The Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers’ Teen Parent School Program a Success
We’re proud to work with our client The Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers in Waterville for so many reasons. This year, we were proud to spread the word about the success of their Teen Parent School Program, a program that has been helping young parents for more than 39 years. This spring the program graduated 7 teens, including 2 fathers.
Pictured from left to right: Graduates Brianna Bernier and Leah Broulliet along with Sharon Abrams, executive director of The Maine Children’s Home, graduate Kelsey Marcia and Jana Burgoyne, teacher of the Teen Parent School Program
Earlier this month, The Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers awarded graduates Brianna Bernier, Leah Broulliet, and Kelsey Marcia with $1,000 scholarships at a Teen Parent School Program celebration luncheon at Joseph’s Fireside Steakhouse.
Next year our agency is looking forward to helping The Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers celebrate the 40th anniversary of their Teen Parent School Program as they continue to help young parents in Maine succeed.
Click here to learn more about the Teen Parent School Program at The Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers.
The Value of a Strategic Marketing Communications Plan
Marketing can be expensive, especially if you have no idea where it’s taking you or what you are getting in return for your investment.
I’ve seen way too many companies and organizations flying by the seat of their pants when it comes to their marketing. They tend to do the same things they’ve always done, like advertise in the Yellow Pages or sponsor the local Little League team, in the hopes that these things will get them the results they’re after.
You’ve heard the definition of insanity, right? It’s doing the same thing over and over again expecting to get a different result. Does your company’s marketing program fit this definition? I hope not.
When it comes to nailing down specific, measurable goals that will direct a marketing effort, most organizations don’t even know what kind of results they want. Just hoping to create more business is not specific enough. For the past 14 years, my agency has been developing strategic marketing communications plans, branded The Marshall Plan™, to help our clients develop attainable marketing goals and the tools needed to successfully achieve them. Over the years, we have developed plans for many different industry sectors, including non-profit, information technology, banking, government, legal, tourism, academia, economic development, and more.
We’ve witnessed some amazing results with these plans for numerous reasons, namely:
- The three-month process brings together the key stakeholders of an organization (management team, board of directors, front-line staff people) to work together with NMC to carefully define their goals, determine their realistic marketing budget and decide what resources can be allocated to achieving the goals. For many organizations, having an outside agency impose this process is exactly what they need to make crucial decisions that will guide the organization into the future.
- The process starts with a three-hour Discovery Meeting during which the NMC team guides stakeholders through a thoughtful discussion about goals, strategy, tactics and resources.
- Having goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely is just plain SMART. The Marshall Plan™ process includes SMART goal setting.
- The process also includes a thorough competitive analysis, SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats), and analysis of what has and has not worked in the past.
- A detailed list of tactics (social media, website restructuring, media relations, marketing, advertising, public outreach, sales, and more) designed to reach specific goals is created and vetted by the group during a mid-term review meeting.
- During the final four to six weeks of the process, NMC finalizes the tactics based on feedback received at the mid-term meeting and develops a timeline, budget, measurement dashboards and a variety of marketing tools such as media lists, press release templates, and stakeholder contact lists that will enable our client to hit the ground running when it comes to implementation.
- The final meeting is a time to review the plan, celebrate the accomplishments and make some big decisions about next steps. Every plan is designed so it can be either implemented by NMC, the organization itself, or another agency.
Nancy Marshall, principal of Nancy Marshall Communications
The Marshall Plan™ ensures your marketing dollars will be well invested rather than just spent. It serves as a highly detailed road map toward successful growth for any business or nonprofit. In the 14 years we’ve been creating Marshall Plans™, we have seen organizations totally embrace the process and the opportunity to improve their marketing and communications.
It is extremely rewarding for me as an agency owner to work with a client on one of these plans which, if fully utilized, offer guaranteed success in helping an organization grow and prosper.
Lunder-Dineen Sponsors Successful Theater of War Production
On Monday night NMC’s Renée Black and Erika Bush traveled to Orono to support our client Lunder-Dineen Health Education Alliance of Maine.
