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Stephen Fairley, CEO of The Rainmaker Institute, the US’ largest law firm marketing company that specializes in lead conversion for small law firms and solo professionals, recently published a lengthy and highly detailed slideshow on The National Law Review that made me sit up and take notice:     http://bit.ly/19Fc5hE

If you’re too short on time to read the original, here’s a précis of his presentation, “Social Domination: How to Conquer ‘The Big 3’ Social Media Networks” (FB, LI, Tw):

Parts (1) and (2) of his presentation addressed (1) the need use all three of the three social media levers (FB, LI and Tw) complementarily and (2) how to ‘perfect your machinery’ by optimizing the postings you make over each network, so that they succeed by getting read, replied to, and recirculated . . . .

(A)  Over Facebook:

Fairley cites the recent statistic that only 20% of the 1500 stories filtered through the average FB user’s news feed, in one day, will actually make its way to that user. Posting options on FB include status updates, links, photos, videos, event-promotion and check-ins.

• To ensure that your posting is included in that feed, he says, you should remove links from your copy:  use photos instead. Photos get 53% more likes than a non-photo posting, and 104% more comments than that same text-based posting, with the same information.
• Since photos appeal aesthetically, use the largest image upload possible and reposition timeline photos, so that they appear front and centre in your posting. And highlight horizontal photos by using a horizontal display.
• Post your information to your timeline, before placing it in your album, since the former is more likely to be engaged with, by readers.
• Use titles in your links that are less than 100 characters, as they are more likely to be clicked on.
• Keep your copy succinct, as greater response is elicited by very brief or brief posts, rather than by longer ones. Continue reading “Creating Stronger Postings for FB, LI and Tw: Revisiting Stephen Fairley on ‘The Big 3’ Social Media Networks . . .”

Do you as an association (not-for-profit) professional worry about how we can use today’s high-tech age to promote your services? In a “Hubspot” article from August 20^th, Mike Spear details how five successful non-profits or charities narrate their “impact” by leveraging a little technical prowess.

No one would dispute Spear’s observation that all non-profits need to tell compelling stories, because storytelling is “at the heart of every non-profit’s ability to engage donors and create movements.” And these stories need to be told well, since the further we move into the digital age, the higher donors’ expectations become, of seeing “return” on their charitable investments.

Now, more than ever before, non-profits must identify, express and “market the impact they make with their programs.” In case if you didn’t have time to read Spear’s report itself, he catalogs five North American non-profits who embrace this challenge successfully, by telling their organization’s story through content- rich media: Acumen, Invisible Children, charity:water, Share our Strength, and Splash.

Continue reading “How will you tell your stories more persuasively in our high-tech age?”

Professional associations (not-for-profit organizations) have adopted email marketing, social media, blogging and text messages as efficient, inexpensive ways to reach members and constituents. But, as I indicated in my last blog posting, Canada’s new Anti-Spam Law (CASL), whose implementation is expected in late 2013 or early 2014, will affect how associations do that.

As lawyers Eva Chan and Victoria Prince (of Borden, Ladner, Gervais LLP) wrote last summer, in the Canadian Society of Association Executive’s (CSAE’s) “Trillium” Chapter E-Newsmagazine, planning for how an association develops its budget, does IT work, marketing, acts to recruit and retain membership, communicates, disseminates newsletters, directories, creates meeting attendee lists, website content and more  . . .  could all be affected. Prince and Chan write that “Once the law is in force you will not be able to solicit permission by email.”

What kind of communication is affected? Associations will have to secure explicit or implicit permission to contact their recipients electronically, and to record the date of that permission (since there are time limits). Commercial electronic messages (CEMs) are messages sent by any means of telecommunication (including text, sound or image messages), in which one of the purposes of those messages is to engage in a commercial activity. CEMs are the communications that are targeted by the CASL.

After further consultation, I learned that two-way “cold-call” telephone communications will not be affected, since those calls require participation from the recipient and so are not considered in this law to be “spam.” But the CRTC nonetheless has its own rules on telephone communication (more on that, in an upcoming blog). Continue reading “What Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL) Means for your Communication and Marketing Activities . . . .”

If you send commercial email messages, text messages, leave voicemail messages or use social media for the purposes of your not-for-profit organization (and frankly, who doesn’t?), then you must pay attention to Canada’s incoming Anti-Spam Law (CASL).

In 2010, the Canadian Government passed its Anti-Spam Act, which was initially welcomed as a safeguard against the deluge of spam we all receive and to combat unwelcome spyware. Roma Ihnatowycz, a frequent contributor to CSAE’s bimonthly magazine, Associations, notes that Canada was in fact “one of the last of the world’s developed economies to embrace such a law,” after sibling Western nations, such as the U.S. and the U.K.

Dave Cybak, executive vice president of the Canadian Society of Association Executives (CSAE) has expressed the concerns of many organizers within the Canadian not-for-profit sector that the new legislation, due to take effect in 2013 or early 2014, is too stringent to be feasible. They say that the CASL threatens to undermine association growth, particularly by severely restraining the ways in which associations can contact their past, current and prospective members. Continue reading “What Does Canada’s Anti-Spam Law (CASL) Mean for Professional (Not-for-Profit) Associations?”

Thank you, readers, for tuning in to my blog postings, this summer. I’m taking a brief holiday from blogging, while I recharge and prepare for late summer and autumn projects. Tune in again, in two weeks, when I plan to discuss some of the broader applications of LinkedIn for professional associations.