advergirl

Practical advice on social media and your marketing mix

It happened again. I heard someone talking about the death of the :30 second spot, the irrelevancy of advertising as we know it, the overwhelming consumer revolution, and, and...

Frankly, I've been moved to PowerPoint.

The truth is: Things are changing. But they haven't completely changed just yet. Social media is exciting and full of opportunity, but TV? It's still a hell of a place to advertise.

More of my thoughts via Slideshare:

Whatnow

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: social media)

Fundraising and Social Media

Can we just take a moment to be truly honest with each other, dear readers?

It’s weird when incredibly smart, fresh, relevant social media advice comes from the mouth of a 50-something, right?

Hell, most of the time I feel completely out of touch in this category myself… especially, as it turns out, when I’m getting schooled by a grey hair.

I’m jumping ahead.

This week: Ologie and Benefactor Counsel hosted a series of events for fundraising professionals and greater good leaders featuring Richard McPherson, author of Digital Giving.

I was lucky enough to attend two of the sessions focused on how to use social media to connect with new donors. And, I have to say – if you’re looking for a speaker who (1) totally gets social media, (2) has been there/done that credibility and (3) can deliver advice that is relevant, clear and actionable … well, this is the guy to call. I’m already integrating some of the things I learned.

Let me share a few highlights:

Set aside the scarcity mindset

• We need to move from the mindset of scarcity to one of abundance
  


• There are millions of potential donors out there; you just have to find a way to connect with them


• Online fundraising allows us to aggregate the resources of those scattered givers


• Your donors are older today, but it’s more a symptom of your fundraising efforts than it is a reflection of your true constituents


• 80% of Americans give to nonprofits every year (DMA 08)

Cause vs. Candidate

• Why has Obama been able to inspire so many first-time givers? The first thing he asks for isn’t money; it’s a commitment. He doesn’t ask for money until three or four communications in. First he makes you a stakeholder in his campaign – gives you a movement / an event / a task to be a part of


• One effective social tactic: Sign a pledge. People who get a chance to make a statement quickly become donors
  • 47% of people who give online did something else first


• People don’t emotionally connect to institutions; they connect with causes they can believe in
  • Ex. Give to the Library annual pledge vs. Thank a Librarian campaign
  • Ex. Nothing but Nets – the UN Foundations campaign to fight malaria


• The Internet rewards storytelling. It’s hard to tell a truly compelling “unrestricted gift” story

What's the strategy? There are no checkbooks on Facebook

 

• Fundraising is one step removed from a social media introduction


• Fundraising on the Web is more like “major gift” strategy than anything else. It’s about cultivation. Finding the right time and the right amount for a first gift


• Engage the person first; ask for money later


• Virtual volunteer recruitment is essential. Share your brand with your biggest advocates – let them take your message and “the ask” to their friends


• Add a function to your Web site that allows people to quickly qualify themselves (get them to register in exchange for something of value – ex. Field guide, “pet inside” fire sticker)


• The messenger is critical. You want that person / organization to create confidence. To endorse your organization’s brand.


• Focus on what the donor wants, not what the organization wants. For example, most online giving tools allow for anonymous giving, but organizations turn that off because they want to be able to track down the donor. If you allow it? Total donations increase 15 – 20%

The Web’s not just for small gifts

• 51% of the “wired wealthy” (middle and major donors) prefer to give online


• 80% already have (download Convio study)


• Why they like it: reduces administrative costs, has a sense of immediacy / ability to respond effectively to a crisis, gets them frequent flyer miles (yep, it’s a big number), makes it easier to track total donations over time


• Why they don’t like it: Worried that you’ll sell their personal information or deluge them with email

What are the tools?

• Ask yourself: If an opportunity presented itself today, are you ready to quickly communicate with all of your constituents? Do you have their email addresses, cell phone numbers, etc.?


• “Email is an old person’s medium. You have to be able to think beyond it.” But also use it strategically to reach boomers – it’s the bread & butter of their giving.


• The new free media is blogs. It’s “Information unfiltered by authority”


• 74% of people who give said an email about how a donation was spent would improve the chance that they give again (DMA 08)


• 3/4s said the Web site experience has a significant impact on it / how much they give

Budget for preparedness

• The challenge with disruptive technology is that there’s no proven ROI, no history


• It’s tough to fit that into the nonprofit planning model


• Need to set aside a certain percentage of the budget to prepare for what’s next – to experiment with how to connect with your new donors


• “Increasingly, the gap between have and have not organizations will be defined by how they have / have not embraced technology”

Why add mobile to your strategy?

• “Phones allow us to begin to compete with consumer spending instead of other charitable giving”


• Americans acknowledge that much of their spending is somewhat frivolous. It’s also spontaneous. So, today, it’s a sweater, but tomorrow it could just as easily be a contribution


• Today, mobile giving is challenged by total giving limits and administrative charges from providers. But, soon people will connect their Paypal accounts to their phones and giving will be much less restrictive


• Mobile partners: Mobile Accord, MobileCommons

Big takeaway: “You don’t teach your donors; your donors teach you” Donors are changing the rules of the game. It's up to us to learn it.

Doggears: Facebook activism, blogger snobbers, scary stats and more...

Some of my favorite finds and reads from the last few weeks:

Free guide: Digiactive is offering a primer on Facebook Activism. Great introduction.

NASCAR blindness: Toad uncovers our Myspace / NASCAR / McCain / Desperate Housewives snobbery and reminds us to check it at the agency door.

