Website is the Most Important Communications Channel for Nonprofits in 2012

It’s a new year, so how will your nonprofit communicate to constituents? According to this infographic by nonprofitmarketingguide.com, most nonprofits believe their websites will be most important for their communication efforts in 2012, followed by e-mail newsletters. What does this mean? It’s clear that nonprofits still consider their websites to be the main form of communication with their constituents, so if you’re in the same boat, makes sure you keep your website content fresh, dynamic and interesting so that people want to come back to see what’s new. As I always preach, images, video and other visual elements are key to capturing and keeping interest. A blog is also a good way to keep content fresh — updating weekly will keep people coming back to see what insights you’re sharing about your nonprofit’s cause and the work your organization is doing.

Make Your Websites and Content Work for the Devices Your Constituents are Using

According to a recent study, iPads are driving more web traffic than iPhones—a trend that organizations should keep in mind when thinking of interesting ways to reach out to more constituents using the devices they seem to be using.

Optimizing websites for mobile consumption is a good first step. Because of the iPad’s larger screen size, it’s more conducive to reading text, viewing images on larger scale, and watching videos than the iPhone, so including this type of content on the mobile site (while keeping it simple, as is customary with mobile sites) is a good idea.

Also, if a large portion of web traffic is coming through the iPad, apps are another feature organizations can consider. Apps that may not work on the iPhone because of its small screen size may be better suited for the iPad, so you can get creative when it comes to thinking about presenting your information in a more visual way.

Here is the Mashable article that has more details about the study: http://mashable.com/2011/10/11/ipad-web-traffic-2/

Be sure to consider not only the content that you put out in the Internet ether, but also how your viewers and readers are accessing that information.

Digital Media and Brand Loyalty

At a panel I recently moderated on the Future of Digital Media during Ad Week DC 2011, leading-edge media figures, Breeanna Beckham of Carousel 30 (@breebeckham), Katie Harbath of Facebook (@katieharbath), and Peter Corbett of iStrategy Labs (@corbett3000), the future of social media channels and brand loyalty came into sharper focus for me and the packed audience attending.

Katie Harbath’s talk could not have been more timely. Just that morning, Facebook implemented some major changes to their appearance and introduced some new features, and was about to launch some more. All over the Twittersphere, users were up in arms over the changes, and luckily Katie addressed these complaints right off the bat, noting that the changes supported the ever-growing professional uses of Facebook. She emphasized that each person you bring onto your brand’s site has exponential value due to the constant sharing of information throughout each person’s network.

Beckham cautioned that simply having a social media presence isn’t enough. If brands have a Facebook page or Twitter feed, the question is why? Why follow you? Why write on your wall? Your goal should be to build a relationship and inspire people to invest in your brand. Traditional social media tactics are no longer enough, you have to give your audience something that appeals to them, build the relationship before making a sale.

Corbett focused on how social and physical environments impact brand engagement. He is fascinated by Foursquare. “It’s the dirtiest social porn on the planet. It’s completely useless, yet totally awesome.” Why do people settle for getting badges that are so short lived?  Corbett believes that to keep users involved in the future, virtual rewards will have to turn into physical rewards. People will require real incentives. Here’s an example iStrategy Labs is working on now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L44YvOeK4jM

It will be interesting to see how brands adapt to the evolving trends of the digital space, especially as users expect higher returns for their brand loyalty.

Prepare Your Facebook Brand Page for the New Profile: Making the Case for Posting Visual Content to Your Facebook Page

Facebook announced the release of its Timeline feature last week, and the social network is buzzing about how beautiful it actually is. The new profiles take photos, videos and other content that you’ve posted and lay it out in two-column format (divided down the middle by a timeline). The new look of these profiles is a far cry from the profiles of yesterday, making them more pleasing by focusing on visual content that’s been published.

So what does this mean for brand pages? Although they haven’t done it yet, this article from Mashable includes some examples of what brand pages could look like with the new profiles, and I have to say it’s looking good.

As some of these examples suggest, the profiles could emphasize images, video and other visual elements, so it might be in an organization’s best interest to start posting more of this kind of content—that way, when the timelines take effect, you will be taking full advantage of the new design.

Think photos of your events, videos that tell a story, and compelling content that complements these visual elements.

You can view the Mashable article here for inspiration.

Combining the Real and Social Worlds

On my way into the office this morning, a man standing outside a popular convenience store was holding a sign with the store’s logo, and a pack of cigarettes taped below the words “sells poison.”

Amateur artist’s rendering of the sign:

I told you it was amateur…

This was not the first time I had seen this man standing there with this sign. What was different about this morning was that he added another sign hung around his neck that had the YouTube logo on it, as if to encourage people to film his protest and post it online.

This guy, regardless of his views, understands that there is a link between social media and the real world, and that encouraging people to take his real-world protest online will get his message noticed by more people than just those shuffling by on their way to work.

There are a lot of ways to connect the real and social worlds. One example is QR codes, which can be placed on a poster or brochure (I’ve even seen them as standalone stickers affixed to lamp posts—I think this is illegal, so I’m not obviously not condoning it…). When scanned with a smartphone, the code links to a website, Facebook page, YouTube channel, etc. By doing this you’re generating a sense of intrigue and mystery by making the reader wonder what’s “behind” the code, while showing them to more information about your message and encouraging them to share it with their social networks.

