Diane Rarick, College of Lake County Takes Social Media to Next Level from Community Media Workshop on Vimeo.

Diane Rarick doesn’t much care about GeekyGuy43 — who followed her when she tweeted about Star Wars, then dropped her a month later. She’s more excited about the recent doubling of Facebook followers to the account she manages for the College of Lake County–many of them part of a key demographic her, 18- to 24-year-olds.

Nerds may not be a target audience for Diane, but they are key to Adam Thurman, who led the workshop she and other nonprofit communicators took earlier today. Court Theater, a branch of the University of Chicago, considers one of their core online audiences to be (and he means this obviously in the best sense possible) nerds.

These ideas about audience are what Taking Social Media to the Next Level — the title of Adam’s session — was all about. In addition to turning in stellar results via online engagement at Court, he has his own firm (and blog) Mission Paradox. The key theme of the session:  how to use social media as a tool to lead to:

• more transactions, not just clicks and
• more engagement, not just friends on Facebook

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"Week Ten: Paczki Day," by Chicago Geek, from flickr

Emily Culbertson is just starting her Social Media Need to Know for Managers workshop this morning–her icebreaker: what are you looking for out of this workshop and what did you have breakfast? Listening to the intros, I had two reflections. Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve always been lucky that when I left a job, the people who took the position over next were so dang smart that they ended up making me look good, too.

That’s by way of a reflection as I’ve been reading Beyond the Echo Chamber, by Jessica Clark and Tracy Van Slyke. I first met Tracy just 10 years ago when she became communications director at National Training and Information Center, best known for the bank-stoppin’ grassroots action coalition National People’s Action.

You haven’t heard about progressive news outlets’ fiscal crisis much in the course of the economic disaster for other news outlets. That’s because fiscal crisis is endemic to progressive news outlets–as Tracy and Jessica, who met when they worked at Chicago’s In These Times, know much better than I.

Also, despite big exceptions such as the bankrupt Air America, progressive outlets have rolled and grown with the times. They have received huge reinforcements in the form of the progressive blogosphere.

Tracy and Jessica tell us how sites and groups from Brave New Films to Daily Kos, Talking Points Memo, Center for Independent Media, FiveThirtyEight.com have joined with revamped and revitalized venerable outlets–The Nation, Progressive, Mother Jones etc. to gain voice and influence in the new millenium. Read the rest of this entry »

We’re on a marketing kick at Community Media Workshop in between the waves of calls we’re getting from all size nonprofits seeking to adjust to changing circumstances in how we tell our stories (e.g. doing more of the work ourselves, but still relying on journalists when we can get ‘em).

The challenge of nonprofit marketing, I’ve been finding, is to uncover authoritative and accessible sources for learning how to market our nonprofit services better. Of course we’re kind of guided by what’s most available … and what’s most available at the moment is Seth Godin.

Godin's books inspire, entertain

It’s good, it’s good! (more specifics on Seth in a moment) The problem is, even a “meatball sundae” is still just dessert. From Seth I get conceptual thinking and a grounding in living my work on the Web. But Seth alone won’t teach me to incorporate effective marketing principles into my efforts to spread the good word about how Community Media Workshop is helping ’save the world.’

Enter Tim Calkins, a Northwestern University marketing professor, and author of my favorite new-to-me book,  (it came out in 2008) Breakthrough Marketing Plans. An acquaintance introduced me to the book.

“The goal of this book is to be very practical and effective, and to help people write plans that are clear and supported and get great results in the market,” Calkins says in a 2008 Northwestern University article on the book. Calkins crystallizes some basic concepts.

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Wondering where I’ve been (I’d like to think so!) — the answer is, since January, mostly learning how to use my new phone I’m an android now, i guess. You know–the mad whirl of a nonprofit trainer leaves so little time for blogging, dahlings. I have been saving some good stuff up, so watch this space!

Just a quick note now to frame some thoughts on prevention in the LGBT community–today Chicago Dept of Health sponsored “Getting the E-Word Out.” (presentation below except for Gustavo and Simone’s darn it–hey guys send me your slides!). Also fair warning, they are slightly mangled as everyone had their own backgrounds and i just dumped all into one slide deck.

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Bianca Berkhia, discusses La Casa Norte’s campaign to get 50o Facebook fans by the end of 2009 and how her organization uses social media for its fundraising and communicaitons today from Community Media Workshop on Vimeo.

Ever since Beth Kanter posted in November about whether small nonprofits can succeed with social media (a post that garnered a lot of comments), I’ve been wondering about stories and proof that, indeed, integrating these new modes of communication into our work is part of our future at nonprofits with budgets under $1 million — especially organizations that have been around a while, and those that provide traditional sorts of services. Found a couple stories these past two weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Robyn is a marketing and communications consultant for nonprofits and can be reached at stein.robyn @gmail.com

Robyn and I met a few years ago at the TrueSpin conference, Jason Salzman’s biennial gathering of nonprofit communicators in Denver (more about that at the bottom). In October over NYC-diner toasted corn muffins and coffee we discussed that the basic rules of communications adapt well to the online world–as Robyn demonstrates in thinking about audience, and how to segment or subdivide those we seek to reach into smaller groups, the better to connect with them.

How do you identify and then reach the audiences, niches, microgroups you are trying to attract to your campaign, your issue, your organization?”

