Thank you for the Happy Birthday

We recently celebrated the first birthday of the Connection Café blog. When we launched the blog, we committed in the very first post to "writing about the issues you care about and the topics that can help you succeed online." Based on the exceptional month-over-month growth in visitors and steady stream of insightful comments, our team of bloggers has been successful – and the future is even more exciting. While the blog is not about us, I did want to publicly thank our team for their commitment to providing the market with insight, ideas and lessons learned, for having the courage to share some of the mistakes made and for celebrating the success of our clients and partners. As CEO I get to brag about our people, so I wanted to make sure you saw this story in Social Computing Magazine about Connection Café.

Having just returned from AFP International conference, I had the opportunity to talk with executives and other professionals in the nonprofit arena about integrating offline and online channels, engaging donors in more compelling ways and to share ideas and listen to concerns about the ever changing world of social media.

In both the for-profit and nonprofit world, executives spend some of their time (ok, maybe much of it) worrying about the image and reputation of their organization. Like many of you, I was excited about the prospect of our blog but anxious about the "what ifs." Our talented team, solid strategy and collaborative and open community of readers helped overcome that quickly.

To many this brave new world of user generated content is cause for concern - concern about the potential loss of control or a fear that employees will spend more time in the virtual world than in their real jobs. I think every executive feels anxiousness at some level or another (see "My Boss Doesn’t Get It" post). I can tell you that based on my experience, that of the clients I talk to and that we have worked with, the value of embracing social media and user generated content far out ways the risk at this point in time. And, while nonprofits are still in the early stages of harnessing this world to drive revenue, the value from an awareness and branding perspective is clear. The ability to move passionate people to take action with and for nonprofits is steadily growing. And I promise we’re here to help you embrace it.

As I mentioned earlier the future is very exciting. Today, new technologies and applications are aligning around people and ideas like never before. Be it out of necessity from the economic situation or simply because people are looking for better more efficient ways to use technology to support their mission, I find that people and organizations are more open to innovation and new ideas than ever before. I ask you to share your ideas, tell us what you want to hear more about and engage in the conversation. We’re here – ready to listen, to share and to discuss the people, ideas and technology that are fueling the industry we serve.

Thank you for a great first year!

Keys to Connecting With Donors (and High Fives) from MediaSauce at AFP International

One of the most packed sessions I attended at the Association of Fundraising Professionals International Conference in New Orleans this week was titled "Connecting with your donors: How to balance new and traditional media. Scott Henderson and Mitch Maxson, from MediaSauce not only entertained the crowd with their energetic session they provided some compelling information that can help nonprofits better tell their story to engage donors, volunteers and other supporters.

High Five!! Creativity, energy and passion are three words that jump to mind to describe Scott and Mitch, so if you like that type of marketing insight, check out the MS the Blog.

Benchmark Study Interview Part Deux

Here's another clip from my interview with Vinay where he provides some great commentary on the benefits of multi-channel marketing - where online efforts complement offline efforts. He also discusses how nonprofits are using the web as a donor acquisition tool, to cultivate mid- and major donors, and how online marketing can play a major role in supporting an organization's mission.

Show and Tell: Encouraging Volunteer Video

Shortly after tennis-ball sized hail broke my windshield while driving to pick up my son last night, we arrived home frazzled and he insisted on watching the weather on our local news. So for the next hour I got to relive my Texas hail experience through photos and videos that Austinites sent by the gigabyte into our local news channels.
 
It reminded me of something I've been meaning to write about: I'm constantly being asked to TELL my friends about the issues I care about, but I don't remember being asked to SHOW my friends. I think this should change, because recently I had a really fun time making a volunteer video about a special nonprofit event.  I learned so much and found it so engaging that in fact I made a very basic little brochure nonprofits can give their volunteers, encouraging them to do the same.  It's easy, it's fun, and people are uploading personal videos all the time (even during hail storms!).  Reduce/reuse/recyle/revise/rebrand the content as you will. 
 

 
What follows is my story and my video as a sample of the benefits to me as the volunteer, and also the benefits to my chosen nonprofit.

So a couple of weeks ago, I took a paid volunteer day (thanks, boss!), borrowed a sweet little Flip pocket video camera, and attended a Lobby Day scheduled at the Texas state capitol.  Immediately after parking my car I got busy recording short snippets of the day. I visited the offices of my legislators, expressed my views, and experienced my government first-hand. I ate a box lunch with people who'd arrived on buses from all over Texas. I met passionate, proactive, and thoughtful people, and about 80% of the times I asked, they'd agree to an interview for the blogosphere.  And at the end of the day, I went home and downloaded nearly an hour of short video clips, which I compiled with the software that came with the camera.

You can check out my video here - it's 6 minutes, but you can get the gist in a minute or two.

Now this was my first video, so cut me some slack. I didn't really plan it out, but the messages I instinctively wanted to send were:
* It's easy & fun to participate in the event,
* you'll meet lots of positive, proactive people who represent great diversity of support, and
* participation is important - showing up matters.

Many of these basic messages would apply to your events, too, right?

It was fun to see the YouTube view counter reach 200 for my first documentary short, knowing that, for just a few minutes, others were viewing the world through my eyes. But as a volunteer, the sweetest part was that the nonprofit organization I was supporting linked to my video in their next eNewsletter and also mailed me a thank-you note signed by a bunch of staffers who had seen or heard about the video. They may use it to recruit even more participants for future events. So now I'm a jazzed volunteer, they have some free content, and they also know how passionate I am about their organization. It's a real win-win. 

A quick search on the subject located many inspiring examples of volunteer video. For instance, check out www.videovolunteers.org. They are an organization in India that empowers the poor to be producers of content, and have a program to help "community video" become a new program area for nonprofits. If you missed it, their story was covered in the Chronicle of Philanthropy as well.
 
If video weren't so easy to produce, YouTube wouldn't be such a phenomenon. Think how many of your future donors are broadcasting themselves. Why not encourage them to SHOW their stories to TELL yours?

[Got great examples of volunteer videos? Post them and let me know how you're using them. I'd also like to hear where these videos fall on the cost:benefit spectrum...I have a hard time seeing the downside, since people are broadcasting anyway.]

Quick tip for all the social-savvy non-profits

So you already have a Facebook page, and maybe a MySpace page and a Twitter account. Why not make it easy for me to find out about it from your web site? I've noticed it's quite the trend to drop those cute little icons inconspicuously in the footer bar and I think you should hop on the bandwagon.



Sure, some might say they’re “hidden” down there, but since so many sites have them there now, people like me are starting to look there. Also, in the footer, they'll appear on every page of your site, not just on the homepage. Go on, try it out. That’s all I’ve got for today.