Conferences and meetings can be social media-oriented too. Encourage attendees to “check in” via Foursquare or Facebook, thereby announcing to their friends and followers that they’re at your event or location.

Check out the creative way a Coca-Cola marketing event tracked Facebook users via RFID bracelets.

This is a trend we’ll be seeing more of, so be thinking about how your organization can bring the physical and digital worlds together.  

Don’t forget, social media is all about your website

To engage with your supporters and reel in new ones, you have to go where they are—and that’s on social networks. But the whole point of social media is to drive people to your website. After all, that is where you house your most important information about your organization and its mission.

So if you’re publishing content on various social channels, you should remember that, yes, you should encourage people to engage with your organization on these social networks, but driving traffic back to your website is the ultimate goal.

How do we do this? Here are just a few of the many ways.

Link to your website’s content. One of the simplest ways is to promote content that “lives” on your website, such as a blog post or page on your site, by tweeting a link or posting it to your Facebook. You want people to click the link, of course, so think about the message you’re sending with it. It’s essentially like the subject line of your post, and if it’s an attention-grabber, or leaves people wondering what’s behind the link, they’ll be more likely to click it.

Hold contests.  You can generate interest by creating a designed landing tab on your Facebook page announcing the general concept. From there, link to a page on your website that’s dedicated to the contest, where people can find details and how to enter. Incentives are always helpful, so if there’s a prize or some kind of reward, people will be more likely to take interest in the contest.

Embed links in your YouTube videos. YouTube allows you to overlay call-to-action links on your videos. These links can be to your website, where you might have more information about the video or a blog post that explains more about it.

These are, like I said, just a few ideas. What have you done to drive people to your website from your social channels?

Museums Use Digital Media to Reach Audiences Like Never Before

Museums—once thought to be stodgy and traditional—are breaking out of their box and are using digital media to reach broader audiences than ever before, and become more friendly and accessible places in the process.

To summarize this Mashable article, which covers the bases well, digital media is helping museums to:

• Engage in a more open dialogue with their visitors and potential visitors by allowing them to be more available and responsive to questions and concerns.

• Make them more “accessible” by making them more human. Museums are engaging with the public in new ways and allowing them to become more involved in what is displayed, sometimes showcasing user-generated content in their exhibits, and crowd-sourcing like never before.

• Mobilize visits. For example, museums are using mobile apps as a means to guide visitors through exhibits, offering audio/visual explanations of what they see in front of them.

• Allow people to visit exhibits without setting foot in the museum by creating digital museums—exhibits (or parts of exhibits) entirely online.

How has your museum experience been improved by the use of digital media? How would you like to see museums use digital media in other ways? Let us know in the comments.

Exciting Times for Publishers

From the 1st day of the Business Publishing Conference in NYC—where the mood feels both anxious and excited about the future— a few stand outs:

1. Magazines: The big guns like Esquire will be setting the creative bar for design and interactivity for online magazines. Esquire’s editor-in-chief, David Granger, wowed the opening session with a presentation of their new mag app, featuring video of their cover stars. Large budget publishers will be constantly pushing the boundaries in this expensive medium. Like the flat top ketchup bottle he brought as an example, magazines must retain their appeal, but also change for the medium. Designers: get an IPAD and subscribe to the leading magazines for ideas and inspiration.

2. Advertisements will become more entertaining and interactive. Wonder Factory’s creative director, Joe McCambley previewed new ads in development that will be mini worlds of interactivity. For example, within an online ad, a user might change a camera lens and see instant results, or a woman could apply makeup to a model with her complexion—again immediate interaction within the advertisement itself.  And, guess what? Readers want Ads like this in magazines, unlike the commodity banner ads they skip on websites.

3. Print Design Revival. Joe McCambley also said he thought that new mag apps especially spotlight the work of print designers, who he felt brought more aesthetics to this medium than web designers.  The IPAD is a natural medium for creative print people.

4. De-aggregation: publications that target a niche subject and audience can concentrate their creative energy on being the best in their field, drawing readers back again. But the President of Merriam-Webster, John Morse, said many businesses find themselves “competing with Google.”  For example, a user now searches for a word and its definition appears in the search results, vs. going to his company’s site or dictionary.com. BTW, the top word search of the week is “insidious.”

5. Publishing Apps: There will be dramatic changes for E-Reader creation tools over the next year. New platforms are springing up like Mag+ from Sweeden, and others, like Texterity, are adding new features. It seems that the publishing model for apps varies widely and there’s still a steep entry fee no matter which app creation method you adopt.

Feels like 1990. Everything happening now reminds me of the early days of desktop publishing, when Aldus turned things upside down with PageMaker and Apple introduced the first Mac.  Now they’ve done it again with the IPAD. For readers and information hounds, it gets better and better, for us creative studio leaders and publishers, it’s another exciting but costly and challenging time.  Day 2  of the conference is about to begin!