Find Yourself Online
Do you think you really know how your supporters see you? Below are four things you can do to "find yourself" online and see your organization the way your supporters do:
- Google yourself.
- Look yourself up on Facebook.
- Look at the web logs for your site.
- Try to give yourself money. All the way through to a closed transaction.
What do you see?
1. Google. Does your organization come up first when you type in your organization's name? Hopefully it does, but here's a better test ... type in the names of some of your major programs. How do you do?
2. Facebook. If you've started a group on Facebook, you'll probably pass this one with flying colors. If you haven't you might be surprised to find at individual supporter pushing your cause. Or, you might not find your organization at all.
3. Web logs. So, what are the top 10 or 20 sites sending visitors to your site. This is what your supporters saw that caused them to visit you. I'll bet Google is #1 and one of the social networks may be close to the top. But where else are visitors coming from?
4. $. If you're using Kimbia, you probably were able to give anyway you wanted quickly. Otherwise you probably went through lots of screens. Did you have to leave your site and go to a "branded" page with a technology vendor? Did the giving options have anything to do with your organizations cause or programs? There are two reasons why somebody showed up here. First, would be because you did a great job marketing one of your programs. Second would be because the donor
found something about you online (see 1, 2, and 3) and wanted to express their support. Are you honoring what inspired this passion?
What should you do?
1. Google. If your organization or your individual programs are not well placed on Google they should be and it isn't that hard. The other good news is, doing the stuff below will help you stay at the top of the list.
2. Facebook. If you haven't set up a Facebook group and invited your whole email list to join it is time to do so. As I mentioned above, you are probably getting lots of traffic from Facebook or other social networks. It is time to participate in the conversation about you that is happening in online communities. With Kimbia, your supporters can promote any off your programs directly on Facebook. And while we are on the subject, they can do the same on their blogs, on LinkedIn, and on Twitter.
3. Web logs. Other than Facebook and Google, whoever else is sending you traffic is a potential friend. Make a person-to-person connection with these sites and ask them what you can do to help their efforts. You may not be surprised to find that many of these sites are partner organizations or corporate supporters. You may be surprised to discover that many of these sites are blogs that talk about your cause. With Kimbia, it is easy to send these folks all kinds of
applications, from branded information widgets, to weekly videos, and of course really nice looking fundraisers.
4. Time to get rid of that crummy PayPal link or that boring "co-branded" page. Your constituents don't want to give to some technology vendor, they want to give money to you. And, yes, they do notice the URL changing. They also want to express their support specifically not just generally. So, instead of making just one fundraising form, make one for each and every program and place it directly on the page for that program. When all the new traffic shows up from Google, the social networks, and your partners, you'll have a lot of new donors.
