Driving In Traffic

On Sunday June 4th, I will be heading out for a much needed vacation with the girlfriends.  Whoo Hoo!  I see many Corona’s with limes in my future.

I’m taking my laptop with me because I have been told that there will be wifi available at the resort.  So if I don’t post, guys don’t worry.  I have either had too many Coronas or Dos Equis and my fingers (much less my brain) have ceased proper functioning.  Or there was no wifi. 

Of course….. I will never tell…….

Cheers!

Nonprofit organizations are concerned:

• The cause (the people, places, things, or issues the organization wants to help or change)
• Donors (the people and companies that contribute resources to help the cause)
• Volunteers and helpers
• The media

Each of these groups interacts with the nonprofit organization in its own unique way.  Subsequently, nonprofits need to develop their organizational personality in ways that they can develop meaningful relationships with these audiences.

One of the first tenets of Robin Hood Marketing is to not preach and evangelize about the cause or the organizational mission.  Instead, take a page from the Nike marketing book and ask each group for a specific action. 

At first blush, this seems counter-intuitive.  It does seem that you need to convince people to believe in your cause and become as passionate about it as you are.  However, after taking time to think about it, I see the wisdom.  Afterall, one good verbal sparring with an opinionated friend will teach you that it is easier to change human behavior than it is to change the human mind.

This is not to say that you shouldn’t educate about what your organization does.  Instead it means that you should have the courage to let go of the passion behind your mission when asking for help. 

So keep it simple.  Tell folks how they can help you.  Ask them to pledge.  Ask them to volunteer 1 hour a week.  As them to donate x amount toward a certain endeavor.  Then take time to thank folks and convey to them how they have made a difference.

Technorati tags:nonprofit,Katya Andresen, Robin Hood Marketing, marketing, nonprofit marketing

Over the holiday weekend, I spent time relaxing and cruising around Technorati. I came across a great new blog by Stella, a sassy boston terrier in Manhattan. Stella is one opinionated lady who has no patience with cockapoos and she has a real ax to grind with Lassie. Check her out here: Stelleto Blog.

Since Stella is a dog, she doesn’t speak like a human. However, she has managed to craft a few really good haikus in her most recent post.

Technorati tags: dogs, Pets, Fun Stuff

I’ve had rheumatoid arthritis for almost 27 years.  I mention this because I want to make the point that not only am I in the healthcare field, but I am also well-versed in the patient-side tribulations of today’s healthcare environment. 

I have the best rheumatologist EVER– IMHO.  And believe me I’ve seen a vast majority of them in the Atlanta area. About a year ago, he closed down his one-man private practice to join a large group with many contracts with managed care providers.  This group practice is very progressive.  They have a definite web presence and use MedBuddy to offer a lot of value-added services such as online e-mail, refill requests, appointment requests, etc.  They also use EMR.

On my last visit, the doctor came in, asked me the standard “How are you doing?” and sat down at the keyboard and computer screen at the small desk next to the sink and supply cabinet.  He logged in and began asking me a list of questions that were obviously being prompted from the computer.  He then stepped away from the desk, asked me to sit on the exam table and then proceeded with checking my joints.  Then he scurried back to the desk.

He spent the next 7 to 10 minutes typing his findings into the computer.  He verbally called off each of the joints, asked me to raise those joints and then he logged in the ratings for inflammation and tenderness.  He then asked me if I needed a prescription and then scurried off to retrieve the ones I needed from a centralized printer located outside the exam room.

Now, I totally understand all the efficiencies of this system.  I understand that it makes many things about practicing medicine easier and offers some quality benefits–especially around medication errors.

But Geez– this was a miserable experience.  The data prompts on the computer seemed more important than me.  Now, I know this is not the case, this doctor is knowledgable, compassionate, funny and a good doctor.  If I were seeing this doctor for the first time, I’d think he was aloof.  The fact that he needed this computer to guide him through an exam, I’d wonder if he knew what he was doing and I’d probably doubt his skills.  Unless, I knew about the benefits from an administration perspective, I would easily conclude that an EMR only distracted from the care.

