Giving to Get-Get

"Gotta get-get? I like that boom boom pow. Them chickens jacking my style..."

What the hell does that mean anyway?

Jamming out in my little sweet sweet baby with my sweet baby one afternoon, I turned to my daughter and asked her what the above lyrics from the Black Eyed Peas meant. "IDK," was pretty much her reaction. Come to think of it, she may have texted that to me so she could continue singing nonsensical prose uninterrupted.

Alas, the message was not lost on me.

I get it.

Ya gotta give to get, right? If that's not the message, I don't wanna know. Instead, I used it to think of a bigger picture. The big picture. Just like anything worth doing, setting a goal may be the single most important step in maintaining the perfect gait to get you there.

Kudos to USA Today and more specifically to social media strategist Alex Nicholson for the recent success story of how social media tools can be used to effectively raise awareness and charitable contributions to a very worthy cause. To Write Love On Her Arms was selected as the winner of USA Today's Twitter Charity Contest.

In other big news for the non-profit world, make sure you check out American Idol's charity show tonite, "Idol Gives Back," because after raising more than $140 million since the show started using it's super-power celebrity status to connect givers with getters, this year promises to take global interactivity to the next level as Bill and Melinda Gates are rumored to be the hostesses with the mostest.

Here are a few thoughts on how to give to get or at least a few highlighted ideas in the world of philanthropy. Truth be told, these marcomm strategies for non-profits are easily translatable into steps to better yourself, your business or even your iPod music selections in order to best engage in meaningful conversation with your teenagers.

Spitfire Strategies is a company that assists non-profits with communication strategies and business planning initiatives in the world of stewardship and development campaigns and more. They introduced somethine called a Smart Chart back in 2002 and have since updated it a few times. Recently Smart Chart 3.0 was released. Here is the pdf for your viewing enjoyment. Not only does it provide a skeletal rendering of the bones to support any successful marketing/communication strategy, they give it away for free.

Check out a recent article titled, "Five Ways Mega Charity Events Can Harness the Power of Social Media," by Mashable. Boiled down, the following five bullets sum up the article nicely. Also, it's easy to see how this could be applied to other things; like business or dating. God forbid you get a crush on a tool. Whether it's Twitter or 'The Situation' from Jersey Shore...it's better to avoid any long-term arrangements as you never know what's around the corner in terms of technology or the social scene.

1. Empowering people catalyzes networks
2. Harness the long tail (of citizen philanthropists)
3. Maintain personal connections
4. Connect with the cause
5. Don't develop a crush on the tool

If you are a non-profit looking for ways to optimize your press pitches, integrate social media into your marketing strategies, or need communications consultation, contact me.