Is Your Business Behaving Like a Non Profit?

One week ago in our hour-long chat on Twitter #kaizenblog we discussed creating buzz for a good cause. Many of us have been involved with non profits at est once in our careers - either as volunteers, employees, or as contributing members in some capacity.

Knowing what we know about the humanness that can be transmitted in social media communications and interactions, it would seem that a good cause would be a perfect fit for them. The ability to help spread information in the interactive space is unmatched in other media.

How can we teach more organizations that support good causes create buzz?

We posed three questions:

1. how can non profits simplify their message to make it easier for people to spread it?
2. does an alliance with a known brand help get the word out?
3. how do you help the community build buzz for a good cause?

The ideas we shared seemed to apply to business as well, so I thought I would bridge to this week's chat by highlighting how and why.

Simplify the message

Use a slogan, a tagline, a 6-8 words that speak to what the organization helps do - change, improve, support, solve. Some verbs are stronger than others, so your would need to figure that in your execution. A couple of people suggested you should try to tweet it to check on length.

Bottom line: make it sharable.

Hint: the more it's about the action/result, the more memorable.

Build alliances

We brought up name brands, but overall we do know that businesses have a more powerful market position when they build channels and partnerships. It turns out that if you're good at what you do and can find someone equally good at what they do - and that is complementary to yours - you can both benefit.

Bottom line: collaboration and co-opetion work.

Hint: find the core of what you do, and partner with someone who found theirs and is a good fit.

Join/embrace your community

This is harder because many businesses don't see it that way - even non profits. Their employees and volunteers are their first community. Does your organization embrace it? You already have evangelists right there, showing up every day to help you build something. Do you join them?

Bottom line: see existing human networks

Hint: it's alright if you're not driving the bus all the time, did you look the people on it with you in the eyes?

Non profits need more help understanding how to behave like businesses. I'm thinking that businesses need help understanding how not to behave like non profits. Today at 12 EST on Twitter, we will discuss how for business "free" is a feature, and not a benefit in social media.

Free is designed to get people into the conversation, yet if the conversation is about your product and service and not about their problem and need, it remains a feature and never becomes a benefit. In Italian, free translates to gratis from Lat. variation of gratiis, out of kindness, orig. ablative plural of gratia, which means favor).

We will pose three main questions:

1. why is the "free" price tag deceiving?
2. when does free provide a collective opportunity?
3. how can marketing add value to people's lives?

Don't miss the chat #kaizenblog, 12 EST on Twitter today.

Comments

[Alex]

"Free" is all the rage right now, but it still comes back to quality. Taking a line from Bob Burg, people will do business with those they like and trust and if you come off as a used car salesmen it won't get you anywhere! Giving for the sake of expecting something back is NOT the same as giving and will not reap the benefits.

[gianandrea facchini]

Valeria, I would add something for the Non-profit communication: find a distinctive way to pass your message.
Most of the non-profit associations use the same tone and the same type of message. The result is that they are all fishing in the same pond with no real chance to widen the number of contributors.
For an association I support, here in Rome, I did a test on Facebook totally changing the tone of the message.
Result: fan number, page views, photo views, all the indicators skyrocketed.
Now the group has more than 2.000 fans, 9,9 rating about post quality and a very active audience. I'm available to share more info about the case study with you and your readers, for the sake of conversation, indeed.

[Aysel Vandeventer]

Interesting. I agree. I think a lot of businesses market and advertise the "free" aspect of a workshop, seminar or any other such thing with the hopes of pushing their own business agenda. Businesses need a way to reel in people, especially now, in hopes of selling their service or product. I think corporate social responsibility fits in the same boat. A lot of businesses "do good" in hopes of getting free publicity, pleasing their customers and increasing their sales. So, I guess the question is, where does a non profit or business draw the line? How can they offer a free service or take care of the community without underlying intentions? But, then again will most people truly care about the intentions of a business as long as they're getting something free?

[CASUDI]

There is FREE and FREE. It's a fine line what and how much you should give away for free if your intention is to actually become a profitable business :-)
Customers are often reluctant to pay for something they have had for free, and I have known customers of businesses I help to make the rounds of getting free of something from several businesses of same type, so never paying.

I agree you often have to give FREE so you can show the value you bring, however knowing when to stop and how to stop is key.

This is a great post and even greater discussion topic.

@CASUDI

[Valeria Maltoni]

What a great chat today! Thanks go to all who made it possible.

@Alex - intention matters.

@Gianandrea - be noteworthy, yes. That would be interesting to explore as an example. I'd love to couple it with a business example and draw similarities and differences.

@Aysel - "will most people truly care about the intentions of a business as long as they're getting something free?" that's a very valid question. Could free be more situational today? What if technology made it possible for you to see who votes for it at what level? There was a book I read a while back titled "The Undercover Economist" and one of the case studies was about coffee drinkers and how Starbucks and similar outfits learn about customer pricing thresholds and design menus/pricing to help them self-select: I'm a latte person (= willing to shell $$), I'm an espresso person, etc. you get the idea.

@Caroline - at what point does the incentive become bribe and discourage loyalty? I'm thinking about sodas and supermarkets discounts/coupons. Is that considered the price for brand awareness, to let customers flip flop constantly, hooked on the sale price?

[peter]

Free means you probably didn't realise what you traded to get what you thought was free. A $ can be the least valuable asset you recieve in a trade.

In business we are always trading more than $. The paradox is that in some parts of a business model it can be more cost effective for a business to go "free" that demand a $.

In my view, free is a myth. A simplification or misunderstanding of the complex dynamics of a sustainable business model.

[Michael Zipursky]

Hey Valeria, Seth has a great post on Non Profits here http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/09/the-problem-with-non.html

[Nancy]

Great post, Valeria. BTW, we have a mutual friend (mine from college days)-- TL Hill.

I invite you and the Conversation Agent community to spot the best nonprofit tagline and vote in the 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Awards. http://is.gd/2NQx7

Voters will get a sense of what does and doesn't work in nonprofit messaging, and can register for a free copy of the 2009 Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Report, due late fall.

Vote here http://is.gd/2NQx7