Relevance is defined by how relevant the experience is

The constituent journey is evolving (albeit very, very fast). That shouldn’t surprise you but it is good news. You haven’t been left behind completely. Your constituents are changing though. Their experience of you and your mission may not be what any of us would want. In this case, relevance is defined by how relevant the experience is. Passion for the mission is contingent on amazing experiences.

How you personally decide to react or lead is up to you. It, of course, is not about technology. What is the journey of getting closer to constituents and staying relevant really about? Here are some ideas:

• Creating a culture built around the constituent and their experience being the focus of all you do.


• Empowering employees to do what it takes to create amazing experiences.


• Opening up the floodgates of innovation.

Saying we want to get closer to constituent won’t get senior management on board. While a constituent revolution is at the C-Suite doors, someone (meaning you) needs to convince the top that change is imperative. Without that we will fail.

You know that most executives don’t use social networks personally. While they have smartphones the primarily utilization is for email and looking at the calendar to know where to go to next. The reality is that most won’t read this. Trying to make a case that this is about technology will be a losing battle.

What is the future of nonprofits built on? It isn’t about how Facebook, Twitter, iPhones, tablets or real time-time geolocation check-ins evolve. The future of nonprofits does depend on relevance and the ability to at least understand technology to be able to make decisions about new opportunities. It does require the ability to strategically adapt to the new opportunities to create a competitive advantage.

So much of this is about change. There is a technology revolution occurring. Other nonprofits (and for-profits that you compete with) understand this. But it is also about a whole series of real-world revolutions that are seizing how our constituents live which impacts their experience with us. Expectations are moving fast. We can’t afford to get left behind. The kind of change we are talking about involves three things:

1. Listening


2. Learning


3. Adapting

You're Doing Social Wrong. Your Teenager Does It Right.

It seems that everyone is freaking out about teens abandoning social media sites like Facebook. By "everyone" I mean advertisers. They’re racking their brains trying to figure out why it’s happening. If you’re puzzled too, read this lovely piece in Medium by Cliff Watson, who argues that the number one reason kids don't need Facebook is that they "literally don't need Facebook."

After running through a host of theories as to why, including the fact that parents (ew) and even grandparents are on Facebook now, he comes up with a much more reasonable reason: Young people are gravitating toward messaging services such as Kik, and in doing so, they’re recapturing the intended meaning of social: "Making contact with other human beings. Communicating. Back-and-forth, fairly immediate dialogue. Most of it digitally."

In other words, it's not a post; it's an exchange. Snapchat anyone?

Does your nonprofit have a LinkedIn strategy?

Is your nonprofit a part of the LinkedIn phenomena? If not, it is time to have a discrete strategy for it's use. It is evolving fast. Are you?

We are seeing the evolution of the LinkedIn platform in a move that is positioning it to become a central node of professional collaboration beyond an online identity. The company wants to draw additional web traffic, and by looking at the numbers it appears to have succeeded. According to the web traffic analyzer Alexa, LinkedIn now ranks as the 10th-most visited website in the U.S. and fourteenth internationally. Many of us in the recruiting industry have considered LinkedIn no more than a glorified resume database … granted, a very large resume database! But this influencer capability seems to be a game-changer to me that is drawing even more visitors to the site, and changing behaviors of how professionals interact. The effect has only sped up the rate at which unique profiles are being created to more than 200,000+ a day.

via LinkedIn May Become the Central Home for Collaboration - ERE.net.

As a nonprofit leader, do you understand the benefits of personal use of social media?

As a nonprofit leader, do you understand the benefits of personal use of social media? There are many benefits both to your organization and professionally. While it may initially take some time to learn and acquire the habit, there are ways social media usage can make our time investment both more efficient and more fruitful.

“In my experience, I have found that by engaging on twitter, I have actually saved time. In the past, I made an effort to visit various blogs, websites, and other online information sources to stay apprised of my field (both philanthropy and the areas where the Irvine Foundation works). I have found that by following the right feeds, both institutional and individual, I get that same information more easily and, frankly, I am exposed to far more that I would never have found on my own. To be sure, it’s an investment of time, but I actually think it’s a more efficient use.” ~~Jim Canales, CEO of the Irvine Foundation

 

How Nonprofit Leaders Make Time for Social Media: Get Started With Small Steps

As a nonprofit leader, the best way to get started on social media is to make the commitment to make the time – like anything new whether it be a new exercise regiment or a diet and especially for learning a new tool, habit, or skill.

Pick something small and an easy win and repeat for 3 weeks. Maybe you want to get started with Twitter – start by summarizing an article you have read and want to share. Don’t say you have #notimetotweet.

Just do it.

Are you leveraging the power of your influential nonprofit followers on social media?

So, you have a Facebook and Twitter for your nonprofit. Great, so does everyone else.You also post content and updates several times a day. Wonderful, so does everyone else.

