Five Ways to Recover from the August Doldrums

Summer finally draws to a close this week and if you've looked at your online figures for August, you'll probably notice a downward turn (unless your organization is in Denver this week). August is typically the low-water mark for most organizations in terms of visits, page views, donations, and actions. Your organization will need to come out swinging in September to make up for the lethargy.

Here are five things to consider for September:

Update Your Homepage - Where was that staff member who supposedly posted updates for your team? Oh yeah, he/she was on vacation and nothing has changed on the homepage since July(!). Even if you did make frequent updates this month, take the first week after Labor Day to beef up homepage content and graphics.  Start looking at features and services that will bring back repeat visits and attract new visitors.

Revisit that Calendar - Take a look at your production calendar again to see where you've been this year and where your organization is headed. What appeals, newsletters, events, and updates do you have planned for the rest of the year? What big items are coming up for November and December for year-end tactics? Get re-acquainted with your production schedule and get moving.

Get Social Again - Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Gather, Ning, Change.org — wherever you are in the social network world — say hi to everyone again. Post an announcement or news from your organization, kick-off a campaign, do a friend-raising activity, or just get out there and let people know your organization is back for the year.

Research, Redesign - Take the time to start looking at competitor's sites and communications, as well as what's coming up on the horizon. Take note, take screen grabs, visit NTEN and TechSoup, and start looking around at your own site. Why? Chances are these sites will be different by early next year, and yours might be, too. You might decide that 2009 will call for a fresh look, maybe even a redesign. Take the time now to start investigating the possibilities.

Think Engagement Strategies - While you're doing the research, start discussing next year's budget in terms of features and services. Is 2009 the year you build the Google Earth project? Use more videos and podcasts on the site? Build an interactive feature on your site for donation or events? Maybe a Facebook app? How is your organization communicating in an innovative and engaging manner and bringing people into your world? Don't just be clever or techy, be strategic. How can you communicate to get your best audience. And, start thinking now. The four months you have left will go very, very fast and before you know it, you'll be planning that early membership appeal or January newsletter.

Enjoy your last week of malaise, if you are so lucky.

Maybe the right answer is "Coal Miner"

Small talk with a web designer.

Source: Monster-Munch

The HIPAA Effect: Managing Your Online Data

When the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) became law in 2000, a lot of fundraising professionals in the health services industry began to worry. Eight years later, a lot of fundraisers within healthcare organizations and medical foundations still ask us about HIPAA because they simply don’t understand the law or how it will affect their fundraising processes. After being asked the same questions over and over again, we realized there was an opportunity to help development officers learn more about HIPAA by putting our thoughts together beyond a blog post.

Changing Our World has teamed up with Convio, Inc. on our new guide The HIPAA Effect: Considerations for Fundraising After the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. This guide is a great resource to learn more about HIPAA, how it affects offline and online fundraising data, and how to steer clear of potentially sticky situations.

The HIPAA Effect covers:

• The history of HIPAA and how it works
• Information from fundraising professionals on how to work within regulations
• Best practices for managing donors and online donor databases

It turns out that HIPAA hasn’t really hindered fundraising at all. Actually, it has helped how fundraisers gather information from patients. Most likely, your organization will never run afoul with these regulations. But, if you’ve ever had a question about what your organization can and can’t do under the HIPAA, then this guide is the perfect resource.

You can download a free copy of the guide-- right now -- by visiting Changing Our World's website at www.changingourworld.com.hipaa.

Mobile Blogging ... Who needs a Laptop or WiFi?

With the fast pace of the world only getting faster and more aspects of life going mobile, it was only a matter of time.  Everyone is familiar with the ability to surf the web and check email using smart phones, now it has moved a step further.  With the introduction of the iPhone 2.0 software and iPhone Apps for popular blogging tools such as TypePad and WordPress, you can not only view your site but update it as well. 

To illustrate this, I have actually written this post using the iPhone and the TypePad application while walking from our office building to the Metro station on my way home.  Writing between crossing signals and taking no time out of my day, I am easily able to add content, photos and links with very little effort at all.  This application has allowed me to turn otherwise wasted time into productive working time.

This is an important step in mobile development making news updates that much faster.  It use to be that I would need to find a wi-fi hot spot or plug in my air card, boot up my laptop and log in to type a post.  It was a hassle to say the least. If I saw something newsworthy that I wanted to write about it, then it had to wait until I could find a time and place to do all of this.  Now I can simply pull out my phone and type in my user name and password and use the keypad on the phone to write a post.

This move goes even further than blogging. Apple has provided their software development kit (SDK) to many online marketing, news and social networking agencies, many of whom have either developed or are in the process of developing applications with this same purpose.  I have already begun using include Flickr, MySpace, Facebook, Pounce, Twitter and even eBay.  I can't wait to see where this leads with other provides and mobile device manufactures.

With this growing range of mobile applications, organizations can now provide their members and donors a more real time update on the work they are doing and the results that are being produced.  By making it faster for the organizations to get the information out to those who need it you will greatly increase and produce faster results for online campaigns, marketing and their overall visibility.