1

Content Management for the Small Land Trust

Barbara L. Hopkins, JD, ASLA Executive Director

NeighborSpace of Baltimore County

Rally - Session D12 – 10:30-Noon - Tuesday, Oct. 2, 2012

2

Overview

• Where you stand depends on where you sit.

• What is content?• Why is content important

and why should you try to manage it?

• How do you manage content efficiently ?

3

Where You Stand Depends on Where You Sit

4

1. What is Content?• Relevant information delivered through a variety of channels that provides

value to your audience and thereby attracts people to you, creating trust, credibility and authority and turning constituents into volunteers and donors. Examples of content formats include:

Status updates/announcements Special event photos and videos Slide presentations Press releases/invitations News stories Blog posts White Papers

• Content can be original or curated

5

• Fundraising: Developing the base of the fundraising pyramid by building a community of individuals who have a relationship with your organization

2. Why be Concerned about Content?

6

•Marketing: You need to stand out – you might not be big, but you can be a top

brand even if it’s just in your community More than 1.5 million nonprofits in U.S. 7,306 nonprofits registered in State of Rhode Island last year The amount of content about you on the web affects how search

engines rank and deliver results Content is a way of separating your organization from the rest of the

pack.

7

• Credibility: • You need to be seen as a credible, knowledgeable resource to those

interested in your work.• But, first, you need to be SEEN …

8

“The challenge, especially for the 1 million smaller organizations with tight budgets and limited staff, is how to use scarce resources most effectively to reap the benefits.”

Bridgespan. Tweeting for a Better World (www.bridgespan.org/tweeting-for-a-better-world.aspx)

3. How Do You Manage Content?

B. Identify Target Populations to Help You Reach Your Goals

C. Identify the Channels to Which Your Target Populations are Subscribed

D. Identify the Types of Content Appropriate to the Channels

A. Articulate Your Outreach Goals

E. Create a Schedule for Distributing Content to ChannelsF. Repurpose, repurpose, repurposeG. Evaluate

9

A. Articulate Your Outreach Goals

Examples:• Converting constituents to members and/or donors• Converting constituents to stewardship volunteers• Branding your organization

“Your social media goals should not only support organizational goals, such as fundraising or collaboration, but also play to social media’s strength: encouraging authentic interaction through conversation with the audience.”

Bridgespan. Tweeting for a Better World (www.bridgespan.org/tweeting-for-a-better-world.aspx)

10

• No budget for marketing, communications and fundraising except $250 for webmaster and $450 for public outreach event expenses.

• Lacking cohesive visual identify (several different logos and taglines, inconsistent use of color, no “family look” to publications and website).

• Many audiences but lack of regular and targeted communication with them and no comprehensive list of audience contacts (or other information that could be used to evaluate capacity for giving).

• Lacking small number of core messages that tell NeighborSpace’s story, delineate its benefits, successes and vision, and reinforce its mission across publications, web site, publicity and “elevator speeches.”

• Lacking a media list and public relations strategy for getting media coverage at no cost.

NeighborSpace Marketing/Fundraising Challenges, Jan. 2010

Source: SWOT Exercise, NeighborSpace Communications and Fundraising Plan, 2009-2010

11

B. Where You are Focused on Converting Constituents, Try to Understand Their Demographics and Stratify Your Audience:

53%47%

GenderFemale Male

N = 805,029

25%

20%

20%

20%

15%

AgeUnder 19 20-34 35-49 50-64 65+

Population of Baltimore County, Maryland

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American FactFinder http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/nav/jsf/pages/index.xhtml

12

8%

23%

25%

17%

13%

8%5%

Facebook Users by Age<18 18-24 25-34 35-4445-54 55-64 65+

68.1% of Internet Users on Facebook

14%

31%

17%

16%

9%

9%

4%

Twitter Users by Age<18 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+

15% of Internet Users on Twitter

Source: http://www.geekwire.com/2012/study-8-percent-americans-twitter-day/

Source: http://www.socialbakers.com/facebook-statistics/united-states

C. Identify the Channels to Which Your Target Populations are Subscribed

13

14

Type of ContentChannels for Airing or Distributing Content

FacebookGoogle Twitter Scoop

It Picasa SlideShare

Vertical Response Blogger YouTube Scribd Your

WebsiteStatus Updates/ Announcements

Special Event Photos and Videos

Slide Presentations

Press Releases/ Invitations

News Stories

Newsletters

Blog Posts

White Papers

D. Match Content Type to Channels

15

•More on the channels ….

For small land trusts, in particular, YOUR WEBSITE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT CHANNEL. You need to be able to update it easily and frequently, either by way of user friendly software (e.g. Wix, Serif WebPlus) or by way of a content management system.

You should also make it easy for visitors to share content from your website to other sites, e.g. by using “Add This,” or a similar service.

www.addthis.com

16

•More on the channels ….

Facebook:Your organization should have a Facebook pageIf you do nothing else but once a week thank a donor,

show pictures of land/habitat protected, or ask questions of your supporters, you’re making a statement without doing much

Format is well suited to reposts, links and community building

17

•More on the channels ….Twitter – If you have the time:

Provide powerful stats that speak to your mission;Great for repurposing and for making announcements …

“15 tickets left for the XYZ event,” “XYZ Report now online” (channeling traffic back to website);

Great for following and schmoozing with influencers in your sector and in your area (e.g. politicians);

Using hashtags (e.g. “#sustainability”) adds credibility and value by connecting you to relevant conservations. See this site for a good list: http://www.socialbrite.org/2010/09/08/40-hashtags-for-social-good/

18

•More on the channels ….Scoop It (www.scoop.it/) –

Great for curating content, i.e. finding relevant news from other sites that you can repurpose for short news stories, blog posts, social media posts and white papers.

Requires you to provide certain key words or phrases, e.g. “land trust,” “sustainability,” “stormwater management,” which it uses to find relevant content that is emailed to you daily for review.

When used in conjunction with Google Alerts (www.google.com/alerts), provides great way of staying on top of everything relevant to your work.

Results in an online magazine of material you “scoop” that you can revisit for a variety of the purposes in the future.

19

• E. Creating a Schedule:• “Can you set aside 30 minutes a day for your

communications? Or 15? Rather than getting frustrated by not being able to do it all, start small and take kitten-size steps in the right direction. If you tell yourself, ‘We are going to get up and running on Facebook by the end of the month,’ and then you spend 15 minutes a day on it, four weeks later, you’ll have a decent Facebook page.” Kivi Leroux Miller, President, Nonprofit Marketing Guide.com• “Biting off what your organization can realistically

achieve is the key.” Socialbrite: Social strategies for nonprofits. www.socialbrite.org

20

21

• F. Repurpose:o Coverage of a single event on a parcel fuels social media,

web, blog post, newsletter and Picasao How?

o I attended, took a few photos, which I posted on Picasa, and made a few notes:

22

o How: I turned my notes and a little bit of research on the movie into a press release, part of which I also added to the website.

23

o How: Next, the press release & some other material yielded a blog post http://burbtrustbanter.blogspot.com/ as I used the event to demonstrate the “social” goal of the 3 pillars of sustainable communities (social, environmental, economic). I also intend to use the press release as a news story in our October print newsletter.

24

• G. Evaluate:• Google

Analytics

http://www.google.com/analytics/

25

• G. Evaluate:• Facebook

Insights