Teachers, Start Your Engines

Get Your Classroom in Order
As any one who knows a teacher can attest, teachers begin planning and setting up their classrooms well before the first bell of the school year rings. Before my first day teaching at a K-8 school in East Harlem, I worked an entire week setting up my classroom to promote learning and interactivity in an organized way. I had created colorful posters with how-to tips and broken the room into various spaces for lessons, group activities and quiet reading time. The face of my classroom, which a website provides for organizations, was intended to show students what their experience was going to be like and reflect what I was all about. I wanted them to feel comfortable and know where to sharpen their pencils or pick up a dictionary and I wanted to have a set-up that made it easy for me to move around the room to monitor student interactions and offer help where help was needed. Think of your website in this way. You want to give visitors the things they need and to have an easy way to monitor progress.

Terms of Engagement 

In addition to laying out helpful grammatical tips and examples of descriptive words, my posters also set the terms of engagement, or rules for the classroom. Many folks are hesitant to invite the power of participation for fear that participants, or students, will take over the brand. With simple and thoughtful guidelines, everyone knows what’s at stake and how to play before they begin sharing stories on social media platforms. A set of rules should give you the confidence and assurance that it’s okay to to invite class (and fan) participation. Remember that you’ve built the learning experience around and for your audience. Let them pipe up and engage.

I do, we do, you do.
The importance of modeling cannot be emphasized enough. Time and time again, I found that my students needed a hands-on example to understand what I was asking of them before they could begin writing a personal essay, for instance. Even those who already knew the basics appreciated seeing my examples so they had an idea of what was expected and where room they had for creativity. Think about how helpful it would be for fans if you provided a sample note or video or photo gallery about your cause, then laid out steps and materials to help them create something uniform but uniquely theirs and then gave them the go-ahead to produce a personalized message about what your cause means to them to share with families and friends. Never leave your students with a directive that isn’t supplemented by an explanation or set of quick facts, FAQs, examples and references.

Conclusion
Give your students and opportunity to share their work with family members, friends and classmates (or fellow cause advocates.) Just like non-profit communications, in a classroom, feedback is priceless. I used to end my class periods by having students jot down a question they had about the lesson or a few sentences about what they had enjoyed learning about the most. At the end of a big unit, I held a celebration party, during which I let students display their work and share their stories. After a campaign, celebrate your advocates’ hard work and invite them to some places and spaces to share, whether it’s online or in person. This gives them something to look forward to as they create their projects and gives you the opportunity to thank them for their efforts. Plus, it’s fun and it leaves a them with a sense of accomplishment and a feeling of empowerment.

Hi How Are You? - Why Daniel Johnston is a Marketing Genius

Daniel Johnston has gotten his dues in small batches over a long period of time. The quirky, young-faced boy made a big impact on a few people on the Austin music scene. Those diehard believers have taken on the charge of informing the world of his music, so despite his frequent bouts of absence on the music scene due to mental health issues, his legacy has grown. Many non-profits hope for that one chance to burst onto the world's stage, but those who do often fade out after their 15 minutes of fame has ended. Take a page from the book of Daniel and go out and forge meaningful relationships with like-minded thought leaders, and your mission's legacy will live on long after you've moved on.

Before you introduce yourself, know who you are. Despite his often frazzled look, Daniel Johnston knew exactly who he was and what he had to offer to record studios, to his fans and to the artistic community. 

Daniel started by figuring out who he was, what he stood for and what his look and sound were. He carved out some emblematic images (like eyeballs, Casper the Friendly Ghost, Captain America, the devil and death) for his signature look and matched those with corresponding themes in his songs about seeing, believing and immortality.

He began playing the local Austin music scene, sending his tapes to radio stations and producers, hanging around other artists and generating a buzz for himself. Not unlike most musicians, comedians and actors, Daniel figured out who would “get” him and where he should fit in and then he ran with it. 

Too often, we sit back in our office desks and scoff at the idea of throwing ourselves out there. As representatives of an organization, whether big or small, it’s easy not to hold yourself responsible for your cause, but if you’re not going to sell your organization, why should others want to help? Personal connections and humanizing qualities, as Seth Godin so adeptly recognizes, are becoming more advantageous. As a sea of advertisers hides behind their official posters and logos, a world of opportunity opens up for the individual to stand out. Seize that opportunity, like Daniel Johnston did, and you’re more likely to land in the right place at the right time.

When MTV came to town, Daniel was there. He has established himself as a regular on the local arts scene, which boosted his credibility, and he sought out the opportunity to get himself on MTV and promote his tape in front of millions. Daniel nabbed a few local musician awards and made a point of being around thought leaders in Austin, like record producers, musicians and artists in the area. 

