5 Ways to Increase Donations through Social Media

We finished up our Increasing Donations through Social Media seminar yesterday and it was great to meet individuals from the not-for-profit world in Indianapolis. We had some awesome conversations surrounding the idea of telling YOUR story to the world… the story that drives emotion through each and every donor. I wanted to upload the Powerpoint presentation I used yesterday and give a couple of pointers on increasing donations through social media.

5 Ways to Increase Donations through Social Media

1. Message Boards. Create a message board or central location for your supporters and their friends to communicate with each other and your organization. For a great example check out the Lupus Foundation of America’s message boards. It is so important to create a comfortable place for your supporters to chat. It is up to your supporters to decide where they want to host the conversation. If it ends up on Facebook then… it ends up on Facebook.

2. Start a Blog and Communicate. This really should be number one on your priority list. You should be writing your story… every second of every day. You do not need to be sitting down and typing out each story but (at the very least) you should be thinking about how to form the story of your organization. People buy into stories… period. For a great example of story telling check out the organization > Charity + Water.

3. Start an Affiliate Group on Facebook and LinkedIn. Create groups of Facebook and LinkedIn that connect your supporters to each other in activities outside of your organization. An example of an affiliate group would be a Facebook Fan Page for your local youth soccer league or a LinkedIn group for your local Kiwanis club. Why does this matter? You are creating touch points with an audience that is not expecting you (the organization) to be at that place…. at that moment.

4. Start a Facebook Cause and Encourage Supporters to Join and Share!

5. Use Your Email List to Drive Growth on Social Networks. Every supporter who has given you permission to market to them through email… could still be utilized to support your cause on social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Search for your email subscribers in the social networking world… the chance is… they are using the same email to support their social networks. The more times you can connect with a prospect or supporter… the better.

Social Media Can Help Your Business Be Remarkable

There is a constant theme in social media that defines the use of the tool in terms of marketing and communication… being remarkable. This concept was first started when Seth Godin wrote about it in his book Free Prize Inside and Purple Cow.  The whole concept of being remarkable is focusing on the customer who is “willing to make a remark about” your product or service. I wanted to take a look at the word remark because there is a lesson buried within this word-of-mouth marketing concept. 

re⋅mark (from dictionary.com) 
   /rɪˈmɑrk/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [ri-mahrk]
–verb (used with object)
1. to say casually, as in making a comment: Someone remarked that tomorrow would be a warm day.
2. to note; perceive; observe: I remarked a slight accent in her speech.
3. Obsolete. to mark distinctively.

Do you know what hit me? The third definition in the group above: to mark distinctively. Many people view the concept of a remark as a casual comment in passing. Unfortunately or fortunately… depending on your situation… it is important to remember that a remark is no longer casual. In a world where communication is doubling ever second (or so it seems) a casual remark can spread like wildfire. If you can build products and services that are remarkable…

… that people are talking about…

… that people love …

You can create a word-of-mouth campaign that will grow your business by leaps and bounds. The truth of the matter is this: if you are not being talked about in a positive light…You are doing something wrong. Seth has the tendency to ask, “Are you invisible? Or are you remarkable.” I am going to encourage all the business owners and marketing professionals of the world to do 5 things:

1. Love the product and service you sell and believe it can be Remarkable. 

2. Talk about what you do with excitement (drink caffeine if you have to).

3. Send surveys to make sure your product or service is staying remarkable.

4. Utilize a blog or forum to allow your customers to share the story (to remark on your story).

5. Believe in the concept of using social media as a HUGE communication tool. It is here to stay. 

Are you invisible or remarkable?

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25 Small Business Twitter Tips

We have been getting quite a few questions over at Brandswag about Twitter. The questions range from personal use to business use. I thought I would put together a list of 25 Tips for small business owners to use when starting out on Twitter.

Use them. Learn them. Love them.

1. Use your personal picture in your Twitter profile. There is only one situation where you can use your logo… if you have two profiles. Your personal profile and your company profile.

