JournaMarketing

No idol necessary

Katya blogs about the Idol Gives Back campaign, the fundraiser organized by the producers of American Idol. It raised $70-million, but Katya has a great takeaway point:

"...remember, you DO NOT NEED AN IDOL to raise money. Idol is great for attracting a mass audience, and that audience is what led to the scale of the money raised, but it wasn’t Simon or Madonna who prompted giving as much as the compelling (and perhaps slightly exploitative, though effective) stories they showed about people in need on their show. While we’d all like an audience of that size, or a celebrity spokesperson, don’t despair if you don’t have an A-lister out promoting you."

What a great way of putting it! Now, more than ever, the important thing is that you're offering your community something valuable, and that you're effectively communicating that value by telling great stories. Think of yourself as a journalist-advocate -- telling stories for a cause, because you believe in that cause, and because the product or service you're offering can make a difference to people.

On a smaller scale, organizations often get hung up on their own "local idols." They spend so much time chasing after TV and radio and newspaper coverage, that they don't realize how easy it is to communicate directly with the people who care the most. Sure, you still need local media coverage of your events. But if you take the time to cultivate your community online, you'll be well-positioned to communicate important information when those "idols" of local media fail to come through for you.

Technorati Tags: nptech, nonprofit, marketing, PR, communications, American Idol, Idol Gives Back

Small organizations: serve first, communicate second

Seth Godin gives you the #1 reason you can pursue a successful new-media communications/marketing plan -- even if you're part of a tiny nonprofit organization. He writes about the devise of mass-media marketing, and how you should respond:

If I want a book review, I'll go read one. If I want to learn about turntables, I'll go do that. Mass is still seductive, but mass is now so expensive, marketers are balking at buying it (notice how thin Time Magazine is these days? Nothing compared to Gourmet.)

And yet. And yet marketers still start every meeting and every memo with ideas about how to reach the unreachable. It's not in our nature to do what actually works: start making products, services and stories that appeal to the reachable. Then do your best to build that group ever larger. Not by yelling at them, but by serving them.

The beauty of this new reality is that you don't have to connect with a lot of people. You just have to connect with the right people. How do you measure the ROI of making life easier for 50 or 100 people who are vitally important to your organization, by becoming their source of information about the stuff they need to know?

Look around your organization. Are you proud of the work you're doing? What makes you proud? That's the stuff you should be sharing with others as part of a new-media campaign -- not because you want to brag about your organization, but because it will genuinely serve the people who choose to receive it.

Technorati Tags: marketing, seth_godin, PR, journamarketing, nptech

How is your small organization like the National Lacrosse League?

Thirty years ago, I had access to 2 baseball games a week on network TV. I could watch bowling with my mom on Saturday afternoon if the NBC game got rained out.  Those were pretty much my only options.

Now, the National Lacrosse League has its own channel. That's just cool.

Really, I don't give a crap about lacrosse. But some people do, and the NLL understands that its best marketing move is to give those people access to all lacrosse, 24/7.  Why?  Because people who love lacrosse now will love it more if they can get it anytime they want. And people who like lacrosse now might grow to love it. And people who are ambivalent about lacrosse might grow to like it, if they're exposed to it. So what's the NLL got to lose?

Now the question for you: how can you emulate the National Lacrosse League? It doesn't have to be sports highlights. It could be video of the training you're doing for people who are changing the community. It could be photos of children enjoying the programs you've organized for your nonprofit organization. It could be interesting stories about the people whose lives are better because they use your product. It doesn't matter how small you are. It doesn't matter how little you know about computers and the Internet and stuff. It just matters that you have interesting things to say to people who care about the things you're doing, and you're willing, like the National Lacrosse League, to put it out there 24/7.

If you do that, the people who love your organization will love it even more. The people who like your organization might grow to love it. And people who are ambivalent about your organization might grow to like it, once they see what kind of things you're doing. What do you have to lose?

Technorati Tags: nptech, lacrosse, marketing, journamarketing, youtube, National_Lacrosse_League, sports