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The Direct Mail Addiction: Why Nonprofits Must Wean Themselves off Postal Mail as a Mass Medium

I'll be teaching a short seminar in a couple weeks, entitled Money on the Table, that describes the ROI-based postcard method for transitioning stakeholders to email communication. In the course of preparing for that workshop, I realized that although I've been emphasizing the billions of dollars that civil society spends on printing and postage as my main concern, in fact there is something far more important at stake. I describe this in: The Direct Mail Addiction - Why Nonprofits Must Wean Themselves off Postal Mail as a Mass Medium. Posted: 9/4/08; 6:34:24 PM #

A Different Kind of Annual Report from the Knight Foundation
	The Knight Foundation has published a different kind of annual report. In addition to the usual PDF (although a very accessible 12 pages), they have added an presentation, a feedback form, and a variety of other features designed to make it more suited to online perusal and, importantly, online interaction. Posted: 9/2/08; 8:10:07 PM #

How Can I Improve This by Making It Social?

Although all his examples are commercial and I worry about the limits of his method, Augie Ray makes an excellent point when he looks at a series of online marketing techniques and asks of each one: How can I improve this by making it social? The overall message is a useful one: Don't be too worried about having some overall "Social Media Strategy". Instead, look at everything as an opportunity for social dimensions. Posted: 9/2/08; 7:51:04 PM #

What Are People Actually Doing On The Web?

Melanie Lindner of Forbes summarizes a recent Forrester survey on the most popular online activities. The results are a little incoherent, especially in terms of the implications that the popularity of certain activities somehow correlates to the amount of time spent on them. Nevertheless, the overall lesson is the classic one: People are on the Internet primarily to interact, not just to consume. If you're treating them as mere readers, you're making a big mistake. Posted: 9/2/08; 6:28:59 PM #

Brainstorming for Stories

Narrative is a powerful human force. On the one hand, stories tap into and reveal a great deal about people's quest for identity and affinity. On the other hand, stories can obscure the systems perspective that might allow people to break out of old patterns. So, it's with some interest that I read Jeffrey Baumgartner's excellent article on the use of narrative in brainstorming. If you're looking for some ways to spice up those events where you are bringing people together for innovation, I recommend that you include this in your toolkit. Posted: 9/2/08; 6:01:25 PM #

Help Me Choose the Most Compelling Material at The Authentic Organization

As you know, I'm working on a book proposal for The Authentic Organization (or whatever its successor title turns out to be). Recently, I got some great help from some readers advising me on related books, so I thought I would turn to you again with a request for feedback. I need to select the most compelling material so far at the site. Will you help? Just email me or make a comment at the site. I will give credit to everyone. Posted: 8/27/08; 4:00:23 PM #

Less is More: Personal Empowerment in the Age of Information Overload

It was great to read Marshall Kirkpatrick's list of objections to social media, because it seems like many of them are variants on the "I'm too busy" excuse, with a heavy flavor of information overload. It's great timing, because we've just scheduled our next live seminar on that very topic: Less is More: Personal Empowerment in the Age of Information Overload will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 8th, 2008. The workshop takes an aggressive, systems-perspective to the problem and I suspect much of the advice will both surprise and delight the participants. Check it out! Posted: 8/26/08; 4:16:14 PM #