Blog Categories
Brand
Brand is a fundamental issue for effective not-for-profit organisations
I dropped in to see a mate last week at his communications agency. Mark told me that his agency was doing much less ‘brand development’ work these days “because so many organisations don’t rate its impo...
Brand development for online start-ups needs purpose and discipline
Online start-ups are everywhere. I've been responsible for a few over the years myself. The internet is an exciting place. It's relatively inexpensive to start, it offers ample opportunity and virtually anyone can consider building a business from their...
Strategies for brand development are changing
In recent years there has been much debate about how communications and marketing are changing, with the most dramatic paradigm shifts coming from the impacts of new media. But what about the holy grail of brand development, which still appears on the surface to be impervious to the current turbulence?
It's raining on our tourism brand
I'm on holiday and its raining cats-and-dogs. It means that instead of aimlessly lounging around a swimming pool and strolling along the beach, we're finding shelter in cafes and bars wherever we go. It changes perceptions of a holiday resort - so...
Community Engagement
The Obama principle is a key to promoting a cause
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Community Engagement
Created: 10:07 PM, Wednesday 07 September, 2011
Comments: 0
The Obama principle is a key to promoting a cause 7 September, 2011 Today I delivered a workshop presentation in Auckland for the Fundraising Institute (FINZ). They run periodic regional day-long forums for not-for-profit and community people, called "...
All publicity is not good publicity
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Community Engagement
Created: 06:48 PM, Sunday 21 August, 2011
Comments: 0
The very public explosions emanating from the Adidas and Telecom bunkers this month tell a tale about corporate adjustment and discomfort in a new and very changed media environment. While the two cases are di...
Why brands need to think beyond themselves
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Community Engagement
Created: 09:03 AM, Thursday 28 April, 2011
Comments: 0
The new age of communication compels many to the idea that 'technology' is what it's all about. Generation Y – those born after the mid 1970s and up to about 2000 – are seen as at the centre of this orientation. But here's something interesting. A study by the Pivot Center in the US last year clearly shows that it's much less about technology with the answer often resting in cause marketing.
Rise to the challenges of the new Facebook Page Timeline
Last Monday I posted on the major changes to Facebook Pages, not to be confused with Facebook Profile pages (personal pages). These are the pages we use to connect with the world as a business, organisation or cause and the change is to Timeline, which no...
Time to come to grips with the revolution at Facebook
Facebook have just finished annoying people with their shift to Timeline on Personal Profiles, now they're about to do the same to Facebook Pages - many call them fan pages for organisations, causes and businesses. All Facebook Pages will be chan...
Changes at Facebook could blow it for the social media titan
Most Facebook users will have suddenly become aware of changes at the social media platform a few weeks ago. Facebook is a phenomenon with well over 500 million advocates worldwide. Much of the attraction is its easy familiarity, one which helps people see their pages as personal space, only shared with who they trust. But then along comes big bad Facebook with fiddles to everyone’s wall presentations and an offer to present peoples’ personal histories into a deep timeline.
Facebook is huge but Google still do great videos
It's the eve of New Year's Eve so this will be a short post – a day in the garden and sunshine means that I'm well into holiday mode. But a post from Facebook caught my eye tonight. It had a link to the Time Magazine website where they'd posted...
What you need to know to enjoy Facebook personal pages
We enjoy something more if the benefits of it are clear. Facebook for many is the most obvious social media platform, but it’s not always clear what it delivers. Down the page of this blog are 5 ways to use Facebook effectively and to therefore enj...
Facebook can be brilliant but confusing too
I've long believed that an important function of any website is to make it easy to use. Familiarity of structure and architecture contribute to this to a significant degree. Included in this is the terminology used to guide visitors. It's why I wonder ...
Create experiences and grow your Facebook fan page
There are some basic rules, which are similar to having a useful conversation face-to-face. For example, you should be interested, to be interesting, and ask people questions so that they feel involved and can respond. But the key to creating experiences for followers is about coming up with ideas – ideas that stimulate the imagination and are appropriate for your audience. This is how you can stand out from the crowd of also-ran pages that stagnate and clutter Facebook.
Governance
Social media policies for organisations
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Governance
Created: 07:16 AM, Thursday 04 November, 2010
Comments: 0
I recently had a Haight-Ashbury experience – 'boring-old-boardroom' meets 'the-brave-new-world'. Yes, I spoke to a group of company directors at Massey University on the subject of social media in governance. And no, they were far from old and b...
Social media raises important governance issues for not-for-profit organisations
As a technophobe, I love to tell people that the best way to overcome fears or ambivalence about social media is simply to jump in and participate – as Nike says; "just do it!" I say this, as much as anything, because social media is a reality that is revolutionising the internet and becoming an integral part of our lives, whether we participate directly or not.
