We have a serial killer here at beachdog.com.  Yes, Professor Plum, it’s Keith, in the tulip patch, with the biodegradable soap.  Our organic, peace-loving tulip master has become a murderer of aphids.   But that isn’t the point of this post.

We’re proud that two of our fine web team will be on stage soon in the Peninsula Players production of “Laura”, a murder mystery in three acts.   Join us in supporting our own Karl and Sabrina and enjoy some great community theater!

Download a print-friendly pdf: laura-poster4.pdf

[caption id="attachment_1006" align="aligncenter" width="525" caption="Keith, tending his tulip bed. "][/caption]

Now that Keith has <ahem> retired from beachdog.com, he’s got a little time to put into his gardening and landscaping passions.  Last fall, he planted 765 tulips in the bed you see here and another 235 in the bed behind the sign and we’re all enjoying the fruits of his labors.

It has been so nice to have so many of our friends and neighbors honk, wave, stop to photograph and/or come in to say ‘thanks’, stopped him in the grocery store and otherwise let Keith know what a beautiful thing he has created for us all.  Today, we found this lovely note on our door:

Thank YOU, mystery writer, and each of you who have appreciated the show.  Where else do people live with neighbors as awesome as our own Peninsula community?

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Beacon Charters & RV Park has been a customer for many years, for brochures, business cards, website, advertising and more.   The website has stood the test of time in terms of design and content but, being “old fashioned” html-driven site, it wasn’t meeting the needs of an increasingly dynamic and interactive customer base.

Owner Mike Cassinelli was ready to make regular site updates himself, and he was in a hurry to get the site into a position to easily do that.  Because the design itself was still working for Mike, and it lent itself well to a conversion to WordPress, Sabrina was able to give him a great price and a super-fast turnaround.  In fact, she completely rebuilt the site with less than one week from initial contact to completion.

Customers won’t notice any changes.  In fact, the site looks exactly the same.  But now, because it is driven by blog software, Mike can easily update the site through any web browser and he’s in control.  No waiting on us for updates.  No incurring bills for making changes.  He’s thinking of adding a blog page down the road to use as a resource for people looking for charter fishing info & updates and to increase his marketing/search engine optimization value. This will be easy to incorporate into his site when he’s ready.

If you know Mike, give him a pat on the back for making this smart and affordable decision and encourage him to get blogging!

If you’re involved with the non-profit sector, you are likely already aware of networkforgood.com, charitynavigator.com and guidestar.org.  If not, here’s the quick version:  NetworkForGood is a place for anyone to make a donation to your non-profit.  Hold onto that thought because we’re coming back to it.  CharityNavigator is a rating service.  It’s important for you to know what rating your organization has and, if it isn’t good, how to fix that.    GuideStar, you may be surprised to learn, has all your financial and other public information online for potential donors to review.

I’m going to assume that you’re going to find out what these three sites are saying about you and do the legwork to update and/or correct as needed.  Then we can sink our teeth into how to use these great sites to benefit your non-profit!

You’ve seen me ramble about FaceBook, Twitter and other social networking sites, for use in marketing your business.  If your business is a ’cause’, there are some great tools made just for you!  Here’s a personal story to illustrate:

It’s not much of a secret that Keleigh loves birthdays.  I’m kind of over the top about it, actually, with a personal life goal to actually know the birthdays of the people in my world that I can have one to celebrate every day of the year (Please comment on this post with yours!).    The funny thing is, when you enjoy celebrating other people’s birthdays, most people feel the need to reciprocate, which is unfortunate.  I say so because, as much as I’m completely hedonistic about my own birthday, I really don’t need anyone else to be.    Truth be told, my own annual, month-long celebration of life has transformed from a personal ritual of taking inventory and setting goals for the coming year into a delightful, if out of control, series of lunches, teas, dinners, parties, surprises, presents and other expressions of love and joy.  It’s quite humbling.  And fun.  But I digress.

As President of our local no-kill animal shelter, the South Pacific County Humane Society (SPCHS), I spend a little time each week looking for ways to improve our online presence, our public relations, our grant and other fundraising opportunities.  This week, I decided to use the ‘Causes’ application of FaceBook to set up a cause for SPCHS.  Most of the time when I sign the group up for some online program, it’s under a “can’t hurt; might help” philosophy.

