Non-profits: do you have early warning metrics in place for holiday giving?

Pointing the way/via Rebecca K O'Connor, Flickr, under CC license

At a meeting last week, a marketing committee for a non-profit was discussing one of the organization’s most critical performance indicators.  If it hit the same number as last year, the organization would likely make its budget and it would strengthen – or at least uphold – the organization’s strong reputation in the community.

Comes the question:  “When will you know if you’ve made your numbers?”

In so many words, the answer was, “After the campaign is over.”

Not surprisingly, eyebrows went up.  Wouldn’t it be good to have a sense of whether things were above or below expectations before running out of time to try to influence the outcome?

As non-profits enter the all-important holiday giving season, they should have in place week-by-week comparison statistics for last year’s season — not only for actual donations received, but anything else which would offer an advance indication of interest.

Strategic planners would call these leading indicators.

While lagging indicators, like revenue or market share, are reported after the dust has settled a bit, leading indicators are closer to real-time measures that tell you if the numbers are going in the right direction.  In a traditional business, for example, leads are a good early indicator.  If your leads are falling short, chances are your sales and your revenue will, too.

Get the leading indicators right and you may have time to adjust with last minute interventions if donations could fall short of plan (e.g. phone calls, another email, another snail mail appeal letter).

Here are some leading indicators that non-profits may wish to track more carefully through the holiday season:

1.  E-newsletter open rates and click throughs.

2.  Number of groups participating in holiday volunteer drives.

3.  Website unique visitors, by week.  (If you don’t have a tracking program like the free Google Analytics, you should have.)

4.  Event registration (again, by week).

5.  Event attendance.

Embrace leading indicators so that you can act before it’s too late to influence the outcome of your holiday charitable campaign.  Ignore them at your peril.

What leading indicators do you find most useful?

Can non-profits succeed in the post-apocalyptic media era?

Peter Francese of Ogilvy and Mather is making the rounds announcing the death of Joe Six Pack, the average American.  His new white paper, written for Ad Age, is looking ahead to the 2010 census, when the U.S. population is expected to surpass 300 million (yours for a mere $249).  Audiences will splinter, he says, and traditional ways of segmenting consumers – e.g. married with children – will no longer be meaningful.

Bummer.  That’s another nail in the coffin of mass media.

So why am I not depressed?  Because I work with local non-profits, which have the greatest chance of developing and managing personalized relationships to some sort of positive outcome – be it volunteering, advocacy or charitable giving.  Their smaller scale and local focus makes it possible for them to experiment with new forms of outreach.

Here are two examples of wonderful things that have happened for a small non-profit just in the last week:

1.  The organization invited several hundred people to attend an event – for free.  This was a means of expanding their circle of friends.  A number of people came as guests who had never heard about the organization.  The group was decidedly younger, on average, than attendees at past gatherings.  And here’s the kicker.  Unsolicited, the organization received more in donations than the cost of the party.

2.  The organization continues to have steady, moderate growth on Facebook.  More importantly, Facebook is helping the organization to reach a younger, connected constituency (people who will tell their friends about the organization) and they are using the FB fan page to DO something.  One constituent checked out the website at our invitation and sent a suggestion for content.  That’s golden.  Another said she wanted to organize a charitable activity at work.  Even better!

While both the event and the Facebook page are test-and-learn experiments, they were highly strategic.  More in the next post about how marketing planning must change in this brave new world, and after that, implications for technology.

Clay Shirky, writing online for McKinsey Quarterly, pointed out the self-organizing capability of the Internet that is now in everyone’s hands:

Until recently organizations of all stripes were better able to get their messages into the media than any motley groups of individuals. That is no longer true, because two critical organizational advantages—the ability to coordinate group effort and to coordinate group access to the means of publishing—are now ubiquitous, global, and free.

While access to the Internet means that people can self-organize to criticize, it also gives small non-profits unprecedented access to people who might become advocates for or supporters of their cause.

My personal post about laundry struck a chord

A loyal reader who asked not to be identified sent this comment about my post yesterday, my “ode to laundry”.  I am on load two so far today…

Your observation is universal. It’s why there were quilting groups in the 1700s and 1800s. The camaraderie of other women who were holding the day-to-day life details together without complaint is what has saved several men from being ’snuffed’. I can’t tell if it is a genetic defect or an environmental one that causes husbands to be clueless. But can you imagine re-marrying a man who took care of things or made dinner? I’m not sure we could handle it…

It is this characteristic that causes men to remarry and women over 50-60 to NOT remarry. Several decades of folding laundry and smiling is enough.  One nice benefit is that this temperament causes (or allows for) ongoing alertness, and for appreciation of quiet time in early morning and late night.

