Category Archives: Diary

How to Get the Numbers

Posted on June 13, 2013 | Leave a comment

Yesterday was my last day at a wonderful non-profit that works against sexual assault. I managed the website and social media of the organization for one year and I took the opportunity on my last day to look back on the numbers of my time there:

Facebook likes: 69% increase from 465 to 787
Facebook “talking about this: 30% increase from 98 monthly to 128
Twitter followers: 83% increase from 1,248 to 2,285
Pinterest followers: 100% increase from 0 to 301 (created the account)
Website visits: 43% increase from 22,617 annually to 32,238
Website visitors: 72% increase from 13,739 annually to 23,649
Website visits referred from Facebook: 66% increase from 624 annually to 1,035
Website visits referred from Twitter: 116% increase from 226 annually to 487

So, how do you get numbers like this for your brand’s website and social media? It doesn’t take any paid ads or outreach. The non-profit didn’t have a budget for Facebook promoted posts, Google ads, or other traditional methods. Here are some of the changes I implemented to get the results:

Of course, content is key. I researched issues to create new webpages and then promote them on our three main social channels. I kept up on news in the field and posted the breaking special interest stories to our website news section and our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Relevant, interesting content is the foundation for success.
I used the quarterly e-newsletter to drive website traffic. Before I arrived, the articles were PDFs linked to from the email blast. I posted the articles as blog posts so that readers clicked through the website and see links to more information. I could also link to the blog posts from social media.
I reached out to partner organizations’ accounts. I increased our retweets, comments, likes, and replies to allied brands, giving us exposure to their fans and making them reciprocate by sharing our content as well.

It doesn’t take paid ads, but it does take time. Some strategies are about being more effective, but committing significant staff time to social media is the way to get the numbers.

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Posted in Diary

Tagged Social Media

What Can An Organization Do to Respond to Tragedy?

Posted on May 8, 2013 | Leave a comment

As many of my readers know, I lived in Boston from 2004 to 2012. I was deeply moved by the tragedy that happened there three weeks ago. The majority of my consulting clients live and work there, including @DorisRoach and @CaroleSacino. My sister-in-law wrote a beautiful piece on what it was like to be at home in Watertown during the manhunt.

Another one of my Boston-based clients is the New England School of Acupuncture, the oldest acupuncture college in the US. They did something really amazing to give back after the bombings, so I asked their president Sue Gorman (pictured below) to fill us all in.

Where were you on April 15 when you heard the news? What was your reaction?

Traditionally Marathon Monday, as we refer to it in Boston, is a major holiday with schools and offices closed. However due to NESA’s academic schedule, we have always remained open and so I was working on April 15th. Sometime in the early afternoon of that day I was told of bombings by the marathon finish line. The boyfriend of one of our staff members was working at the finish line as an EMT; so he began texting us updates regularly. Within minutes we knew something terrible had happened in Boston, just a few miles away from our campus.

Within two hours after the bombings and knowing that acupuncture can be a tremendous source for stress relief we posted on our Facebook page that we would offer free acupuncture in our student teaching clinic to anyone affected by the bombings. Over 8,000 visitors saw this post.

How is NESA responding to the tragedy?

By the end of Monday we knew we had to extend the time offered for free treatments and knew we needed help. Alumna Janette Reber began mobilizing alumni and other practitioners in the Boston area to provide treatments. Our initial idea was that we would have a variety of locations available to patients – in and around the Boston area and that NESA could be a suburban location for treatments. However given that many NESA students were on break for the week, I called Rebecca Schirber president of the Acupuncture & Oriental Medicine Society of Massachusetts for help. Simultaneously Diana Fried, the president of Acupuncturists Without Borders, reached out to me. Both offered to help mobilize acupuncturist volunteers to serve. Within a few more days NESA staffers Phuong Nguyen, Sheila Carroll and clinical faculty director Val Smith built a website traumarelief.nesa.edu to provide a mechanism for practitioners to volunteer their services and for patients to find access to free acupuncture treatments.

Why did you and the NESA team feel a need to get involved?

The marathon bombings and subsequent dramatic capture of one of the bombing suspects impacted a very wide spread part of the greater Boston area. Some of our own students, staff and faculty unfortunately witnessed many of these tragedies playing out in their own neighborhoods. Given the widespread ripple effect of the traumas, we felt the need to respond in the one manner that we could – to provide comfort and care to anyone affected by these tragedies. Within days we treated runners, first responders, bombing survivors, neighbors who witnessed gun battles, in our clinic.

How can acupuncture help trauma survivors?

PTSD protocol

Acupuncture has been very effective in treating a number of various ailments and pain. Among the many benefits is an acupuncture treatment protocol for relieving stress, specifically PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). The protocol uses five thin sterilized, disposable needles applied gently to five points on each ear (see attached photo). This treatment protocol has been used by Acupuncturists Without Borders (AWB) in past disasters like the earthquake in Haiti and more recently during hurricane Sandy with great success and providing much-needed relief for those in immediate distress. These treatments are fast, safe, effective and used by the United States military to treat PTSD.

