Blog Picks of the Week

Everyday Frogloop scours the web for the best blog posts that we think nonprofit campaigners must read. Who caught our attention this week? Geoff Livingston and Rebecca Leet. Check them out and feel free to share your own picks of the week. 

Punk Social Media

Geoff Livingston wrote a provocative blog post about “how we are in the midst of a new media revolution where norms and “best practices” have been dictated by an echo chamber, mostly by top tier bloggers, that don’t necessarily understand the medium or deserve the ability to dictate best practices. It’s a time for punk social media.” 

This is an excellent post for the nonprofit community to read because many nonprofits are obsessed with numbers particularly when it comes to social media. Nonprofits are facing new pressures ranging from Board Members to consultants to win the social media battle. Who has the most fans? Who is tweeting more? Does more “Shares” mean some organizations are more effective at advocating for policy change? Give me a break!

“You can see punk tones rising throughout the space,” said Livingston. “People are losing faith in the follower counts, popularity contests, influence determinations (often based on bad formulas), and control your message dictates. Don’t forget, more than 10 tweets a day is bad! Consider the birth of unicorn social media, the star spin smackdown, and the anti-influence project.

“Why so much discontent? Because people are having BS stuffed down their throats on “proper” social media use.”

Read the full blog post here.

Five Steps to Nonprofit Messaging Success

Blogger Rebecca Leet says that the key to developing effective messaging is to ask your team five simple questions.

Step 1: What is the action we’re trying to make happen through this message?

Get target audiences to take an action you want.  

Step 2: Who can make that action happen?

Leet says that this is a much better question then than “who are our target audiences” are.

Step 3: What do these people desire that would prompt them to act?

Focusing on what they want to desire to do. People will move faster to satisfy a desire than to satisfy a need.  

Step 4:  Is there overlap between what they want and we want?

Leet says this step is crucial. If the organization knows what will motivate its member to act, it has to make sure that it can deliver to those desires.

Step 5: Write the message.

Write from your audiences’ perspective, not yours.  Use simple words not jargon. 

Read the full blog post here