Ideas and Innovation
Why genuine creative thinking beats group thinking
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Ideas and Innovation
Created: 10:22 PM, Saturday 25 February, 2012
Comments: 0
I may be biased but I think that communications and creative thinking are the human species most important attributes - perhaps along with opposable thumbs and an upright walking style.
If you're communicating, first have an idea
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Ideas and Innovation
Created: 09:52 PM, Sunday 06 November, 2011
Comments: 0
American inventor and TV personality, Ken Hakuta, once said, "Lack of money is no obstacle. Lack of an idea is an obstacle." That’s a quote I often give to charities desperately ...
A case for innovation and ideas in everything
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Ideas and Innovation
Created: 10:25 PM, Wednesday 12 January, 2011
Comments: 0
The historian and the physicist, the astronomer and the palaeontologist no doubt see their academic and professional discipline at the core of what it means to be human. The 'zen' of life and existence. Our species dominance can be attributed to such t...
Marketing Practice
Why? Good marketing hinges on just one word
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:14 PM, Monday 09 April, 2012
Comments: 0
A friend reminds me constantly that my favourite utterance is "serendipity". I guess it's because I'm so often struck by occurrences which seem to suddenly converge around a great truth or idea. An example. A recent discussion with a client had us ta...
Commitment and discipline is more important than ever in communications
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:30 PM, Tuesday 20 March, 2012
Comments: 0
I made the effort tonight to put in an appearance at my gym for a bit of overdue exercise. I find that if I make a regular effort I can maintain a healthy level of fitness and if I put in even more effort, I can even increase my fitness fairly easily. On the other hand, if I pull out for a while, even a week, the fitness level plummets and I seem to need triple the effort to get back to where I was.
Dating can be tough for poor communicators
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:42 PM, Wednesday 22 February, 2012
Comments: 0
Some years back I did some part-time tutoring at my old alumni, Massey University. Every week I would trundle myself off to a thoroughly enjoyable few hours with up-and-coming design students seeking a career in advertising.
How to put a price on a product or service
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 06:32 PM, Sunday 29 January, 2012
Comments: 0
The price of a product or service is a marketing issue as much as it’s an economic one, because it’s tied into the package of value and integral to building perceptions.
Don't get complicated or lazy in planning
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:13 AM, Monday 31 October, 2011
Comments: 0
When you plan properly, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ll get much better results from your communications activities and continue to build a cycle of improvements for your organisation or business. So why are so many people too complicated or lazy about their planning?
When communications control isn't enough
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 10:30 PM, Monday 03 October, 2011
Comments: 0
I have often blogged about the shift in marketing and communications thinking away from the old power-and-control model to one where freedom and flexibility is derigor.
Why a billboard is still a great media option
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:06 PM, Sunday 11 September, 2011
Comments: 0
Why a billboard is still a great media option Blog post: 11 September, 2011 A good thing about writing a blog is that I can express my bias, often. So here's one – I love a good billboard. Interestingly I think they've become even mo...
Be sorry and do it quick - PR rewards for cock-ups
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 03:29 PM, Tuesday 09 August, 2011
Comments: 1
In a moment I'm going to share with you a cock-up by one of my dear friends. Yes it was embarrassing and I am being a rat to my friend, but the good news is that she turned an embarrassing situation into gold. Keep reading. We all make mistakes. Yep, an...
Write a good sales letter and score more responses
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:31 PM, Sunday 24 July, 2011
Comments: 0
If you're like me I generally throw unsolicited letters in the bin. Even if I've had a preceding phone call, if a letter doesn't instantly grab me, its history. Every so often, I'll glance at a letter and something about it gives me the feeling that ...
Stop trying to sell and start a relationship
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:58 PM, Sunday 10 July, 2011
Comments: 0
A positive way the world of marketing and communications has changed is through impact of new media and our perceptions of 'relationships' and 'choice'. A classic example of this is the shift away from marketing companies thinking of their businesses ...
Conversations are important again
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:00 AM, Tuesday 31 May, 2011
Comments: 0
Back in darkest history when humans worked out how to communicate more efficiently, perhaps with smoke signals, it not only changed the way people communicated; it changed the way we thought. In the new world of the internet and social media, in many resp...
Communication basics often forgotten
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 08:45 PM, Sunday 08 May, 2011
Comments: 0
We all instinctively know that if we tip a bucket of ice down someone's pants, they're likely to respond in a predictable way. Yes we humans learn from an early age that if we treat people badly, they're likely to behave equally badly. A bucket of ice...