2. Don’t setup an Auto-DM to send when users follow you. Why you ask?

Here are two posts talking about why you should not:
Tweeter Blog: How to STOP These Freakin Auto DMs
Social Media Club: To Auto DM or Not to Auto-Dm

3. Use Twitter Search to find subject matters that interest you. This can cater to your business interests, as well as your personal interests. This will help you find people that share

4. Personal life reigns… but not too much. Add in some of your personal life while you are using Twitter. What is important to remember is that you are using Twitter for your business generation as well. The people following you want to know that you are REAL… but not to the point where they are hearing about what you are eating or where you are driving.

5. Use it. It is important to use Twitter as much as you can but not to the point where you are wasting valuable time when at work. Tweet about what you are reading online.. Maybe a new insight you found while reading the night before. Try to use Twitter a couple of times a day.

6. Reply. Reply. Reply. Whenever you get a response (@yourname) make sure that you respond to the reply. This is extremely important because your most valuable followers are the people that respond and communicate with you.

7. (via John Janstch) Use strawpoll to create a survey to feed into your Twitter stream. This will be an awesome way to get information regarding service offerings and products.

8. Follow some awesome business Twitter people (@problogger, @chrisbrogan, @gacconsultants, @business901, @roundpeg, @Ribeezie)

9. Use a business Twitter account (example: @brandswag) to create a great place for customer relationship management. Teach your clients to use Twitter to keep with the happenings of your company. Also, it can help you share the news and information regarding the success of your clients.

10. Use Twitter as a discussion forum. Ask your clients and prospective clients what they would like to see, hear, taste, and experience.

11. Help. (via Twitip) Always help before asking for money. Twitter is not a place for you to hard sell individuals on services. We are here for discussions and not sales.

12. I started out with a personal profile that allowed me to create relationships before starting my company profile. (also via Twitip) I was able to cleaning transition between two accounts because people trusted me. If you start two accounts at the same time you will be overwhelmed and underwhelm your followers.

13. Use TweetLater for productivity. I don’t recommend using this tool much. You need to be involved in the conversation as you start sending tweets. If you are not there to interact with your followers there really is not a point for using the tool. Though.. it does help for those random tweets to stay connected.

14. Take pictures and share on TWitter. Add pictures on Twitter using Twitpic using your iPhone or mobile phone.

15. Use Google Analytics to measure the traffic directed from Twitter to your blog or website. If you can measure the traffic related to sales or aquisitions it help you understand an ROI from the tool.

16. Encourage your employees to join Twitter and become part of the conversation.

17. Twitter connets thought leaders. Talk about a great brain trust!

18. Fill out your profile. Make sure you put information regarding your personal life as well as your business life. This is important because.. everyone reads it.

19. We add our Twitter URLs to our business cards. I also like to add my LinkedIN account and blog URL. This will encourage more of your networking friends to follow you and communicate more effectively.

20. Follow @Zappos. A perfect example of corporate blogging.

21. Download TweetDeck. Tweetdeck is a powerful tool to help you be productive while using Twitter.

22. Are you using a Blackberry or iPhone? You should definitly be looking at downloading an application to help you manage your twitter account while you are out of the office.

23. Thank you. When someone shares your post or tweet make sure you send a DM or Tweet thanking them for their support. Just as you should be emailing people to thank them for comments… same goes with Twitter.

24. Don’t AUTO-DM. Please… it is completely and utterly worthless. Show some personality and human quality when using Twitter. The worst thing to do is Auto-DM. There is a reason I put this twice in the list.

25. Don’t add hundreds of people when you first join Twitter. Let the entire conversation happen naturally.

If you have anymore tips. Please add them below! Get on it!

Punch Inactive Users in the Face!

I love Twitter.

It makes life a little more interesting every day that you use it. There is one problem that I have been presented with over the course of the past few days. Inactive users.