Lack of it is what causes men to die sooner — absence of awareness of others and ‘what needs to be done’.

Laundry:  personal burden or boon?  What do you think?

Laundry: the cause that unites us all

Laundry pudding/credit Frederic Poirot via Flickr under CC license

I’m feeling philosophical this morning.  And in the words of a friend, content.  So please allow me to share a rare personal post.  Call it an ode to laundry.

This morning I woke up to an email from an old friend on the east coast.  Though written in prose, I found her message oddly poetic:

“Next up on my agenda is more laundry and more fundraising letters, and at least a week of catch up on homework activities. And the dog still stinks.  But I am content.“

Laundry:  it unites us all.

Last Sunday, scientist Carol Greider received a call that she was one of this year’s three Nobel Prize in Medicine laureates.  Later, while making the family breakfast, she told a Swedish radio interviewer,

“I was awake, I wake up early anyway, I was doing the laundry when the phone call came from the Nobel committee in Stockholm.”

Years ago, I was one of a group screening resumes for an executive position.  The recruiter hit the highlights of each of the candidates he had identified.  That included the candidates’ personal hobbies and interests:  competitive rowing, extreme mountain biking, helicopter skiing, and the like.  The recruiter commented that one candidate didn’t seem to be “well rounded” because she listed no interests or sports.

“Give me a break,” I interrupted.  “She’s home doing laundry.  At her level of accomplishment, with a family, she doesn’t have time for her own activities.  She’s spending time with her family and most likely carrying the majority of the load at home.”

I’m smiling while I write this.  I folded laundry while my husband read the paper this morning.  But you know what?  I’m content.

Did you know Gen. Colin Powell is on Facebook?

I found Gen. Colin L. Powell's Facebook page!

It wasn’t easy, but I found it.  I had the opportunity to hear Gen. Powell speak in Sacramento last week, and I was a little startled to hear how strongly he advocated for electronic communications.  And his commitment didn’t stop at insisting upon up-to-date computers and connectivity for the State Department during his tenure as Secretary.

At 72, he says he’s peddling as fast as he can.  And he’s proving it with his own Facebook page.

Here’s a twist that none of us are likely to have to worry about:  he had to push aside a few squatters who were operating fan pages using his image/name in one form or another.

He’s got over 17,000 fans and he does appear to author at least some of his own posts – one on the 27th, several around September 11th, an entry that just said “anniversary” on the 10th, and a shout-out to the Boys and Girls Clubs on the 10th.

He had to have been a bit frustrated to learn that others were using his name prior to him establishing his own presence – even if they were friendly sorts.

He calls himself an optimist… and he’s funny.  Here are a few highlights:

• He calls the fact that one-third of kids don’t finish high school a “moral catastrophe”
• “We must show this clown hiding in a cave in Afghanistan that we’re not going to change who we are.”
• “People like to talk about mission and goals.  I prefer to say purpose.”
• “Our Founding Fathers intended us to have strong positions… but sooner or later you have to have compromise.”  (He is deeply concerned about the growth of incivility.)
• On health reform:  “We’re losing sight of the fact that over 40 million Americans do not have health insurance.”
• On China’s influence:  “We shouldn’t fear it.  We need each other.”
• He believes the conflict with Iran and North Korea will eventually be resolved diplomatically.  He is unsure about the future of Afghanistan because it has never had a centralized, functional government.
• When in a military conflict, he supports “decisive force.”  “I don’t want my enemy to have any advantage.”
• “I’ve been called the reluctant General.  Guilty!  I hate war.”
• “In recent years, our standing in the world has declined.  But it never went away.”  We are still the land of opportunity.
• He believe it’s time to review the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy because a lot has changed in 16 years but he was careful to defer to the opinions of those responsible for order and discipline.
• He feels there is “some merit” to the notion that Obama may be trying to do too much in the first 100 days:  “There’s an absorption rate.”
• Cap and trade will not be easily solved, and he doesn’t know what will happen with health care reform.
• He believes in limited government and noted that both parties have made enormous increases in the size of government.  He considers himself a moderate Republican in that he supports a strong defense, fiscal responsibility and limited government, but he is socially moderate.
• He supports immigration reform.  “We need to do something for the people who are here.”

