Elaina Buzzell

Tag: strategy

Professional Social Media Presence

So, you have your communications strategy set, and your social media accounts are set up. Now, how do you get the results you are looking for? This week in Favorite Finds Friday, I’m highlighting articles that I have found about running a professional social media and/or communications campaigns at nonprofits. These articles have tips for engaging your audience, building your follower base, and how to staff your communications campaigns.
  • How to Build Your Professional Twitter Brand by Heidi Cohen. This article includes some tips for creating the kind of Twitter account that attracts followers and has high engagement. You’ll still want to have that strategy in place to be sure that you’re bringing in followers that will meet your goals, but these tips will help you along the way. Most of these tips apply to communications tools well beyond Twitter.
  • 3 Cool Twitter Tricks That Are Useless Without Strategy by Hector Cuevas: Here, Hector outlines some pretty neat tips, but I also love that he points out that tips and tricks won’t get you far without an underlying strategy to your communications.
  • 7 Reasons Why You Don’t Need an Intern to Run Your Social Media Program by Peggy Dolane. Job listing sites never seem to be short on listings attempting to recruit interns to run the social media or communications programs at nonprofits. In this post, Peggy outlines great reasons to re-consider this practice.

 

Have you used any of these tips? How does your communications strategy utilize Twitter? How is your communications program staffed?

The Value of Vice: Re-thinking our bad habits

What? The Value of Vice?

"Bad Habit Baby" by Flickr user HidingInABunker

I know that sounds crazy, but hear me out. I once took a class on using yoga to address addiction, and my favorite lesson was on recognizing benefits that we receive from our bad habits.

Examples of these benefits include people who feel relaxation from smoking, someone who addresses social anxiety by drinking or another who escapes a negative memory by using drugs.

Just to be clear, I am not encouraging people to smoke, drink excessively or do drugs, as these habits have numerous and severe negative consequences. However, by recognizing and addressing the benefits received, people can search out positive ways to access them, which helps them be more successful in leaving their addictions behind. Read the rest of this entry »

Understanding Total Cost of Ownership

Posted on Idealware on May 24, 2012.

As budgets at nonprofits are always tight, the first question about a new project is usually “How much is this going to cost?” It’s a question that makes most consultants cringe, not just because the wrong answer can cause them to lose the project, but because deciding solely on cost doesn’t always lead to the best decisions. Read the rest of this entry »