A couple of points that he makes that I’d like to emphasize:

Give your readers a reason to share. Useful information. This sums it up quite well. Readers need a reason to want to share all the knowledge and information you’re providing to them…

There are many ways to practice this in a cause blog. For example, say you write a blog for the skin cancer foundation. How about a post on the best ways to minimize sun exposure? You could write a post explaining the difference in the SPF ratings and which ones experts recommend. How about a post on how often you should get moles screened? These are informative posts that your audience can use and are likely to share with others. This is the opposite of only writing posts about what the foundation is doing.

He also advises to stick to a specific topic:

While there are exceptions in every niche, you’ll mostly want to stick to one general “theme” of information. The more categories you have random things, the more polluted and dissolved your information will be in the eyes of search engines.

Having more categories and random topics also creates a lack of focus that will effect your readership, not just search engines or visitors from search.

Sometimes it takes awhile to get into the groove, to see what specific subjects get the most interest and are most relevant to your audience. On the other hand, it can save you a lot of time and hassle if you start off with a specific niche. Instead of blogging about your entire operation, why not just set up a blog for a specific program? For example, a food bank could focus their blog just on childhood hunger programs like backpacks and Kids Cafe.

The only point of disagreement I have with Josh’s advice is about Digg. I have used Digg over the years but have not found much benefit from it. On the other hand it is easy to set up your blog to automatically post links to your Facebook and Twitter profiles. Just be sure to set up a Facebook page for your cause instead of a personal page.

This video is not promoting a cause. It’s commercial – made by PUMA athletic wear.  But I think it makes the point.

So what if you have an accent. Don’t try to hide it. Missing half your front teeth? So what. Going bald and/or just like to shave your head? Whatever you are, be that. Let is shine through in your blog. Be proud. These guys are.

Thanks to Coverville for the link.

How to rebuild Haiti by Robert B. Zoellick POLITICO.com

Mourners gather in Haitian capital one month after deadly quake on CNN

What if Haiti’s Earthquake Hit the U.S.? by Te-Ping Chen, Change.org

Hope for Haiti proves Telethons still work in the text era on TunedIn, a blog about television by TIME’s TV critic James Poniewozik

Haiti Earthquake: One Month Progress Report from the American Red Cross

Honoring the lost, rebuilding from the rubble by Helen Hawkings, Oxfam International blogs

To Help Haiti & Others, Companies Need to Get off Their Assets by Joe Waters, Causeshift

Haiti relief underscores deeper needs by Todd Cohen, Inside Philanthropy

Ellen was actually there with a mission team from Dallas and happened to be in the Dominican Republic on the day of the quake.  She was able to call out on her cell phone to let family members know who was ok just before cell phone coverage quit.  Later her son Burt called from a Houston TV station and interviewed her on the air.

Sadly one of the other volunteers on the Haiti trip, Clara “Jean” Arnwine, did not survive the event.  On an unrelated trip, Rev. Sam Dixon of the United Methodist Committee on Relief also passed away.  They are two of many who gave their lives in the service of others.

While much of the hospital survived the quake there was a lot of damage. Ellen showed us some photos from inside the buildings and it was very apparent that cleanup and repair would have to be done before they could be utilized again.  In addition to the damage, the aftershocks meant that the children and staff had to live outside in tents (like thousands of others in Haiti).  Here’s some info from the website about the damage:

ICC is committed to providing immediate medical emergency response and long-term aid. The grounds of the eye clinic are being used as a field hospital. A medical team from Germany arrived yesterday and are working alongside ICC medical staff to provide emergency medical treatment. ICC is committed to the immediate needs of the people of Haiti, but also to the long-term help that will be needed. As such, we will be rebuilding the hospital to continue to provide services to people as we have done for over 40 years. Click here to view pictures displaying the hospital’s damage (captured by Melanie Yates).

Here is another update from the ICC website just posted today:

Following is an update written Friday by ICC USA board member Dr. Jeannine Hatt, a pediatrician from Texas who traveled to Haiti with a team of doctors last week. She worked at Grace Children’s Hospital in conjunction with the Haitian staff to treat children affected by the earthquake.