Lunder-Dineen sponsored a performance of Theater of War, produced by Outside the Wire. The performance used a dramatic reading of Sophocles’ Ajax as a way to spark conversation among the audience in a panel discussion about the psychological impact of war on veterans, their families and communities.
The Lunder-Dineen team hosted a successful Theater of War production on Monday evening at The University of Maine at Orono.
The performance featured David Strathairn (Lincoln; The Bourne Ultimatum; Good Night, and Good Luck) who expressed, “From the beginning, we knew we had something special. Anyone who has ever been in the room can testify to that.”
Other actors included Erik Moody, Dustin Tucker, Patricia Buckley and Rob Cameron. The panel discussion was facilitated by retired Brigadier General Loree Sutton.
To learn more about Lunder-Dineen and about programs they’re bringing to a community near you, please visit www.mainehealtheducation.org.
Lunder-Dineen Health Education Alliance of Maine in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital is a nonprofit organization that provides high-quality, CME/CE-certified, evidence-based health education to the citizens of Maine using needs assessments, innovative learning methodologies and expert faculty from within and outside of Maine. www.mainehealtheducation.org
Empowering Young Women at 18 Years Young
Founder of Girls Above Society, Lauren Galley
The quest for perfection is one that young people face each and every day. We all went through middle school and know about the pressures that come with growing into your own skin. This week’s Monday Maine Maven Lauren Galley, at 18 years young, has developed a successful career as a working model/actress, radio show host, blogger and, most importantly, a mentor for young women through the nonprofit she founded, Girls Above Society.
Girls Above Society provides mentorship and awareness surrounding the pressures girls face on a daily basis, and works to promote strong leadership skills. Lauren says she was inspired by her own experiences in middle school and high school to start the organization. She adds, “I want to empower girls to accept who they are—to be their best, be healthy, and have the confidence to go after their dreams!”
Lauren has pursued her dream as an actress and model. She grew up in theater with her mother working as a director, and transitioned into film beginning as an extra. Since then, she has been on ABC Family’s “The Lying Game,” and NBC’s “CHASE” as well as national commercials such as Fox Sports and Jarritos. Currently, she has two films in post-production, “Matt Mercury Movie” directed by Bill Hughes and “The Making of a Serial Killer” directed by Russell Miller.
An additional creative outlet for Lauren has been writing. After founding Girls Above Society, she realized that being present and available was important. She created Twitter and Facebook accounts, along with a blog. She adds, “Blogging is a new thing for me, but when I feel inspired I also feel the need to write. I focus on creating images with motivating quotes, since that’s what teens like and enjoy sharing.”
Girls Above Society is a nonprofit that focuses on empowering young women.
It is appropriate that Lauren would choose to focus on teenagers since that’s when she was inspired to create her nonprofit. She says there was a lot of pressure to conform and she realized that she was incredibly lucky to have the support system she did, but she also realized that wasn’t true for everyone saying, “I would see so many girls and friends trying to live up to the unrealistic expectations created by the media—magazine covers, reality TV shows and celebrities.”
During that time, Galley had the opportunity to live in Waterford, Maine, and she says, “Having lived in the big city my whole life, I found it so beautiful and really loved the small town feeling. I found it surreal that everyone knows each other—there are literally no strangers!” That sense of community is something that has stayed with her even though she no longer calls Maine home.
The Maine experience impacted Lauren and she is currently partnering with Camp Waziyatah in Waterford, as a part of the Empower a Girl campaign. The camp is known as the location of Disney Channel’s hit reality camp series, “Bug Juice.” Waziyatah shares many of the same values as Girls Above Society—they teach kids to respect themselves with the hope that they will build a healthy image of themselves.
Galley’s mission in establishing self love is evident in her choice to be an ambassador for Free2Luv, hosting their Web segment, Free2BeYOU. Free2Luv’s motto is, “Take a stand to spread love and to end bullying.” In her Free2BeYOU segment, Lauren will be hosting Q&A sessions with tips for dealing with bullies and peer pressure, as well as hosting contests and giveaways to encourage participation. Galley says, “I hope to share, inspire and make a difference.”
To learn more about Lauren and how you can get involved, check out her website at http://www.girlsabovesociety.org/.
