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Idealware updated one of its most popular articles in answer to the question: What are some broadcast email tools that do work well?

Email newsletters, action alerts, and/or fundraising emails are a cost effective way to communicate with constituents or members. However, it requires a coordinated plan and an organized communications calendar to manage the effort and analyze the effect of sending and tracking thousands of emails. Find out the thoughts of several technology experts on this topic and see what set of broadcast email tools might work for you.

The article includes details about:

• Inexpensive and straightforward emailing tools — Free and straightforward emailing tools that let you send plain text emails to an unlimited number of addresses.
• Online mass emailing tools — Hosted email tools, which typically allow you to manage your lists, create emails and view reports through a Web-based interface.
• Taking a more integrated internet strategies approach — For organizations that are also tracking their constituents’ actions, donations, and their activities on the website, you may need to think through how you track and integrate all this data. This includes considering software that can manage all of your constituent data and activities rather than using a separate broadcast tool. A number of online integrated tools handle a broad swath of internet features.
• Guidance on how to decide — What the important considerations are to keep in mind as you weigh your choices.

Idealware is a nonprofit organization which provides thoroughly researched, impartial and accessible resources about software to help nonprofits make smart decisions about solutions for their business needs. Idealware is aided by a community of experts, including Community IT Innovators’ Dan Shenk-Evans, who is one of their contributing authors.

With Clay Shirky’s popular opening keynote on the power of online communities and social media organizing (summarized with key quotes here), and dozens of sessions on social media related topics, NTEN’s Nonprofit Technology Conference was atwitter (with blog links and quotes in the twitterverse) with strategies and panels on integrating social media like Twitter and Facebook into effective online organizing and advocacy campaigns.

One session by John Kenyon, however, stood out by emphasizing the basics of successful online communications – the importance of eating your vegetables before you get to the dessert of playing with social media.  Based on a chapter from the NTEN book: Managing Technology to Meet Your Mission and featuring William Neuheisel of DC Central Kitchen and Jennie Anderson of AIDS.gov, this session was packed with useful tips and case studies on how to move your website and email from lackluster to inspiring.

A few takeaways:

• Use metrics (such as Google Analytics) to analyze what people are looking at on your website and what you can spend less time working on
• The 4 C’s of effective websites:
  • Credibility: You have less than 1 minute to establish your credibility as the public face of your organization.
  • Cultivation: Invite visitors to participate and join in your cause, rather than simply stating what you do. Build relationships.
  • Clickability: Clicks are interactions; how can you provide information in different ways and give people lots of opportunities to “interact?”
  • Content: Keep it real, current, and concise.
• Coordinate e-newsletter, fundraising, direct mail and website campaigns for maximum impact.
• Integrate stories and connect emotionally with your audience.

In a live-tweeted session on organizing online for positive change, Ben Rattray summed it up thus: “The killer app is the content.”  While having a sustained organizational presence on social networking sites can help build brand awareness, having an authentic, consistent message that makes a connection with potential supporters remains the key to successful non-profit campaigns.

Whether you need guidance on your website and email campaigns, or feel ready to dive into social media, CITI can help you develop an online strategy action plan to measure and increase the effectiveness of your organization’s online presence.

Thanks to Noah Scalin for bringing to my attention this article from Slate about the value of donating to advocacy organizations vs. those that provide direct service. While this isn’t directly about the return on investment for social media, I think it strikes a sidelong blow. Social media being, for now, more effective as an awareness tool than one resulting in direct returns (actions, donations). Good resources linked off of Sandy’s response later in the post.

Beth Kanter’s blog remains a hotspot for the discussion of the ROI for social media.