By the time Daniel had fallen into a forceful manic-depressive state that landed him in a mental institution, he had already laid down the groundwork to build his legacy.

Arguably, Daniel’s tragic fall heightened his reputation as a genius in the music world. Regardless of how much his ultimate greater fame hinged upon his tortured mental story though, Daniel did a remarkably meticulous job creating a brand for himself. The artwork, dozens of original music tapes and stories Daniel left behind when he went to hiatus provided exactly enough material to give followers pieces to build their own homages to him with. 

Diehard fans begat new devotees. It started with personal connections with people like Kathy McCarty, who created the album Dead Dog's Eyeball  as an homage to Daniel, and Daniel’s former manager, who got Daniel's artwork into galleries across the U.S. and Europe. It spread to covers and plugs by bigger artists like Nirvana and Flaming Lips, and has spun into new iterations as Daniel’s story has unfolded in the indie darling “The Devil and Daniel Johnston,” an in-depth portrayal into Daniel's life.

What is the key to Daniel's success? Figure out who you are start introducing yourself. Art warrants reflection and transformation, so if your initial instincts are a bit off-kilter, re-align yourself and continue to forge your path. In “I Live My Broken Dreams,” Daniel sings,” “But I threw all my belongings into a bag, and out into the worldness I did roam...And now I’m here, and here I stand, I live my broken dreams.” It might serve us well to follow Daniel’s approach. Just as Daniel has cast aside concerns about failure and perfection to embrace who he truly is and market what he stands for, so too should we.

Getting Attention & Making Noise

You hear it everywhere: content is king. But what type? In what capacity? These days, everyone is a reporter. As media looks for audience-friendly spins on stories and audience members begin to participate in conversations as bloggers, consider treating media and audiences as one in the same. With so many opportunities to re-purpose content for multiple audiences on various communications platforms, it makes sense to find effective ways to share information and consolidate your efforts. Make press releases entertaining, build a story within a story and know everyone you’re talking to.

• Make your press releases compelling and entertaining. Look at what stories are in the trending topics. What gets the most attention? What kinds of stories do you make a point of sharing with your friends? What breeds conversation? Recognize what has been successful in the past and think about ways to integrate catchy headlines, thought-provoking questions and real people doing things into your stories as much as possible. It’s easy to crank out press releases with an easy hook followed by the five Ws. Giving the basics is fine for a rough draft, but it should never suffice as a final product. Think about including videos, faces, voices, actions, conversations and interactions into your communications.
• Find the story behind the story. Invite some intrigue and mystery into the content you pitch for reporters and audiences. Reporters will want to know the basics, of course, like what they’ll see, who they’ll speak to and what the big picture relevancy is, but it never hurts to stir up a little intrigue when applicable. Gather as many supplemental materials as possible to introduce during and after the media event to give reporters a reason to do a follow-up story and audiences a call-to-action and a worthwhile place (YouTube, Facebook, a website, etc.) to share with others.
• Know who you’ve speaking to. Crafting one overarching message that you can blast across multiple platforms does not mean less work. It takes much more thoughtful planning to create a story and a message that resonates with different audiences on different levels in different places. Consider who your message could and should reach. Our messages have the power to transcend geographical boundaries and to resonate among new and unimaginable communities. Keep that in mind when you’re creating your overarching messaging. Be inclusive, rather than exclusive and make sure to lay out clear steps for those who want to learn more or take action.

With a little creativity and a lot of forethought, you can make a big splash in a positive way.

What Do You Really Want? Honing in on Goals for a Social Media Plan

Do you really know what you want to get out of a campaign? A project? A conversation? While there's merit to letting things happen naturally and with fluidity, having a set of goals in the back of your head is key to accomplishing any given task. It's important to zoom out and look at the big picture and decide how to tackle issues at hand before diving into a project.

Start from the finish line. When creating a social media plan, or any communications plan for that matter, start from the end and work backwards. What date would you like to complete everything by? It can take some fanning of the fire to get a social media buzz going with only free communications tools at your disposal, so allow yourself at least a few months to accomplish your goal.

Decide on what you specifically want to accomplish. You'll have to build your social media plan differently, depending on whether you want more Twitters followers and Facebook fans, more interactions between fans, more comments, more stories, more donations or more traffic to your website? If you want more of all of the above, you may want to focus on a couple of areas to start with. Think about which areas would make the biggest impact both externally and internally. In other words, focus on what seems like the most effective way to reach out to your audiences, whether than entails attracting new ones or strengthening relationships with the audiences you have, and also think about a way to measure and increase ROI, which you can report back to your organizations' leaders to validate your efforts.

