Marketing for Solopreneurs

Social Media Marketing and Lions

I'm a believer in nonprofits. Over the years, I've given time, money and professional advice to many fine organizations: programs in dropout prevention, hunger, homelessness, the arts, global relief and development, and others. I love them all.

A few weeks ago I was asked to speak on low-budget, big idea marketing at the local Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Someone who had attended liked my ideas and asked me if I would be speak on marketing the nonprofit at the Lions Club meeting.

Civic groups, and the Lions Club in particular, have their own set of unique problems. Their age demographic is skewing older these days. They are finding it harder to recruit young members. And donor fatigue, coupled with the current recession, are taking their toll on giving.

I decided to focus on relationship and social media marketing as a way to identify and cultivate donors, find new members and recruit volunteers.

As I spoke, I sensed that, though many of these Lions didn't relate to the Internet and Web 2.0, their minds were open and they were curious about new options for promoting their club and its work.

Getting noticed

Social media sites have great potential for helping nonprofits network, get donations and share on the Web. They give nonprofits a forum for meeting like-minded groups, for finding potential supporters and spreading their message beyond the immediate community.

One story I told was about a young (25-ish) woman who became excited about a theatre performance that would benefit a cause she cared deeply about. She announced the event and included a poster in her profile on Facebook. Her friends donated money. Friends of her friends told other friends. Before long, the donations were streaming in: viral fundraising.

I talked about the power of social media to get the press "on your side." One way is to look for people who work in the media on, say Facebook, or LinkedIn, and watch for causes or charities they are involved in. If it's a good fit with the mission of your nonprofit, contact them and explain your programs. They just might be interested enough to write a story.

Do you know a nonprofit that is using social networking sites to spread their message?

You may be involved with a cause that could leverage social media to grow their support and revenue. Or maybe one that's already doing it. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr. The possibilities are endless.

I'd love to hear what you think.

Oh. And I'd like to give a shout out to the Auburn Lion's Club, a fantastic organization (77 years old) that supports their community with hearing and sight care assistance, scholarships for kids, and other incredible programs.

Check out their site and you may just find you share a passion with them.

Social Media Marketing: Are You Lurking, or Just Listening?

I listened in on a great discussion last week. (Hmmm…or was I a lurker?)

It started at Copyblogger.com. Guest blogger, ad executive Bob Hoffman, compared web marketing to marketing on TV: 'people with stuff yelling at people with money.' He was talking about the one-way, non-interactive web marketing model.

But is social media marketing really as interactive as it's cracked up to be?

Hoffman thinks not. He said that, regardless of what the 'conversation advocates' say, the average customer does not have the time for, or interest in, chatting with marketers.

Hoffman describes interactivity as the ability to interact with the content of the medium, not just the medium. So, viewing a blog or channel surfing on TV is one-way communication, but posting a comment on a blog or forum meets the definition of interactivity.

Hoffman thinks that we (meaning you and I), as 'web geeks,' spend way more time in front of a computer screen than our customers do. And if our customers do use the web, it's passively, hopping from page to page, reading this and that.

Anonymous visitors

Over at the Remarkable Communication blog, Sonia Simone continued the conversation. She said that, even within a community conversation model, in any one online community, no more than 1% of readers ever post comments.

So that means that the body of potential customers who are influenced by a conversation is much, much larger than the number of active users. And, while these listeners are not interacting, they often make buying decisions based on the information and opinions they read.

Who are the 'lurkers'?

I was struck by something Simone said in her second post: "Online media have an unappealing word for this behavior: lurking. It conjures up a picture of some creepy guy hiding in the bushes outside your window."

I've been there myself. Not the part about the creepy guy hiding in the bushes. But I have been a listener— a lurker of sorts. I subscribe to one blog because I enjoy the commentary. I visit that other forum just to see what's going on, to listen to what people are talking about. To learn something.

Does a lurker's motive matter?

Let's say you are starting a new business and want to know the needs—I mean, the real pain— of your target customers. You think you know what's keeping them up at night, but you want to be sure before you launch that new product or service, before you roll out that expensive ad or direct mail campaign.

So you listen in on forums where your prospects hang out. You gather information on their needs and challenges. You lurk.

You may not even want to contribute because you feel that your prospective customers will be more honest if they don't know you are there.

So what do you think? Does the motive matter? Personally, I visit forums and blogs to better understand the issues solopreneurs face. And I don't always contribute to the conversation.

Do you think listeners and lurkers are participants in online communication or just eavesdroppers? And by not revealing their motives are they being deceptive in any way?

I'd love to read your comments on this post.