Yesterday, Lacey wrote about how to engage folks who are interested in volunteering for organizations. It's a great segue into another area that I find lacking in most nonprofit websites: staff and organizational employees. What do they both have in common? Your volunteers and paid staff are part of a diverse community within your organization. However, it's this diversity in community that is often neglected.

Frequently, staff can get left aside in the community. Why? Is it because they are paid members of the community? Are their roles separate from the community that includes folks like donors, volunteers, Board members? If you're thinking 'yes' to either of these questions, I would argue that these ideas can't work in today's world where employee engagement is a true key to strong organizational health. It's time to bring your staff more fully into your organization's community.

Here are some ideas that can help you better integrate your own staff into your organization's community:

Let your staff tell their stories. Why they work for your nonprofit. What they enjoy in life. Let their unique characters come out so donors and other external folks who are passionate about your cause can connect with them. Don't sequester them to mere names, phone numbers, and email addresses on your Contact Us page. For instance, here at Convio, we have this blog as one way to allow us employees to share ourselves and what we know with our community.

Don't settle for stock employee photos when you have real pictures. I'm not a big fan of stock photos of shiny happy people. They just don't connect with me. Instead, consider using real pictures of your staff doing the work that matters to your cause. Put these in relevant spots on your website. Your donors and activists want to see staff passionately serving their cause.

Engage your staff as ambassadors. I wrote in more detail about this last month. Again, if you're committed to creating a work environment that focuses on employee engagement, then help your staff find ways to speak openly and enthusiastically about their work. Feature this work prominently on your website. Guide your staff into talking about and sharing their successes and best practices at conferences. For more ideas on employee engagement, visit www.baileyworkplay.com.

I'm not advocating that you make your website completely staff-focused, just more balanced to reflect the true community that your organization creates daily. Nonprofit work is demanding. And while it can also be rewarding, every individual wants to know they are seen and valued for the work they do. Donors, advocates, and other folks on the outside of the organization don't often know and appreciate the work that goes on inside. Don't be afraid to shine a spotlight on your own staff and what they do every day.

The modern concept of branding and word-of-mouth-marketing focuses primarily on getting customers to become raving fans and talk positively about a company to their friends and colleagues. In the past few years, this focus has come to also include the value of getting employees to be raving fans of their own company, to speak openly and honestly about their company's virtues, and to share their pride for their own and the company's work. The thinking goes that if a company employs happy and satisfied employees, then that adds to an overall positive reflection of the company brand.

Yeah, but what does this have to do with non-profits...or maybe more importantly, how does this help you achieve your organizational mission? I'd like to argue that your own staff is the critical, yet underdeveloped, edge you need to meeting your fundraising, advocacy, and other goals. You have powerful resources that extend far outside of your own marketing department. Here are five steps in figuring out how to use them.

1. Know your internal broadcasters.
Your staff can be roughly divided into two groups: consumers and broadcasters. Consumers take in content through various channels like newspapers, blogs, and websites. Broadcasters do all of this and also create the content. They're your bloggers, Twitterers, Facebookers, Plurkers, etc. They're the ones who are connecting with others far outside your particular marketing focus. They're the ones you want to build your employee brand ambassador program around.

2. Reward your broadcasters.
Broadcasters live for information. They want to know all the cool and worthy initiatives that are going on in your organization and be able to share that information with others. Don't be shy about opening access and sharing this valuable information. And ask for their input and insight into how to penetrate your organization's messages deeper into your target communities and wider into new areas.

3. Allow for creativity.
The social media space and branding world evolve at a rapid pace, which means that your dedicated and passionate broadcasters tend to live at the cutting edge. Don't make the mistake of binding them or restricting their platforms. Innovative social media broadcasters are always finding new ways to use current tools. And for every one of today's Twitters and Facebooks, there are several undeveloped tools waiting to be created and used.

4. Show them how to recruit other staff.
Broadcasters shouldn't be an exclusive clique within your organization. Help them create more broadcasters and new brand ambassadors. Ask them to do "lunch and learns" about social media. Create knowledge sharing orientations to help them discuss their brand ambassador work when asked by others in your organization. The objective isn't necessarily to get 100% of your staff involved in social media and branding...instead, show that every individual has an opportunity to contribute.

5. Keep an eye on the relationship.
I can imagine one objection or question that may be sitting at the tip of your tongue: how do we make sure that our broadcasters don't put the organization or our formal branding work in jeopardy? The simple answer is that you can't and the brutal truth is that you no longer have total control over the message. Sorry...those days are long gone, which is why #5 is so important.

It may seem obvious, but in order for your staff to speak openly, authentically, and enthusiastically about your organization, they need to be in a positive relationship with your organization. That means being focused on your staff's level of engagement with their work and tapping into the pride your staff has working for your organization and it's mission.

If your organization has had great results from cultivating organization-wide brand ambassadors, what's your story? Share the wealth in the comments below.

*Update: You can also find this post on The Leadership Development Carnival #2  which is up and running at Great Leadership, hosted by Dan McCarthy. This month’s Carnival is another great collection of the best leadership and leadership development advice and commentary from over 40 leadership bloggers. Anyone interested in reading more about leadership issues, tips and advice should check out this new resource.

Once upon a time, I worked as a membership development director for non-profit professional associations in Washington, DC. The core functions of my work centered on new member recruitment and current member retention, both of which were (and still are) incredibly important to organizational health. I always pitched to my staff, executives, and Board of Directors that members are the lifeblood of the association. Without members - who bring their dues, participation, and energetic passion - there would be no association. Common sense, right?

But then, I would follow this with something usually less obvious: without an engaged staff, there would be no members wanting to bring their dues, participation, and energetic passion. Too often, professional associations and non-profits expend so much of their focus on what lies outside, they can overlook the very people who make things happen inside every single day (don't worry, for-profits are not immune either). There's a reason why many non-profits are not run solely by members or volunteers. It's because the professional paid staff have the experience, skills, and talents to help members and volunteers achieve great organizational goals.

If you're in a leadership role for a non-profit, take some time today to think about your staff and whether they're truly engaged in their work. Because non-profits are usually mission-driven, it's easy to take employee engagement for granted. But an engaged staffer who has the ability to use their unique strengths, talents, and passions on a daily basis is far more likely to deliver the kind of remarkable service that attracts new members or constituents and retains them.

Here are a few questions to ask. Start by answering yourself and then pose them to each staff member during your one-on-ones:

 

• Are you able to use your own unique strengths, talents, and passions everyday in your work?
• What would you like to be doing more of that will help you grow your strengths?
  
• Are there barriers that keep you from bringing your best to your work every day?

 

Deeply listen to what is said and learn from what you hear. Then make a point to take action and openly communicate that action and results to your staff. Just don't push this under the rug. And don't let your employees feel invisible. That's a sure-fire way to kill engagement and create the kind of service culture that loses both employees and constituents.