Inactive users really upset me and when I say upset.. I am meaning… more along the lines of “wrong order at a restaurant” upset. I just don’t understand the point of spending time to add multiple people and then NOT using the tool every again. But that is their prerogative. (Thank you Ms. Spears)

I had a URL come across my Twitter Feed today to Twitoria. This is the first thing I read when I clicked through:

How many friends are you really following? Twitoria finds your friends that haven’t tweeted in a long time so you can give them the boot!

FINALLY… (unless I missed another one) a tool that allows you to delete people that are inactive on Twitter, something that really cleans up the mess of inactive users. I

I started using the tool and it has extremely easy functionality… it is pretty straight forward. While I was un-following the fifth or sixth person I realized… Why does this matter?

They don’t tweet.. They don’t flood my stream with stupid magpie tweets or worthless hard-sell links.. So why does it matter if I delete them or not?

I haven’t answered that question but it you are wanting to delete the number of people you are following.. Twitoria is a great tool to do that.

Now.. can somebody please create an application that allows me to auto un-follow Twitter idiots?

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Huntington: A Bank That Cares in Indianapolis

I have always been a fan of rewarding companies or individuals who really take the extra step to help an individual. I experienced that today with a local bank in Indianapolis.

My company was switching banks and were investigating a couple of local institutions in the area. While investigating I remembered meeting with an individual named Scott Long who works at Huntington Bank.

We decided to meet with Huntington to discuss our options. Needless to say it was a great meeting but the beautiful part comes next…

I had some personal issues arise and Scott helped me over the wall. We were able to secure a checking account through Huntington and move towards a more secure and organized financial future (as a company).

I have had bad experiences in the past with banks because of things that happened 5-8 years ago. Scott went overboard and helped me out of my problems and put me on the straight path.

Do you want to know who is going to succeed in this world? The people like Scott who take care of people… individuals… business owners… and employees. I will be with Huntington for a long time because of the support they gave me as an individual and for my company.

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They Don’t Read Your Blog. Do Something About It.

Okay. This blew me away.

According to Minds Eye Web Design: 95% of web users DO NOT read 80%. (via ux booth)

Now.. there isn’t any reporting backing up the numbers of 95 and 80 (from what I could find) but I would like to think Minds Eye was either being dramatic to generate emotion or they actually surveyed for the info. I don’t know about you but I get emotional when I hear that 95% is only reading 20% of my content.

So how do we change? How do we create content that is going to take the 80% to 60% and eventually to 30% and then to 20%? Good question.

There are plenty of links we could list that have to do with content creation, headers, subject matters, blogging strategy, and links (to name a few). I wanted to concentrate on one thing that my readers and small business owners could implement tomorrow.

Relationship Building.

You will find that after meeting a person off-line you will tend to read their content a little more frequently. Now, this does not guarantee a massive amount of traffic to your site but in all reality… don’t we want qualified readers instead?

I would rather have 400 daily readers than 4,000 “kind-of” readers.

Take your blog out into the world with you. Share your content in more ways than just online. Tell people about your blog or website when you meet them at a networking event!

Be proud of what you do, what you write, and what you live.

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Calling All Pharma Companies: Docs Love Social Media

I have been spending quite a bit of time in the world of the doctor. Whether it has been actually getting medication or researching for a marketing report, I have been learning a lot about the medical world. I was perusing some content through Google Alerts and came across an article by George Koroneos at PharmExec. The article referenced a study release by Manhattan Research detailing the use of social media spiking about doctors by 60%. 

60%!!!! Holy crap.

Apparently the users tend to be female, primary care doctors, and smart phone owners. It made me think about the concept of pharma-marketing and an overall direct marketing strategy to medical offices and doctors. According to the study, physicians that use social media prescribe an average of 24 more scrips each week. 

We are talking 1,248 more scrips a year because of recommendations and the use of chat rooms and forum boards. 

What does that tell us? 