Break it down, count backwards. Teachers make unit plans, or big, overarching plans, for 2- to 3-month periods and then break the steps into manageable goals to shoot for on a week-by-week basis, then a day-by-day basis, then a task-by-task basis. Treat you plan the same way. For example, if you ultimately want to deepen your relationship with Facebook fans, every week, you might want to plot out several stories with photos or videos to share, a question, an interesting fact and a call to action to include.

Evaluate as you go. Remember that your plan is just that, a plan. Make assessments and adjustments along the way to optimize your messaging. Let your decisions be guided by your goals and audiences. The old adage that the customer is always right essentially remains true in online communications. Don't abandon your plans to appease the masses, but if a message isn't resonating, you'd better get some audience feedback. A few ways to evaluate include looking through bit.ly hits to see how many clicks your links are getting, asking a friend or outside source if they understand what is being shared with and asked of him or her and encouraging feedback and responses as often as possible. Survey Monkey is a great free tool that can help you evaluate your progress mid-way through the campaign. Offering the chance to win something small for completing a survey can offer some incentive for helping you find your footing.

Don't turn around. Keep moving forward with your plan, even if you're not getting the results you had hope for. A few minor tweaks may completely turn your campaign around and know that some folks might just take awhile to get invested in what you're doing. Halting a plan before it has been completed won't get you anywhere. Instead, try to power through and evaluate and make adjustments for the next time around. There will be plenty of opportunities to try out ideas and get the hang of what you're doing, so try to stay optimistic and see your plans through.

On Inspiration - Am I Really All the Things that are Outside of Me?

With the arrival of the Internet, we've all more or less learned that no idea comes out of thin air. Trying to come up with an "original" thought to contribute to the world in which we are constantly exposed to information, ideas an conversations, can be, well, terrifying. Instead of trying to uproot a new idea from the chaotic cacophony of noise that surrounds us, why not immerse yourself in it all?

As the Animal Collective, "Taste," asks, "Am I really all the things that are outside of me?" 

Everyone is trying to impose their interpretation the world and gather a gaggle of followers to buy into their vision. Forget the constructs that others are building and seek out your own. Congratulate the accomplished in the field and listen when something sticks out that makes sense to incorporate into the vision you are creating. As Seth Godin advises, seek out innovation and will it to appear instead of waiting for it to come to you. "[T]rain it to arrive on time and on command," he says.

Remember that you are in the driver's seat. We live in an era that lends an incredible amount of power to the individual. Instead of trying to build from the blocks others have laid and mimicking progress, work on creating something of your own. Be humble and recognize that your creation was influenced by others, but don't quiver with intimidation if someone else builds a stronger idea. Take pride in what you have built and make revisions in areas that need work. Be patient and open as your ideas evolve and good things will come.

Don't Forget the Value of the Traditional

It's easy to be swept away with the glamor and fame that social media promises those with the potential to do it well. Don't neglect the traditional forms of communication. Rather, try to find ways to weave traditional practices into the new territory of social media and vice versa. Here are some ways to add some polish to some of the old PR practices to make them shine:

Make your press releases compelling.  Don't wait for reporters to share your stories. Let some of the emotion and feeling infuse into your press release. These days, press releases live in multiple platforms and they're often online as well as in the reporter's hands, which means they need to be interesting to the everyday person. Copyblogger provided some excellent additional advice for creating a social media press release, which is absolutely worth checking out to start thinking outside the traditional box.

When you're writing for non-profits, there is always a story behind the story. Figure out what forces and experiences were at work in driving a fundraiser, get-together or program. If you're writing about a company's efforts, does one of the employees have a personal story that fueled the project? Grab a quote from that individual or even a quick video to embed in the press release. Don’t be afraid to link to social media content either, like an interesting thread of comments on a Facebook event page. Reporters want as many opportunities as possible to feel an event out, so photos, faces and a strong fan base all make great cases for why an event should be covered. If you're looking for the press release basics, check out Kivi Leroux Miller's "Five 'Musts' for a Great Press Release."

Reporters and bloggers are your friends. Develop relationships with reporters and bloggers through Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media platforms. Remain professional but personable. That way, by the time your group is ready to make their pitch, media may already have the bulk of the information they need to decide on whether to do a story or not. Make it as easy as possible for reporters to find content, acting more like a helping hand than a pushy salesperson. Give the events its own legs to stand on by posting a multitude of resources to back up your position so you’re not doing all the heavy lifting. If you'd like to hear what one reporter has to say, read about Huffington Post reporter Ryan Grim experience working with PR contacts via social media here.

