Insights
Building a site doesn't guarantee an instant audience
Including a combination of both paid and earned media in your comprehensive online communications and promotion strategy can mean the difference between success and failure. Following these best practices will help you create a successful campaign that doesn't drain your budget.
Also see Best Practices and Tips for Raising Money Online
Think about how and why you use email every day. The strength of email is that it is simple, efficient, immediate and personal. You should communicate with your email list just as you communicate with your friends and coworkers—keeping these values in mind.
The majority of your audience is more likely to read your email messages than they are to visit your website each day. Your goal is provide personal, engaging content in your regular email communications that builds trust and interest in the organization and gives your members a reason to return to the site.
Sample job descriptions for building internal capacity
A crucial component of realizing your online capabilities is ensuring that you have the right personnel to help you achieve your goals. Our experience has shown that by filling a few key positions, organizations are able to not only implement the strategies we develop together, but maintain and grow their existing websites and online organizing, outreach and fundraising campaigns.At EchoDitto, our goal is to empower organizations to communicate with their members, constituents and customers in the most effective way possible, using the most efficient, innovative and appropriate technology available. As we like to say, we'd much rather teach you to fish than give you a can of dolphin-safe tuna.
We put this guide together to provide nonprofits, campaigns, and social change organizations with a sense of the options available to them when exploring technology options and developing online operations.
Questions this matrix helps to answer:
This matrix offers initial insight on how to answer these questions, but it's far from a complete technology planning bible. And it certainly doesn't take the place of sound strategic and technical planning tailored to your organization's needs.
Blogging began in 1998 as a form of online journal — a frequently updated site in reverse chronological order to discuss whatever was on the author's mind. Blogs, short for “weblogs,” have exploded since those early days and new blogs are launching at a rate of over 120,000 per day, adding to the 74.6 million already in existence.
Focused on every imaginable topic, these sites are run by individuals and groups all over the world. As they have grown in popularity and readership, more and more people are turning to current events-centered blogs for daily news updates. A handful of powerful blogs now have daily readership exceeding that of medium-sized city newspapers.
Millions of people turn to the internet every day to find and organize local events, meetings, parties, and fundraisers. Evite.com boasts 250,000 new events organized online each month, and 1.8 million members of Meetup.com are organizing and participating in events for more than 9,000 local groups. This guide outlines the ways in which campaigns and organizations can harness this energy with a little bit of planning, staff support, and organizational buy-in.
Download the EchoDitto Report "Moving From Online Activity to Real-World Action" now. [319K PDF]
As 2005 dawns everyone knows that the internet is reshaping llife in the United States. It's becoming a major force for commerce, community, and information. But what does that really mean?
Download the EchoDitto report "The Empowerment Age: Why the Internet Matters" now [796k PDF].
An active, effective blog will drive value for your company or organization in the same ways that traditional public relations and advertising activities do: increase brand awareness and equity, enhance reputation, shape opinion and influence consumer behavior.
Download the EchoDitto report "The Blogging Advantage" now [108k PDF].
Have you ever encouraged a group of friends or co-workers to join you at a party or event by sending them a personal email? Congratulations, you’re an online organizer.
Maybe you want to generate some online buzz and interest around your newly released album or the new cancer-curing coffee machine that your company invented in order to increase sales. Even if you’re looking to build a coalition of activists around the world to lead several thousand public demonstrations at the very same moment, you are online organizing.
Also see Best Practices and Tips for Sending Email
Raising money online can provide your organization with a new untapped donor base. Indeed, a well-planned and executed campaign to a broad community can yield more money than a direct mail or events-focused campaign—and at a significantly reduced overhead.
Before you launch your online fundraising campaign, identify your audience and a clear goal for the campaign.