One man's Zin moment: Woodruff studies his own "spare time" advocacy of a favorite brand

Principles for participation: Herd shares 5 easy guidelines for employees participating in social media

No job if you don't blog: One more great find at Herd - John Robinson, the editor of a regional paper in North Carolina, the Greensboro News-Record, talks about the questions he asks job candidates and just what those answers tell him...

How to be interesting: Davies shares 10 ways to master the skill of being interesting. Good stuff (that I don't have the self-discipline to do).

Awkward agencies: Steve Hall takes on the Carat hype. Shares his own shocking layoff story. (Mine: laid off in a coffee shop owned by my friends the morning after having the person who laid me off over to my house for dinner. Ouch.)

OMG we're lazy: (Left) From Joe Niedecken's blog: the word problem you never wanted to see ...

Talking to Pink: Griner will probably smack me upside the blog for this one, but, checkout this Happiness Project interview with Daniel Pink. Good questions for all of us...

Call for submissions: Online fundraising / community building questions and cover letters for makeovers

A couple of opportunities to share this morning:

1. Tomorrow is a big day at Ologie (my home agency). We’re hosting a day of events with Richard McPherson, the author of Digital Giving - a book about how technology is changing charity. Fundraisers and marketing heads at leading greater good organizations will be here to talk with Dick about the social Web, online fundraising and community building.
   
   At the end of the day, Dick is going to spend a few hours with our team, talking about how these trends impact our agency and our clients. Do you have questions about online fundraising? Send them my way. I’ll share the answers here later this week.


2. Months and months ago, April Hayes asked for a followup to the Advergirl Resume Makeover series. She wanted: cover letters.
   
   Good news for April: I’m finally ready to get back into the makeover business. So, if you want some advice, send in your stuff.
   
   Submissions should include:

• A sample of a recent / current cover letter you’ve submitted to a potential employer
• Your resume
• Details on at least two jobs you’ve applied for - minimum: company name and job title

I’ll pick 2 – 3 candidates to makeover later this month. Please send your submissions to lhouseholder at gmail by September 19.

Laughing at ourselves: Tourism humor that works

Since writing a few posts on the “Not in Columbus” convention and tourism campaign, I’ve found myself in an ongoing offline debate about what works and what doesn’t in tourism advertising. Since I have little or no experience in the category, I’ve been educating myself the blogger way: search, click and play.

No question, it’s a tough business. Glamming up the decapitated mountains of West Virginia, differentiating one artsy desert community from another, making even a big-ass mall seem like a destination.

It’s no wonder we want to laugh at ourselves.

But doing humor well…. That’s tough. The campaigns that do it well deliver three key things consistently:

1. Communicate a vibe, a personality of the place
2. Quickly transition from a self-effacing laugh to the good stuff
3. Make it easy for you to see yourself in them (either in the story or in the place)

My two favorite examples of campaigns doing it well couldn’t be more different:

Minneapolis' Unconvention Campaign.
Sponsored by the city's groundswell - a group of independent organizations, businesses and people - and centered on the playing host to the Republican convention, this integrated print and Web campaign is laugh-out-loud funny and still delivers on all the criteria above.

 

See the full campaign

Maine's "It's Got to Be Maine" Campaign

Sure, it's one thing to do independent well. But, what about official advertising? The kind that has to go through channels and committees and compromises?

I like Maine's campaign because it survived the gauntlet relatively intact. It pokes a little fun at the state, but in a personal, inside-joke kind of way. And, once its campy humor stops you, the fast-paced montage communicates a wholly unexpected vibe. WKB Spier produced this campaign. You can see more examples in "the work" section of their Web site.

Will texting be the Hotels.com of nonprofits?

This Hotels.com campaign is one of my favorite running right now. It elevates the power of peers. As its quirky characters take on the armchair reviewer role they were born for, we see a brand built not by experts, but by us. Weird, wonderful us.

I got a great text message this weekend that made me wonder if the same sort of “power of peers” change is afoot for non profits. A shift that will leverage the financial power of hundreds of thousands of small donors rather than relying on corporations and wealthy donors to foot the bill.

Here’s the text message:

[Presidential candidate] asks that you give to the Red Cross: give 5 dollars by texting GIVE to 24357 or give more by calling 1-800-435-7669 or at redcross.org/donate. Please fwd.

Pretty powerful stuff.

• A simple message.
• Sent at a time (just prior to the Gustav hit) when we were primed to care about the cause
• And closed with an almost ridiculously easy way to donate.

It’s difficult to get an individual to write a check for $100,000. Especially a fatigued donor who is asked again and again. But, with the right distribution list, how difficult is it to get 20,000 people to text $5? No billing information to fill out, no credit card number to type in. Just text.

Causes that inspire passion – whether it’s empathy or insurgency – are uniquely suited to the energy of the social Web – which, largely, extends to the community of texters. Campaigns like this are not only primed for action, they’re ready for pass-along.

When the Democrats were still fighting out the primary, I remember hearing news that more than $10 million (1/3) of Obama's second-quarter contributions were made online, and 90% of them were in increments of $100 or less.

What will a donor shift like that mean to decision making in a campaign or at a nonprofit? How will it change priorities and challenge assumptions?

I should know more on this topic soon. Later this month, Ologie (my home agency) is hosting Richard McPherson, the author of Digital Giving - a book about how technology is changing charity. I’ll tell you more about that soon, but for now – it’s interesting to think about the groundswell using technology to democratize giving. And fascinating to see just how easy we can make it to break down the barriers to giving.