strategy

I took one accounting class in college. And, honestly, I really enjoyed it. Something about the evenness of liabilities, assets and equities appealed to me. So, with that expertise in mind, let’s talk about the cost of doing business.

The cost of doing business, by definition, is overhead. It’s the cost of anything you have or do that doesn’t have to do with actually producing a good or service. These include: insurance, utilities, accounting services, attending networking events.

I have one word for you. Operations. The coolest, shiniest, most innovative "look at me!" social media idea ever can easily be tripped up by this one word. Foursquare specials, Groupons, Twitter deals, Facebook coupons are all methods used by major brands to get customers off their computers and into the store. They spend months planning, measuring, strategizing and partnering, yet so many forget this one key word: Operations.

Before rolling out a campaign, there are countless operations things to check:

I read a recent post by Alan Wolk, and his conclusion really stood out to me:

"I’ll leave you with this quote from a smart young guy named Matt Daniels 'Marketing has a bell curve–most companies create average marketing and achieve average results.' Why did we think social media was going to be any different?"

"Have the intern do it" - it's a phrase often uttered in nonprofits, and is perfectly fine in most cases. However, those 5 words should never be associated with your organization's social media campaign, and here's why:

I recently spoke with some awesome students at Ithaca College’s Park School of Communications who are looking to get jobs or internships in the near future. We discussed the role of social media in their searches, and also covered a topic that’s very prevalent: personal online reputation management.

I'll never forget the day I told my boss that we should probably be on Twitter. Actually, I may have said, "We should be Twittering!" - this always results in a raised eyebrow and a question as to whether the word "Twittering" is work-appropriate. If you've ever had a conversation like this, you know that social media technologies aren't easy to define. Thus, I present to you a Social Media to English dictionary, so the next time someone tells you that your organization should "do a blog", you can send them here!

Starting a social media campaign is a lot like planting a tree. You have to start somewhere, and it's best to start with your roots. Your mission statement, your current audience, your beliefs - no matter what you do in a non-profit, it should always come back to these fundamentals. Let's take a look at what I call the "trunk and branches" approach to social media: