1) Buy ads. You can target your cause very specifically on Facebook. Then add pay per click, just like you would do on Google. BlitzLocal recommends a small ad budget, but using Google Grants as a primary vehicle to drive people to your website is a great idea. Then have a ‘like’ box there.

2) Get a ‘like’ box on your site. If you hit “edit page” and go to the bottom right, you will see an option for “promote with a like box.” Grab the code there and paste it into your site.

3) Create a contest. As a condition of winning the prize, whatever it may be, require that fans write a comment of at least 30 words on why they deserve to win or whatever. For them to comment, they have to like the page.

4) Incentivized like tab. This is advanced stuff for programmers only. So if you know someone who understands FBML (or ask kindly and perhaps we will do it for you), you create a landing page that reveals the content behind it only if they click like. Think of it like a scratch off ticket. So have something attractive enough to stimulate action. See example here for Grameen Foundation.

5) Let your users participate. Most fan pages allow post by page only,which is the default option. Change that setting to “posts by pages and fans.” When people know they are allowed to participate, they will; their participation, in turn, notifies their friends’ notifications, which, in turn, bring those friends in.

6) Send a Facebook message. Little known option, but when you click ”edit page”, you can send a message to fans. This generates a real email, not a Facebook message. Whatever you do with your regular email program, so it will with Facebook.

7) Interact with users. Not just because it’s the polite thing to do, but because it increases your Post Quality Score, which then increases your prominence on the walls of your page’s fans. When you or a fan makes a comment or hits “like”, only a portion of friends will see it. That percentage is governed by how much interaction Facebook sees.

Choose a custom url. Go to Facebook.com/username to choose a url for your page. The option is available once you get to 25 fans. A short url is better than a numerical monstrosity, making it easier for fans to remember you and find you.

9) Mention your Facebook page in your other marketing efforts. The custom url helps. Place the url in your email signature line, business cards, brochures- even paint it on the side of your minivan! Print sticker with your logo and Facebook url below.

10) Cross-promote with sister organizations and those who endorse you. Did you know that pages can become fans of each other? Don’t go crazy here doing link farms and chains, but you might as well get every advantage you can get.

11) Update your Facebook page with your twitter and rss feeds (blog posts). We believe that if you post content once, it should be available everywhere. We are too lazy to have to manaually copy content to 15 other sites, so we use easy plugins and apps to do that. Likewise, meet users where they are, by making it convenient for them.

12) Get popular people to mention you on their wall. Did you know that if you post the full url of your page (which includes the http part), then it creates not only a blue clickable link, but also shows how many fans the page has? More fans means you look more popular, which means more people will check out what’s there.

13) Automatically invite all your friends: you aren’t actually clicking on every single friend you have when you hit “suggest to friends are you? Check out this article for a clever trick.

14) Say things that are controversial. Don’t be inflammatory or rude, but do pose charged issues that will bait people into expressing their opinion, thereby drawing people in. You might even seed the discussion or wall post by arranging in advance what side each of your team members will say, just to get things started.

Even more more important than the difference between Drupal and WordPress, is which of the two is the better choice for your nonprofit.

Both Drupal and WordPress are open source content management systems, meaning that technically both are free to use.

Drupal is a wonderful, customizable content management system that 1000s of organizations use effectively and successfully. However, for organizations without IT-experts, specifically coding experts, Drupal tends to be more challenging to use. The learning curve is a bit steeper, and it can be more frustrating for a non-IT expert to use.

So, if like a lot of nonprofits, you have neither the IT-expert nor the financial resources to hire one, we recommend WordPress. It is an easy program to use, easy to modify, easy to make your own.

You can upload your own logo, change colors, add e-commerce, keep track of your donors. In short, there’s not much you can’t do with WordPress.

In addition, WordPress links easily to Facebook, Twitter and other social networking sites, ensuring that your nonprofit gets the exposure it needs. And deserves.

Please, do check out our nonprofit link for additional information on how to get the most from your Internet presence.

Last week, Kristie Mun of Google Grants and Brett Meyer of NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network) graciously shared insights into what the program is and best practices for how to take advantage of this free adverting program for non-profits.   If you missed the webinar, watch a recording of it here. Be sure to visit the Google Grants website for additional details and program application form.

Here are a few of the highlights:

• If you’re a qualified non-profit– a 501(c)(3) in good standing that is not religiously or politically oriented, has less than 50 percent of its funding from commercial operations, and a few other reasonable restrictions—then you can get up to $10,000 per month in free Google AdWords budget to use to promote your organization.
• Most non-profits spend only a few hundred dollars a month, as there are perhaps not that many people searching for their particular cause in the area that they serve.  For example, maybe they are a local animal shelter, as opposed to a national cause such as breast cancer awareness.
• The program normally awards grants quarterly—however, there is such high demand that there is a waiting period of several months as Google catches up.
• Once you’re in the program, there is no need to re-apply each year.  You just have to actively manage your campaigns.
• Don’t bid on generic keywords such as “nonprofit” or “donate”—find specific terms that are highly relevant to your organization. Bidding on such broad terms will hurt your campaigns, evidenced by a low Quality Score that you can see at the keyword level.
• Make sure that you include all common variations of your keywords—for example, non-profit can be “nonprofit” (no space) and “non profit” (with a space).  These are separate keywords, as are singulars and plurals.
• BlitzLocal is happy to provide pro bono support to qualified non-profits.  We select a few every month to assist with their Google Grants. Contact dennis@blitzlocal.com to apply.
• This interactive webinar showcased the new ReadyTalk Web Meeting 6 platform—live presentations by multiple presenters, audience polling, chat features, recording & media player functinality—among many other cool features.  Participants received a free 30 day trial of the platform. Contact simone.verhulst@readytalk.com if you missed out.

