You might have noticed over the last few months that Google Places is now taking a more prominent role in your search results. Check out my search for “car insurance md”. There are 7 “places” listed instead of the normal search results. Personally, I’m loving it.
When people are looking for businesses, services, volunteer opportunities, organizations, activities, or entertainment, they want to find more than information. They want to find a place, a place that they can go to or call, that can meet an immediate need. The folks who come up in the top 7 places listings are going to get more clicks, more traffic and more feet through the door. Better yet, this gives us all another reason to move the phone book from the front step, directly into the recycling bin.
The places listings are localized. Localization basically means that Google returns Places results based on your physical location using the GPS on your mobile device, the preset you set on your Google account, or by your internet providers’ local hub. So if I type in a general search term like “movie theater”, Google returns Places listings near my physical location. It doesn’t get much better than that.
Well, I don’t have definitive statistics, but my guess is that most people under 40 wouldn’t really think of grabbing a phone book to find something. They head right to an online search engine (a vast majority of which will use Google). So, can you cancel your Yellow Pages or Super Pages listing? Maybe. If you serve folks over 40 I’d suggest keeping your phone book listings, particularly if your organization serves and does business locally. Before you breathe a sigh of relief, realize that tomorrow’s customer or member is going to be looking for you online. Are they going to find you there?
Last week, I was in D.C. attending the Non-Profit Technology Conference (NTC). The conference was jam-packed with awesome breakout sessions. These breakout sessions were generally hosted by a couple of non-profit social media/web marketing managers and a social media/web marketing service provider. Having both parties in the room was awesome. On the one hand you would learn about the best-practices and on the other you would see how these practices were being implemented. From the perspective of someone who provides best-practice instruction to organizations, I really appreciated hearing “the other side” of the story.
In each session, there was a recurring theme – connect your mission. This is obviously something I think is a pretty big deal. Everything you do as an organization needs to be mission driven. The non-profit technology and web marketing managers in every session agreed. Social media and web marketing are hot right now and every organization knows that there can be an enormous reward for getting in the game. Before blogs are launched and facebook pages are created, be sure to consider how these new ways of communicating with your customers, donors, or members are deeply connected to your mission.
There are two big reasons. The first is that social media open, two-way, and real-time communication. In other words, social media isn’t “just another” element in your marketing mix. During most marketing activities, your actions, your messages, are only seen by the targeted audience. You know what they think or what they are going to do when they purchase, signup, donate, etc. Through social media, everyone can see and interact with your communications in real-time. Meaning what you do, what you say, and how you say it is given an entirely new level of visibility and portability. What do you want to be seen talking about? How do you want to be seen interacting with your community?
The second reason is that social media is not an “event”, like a paper mailer. It is an enduring and growing presence. It takes commitment. Typically, throwing up a facebook page or a new blog won’t move the needle overnight. You won’t see a tremendous impact of the effort in a month. In order to be successful, you’ve got to be in it for the long haul. It isn’t something that can be used for the next product sale or donor drive. If you haven’t started by connecting your social media activities to the heart of your organization, your efforts will likely falter and fall way short of your expectations. Since it is an enduring element of your organization’s marketing effort, shouldn’t you be sure it is perfectly aligned with your organization’s DNA, goals and mission?
There are many more reasons, but the two above are the big ones. Social media marketing is a two-way, real-time communication and it is enduring. Every marketing effort should be tied to your mission, but your social media marketing efforts require special consideration. There are many platforms, tools, and techniques out there that have shown to produce results, but none of them will matter if what you are doing and what you are saying isn’t aligned to advance the mission of your organization. Thank you session speakers at NTC for hammering home this important first principle to social media engagement.
