Churchill judged a better speechmaker than Kadafi - no wonder he's happy.
This LA Times piece compare Churchill to Kadafi in the speechmaking stakes. Guess who wins?
Monthly Archives: September 2011
Crowdfunding: advice worth reading
It grows on the interweb silly - not on trees.
‘Crowdfunding’ is one of those terms that the digerati and social entrepreneurs like to throw around. We suspect that it is similar to showbiz and dotcom case studies – one tale of success inspires thousands of failed attempts.
Regardless, this piece from Social Media Examiner is worth reading if you’re into free money from people who you have never met.
Tagged crowdfunding, Fundraising
Grammar geeks; lend me your ears.
See? Told you she was cute.
We know that many of you give a damn about grammar. Hell; some of you even use the word “verb” to instead of “doing words”. Bless you. If you like to grammatically correct you should meet Grammar Girl. More than just rather cute, GG creates rather good audio lessons / editorials which can be heard with the click of a button. This one should be listened to by anyone who writes, as it addresses writing in the active voice.
Like me. Really, really like me. Say something. Please.
Direct from the Department of Duh comes this revealing observation: asking people to like or comment on your Facebook leads to more likes and comments. A lot more.
Likes are easier to extract than comments. Do you ask? How often?
Is this important beyond ego gratification? Oh yes.
As we have said here, here, here and here and here and here and here creating interactions leads to a better EdgeRank meaning more of your Facebook content will be shared to more people, more often.
BTW – if you find this post at all helpful please use the social media buittons below to spread it.
Sydney emcee meets vital organ about town
He's really a down to earth guy. Kinda quiet. Always smiling.
Cynics often claim that the life of an emcee is vacuous; filled with nothing more than champagne bubbles. Well they are correct. In what other role could you hobnob by the Harbour with larger-than-life Love Your Liver campaign mascot O’liver? (Well we suppose you could work in hepatitis prevention but that’s another story.)
Tagged emcee, emcee Sydney, MC in Sydney
communication without trepidation
Don't wait for a bigger or better reason - communicate.
We were delighted to see Victorian nonprofit Youth Projects demonstrate a true propensity for communications last week.
Youth Projects recently appointed new CEO Rodney Mackintosh and took the opportunity to send a snappily designed postcard to its mailing list announcing the fact.
Why bother? Well in essence the postcard is a defacto “hello” from both Youth Projects and Rodney. It’s a reminder that Youth Projects exists and will no doubt jolt people into making contact about matters that have been on their mind for months, if not years.
Great to see an organisation on the front foot like this. Would your organisation do this? If so, how long would it take to move from idea to mailbox? If not; why not? Comments always welcome.
Tagged nonprofit
emcee declared 0.15 short of perfect
They shoot emcees do they?
Human perfection – in a heart surgeon, test pilot or emcee – is rare. Perhaps then we should not be surprised to learn that according to audience feedback Brett de Hoedt fell 0.15 short of perfection in his recent work as emcee at the Disability Employment Services 2011 conference; averaging 4.85 out of 5.
More surprisingly, was the feedback that one attendee wants him shot. Yes; shot as this feedback compilation clearly states: DEA testimonials
Event organisers: is this the sort of feedback you’d like?
Budget in need of spending
A smart, gung-ho member of a large Sydney nonprofit’s communications team called us with an enviable dilemma. She’s compiling her communications budget for the upcoming year and the task has just been made more interesting. Her boss has commented that there are some extra dollars available – if she can find smart ways to spend them.
She wanted suggestions for new ways to spend money to improve media coverage and communications generally. Here’s what we came up with:
eNewsletter: establish, design and send. This of course actually saves money, not spends it.
training, training, training: with Hootville, Hootville, Hootville. Enough said.
large scale introductory mail out to media: we’re talking a box (they get opened more readily than envelopes) with some merchandise, an introductory letter explaining the organisation and what it offers media, annual report, an invitation to a one-to-one familiarisation tour of the nonprofit’s impressive facility. The familiarisation would also include meetings with the CEO, researchers and some adorable kids.
research / survey / data: hire someone to create some data – a survey, a study, an analysis of existing data that could form the basis of some media coverage in coming months.
Rush to the polls.
Newspoll: pay Newspoll or something similar to include a question on its regular weekly poll. Again the results become media fodder.
Speaker: fly in a speaker or case study. $10k in airfare, hotel and event costs may score you tens of thousands in media coverage and new relationships. Create an itinerary of public meetings, discussions with pollies and policy makers and of course media engagements. We like this tactic a lot.
What are your suggestions?
Tagged media relations, PR, PR advice