Tag Archives: LinkedIn

What’s New in ePhilanthropy

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Among the many tips offered at Friday’s session on Facebook Tactics That Get Results offered by M&R Strategic Services and Nten was the reminder that very few Facebook fans will visit your page – they will mostly see your posts in their newsfeed.  (So why invest in expensive custom Facebook tabs?)  Surprisingly, you are penalized for posting from third party services such as Tweetdeck and HootSuite (read more on why these posts are less likely to appear in your newsfeed then if you post directly on Facebook).

How do you get more engagement – i.e. likes and comments, which will give your posts more visibility?  Use different types of content, including photos and videos, and ask constituents to take a specific action – especially those that will result in providing their email address so you can build your list.  (Did you know that you lose 18% of your list each year through unsubscribes and email addresses that no longer work?).

Idealware offers help on measuring your results on social media and Frogloop advises on how well as how you can manage data across multiple channels.  Jocelyn Harmon offers some simple advice on why constituents don’t donate.

Many nonprofits rely heavily on volunteers, yet their importance has often been overshadowed by those of lucky to have ‘paid’ work.  LinkedIn now offers a section to highlight volunteer experience and causes, which will help nonprofits to find its most loyal supporters.

Sept. 11 was a sad day, marking a decade since we lost almost three thousand people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.  What can nonprofits learn when the unthinkable happens?  Here are some lessons and another view of the effect on nonprofits as we recover from a very emotional day yesterday.  Ten years ago, I worked for Cross-Cultural Solutions, which was able to help to coordinate recovery efforts in NYC after the horrible event.

Can You Afford to Ignore Facebook?

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In addition to having long maintained this blog as a way to share my ideas with the nonprofit community, I’ve also used LinkedIn to keep in touch with my professional network and my Twitter feed as a way to share thoughts and resources that I learn about in between by (usually) weekly blog posts.  But I haven’t paid as much attention to my Facebook page, figuring that this is more of a ‘personal’ site and doesn’t specifically relate to my ephilanthropy work.  (I’ve also been concerned about the occasional privacy issues that have come up with sites such as Facebook, addressed in a recent Nten webinar.)

But in ignoring Facebook, I’ve made the same mistake as many nonprofits that are beginning to use social networking tools – not going where the constituents are.  Facebook is approaching the 500 million user mark, and is expected to go much higher.  Clearly, it is fulfilling the need that our supporters have to be connected to each other.  I’ve also noticed more of an overlap between personal and professional posts, an issue that my friend Farra Trompeter of Big Duck has often spoken about.  While I’m not suggesting that you share details of your personal life for the world to see and comment upon, it is a good idea to show more than one dimension of your personality.

What does this mean for nonprofits?  The more you can get to know about your constituents, the better you can develop your relationship.  You can find out by analyzing which of your web pages are most popular with Google Analytics, by taking surveys or polls with tools such as SurveyMonkey, or by simply asking what their most important priorities are.  You can also learn from listening and by using simple tools such as Google Alerts.

Even if you don’t fully understand why it’s become such a phenomenon, you can’t afford to ignore Facebook.  But make sure you review your privacy settings so you understand how your information will be shared. For a detailed description of Facebook’s brief but remarkable history, read David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect.  For help on deciding what to put on Facebook vs. Twitter vs. other social networking sites, see my post earlier this year, What Content to Post in Each Channel.

Addendum 7/15/10 – I will be featured today on Nten’s Facebook page.

More from Summit: Fundraising in the 21st Century

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As promised, below are my notes from Andrew Nibley’s presentation, EDonors: Fundraising in the 21st Century, from Monday’s Westchester Not-For-Profit Leadership Summit:

To maximize exposure of your nonprofit’s web site, use search engine optimization techniques.  (While this function is often handled by marketing, I handled this area while working as IT Director at Cross-Cultural Solutions.)  This should be a part of every web site redesign.

Manysite visitors don’t realize the difference between organic search engine results (which result from search engines analyzing content on your web site) and sponsored links, where organizations pay for their site to show up when relevant searches are done (even though sponsored links are usually clearly marked in Google’s results).

Promote your web site address everywhere: email signatures, offline materials, brochures, ads etc.

‘Share a story’ that relates to your mission, with photos if possible – and invite site visitors to submit their own stories.

Important content on your web site should be no more than three clicks away; this becomes especially difficult as the amount of site content increases.

When someone finds your web site, visitor registration should be top priority so you get their email address.  Don’t ask for anything more than email address.  Too many required fields will discourage visitors from completing registration.

Use information about your donors to customize web site and email blast content.  (I’ve often heard vendors encourage this, but seems like many organizations aren’t able to make it happen.)  It’s helpful, for example, to customize donation forms based on a donor’s previous giving history.  Papilia has an interesting approach to this.

Search for your organization on sites like MySpace and YouTube to learn whether your organization is listed.  Use these mediums to supplement what is on your web site since many constituents may look there first.  Similarly, find out what’s on Wikipedia and, if necessary, get someone outside of your organization to update the entry.

Andrew also suggested participating in social networks, such as Care2, Gather, LinkedIn and Eons (the 55 & older population are the fastest growing group of Internet users).

The Purpose of Networking

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This week I came across an interesting posting on the Career Hub blogthat described networking as a career management tool, not as a job search tool.  I also received an email invitation to connect with someone on LinkedInwho said he’d only recently discovered the value of connecting with people despite having signed up on LinkedIn a while back.

Before the Internet (if my younger readers can imagine such a time), it was much harder to keep in touch with people.  Now, the problem is choosing which tool to use.  For many years I believed that excelling in your job would be enough to insure career success.  But now I’ve realized the importance of keeping up with your network,regardless of whether or not I am seeking a job change. I’ve actually started to enjoy the interaction and have looked for ways I can help others.  So while I work hard for my current employer, I also make sure I attend (and speak at) conferences, as well as participate in nonprofit email lists and keep in touch with my contacts.

Would I be open to a new job opportunity if one came along?  Yes.  But it is not my main purpose for networking.  I also find that my involvement with many people in other organizations gives me a broader perspective that I could never develop from working at any one firm.  I’ve recently started to subscribe to many of my peers’ blogs, and comment when I can.  As described in Never Eat Alone, networking doesn’t have to be difficult, it can be very enjoyable in addition to helping your career.