We have been in Haiti this week working at Grace Children’s Hospital in the out-patient clinics. The in-patient unit is closed because the hospital was so damaged in the earthquake the children who have been abandoned are living under tarps on the lawn. Others have been discharged to their parents or transferred to other hospitals that were not so damaged and/or are functioning. GCH hopes to get a large tent set up soon with the help of the military and reopen their service there. They have restarted their reproductive health, adult and pediatric, HIV and TB services and have their lab and radiology up and running on a limited basis. The Haitian staff who work at GCH all have their ‘horror stories’. All have had great loss and suffered psychological, if not physical, trauma. But they still show up for work and put on their best faces.

Ellen encouraged everyone in attendance at our retreat to make a donation to help the work of ICC continue. If you are really brave, like she is, you can ride in the Hotter N Hell 100.  One of the largest cycling events in the country, HHH takes place in August in Wichita Falls TX.  Several years ago ICC became the first charity that was allowed to participate as a fundraising event.

This is a century ride with a 100 mile course, but there are shorter courses too.  Ellen rides in the 25 mile route.  Cycling is not really my thing (would rather walk) but maybe this year I can dust off my bike at at least do the 25 miles.  This will be the 7th summer we’ve spent in Wichita Falls so it’s about time we did the HHH, at least this would be for a good cause!

Here are the two posts that I submitted:

How to Fundraise for Haiti Relief Efforts on Step by Step Fundraising

and  Grace Children’s Hospital in Port-au-Prince Survived Quake here on Cause Blogger

A few other posts that I liked:

This Full House provides a badge and linking code for Doctors Without Borders

View from the Playpen shared a story about a 2 year old being reunited with his mother

and Emma’s comments about the images we’ve seen on the news resonated with me:

I don’t think these images that I have seen all over the news & internet over the last few days will ever leave my head.

I cried as I searched for images to include in this post , But why am I crying? I have not lost family, I’ve not lost my son who is the important thing to me .. My tears will never compare to the tears falling from the faces of those Mothers/Fathers who have lost their children.

This latest report from the field:

We continue to asses the structrual damage that the hospital suffered, and in the next few days will be opening the hospital grounds to serve as a triage and treatment center in conjunction with other aid groups.

I emailed ICC directly to find out how to help:

Sandra,

Thank you for writing. We appreciate your support and prayers!

At this time, financial donations are most urgently needed, as shipping items to Haiti requires logistical efforts that are impossible at this time. We will be using the funds to offer immediate relief as well as to help with needed repairs at the hospital. In the next few days, we hope to be able to offer the facility to be used for the relief efforts. We will keep you updated on our website as much as possible! If, in the future, opportunities come up to collect items for the hospital or other relief efforts, we will let you know.

Thank you!

Ann Simmons
Communications & Development Coordinator
International Child Care, USA
3506 Lovers Lane, Suite 8
Kalamazoo, MI 49001
(269) 382-9960
(800) 722-4453

So like most natural disasters the best thing to do is to donate money and/or organize local fundraisers to raise funds rather than try to do supply collections.  Here’s a Donor’s Guide to Global Emergencies from Joanne Fritz, Nonprofit About.com Guide (on Twitter @joannefritz .)

Visit the ICC & Grace Childrens Hospital Website

Here’s a video news segment from local TV

Other organizations that were already in Haiti mobilized immediately to help:

@redcross @MSF_USA @PIH_org @oxfam @oxfamamerica

Here are my 3 words:

One

As I read Kelby’s post I could really relate — especially for the need to FOCUS.  As an entrepreneur I see new business ideas, strategies and projects everywhere I look.  (Also known as SES – Shiny Object Syndrome).  I love thinking of new ideas and starting fun projects. Unfortunately this leads to having way too much going on at once! So there’s no focus on any one thing.

So I have to give up some things but quitting is never easy. I re-read Seth Godin’s book The Dip for the 3rd time because I knew I needed that extra encouragement.

…realize that quitting the stuff you don’t care about or the stuff you’re mediocre at or better yet qutting the Cul-de-sacs frees up your resources to obsess about the Dips that matter.

Since having my son in November, narrowing the focus of my work is also a necessity.  As I’m his full time caregiver, I’m limited to about 15 hours a week working.  (Usually when he is sleeping!)  Ultimately ONE represents what is real, that by narrowing my work focus I can also give full attention to the one thing that is really important, caring for the people I love.