Next month, stay tuned for our special guests from Facebook as we cover Facebook for Non-Profits– sign up here before it fills up. Registration is free but space is limited.

About the author: Dennis Yu is CEO of BlitzLocal, an ad agency specializing in local online marketing and Google Grants management.

Remember the old days of training?

It seems like a lifetime ago when my role as a training manager was to “get butts in chairs”, as my boss would tell me. It was that simple. Fill the chairs with people and get the training session under way. Filling the chairs used to be easy! People would come from all over the U.S. to attend training programs….it’s not the same anymore. As all businesses and all industries are doing more with less, we find ourselves looking for ways to get the work done at a fraction of the cost. Efficiency is the name of the game now.

If you find yourself needing to train employees who are located across the country or needing to communicate information quickly and consistently, consider using audio and web conferencing technology. You’ll save thousands of dollars! Many people think of this technology to be used just for conference calls or to share slides in a presentation. Yes, it can be used for that, however, audio and web conferencing technology can offer great benefits to your organization. Consider adding webinars to your communication and training mix and watch your return on investment (ROI) grow.

Back to training; modern-day training scenario. Save thousands of dollars by avoiding the costly venue prices, food, beverage, service charges, transportation and airfare. When using conferencing technology to train a group of people, it’s important to apply the same techniques as when training in person. Here are some tips and things to consider to help you get started:

1. The invitation needs to wet the appetite of your audience. Add your logo, a speaker bio and speaker photo to the electronic invitation. Having a customizable invitation is a must when sparking the interest of a participant, regardless if they are employees, colleagues or prospects.
2. Clearly state the WIFFM – What’s In It For Me. The invitation content should focus on the benefit the participant will receive by attending your training program.
3. Make it easy to reply and accept your invitation. With unique registration links built into your invitation, your audience can confirm their seat with simple clicks of the mouse. Having a built-in calendar plug-in (such as Outlook) available, upon a participant registering, will increase your attendance rate. Again, make it easy to say “yes – I’ll be there!” and help them to show up with the option of a calendar plug-in.
4. Customize the registration data you want to collect. Traditionally, asking for name, company and contact information has been the expected information needed when registering for any training program. Consider asking for more strategic information to help you gauge your audience’s interests, such as what they want to get out of the program, future topics of interest, other programs they have attended recently, etc. If you want to know what is of value to your audience – now is the time to ask them. It’s important to keep the registration brief to avoid attrition, so focus on the 2 most important pieces of information you’d like to gather.
5. Registration confirmation. Once someone raises their hand and registers to attend your event, send them a confirmation email and any pre-session materials they might need, by way of attachments. Automated registration confirmations can be set up to trigger at the moment a participant confirms attendance or is approved to attend. What a time saver! Set this up once and this time-saving tool will communicate on your behalf as people sign up for your program.
6. Reminder emails. A simple step, yet, a critical one. With so much going on each day, we all forget about commitments we’ve made. Set up an automated email to remind invitees of your upcoming webinar.
7. Customize the post-meeting survey for feedback on the program and another opportunity to ask your audience what is important to them. Again, keep it short and simple for best results.
8. Create a post-meeting web page with additional resources and/or the recording of the training program. This is a great way to communicate with those who may have missed the original session, yet tried to access the program at a later date. Your messaging can continue long after the event has taken place.
9. Recording your training event is an ideal (and low-cost) way to capture the content and make it available over and over again. Recorded content can be shared via email, social media, web sites, electronic newsletters or CD. Maximize your training efforts by recording and re-purposing the content. It’s a cost-effective and versatile way to get the biggest bang for the buck.
10. How many people will you be training? Do you want to facilitate the event yourself or would you prefer an operator to assist with the event. Would you prefer your audience listen to your presentation by phone or over their computer? Either way, you can achieve profitable results.

If you need help, just call on our ReadyTalk team of experts, who can answer any questions you may have and help you get started. Chat live (on the left-hand navigation) or call 1.800.843.9166. For more helpful “how to” documents and recordings, including a free best practice whitepaper on Training Successfully with Webinars, visit the ReadyTalk Resource Center.

As I sit here and reflect about this experience 2 weeks later a few key things come to mind. The first one is “just do it”. Say it out loud, make that reservation, buy that ticket, climb that mountain. People ask me “how do you do these special things?” I just did them—no magic involved, just go do it.

Secondly, find a workplace that matches who you are as a person. It may sound corny, but I finally found an employer who not only respects who I am as a person but who also wants to see me lead a fulfilling life. I used to feel like a fish out of water at so many places I used to work. The people who make up ReadyTalk exemplify the way I want to live my life—work to live, not live to work. I would like to take this space to truly thank ReadyTalk for letting me accomplish one of my life’s goals – break 20,000 feet.