I am well aware, I am not Mashable, Jeremiah Owyang or Chris Brogan. I don’t expect thousands of readers per day (yet).
I started my blog in December 2008. I have made changes along the way. In an effort to shake things up, I changed my blog theme Sunday. In case you didn’t notice let me know what you think!
This small change of theme created a nice up-tick in my readership and stats. And let me tell you, it’s exciting when something works!
If your nonprofit is using social media – it may be time for a makeover!
Small changes can have big results. And big results in social media can mean going from 25 subscribers/readers per day to 100 per day. That’s huge.
In the social media space, you can’t be afraid to make change. Worse case, change it back. Right? In social media – try something, if it doesn’t work, try something else. If it works, figure out why, how and do more of it.
- Starting or changing a blog is easy. I recommend WordPress.(Thanks Sandy Rees!) Easy to use, update, get your own URL, select themes, use as a website etc. etc. Changing it every couple of months makes it fresh for all those subscribers who visit every time you post.
- Update your profile on all social media outlets – new photos, links, description
- Keep the content fresh on your website – hopefully you have a web content management system that allows you to update information on your site. This keeps people coming back to see what’s new.
- Ask a question – hold a survey, contest or poll your readers
You can track all your changes and should. Fortunately there are plenty of tools.
- Feedburner tracks your subscribers, promote your feeds and more
- Google analytics tracks visitors, content, bounce rates, create campaigns etc.
- Hootsuite can help you track your tweets and links
- Baseline measures – where did you start with friends, followers, fans – where are you now
- Measure as you go – Did you launch a campaign? Did you get more friends, hits to blog or web?
- Were more posts or pages retweeted more than others? What made your audience pay attention?
- Did you get more donations from different campaigns? Start tracking – a spreadsheet will do.
If a social media campaign doesn’t work or didn’t work as well as you thought – try something different.
If it worked – look for why and how and build on it.
The only constant is change – welcome to the social media landscape! Enjoy the ride!
Talisman Thinking Out Loud 
Great post, Barbara and extremely true to the word. Sometimes a fresh face (or makeover) helps your visitors notice the new and poke around.
Nonprofits (or any brand for that case) should view their online presence as ever changing. Heck, the online world changes daily (if not more often) along with the “rules” or accepted practices.
Why not change and let your visitor’s double take?
Though, if you change your pictures on social sites, make sure your main avatar is consistent – typically your headshot.
Also, remember, your headshot IS YOUR brand on these sites – don’t cut corners with a point and click, look for a professional to take them (you would not upload a Polaroid picture as your logo…..so why would you on your headshot?)
Justin
Thanks so much for reading and responding. Your advice is always on track and welcome. Talk to you soon!
Barbara