KVYMCA Goes Social
KVYMCA CEO, Mark Yerrick
Organizations such as the YMCA and Boys & Girls Club are prominent within their communities for families and teens—promoting positive self-image and high self-esteem for young adults. The local Kennebec Valley YMCA has the same goals, and CEO Mark Yerrick says, “I am honored to be able to work with people dedicated to improving their community.”
Yerrick first joined the KVYMCA as a member in 1986, and his children learned to swim at the old location on Winthrop Street, next to the Augusta courthouse. By the 1990’s he was elected to the Board of Directors and served one three-year term, and it was only natural that he would apply for the CEO position when it became available in 2008.
Since beginning his role as the CEO in June of 2008, Mark says that social media has played an increasing role in the way the organization connects with their community. “We have to reach out to consumers in the way they want to be reached. The days of phone calls, direct mail and newspaper advertising are dwindling. Social media is quickly become the best resource for us,” he says.
Nonprofit organizations like the KVYMCA are limited when it comes to funding advertising campaigns, which is why social media is increasingly vital to their success. Yerrick says, “The volunteers on our marketing committee are a huge asset to us. They have worked on developing our online presence—we now use our Facebook page to announce special events, and to build our membership.”
The most influential marketing tool available to the KVYMCA comes from Olympian and Maine native, Julia Clukey. Last year, she developed Julia Clukey’s Camp for Girls, a two-week program that promotes healthy relationships between girls of all ages. Mark says, “Julia has been involved at every level—from training with other counselors, planning the curriculum, and assisting us with interviewing potential staff members. Her enthusiasm is exciting for all of us!” Last year, Clukey’s camp was incredibly successful bringing in more than 90 girls for that program alone and they are hoping for an even greater turnout this summer since Julia will be heading to the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
Mark Yerrick and Julia Clukey announce Julia Clukey’s Camp for Girls program last year.
The most challenging part of running a successful nonprofit organization like the KVYMCA is finding balance in the multiple hats each person has to wear every day. This is a challenge Mark has willingly accepted and credits an incredible team and Board of Directors for the success of their programs and facility. He says the key to success comes from the team as a whole stating, “You have to surround yourself with quality staff members that are experts in their fields. There is nothing more valuable than the professional men and women who give their time to assure that the KVYMCA is a quality organization for our community.”
To learn more about membership and to see how you can participate in their upcoming programs, please check out their website at http://www.kvymca.org/programs.php, or like them on Facebook today https://www.facebook.com/kvymca?fref=ts.
Strutting Their Stuff
Kennebec Valley Humane Society Executive Director, Hillary Roberts (image via KVHS Facebook page)
Community involvement is the key to success for any local nonprofit, and social media has played a major role in the continuing success of the Kennebec Valley Humane Society (KVHS). This week’s Monday Maine Maven and KVHS Executive Director Hillary Roberts says, “Educating the public on what we do and raising money toward our efforts is very important.”
Almost two years ago Roberts was featured on our blog and discussed how the social media movement was positively impacting their organization through donations of time, money and just about anything else they might need. Since that time social media, Facebook in particular, has only improved and with that so has the strategy KVHS uses to spread their message.
Currently, they have a team of seven people that handle the Facebook page and Roberts says, “We only have two rules: the posts must be positive and they must be accurate.” Their most popular posts are about their adoptable dogs, cats and other pets, and of course the happy-endings posts about past adoptions.
KVHS is currently accepting submissions for their annual Paws in the Park & Mutt Strut Art Contest. Winning submissions will be used as posters, t-shirts, and more to promote their Paws in the Park event.
Hillary says the power of Facebook for their organization is unbelievable stating, “It’s amazing to reach thousands of people to tell them about adoptable animals, or a special event we’re having through a single post. Even better? It’s free!” She adds, “We have even seen an increase in the distance people will travel to come and see a potential pet having seen them online first.”
