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

Why your small idea-driven organization should "go global"

Laurel Delaney at Marketing Profs points to a report that tells us, "In the future, there will be two kinds of enterprises: those that go global and those that die."  The report is long, but worth a look.  And it applies to you, even if you don't have dreams of exporting products to another continent.

Here's why: if you're part of a small organization (whether a business or a nonprofit agency), you have something to offer people. If you don't, you'll soon be out of a job, along with the entire organization. Even if that "something" is ideas, it's valuable to the world. And the value is almost never limited geographically.

I  was on a call yesterday with the directors of several small "regional centers,"  who deal with child abuse prevention issues. As I talked to them, I could tell they were excited about the opportunity to use their blogs as resources for people in their area.  I encouraged them to see their sites as extensions of their office -- not merely telling about what the agency does, but doing it online. Even though these regional centers are geograpphically named, the resources they draw on are not limited to one area.  Their blogs will allow them to "go global" by drawing on worldwide resources in the area of child abuse prevention.

Your online presence should do the same thing.  Just as small manufacturers can easily "go global," a small organization with big ideas can become a part of a global community -- importing good ideas from everywhere, and exporting good ideas to the rest of the world.

Technorati Tags: nptech, nonprofit, ideas, global_marketing, marketing, blogging, journamarketing