to connect with your current supporters and engage new ones.
3. The Web 2.0 world is an active hub filled with influentials. If you engage influentials right, they can help your organization spread your message, introduce new people to your organization and blog about it. Also, major news networks and reporters are using online social networks to get interesting story ideas and generate new sources and leads.
4. Find out what people are saying about your organization. Too often, nonprofits don’t step out into the real world to learn how their supporters and the general public really feel about the organization’s mission and latest initiatives.
5. The Web 2.0 world is not going away anytime soon, so don’t fight it. Join it and take advantage of another avenue to reach your organization’s supporters.

I agree with Adrienne. Web 2.0 is more than a new set of technologies, it is a whole new way of thinking of, and interacting on, the web. True, the technologies themselves are impressive, and truth be told, a little overwhelming for a nonprofit to consider implementing: blogging, facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Digg, del.i.cio.us; the list seems endless. We’ll explore these and other technologies and their applications for nonprofits in this blog. The main point I want to make in this post is that Web 2.0 is a way to interact with your target audiences and potential clients and supporters. It is a bottoms up approach, where everyone’s voice is heard, rather than a 1.0 approach, which is a one-way presentation of information (e.g. a website with no interactive functions). Web 2.0 emphasizes sharing, collaborating and trading information, expertise and experiences. Consider the possibilities for your organization.

Share your stories of your organization’s successes or challenges with Web 2.0 and Social Media. Send a comment today.

The Online Auction

Maureen Dixon — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 23:19:32 +0000

One activity that numerous nonprofits across the country have already implemented is an online auction. Online auctions are similar to live, silent auctions where bidders write their bids on a bid sheet next to the item, except that all the viewing and bidding is done on the Web. See Techsoup.org for a great article that explains how online auctions work, outlines what sort of planning staff need to conduct first, and discusses online auction software, and other important tools.

Online software providers claim that online auctions help nonprofits:
· Reach new donors and offers existing donors a new way to get involved
· Raise awareness for the organization’s mission
· Increase auction earnings
· Promote the auction to more bidders
· Increase earnings by facilitating more competitive bidding
· Benefit from increased exposure in online newsletters, emails and websites

The Incline Village High School Boosters in Lake Tahoe, Nevada, held their 25th annual benefit on February 7, 2009 to support the school. This year they included an online auction for the first time, in addition to a crab feed dinner and live and silent auctions they have held for years. According to IHS Boosters Club Secretary Carolyn Smith, adding the online auction had several benefits.

MD: What were the benefits of holding an online auction?

CS: We raised more than $50,000 for the school this year, and a lot of that was from the online auction. In past years if we raised $25,00 – $30,000 it was a good year. Numerous people from out of state purchased items, including someone from Minnesota who purchased a piece of jewelry online. The online auction company took care of all the shipping for us. On the night of the event, they also took care of all the computer input and generated all the receipts. These things saved us a lot of time.

MD: How about local people?

CS: They didn’t use the online function so much. Event attendees were able to bid in person after the online auction closed, so most of our local supporters bid that way.

MD: Did you run into any problems?

CS: We had a few kinks in the process. I think they were just communication problems. For example, we offered a party for 30 people at $50 per person and planned to have 30 people sign up for it. The auction company misunderstood and auctioned it off as one big item. All in all, we were very pleased.

MD: Do you have any suggestions for nonprofits that are thinking about an online auction?

CS: Our job this year was so much easier because we had professionals handling the bulk of the auction. So much work goes into planning these events, that it’s a big help. I would definitely recommend people consider an online auction.

If you’d like to share your experience with an online auction, please add a comment. Your experience (both successes and challenges) will benefit nonprofits who’d like to learn more about holding an online auction.

Welcome to Web 2.0 for Nonprofits

Maureen Dixon — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 17:24:28 +0000

Welcome to Web 2.0 for Nonprofits. This site will explore reasons for nonprofits to use Social Media and share success stories of nonprofits that have used social media to raise money (more important than ever in these challenging times), reach new audiences, expand awareness of their service and mission, and leverage precious human capital (i.e. staff time). I also welcome readers to share your successful experiences using Social Media to help achieve your organization’s goals and objectives.To add a comment, just click on the comment link at the end of any post.

With more than 20 years experience working in nonprofit organizations, I have a deep understanding of the challenges limited time and funds present to nonprofits, and at the same time, the tremendous value of the work nonprofits do, and the millions of people whose lives are improved by them each year. I hope that this site proves to be value-added and a worthy use of reading time by staff that are overworked and under-supported.