How we get the simple things in communications completely wrong
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 09:27 AM, Tuesday 08 February, 2011
Comments: 0
In communications seminars and workshops I often borrow an illustrative story from somewhere in my past. It goes like this. Imagine driving down a country road and spotting a sign on th...
Why we measure messages just because we can
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Marketing Practice
Created: 10:13 PM, Sunday 16 January, 2011
Comments: 0
In the online world it is often said that "content is king." It's another way of saying that unless a viewer is satisfied and rewarded by the content they read or use, all else fails. Many marketers and website operators have become obsessed with the ...
MySpace
Remember MySpace
MySpace was where much of the hype surrounding social media started. It picked up teenagers in droves and introduced them to personal online space, rather like living in a virtual bedroom complete with your own wallpaper and furniture. My daughter was add...
Not For Profit
FINZ 2012 Conference a ripper
Professional industry conferences are often dreary affairs, but I’m just back from one that certainly stimulated attendees and I think may have been an accelerator for the professionalisation of an industry...
My social media and P2P session at not-for-profit Conference in Auckland this May
As a long-time supporter of the Fundraising Institute of New Zealand, I'm thrilled to run a session at their 2012 Conference in Auckland in May. Social media can be overwhelming to learn but powerful when properly mastered. That's why I'm presenting "Soc...
Charities have little to fear and everything to gain from social media
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Not For Profit
Created: 09:22 PM, Sunday 05 February, 2012
Comments: 0
I'm spending plenty of time talking with charity organisations – most prefer to be called not-for-profit organisations. I'm talking to them about peer-to-peer fundraising (P2P), the kind that raises smaller donations from a host of supporting donors. It's a marathon rather than a sprint.
The pressure is on in 2012 for social enterprise and fundraising
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Not For Profit
Created: 10:21 PM, Tuesday 10 January, 2012
Comments: 1
We know times are still tough. But wars, famines and financial depressions have historically thrown up some dramatic examples of innovation and change. Needs-must, as they say. In easy times, why worry and why change? But when there is no choice but to wither, or get the thinking cap on and get inventive, guess what wins?
Selling your cause to the public
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Not For Profit
Created: 01:23 AM, Thursday 17 November, 2011
Comments: 0
Today is a good day, one that I know I'll really enjoy. That's because I'm delivering a workshop to a Fundraising Institute (FINZ) learning day. As the heading suggests, it's about "Selling your cause to the public".
Online fundraising and offline work together as one
Last week I gave a workshop session to an Arts Access Aotearoa Forum. During the discussion, following the previous session, the perennial topic of fundraising emerged. The sources of funding for not-for-profit and community organisations is getting tight...
Three fundraising trends for 2011
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Not For Profit
Created: 09:36 PM, Thursday 23 December, 2010
Comments: 0
My blog headline suggests I'll talk about gadgets and technical trends, but in 2011 we'll still need to come to grips with the basics of this exciting and still relatively new online environment. The opportunity that fundraising organisations, the comm...
Generosity stories now have an online channel
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Not For Profit
Created: 09:32 AM, Friday 03 December, 2010
Comments: 0
Today is another step-forward day in the 'generosity and giving' life of New Zealand with the launch of a new website. Giving For Good is close to my heart because it's operating from our Issues.co.nz and I think it represents a very useful step in rai...
World Vision campaign uses old and lazy thinking
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Not For Profit
Created: 09:30 AM, Monday 29 November, 2010
Comments: 0
We seem to be constantly pushed and cajoled these days into giving money to one good cause after another. The reasons are obvious – there are many good causes and many of the organisations behind them have become practiced at marketing. It's a comp...
New Zealand Riding for the Disabled takes small steps to success in social media
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Not For Profit
Created: 08:55 AM, Wednesday 10 November, 2010
Comments: 1
Early this year I met an inspiring man by the name of Guy Ockenden. Guy is the Executive Director of Riding for the Disabled (NZRDA), an organisation with a worthy mission statement: Confidence, independence and well being for people with disabilities, t...
Online Communities
A hard look at online communities
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Online Communities
Created: 11:20 AM, Tuesday 12 April, 2011
Comments: 0
Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s the notion of online communities was a hot topic and ripe for discussion around the circuit of internet jockeys. These days the term is hardly uttered, yet its original aspirations should be undiminished.
Online Strategies
Surf the social media wave with the right web platform
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Online Strategies
Created: 05:00 PM, Friday 12 November, 2010
Comments: 0
Using social media effectively for issues campaigning requires more than simply jumping onto Facebook and Twitter. First you need your own website platform to give the campaign a solid foundation and place where you can orchestrate activity. To explain, ...
