Video Fridays #24 – Catching Up

Seth Godin has a great blog post on how to catch up if your company (or agency) has not embraced technology as a means for communication. It’s not too late!

One of the points he makes includes using bulk email tools and he mentions MailChimp specifically. Email marketing through tools such as MailChimp can be a low-cost communication tool that you should be using. A few advantages of using a bulk email marketing software tool versus your MS Outlook account includes more formatting options, better list management, and less occurrence of your email landing in a spam folder, thus placing your domain on a blacklist. Many of these companies have a nonprofit discount that isn’t listed on their website.

Here’s a video on how to integrate MailChimp into your social media tools.

Other major bulk email marketing companies, in no order, include:

MailChimp
Mad Mimi
Bronto
Verticle Response
Constant Contact
iContact

And a comparison chart of ten of the top email marketing tool features can be found here.

If you already use one or more of these tools, tell us which ones and your impressions of them in our comment section.

Megaphones

Seth Godin, a marketing guru, wrote a post recently titled “The Problem With Non”. It details the noticeable lack of nonprofit organizations that are in the top 100 list of Twitter users. As nonprofit organizations, we should be at the absolute top of the list. Social media tools, such as Twitter are free resources that allows you to post information, news, comments and links in real time. It’s a free megaphone that has been handed to you! So why are you broadcasting?

Are you using your megaphone?

Here are some key questions to consider when looking at how you use social media –

Why are you using social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc.?
What is the goal of each of your social media tools?
What information is being posted?
How often do you update your posts?
Who is your targeted audience?
Have you engaged the people who are commentators, followers or fans on your social media sites?
Have you seen any outcomes or changes as a result of your social media efforts?

If you have additional questions that should be on this list, please let us know in the comments section.