Google for Nonprofits: Why Your Organization Needs a Google+ Page

This is the first in a series of blog posts about the tools offered by Google for nonprofits.

Google isn’t just the search engine giant most people know it to be, it’s also a facilitator of nonprofit fundraising and promotion through its Google for Nonprofits program. Its free, simple-to-use tools are easy to implement into your nonprofit’s fundraising, outreach and advocacy efforts.

In this post, I’ll be talking about Google+, Google’s social networking tool that allows organizations (as well as individuals and businesses) to connect with constituents in a unique way.

For explanation’s sake, I’ll compare it to Facebook, since most people are familiar with it. When an organization posts to their Facebook page, the post is broadcast to everyone who has “liked” the page, which can be problematic for many organizations that have different groups of constituents (i.e., volunteers, donors, members, advocates, etc.); there are times when you want to reach out to each group individually.

A main differentiating feature of Google+ is Circles, which allows organizations to segment their followers into groups for easier, more targeted and more effective communication.

Another advantage to having a Google+ profile is search engine rankings—Google ranks Google+ pages high in their search results, so just having a profile is likely to bring visitors to your page if they’re searching for your organization.

Google+ also features Hangouts—live video chats that your followers can join in on. Organizations can use Hangouts to hold discussions about the issues important to you and your audience, and use it as a platform to educate newcomers who may not be as familiar with your work.

To gain followers, you have to let people know you’re on Google+. To do this, you can integrate a +1 button on your website so people with a Google+ profile can share your website with their followers. Also, just as you would say “Follow us on Facebook” or include a Facebook button in a newsletter or mailing, you should add a “Follow us on Google+” message to get the word out there.

Most people today have a Google account, whether they use Gmail, YouTube, Blogger or another Google product, so if you’re on Google+, you may just be able to reach a large part of the population that didn’t know about your organization or hadn’t thought to join before!

Find more information about setting up a Google+ page for your nonprofit here.

Nonprofits Take an Interest in Pinterest

With a user count growing larger than 10 million, there’s no question that Pinterest, is the newest thing in social sharing sites. Pinterest, offers a simple, visual way to share content on the web.

Nonprofits are taking advantage of the site’s growing popularity by creating their own pin boards, where they “pin” images that are relevant to their organization. For example, the National Wildlife Federation has several boards (which are basically just categories of content) such as “Nature Photography,”  “Gardening for Wildlife” and “Squirrel Appreciation Day.” On these boards, NWF has pinned images from various sites that fit into these categories and give visitors a beautiful gallery of images to browse, “like” or share with others on their own pin boards.

Whereas other social sites are often used for marketing purposes, Pinterest is a nice departure, serving as a platform to simply share beautiful things with people who are interested in what you’re posting. Maybe simplicity is what people are craving in today’s information-overloaded world, so Pinterest might be a nice way to share content with your constituents without overwhelming them with information–that way you’re engaging with them and giving them something they enjoy without coming off like a salesman!

For some inspiration, here’s a great article highlighting how several nonprofits are using Pinterest: http://nonprofitorgs.wordpress.com/2012/02/13/11-must-follow-nonprofits-on-pinterest/

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.

How do people view your Facebook page?

A study of eye-tracking revealed what people look at when visiting Facebook brand pages, and as it turns out (as if this wasn’t obvious), content is king!

People spend less time viewing the page’s profile photo than they do looking at the page’s wall and the content that appears in that feed. But photos are certainly not overlooked — profiles that have the most images posted on the wall will get longer viewing time than those with fewer images.

So what’s the takeaway here?

• Make sure that what you post on your Facebook reflects the message you want to convey because people are looking at it. And since you know people are reading it, make sure to include the occasional call-to-action if you want your constituents to donate, join, volunteer, etc.
• Post images for more engagement with your constituents. People are naturally drawn to visual things, so make your Facebook page somewhere that’s naturally interesting to look at.
• The profile picture is not that important. So if you’re launching a specific initiative, maybe putting a campaign-specific banner/image as your profile picture isn’t the best way to bring attention to it — make sure to use your constituents’ inclination to read your wall posts to your advantage and tell them about the campaign and what you want from them.

For more details about the study, read the Mashable article here.

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.

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?

Curate Content to Save Time and Keep Readers Coming Back to Your Blog

In these days of information overload, it’s nice to have one place to go to that filters through all the content out there and curates just the stuff you want to know about.

Since many people think of nonprofits as experts on a particular cause or issue, these organizations can act as the curators of relevant information to their cause, and encourage people to come back to their blog for that kind of information.

And despite limited time and resources that can lead to the dreaded un-updated blog, nonprofits can keep their blogs current, especially when they do not have time to create original content.

Instead, they’re just curating the content that’s already out there into one place (their blog), which keeps people coming back to their site as a source for the type of information that’s relevant to them.

This article has an informative video about just this kind of thing:

http://www.mixtapecommunications.com/2011/06/save-time-by-curating-instead-of-creating/

Using Your Talents for Good

We match creatives with non-profits and government agencies – a unique niche and often a better relationship.

Good news for D.C.-area job searchers: Yahoo lists more than 7,000 associations and non-profits in the greater metro area. Add to that dozens of good-sized government agencies.

All have active websites; publish newsletters and magazines; run events and meetings; and produce loads of communications, Facebook pages, listservs, and job boards. Most need designers, writers, social media strategists, programmers and marcom pros.

Even more good news: They don’t chase bottom-line profits as much as supporting, educating and providing resources for their mission or cause.

OmniCreative Staffing specializes in matching creatives with jobs in non-profits. Their missions range from the environment and international relations to human rights. If you have a passion for causes, Washington is the best place to settle down and build your career.

Maybe you can change the world—or at least a piece of it. Perhaps it’s time you began working for something you can believe in.

Submit Your Resume

How Nonprofits Can Use the Power of LinkedIn – Part Two

LinkedIn may be the most overlooked, but arguably one of the more valuable, social media channels available to you and your nonprofit. In this post we’ll give you some more tips on leveraging the power of LinkedIn for your organization.

Learn from an expert in your organization’s area of interest or become one

LinkedIn’s Questions and Answers section is a hub of knowledge and insight about nonprofits and social causes. Post a question to learn from professionals in the LinkedIn community, or become an “expert” by answering questions related to your organization’s cause. If you answer a question, and enough people vote for yours as the best answer, you become an “expert” and appear on the LinkedIn homepage, drawing more attention to you and your organization. Being active in LinkedIn groups can also help gain you unofficial expertise points by proving you’re engaged in the conversation about your cause.

Keep your connections in the loop

Cross-post your tweets and Facebook updates to your LinkedIn profile to keep your connections aware of what you’re talking about across the social Web. The more you have to share (as long as it’s of good quality), the more present and engaged with the cause you’ll appear to your networks. Creating a group for an event or a specific campaign is another good way to keep your connections informed and involved.

What other ways has your nonprofit used LinkedIn? Comment below with your insights.