This past Saturday, KVHS hosted a successful Strike Out Animal Abuse Bowl-a-thon at 1-7-10 in Augusta. On Saturday, May 18, 2013 they will be hosting their 20th Annual Paws in the Park & Mutt Strut—an all day family and pet-friendly event at Capitol Park. This year’s event will include the following activities:
- Animal nutrition workshop with Dr. Judy Herman
- The first annual KVHS Best in Show competition
- Dog micro-chipping and nail trimming
- Food vendors
- K9 Police and Agility demonstrations
- Raffles, contests, and more
Events like the Mutt Strut and Bowl-a-thon are essential to raising awareness to the various programs offered by the KVHS; such as their volunteer and foster programs, micro-chipping, animal nutrition and more.
Roberts has a lifelong love of animals and believes that regardless of how you find the next furry member of your family, the most important part of the decision should be based around research. She adds, “You have to consider your lifestyle and figure out what kind of pet will best fit that lifestyle, and if you do adopt, know that your new family member is grateful for the second chance!”
To learn more about the Mutt Strut check out the Facebook event page www.facebook.com/events/497132327019644/, or see their adoptable animals on the KVHS Facebook page, www.facebook.com/KennebecValleyHumaneSociety. To speak to Hillary directly, you may email her, director@pethavenlane.org.
28 Ways to Use PR to Drive Traffic to your Website
Nancy Marshall, principal of Nancy Marshall Communications
I started doing public relations in the 1980s when we used a mimeograph machine to copy our press releases then mailed them out in envelopes with postage stamps on them. Today we distribute them by email and share them on social networks. Have we come a long way since then or what?
The power of the Internet to massively increase our public relations footprint has grown exponentially since then and is still growing every day. The challenge is to leverage the power of the Internet with a well thought-out strategic plan that includes defining our messages, defining our audiences and figuring out the best methods to connect our messages with our audiences. Just because we have the ability to email a press release to thousands of journalists doesn’t mean that we should do so. That’s why it’s important to have a PR plan before you start spinning your wheels generating content and randomly disseminating it everywhere.
Today, I am going to share my 28 ideas about how to use PR to drive traffic to your website. Each and every day, the most important thing is to keep your website at the top of your own mind so you can explore new ways to share your Web address. At the same time, be sure to keep your website content up to date, because the search engines do not want to send people to a site that is outdated or irrelevant.
Always be thinking about how to improve your site by adding new content that is remarkable, and be watching your Google Analytics metrics to see how people are using your site. The bounce rate is a key indicator as to whether your site is appealing to visitors or not. If you are spending time and money to send people to your site and they are immediately clicking away, you have a serious problem that needs to be corrected before you send more visitors to the site.
There are two main ways to generate traffic to your site: attracting them by having optimized key words, and sending them there by having links from other sites or listing the URL on printed pieces. In this article, I’m going to address both: attracting visitors and driving visitors to your website.
Here are my 28 ideas, and I’m sure you’ll have plenty of your own ideas once you get the creative juices flowing! Press releases sent to business publications and shows on TV and radio, including a link to your website. Make sure you are announcing something newsworthy such as hiring a new employee, winning an award, or making a speech at a significant trade show or conference. Also, make sure you are targeting the kind of media that will be interested in your press release. Business publications will be interested in business announcements, for example.
- Press releases are great, but it’s even better if you can use a press release to get a journalist to do a feature story on you or your business. A feature story is an article in a newspaper or a magazine, or a story on radio or TV that will ideally include a link to your site—if not, people will still become more interested in you and Google search you. Either way, feature stories are a great way to tell your story in the media and raise your profile. In order to get a feature, you need to send a very good press release to the right reporter, editor or producer, pique their interest in the story you have to tell, and typically, you need to place a follow-up phone call to pitch your idea. In the tourism industry, getting a story in the Sunday Travel Section of a major newspaper is a major coup. Typically these stories include what we call a “service bar” which is a sidebar that includes all the contact info including phone number, postal address, physical address and Web address.
Our NMC services brochure and Things To Do Pads are all equipped with our web address, www.marshallpr.com.
- Your business cards, letterhead and other printed materials should always include your Web address. You might even consider having a QR code with a direct link to your site. That’s what we do on our business cards at Nancy Marshall Communications.
- Make sure your email signature includes a link to your website. You’d be amazed how many people will click through after they read your email message!
