Tag Archives: John Haydon

Top 10 Resources if You’re New to Nonprofits

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If you’re new to nonprofit communicatons, fundraising or technology , here are 10 top resources you should know about:

  1. Nonprofit Technology Network (NTen) - As a long term member, I’ve learned through webinars, local 501 tech meetings, attending the annual conference and participating in a wonderful , supportive community
  2. Idealware - Wondering what software is best for your needs?  Laura Quinn’s Idealware offers impartial reports and low priced webinars to help you decide.
  3. Beth’s Blog –  Beth Kanter taught us how important social media was before it became mainstream.  Her insights are always insightful.
  4. Nonprofit Tech 2.0: A Social Media Guide for Nonprofits - Heather Mansfield offers great information in her blog, and in free/low cost webinars.
  5. Foundation Center – Databases, training, libraries focused on philanthropy.  Worth a visit if you’re in NYC (4 other offices across US)
  6. Getting Attention - Marketing guru Nancy Schwartz can help your organization develop a powerful message to your constituents
  7. John Haydon - Especially focused on Facebook, John will help optimize your social media strategy.
  8. Nonprofit Marketing Guide - Kivi Leroux Miller is a savior when you’re the only marketing / communications person at your organization;  great blog and resources.
  9. Tech Soup – Discounted software and hardware (and much more)
  10. Network for Good - Reasonably priced options for email marketing and online fundraising, and regularly scheduled training

For those nonprofit veterans, what additional resources would you add?

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

Should we focus on one website that can be used effectively on a desktop, tablet or phone?  Usability expert Jakob Nielsen suggests developing a separate mobile website. But Smashing Magazine disagrees, saying We Shouldn’t Make Separate Mobile Websites.  My take: if you have the in-house expertise or can afford to hire outside experts,  take a responsive design approach so that your display adjusts to browser screen size.  (If you’re in NYC, learn how at this free event at Noble Desktop on Sep. 19.)

At least for now, mobile apps can be more user friendly than a mobile website.  If you decide to develop a mobile app, here’s some tips to get started.  My take – unless you have a compelling reason for an app, focus on the mobile website first.

On your website and on social media, it’s all about engagement.  Here’s 37 Tips to Engage Your Website Visitors, 27 Ways to Increase Engagement on Your Facebook Page and Better Facebook Engagement in 5 Easy Lessons.  Reminder – if your Facebook fans don’t interact with your posts (likes, comments, shares), they eventually won’t see your updates.  (This shouldn’t be too surprising – less than 20% of your email subscribers probably open your enewsletters – but at least they receive it in their inbox.)

Want to make sure your offline and online communications are in synch.  Start by creating an editorial calendar.  (It doesn’t have to be fancy – MS Excel will work fine.)  Then reuse content in both your enewsletters and social media posts.

It’s usually much easier to keep your current donors than to acquire new contributors. Here’s why donors become ex-donors and some ways to keep them connected with your cause and your organization.

Photos – A Simple Way to Engage Your Audience

Like - Comment - ShareOn Facebook, posts with photos attract many more likes and comments than posts with only a link.

In most nonprofits I’ve worked at, pictures are stored in many locations, some which are only accessible by a single staff member or department.  Often the same photo is stored in multiple places because staff aren’t aware of the other storage areas.  Or, only the Communications department is encouraged to photograph.

A simple tip - designate a central online location for organization photos, and encourage everyone (not just the communications department) to store pictures there.  This will make it easier to quickly pull photos for Facebook or Twitter updates,  website pages and blog posts.  Encourge staff to take pictures wherever your organization is serving your audience – not just at formal events.

Today I received two email messages at work with photos, one with them attached to the email, the other with photos incorporated into the message.  While it’s great to share visual images with your co-workers, it’s even better to show supporters the impact of your work.  If photos work so well on Facebook, they will also work well on your other communication channels.

For more Facebook specific tips, see John Haydon’s Six Creative Ways to  Use Photos to Increase Engagement On Your Facebook Page. And for a great example of how to use photos (and videos) effectively, see Charity:Water‘s website and social media sites.

Still Wondering How Social Media Can Help Your Nonprofit?

Many nonprofits are still struggling with how (and why) to use social media.  Here are some tips:

  • You can’t ignore it.  Your staff and others are already posting about your organization, whether or not you have officially sanctioned it.
  • Segmenting your audience is a necessary, although sometimes challenging step.  If you don’t understand who you’re communicating with, how can you create effective messages?
  • Other organizations like yours are already online;  learn from their successes / failures
  • Find the social media savvy people at your nonprofit and ask that they help to plan your strategy (hint – it’s not only those who are in communications)
  • Experiment to find out what content generates shares and comments – social media must be a conversation not a one-way monologue (e.g. email marketing)
  • Post about your cause / mission not only about your organization
  • Find a way to capture email addresses of Facebook fans / Twitter followers so you can contact them (and add them into your CRM)
  • Make it visual.  Photos and videos generate considerably more interest than links.  Take the time to show how your organization achieves its mission.
  • Use an editorial calendar to coordinate your social media posts with other communication channels, both online and offline.
  • Watch your metrics.  Start here.
  • Learn from social media gurus e.g. Beth Kanter, Heather Mansfield and John Haydon.

Need a quick primer on Facebook?  Listen to a recording of yesterday’s How to Create a Killer Facebook Campaign webinar sponsored by FirstGiving for many great tips.