Must communicators and marketers consider social media in their brand strategy?

A while back, I took the time to put together my own taxonomy of social media and I blogged about it here at philanthrophile.  (To go straight to the taxonomy chart, click here to see it on SlideShare.)

Behind my little intellectual exercise were a couple of burning questions:

• First, what makes something social?” Sure, Facebook and Twitter are social media, but strangers and friends also engage around other kinds of media.  Photo sharing sites/services, for example.  Are they social?
• Secondly, what difference does it make?  Must a marketer or communicator incorporate social media to effectively disseminate and support a product or company brand?

Conclusion number one:  Many kinds of channels and applications meet the definition of social media (see definition below).

Conclusion number two:  Social media is becoming a requisite for brand-building, brand-protection (if such a thing exists anymore) and support.

Social media have the following characteristics:

• They allow users to generate their own content – whether it’s photos, videos, posts or comments
• They encourage people to reveal something about themselves in the form of a profile.  While organizations have a presence on many social media platforms, there’s something nice about knowing who the real person is who’s blogging or posting (and many platforms have a means of identifying and supporting multiple authors under one account)
• They usually have privacy filters.  We can choose to make everything we say or post open to everyone, or limit who sees what.
• They often have a “chime in” characteristic; they can “like” it, Digg it, re-tweet it (RT), “hat-tip” HT, etc.  They have many ways of jumping in and echoing or adding to the dialogue.
• They are often accessed through more than one form of electronic gadget.  They may be viewed or engaged with on a computer or mobile phone platform.

So what?  A company or product has a brand whether it is managed or not.  It can be a compelling brand that increases someone’s desire to engage, or not.  Brand affects performance.  If people trust you, it will influence their willingness to make choices that give them access to your product or service.  Or even, to become employed by you.

Communicators and marketers need to engage with people where they are active and interested, in ways that appeal to them, especially in a time-challenged society (which almost seems counter-intuitive when you think about how much time is being spent on social media).  People want to engage where it feels good, where they find friends or like-minded peers.  While it may seem that many people are expanding their sources of information through social media, they may in fact be shrinking it.  The other day, I was asked to complete a survey if I listened to radio at least 30 minutes a week.  I couldn’t participate because I don’t listen to radio.

Social media may not be the best way to communicate one’s brand message.  It may not be the most efficient.

As audiences splinter, more of the relationship between the “target market” and the company will develop in social media neighborhoods.

I can’t imagine a scenario in which a company or product doesn’t need to worry about understanding social media, and finding a way to engage.  The tougher question is not whether an organization needs to engage, but how.

Mirror, mirror: here’s how I use social media

What's in your mirror? Courtesy: Lamerie/Flickr

(A blog post in which I ask and answer the new-age questions about why I use social media the way I do, and why my teenage son uses it the way he does.)

If I had one of those now unemployed Ernst & Young business process consultants sitting next to me, watching how I use social media, here’s what they’d observe:

• I receive frequent Facebook status updates by email, which are cryptic enough to make me go on the page and try to figure out what they were in reference to, e.g. “I know what you mean!  LOL!”  I noticed about two weeks ago that I STOPPED getting updates from my son.  Yup, he de-friended me.  Fortunately, one of his friends invited me to be her friend, so maybe I can vicariously keep a finger on the pulse that way.  (My son writes a lot of songs that he posts on Facebook, which I really miss seeing.  But he took the advice of a friend that maybe it isn’t such a hot idea to give your mother complete visibility on your life during your senior year in high school.)
• LinkedIn status updates, which come every few days, are generally boring.  I really don’t care who people are connecting to.  I swear, there’s one former colleague who connects to four or five people a day.  In my head, I hear his voice in an echo chamber, exclaiming like Jafar in Disney’s Aladdin, “I’m the most powerful genie in the WORLD!”  I like to use LinkedIn for purely professional contacts, and I like having access to info about what my professional friends are doing these days.
• Because I have been crazy busy the past few weeks, I turned off my mobile tweets that used to come through every few SECONDS (dial 40404 and then type ‘off’).  I plunge in every few days, always find good stuff right away, do a few tweets and jump back out of the Twitter ocean.  I also get the occasional DM (direct message), like one from @sacramentopress asking me if I could take some pics of the wild chickens in my neighborhood.  One of my son’s friends follows me on Twitter, although to be honest, I’m not sure she knows it’s me since I tweet as @philanthrophile.
• I haven’t logged back in to my Google Reader yet, which makes me re-log in every two weeks.  I know if I start reading posts, I’ll want to blog and I haven’t had time this week.
• And, obviously, I haven’t blogged for about two weeks.  I don’t let myself blog until after I’ve done the important project stuff.  It’s my treat to myself.  Really.  Silent running, of course, has had a predictably negative effect on traffic.  My blog traffic climbed to 1,640 views per month in July.  Strangely, traffic was up early this week but it’s in the dumper again after being silent for so long.
• My number one tool for communication?  Email.  I am a monster on email.  For me, it is social.  I’m not a big fan of talking on the phone although I text a lot.