The point Artie Patel, VP of Business Development for Attentive.ly is making in this article is that having a social media presence and creating posts for existing followers is today’s baseline. Merely having a presence is not enough if you seriously want to further online advocacy campaigns and raise money for your nonprofit. It takes work and effort to do this, but it pays significant dividends for those organizations that are committed to actually devoting resources and time towards social media.

More here: Are you leveraging the power of your influential followers on social media? | GuideStar Blog.

Is it too early to think about 2013? Some questions for personal strategic planning

I know it may seem early but 2012 is winding down. Resolutions may not be the most useful exercise to go through. At least thinking through some really good questions might bring some focus to 2013.

It may not be all about planning but it could be about a better focus. Some of that could be thinks to stop doing. Here are some great questions to begin thinking about for 2013 via 4 Questions to get 2013 off to a roaring start | Escape From Cubicle Nation.

To do this exercise, I suggest getting nice and comfortable, and grabbing a paper and pen. Answer these questions:

1. I am at my very best when …

What conditions bring out your very best work? What kind of work are you doing when you are kicking major bootie? What people bring out your best work? Without overthinking it too much, brainstorm the factors that bring out your best work.

From this list, circle one thing that you will AMPLIFY in 2013.

2. These things drove me crazy in 2012 …

Have you been spinning around with the same annoying patterns in your head? Do you have any people in your life that make you nuts? Are you sick and tired of feeling sick and tired?

Brainstorm the things that have really made you batty this year.

From this list, circle one thing that you will ELIMINATE in 2013

3. I really want to make/do this in 2013 …

Is there an experience you are dying to have next year? Do you want to run your first marathon, write your first book, have your first baby or make your first product? Brainstorm the things or experiences that you would love to accomplish next year.

From this list, circle one thing that you will CREATE in 2013

4. Even during tough times this year, I appreciated …

Even the most optimistic life coaches have really crappy days. Life can be hard sometimes. If you had a whopper of a year, what are some things that you appreciated as the proverbial doo doo was hitting the fan? Brainstorm the big and small things that kept you grounded in 2012.

From this list, circle one thing that you want to APPRECIATE in 2013

 

Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch to stay on the disruptive edge

There is no doubt technology is disrupting the traditional business models. Customers are in charge and they are plugged in. No one of these may be right for you but you should be spending time researching which are the right ones and leveraging them. You can either disrupt or be disrupted.

 



 

So here is a good list to start with via Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch - Brian Solis..

 

1. Social Networks from Facebook to Twitter to Google+ and how they’re connecting to influencers and businesses (note: pay attention to nicheworks as well such as Path and Instagram.)

2. Geolocation check-in services such as Foursquare and Facebook location updates to share locations and earn rewards or opportunities for discounts

3. Crowdsourced discounts and deals including Groupon and LivingSocial and what’s valued and why

4. Social commerce services like Shopkick and Armadealo and how they create personalized experiences that are worth sharing

5. Referral based solutions like Yelp, Service Magic (now HomeAdvisor), and Angie’s List to make informed decisions and how shared experiences can improve your business, products, and services

6. Gamification platforms such as Badgeville and Fangager, and why rewarding engagement improves commerce and loyalty

7. How your consumers using mobile devices today and what apps they’re installing. Also, how they’re comparing options, reviewing experiences and making decisions while mobile?

8. The online presence your business produces across a variety of platforms such as tablets, smartphones, laptops and desktops. You must realize how consumers are experiencing the online presences you create and whether or not they deliver a holistic and optimized experience for each platform.

9. The consumer clickpath based on the platform consumers are using. Are you steering experiences based on the expectations of your customers? And are you taking into consideration the device or network where the clickpath begins and ends? Are you integrating Facebook F-commerce and m-commerce into the journey?

10. The expectations of connected consumers, what they value in each channel and platform, where they engage and how your business can improve experiences and make them worthy of sharing.

 

Related articles

• Small Business Strategy: 10 Trends to Watch (sazbean.com)


• Top Internet strategy, marketing and technology links for the week of November 10, 2012 (sazbean.com)


• Small Business Strategies: Seven trends you can't ignore (myculturalconversations.wordpress.com)

 

Do you need a multi-channel messaging strategy?

This is a very good blog on how disruptive social media has become for a business focus on the Customer. If you haven’t been convinced yet, this blog is for you.  The world has changed. Consumers have changed. We have to change to meet the needs and expectations of our customers. Are you ready?

Social media and smartphones are disrupting the established patterns and practices for B2C interactions. To be successful, businesses have to engage with customers through their preferred channels, whether that be mobile, IM or social networks.

The link between technology and consumers is, however, a two-way street. Take, for example, Facebook notifications (the auto-generated email or text alerts you get when someone posts you on your wall or comments on a photo). These alerts constitute B2C dialogue, though they operate under the guise of a C2C interaction.