I also realize that not every physician has the same level of comfort with EMR and new technologies.  Perhaps the newness of the EMR had my Doc distracted.  Perhaps he did not feel comfortable with it and was secretly dreading the Error message that may pop up if he did not enter the data correctly. 

I’m due to go back to him in a few months.  I wonder if things will be different.  If not, I wonder what could be done for good doctors who are handicapped by EMR implementation.

Technorati Tags: Electronic Medical Records, Electronic Health Records,

As a teen, every summer was filled with tons of community service. Our church youth group had a team that met three days a week for a month to volunteer to do good deeds. We clean gutters, worked in soup kitchens, deep cleaned homeless shelters, and did yard work for shut-ins all while having fun with 25 of your good friends. When that was done, many of us went on to volunteer as camp counselors for our state’s Muscular Dystrophy summer camp.

I’m facinated with how the internet is changing the face of communities. It inspires. It facilitates. Its just plain cool. So it should not be a surprise that I’ve been cruising the blogosphere lately on the topic of using the internet for social change.

As a product of my search, I happened across this great blog: Hercity.org It is the blog of Girls for Social Change.

Holy cow! I wish we had blogging when I was young. I remember those summer projects with great clarity. How cool would it have been to be a part of a nationwide, heck… worldwide, movement of community service kids?

Granted, we all knew that we were making a difference in our little corner of the world. However, this new trend would have allowed us to know that together with folks across the world could really come together to make a huge difference in the world.

Check the Girls out and drop them a comment!

Technorati tags: social change, community service, cool blogs

A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article over at the Medical Blog Network titled What Your Internet Presence Says About You.  Now I have found a cute but “spot-on” advertisement by Microsoft.  I can’t find a viral download of the advertisement so I’ll summarize it.

It starts with this older man in his office looking at the clock.  He seems sad and he seems like he is waiting for something.  Then a woman and her dog approach his store front window.  The dog begins to bark furiously at the man.  The man gets up and walks to the window to look out. 

Then the shot changes.  It show the woman and the dog.  She is standing on the sidewalk in front of a row of small town shops. The dog is barking at an empty lot.   

The shot comes back to the man and then the words fightinvisibusiness.com pop up.

If you follow the link, it goes to the beta download of Microsoft’s OfficeLive product which is designed to help businesses set up a website. 

Now, I’m not promoting this product here.  However, I think this advertisement is a wonderful illustration of what I was talking about over at the Medical Blog Network.  If you don’t have some sort of online presence, then you are invisible to your potential customers. You just don’t exist as an option.

I realize that some will hotly and vigorously refute this notion.  However, those few won’t be the one’s reading this post.

Technorati tags:business, Web, marketing, OfficeLive

I recently upgraded to Wordpress 2.0.2. Thanks to Justin Baeder over at WebbleYou for assisting me!!!

It is a little different from the 1.5x that I was using. I do like the interface a lot better, but I’m in the process of learning how to do the typical stuff and experimenting with the new functionality.

As a result of this, I’ve had to edit and repost my last article. I imagine this may continue for a little bit as I learn this. So if you are using an aggregator and you keep getting stuff you have already read, I’m sorry.

I know what some of you Wordpress wonks are thinking… “Geez Woman, that’s what the codex is for!” Yes, I know, but what would be the fun in that?!?!?!

Technorati tags:wordpress, webbleyou,

As many of you know, I sit on the board of a local all-volunteer animal rescue organization. We are entering our third year of existence, so we are still a baby. However in those three years, we have been able to develop our feeding, caring and adoption procedures such that the organization pretty much runs like a well-oiled engine. With that in place, now it is time to grow. We need more money, more volunteers and more adopters so that we can rescue more dogs from the county shelters.

Needing some guidance, I picked up Katya Andresen’s new book Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes.

I have found this book to be an amazing help. It covers 10 marketing principles taken from the corporate sector and guides the reader on how to use these in the not-for-profit arena. I think the reason that the advice rings true is that within the first few pages you quickly learn that the book is written by a person who has “been there, done that” in the nonprofit industry.

As a self-proclaimed “do-gooder” herself, Andresen also takes the time to talk about the characteristics of individuals who have found their “calling” to work for just causes. I think this is why information in this book seems poignant. She clearly conveys passion for her calling with which I can identify. Subsequently, the book is more like getting advice from a friend rather than reading a treatise on marketing.