The same E&Y process consultant would observe the following re: my son:

• His phone is an appendage, but not so much for talking.  It buzzes with new texts almost constantly.  During dinner last night, one friend – the same friend – texted him in three minute intervals.  “Okay,” I said finally, “you can respond to Glenn!”  When he answers a ring (the ring tone changes every few days – last night it was Rocky Horror picture show), the greeting is always the same, “Hey, what’s up?”  The conversation is always less than two minutes.  It is usually followed by a succession of other short calls or text messages to coordinate whatever’s happening.  He has moved past the grunting stage of teen communication but doesn’t really enjoy the phone.  Especially Skype calls.  Just ask his sister.
• His next best electronic friend is Facebook.  It beats out his ipod and gaming.  If he goes to a concert, he posts photos within an hour.  He literally cannot go to bed without doing this.  He is almost immediately embraced by friends who ‘like’ his photo or make comments.  He uses Facebook to coordinate group activities.  Tuesday has become drive-in movie night this summer, so he uses his status update to find out who’s in.
• He thinks it’s a little strange that I have adopted Twitter, when he hasn’t.  (We parents are not supposed to lead when it comes to electronic adoption.)  But then, only one of his friends is on Twitter, and I’m not sure he even knows that.
• He checks email only under duress.  Seriously, he hates it.  He has a teacher that communicates that way and he knows colleges use it, but it’s like taking out the garbage – you have to be reminded.

This week, Mashable (the central repository for all things social media) has been talking about why teenagers don’t tweet, in response to Neilson data that teens represent only about a quarter of Twitter traffic (although it doesn’t count those doing it on mobile, so it under-represents them).  So I’ve been turning an anthropologist’s mirror on my own social media usage and that of my 17-year-old son’s, thinking about why we have the patterns that we do.  I don’t think it’s that complicated:

Facebook is really, really satisfying.  He was pulled into Facebook by his college-aged sister, but quickly preferred the cleaner interface and smaller amount of junk.  He doesn’t have to think about a 140 character limit.  The status bar is long enough to accomodate whatever he usually wants to say.

His Facebook traffic is limited to his friends (which do not include me as of two weeks ago).  You can be followed by anyone on Twitter.  Sure, you can actively block people – I block the X-rated types that regularly offer me naughty videos – but that takes effort.  He would rather more actively friend people or accept a friend invitation (or not).

Additional groups – via fan pages – are easy to engage with.  Friends send you a status report that they’re a member of, say, their high school’s fan group.  All you have to do is press connect and it’s linked to your Facebook page.  Your causes and fan pages become a part of your identity on Facebook.  That’s less true with Twitter twibes and LinkedIn groups, plus there are an irritating number of people in those groups who are essentially advertising themselves or their services.

Facebook handles media uploads really easily.  My son recorded a song in memory of our dog’s unexpected death via Facebook.  He didn’t even Flip video record it or record it on Garage Band, his built-in Mac Book tool.

Facebook turns him on to stuff on the Internet, like youtube videos.  He doesn’t spend much time surfing on the Internet.  I don’t know of any sites he checks regularly, other than, perhaps, Fandango.  But friends find stuff and post links as part of a status update.  Voila!  Internet finds thanks to Facebook.

Facebook is so much a part of his life he can’t imagine going on vacation without it.  I know how Michelle Obama feels.

Bottomline:  Facebook is a great product for his needs.  Until something better comes along, AND his friends migrate, he’s not going anywhere.