What have been the results of the clinic so far?

During the ten days following the bombings nineteen NESA alumni volunteered their time in our student teaching clinic and provided care to sixty-two patients. On Monday April 29th students returned to school after their break; we continued to offer our free trauma clinic to anyone affected by the bombings. Students along with their clinical faculty advisors treated thirty-five patients in total last week. Over the course of our thirty-eight year history, NESA lived by a three-tiered mission to provide academic excellence, demonstrate a commitment to acupuncture research, and expand the use of acupuncture as a health benefit to the greater public health community. Therefore NESA has continued to offer free treatments to those affected by the bombings.

Thank you Sue and NESA for sharing this important information with the Communicationist blog and your volunteer services with Boston!

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Posted in Diary

Tagged Community Organizing, Consulting, Outreach, Teamwork

The Day After

Posted on April 16, 2013 | 5 Comments

To my friends waking up in the greater Boston area this morning,

What you do today is important.

I’ve learned a lot about trauma since I left Boston almost a year ago. While it has mostly been focused on the impact of sexual violence, I have heard presentations from enough trauma experts now to understand that bombings, rapes, and car crashes are all trauma and the brain reacts to trauma in the same way. What you do today matters because what you do within 24 hours of the trauma occurring has an enourmous effect on your brain long-term.

I’m not an expert or a doctor. My BU degree is in Spanish and I never took a psych class. But I want to share with you what I’ve learned in case it can help you.

Walk, move, exercise. Release the toxins, don’t let them stay in your body.

Drink water. Same reason as above.

Say something nice to someone. A bystander helping out a trauma victim will decrease the effects of trauma on that person.

Talk to someone. If you felt scared at all yesterday, tell someone. Don’t hold it inside because you think everyone else is feeling the same or has a closer connection to an injured person, or was closer to the bombing than you were at your home. Start getting it out there now.

Validate your trauma for yourself. You do not need to have been in Copley Square to have experienced trauma. My grandparents who were evacuated from their home on Boylston Street, my friend who was having lunch near Suffolk after celebrating her brother’s finish in the top 100 runners, the Boston Pride Committee members who are scared about what this means for their event, my aunt who was freaking out just wondering if maybe her husband and son had gone down to watch the runners, anyone who is living in Boston (OK, really Somerville/Cambridge/JP/Dorchester…) who felt afraid because they didn’t know if more explosions were coming in other parts of the city, anyone was hesitant to get on the T this morning — This is scary. Yes, others may have had their lives turned upside down more than you yesterday, but that does not take away from the fact that you lived through a traumatic event, too. Like many of you I also jump to the thought about how many people around the world live in this fear of bombings every single day, but that doesn’t change what you experienced yesterday either. As my great-grandmother who lived on Boston’s North Shore for 100 years would say, “When you cut your finger, it hurts you.”

Be safe and well. Take a walk on your lunch break if you can.

Love,
Sarah

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Posted in Diary

Tagged Outreach

When Ancient History Meets Crowdfunding a Mobile App

Posted on January 28, 2013 | Leave a comment

When I was going through some tough times, I read and re-read this book about gay history. It gave me this feeling of being connected to something bigger than me. I’ve traveled from Sappho’s birthplace on the island of Lesvos in Greece to Harvey Milk’s store in the Castro District of San Francisco following that feeling of connection to my community. This is a huge part of what inspired me to become an activist.

I know not everyone is interested in history and wouldn’t actively seek out websites about this information or proactively search for places that tweet about it. That’s why I want to create an engaging mobile app that will bring this rich history to the world in a new way.

The LGBToday app will feature a story from “today in history.” For example, if today were January 13, when you open the app you will see that on January 13, 1958, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on its first decision on a gay issue. For each event there would be a one-sentence description of the event, an image or video if available, a link to more information about the story, a cited source, a map of where in the world it happened, and more. For days with more than one event, one would randomly to be chosen to show up, but you could click to read the other(s). You can learn all about it at the fundraising page and the website. Of course, you can give the project a like and a follow, too.

I truly believe this project can help make some gay youth out there feel a little less lonely. Please donate and share the link to make sure that happens.

If you are a blogger or other press, please download the press release.

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Posted in Diary

Tagged Fundraising, LGBT, Press

12 Communicationist Contributions of 2012

Posted on December 12, 2012 | Leave a comment

Today on 12/12/12, I continue my annual tradition at looking back at my year of giving. I do this not to brag, but give some attention to the causes I care about and to hold myself accountable to make sure I always walk the walk and give back. You can read 11 Communicationist Contributions of 2011 to catch up.