- Branded giveaways are a great way to literally put your Web address on peoples’ walls (calendars), in their hands (pens and pencils), on their desks (calculators, thumb drives and coffee mugs) or in their cars (travel mugs, ice scrapers). I have a wall calendar from my chiropractor that I look at every day, and it reminds me to contact him if my neck or back start feeling out of whack.
- Trade shows are an ideal place to promote your website. The Web address should be prominently displayed on your trade show booth and in all your promotional materials. If you are exhibiting at a trade show, there will be members of the media in attendance. Frequently there will be a media room at the show where you can leave press kits or giveaways such as pens, water bottles and coffee mugs. Make sure your Web address is on every single item that you give away at trade shows.
- Speaking engagements at Rotary, Kiwanis and Chamber meetings as well as college classes are ideal places to talk about your website and give out the Web address. If you are using a PowerPoint presentation, include the Web address on every slide. Every time I do a speaking engagement, I write a press release about my appearance and send it to the local media, which is yet another opportunity to include a link to my website.
- Guest posts on other peoples’ blogs are a great place to provide a link to your site.
- Submit your blog posts to social bookmarking sites such as reddit, StumbleUpon and Digg.
- Take advantage of local search. Google+ Local is a great way to make your site more findable by local audiences.
- Produce videos to be posted on YouTube including keyword-rich text descriptions. YouTube is a great place to include a link to your site. Did you know that YouTube is the second most popular search engine next to Google? That’s because people love to watch videos when they want to learn how to do something or they want to know about something. As a society, we are reading less than ever, unfortunately. Your third grade teacher would be disappointed that you would prefer to watch a video to learn something new rather than going to the library to get a book about it.
- Guest opinion columns in the newspaper about relevant timely topics can include a biographical backgrounder on you as the author, including a link to your website.
- Facebook posts on your own page and on other peoples’ pages can include a link to your site, but be careful. You need to interact with others in a very human way, and not always be promoting your own site, or people will see right through what you’re doing. A mix of posts that are social and human, along with one post a week with a link to your own site will work. My strategic partner Stephen Woessner’s book, ‘Increase Online Sales through Viral Social Marketing,’ (available at www.amazon.com) lays out an exact formula for the balance between social posts and promotional posts.
- Pinterest is a fast-growing social network, particularly among women. If you pin an interesting photo on one of your Pinterest boards that links back to your site, people will click through to see where that photo came from. For example, I saw this wonderful photo on Pinterest of a breakfast at a Maine B&B, The Pomegranate Inn in Portland, Maine. I was curious about it, so I clicked through to their website, which is equally wonderful to look at, and I thought to myself that I would like to go there someday soon (especially since my PR agency handles PR for the Maine Office of Tourism!)
- Twitter is a great place to include links to your site, although you might want to use them as ow.ly links so you can reduce the number of characters. (Google the term “ow.ly links” for an explanation if you are unfamiliar.)
- Use Instagram to drive traffic from photos to your site. Be sure to completely fill out the online profile to close the loop from your photos back to your website.
Nancy Marshall Communications Twitter page. Follow us @NMCMaine!
- LinkedIn is a great place to establish yourself as an expert, and to make important professional connections. You can list your Web address right in your LinkedIn profile.
- Event sponsorship allows you to create banners and give branded giveaways promoting your business name and Web address to a targeted audience. Consider a business-to-business trade show, an arts performance, a sporting event, or even the walls at your local Major League—or even Little League—baseball stadium. Align the sponsorship with your targeted audience.
- Charitable donations position you as a responsible and philanthropic neighbor. When you make a donation, the charity will help you promote your business in their event programs, their annual giving guides or in thank-you speeches at their annual meetings. We work with the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers in Waterville, Maine as a client, and I donate to them throughout the year. They are sure to promote my URL, www.marshallpr.com, whenever possible.
- If you are in the business of building websites for others, be sure to include a link back to your own website at the bottom of the home page. We build websites for businesses and nonprofits of all kinds, and we always embed a link on the home page of every one.