Political Campaigns
How to win a local government campaign
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Political Campaigns
Created: 06:18 PM, Sunday 24 October, 2010
Comments: 0
Barak Obama’s 2008 campaign demonstrated to any aspiring politician that online engagement changes the game. It is a process of incremental gain where voters are invited into conversations that lead to viral advocacy, lucrative fundraising, organisational support and ultimately to significant gains at the ballot box.
Public Relations
Little Nosh supermarket draws PR clanger from grocery giants
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Public Relations
Created: 09:29 PM, Wednesday 08 February, 2012
Comments: 0
A small supermarket chain Nosh threw a good marketing move on its competition this week by announcing a cut in its price on milk for this month – down to $2 from $4 on a two-litre bottle. Nosh claimed concern about spiralling milk prices and the result that milk was being consumed less, as their motivation.
A crisis tests good official communications
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Public Relations
Created: 02:03 PM, Sunday 21 November, 2010
Comments: 1
A good crisis is a time when the media feed on any available information. While that provides a useful and primary source of publicly available information, it doesn't necessarily provide the most relevant and timely information, in part because the media are generally businesses operating their own agendas. For example, relevant and timely information isn't always content that 'sells'.
Catching up with the social media revolution in public relations
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Public Relations
Created: 10:27 PM, Sunday 31 October, 2010
Comments: 0
Public relations planning and activity has become almost ubiquitous in the modern world. Traditionally much of this activity is focussed on managing issues through mainstream media outlets, such as press, radio, television, etc.
Search Engine Optimisation
More website traffic - the dummies guide
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Search Engine Optimisation
Created: 08:20 PM, Sunday 01 May, 2011
Comments: 0
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is an art and science that is often deserving of professional advice and support, but for many website owners there are some important but basic things they can do themselves - see our ADVISOR page More website traffic.
Driving more traffic to your website is smart business
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Search Engine Optimisation
Created: 10:23 PM, Monday 13 December, 2010
Comments: 0
If your website could be thought of as a piece of real estate, say for example a retail shop, you'd likely pay a premium for a shop location that attracts thousands of visitors and customers coming from anywhere in the world. But better still, what if th...
Social Media
4 steps to get cracking in social media
Those who think that social media is ubiquitous should be reminded of a recent article in Mashable that reckons 50% of adults in the US aren't using the phenomenon. My guess is that it's similar in New Zealand.
Rating the big three social media platforms
Rating the big three social media platforms How should we rate the general effectiveness and efficiency of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? The true answer is that it really depends on what we want to achieve. But let’s not sit on the fence...
Why video is paving the social media trail
The invention of the moving image created a revolution in entertainment and communications 100 years ago, which continues to evolve and thrill to this day. So it's hardly surprising that video is becoming the major mover in online and social media commun...
Communicate for freedom
In the internet's early rising tide days of the early 1990s, I recall someone saying that the internet is about "freedom". It's been a word that has had me thinking about the meaning of media and communications freedom ever since. It seems obvious. T...
New Zealand's darkest hour and the bright light of social media
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Social Media
Created: 09:43 AM, Monday 28 February, 2011
Comments: 0
The massive impact of social media on our brave new world is most starkly seen in times of major public trauma. This week's Christchurch earthquake is demonstrating just that. The uprising in Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East largely fuelled, it is...
Strategy Development
The path to your goals is rarely a direct route
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Strategy Development
Created: 08:06 PM, Sunday 19 February, 2012
Comments: 0
Yesterday as I scrolled through my Facebook Newsfeed I spotted this little scribble from HootSuite. It struck me as a perfect illustration of the reason why communications and community building strategies need to have in-built iterative and correcting processes. In other words, not everything goes exactly to plan so... you need to plan for that.
Trends
Stay abreast of communications trends
I’m a declared technophobe when it comes to gadgets and technical stuff. That may seem strange given that I run FRESCO, a creative and technical communications and development organisation. But to be honest, I use it as a small badge of honour in th...
Website Development
Your website design is critical to success
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Website Development
Created: 08:55 AM, Friday 02 December, 2011
Comments: 0
A good website is one that functions for the purpose, appeals to its audience and has content that delivers. All this assumes it has easy usability for the visitor and good self management for the owner.
A shopping website should be just that... a shop
Author: Fraser Carson
Category: Website Development
Created: 07:54 PM, Wednesday 17 November, 2010
Comments: 1
My company, FRESCO, has just launched a new website for Skylight (a children's support trust). We're particularly proud of it because we believe it represents a step forward in shopping website capability.
