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Archive for February, 2009

14 Advanced Twitter Tips

Twitter Like a Pro

The last two articles Tweet or Not to Tweet and Tweet Tweet Nonprofit should have gotten everyone up-to-date on the basics of Twitter. Now that you have your twitter account set up and hopefully following a few people as well as being followed I wanted to take this space to give you some tips to get you tweeting like a pro as well as being well mannered in the twitter arena (etiquette). Read on to get some more advanced Twitter tips… This is only an except the complete article can be found at the link below…

Top 10 Reasons Nonprofits Should Blog

Top 10 Reasons Every Nonprofit Should Have a Blog

Part of the Series “Be a Social Media Expert Series” here.

When you start and run a nonprofit, you’ve just signed up to become the best storyteller in history. If there is anything you need to do well, it is to develop your story and then tell it over and over and over again. See http://oceangrand.org/a-simple-fundraising-formula/ for a step-by-step on how to develop and tell your story. Telling your story needs to happen in all kinds of ways, shapes and forms and in this article I am going to explain why your nonprofit should have a blog and be telling your story on it. Read on and I will break this complicated subject down into 10 bite-sized pieces.

Blogs and Web Sites

Blogs are not much different than web sites anymore except for a couple of critical differences. Web sites contain mostly “static” information which is information that you or a webmaster puts on the site, but once there, rarely changes. It resembles a brochure on the web more than anything. On the other hand, a blog has pages also, but the “blog page” (like what you are reading here) has ongoing posts or stories that are easily changed and updated. The blog gives you the ability to quickly post new information without needing the help of a webmaster. The other pages on a blog can also easily be changed. So in essence a blog is a web site with multiple pages that are easily changed with the addition of an area that has ongoing new information posted to it. It much better resembles an effort to tell an ongoing story. There are a lot of added benefits to having a blog rather than a static web site, that I will outline 10 reasons below, and then take you through the 10 reasons to set up a blog for your own nonprofit.
Blogging Benefits

I get asked a lot if every nonprofit should have a blog and I personally believe they should. Every nonprofit understands the benefits of having a newsletter whether it is one you design, print and mail or one that you put together on the web and send out in an HTML email. A blog, if done well, can serve as the newsletter for your nonprofit with constant updates, success stories, pictures, and needs that are accessible by more people in more ways. When I say accessible in more ways, I am referring to RSS and email subscriptions which we will cover below.
Benefits of a Blog For Your NonProfit

1.Easy to Update

Blogs are much easier and quicker to update for the average person. A new article or change can be updated and be live on the web as fast as you can type and push the publish button. This gets your most relevant information to the web and in front of the world quicker than any other method. No more static web pages; instead, every page on your site will be relevant… This is just an excerpt, see the link below for the
complete article…

Tweet Tweet Nonprofit

So you are ready to Tweet? Great. If nothing else, give it a try and see if it is for you. As a nonprofit or any business, the more avenues in which you can make yourself available to others the better your chances of developing relationships that stick. For more on building relationships that stick, read http://oceangrand.org/building-nonprofit-relationships-equals-success. Twitter is an avenue that can make a huge difference in your knowledge about how to run a successful nonprofit and is a great way to stay in touch up-to-the-minute with supporters, donors, volunteers and grant makers. Read on to learn how you can use Twitter to make a difference in your nonprofit.

Last week we talked about whether “To Tweet or Not to Tweet”, read that here. Hopefully you’re reading this because you have decided to tweet. Take it from us, for an organization that stays in touch with lots of people, nonprofits and others all around the world on a minute by minute basis, you can’t get better than Twitter. By using Twitter, we can keep in touch with all the nonprofit news, initiatives, info on nonprofits we work with, while keeping all that want our information informed up to the second. It’s awesome and once you get the hang of it we believe you will agree. I will briefly run through the benefits to you and your nonprofit using Twitter, then list the steps on how you can get started “Tweeting” yourself. This is just an excerpt, see the link for the complete article…

Start NonProfit

Starting a NonProfit Could Not Be Easier
Half the battle starting a NonProfit is setting up the company, filing all the right forms and then doing all the paperwork. It takes many people months or even years to figure out how to start a nonprofit, then longer saving up to pay to get the nonprofit [...]

Building NonProfit Relationships Equals Success

The Forgotten Element = Relationships

On a phone call today I was asked what I believe was the most important factor in the success of a nonprofit that most forget. For me that is an easy question and one I believe is also the same for any business. In this day and age of email addresses, usernames, and twitter accounts many forget that relationships are golden. Whether you are in business for profit or not-for-profit, if you are not devoting a large percentage of your business toward building relationships, you are missing one of the most important aspects of marketing. If you build the relationships with your volunteers and donors and forget the rest, the finances, programs, and success will fall into place. Read on and let me show you how to build loyal relationships that can make all the difference in your business. I will start out with explaining the why and give you practical how to at the end.
The Missing Puzzle Piece

In this day and age more than ever people want to be known. It is a need that we are all born with, that we want people to know who we are. Think about it for a minute, when you walk into a room of strangers, doesn’t it feel great when someone knows you? Sure it does, it feels awesome. It does not matter whether you are in a room of strangers, in the cyber world, or walking into a restaurant for lunch. When someone knows you or wants to get to know you it makes you feel really good. Imagine what it must feel like when you are in one of those venues and