One of the first questions that nonprofits have about setting up a blog for their supporters is: "What do we write about?"
It's a good question, and many nonprofits never get the answer right. Their blogs turn into self-referencing organizational messages that most people, even their supporters, tune out.
After initially thinking the whole idea of "curation" on the web was pretty pretentious (after all isn't that what experts do in museums, libraries, and academic journals?), I've realized that it is a great concept for what we do on our blogs. After all we are more...
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Right, Joanne! I think blogs can seem so overwhelming when we are trying to please an audience that we see as peers. But everybody has their own unique perspective, and we’re all truly experts at something. So no matter how trivial the news, tips, opinion or advice you have – if it’s relevant to your mission and could be helpful to your audience: blog it!
Thanks Luise for your comment. I think the biggest problem is lack of focus. So many blogs are all over the place and don’t develop their particular voice.
Thank you Joanne for mentioning NWF’s blogs! I think giving your staff a voice can also be very powerful and staying focused it great advice.
You’re very welcome, Danielle. You guys do a great job!
Great post, thank you.
In a similar way to the curation function that nonprofit bloggers do, we find that nonprofits who use IdeaEncore’s ( http://budurl.com/BL1211a ) online resource / tools repository greatly benefit from the ratings and statistics about the number of views and downloads. This becomes a ‘crowdsource’ version of curation.
Our next release will allow organizations to mark resource items they “Like” and then display them in a co-branded online library. Taking the curation analogy toward a customizable “collection” that a nonprofit can use to help stakeholders find selected resources that are especially valuable to that group.
Scott Bechtler-Levin
IdeaEncore Network
Thank you for the comment, Scott, and for the information. This tool looks very interesting.
In the marketing department of JSSA (Jewish Social Service Agency serving people of all faiths and backgrounds in greater Washington, DC) we are considering blogging and starting a Facebook page as well.
Joanne, your idea of showing off the agency’s internal expertise has worked for us in our media relations. We’ve placed many items featuring basic tips from our social workers on how to handle commonly faced issues such as back-to school concerns with tweens, how couples can learn to disagree respectfully, how to handle preschoolers’ meltdowns, etc.
I believe this is particularly helpful in our agency, which provides diverse services to varied populations (the elderly, the terminally ill, people with disabilities, people looking for work, children, people separating and divoring, etc.) We can share what we know with specific sub-populations by reaching the online and traditional media they follow.
Our concern is that we will burn up too much energy on our 3-person staff trying to keep a blog or Facebook page fresh enough, while we also have responsibilties for many other aspects of marketing such as publications, our website, some special events duties, speech-writing, etc. Any thoughts?
Incidentally, I admire the blog Beyond Bread, from a local Washington hunger charity, Bread for the City. It is informative, colorful and varied, and they respond often to matters in the news that affect their clients. Check it out!
Mollie Katz
Senior Marketing & Communications Associate
JSSA
Thanks so much for commenting, Mollie! I think your fears about getting overwhelmed are justified. I had the same concerns about putting up a Facebook page and keeping current with my blog. You can provide an automatic feed from your blog to your Facebook page which ensures fresh content when you don’t have time to do anything else. Then I check Facebook once each day to add a short update or respond to a reader’s comment. It takes less time than I thought it would, as long as your blog is your main source of content. The same thing can be done with Twitter. Twitter and Facebook can be spokes that jut out from the blog, if that makes sense.
Mollie I looked at the Bread for the City blog and it is indeed wonderful. Here is the link: Beyond Bread