Help your advocates help your organization. Empower, empower, empower. Work with advocates who want their story shared. Instead of relaying their story for them, talk through what makes the event compelling and talk about what might be interesting from a reporter’s perspective. Act as a liaison, not a spokesperson. You might uncover great news hooks you never knew even existed. Help the group craft a pitch and give them appropriate contact information and follow-up protocol. Be sure to keep the lines of communication open in case they have questions or concerns about proper etiquette. Being there for your advocates shows them that you care and will help them in future endeavors.

Make media alerts meaningful. Without getting too flowery, make the descriptions of what media will see interesting, relevant and visual. Painting a picture is the best ticket in to get good press. Hopefully, by the time you’ve issued a media alert, you’ve already publicized your event through various communications tools, including newsletters, websites, community websites and social media. Gather and include a few key URLs, which I recommend shortening and customizing through bit.ly, to point to examples of what reporters will see, who they’ll get to talk to and why it is important. The more voices you can incorporate in your supplemental materials, the better. Show media that the event is bigger than you and your attempts to woo them with images, testimonials and conversations people have had in anticipation for the event.

Be your own reporter. Just in case media doesn’t show up, and even if they do, have plans to cover the event for your audiences. Live twitter feeds, impromptu video interviews and fun photos will keep participants thinking about the event well after it’s over and may give those who weren’t involved a reason to get on board for the next opportunity. You don’t need to be the only person out there either. Recruit some advocates to help you cover the event with photos, videos, tweets and more to give depth and breadth to the event. Kodak Chief Blogger Jenny Cisney covered the Oscars herself a few times before deciding to recruit some help from bloggers, which extended the reach of event coverage exponentially.

Be sure to provide calls to action, which can include more literature about the cause, links to donation forms and invitations to share stories and experiences. If your supporters want to help the cause, let them! It’s also a great idea to gather contact information from participants and to get a feel for what kind of relationship and experience they hope to have with your cause.

Say thank you. Never underestimate the power of saying thank you. Share news clips or links, videos or photos you gathered and positive feedback with you fan base and event organizers. Key players love seeing traditional media and even though who aren’t especially keen on social media will be pleased to see positive messaging that went on in unfamiliar platforms. Report everything from bit.ly views to Facebook comments, in addition to media hits. If you’ve gathered contact information from participants, touch base with participants to thank them and introduce them supplemental information and communications that they might be interested in.

Pat yourself on the back, then reassess. There are always lessons to be learned and opportunities to improve, even in the best situations. Make note of what worked among the different platforms and audiences you reached out to. Asking for feedback and advice from audiences and key organizers lets them know when all is said and done, their opinion still matters to them. Plus, you’ll learn a lot from what they have to say. Remember, everything is a work in progress and improvement comes with time, so don't be afraid to try out new ideas.

Establishing the Right Voice

Every day, with every interaction, we have the opportunity to offer subtle, thought-provoking, enlightening responses. Do you keep that in mind every time you connect with your audience? With writing, we have a unique chance to step back and re-assess before sending a message to the world, which is essentially what we're doing when we send out a tweet, post to a Facebook wall or update a website or blog. Are you taking that breath?

To get started on writing thoughtfully, take a deep breath. Try to clear your head and imagine you're turning the page on all the notes of scribble on plans that may have gotten muddled or too complicated to render themselves useful. Find a blog or two that consistently offers calming or inspirational advice. There are a lot of great ones out there, including Seth's Blog (get a taste with a recent post, "Subtlety, Deconstructed") and Zen Habits, which offers thoughtful tips about increasing productivity and quality of work.

Then, take a moment to review what social media is and what you'd like to use it for. Do you want to rally people for a singular cause, or build an interactive community? For a fun take on the definition and purposes of social media, I recommend checking out a video with the Case Foundation's muppet character Click Daly. The foundation created this video to empower audiences to use social media to create their own messaging, set their own goals and perhaps most importantly, use their own voices.

Take another deep breath. Start thinking about who you're going to be talking to, then what you'd like them to learn and do and finally, think about the ideal relationship you'd like to have with them. Navigating the line between sharing personal vs. professional voice sounds tricky, but keep in mind that everything comes with time. Kivi Leroux Miller and Geoff Livingston discussed walking that line in a video interview available here.

Remember that once you get your audience on board, you want to empower them with enough information that they can take the reigns and begin calling on others to act. That being said, you need to be their spotter too, offering guidance, support and encouragement. Rob Howard wrote a very interesting post on Mashable, called "HOW TO: Manage a Sustainable Online Community." with a break-down of the steps to mitosis, the ideal point to reach with your audience when they break out and begin to form their own niche groups to support your larger cause.

Keep watering your seeds of thought with ideas you get from other writers, your experience and your surroundings and you'll inevitably begin to improve your communication skills and increase your ability to effectively empower others to take charge and embrace the cause. Have faith in your ability, and don't forget to breathe.