by Bruce Newman

Largely because of its extensive reach and low costs, social media has rapidly become an important tool for social causes and non-profit organizations. Through the use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, email marketing, and numerous other platforms, organizations are able to target and reach huge numbers of potential donors and followers.

Being able to reach such a wide audience can also be a two-edged sword. Particularly in these financially troubled times, social causes and non-profit organizations are inundating a target audience who is increasingly becoming less responsive and more thick-skinned to their postings. This in turn requires that each of these organizations develop and implement an effective strategy designed to meet their specific goals (which can include increasing awareness, fund raising, attending a conference, etc.).

I recently began working with several organizations including Vassar Hospital/Dyson Center, Mid-Hudson Workshop for the Disabled and Kiwannis Club of Poughkeepsie in the following promotion which we posted as a Facebook event (scheduled for March 31^st of this year):

Leukemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow which many children are dying from. You know what’s sad? A LOT of us can help them. A simple cotton swab of your mouth to collect DNA can register you as a donor and a simple procedure can extract your bone marrow to save a life. Consider the HUGE impact you will have if you are a match for someone with leukemia!

(This event is scheduled on Thursday, March 31 from 3-7 pm at Vassar Brother’s Medical Center/Dyson Center for Cancer Care)

As we plan on making this an annual event, here are some more ways that we plan on promoting it using social media:

1. We will be visiting the www.facebook.com/causes app which currently has over 21 million active users. We will also be visiting the causes exchange (exchange.causes.com). This Facebook app will allow us to interact with many people and groups while enabling us to reach out to our Facebook friends.
2. We will probably also create a simple blog on Tumblr because it’s quick and easy (and free).
3. Since there are already numerous organizations involved with Leukemia and DKMS (“where Leukemia meets its match”) – with whom we are already working, we will enhance their Facebook and Twitter efforts by enlisting support and followers. This includes the loading of pictures onto their websites. One thing we don’t want to do is be in competition with anyone while still getting out our message.
4. We also won’t be doing any videos at this point. Although they can be highly effective, if you don’t have a reasonable budget, thousands of fans or a celebrity, they may not generate many completed views or results. Besides, for our specific cause, videos already exist including one by Shaquille O’Neil. If you do decide to use videos, I strongly recommend that you create several of them while making sure that you maintain a consistent theme across every video. (A consistent thread is crucial to a successful social media campaign.)
5. Discussions are also very useful. It’s a great way of building relationships, strategies and followers – particularly if it involves good, thoughtful content. This can be done on Facebook or on a site that promotes groups such as Yahoo Groups or Ning which primarily focuses on the development of a community. The reason why we probably will not use Ning is because we can’t donate the necessary time it requires to maintain and grow a group. Nevertheless, it can be a highly effective platform.
6. We will also use an email campaign to maintain contact with people who have expressed an interest in being a donor. This may include invitations to events, discussions, etc. throughout the year.
7. One thing you should always use social media for is to request help from others. We will be asking all of our friends and contacts to forward or retweet our message to their friends and followers. Remember, it’s social media; it’s supposed to be social and this is for a good cause.

In short, I will be participating in a social cause to help people suffering from childhood leukemia. I have included several of the steps in the social media campaign we recently started as a guide for anyone who would like to work with us or any person or organization looking to promote a social cause.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC. An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has developed winning social media strategies for companies of all sizes along with several well-received social media courses, services and products. Bruce is also the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader. Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and the Productivity Institute blog. Bruce can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.

by Bruce Newman

   This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

There are currently over 200 million blogs on the Internet.  54% of all bloggers post content or tweet daily.  34% of bloggers post opinions about products or brands.  The highest percentage of new bloggers are people in the 55-65 years old range.

These are amazing numbers and statistics.  They indicate the importance of blogging for both business and personal reasons. Blogging for business allows companies to gain attention, enhance market share, announce new products and be branded as an industry leader.  Positive buzz is extremely important, particularly since so many bloggers will readily post their opinions about a product or brand (which also denotes the need for a solid social media policy).  Conversely, blogging for personal reasons is often simply because people feel the need to write or to be heard.

With this huge number of blogs and new content, it is becoming increasingly difficult to stand out from the din.  Increasingly, a strategy must be employed for a blog to be successful.  Being a very good writer is no longer sufficient – unless you work for the New York Times or are very famous.  If you’re not in these categories, here are five important keys that will help your blog be successful.

1. Know your goals and target market

Determine the goals of your blog.  Is it to generate attention for your website or brand you as an industry leader?  Is it mainly to communicate with others?  Do you just want to provide information or use it as a political platform?  There are many different goals.  Select only one as your main goal and if applicable, several secondary goals which, when achieved will help you reach your main goal.

You must also know your target market – including your competition.  The more you know about how people are reacting to other blogs and what is triggering their reactions, the better idea you will have concerning what actions you must take to achieve your goals.

Knowing your target market also includes determining the keywords that you should scatter in all your posts and include in your titles.

2. Plan a mix of posts

Just straight text is not sufficient.  Augmenting your posts with videos or pictures will enhance their value.  It will also provide a basis for content distribution (as discussed in point 4, below). What is most important, however, is that you supply excellent content, for it is this content that will continue to drive people to your site and follow you.

Writing great headlines will also attract attention.  Since searches by keyword are extremely important, make sure to include them in both your headline and content.

3. Publish regularly

You must publish regularly.  If you stop publishing, the world will go on without you and you will be quickly forgotten.  No matter how loyal your readers or followers are, unless you write regularly, you will lose them.  The best solution is to establish a writing schedule. Twice a week is good, three times is even better.

4. Spread it around

Remember, your world does not revolve only around blog and maybe a handful of social media platforms.  Twitter and Facebook are important, but so are many other relevant blogs and sites - particularly if the target market of your article matches their specific niche.

5. Listen

Comments that reflect your article content are great. Definitely respond to them.  It will help develop a dialog that will attract more subscribers and attention.  Unfortunately, too many people respond with inane comments such as, “I learned a lot” in order so they can generate back links to their websites.  You can ignore them, set a no-follow flag so they don’t get credit for their links or review all the comments before allowing them to display.  My personal preference is that people who provide thoughtful feedback should get back links (if they want them).  They should be rewarded for their thoughts and I enjoy read and responding to their comments.  I’ve started some great dialogs and made some good friends as a result.  But, because I do allow back links, I must approve (or ignore or spam) each comment first before I allow it to be published.

Blogging is an important part of any social media campaign.  By following these five steps, you significantly enhance its success.

Bruce Newman is the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC, a leader in locating, evaluating and matching the specific areas of expertise of consultants to the needs of its clients.  An expert on social media, Bruce constantly writes and gives talks on many facets of social media including branding, social media strategies and policy.  He has also developed several social media training courses. In addition, Bruce is the editor of the Productivity Institute Newsletter, a free content-is-king newsletter and thought leader.  Follow him on LinkedIn, Twitter and the Productivity Institute blog.

by Neil Ashworth

This article was originally published in The Productivity Institute (PI) Newsletter

It’s no secret that the current economic downturn is forcing more and more business owners to look closely at their expenditure and cut costs where they can in order to streamline the business model and manage the bottom line. What was previously an aim for many is now a necessity for all and if you are going to compete in the current climate you had better employ the same level of micro management to your own business.

It’s no surprise therefore that more and more small business owners are turning to social media platforms such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter in an effort to increase interest in their business and reduce advertising and marketing costs at the same time.

Just think about it for a moment. Could there be an easier way to drive targeted traffic to your website than to head into a couple of Facebook groups, start to follow a few people with similar interests on Twitter, add a few videos to YouTube and show the world what you have to offer?

So, where’s the problem? Why are so many businesses of all sizes struggling to do battle in the social media marketing arena?

The problem for a lot of small business owners is simple and falls into these three categories:

• Lack of knowledge
• Lack of strategy
• Lack of application

Let’s look at these three areas against the backdrop of Facebook and it’s user dynamics to try to establish what can and cannot be expected from this particular social media platform;

Facebook has over 200,000,000 users who have created small, large and medium sized micro-communities within this global collection of minds. Groups have sprung up and grown from a handful of college students to hundreds of thousands of unique individuals in a matter of weeks. Music, videos and pictures are exchanged across time and space by likeminded individuals who have chosen to share a piece of themselves with the world. Large companies, politicians and sportsmen and women have used this platform to launch products, win elections and rally support and yet the average small business owner still struggles to understand the concept and to maximize their position within this arena.

For many business owners, the frustration of trying to establish a marketing strategy and campaign over six to twelve months without any visible ROI leads to a reluctance to engage the Facebook community on its own terms; before long, another failed marketer has left the field, battle weary and fatigued from all those late night exchanges, uncertain if they will ever live to fight another Facebook day. Many revert to complaining about wasted time and resources and express a quiet concern over the potential harm of Facebook addiction. Sound familiar?

The Facebook community is just that - a community that wants to be treated as one. If you have ever read anything about the way people interact as communities form, develop and become stand alone entities in their own right, then you will understand that your entry into that community will be viewed in many different ways. Some people will welcome you with open arms, while others will see you coming from a distance and wonder about your motives. Its human dynamics spread across cyberspace and magnified by the constant relay of news feeds, group postings and status updates.

Like everywhere else on the Internet, people who use Facebook are looking for two things; entertainment and education. They are not looking for a business opportunity or to buy a product or service from you, me or anyone else for that matter but that’s not to say that they won’t if you get the marketing model right and stick to it. Facebook is unique in its ability to offer a constant and timely wave of new information and content for users to exchange across groups, friends walls and within notes and personal pages and unlike Twitter with its frenzy of noise and activity, Facebook delivers this flow of content like a constantly moving sea, allowing each of it’s users to become a part, a spectator or a leader of a particular topic.

But it’s through these topics and the content that users share that the real business is done and the skill is in directing this constantly moving sea out into the wider world beyond Facebook and towards an occasional visit to your own site, product or service all done in an educational or entertaining way.

Provide content and people will look at it. Provide value and people will pay attention to it. Provide entertainment and people will go looking for it.

Neil Ashworth is an Ex-Pro Soccer player, marathon running, social media marketing enthusiast who provides advice, support and training to people looking to build a business online using social media marketing tools and techniques. He is a part of the Carbon Copy Pro online marketing team which is currently expanding across the US market at a rapid pace due to its step-by-step internet marketing system. If you are considering an internet based business model as a change of career or as a way out of your current circumstances then Talk To Neil HERE right now.