I didn’t make a donation or volunteer my time to the Washington Animal Rescue League (WARL), but I helped them in their mission to rehome homeless animals. I adopted two cats (and paid their adoption fees) and am so happy to be giving them a home. I’m especially touched by Nemo’s story — WARL had a choice of either performing an expensive surgery to amputate his leg or give up on him and they chose to save him. When we visited the shelter for the first time he was recovering from his week-ago amputation and they were caring for him so well and we wanted to help. After a rough first month at home with many vet visits, he’s doing great with his little brother, Moo.

I attended Heartly House’s annual Walk A Mile in Her Shoes event. (Heartly House is a domestic violence and sexual assault center in Frederick, MD.) Men walk a mile in high heels to raise awareness and funds for violence against women issues. It was really one of the best events I’ve ever been to! I love seeing allies who don’t need to stick up for an underserved population doing it anyway. My pictures are here. They had a fun way to donate – Vote with your dollars for the best dressed man. I voted for a mustached man in red pumps.

I wrote about my January 29 speaking engagement in this blog post. I am so proud to have volunteered in this way and recommend it to anyone with a story to tell.

I had the opportunity to attend the National Sexual Assault Conference in Chicago during August. While I was there, I bought a T-shirt to support A Long Walk Home, an organization empowering girls who have survived violence.

I made a donation to support the Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary when I attended their vegan potluck Thanksgiving event in Poolesville, MD. There was a feast for the turkeys! Cute pictures of rescued farm animals are here.

I had somehow never heard of Movember before this year. My friend Matt kept posting about it on his Facebook wall til I clicked and was convinced to donate. It was actually my very first time giving to a men’s cause. (The idea is that you grow a mustache for the month of November to raise awareness and funds for prostate cancer.) When I went home for Thanksgiving I found out that my dad was participating and I ended up posting it to my own Facebook and sparking several more donations from Facebook friends.

This was my Kickstarter sponsorship of the year — An interactive theatre piece by my amazing writer friend Danielle Staubitz. She got funded!

This year I saw many individuals fundraising for their medical bills. I’m happy to see this trend of crowdfunding expanding in this way and wish I could have given to everyone. I made one small donation via GiveForward to the relative of a colleague undergoing cancer treatment.

A highlight of 2012 was my friend from Germany coming to visit the Americas. We toured Maryland, DC, Virginia, and West Virginia together, and then also a few days in Mexico! It was such a treat. We spent one night at Hotel Istirincha, which preserves land and wildlife. The state of Veracruz works with the hotel to help wild green sea turtles survive. My friend and I got to take part in releasing 100 baby turtles into the sea, an experience I will never forget.

I continued to re-loan my Kiva funds to individuals and groups on the site. I made a loan in January to the San Blas group from an organization I spent the summer of 2005 with, Fundacion Paraguaya. I also loaned to a women’s collaborative in Tanzania in September.

The organization I gave the most to this year was Marylanders for Marriage Equality, a coalition working to pass Question 6 in Maryland. I volunteered several hours during early voting days and Election Day in Bowie, MD and created a fundraising page that raised $270 from seven of my friends and family members. The emotional hours on the line and phone-banking were absolutely worth it.

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Posted in Diary

Tagged Fundraising, International, LGBT, Nonprofit Giving, Volunteering

How to Keep Your Communications Brain Happy

Posted on July 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

How does a communicationist stay organized? We’ve all got different methods but the important thing is to remember to have a way, any way. My communications calendar is a simple Google spreadsheet and once I created it, my brain was so much happier.

Let’s break it down. First, the medium of a Google spreadsheet. I like it because I can open it anywhere, there’s no risk of outdated versions floating around when I re-save, and I can share it with my multiple email addresses. The downside is that it isn’t a mobile app. I just couldn’t find the right one. I do have task list apps that could remind me of all of the different content to publish, but I haven’t found it to be worth my time to type it all out if I can’t sort and view the long-term calendar and other features I haven’t found all in one app.

The colors on the spreadsheet represent the type of medium: Red in Pinterest, blue is Facebook, and so on. That way I can look at groupings of clients sorted alphabetically (i.e. all of the RR are together) and then visually scan for blue for what else I should do while I’m on Facebook or another medium while I’m there.

Most of the cells are empty, but that doesn’t mean that nothing is happening on them. By default, each account is checked daily and updated if there is something newsworthy, something to reply to, etc. If there hasn’t been something requiring action, then I find something in my Google Alerts or news feed/home stream to share. In the case of MC PIN above, I wrote “repin” every day because it is a newly-created account and it is especially important to get it active and for me to prioritize it.

You may notice that no row has more than two “promos” in a week. The majority of your content should be interesting news from the topic area, not blatantly marketing yourself non-stop. Sneak in the links to your services and products every once in a while.

This keeps my brain happy not only by getting things out of my brain and into somewhere else, but it keeps me focus. If I feel like spending an hour on Pinterest when I should be writing a blog post, seeing that I get to repin away tomorrow (and that the post needs to be published tomorrow) helps keep me on track.

How do you organize your communications calendar?

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Posted in Diary

Tagged Consulting, Social Media