It used to be formulaic. You could buy a list of 25-35 year olds, send a prospect mailing to a specific zipcode, target the readership of a local, regional or national media outlet, buy an ad in an appropriate publication. Not any more. Now there’s a dizzying array of techniques available enabling us to reach an exponentially larger audience. When did it become so complicated?

The quick answer is it happened when our inner audience screamed out for attention individually and collectively. It happened comparatively slowly during the dotcom surge; it sped up when palm pilots were the thing. It hit lightning speed [literally] when our Blackberrys and iPhones could load 100,000 apps including the ubiquitous Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace.

Today, real time is actually real time and quick is an understatement. So how do we connect to the audiences we want to engage? Read the rest of this entry »

Luis De La Torre's art studio in a Bridgeport warehouse is classic, but threatened by a tough market. That is one of the themes that may emerge from Studio Chicago, a year-long project to promote events for or about artists and the spaces where they create--one of several new initiatives to help market arts events. DeLaTorre artist from Flickr, used w/permission.

I love this picture of Luis De La Torre’s studio. I also know from my co-worker Diana that it’s touch and go for Luis (who is her husband) to maintain his space because of economic hard times disproportionately affecting the arts market.

Two new arts-marketing initiatives highlight collaboration and capacity-building to help local organizations build audiences and patronage: Studio Chicago and the Chicago Art Exchange. Read the rest of this entry »

Shoot and Score, by V'ron, from flickr

I scoff at Christmas decorations in stores before Thanksgiving is over, but in the spirit of, if you can’t beat ‘em join ‘em & for those of us already thinking about spending our scant $$ for holiday gifts–it seemed like a good moment to list nonprofits that sell stuff — specifically, gifts for the holidays!

This post was inspired by lunch a week or 2 ago with Megy Karydes — writer, marketing/PR consultant and born and bred Chicagoan. So, full disclosure, a bunch of these are folks she works for.

I’ve looked through the sites though, and fell comfortable this is a solid list of great causes offering cool stuff.

Artisans 21 around the corner from my home in Hyde Park is one of the country’s oldest cooperative art galleries, I was there this morning, and saw some photos and demitasse cups for espresso that caught my eye (rather large for those who like me need their coffee strong and lots of it).

Bright Endeavors aims to break the cycle of poverty experienced by inner-city, homeless and at-risk young women 16–25 by teaching them skills to become self-sufficient, successful adults. They make Dreambean Candles as well as other products, like an $8 jar of bath sea salts to a $60 Tealightful Gift Box which includes candles, bath tea bags and fair trade, organic tea.

Greenheart, in Bucktown, carries fair trade and handmade items from more than a dozen developing countries as well as local organizations. Megy says the nonprofit ecofriendly and fair trade shop hosts a launch party Dec. 2 for a new line of copper and brass jewelry from South Africa.

If you would like to give a gift to charity in honor of a friend or family member, consider Hope for a Hurting World Catalog from Heartland Alliance, one of our region’s largest and most vital advocates for and providers of human services. Gifts range from $15-550 and include an infant care kit to healthy snacks for an after-school program. 

MayaWorks works with women in Guatemala to make gifts, home accents, jewelry and, most recently, introduced a baby collection. Baby booties for 6-12-month-olds are $15 a pair. Their best-selling item? yarmulkes.

Update! If you are more of a gift card kind of person — or you have to give a gift card kind of a gift — Oakbrook, Ill.-based nonprofit Opportunity International lets you buy a card whose recipient can designate the funds for a microloan to a woman enterpreneur in Kenya, Ghana, Colombia, Mexico or the Philippines. It looks pretty simple to do, check it out at OptInNow.

Update! Porchlight Counseling Services, an Evanston-based agency that offers counseling and other resources to survivors of college sexual assault, are selling “(k)no(w)more beads” this holiday season–beaded bracelets with an amethyst stone as a centerpiece: “(k)no(w)more beads represent empowerment, resistance, and community connectedness by insisting that the public know more about sexual assault and demanding that sexual assault be no more,” Stephanie Boehmer of Porchlight writes.

Reason to Give, the Firebelly Design-initiated campaign for supporting Humboldt Park families, plans a “holiday pop-up shop” with lots of artists and inexpensive art at Firebelly’s studio from 5 to 10 p.m. Friday, Dec. 4.

Sweet Beginnings markets Beeline, a line of honey-based personal care products which are handmade by individuals facing barriers to employment, particularly those with histories of criminal conviction.

I think of The Enterprising Kitchen, which helps women work toward self-sufficiency and economic independence by handcrafting soap and body care products out of its Ravenswood studio, as a grandma of Chicago’s social-enterprises. They offer products from $5 to $350 or will be happy to make up a custom order (baskets, anyone?) if you’d like.

WomanCraft is a nonprofit in North Lawndale whose green, handmade paper sheets are embedded with wildflower seeds including flax, cornflower, echinacea, coreopsis, larkspur, and black-eyed Susan seeds. A set of 10 cards is $13.

Need more inspiration? A few more posts featuring Chicago and some Midwest nonprofits’ gift ideas: from About.com and the Reader’s great Holiday Shopping event calendar.

Buy, buy, buy! Who am I missing do you think? And/or, if I missed your organization and you would like me to add you, let me know here.

(You can also add your nonprofit to our brand-new nonprofit organization directory here).

I’ve been meaning to share this for a while. At the end of the summer, one of the more intriguing responses to our annual survey of nonprofit communicators was to the question, “How has the economic crisis affected the way your organization communicates?”

It was a bit of a good news/bad news response:

• Read the rest of this entry »