You're making the world a better place and you you're driven to do it in ever bigger ways. But budgets are tight and staff are already wearing a lot of hats! With so many people to reach, you can't afford to waste time. If you want to have a greater impact with current staff, there is a lot you can do to increase your communication capacity. By ensuring people are working smarter, not reinventing the wheel, and sharing knowledge, they will be more efficient and effective in their jobs. We will tackle a list of 25 practical ways to increase communications capacity, from technology to training and templates. This workshop is meant to give executives, communications directors, and marketing staff concrete ideas you can use now to improve your relationships with stakeholders through quality, consistent communications. It will include a variety of methods, including free or in house and low cost or part of larger technology improvements.

1. 25 Ways to Increase Your
Organization's Communication Capacity
Without Hiring New Staff
Tirza Hollenhorst Mark Sutton
ifPeople Artez Interactive
@tirzalyn @marksutton
tirzalyn@ifpeople.net msutton@artez.com
Join the conversation: #10NTC.25W

2. Why Does it Matter
Tight budgets = No new staff
 > need to communicate
across > channels
 Stakeholder expectations of
interactivity are Up
More noise to cut through

3. Agenda
1. Communications Strategy
2. Process – Scale it
3. Who’s Involved?

4. Strategy
( a really, really good one)

5. 1. Define Your Goals
 Where are you going?
 How will you measure
if you are heading in
the right direction?

6. Keep track of goals with
quantitative data…
Influential
Friends
New names
added to email
file
Comments
Voting
participants Increased
Influential donations
blogs linked to
you
Increased webpage hits
Content of keywords

7. Define Your Goals
Increase
Engagement
Acquire New
Supporters
Build
Relationships
Increase
Donations

8. 2. Define Your Audience
Personas are…
 Descriptions of
individuals that
represent your
target
 They’re not real
people
 Just archetypes that
represent real
people.

9. 3. Go Where Your Audience
Is
 Speak their language
 Address their aspirations
 Meet their needs
 Go to their communities
 Test
 Test
 Test

10. Our staff knows fashion.
http://dcgoodwillfashions.blogspot.com/
We sell things you can’t
find anywhere else.
We want to target
young women.
http://www.fashionofgoodwill.org/

11. 4. Clarify your Key
Messages
 Starts with the
mission
 Defines your ‘elevator’
pitch
 The context for all
communications
 Differentiators
 Directed to
stakeholders

12. 5. Research Your
Keywords
 Your site has two audiences….People & Robots

13. 6. Listen
Broadcast Platform Conversation Medium

14. 7. Build Your Social
Database
“Relentlessly Build Your Email Database” –Ted
Hart

15. Process Automation

16. 8. Stop Entering Data

17. Stop Entering Data
Plone > Saleforce
 Staff never touches
data
 Custom reporting
 Automatic response

18. 9. Use an RSS Reader
Consume more Data More
Efficiently

19. 10. Cross Post
Most social media tools have a
widgets or features that allow you
to bring content in or push it out!

20. 11. Schedule Tweets
What to Schedule?
 Schedule calendar events
 Non-time sensitive ideas
 Links to partners or affiliates
 Schedule Re-Tweets

21. 12. Communications
Calendar
 Key for new forms of
communication
 Decide what you can
do, don’t over commit
 Establish the
structure &
responsibility
 Get in a Rhythm

22. Make Communications Part
of Everyone’s Job

23. 13. Create and Use
Templates
 Easier to Begin
 Most communications
have replicable
formatInformal
 Consistency
 Saves Time

24. 14. Create a Central Info
Bank
Central repository of:
 Success stories
 About us paragraphs
 Quotes
 Photos
 Recent statistics

25. 15. Teach Writing for the
Web
Essay style college writing does not work on the web. So,
what works?
 Conversational
 Direct
 Informal
 Skimmable

26. 16. Be Deliberate About
what tools you use

27. 17. Get More People
Participating
 Delegate
Ownership
 Incorporate routine
communications into
your process
 Train, document,
train

28. 18. Use Checklists
 Press releases
should not go out
without your URL –
ever!
 Clarify standards
 Document process
 Enforce quality
 Get new staff up to
speed

29. Example Checklist
Email Announcements:
 Does your subject line entice readers to open?
 Are you making the most of the preview pane?
 Is your email easy on the eyes?
 Does the message come through, even if the images
don’t?
 Does this email have a personal touch?
 Are you being CAN-SPAM compliant?

30. 19. Identify Guest
Bloggers
Spread the Work &
Expand
Perspectives
 Program Staff
 Board members
 Practitioners
Volunteers
 Experts (doctors, etc)
 Partners

31. 20. ‘Digital Natives’ on
Staff
 Social media, digital
comms is not ‘new’
 Not about the tools, it’s
about the connections
 Natural ‘conversation’
and relationships more
likely than
broadcasting
 possibly ‘edgy’

32. 21. Interns, Interns,
Interns
 Take the grunt work off
your plate.
 Offer an opportunity to
learn (and learn from
them!)
 Not fixed overhead
(seasonal/project
based)
 Management &
recruitment time a
consideration

33. 22. Expand beyond Text
“A Picture is worth
1000 Words…”
 Easy & Powerful
 Fast & Inexpensive
 Not every piece of
content has to be a
viral juggernaut
 Repurpose content
 Events, Galas, Etc

34. 23. Supporters as
Fundraisers
 Supporters as
fundraisers
 Supporters as
content
generators
 Videos
 Blog posts
 Tweets

35. 24. Test, measure and adjust.
Test, measure and adjust.
Test, measure and adjust
Figure out the right formula for your organization
 Try new things, not all
will work
 Define success and
measure
 Cut the things the
aren’t working

36. 25. Have Fun & Be Creative

37. Thank you!
Mark Sutton Tirza Hollenhorst
President, Artez US IfPeople
msutton@artez.com tirzalyn@ifpeople.net
Twitter: @marksutton Twitter: @tirzalyn
www.artez.com www.ifpeople.net

38. Evaluation Code: 244
How Was this Session?
Call In Text Online
Call 404.939.4909 Text 244 to 69866 Visit nten.org/ntc­eval
Enter Code 244 Enter Code 244
Session feedback powered by:
Tell Us and You Could Win a Free 2011 NTC Registration!