Unlike my son, I do not like to be electronically tethered when I’m on vaca  (see?  it feels like a tether to me and a lifeline to him… hmm…) … so don’t expect to see a post until on or about August 20th!  Off to meet my daughter in Europe!

Answers to questions I’ve been wondering about, thanks to Beth’s Blog

Beth's Blog with Kevin Gilnack's post

When Kim of 3Fold Communications sent me a nice compliment on my 100th blog post, I told her that I get far more than I give from the professional community that puts their stuff out there in the form of blogs.  Beth Kanter proved the point today with a guest post from Kevin Gilnack of the Providers Council, an association of health and human service providers in Massachusetts.

Here are a few excerpts – the answers I’ve most wondered about – but I strongly suggest you read the full post on Beth’s Blog.  The italicized portions are direct quotes.  (And while I appreciate your checking out what I’ve got to say, if you’re time pressed and you only can read ONE blog, read Beth’s!)

How often can you toot your organization’s horn on Facebook, Twitter, etc?

… (T)ry not to tweet about your own org on an average of more than once every seven or so tweets. You will also find your followers engage you more if you engage them.

If I just tweet/post about fundraising appeals or events, will people potentially lose interest?

Yes, they will lose interest quickly. Look beyond what you need people to do (whether it’s giving money, volunteering, taking action, etc.). Before you can effectively get people to respond to those requests, and to build an audience in an opt-in system like Twitter, you need to show you’re there to add value to your followers as well as advancing your mission. Talk about how your spending their money (e.g. the goings-on and successes of your programs), news relevant to your organization, RT posts from other orgs and individuals, and respond to interesting/relevant tweets your followers are sending.

How do you find people on social media who are interested in your cause?

…Twitter search RSS feeds to a Google Reader can provide some great insights. …(T)hink of all of the names, things, words that would help you find conversations of interest. You can also consider using the localization feature of Twitter searches. Finally, don’t forget that Google Alerts have web and blog search features in the comprehensive mode.

How do you get people to post on your blog or in your forum? 

If it is a struggle to get people posting in your forums but are finding Facebook and Twitter conducive to conversations, it may be worth evaluating what the value of those forums are and if it might be more worthwhile to drive traffic there for interaction. However, you might find that posting something like “That’s a great point, we actually have a thread going on this topic here [link to forum]” and/or asking key volunteers to do the same. You may get more comments on your blog by using Twitter and Facebook to drive people there, as well as by promoting posts in your e-newsletter and other outlets. Also, I’m not sure if this is true, but one stat I saw said to expect 1 comment / 100 views (though I assume they pick up significantly after the first comment is left).

Thanks again, Kevin, for putting it out there – and, Beth, for not only the amazing output of your prodigious brain, but your ability to collect and broadcast great thinking from practitioners across the country.

 

#blogchat: how to gorge your mind on Twitter

Listen to the dialogue about social media from 6-7 p.m. Pacific on Twitter or check out the transcript at wthashtag.com

I just returned from a weekend of eating and drinking my way through Healdsburg (I’ll pay for that tomorrow when I try to work out) only to sate my intellectual appetite another way:  I stumbled across a weekly Twitter-based dialogue about social media moderated by Mack Collier, a social media strategist out of Alabama. This week’s conversation was a chance to play 140-character text message tennis with Wendy Harmon, who leads the American Red Cross’ social media efforts.

I know how @maggielmcg felt when she said, “I was going to try to participate in #blogchat tonight but I just can’t keep up with Twitter chats.”  I’m kind of glad that I missed the live chat — at least as a newbie — and had a chance to decipher the transcript created by an online tool called wthashtag.com (what the hashtag).  Besides the transcript, the wthashtag.com tool is pretty cool because it allows you to see comments from people you may not have “met” on Twitter.

Most of the conversation revolved around questions that were directed to Wendy.  Here are some Q and A’s I plucked from the Twitter stream.  (I’m skipping the #blogchat hashtag in these messages for brevity and I translate a few abbreviations.  They’re all direct quotes.)

@PeaceMakerOrg (a small non-profit in Minnesota):  What do you think are keys for small NP w/o significant awareness when implementing SM*?  (*social media)

@wharmon:  i think the key is to listen and learn – find your niche.  Look for people who care about issues you care about

@Shanan_S (in higher ed, just starting a social media rich newsite for the university):  What was the greatest hurdle for you/your org when you started using SM?

