Thinking back to my days as a student at Gaylord College, I remember an encounter with an executive of a Fortune 500 company.
He asked me what I like most about public relations. I quickly answered, “Working with nonprofits.” He looked at me, puzzled, and said, “Why? There’s no money in nonprofits!” My interest in helping nonprofits with public relations has nothing to do with monetary reward, but with the reward of helping a cause larger than myself.
Many nonprofits do operate on a limited marketing budget, so working in the industry often requires inexpensive, creative solutions to meet objectives. Here are some recommendations on inexpensive ways to market your nonprofit without blowing your budget.
- Establish a social media presence. Social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and You Tube are free to join and can increase your nonprofit’s visibility in the community. These sites can also improve your search engine optimization.
- Develop corporate and community partnerships that make sense. The Made in Oklahoma Coalition (client), a group of Oklahoma food manufacturers who work to promote local Oklahoma products, has established a successful partnership with local food banks. A portion of proceeds from the sale of MIO paper towels and cookbooks benefit the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma and the Regional Food Bank of Oklahoma Food 4 Kids program.
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I recently heard an NPR story on my morning drive about an increasing number of customers switching from large national banks to small community banks because of the recent bailouts and bonuses. As people make decisions on where to keep their money, financial institutions everywhere are utilizing social media as a new way to reach out to their existing customers and gather new ones.
The Financial Brand, an interesting Web site that offers information about just that – financial brands – offers an extensive 80-page report about how financial institutions can “harness the power of Twitter.” Granted, you may not have the time to review such an extensive report, but it’s interesting to know that the research is out there. Highlights include:
- Promote new products and offers
- Share personal finance tips
- Express their brand and reveal their personalities
- Build community outreach programs
- Provide information about community events and activities
- Increase exposure for their charitable and philanthropic efforts
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As one of the resident editors at Saxum Public Relations, I’m often asked how I find answers to all the grammar, style, spelling and punctuation questions I’m confronted with on a daily basis. I wish the answer were simple, but my knowledge comes from a variety of sources, most of which are situated between bookends on my desk or bookmarked in my favorites.
With so many books, search engines and other resources available for solving writing riddles, it’s helpful to find a few tried-and-true options to keep in your back pocket.
Here are a few of the best resources (print and online) that I’ve found for improving writing skills:
AP Stylebook- An oldie, but a goodie. I don’t mean to be sacrilegious, but this book was my bible in college. Determined to be the best editor in my class, I tagged popular entries in my book with post-its, circled, highlighted and otherwise mauled my once-pristine copy. I used to read it for fun. That’s how nerdy I was/am. Since then, I’ve graduated to an online subscription, which allows for quick searches for stylebook entries.
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This has been an interesting past 12 months. It has been nearly a year since Saxum launched our Speak Up campaign – seven simple tips that speak to your business during the national recession. Since Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said the recession is “very likely over” in remarks last week, I thought I’d review our tips and give examples of how we used them during the past 12 months.
We launched the Saxum Speak Up campaign in October 2008 with a memo to our clients about how to communicate more effectively during the recession.
The tips:
1. Build customer and client relationships
Our team has focused on advising clients to become irreplaceable to their clients and customers by getting creative about relationships. The key has been an investment in time.
To date, Saxum has lost revenue from only a handful of clients and not one client laid us off because of the recession. Some have actually increased their budget. Our team approach and partner philosophy has made us a valued part of our client’s teams. We have weathered (and continue to weather) the storm together.
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Recently, my good friend Becky Switzer asked former Oklahoman and current HARPO Productions Executive Vice President Erik Logan to come share more about his career in the media business with students at the Gaylord College at OU. HARPO, of course, is Oprah Winfrey’s production company. Erik started his career in Oklahoma City at KXY and now is one of the stars in national media, with a focus on radio. He previously has been a senior level executive at CBS Radio, Citadel Broadcasting and XM/Sirius Radio. The following are a couple tips Erik shared with the students:
On how to manage:
- Share information with the team.
- Never miss a chance to share the vision.
- Share all responsibility, but be responsible.
- Always carry a sense of urgency in all you do.
On how to balance life and work:
Develop a respect and expectation among your co-workers when you are “off.” Erik arrives early and leaves around 5 each day to spend time with his young family. He said he is mostly unavailable between 5 and 9 p.m.
On growing the business:
- Asks his team each day what they did to raise ratings and/or revenue for the company.
- Writes on a sheet of paper each Sunday evening “what am I going to do to grow my business?”
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