Sarah Durham, Big Duck

We're all nerds when it comes to new media.

No matter how many studies tell us that that the gadgets we're hooked on aren't good for us, most of us technology nerds still can't get enough. In part, it's because the technology is now so fast, easy and cheap to use that simply investing our time to figure it out seems like a pleasure. After all, I was that kid who stayed up late playing video games. (Ah, Joust... how I miss thee.) Now I'm that grown up who stays up late building communities for my obscure personal interests on Ning, and aimlessly chatting with my long-lost friends from elementary school on Facebook, and even (cough, cough) playing on Polyvore. 

At work, all of this gadgetry often comes in handy, too. After all, who doesn't revel in the wonders of the innovative microsites, campaigns, and transparent goodness that Beth Kanter and Allison Fine wonderfully illustrate in "The Networked Nonprofit"? I sure do. One of the reasons I love the NTEN community is that I can revel in the joys of hanging out with other geeks like me. (That means you.)   

Then there's the flip side: how do we keep these exciting initiatives moving ahead despite such limited staff time to devote to them? Sure, it's easy for that board member to thump her fist on the table and exclaim, "We need to use the Facebook!" (I know: I love it too when folks call it the Facebook.)

But we all know it's just not that simple.  

When the Fruit Doesn't Much Resemble the Tree

Projects of all kinds start with a flurry of activity. If they're digitally driven, they're often conceived, designed, written, and launched in a matter of days -- often with a special name, logo, tagline, color palette, and other unique branding. Staff spend all their mojo getting them up and going and then watering them, like seedlings, as they bloom into full-blown advocacy, outreach, or fundraising projects in a matter of weeks. To work the gardening metaphor even harder, it's almost like the nonprofit is a peach tree bearing fruit that looks more like oranges and lemons: vaguely related, perhaps -- but not much.  

Over time, these special projects can start to wither: staff time to devote to them gets limited as new initiatives get started, the community grows so large it requires more time to manage -- who'll be the mayor of the lemons? -- or it's hard to respond in real time to conversations that unfold.  

So how can we launch innovative digital initiatives that use all of this rocking technology to advance our missions without driving ourselves stark, raving mad and entirely confusing our target audiences?  

What's a Poor Nonprofit to Do?

In my book, "Brandraising: How Nonprofits Raise Money and Visibility Through Smart Communications" (Jossey-Bass, 2010), I adapted two tried-and-true for-profit marketing concepts, positioning and personality, for nonprofit use. 

Positioning is the big idea we want to establish in the minds of our target audiences.

Personality is the tone and style we'll use as we communicate.  

When we help organizations shift their communications here at Big Duck, we often start by establishing clear organizational positioning and personality regardless of whether it's a branding project, website, campaign, etc. That's because it's critical to have some way to weave together all of the communications.

And that thing has to emerge from a nonprofit's vision and mission above all else.  

For example, let's say the Lead Pencil Association of America (names changed to protect the innocent) launches a revolutionary 'Lead the way' campaign to get folks to throw out pens and go back to the classic yellow #2 pencils. They use a special look and feel (yellow with pink and grey, perhaps), Facebook page, Twitter stream, and so forth, and it's very different from the organization's typical blue and black, rather serious branding. You can bet that the organization's leadership wants to capture the 10,000 people who're connected to the project and be sure they know who's behind the campaign. Better yet, let's convert them to donors or advocates for future Lead Pencil Association work. But with the media and the messaging so unconnected, that's going to be a seriously uphill battle.  

On the other hand, a well-defined brand like Apple computers makes sure that every campaign they launch ties back to their core positioning and personality. Remember the "Think different" campaign featuring Ghandi and Einstein? Or the "I'm a Mac/I'm a PC" commercials of the past few years? Both are different campaigns conceptually, but they're united by a common underlying strategy about how Apple wants to be perceived. Someone who participates in a social media action as part of the 'Think Different' campaign can't help but know that it's an initiative of Apple computers, right?  

Let's Grow Peaches

What I love about positioning and personality is that they're actually time and cost saving tools any nonprofit can use. Sure, it's work to figure out what they should be for your organization and build buy-in for them. But once that's done, it becomes so much easier and faster to grow peaches.

When each initiative you launch clearly links back to the 'mother brand' of the organization, you're building a much more cohesive and valuable community no matter what technology you're using.

Want more about how to do it? Well of course, there's my book, or you can watch or participate in the brandraising series of webinars I'm doing with NTEN. 

Here's to tasty peaches.