IN this case, setting up the cause took just a very few minutes.  Why?  Because FaceBook already knew everything they needed to know about the SPCHS.  They have a connection with GuideStar, which provides all that information from the tax forms the organization files.  As part of the setup process, I was asked to invite my friends to join the cause.  Cautiously, I chose twenty or so I knew wouldn’t be offended by my plea, and said yes to FaceBook’s request that I post my cause to my profile.

Happily having spent 5 minutes of my life and feeling quite pleased with the small investment for my do-gooder endorphin hit of the day, I was content to move on.

The next thing I knew, I found an email in box from the ‘Causes’ application.  It said,

Happy (Almost) Birthday!

Thanks to Facebook, in two weeks all of your friends will see that it’s your birthday. Instead of just writing on your wall, or giving you something you don’t need, what if they had a chance to help a cause you believe in? Whether you want to raise money for clean water in Ethiopia, vaccinations for children in Haiti, or a safe home for a puppy in Mississippi, with a Birthday Wish your friends can give in honor of your special day.

Make your Birthday Wish today: Get Started (link) – Learn More (link)

Have a very happy birthday,
The Causes Team

I’m always looking for ways to celebrate my birthday where friends can participate if they like and needn’t feel pressured if it’s not their thing.   Like I said, it’s really okay with me if people ignore MY birhtday.  I just like to celebrate theirs!  So, the thought of asking pals to donate their greeting card money to my cause instead of buying that over-priced Hallmarkian (or snarky!)  sentiment, sounded kind of fun.

Within minutes, I had filled out the online form.  FaceBook is very good about walking you through a painless process to get things set up.  They call it my “Birthday Wish“:

I’m serious that it only took minutes.  If you don’t have answers to the questions, they give you bulletted options to choose from.  You don’t have to even think!  Again, I carefully selected a handful of friends to tell about my wish, crossed my fingers that nobody was going to feel pushed or offended, and thought no more about it.

When next logging into email, I was greeted by the announcement that six of my friends had “joined the cause” and two had made cash donations.  Wow!  That was fast!  There was also an email from FaceBook with information on how the money part works, which is super straightforward:  Once a month, networkforgood.com uses the information from guidestar.org to send a check to the organization, with 100% of what was donated.  Poof.  Done.

I fired off a quick note to the organization’s treasurer so she’d know what I had done and how to get the donor information the organization is required by law to track, then logged into my cause, where I found my very own ACTION CENTER.   Oooh.  Great name.  I feel so official and in charge.   In my action center, there is a list of everyone I’ve invited.  At the top it tells me who has joined the cause and notes a donation, if there was one.    This is the best part for we fundraisers:  It also tells me whether I’ve thanked these supporters and donors and gives me a button to take care of that important detail.  Clicking lets me give folks thanks or props on their profile page, which not only sends my gratitude but also further promotes the cause.  Talk about a win-win.

The action center also has links to remind anyone I’ve invited that hasn’t joined, and the ability to keep inviting my friends, promote the cause with an ad, and so on, and so on.  It’s fundraising 101, all neatly tied up with a bow and with minimal time investment on my part.  Nice!

But does it work?  After all, if I’ve not raised awareness and funds for my cause, the whole effort is nothing more than a fun exercise.  Well… 4 days later I’ve lost any shyness I had to start.  I’ve invited all 100-ish of my FaceBook friends to support my cause.  20 of my FaceBook friends have joined the cause and 5 have made donations, totaling $105.  The 20 have exposed an additional 1200-ish people to the cause through their wall posts.  One of those people has joined the cause.  And so the web is built.

Considering I’ve spent far more time writing this post than I have setting up and managing the cause, I’m delighted.

And humbled.

Aren’t birthdays great?

 

That’s the question I’ve been asked time and again since last week’s workshops on social networking.  George Sharp sent me a link to a blog post that addresses the question.  Check out Steve Miller’s blog for the article: www.twohatmarketing.com

We’ve also been doing some one-on-one consultation and small group training for clients on managing the social networks for their business.  Give us a call or zap an email if you’re interested.  360-642-4431 or webmaster@beachdog.com