- Put your Web address on your clothing. Logoed clothing is a great way to build your wardrobe, whether it’s on the front of a golf shirt, a hoodie sweatshirt, a baseball cap or a ski hat. Give a fleece vest emblazoned with your logo and URL to all your employees. They will wear it with pride and promote your Web address everywhere they go.
- Ask the CEO of your company to write an article (or offer to ghostwrite for him or her) to post on a blog, or submit to the local newspaper or business journal. If you’re the CEO, try to make this a regular practice. Be sure to include a bio at the end of the article with a link to your website. Post the article on your own company’s blog too, because it will be rich in keywords.
- Create infographics and post them on social media sites. Infographics are all the rage right now as an easy, graphical way to explain a concept. You will need a professional graphic designer to create them, and you can either hire a designer to serve on your staff or outsource to a freelancer. There are freelancers available online through sites like 99designs.com that can create infographics cost effectively. People are more likely to share infographics than other types of content through social networks. Be sure to include your website address and company name in the infographic and post it on your website, as well as sharing it on Facebook, Pinterest and other social networks.
- Network with influencers the old-fashioned way at trade shows, chamber of commerce meetings and conferences. Meet people in person, exchange business cards, then connect with them on social media in order to maintain the relationship until you see them again. The more influential people you link with on LinkedIn, friend on Facebook, or follow on Twitter, the better. They call this practice “pressing the flesh,” and it is, in my opinion, the best possible way to create meaningful and long-lasting relationships.
- Generate links back to your site from websites that have ‘authority,’ such as college and university sites, and governmental sites by figuring out ways to post content or get articles written with links to your site. Google and other search engines consider the ‘authority’ of websites when viewing the links to your site. If a site with a great deal of authority links to your site, that’s like an endorsement of your site, so it’s a good thing.
- Create an e-newsletter and constantly build your list. We publish “The NMC Report” once a month, no matter how busy we are with other commitments. We include tips and techniques that are easily implemented by our readers who are typically small business owners or marketing officers for companies and nonprofits. We make it easy to sign up for the e-newsletter on our website and we are constantly gathering names at trade shows and conferences. This list is valuable to our business because these are people who don’t mind having us market ourselves to them. Every single time we send out an e-newsletter, we see a spike in our Web traffic because we include links throughout the e-news back to our website. We use MailChimp but we also recommend Constant Contact.
- Share your PowerPoint presentations and other slide decks to sites like Slideshare and Scribd. This is a fantastic way to position yourself or someone from your organization as an expert and to generate a quality link back to your website.
- Build a rock-solid reputation to generate word of mouth. The #1 absolute best way to drive traffic to your website is to do great work so people will refer you to others. This is, by far, the most powerful form of marketing and public relations.
Raising Awareness and Brand Building
Coastal Human Society Marketing and Development Coordinator, Jane Siviski
Awareness plays a huge role in the success of a business, and adorable four-legged friends definitely don’t hurt your cause. This week’s Monday Maine Maven, Jane Siviski, marketing and development coordinator at the Coastal Humane Society (CHS), could not agree more! She says that over 60% of their adopters look at the animals online before coming into the shelter.
Siviski adds, “Without question—Facebook and our website are our best advertising tools and there is never a shortage of content.” If you visit their Facebook page, you will find pictures and videos of adoptable animals, newly-adopted animals with their new families and heartwarming stories of community involvement.
Their goal is to engage fans and followers by creating an inviting environment for animals and people. Jane apologizes to Sarah McLachlan saying, “Facebook helps us break down the stigma of shelters being a scary, sad and overwhelming place. Unfortunately, there are shelters in other regions that are bursting at the seams and euthanasia is their only option—for us and many Maine shelters, it’s not.”
The role of social media manager is divided between Jane and the volunteer coordinator and shelter manager. This division is important—Jane says, “We all bring a different perspective on shelter life and that adds richness to our Facebook presence. The CHS mission prioritizes our posts, so anything that promotes adoption or brings people into the shelter comes first.”
CHS recently hosted Rescues on the Runway, an adoption event at the Maine Mall in Portland.
These values are clearly exhibited when you walk in and are instantly greeted by friendly staff members and volunteers who are more than happy to spend some time with you and share the stories of the animals. They encourage you to go into the cages (with an adult of course) and spend time with your potential new family member.
