NZARC Blog

In a recent report by Nancy Schwartz, non-profits had this to say about their marketing efforts:

• 84% of organizations characterize their marketing messages as difficult to remember
• 76% of organizations feel that their messages connect with target audiences only somewhat or not at all
• When asked what is “the single greatest barrier to developing more effective messages” 28% said it was a low priority or that they were too busy with other tasks
• In response to the same question, an additional 27% of organizations said they don’t know the process or lack expertise in developing appropriate messages.

We regularly recommend Nancy’s blog Getting Attention as a way to keep up to speed with what non-profits can do about getting their marketing back on track. After all, as marketing and communications are one of the most important components for a non-profit, more needs to be done to get it right. 

For more about what you can do as a non-profit click here 

With Twitter now having over 100 million active users it is helpful to have some general tips about what and when to tweet.

For example mashable.com suggests that Twitter engagement rates for brands are 17% higher on Saturday and Sunday compared to weekdays. However, most brands aren’t taking advantage of this phenomenon and, on average, only 19% of the brands’ tweets were published on the weekend. They recommend that tweets be spaced out to include weekends as well as week days. A full copy of the report can be found here.

And, for those who are not using twitter – here are some tips to get cracking:

• Tweet in the first person sharing your thoughts, information or state of mind
• Check your replies and mentions, keeping in touch with those who are interested in you
• Take care of what you say and how you say it – it is on the internet forever
• Look at using a ‘URL shortner’ to help get the message to 140 characters
• Try twittering in various ways using different software
• Tweet it slow – quality is better than quantity

For more about these tips click here

We’d like to thank our delegates, speakers and sponsors attending the July 19 People byAssociation conference for contributing to a fabulous event.

The day was positively received by delegates representing both associations and charities - with 85% either satisfied or very satisfied and the same either very likely or likely to recommend this conference to others. With 100% of survey respondents agreeing that the content of the conference was appropriate and informative, we thought that one particular delegate comment was very encouraging… “this was the most productive conference I have been to in a long time. It was [both] practical and informative.”

Sessions were seen as being of an ideal length with great opportunities for networking and relationship building. Being in a space with individuals with “common goals [and] common values” allowed delegates to engage more with their peers in the comfortable atmosphere of The Parnell Trust Jubilee Building.

There have been great positive responses from delegates who attended and a feeling that the content presented was “well balanced”, “well organised” and offered a wide variety of “collaborative approaches between the sectors”.

For a conference wrap up, please click here.

Don’t forget to submit your organisation’s 2012/13 Community Organisation Grants Scheme (COGS) application if you’ve not already done so. 

The final day for applications is Wednesday 25 July 2012.