Things You May Not Know About Facebook

If you take the time to develop a large following on your nonprofit Facebook page, then all of these constituents will view your updates in their news feed, right?  Not necessarily, said John Haydon this week in his webinar 27 Ways to Increase Engagement On Your Facebook Page, offered through Network for Good.  Read below for highlights, then register to access the recording:

  1. 84% of your Facebook fans don’t get your updates in their newsfeed.  Facebook uses Edgerank to determine whether or not your content will appear.  (Learn more about how Edgerank works here and here.)
  2. Although you might have a beautiful Facebook Timeline page with a really nice cover photo, less than 5% of your fans will ever see it (they’ll only see your posts in their newsfeed)
  3. Morning and evening posts are likely to get more attention than in the afternoon because this is when your fans are likely to be online
  4. Check your Facebook Insights statistics to learn what your optimal posting frequency is, i.e. how often each day you should post).
  5. Unlike Twitter, you should not shorten links on Facebook.  By using the full URL, visitors will know to expect and are more likely to click through  (Services such as Timely and Buffer are useful for spacing out posts throughout day, but they will automatically shorten URLs.).
  6. Post pictures liberally – will get much more response than plain text links
  7. Ask questions to encourage interaction, but make it easy to respond (use yes/no or true/false questions, then use ‘like’ for one option and ‘comment’ for the other)

Having a presence on Facebook is a must these days (many constituents will look there before they visit your website), but following John’s great tips will make it more likely that you’ll get the results you seek – to encourage your audience to be more involved with your organization.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

Ready or not, the new Facebook timeline will be rolled out on March 30.  Find out what’s new from John Haydon, Beth Kanter, Heather Mansfield, Mari Smith and attend this upcoming free webinar from CharityHowto. My reminder – most fans interact with your Facebook content through the news feed.  Make sure you include posts to direct them to your new Timeline page.

Don’t have a mobile friendly website yet?  Here’s why you should (and more) and here’s a resource to help you get started.  Here’s a free webinar Feb. 22 on 6 Best Practices to Follow While Developing Your Mobile Strategy.  I’ll also be speaking on this topic Feb. 23 at the Foundation Center in NYC.

Have you jumped on the Pinterest bandwagon yet?  Here’s what nonprofits should know – and be careful about possible copyright issues.  If you do jump in, read some ways to make your nonprofit pinteresting?

It’s back to the basics with 4 Ways to Get More Clicks on Your Online Donation Button (e.g. make sure site visitors can find it), Tips on How to Write Headlines (for web pages, email content etc.) and How You Can Drastically Improve Your Call to Action.

Do you manage website(s) for a nonprofit in NYC?  Join the Not- for-Profit Webmaster Round Table – it’s always a lively discussion and you’ll get great ideas to bring back to your organization.  Our next quarterly meeting will be in June.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

If you’ve been wondering when you can build your nonprofit page on Google+, now’s the time.  Heather Mansfield offers help on How to Create a Google+ Page For Your Nonprofit. Also view this video by John Haydon.  Here’s Beth Kanter’s take.  But the jury is still out on whether Google+ pages will prove to be as popular as Facebook pages.

Frustrated trying to keep up to date with Facebook?  Get help in John’s Tactical Guide to Recent Facebook Changes and sign up for next month’s bi-monthly Facebook features update from Common Knowledge.

Planning to roll out a new website with Drupal?  Have you already launched, but finding it difficult to manage how to manage content edits and approvals?  Join Michelle Misner and I on Nov. 29 to learn How the NYPL Successfully Project Managed a New Drupal Website.  (It’s free if you’re a Nten member!).

Speaking of Nten, I’ve just signed up for next spring’s annual Nonprofit Technology Conference in San Francisco.  Please register now to lock in the lowest rate.  It’s always the premier event of the year for the #nptech community.

It’s year-end fundraising season again.  Get a jump start by reviewing Farra Trompeter’s online fundraising tips, Convio’s How to Get Your Holiday Appeals Opened and Jeff Brooks’ reminder to Avoid Common Fundraising Mistakes, e.g. remembering that you are not your donor.  And of course, don’t forget to plan a multi-channel campaign.

If you’re in NYC, join us at next week’s 501 Tech NYC event;  this month we’ll chat about Google for Nonprofits.  Also if you manage a nonprofit website, sign up for the next quarterly gathering of the Not-for-Profit Webmaster Round Table, planned for mid-December.

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

Most of us are still figuring out what works and what doesn’t in social media.  For help in developing conversations instead of one-way communications, review John Haydon’s 16 Ways to Get Comments on Your Facebook Page and Robin Stephenson’s Twitter Community Organizing Rules for Non Profits.  Especially on Facebook, you’ll need to try different approaches before you find out what works best with your constituents.

Having engaging content to share in our multiple communication channels is a continuing challenge.  Per Kivi Leroux Miller, here’s how ASPCAPro Manages Content Creation, which reinforces why regular editorial meetings / calendars are so helpful in developing ideas and planning your outreach.

If you think you’ve heard it all about storytelling, consider M&R’s Storytelling and the Art of Email Writing.  Hint – you need to understand what motivates someone to give before you can write effective fundraising copy.  Veteran storyteller Andy Goodman provides more tips in Storytelling: The First Best Thing.

If you’re always wondering what day/time is best for emailing your constituents or posting on social media, view HubSpot’s recent presentation The Science of Timing, as well as Blue Sky Factory’s When is the Best Time to Send Email.  And don’t forget to integrate social media into your website so you use one channel to support the other in building your audience.

Finally, Jeff Brooks offers 20 Ways to Be Donor Centric which includes some familiar but useful reminders such as paying attention to the content and promptness of your gift acknowledgements.