The initial attraction of social networks like Facebook and other pioneers in the space was bringing groups of people of shared interest together on the web. Adding a messaging capability to the basic web presence extends the social experience beyond the website. Without notifications, you’d have to go online to Facebook to hangout with your friends. With notifications, your friends — and the Facebook brand — come and check in with you throughout the day via your inbox.

This kind of messaging lets businesses participate in, inform, and add value to the social interaction (wall post/sharing) without ever forcing users back to the site.

Why Businesses Must Adopt a Multi-Channel Messaging Strategy

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Do you suffer from Social Media FOMO?

Fear is real and we don't know sometimes the grip it can have on us. I hadn't thought of this, fear of missing out, but it is real.

Do you know FOMO? That’s not some fancy latte — it’s Fear Of Missing Out, and something that’s become a recognized thing by many social media users these days.

You’re probably familiar with the concept, if not the name. Here’s an example: It’s been a long workweek and you really just want to spend Friday night at home watching a movie. But then that old familiar urge hits, and you can’t resist grabbing your smartphone for a jolty fix of quick-burst information. One friend’s Twitter post mentions an awesome concert. On Facebook, someone else put up photos of a raging house party.

Suddenly, your mellow evening feels entirely inadequate and you wonder what else you’re missing out on. You put the phone down, only to pick it up again and again because you can’t shake the feeling that you’re missing out on finding out just how much you’re missing out on. The vicious cycle continues.

via Do You Suffer From Social Media FOMO? [INFOGRAPHIC].

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• The Silent Epidemic of Feeling Left Out (article-3.com)

Where's the walls now to your office? Not so clear anymore ... is it?

Walls to offices during the Industrial Age intended to guard leaders from the daily onslaught of activity and requests. Today, leaders are bombarded with Facebook requests, Twitter feeds, texts, IM pings, SPAM, an eMail from their boss demanding the most recent numbers in a report, and another eM just below the eMail from the boss ... from a friend sending a stupid "forward" eMail with cats in it.

Where's the walls now to your office? Not so clear anymore ... is it?

via Saying Goodbye to the Industrial Age | MAGsays.

We have moved to an "open world". Whether we want to believe it or not, the command and control world is now gone. It seems to me we have a choice. We can continue to ignore it. Where will that lead me? Or, we can embrace it. What would that look like?

What is happening in social media today?

Here are some updates from the exciting world of Social Media.

Social Media Marketing: Take Richard Branson’s Word for It Into the social breach steps Sir Richard Branson, the clear exception to the CEO social despondency narrative. Branson embraces social. He loves social. In fact, he owns social, using it as a platform to expand his personal and corporate brand influence and reach, honestly engage with his audience, and shape events within and without his industry space.

Social Media Intelligence Brief: October 15 2012 Today's Social Media Intelligence Brief includes stories from Major League Baseball, Red Bull, Fuji Film, and a social media campaign case study from the Bahamas.

Is The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) Embracing Social Media? When regulated companies participate in social media their activities are monitored, saved and archived. Though the FDA recognizes these companies are wanting to expand their use of social media, to date it has provided limited guidance.

Scaling Engagement Through Social Media Training Social media training programs are a practical way to scale engagement because they ensure everyone on your team has the same understanding of key concepts, best practices and the actual mechanics of the various social networks so they can work together to bring your message to a broader community.

Pain Relief: Your Prescription for Highly Effective Online Marketing Your readers have pain. Successful content marketers know how to expertly manipulate, talk about, and address their readers' pains and get them to take next steps. Have you jumped into the pain game yet?

The Present and Future of Content Marketing Top content marketing experts predict what’s ahead for the industry in the coming year by Skyword, Inc.

9 Social Media Fun Facts to Shock or Maybe Just Awe Most Americans still think they need Gym shorts for Foursquare. In fact, while only 3% have claimed to checked in this year, it is even down from the year before. The concept of “checking-in” will probably soon be replaced by “Opting-in” to share location data.

How to Make an Infographic in Five Steps Infographics are relatively new; new enough for the word "infographic" not to be recognized by my spellchecker. As with all things "new" on the interwebs their comes a near obsessive, cult-like following that insists that this phenomenal new thing will be the massive change to overtake the online world and alter the way we computer forever.

Exploiting Facebook's Newsfeed Algorithm You’ve read it many times: Don't post too often or you’ll bother fans, causing them to unlike or ignore your posts, which will, in turn, affect which posts FaceBook will promote in your fans' newsfeeds. Here are 3 key justifications for posting more often and still getingt fans to see your posts.

Social Media Is Not Your Job Perhaps, interacting with people, building relationships with them, creating emotional bonds, offering and getting feedback, answering private messages on Facebook requesting information, building brand perception...is actually your job.

