Don Akchin

If you choose to disregard my advice below about social media experts, this one-page guide, based on surveys and interviews with nonprofits, says social media comes down to the seven C’s:  Cause, Communication, Community, Collaboration, Costs, Capital, and Competition.

A marketing vice president has written a very provocative piece suggesting that social media has become a craze, and when the bubble inevitably bursts, “Facebook pages and Twitter handles will be abandoned like houses that are worth less than the mortgage on them” and “those flash-in-the-pan social media experts” will disappear. Meanwhile, there are cries of revolution in the air, and we’re not even talking politics! A blogger, fed up with the rules and norms of social media practice “dictated by an echo chamber,” has gotten strong response to his call for a “punk social media” to shake up the social media stars and their conventional wisdom,  much as punk rock exploded onto the music scene to protest the overproduced mindlessness of disco. These critiques have a common theme:  many social media “experts” are clueless. I happen to agree with that assessment, but for a totally different reason.  I think

I just learned that I am a “content curator.” I read all these blogs and articles about nonprofit marketing and fundraising and “curate” the best selections for you each month. You, too,can perform a valued service for your constituents as a content curator. In an age of Too Much Information, it’s truly appreciated.

Cone LLC has released the latest in its 17-year longitudinal study of consumer attitudes toward business and cause-related marketing. One startling stat: “85% of Americans wish more of the products, services and retailers they use would support causes.”  That is particularly so for mothers (95%) and millenials (94%). The study provides powerful ammunition for nonprofits seeking out sponsorships and high-profile partnerships with corporations.

January 1 is an epic day for fundraisers. Blogger Jeff Brooks explains why. (Hint: it has everything to do with demographics.)

Network for Good has published a short e-book that has two things going for it: The title (How To Raise A Lot More Money Now) and the price (free). Ten different experts offer five short tips apiece. Download it for inspiration.

In the next 12 weeks, my mailbox will be bombarded by appeals for money from dozens of nonprofit organizations. Some, but not all, are organizations I have donated to in the past. I would like to help many of them. Having neither won the lottery nor been born to wealth, however, I must be selective about giving. (Note to nonprofits: If you expect to get a gift from me this season, you need to be among the top 5 on my list.) Who gets to the top of my list? Simple: the organizations in which that I feel a personal stake. My synagogue, because I am active and have many friends there. My public radio station, because they share (and shape) my musical taste and make me feel a part of a community. Habitat for Humanity, because one of the people they helped has become a personal friend. (That’s another

Susan Strong, Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, explains that nonprofits can frame a stronger message by “speaking American,” which means “understanding American cultural narrative and tying in your message to that ideal American sense of identity that everyone already understands.”

Blogger Jocelyn Harmon of Care2 offers a critique of a new nonprofit webpage and uses it to offer seven valuable best practice rules. Among them: e-mail signup on every page, and “words and images that make your mission concrete.”

Well, surprise surprise! When people with mobile phones connect to the web, the number one thing they do is check their email, says a Nielsen study. If you’re sending email to solicit donations, make sure it’s user-friendly on a mobile phone. You also may want to develop a mobile app for your organization – something that gives mobile users a reason to click through. For inspiration, check out these seven examples of nonprofits and their apps.

Experts with experience in Facebook marketing offer seven good suggestions for how to do it better.

What a great site for email marketers! “Which Test Won” offers a comparison of two email test offers from the same organization each week. You vote for the one you think was most effective, and then you learn the actual results. There’s also a library of past comparisons. Thanks to Jeff Brooks at Future Fundraising Now for the tip.

Blogger and consultant Lisa Sargent has written a valuable report on the state of online and offline fundraising, based on interviews with professionals representing organizations of varying sizes and across a spectrum of causes. Among the most interesting findings: social media contacts are “fragile followers.”

Now we’re getting down to the real nitty gritty. How can you channel Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, your website and other tools to draw attendance for your special events? This article offers a 12-step recipe.

Catalog Choice and The Overbrook Foundation are sponsoring the Paperless Choice Challenge, a competition for nonprofit organizations raising money strictly through electronic media. This is one of those contests where winners are determined by online voters. While the Aug. 16 deadline is a bit tight, scanning the contestants may inspire some fresh fundraising ideas.

The annual NTEN Benchmark Study is a good measure of how deeply nonprofits are delving into social media, and what results they are getting. Headlines: Facebook and Twitter usage is up, but few see much direct fundraising success.

Publicity in newspapers and on television is a big boost in getting the public’s attention – but to help the media find your story, you may have to be your own reporter. A D.C. public relations consultant offers useful ideas for combining traditional media relations with “Web 2.0″ tools, such as your website and social media sites.

Unless your nonprofit is among the several dozen national “brands” whose names are instantly recognized (American Red Cross, March of Dimes, Sierra Club), you can’t start branding until people know who you are. So first, you need successful communication to raise your profile: communication that clearly defines who you are and what you do and places that information into the minds of your potential supporters. The Agitator blog offers three suggestions on how to do it.

MK Creative was kind enough to profile me as part of a series on Nonprofits and the Men and Women Who Love Them. It relates how my consulting business went from disaster’s doorstep to robust recovery through a careful repositioning. And it’s mostly true.

Photo: Amber Dawn Pullin Some of the ablest commentators on nonprofit marketing have recently published books that will give your hands something to do while you wiggle your toes in the sand. The Nonprofit Marketing Guide by Kivi Leroux Miller (Jossey-Bass, $39.95), which promises “high-impact, low-cost ways to build support for your good cause,” is the book I wish I had written. It aims directly at the one-person marketing/communications staff with the complete procedural on how to do everything from develop a strong message to working social media to your advantage. Meanwhile, Beth Kanter and Allison Fine have written The Networked Nonprofit: Connecting with Social Media to Drive Change (Jossey-Bass, $34.95). Both are highly respected consultants and practitioners, and they not only explain all the programs and platforms, they also provide plenty of real examples. For information and inspiration, you can’t do better than these this summer.

It is too early to say whether social media platforms like Foursquare, which are based on the user’s physical location, are a great leap or a short-lived fad. But at least one nonprofit has used Foursquare to raise money and bombard Congress with calls.

Photo: Stephen Poff Blogger and consultant Nancy Schwartz has posted a slide presentation on “Breakthrough Nonprofit E-Newsletters,” which, as she points out, is still a far more effective medium for nonprofits than social media at this stage. She offers some valuable tips for creating e-newsletters that connect with readers.

Nedra Weinreich, an expert on social marketing (not to be confused with social media), explains a concept so startling it will either transform your thinking  or make your head explode. Or both. Transmedia storytelling, as she defines it, is telling a story on multiple media platforms, with different parts of the story appearing in different places. The readers/viewers may enter the story at various points, and may need to solve puzzles or follow clues to discover the different nodes of the story. When it works, it can be very engaging. Nedra provides a complete example of transmedia in an imagined campaign to change behavior on a public issue. I heartily recommend reading it (but will not assume responsibility for any resulting explosions).

An article on the Idealware blog defines, in plain English, the mystery terms “views,” “followers,” “engagement,” and “conversion” so that you, too, will understand how to know what’s working and just how well.

If you’re up on Facebook but still don’t know what to do with Stumbled Upon or Digg or del.icio.us, this chart of the “Social Landscape” may be just the ticket. (Thanks to Marco Kathuria for the tip.)