Viral marketing and word-of-mouth is working among primary care physicians. Now, this is interesting news for the pharma companies. The question is how can the utilize the information from the study by Manhattan Research?  Answering that question will be for another blog post. 

The importance of this study is that it shows a reasonable increase in the use of social media as a viral marketing tool. Doesn’t it change your perspective if you can see tangible numbers? 

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Social Media Marketing and the Advancement of Word-of-Mouth

I felt bad this morning because I didn’t spend time on a comment. Shoot. So here it goes.

Mark Juleen had left an excellent question on my post: Controlling Word of Mouth Marketing Using Social Media and I hadn’t spent the time to TRULY reply to his question. Here is his question:

Kyle,

I like to think that WOM and Social Media are one and the same. As I have dived into social media over the past few months I’ve come to realize that from a marketing perspective social media marketing is basically just an evolution of WOM. While there can be good old interruption “marketing” with banner ads and such on blogs, facebook, etc., what we’re seeing with users leaving reviews on Yelp!, becoming a fan of a product on Facebook, or blogging about their best or worst experiences with a brand or product is the evolution of WOM.

Now more than ever companies need to focus on WOM marketing in my opinion. This includes social media and the conversations about your brand online.

Thanks for sharing Kyle. Enjoy your day.

Mj

It made sense to me the first time I read the comment. Once I had read it over a couple of times I realized that it was a little deeper than what I expected.

I had been separating the two marketing philosophies as two different instances. In reality, social media is just a regeneration of word-of-mouth marketing (or at least it is quickly moving that way). So… when Mark says, “I’ve come to realize that from a marketing perspective social media marketing is basically just an evolution of WOM,” I do completely agree with him.

Social Media and the Internet have completely changed the way marketing is approached. You now have to KNOW your customer. You have to connect on a deeper level with your customer.

What do you think? Is Social Media just another form of Word-of-Mouth advancement? Is Social Media just the tool for other marketing philosophies to use?

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Embassy Suites Renamed Crack House

I have been on vacation in Florida the past few days. It has been really nice experiencing the warm weather and the sites/sounds of West Palm Beach.

I have been a guest of the Embassy Suites off of PGA Blvd and it has been less than satisfactory experience, hence the title of the post.

When we arrived at the hotel and were walking into the room, we discovered that the previous guests had left us food to snack on. They left a couple of Fritos on the floor. The maid who must have been short sighted, missed the food and we had a line of ants leading to the window.

Of course we mentioned that we would rather not have ants in our room and they sent an engineer to the room. Nothing was mentioned, an apology was not expressed by the management and I left it at that.

I decided to take a shower and realized that I was bathing in my own dirty water. The bathtub was not draining. Again the engineer was sent to the room and fixed the problem.

By this time I decided to complain to the management and they gave us a free night.

All in all it was a terrible experience. We have decided to move to the Double Tree for the last two nights. Ironically the Double Tree is owned by the same parent company as Crack
House: the Hilton Family.

You buy that handbag Paris! Or maybe daddy should take that money and invest it in better management.

I Have Also Been LOUIS GRAYED! BAM!

This post could be categorized as blatant self promotion but I was just too excited! I have been chosen as one of five “Hot Bloggers of the Month” by Louis Gray of FriendFeed. (This is an example of what not to do in blogging. Do some research before you post facts. Sorry Louis!)

Everyone should go check out the post found HERE.

Four other bloggers were chosen for the month of August:

1) Chris Baskind / ChrisBaskind.com (www.chrisbaskind.com)
Top Post

2) Mona N / Pixel Bits (pixelbits.wordpress.com)
Top Post

3) Kyle Lacy / KyleLacy.com (www.kylelacy.com)
Top Post

4) David Griner / The Social Path (www. thesocialpath.com)
Top Post

5) Justin Korn / Justin Korn’s Blog (blog.justinkorn.com)
Top Post

Thank you so much Louis! I am extremely honored.

Cheers!