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Month: August 2018

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Five Ways for Charities to use Social Media

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 21, 2018

Check Out These 5 Ways for Charities to use Social Media

First of all, before anything else, here are 5 ways for charities to embrace the modern and use social media to help them. Because I still love an older great blog post on five possible uses for social media for charities.

While I think these were good ideas (the Twitter Twibbon was one of them), I suspect that charities could go even further. After all, much of social media is free. And free is one of charities’ favorite words (along with cure, and donation, I suppose).

The social media landscape is always changing, so charities should continue to think creatively. As with businesses, listening to and observing their donors would be a good idea.

Some Ideas

So, how about using Facebook and LinkedIn to promote charitable events? While these RSVPs are often unreliable (a yes often really means maybe, a maybe means “I might get to it if nothing better comes along” but at least no still seems to mean no), this could serve as a way to get the word out.

Or what about keeping donors informed of totals by tweeting them? Hence if a $1,000,000 donation total is desired, how ’bout keeping donors informed on how it’s going by using X (Twitter)? See, this would be in place of an old thermometer bar.

So could volunteers check in with a locative app like foursquare and get badges? Uh, why not? Seriously, I’d love a blood donation badge. So long as it wouldn’t be an emergency, well, why not?

How About Another 5 Ways?

Maybe. It certainly makes sense to try to reach people where they spend a lot of their time.

I’m sure there are plenty more where that came from. Got any ideas of how charities could use social media? Toss ’em here, if you like.

For more information, see the December 30, 2010 blog post on Social Media Today.

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Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans, A Book ReviewBook Reviews, Killer UX Design, Content Nation by John Blossom, SEO Made Simple, Lee Odden, Dave Kerpen, Liana Evans, dummies, cluetrain manifesto, shama hyder kabadi, Numerati, Guerilla Marketing, White Space, Clay Shirky, Trust Agents, Kristina Halvorson, Stephen King, Zen, William Zinsser, Drupal for Dummies, Executive, XHTML, Communicating Design, Joshua Porter, Strategic Planning, Google Advertising Tools, Web Analytics, Right Hook, David Meerman Scott, web analytics, Revved Up, robot building, Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff, style guide, elements,

Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans, A Book Review

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 9, 2018

A Look at Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans

Social Media Marketing by Liana Evans was a book that I might have read a little too late in the semester. In all fairness, I read this book toward the end of my first social media class at Quinnipiac (ICM 522).

Hence it felt like I already knew a lot of what she had written, but that was likely more a function of timing than anything else.

Sorry, Li.

Been There, Done That

So the Liana Evans book is interesting. However, I had just read a ton of other works about very similar work, strategies, and ideas. Therefore, it ended up being maybe one book too many. Plus it ended up an optional read, anyway.

Furthermore, other works seemed to have said it better. So these days, books just do not get published fast enough to take proper advantage of trends and new insights. Hence blogs, in general (although not always!) end up more current and relevant.

What Was the Best Thing I Learned from Liana Evans and Her Book?

Possibly the best takeaway I got from the book was when Evans talked about online communities, particularly in Chapter 33 – You Get What You Give. So on page 255, she writes –
• You need to invest your resources, such as …

    • Time to research where the conversation is
    • Time and resources to develop a strategy
    • and Time and staff resources to engage community members
    • Time to listen to what they are saying, in the communities
    • Time and resources to measure successes and failures

• Giving valuable content
† It is similar to a bank account
• Don’t bribe the community

And ~

  • Rewards come in all fashions
    • Research who your audience is
    • Give your audience something valuable and/or exclusive
    • Don’t expect you’ll know everything
    • Listen to what your audience says
    • Admit when you are wrong
    • Thank your community

Finally, much like we’ve been telling people for years on Able2know – listen before you speak!

Rating

Review: 4/5 stars.

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Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, An Updated Book ReviewBook Reviews, Killer UX Design, Content Nation by John Blossom, SEO Made Simple, Lee Odden, Dave Kerpen, Liana Evans, dummies, cluetrain manifesto, shama hyder kabadi, Numerati, Guerilla Marketing, White Space, Clay Shirky, Trust Agents, Kristina Halvorson, Stephen King, Zen, William Zinsser, Drupal for Dummies, Executive, XHTML, Communicating Design, Joshua Porter, Strategic Planning, Google Advertising Tools, Web Analytics, Right Hook, David Meerman Scott, web analytics, Revved Up, robot building, Charlene Li, Josh Bernoff, style guide, elements,

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, An Updated Book Review

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on August 7, 2018

Another Look at Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff

This is something of an updated review of Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff as, by the time I got to the ICM 522 Social Media Platforms class at Quinnipiac University, I had already read this seminal work.

But no matter. Because this is still a terrific work by Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li, and it remains more than a little relevant.

And in fact, I think I understand it better than I ever have.

Changing the Way You Think about Online Marketing for Good

For Li and Bernoff, the online world is a rich and diversified community. And in that large umbrella community, there are several smaller communities. But unlike in the case of the classic Matryoshka (Russian nesting dolls), there is an enormous amount of overlap.

Above all, they put forward the idea of a system called POST. And if you read nothing else, read this part of not just my review but of their book itself.

  • Personae – who are your potential buyers? Who are your readers? And who makes up your audience?
  • Objectives – what do you expect to get out of going online, and continuing online, or going in a different direction online?
  • Strategies – how will you implement your ideas? What comes first? In addition, what must wait?
  • Technologies – which platforms will you use? How will you use these differently as your strategy begins to click into place?

So the last time I read Groundswell, I suspect that I did not really understand POST.

And now I know never to start a social media campaign without it. So thanks to Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff! This work is a classic for a damned fine reason. It really is that good. Because you need this book in your social media library.

Five Years Later — are Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff Still Relevant?

Social media platforms come and go. Fads rise and fall. Yet through it all, the lessons of the POST strategy, and why it’s so vital? Those are a rock, an anchor in an online world that sometimes feels like just so much jello stuck to the wall, ever sliding downwards.

Ew, sorry for that image, folks.

But never mind that for now.

I think the biggest and most vital part of POST is the first initialism, the P. The buyer persona is someone who we should be thinking about all the time. Not just sometimes, and for God’s sake not just when there’s an exam at school or the boss comes around at work.

It’s even a vital concept in a place that you would least expect it — a personal blog. And even in our own social media postings.

For if we are flinging those pixels out to the universe, then we are expecting an audience. We are wishing and hoping to be read! But if we don’t take that buyer persona into account at all (even when we aren’t selling anything and not expecting anyone to ever want to buy anything), we should still account for our audience.

Social media is exceptionally performative. We curate our photos and our words and our stories and our snark. If we want any sort of a reaction, then we have our audience in mind. Even if that’s subconsciously.

Being offensive is bad. Being unfunny is worse. But being unread? Quelle horreur! That is the worst.

Rating

Review: 5/5 stars.

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