@wharmon:  biggest hurdle was and is fear of losing perceived control – it’s a culture shift in doing business so takes a while… (second message) 2nd biggest hurdle is not giving in to the tendency to make your presence all about marketing instead of offering mission online

@speli:  How do we overcome the objections of those who think Twitter in particular is simply an exercise in egotism?

@wharmon:  well, in many ways, it is!  Look for the unique value your org provides and share that value, help others

@PeaceMakerOrg:  Are you finding any resistance among older audience that may not understand SM?  How to avoid alienating them?

@wharmon:  it’s a supplement/complement to other activities – haven’t stopped other stuff so if ur not here won’t bother you

@Shanan_S:  So did you focus more on educating people about the benefits of SM or dispelling fears?  first steps?

@wharmon:  First step was showing them the existing conversation, which both educates about benefits and dispels fears at same time

@WriterChanelle:  Are there non-profit organizations that *shouldn’t* use social media?

@wharmon:  Probably.  There are definite pros and cons in socmed just like anywhere else

@foxwebco:  What scares nonprofits the most about using twitter and Social Media?  I know of 1 with a protected account…

@wharmon:  loss of control scares nonprofits most (and everyone).  I think also the fear that there’s no ROI

@MackCollier:  Wendy what are some of the things TRC (The Red Cross) looks for from SM to know its working?  How do you judge effectiveness?

@wharmon:  our goal is to help people prevent, prepare for, and respond to emergencies using socmed tools, so look for… (2nd message) anecdotes, engagement, some more traditional number crunching (like evaluating FB insights)

@sarahmarchetti:  once NP have basics covered – listening/participating, what are some more advanced ways to use SM?  fundraising?  campaigns?

@wharmon:  I’m not personally huge on fundraising outright – I think an np should empower suppoerters to fundraise for it   (2nd message)  as an np we should concentrate on executing our mission.  If offering unique value, others will support.

@websuasion_ryan:  what are your strategies for finding and building your sm communities?  Particularly given your message.

@wharmon:  I’m lucky in that we were mentioned hundreds of times a day without having to work at it, but… (2nd message) you can use keywords to find people who care about issues you care about.  Offer value, talk to them, and you’ll build community.

@websuasian_ryan:  regarding that value, what % of resources do you apply to content dev vs direct engagement?

@wharmon:  I spend concentrated couple of hours in morning in engagement, bit of afternoon in content dev. and rest of day… (2nd message) monitoring and jumping in where I can (and the rest in meetings!)

 

Besides the Q and A (whew!), several tips and themes emerged from the cacophony (whoops – I mean conversation).  These are paraphrased (hope I got all the credits right!):

• Don’t use social media as a megaphone.  It’s importance to stress the importance of social media as an incoming channel rather than outgoing.  (@jon_dunn, @wharmon)
• Convince your organization to try Twitter by showing the boss that the people you want to reach are already there (@MackCollier)
• Don’t “tweet-n-run”… that is, broadcast a message but not listen to what is said (@foxwebco)
• Organizations don’t have to participate on every social media site – maybe only having a blog would be ideal (@Shanan_S)  Go where your audience is.
• Don’t yap at people to give money; make sure you give value (@wharmon).  Make tweets interesting and not just “follow” or “donate” – share a story on outcomes (@ADDcrafter)
• Group blogs (with more than one person blogging) spread responsibility around, getting over the time hurdle, but make sure there’s a point person (@sarahmarchetti); get other stakeholders (volunteers, staff, donors) to write content (@jdojc)
• Have some trust in your stakeholders; if it’s too rule-driven, no one will participate (@jdojc)… “if mgmt says “i don’t trust you to tweet” what is that saying to your employees?” (@kdpaine)
• Ning can be a good place for non-profits to get started with social media (@Sue_Anne), but it can offer a “false sense of security” because you don’t really know who’s there.  @4byoung responded “that’s where good community mgmt comes in.”
• Several organizations said they use volunteers to post on Facebook and write blog posts.
• “You don’t want that many official ‘tweeters’ but your employees will tweet so your org should have SM guidelines.”  (@sarahmarchetti)
• Blogs can be helpful for Search Engine Optimization (increasing website traffic due to “natural” search)  (@agardina)

In signing off, @Shanan_S offered this to @wharmon:  Oh no.  Did no one tell you.  You participate once in #blogchat you become an authentic lifer.  True story.