Eleven

To really succeed at something requires doing more than just what is easy or convenient. It calls for a real commitment to be exceptional, doing more than what is required.  Seth Godin insists that readers should strive to be “the best in the world.”

I chose the word Eleven to represent this idea for me, inspired by a scene from one of my favorite movies, Spinal Tap: “Most blokes play to 10… we put it up to 11. One louder.”

Zero

Over the holidays I caught a show on PBS with Wayne Dyer called “Excuses Begone.” We all make excuses now and then.  But habitual excuse making leads to an unfulfilled life motivated more by fear than love.  Soon afterward I discovered a truly inspiring essay by Jon Morrow that epitomizes the idea of ZERO excuses: On Dying, Mothers, and Fighting for Your Ideas.

In the past I have made excuses for why I didn’t take a project to its full potential.  Usually it had to do with too many irons in the fire as I mentioned earlier.  This year as I leave behind some projects, I will have zero excuses for not achieving the goals that I’d like to here with Cause Blogger.  My vision for this site is to be the best resource for nonprofits and other cause enthusiasts as they create and maintain successful blogs.

These three words are already coming to me at the right moments to keep me motivated.  When I get tired or want to give up, I just think “One-Eleven-Zero.” Like at 3 am last night when my son was screaming and I’d rather be sleeping.  I reminded myself, what excuse to I have to complain?  He’s the little blessing that we hoped for. I’m so fortunate to be able to stay home to care for him and have a supportive partner. (I now say an extra prayer for single parents!)

In the coming year these three words will be my mantra both in my work and personal life as I strive achieve my goals.

My little guy had plans of his own. Micah Wesley came into this world a couple weeks sooner than expected, arriving at 5:47 AM on Tuesday November 24th.

Needless to say a blogging hiatus was in order!

I will get back to the series in a few weeks… in the meantime here’s a list of the topics that have been covered so far:

What is a blog?

Who are cause bloggers?

What are the benefits of cause blogging?

How can I get results with a blog?

Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

Last time I talked about the benefits of blogging.  In this post I’ll cover setting goals, both short and long term results and return on your investment.

Goal setting

You’ve probably heard of the SMART system for setting goals.  Make your goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.  Here’s a great post from Lori Rice about goal setting.

While it would be great to acheve all of the benefits of cause blogging at once, that’s not realistic.  First, in order for your goals to really be SMART you have to start with one primary goal and focus on that.  Secondly, achieving results online takes time.

As you brainstorm to decide what your short and long range goals are for blogging, and more generally marketing your cause online, focus on the benefits of what you want to achieve, not on tasks.  For example, setting a goal to “get a website up” is not beneficial. A goal to “create a website that will move people to take action: first by subscribing to our weekly newsletter” is more specific and benefit oriented.

Brainstorming question: what results do you want to achieve? Review the benefits of blogging and how these translate into specific goals such as:

• Publish information about our cause two times per week
• Ask readers to take action on a policy issue at least once per month (contacting elected officials, signing a petition, sending a link to a friend)
• Publish one press release per month on a site such as PR.com; then reword to use as a blog post (increases publicity and website traffic)
• Build relationships between staff and readers with a monthly blog post from leadership: executive director, volunteer coordinator and development director
• Build community by asking questions in blog posts, requesting comments and feedback; add this to the end of blog posts whenever possible

Tracking goals

Once you’ve set goals for your online efforts, it’s important to document them and follow up. Here’s how:

1. Use tools to help track your progress. For example running website traffic reports each month; using Google Alerts to find out about mentions in the media or links from other websites.
2. If you’re working for a nonprofit, designate one person who will keep track of progress and provide reports
3. Online marketing takes time, especially with a new website or blog.  Keep at it while you wait for concrete results.
4. Celebrate incremental improvements such as blog comments, readers contacting you via email, increasing web traffic.
5. When you find something that is working especially well for you, ramp up that effort. For example, if you get more feedback from readers when you post quotes from your clients, do that more often!

