Have you heard? This little event called the Special Olympics National Games is in town. You would have had to been under a rock to not hear about these awesome athletes. Why? Because information was pervasive.

Of course, every media outlet covered it. But the organizers did not overlook social media. Their Facebook page was on fire! Tweets were heard around the world! Flikr had more pictures and videos to know what to do with.

Fans from around the nation heard about Lincoln’s great hosting abilities from the fans and athletes visiting our city. And who provided all that content on Facebook and Twitter? An army of 50 students from the UNL College of Journalism.

I had the honor of mentoring some of these students on Tuesday of the Games. We conducted interviews, took pictures and videos all morning, then spent the afternoon downloading, editing, writing and posting to various social media sites. Then, went back out and did it again.

So how on earth are you supposed to keep your nonprofit’s Facebook and Twitter accounts active when you don’t have an army?

1. Share. You should have at least 3 administrators of your page who’s job it is to post content.
2. Delegate. Have a fan tell their story so you can post it on  social media. They could write up their volunteer experience or why they donate (preferably in 140 characters or less!)
3. Plan. Create an editorial calendar of topics and when you should post them. Also have a list of backup ideas for those slow days when there isn’t much to talk about.

What do you do to keep your content fresh?

In previous posts, I’ve encouraged you all to give Facebook advertising a try. For just a few dollars, you can get thousands of impressions when the ad is set up correctly. Lately, though, Facebook ads have been blowing me away!

I’ve encouraged 3 clients recently to “test” Facebook ads with $100. In every case, they are using up their daily limit every day (a good thing!) and having higher click-throughs and impressions than I’ve ever seen.

My friends at the Seniors Foundation have only a few friends on Facebook. As you might expect, the age-group of their regular audience probably has something to do with that. But they had a great event coming up that would appeal to many Lincolnites, young and old. This showing of nostalgic photos of Lincoln people and places was only $5 to attend. What a shame if only their few fans knew about it!

The Set-Up

We ran an ad with $100 total budget.  It was short notice so I set it to run for 5 days with a maximum of $20 per day. We targeted men and women ages 30-63 in Lincoln and within 15 miles of Lincoln. The ad encouraged readers to grab their parents and grandparents for a walk down Lincoln’s memory lane. The reference to Lincoln allows Facebookers to see that it is a local ad. The ad featured one of the old photos of a hotspot from years past.

I “bid” the cost per click at the higher end of the recommendation – $1.20 per click.

The Results

The going rate per click averaged  only $0.53. Every day, we spent the $20 max. In the 5 days, we received 265,215 impressions, 180 clicks and 4 actions (people saying they would attend the event).

This was the best result I’d ever seen. Even though we know that many of the attendees to the actual event had never seen the Facebook ad, we KNOW that more people learned about the Seniors Foundation during that campaign and all for just $100.

Also…

Two other clients are running Facebook ads right now for either their website or their Facebook page. Both are spending their daily limit and getting a ton of click-throughs. Both are spending $20 per day and bid high on the suggested bid (over $1.) I do believe I’ve found the magic number. $20 per day. $1 per click.

Try it. Let me know if it works for you.

I had the pleasure of spending much of an entire day listening to some very smart women. One was Haley Rushing of The Purpose Institute (thanks to the Community Health Endowment). As I heard her speak about companies and nonprofits finding – and living – their purposes, it wasn’t a huge surprise to find out she is a marketing expert as well as being a Purposologist! Marketing = The Articulation of Purpose – continue reading

I consider myself a professional marketer for nonprofits, not a professional fundraiser. Knowing that I could learn from some professional fundraisers, I attended the recent Association of Fundraising Professionals regional conference. While the idea of asking someone outright for money sounds about as appealing as life without Doritos and coffee, I had several AFP leaders say to me, “Fundraising IS marketing.”

And so it is, in a very pure form. If I break down the American Marketing Association’s official definition (which you can read here), it simply says that marketing is the delivery of something of value to the audience. In other words, a good marketer communicates and delivers a valuable product or service to the customer. From a fundraiser’s perspective, I learned, their job is to connect a cause to their donors.

In marketing we…build a brand that a mass audience can trust.

In fundraising we… build a brand that a mass audience can trust.

In marketing we… create an experience for our customers.

In fundraising we…provide an experience for our donors.

In marketing we…target individual buyers and appeal to the value they are seeking.

