Is the dog eating your content homework?

"The dog ate my homework." 

My Dad accidentally put it in his briefcase and took it to work." 

"I put it in the safe, but lost the combination." 

"We don't have time for a content strategy."

We all had our share of lame excuses for not doing our homework and now we are adapting those excuses to our work. We need to find a way to hold ourselves accountable and get past the excuses.

Have you ever read someone's homework, like a paper they wrote for school. And as you are reading you can just tell that they didn't have a plan. Some paragraphs seem out of order and there isn't a clear message. The facts and information is cobbled together as if someone has a checklist they are following on what has to be included.

Doing your content planning homework will pay off. Stop making excuses.

Looking for ideas on how to get started in your content planning? I have a collection of great links here:
http://delicious.com/stacks/view/U0OaNx 

What are your excuses? Or what resource do you suggest for someone who is just starting with content planning?

NOTE: I really only created this post to use the adorable photo of the Leader Dog my family is training to be a seeing eye dog.

Smarter Than You

We're Smarter Than You

 Can you mitigate your remotely exploitable nodes? Of course you can't. Do you know how to configure your VPN server racks with AJAX overlays? Don't even pretend you do. What happens if an unauthorized user interface tries to query your Oracle® detection points? Do you know what to do then? Duh. Of course you don't. You're not smart.

This is a quote from http://www.duhcorp.com/. As I looked over that website I was laughing and chuckling because it seemed like I had worked with this company before....

Concern eventually set in though and then I started thinking. What if this is how nonprofits really feel when our "experts" talk to them?

When talking about technology planning I have often mentioned how some nonprofits lack enough knowledge to know where to start. Are they hesitant to ask for help because they have gotten this speech from a vendor before, maybe not directly, but it was implied? Yes, I think so. 

Technology responsible person in your org. My suggested approach to avoiding the "we're smarter than you", is first to avoid vendors like that if possible. Second, appoint someone to be the technology responsible person in your org if you dont have full-time IT staff. Then get them some training so they can understand enough technology to make strategic decisions!

NOTE! I did not say get them "Technology Training", I said get them training to "understand enough technology to make strategic decisions!"

I did not intend to turn this post into a rant or a pitch for orgs I love, but that is where my typing has led me....

A great example of the type of training needed is the Technology Leadership Academy from NTEN. This Free, Intense 9 week training gets your org prepared to make better decisions in technology. http://www.nten.org/techacademy
(in disclosure, I do present one of the sessions for this training, but I do not receive anything for promoting it, I just love what NTEN is doing!)

Then look at the webinars that NTEN.org, TechSoup.org and Idealware.org offer. When a new project or planning phase starts allow a little time to research what should be considered, collect sample documents from other nonprofits and be more deliberate in your technology planning.

And one final thought about www.duhcorp.com, I was a little disappointed that there wasnt more content and pages to read, but the site was fun! The part I found best is that they are making some money off of it to with the ads.... why didn't I think of that? And a huge tip to John Merritt (@johnmerritt) from the San Diego Y for tweeting about the site.

Program Staff as Digital Editors

Content requires work and skill. Lots of people just ignore that fact. They get all excited about content strategy, communication plans and social media. But they hardly ever spend time talking about how to equip their staff to be content creators.

Some orgs look to hire copywriters, publishers or whatever. But I like to look for ways to build up all staff with the skills that they will need going forward with every job of the future. Here is a presentation that I did about this topic. I hope it is useful.

Program staff as digital editors

View more PowerPoint from Steve Heye

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue [Infographic] - share!

I stumbled across, well actually not stumbled, I found this in my Google Reader. Anyway, do you really care how I found it?

Since I haven't had enough time to write, just share someone else's brilliance, right?

22 Ways to Create Compelling Content When You Don’t Have a Clue [Infographic]
Like this infographic? Get more content marketing tips from Copyblogger.

Mega monster or Many monsters? (Fully integrated or Best of Breed)

I don't think I can count the number of times that I have had a conversation about software that spirals into a conversation of "we need fully integrated" versus "need the best features." This is the conversation that I have always talked about as a single database (fully integrated software) versus best of breed. Best of Breed to me means you pick the best software for each of your distinct business areas then you work to integrate them or build connections to share data.

However, this conversation has always focused on the features of the software. This article from the NTEN:Change magazine has really got me thinking about it from a different perspective, a constituent data perspective.

Data is all the rage again now that APIs are common, visual dashboards run amuck, information rules and everyone needs more numbers to build those cool infographics that we all love (to hate) (but can't stop looking at).

Anyway, here is the thought:

You think through the different types of constituents you will track and interact with, how you will need to use the data and how interrelated they are.  Here is an image that they use to help describe this.

But dont take my word for it, Go read the article from NTEN and then be sure to subscribe to NTEN:Change, the visuals are striking, but I look at it for the articles. They are always fantastic. And if you are looking for a way to convince your CEO or executive staff about the value of tech, subscribe to NTEN:Change for them. They will wonder where the emails come from but they will thank you for the wonderful information.

Tech is not just for techies - a great training opportunity

Is your org struggling with technology? Don't wait for that techie in a shining code of armor. 

Here is a great opportunity from NTEN. I am excited to share it because I will be presenting one of the sessions. This is more than a training it is a chance to change your organization.

Now more than ever, nonprofit leaders must understand the potential technology has to help them meet their missions. They require effective ways to manage technology and lead others to use tools to their best organizational advantage.


The Technology Leadership Academy is a training program designed to help nonprofit leaders do just that.


Thanks to the generous support of Google and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, NTEN is able to offer the Technology Leadership Academy at no charge to qualifying organizations. You must apply for acceptance to the Academy. Participants will be selected based on the guidelines below and their commitment to full participation.

NTEN's Technology Leadership Academy Returns for 2012

5 Ways to get Digital Content from Program Staff

Fresh content is a key element of a good website, we have all heard that, right? But a simple concept does not mean it is easy to make happen.

One of my favorite posts I have ever written was 5 secret ways to trick your colleagues into becoming content creators for your website.

I have been thinking about this more and I have a few more thoughts. Even today as technology becomes more common, many people are hesitant to create content for a website or email newsletter. So how do we get this content created?

1. Fill in a printed marketing worksheet - create a simple worksheet in the format of the content that you want them to create. Keep it short and simple.
2. Regularly scheduled collection with feedback - practice makes perfect. Or as my wife says practice makes permanent. This means that if if you practice something wrong , it becomes hard to learn it the right way. So while it is a great idea to gather content from staff of you never provide feedback, how will they improve?
3. Recorded phone call - want a deeper story or article? Get a group of program staff on the call, ask the right questions and let the conversation happen. But don't forget the key part, record it. It is better to record it and take your notes later, that way you aren't distracted on the call.
4. Join their meeting - talk to them on their territory. Don't ask questions, just listen. If you need to ask questions, consider prepping one of the program staff to lead and ask the questions to make them more comfortable.
5. Ask them their story - every staff member has a story about why they work there, why they love the mission or some great experiences. Give them a chance to tell their story.
6. Identify the barrier - staff will always have excuses about why they don't create more digital content. Look past the excuses go find the real barriers, is it the tools, unclear benefit to their work, fear of making a mistake or ??? Then find a way to help break down those barriers.

Yeah, I know there were 6, but consider it a bonus.

How do you get program staff to contribute digital content?