Elaina Buzzell

Tag: strategy

February 14, 2012

Planning for Your Next Technology Project

A technology project can be a large source of stress for nonprofit organizations. Not only is this likely going to be an expensive addition to your budget, but, as many nonprofit leaders don’t have a technology background, it can be hard to have faith that you’re going to end up with a tool that meets your needs well.

A great way to reduce that stress is to do some planning for your project on your own before starting to get bids. This kind of planning doesn’t necessarily require tech skills, but just an understanding of where you are and where you’d like to be.

Taking on some planning on your own will not eliminate the need for any planning to be included in your technology project, but it will help you better ask for the features that you need, make better choices about your options, and stick to your budget. Read the rest of this entry »

3 comments
February 6, 2012

What’s the Point? Outlining the Importance of Social Media Strategy

Original image from flickr user mclib

Over the last couple of weeks, I have been exploring Sparked to find bite sized volunteering projects for when I have downtime. Luckily for me, there are many nonprofits there asking questions about social media and communications, but it’s disappointing to see so many focused on poorly chosen goals and metrics.

Most of the social media and communications requests posted are on topics like, “How can I get more likes for my Facebook page?” and “How can I get more followers on Twitter”. My default response is to ask about their larger communications and/or organizational goals and how more likes or followers will help them get there. The responses that I get back are often that they don’t have a goal, that likes and followers are their only goal, or that they are on social media because a board member told them that they had to be.

I know that nonprofits are not alone in not quite knowing the right ways to use social media towards their goals, as businesses are struggling as well. Small organisations are often frustrated by a lack of progress and want to (re)gain ground as quickly as possible. However, moving ahead without strategy or planning rarely, if ever, leads to true success. Yes, you may get 10,000 likes on Facebook, but if you don’t do anything with them, or don’t know what to do with them, then how are they helping you? Or, as the title of this post more bluntly asks, “What’s the point?”

Read the rest of this entry »

2 comments
October 25, 2011

Magical Giving Fairies

On October 14th, I had the privilege of attending the Social Media for Nonprofits conference held in Redmond, Washington. I had a wonderful time connecting with my colleagues in the nonprofit sector and communications fields, and learned some great tips for building strategies for successful nonprofit social media campaigns. Read the rest of this entry »