Measuring return on investment

Now for a little good news/bad news…

Unlike other efforts, online marketing such as blogging, can be more difficult to measure.  With something like direct mail, you can scientifically measure it — from our mailout of 10,000 letters we got X number of responses, % response rate and an average gift size of $X.   It’s easy to calculate the immediate return on investment.

On the good news side, cause blogging and other online marketing carries very little financial investment.  Your investment is more related to time and effort rather than money.

Things that you can easily track include:

1. Which blog posts are getting viewed the most
2. How many RSS readers you have
3. Number of Twitter followers and Facebook fans
4. Number of mentions in the media (online and off)

The big question is what results are we getting from these efforts? Donations, more volunteers, measurably increased publicity? This can be more difficult to track, especially at first.  Once your blog really takes off, it will be easier to prove that your online work is making a real difference.

Getting started

When starting a new blog, allow yourself at least 3-6 months for you to really get your feet wet blogging.  You’ll be learning which kind of blog posts you enjoy writing most, which get response from readers and kind of figuring it out as you go along.  There’s really no other way to do it, but to just dive in and get going.

This is the same amount of time it usually takes to really start building traffic as well.  Your blog posts will start to get ranked for search terms in Google and other engines.  Other bloggers will notice you and start linking to your blog and traffic will slowly build.

Focus on the long term

Online marketing activities like blogging are long term strategies with cumulative efforts over time producing results.  In the business world, they say it takes at least seven contacts before a customer buys.  Most of the time blogging is much less direct than cold calling or targeting major donors.  So it may take many more contacts for supporters to take action.

So in the first few months, it’s important to stick to your goals and activities that support them.  Celebrate the little achievements, ask for feedback from others and network with other bloggers.  Don’t get discouraged!

Back to basics – relationships

Activism, advocacy, public relations, fundraising and promoting a cause generally – is based on building relationships with people.  Blogging is just a tool to help you do that.

Beth Kanter recently observed about her work promoting arts organizations that:

A successful social media strategy with arts audiences is more like an audience development or education program, not a straight ticket sales strategy.

With every strategic blog post, tweet, or facebook update you are potentially building a relationship with others who are also interested in the same cause.  At the end of blog posts, include a small note encouraging readers to leave a comment. Then when someone leaves a comment, leave one in reply.  Send a response to email inquiries you get.  Take the initiative to reach out to other bloggers and nonprofits by emailing them and leaving comments on their site.

You may never know when or what  specifically encouraged someone to take action such as making a donation or volunteering.  Most likely, it’s the cumulative impact of the interactions they have with you online.

Improving results with focused blasts

It might be easier said than done to appreciate benefits that are hard to see.  You want to see that the time you’re investing is making a difference.

Once your blog is established you can improve results with short term campaigns or “blasts.”  No not email blasts or SPAM!  I mean focused, short term campaigns.  I’ll go into these in more detail in future blog posts, but here are a few ideas…

1. Submit 30 articles in 30 days to a website like EzineArticles.com to build traffic to your blog (include 1-2 links in the “author box”)
2. Use your blog to promote a time based event, such as an auction fundraiser
3. Call to action based on a holiday, such as can food donations for Thanksgiving
4. Use Facebook causes to request donations because of your birthday

These kinds of short term campaigns will give you some encouragement to continue your online efforts.  It will give you and others connected to  your cause measurable results — proof! — that it works!

Next… Part 5 – Do I really need to blog? Now that you know the potential benefits and results of blogging, we’ll talk about some of the requirements to get them. Plus some alternatives in case  you decide that blogging is not the best way to achieve those goals.

Subscribe or connect with me on Twitter or Facebook to get notified when the next post in this series is published.

The Health Care for America blog is advocating its position on the healthcare debate.  With the news on this issue changing every day, or every hour even, the authors are posting several times a day.  The fast and easy web publishing medium of blogging makes this possible.

For example, they were able to post a link to the Senate bill with commentary nearly as soon as it was released.  They’re also posting daily roundups of articles in the news, photos, and videos.

You can see that many of the posts are short and very tightly focused on one narrow aspect of this broad topic.  With blogging you don’t have to be long winded or overly concerned about scholarly writing!  Your writing can be quick, conversational and to the point.  When time is of the essence blogs get information and calls to action out fast.