Social Marketing: Don't Fall for Shiny New Tech, says author David Amerland. "It is easy to lose sight of the wood for the trees and go for shiny new toys here. The truth, however, is that social marketing is marketing."

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• How to promote business using Social network marketing.? (daniweb.com)

How valuable is Facebook to online retailers?

The question has been asked many times: is Facebook of any value to online retailers? For a publicly traded company, this is a pretty important question.  According to data recently released by RichRelevance, it is of value.

The e-commerce specialist analyzed 689 million shopping sessions between January and August with a special focus on sessions that were initiated through social channels.

Not surprisingly given its user base, Facebook drives significantly more traffic to retail sites than Pinterest and Twitter do: the world’s largest social network accounted for 86 percent of all shopping sessions that started off on any of the three sites.

What’s more interesting is the fact that shoppers coming from Facebook are more than twice as likely to make a purchase as those coming from Pinterest, a site much more visual appealing and product-focused than Facebook is.

In terms of average order value, Pinterest is far ahead of its peers, which is possibly attributable to the fact that Pinterest has a design-conscious high income user base.



http://www.statista.com/markets/21/topic/194/social-media/chart/643/social-media-channels-as-a-source-of-e-commerce-traffic/

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• Facebook Drives Most Retail Traffic, But Pinterest Drives the Big Spenders (webpronews.com)


• Facebook Drives Most Shopping Traffic But Pinterest Users Spend The Most Money [Infographic] (blogherald.com)


• What the Heck Is Pinterest and Why Should You Care? Let Us Tell You. (blogs.constantcontact.com)

Are you putting your career at risk by not building your social network?

This is powerful. Think 5 years from now. Not too hard to do in some cases. Or, think 2 or 3. Will you regret not moving faster? I'm thinking we will.

Let's move fast. Let's get with it.

Picture yourself as an Executive in 2017, struggling to make sense of how many of your peers failed to become social. Many of them pushed aside by their more savvy underlings who built up both internal and external social networks. Their large networks wield tremendous power, collective intelligence and the ability to influence both employees and customers. Many of the executives that didn’t adapt were caught in a type of ‘vocational innovator’s dilemma’; where they stubbornly refused to change despite the warning signs.

Welcome to the new world. It’s the same as the old – only faster, smarter and a bit more effective.

via SAP's CIO: You're Putting Your Executive Career at Risk if You're Not Social - Forbes.

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• TEDActive 2011: Social Networks Project (bizblog.blackberry.com)


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How often does the social media monster swallow you whole?

How often does the social media monster swallow you whole?

More than you may think, according to Red e App, which lets consumers get notifications from businesses without having to provide their personal information.

The company developed an infographic that details how interruptions impact employee productivity.

“Is it possible to be too connected in this digital age?” Red e App asks. “Research data indicates, yes.”

Among the findings, the infographic shows that workers are interrupted approximately once every 10.5 minutes, and that it takes an average of 23 minutes to return to an assigned task. The impact of these interruptions is staggering — costing the American economy almost $650 billion dollars a year, it says.

The infographic then breaks down the amount of time that Facebook, Twitter and email suck out of your day.

For years, productivity experts have suggested what I call segmenting your time with strict limits on the amount of time you spend in email. It seems logical to extend that to social media as well.

What do you think of the data?

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• Social Media Will Distract You At Work [Infographic] (blogherald.com)


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• 21 Things to Do to Help Your Infographic Go Viral (contentmarketinginstitute.com)

What medium is king of the social world?

Video is becoming king of the social world. Studies indicate that over 50% of Americans watch user-generated video at least once a month. That is more than any other vehicle, including blogs, music, and photos on photo sharing sites. As video becomes an effective way to communicate with consumers, several emerging technologies allow you to target video content to your audience.

One technology to look at allows you to forge one-to-one customer relationships with real-time, personalized video using StarGreetz. If you were sent a video that was instantly personalized for you based on a number of factors, would you watch it? StarGreetz (www.stargreetz.com) helps brands create one-to-one personalized video messages that use the actual voices and images of brand spokespeople, popular celebrities and iconic characters to increase engagement. The videos are personalized to address the recipient by name, gender, location, date/time, and dozens of other potential attributes, and are delivered via messages and quick-response (QR) codes on Facebook, email, Twitter, mobile, point of purchase, on-package, outdoor, and print.

Quaker's Chewy Granola Bars used StarGreetz to put QR codes on packaging that led consumers to personalized video messages, via Facebook API, starring Nick Jonas, delivering 88% opens, 74% click-through rates, as well as 5 minutes and 10 seconds of engagement. Toyota Racing sent NASCAR fans that registered for the Pit Pass an email containing a personalized video of Kyle Bush and experienced open rates that were five times higher than those of traditional emails.


This is very exciting for businesses who are obsessed with the customer experience.