The irony of the whole this is that once that I identified with her as a fellow do-gooder, she asks me to put it away and to look at things differently. According to Andresen, marketing your cause requires you to step back and be dispassionate and objective. As a businesswoman, I completely understand that. However, being a do-gooder is an intensely subjective outlook. It is a heart-set rather than a mind-set. Subsequently, objectivity is a bit hard to come by. However, deep down I know she is right.

So…… now, I’ve got to learn to wear two hats at the same time. Passion and dispassion. Subjective and objective. Just Business and True Calling. At first blush, it seems like she’s asking you to wear stripes and plaids at the same time. However, thankfully, this book gets to the point quick and then spends the rest of the time giving you a lot of food for thought on how to develop some new skills so that you can balance these two seemingly dichotomous characteristics.

It’s a good thing that I like to noodle around ideas, decide on how they can help me progress, and then develop and implement a plan to get me to where I want to be. Because I know that she is right, I intend on implementing some of the ideas presented in Robin Hood to help with my do-gooder endeavors.

So as my first exercise in wearing two hats at the same time….The businesswoman in me wants to use this space to chronicle and share my experiences here, so as to expand the conversation. And this may be quite sappy, but I’m going to say it anyway… and… The do-gooder in me wants to share my experiences so that others can benefit.

How’s that?

Ok…ok…I’m definitely wearing stripes and plaids and my outfit doesn’t match, but the important this is that I am thinking in a whole new way.

Technorati tags: nonprofit, Katya Andresen, Robin Hood Marketing, Marketing, not-for-profit

I recently wrote a post over at the Medical Blog Network about the sad state of healthcare branding. Previously, I’ve also written about how blogs can fit into a branding strategy.

Here in Atlanta, I am noticing an increased effort toward branding of our local, large healthcare systems. Emory and Wellstar are the most notable. There are others players that are noticably silent (Promina, Northside Hospital, St. Joseph’s, Gwinnett Health System).

Here in Atlanta the branding efforts are differentiating the two players along distinctly different lines. This indeed the goal. Emory is focusing on state-of-the-art delivery of medicine- especially in cardiology. Wellstar is focusing on being knowlegeable and caring- especially in the area of cancer and well-care.

We all know that the US Healthcare system is made up of thousands of independenly operating markets. Each market is governed by its own set of market influencers. Kind readers, what are the branding trends that you are seeing in each of your markets?

Technorati tags: healthcare branding, Healthcare advertising, healthcare, healthcare marketing

While I cannot fix all of the ugly in the world, I can make sure my little corner is amply decorated.

Local not-for-profit businesses have an advantage over the larger, national or global charities in that they have the ability to be nimble. Without the bureaucratic overhead, they tend to be more able to quickly organize and react to local needs.

While I may give one-time-donations to charities that service other areas of the world, I prefer to regularly (tithe) support local non-for-profits because I feel like I know that my money and time is going to buy paint and support the maintenance of my little corner of the world. Admittedly, I spend some time researching the organizations I support. In many cases, this involves old fashioned phone calls, referrals from friends, and taking time to meet people who work/volunteer for or run the organization.

While word-of-mouth advertising is likely to be the most relevant and powerful to get information about an organization, it takes a lot of time and effort. The internet provides a 24/7 avenue for organizations to get their information out there. Thankfully, many charities/not-for-profit organizations have websites. However, oftentimes one needs a crystal ball to divine their web address in order to find them. Many have simply not optimized their positions on popular search engines.

If you are a charity organization that does not have a lot of techy knowledge about how to increase your search engine rankings, there are some simple things you can do. First, I would encourage you to list yourself on a few big websites.

Second, list yourself with local charity listing services. (Examples: Hands On Atlanta, Philadelphia Cares, Hands On Bay Area). Additionally, About.com usually has a person that moderates your city’s site. Contact them and ask them to list your organization.

How do you find information about local charities? Please share so that we can all use the information to better our little corners of the world.

Technorati tags: not-for-profit, nonprofit, Charity, Philanthropy, Nonprofits