I’m certainly intrigued… word has it there’s another guest next week, and there was a request to try to get into the use of links, trackbacks, etc.  (I need that tutorial, too!).

Post script:  Mack Collier posted his summary of the conversation on his Viral Garden blog, and Beth Kanter also offered some takeaways on her stupendous Beth’s Blog.

What I’ve learned about blogging in 9 months and 100 posts

My WordPress dashboard for the first 27 weeks of this year

Though I am slightly stunned from attending the midnight premiere of the new Harry Potter movie last night, I don’t want to fail to mark this little milestone:  my 100th post.  In my work helping small non-profits to build marketing capability, I found myself proselytizing about the importance of things like websites and the value of blogs.  Problem was, I’d never blogged.  But, as a surgeon once told me, “Brain surgery isn’t that hard.  See one, do one.”

It took me about 4 hours to set up a template on WordPress, and I wrote my first post last October.  While I know this blog meets my personal goals, I’d consider it fairly successful as an example of a professional blog that isn’t actively promoted or optimized for key search terms.  In this post, allow me to share the stats, the stupidest things I did, what’s worked best, and what I could do better.  I’ll also share a link to my personal favorite post and a link to the most searched-for post.

First, the numbers going in to today:

• 99 posts (beginning in October 2008)
• 3,979 views
• Lowest views/day:  in the teens
• Busiest day:  246 views
• Busiest week:  609 views
• Comments:  57
• Number of tags I’ve used:  236
• Average frequency:  3 times a week
• Sources of traffic:  tweets/re-tweets of links; links from other people’s blogs; occasional link on Mashable; searches – primarily for “communications plan template”

Without hesitation, the stupidest thing I’ve done (so far anyway) was to go completely silent for the month of June.  It was especially stupid because I’d had something of a breakthrough just a month before.  I joined Twitter and joined the active tweetstream at Nonprofit Technology Education Network conference in late April (which was a gas).  When I shared links to blog posts about sessions I attended, traffic on my blog shot up and stayed up.  I didn’t plan to go silent.  I just got overwhelmed with real-life stuff.  One day led to the next, and it got harder and harder to get back to blogging.  I poked fun at myself when I finally resurfaced.

What’s worked best is exchanging information across the range of social media.  I can’t believe how synergistic and intertwined social media are.  Topping the list is Twitter.  I am constantly turned on to great information thanks to tweets.  Quite a few people have stumbled across my posts that way — some through tweets generated by me, and some by others.  I love the fact that the LinkedIn WordPress app automatically posts thumbnails of my posts on my LinkedIn profile, and that I can use SlideShare to share content across platforms.  I use Facebook primarily for personal relationships, but occasionally it makes sense to mention a post there – and the post-a-link function makes it incredibly easy.  It’s easy, free and fun.  That’s a hell of a value equation.  (Drive with strategy and you’ve got a home run.)

I also think I’ve found a more comfortable voice, and a focus on topics of interest to beginners.  Lots of my peers are in my shoes — deep marketing experience but relative newcomers to social media.  I define everything when I write.  I assume that the non-profits who find my posts of interests are beginners and are trying to figure out their first steps.

I started to write a long list of what I could do better, but one of my self-criticisms is that I don’t ask for input enough.  What do YOU think I could do better?  What would you like to see me write more about, or less?

OK, I’ll work on that write-shorter-posts-thing next time (right about when I start using fewer parentheses).  I’m gonna close out with two links:

• My personal favorite post was a two-part series in which I thought long and hard about the implications of the decline of traditional media for non-profits.  One post took a more pessimistic view, while the other focused on potential opportunities.
• The most popular post, by far, has been one in which I talked about the best communications plan template I’ve seen so far.  Every day, 25-50 people search for “communications plan template” and find that post.   Thanks again to TechSoup, because it’s really their content that’s king here.

One of the things I’ve learned from reading other blogs (and there are some bloggers who are real heroes to me) is that most bloggers write because they like to do so.  Something about the experience of learning and thinking out loud is appealing to them.  That is certainly true of me.  Writing is a labor of love as is working with non-profits and causes.  Philanthrophile lets me think out loud about opportunities to have greater impact on the community – especially here in Sacramento, my home town.  Thanks for playing!