In fundraising we…target individual donors and appeal to the cause that makes them feel valuable.

Some other things I learned:

• Don’t get so caught up in strategy that you forget the vision (or dream) of your organization. What if MLK Jr said, “I have a plan!”?
• It costs 11 times more to get a new donor than to retain a current donor. Marketing is great at helping to reach new supporters but be sure you take care of your current donors.
• When getting to know your donors individually, uncover what values they share with your organization. Seems too simple, but is often overlooked.
• Consider a thank-a-thon about a month before a membership renewal period. Have your board and volunteers call your current members simply to thank them for their membership.
• When writing about your organization, you don’t have to tell them everything you know – just what they need to know to take action.
• If you are working on securing bequests, look for donors in your database between the ages of 45 and 55. After that, they already have a will and are very unlikely to change it.

Based on these observations, I encourage you to remember that if you are charged with only fundraising OR marketing, you might want to put your head together with your counterpart handling the opposite job duty. If you are already doing both – which most of you are – carry on!

I’m often asked which is the best media to promote a nonprofit. Of course, the answer is always, “It depends.”  It depends on your audience, your budget, your mission and what you are advertising.

Radio is great for events even when the budget is small. Billboards are great for branding. Newspaper tends to reach an older audience while social media tends to reach a younger audience. The nuances are endless.

But let’s imagine that the elusive Media Fairy left the gift of a media budget under your pillow one night. Perhaps she plucked it from the Grant Forest or found it under the Rock of Sponsorship.

Where should you spend the money? The Media Fairy Delivers – continue reading

I’ve found Facebook advertising to be a great option for small nonprofits willing to spend practically nothing on advertising. A well-written and well-targeted Facebook ad will get you thousands of impressions (“views”) to just the right people with a tiny investment (literally, a few dollars).

When is a good time to run an ad, you ask? Ads are great for when your Facebook page is new (or stagnant) and you’d like to gain more fans (or people who “like” you.) I’ve seen ads increase interest in events. They are particularly good if you have a very targeted audience for instance people who are effected by a particular issue (say, autism) or have an interest in a very specific hobby (like, the flute!) 

Here is the step-by-step for setting up your first ad: How to… and why to… buy a Facebook ad – continue reading

Just as soon as we think we have Facebook figured out, they’ve found another way to “improve” it. Before I reveal the big change, please keep in mind the words of my favorite motivational speaker, Aaron Davis.

“You don’t have to LIKE change. But you have to be open to it.”

And, speaking of LIKE, get used to more “thumbs-up” on Facebook because coming soon, rather than Becoming a Fan of your organization’s Facebook Page, people will now indicate that they LIKE it. Facebook ChaChaChaChanges – continue reading

For organizations who have never done a silent auction, gala or a golf tournament, it is easy to look at their nonprofit neighbors’ events and have dollar signs in their eyes. Many silent auctions and golf tournaments make gobs of money for organizations but many, many others fail. For small nonprofits with small donor bases who, perhaps, have never done a true fundraiser, these events are so consuming of staff and volunteer time that the small about raised isn’t worth the effort.

So how can you raise money, create community engagement and build awareness of your organization in a creative way that doesn’t require as much effort? Try the non-event event! The non-gala, non-golf, non-event fundraiser – continue reading

Having a Facebook Page with no fans is pretty pointless. Lately, I’ve had lots of friends and clients ask how they can get more fans on their page.

Luckily, Facebook has some great features that help spread the word. If a friend of mine (or many friends of mine) become fans of a Page, it says so in my news feed. This piques my curiosity and I often go check them out.

But there are other things you can do as a page’s administrator to get more fans. Finding Fans on Facebook – continue reading

I posted previously on testing e-marketing. Is it ever ok to “break the rules” and go against best practices? Rather than going with my company name in the Sender line of my last e-newsletter, I went with “Clover, nonprofit marketing network” in my Sender line upon suggestion from one of my readers.

I’m glad I tested it because my open rate went from 32% to 36%. That may not seem like a lot but based on the size of my list, that’s an extra 20 people from one easy fix. (As a point of reference, the average open rate is only 10-20% among all e-marketing depending on the industry.)

This doesn’t mean that the same change will work for you – matter of fact, it probably won’t unless most of your email list knows you personally.

But there are other things you can test on your email marketing. Test the time of day you send it. Test the day of the week. Test subject lines (Article title vs. Newsletter #3).

Let me know how it works out for you!