JournaMarketing

Why your big Website launch won't work

Most of my clients want to engage people with online content right now. And they want to see results as soon as they post their first podcast or blog post. Seth Godin sums up the problem with that view as he examines the psychology of the "grand opening."

The grand opening is a symptom of the real problem... the limited attention span of marketers. Marketers get focused (briefly) on the grand opening and then move on to the next thing (quickly). Grand opening syndrome forces marketers to spend their time and money at exactly the wrong time, and worse, it leads to a lack of patience that damages the prospects of the product and service being launched.

Lack of patience is at the heart of the problem with most online communication by most organizations. Since most communicators are looking for an instant hit, they get discouraged when a community doesn't grow around their Web offering right away. Or worse yet, they know it will take a long time to build a community, so they don't even bother to start.

Think of your online communication as a relationship with real people, one that builds over time. It's not a quick-hit way to get people's attention on a street-corner. It's a longterm effort to give people something they value.

Try it. It's cheap!

The World Bank's Private Sector Development Blog has good advice from Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody. Shirky points out that it's less expensive than ever to get a collaborative idea off the ground, because you can piggyback on someone else's platform. Using tools like Facebook or Blogger or Ning or Twitter, anyone can build a program that reaches people effectively and efficiently. That's even true for very small organizations.

In the Development 2.0
world, there are fewer and fewer justifications for the "not invented
here" syndrome and massive budgets spent to develop proprietory IT
solutions. The challenge to adopt a try and test it approach that is
open to failure and appropriation of solutions developed by others is
not a technological one: it's first and foremost an issue of
organisational culture.

In other words, stop fretting about whether the people in your organization are technology-challenged, because the easy tools available today make that a moot point. Instead, ask yourselves whether they're risk-averse, and think about ways to change that.

Adding spark to your writing

If you're a professional communicator -- whether for a nonprofit or a big corporation -- your writing is primarily what defines you. Jesse Hines at Copyblogger has three tips for adding spark to your writing.

· Resumptive Modifiers
· Summative Modifiers
· Free Modifiers

Go read the whole post to find out what these terms mean, and how they can spice up your writing, from your blog to your brochures to your press releases.

Writing like a person

Beth Dunn, inspired by Jeff Brooks at Donor Power Blog, has some good thoughts on why you should write conversationally. She's been looking at a book with old-fashioned "sales copy" and doesn't like what she sees.

One of the reasons why it’s worth while to build relationships with current and potential donors, members, constituents, et al., by using social networking and two-way communication like blogs is so that we can dump these outdated, alienating, and only ever marginally effective methods once and for all.

I'll go a step further and challenge you to write conversationally in your other printed materials, too. Why let a committee suck the life out of everything you've written before you spend $3,000 on slick brochures? The message will be far more effective if someone can pick up your brochure and see it's been written by a real person. So ditch the committee of copy editors. Have 2 or 3 people check for typos next time you're writing brochure copy, and that's it. Just try it to see how it works out.

Know your organization's expertise

The #1 goal of your communications strategy should be to determine what your organization specializes in. Seth Godin sums up why you want to be a specialist.

If I need an animator, I can find the world's best animator. If I need a bond to insure my movie, I can find the best broker at selling completion bonds. If I need SEO help, get me the world's best SEO person. If I need braces, I can find the best orthodontist in my area. Not the second-best or someone who will try really hard or someone who is pretty good at that and also good at other things.

By virtue of the fact that you have a room full of people who work on the same issue every day, your organization is specializing in something. But too many small organizations fail to understand that they have experts on staff with important information to share with an interested constituency. So figure out what's your specialty, then figure out who needs that specialty. The rest of your communications plan will fall into place.

Photo sharing for a good cause

Yesterday, I posted a photo that floated down from the sky near my home, after the tornadoes over the weekend, 70+ miles away. The Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader is inviting readers to upload the photos they've found to the newspaper's website, in hopes that the owners can retrieve them. It's a great example of the network effect of the Internet, and how easy-to-use Web tools can be used for good.

Help re-unite this photo with its owner

The photo on the left ended up near my home this weekend, after tornadoes hit southwest Missouri and parts of Oklahoma, Kansas and Arkansas. I have no idea where it came from, but it traveled at least 70 miles, I think. It's just one piece of the debris that was scattered across the area. There's another piece of paper -- apparently some kind of order form for a builder in Miami, Oklahoma.

I'm posting this here in the hope that you'll help find the owner of the photo by spreading the word about it on your own site. Five years ago, there would have been almost no way to get the photo back where it belongs. But the way we're all linked together online now, I think it's actually a possibility. At least it's worth a try.

Marketing a charity auction

Seth Godin has advice on marketing your charity auction.

If you're only willing to bid $19 to buy a $20 bill at this auction,
you're not doing charity, you're bargain hunting. There's nothing wrong
with bargain hunting, it's fun, but it's not philanthropy. I think
bargain hunting for a good cause is just fine, but wouldn't it be great
if the event could raise far more money and change the way people view
the organization?

The Robin Hood Foundation raised more than 24 million dollars at
their last auction, because people competed to overpay. And that's the
secret. The story the charity must tell is: "don't pay $19 for this
twenty dollar bill, don't even pay $30, we need you to pay $40!" The satisfaction of overpaying (whether you overpay anonymously or in public) is what they sell, not a bargain.

Seth points out that this is not the easy way. It's easier to convince people to hunt for bargains than to donate their money. But the payoff is a lot bigger if you do the extra work, and make the act of donating the reward in itself.

Oops! How the Internet ruins secrets

Kevin Rose founded a site called Digg, which uses votes from readers to select featured stories. Digg was readying a new comment system -- but wasn't quite ready to go public -- when Rose acccidentally posted a link to his Twitter account. That message was immediately followed by this message:

crap, wrong window, disregard

Rose deleted the original message, but of course, nobody bothered to "disregard." Instead, they began voting almost immediately for the story on Digg, and it was soon one of the most popular stories on the site.

Within an hour, Kevin Rose had this to say on Twitter: "well, it's almost on the homepage, secret no more: http://tinyurl.com/6jg7dj." What could he do? The story was out, and there was no getting it back anymore. It wasn't an earth-shattering story, but the incident serves as a lesson to think twice about what you say before you post it online.

How to turn employees into story-tellers

Computer-maker Dell has launched a new blog, called Your Blog, and it has applications for all kinds of organizations, from other corporations to small nonprofits.

Dell employees are posting stories or tips about how they use technology in their personal lives. One contributor talks about his online gaming experience. Another writes about turning old camera lens rings into jewelry. The site also asks readers to submit their own tips for "doing more with technology."

The blog isn't about promoting Dell products. It's about promoting Dell people. And it's just the kind of thing your organization can do, too. Your organization trusts its employees enough to hire them. Enough to invite them into the building every day. Enough to pay them for their work. So why wouldn't the organization trust its employees enough to let them tell the stories of their work to the public?

Allowing employees to share the things they've learned is a great way to put a face on your organization. And doing that builds relationships that will make it easier for the organization to succeed.

This is a great idea -- and it's not something most organizations would be comfortable with.
Technorati Tags: storytelling, nptech, nonprofit, blogs, Dell