The CHS team also works to reunite families with lost pets. Occasionally they get a stray brought in who weighs a little too much or is a little too friendly to not have come from a good home. Multiple times CHS has posted about an animal in their custody, the image is shared and the next thing they know someone is calling saying the cat belongs to them.
The CHS permanent resident, Amere!
Although, after spending some time at CHS, it’s no wonder that some of the animals, like Amere, just never want to leave. Amere came in from a cat hoarding situation last summer and while many of the cats that came with him were feral, Amere was not. Known for his crinkled ears (a result of ear mites left untreated), tolerance of dogs and playful disposition with guests, Amere is the perfect lobby cat/mascot for CHS. Staff members, or his pets as the staff puts it, love him and when they find themselves buried in projects and spending late nights at the shelter, he is their very own crinkle-eared watchman.
When I asked Jane how people can help out, she asked, “How much time do you have?” Any involvement is very helpful, whether it is a donation of money, food, or time. You can check out CHS on their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/CoastalHumaneSociety, or visit their website www.coastalhumanesociety.org to find the best fit for you!
Social Media and Kids
KVYMCA Program Coordinator and Camp Director, Johanna King
The never ending debate on how old is old enough to participate in social media can be tricky, especially since it is now readily available to people of all ages, children in particular. This week’s Monday Maine Maven, KVYMCA program coordinator and Camp KV director, Johanna King, is well aware of the pressure and bullying that can be found on social media sites, but she believes many concerns can be resolved with open communication, education on social media etiquette and programs that instill positive self-esteem.
King has been working with children for a very long time. She started coaching soccer camps in high school, volunteered at her church’s summer Bible school and did a lot of babysitting. Since graduating from the University of Maine at Orono, she has worked part-time at Indian Elementary School as a tutor and, after receiving her ACE certification as a group exercise instructor, she landed a job working for the KVYMCA as their program coordinator and camp director.
Johanna gives a high-five to a camper last summer.
This role has been a perfect fit. Johanna says, “I went to so many camps growing up and have wonderful memories of camp. It is great to be on the other side of the experience and be able to help create those same great memories for kids today.” A part of this experience is using social media to share these memories with the parents of summer campers.
Johanna King has a firm grasp on social media needs for organizations like the KVYMCA. King adds, “People don’t want to sit down and read a long brochure, they want their information to be more succinct using images and less text; they want information from sites they’re already using such as Facebook and Twitter.” Johanna says that is why social media awareness is so important for not only children, but for communities as well. The information received is the information that is given, and so much of that information is found through the daily use of social media.
That is why King says, “This year, my goal is to update the YMCA Facebook page with a picture and short description each day for the parents to check out while they are at work or at home to see what their children are up to throughout the day.” Facebook and other social media sites are increasing awareness of the KVYMCA and their programs, but one new program is particularly popular due the Olympian namesake that hosts the session.
Johanna with Learning Center Director, Ranae L’Italien and Olympian, Julia Clukey during a recent camp program planning session.
That Olympian would be Julia Clukey. Johanna says, “Social media definitely plays a part in the need for programs like Julia Clukey’s Camp for Girls. It is incredibly important to teach kids that their self-worth isn’t correlated to how many Facebook friends they have or how many people have liked their status updates.”
During a recent planning meeting with Clukey and the KV Camp team, they were able to establish the curriculum of this summer’s program. The camp will feature themes such as “Be Healthy,” “Be Your Best,” and “Be Caring.” Kings says, “We received wonderful feedback from parents of Clukey campers and we know that we will be having a lot of repeat campers, so it is important that we present the information in a way that is new to the girls that attended last year.” Programs such as Julia Clukey’s Camp for Girls help promote positive reflections of oneself, resulting in confident young women.
To learn more about the summer programs offered by the KVYMCA and to connect with Johanna, you may email her at johanna@kvymca.org.
Eventbrite Changing the Way You Buy Tickets
NMC Account Assistant, Erika Bush
Hi, Erika here! It seems that every event I’ve been invited to in the past year has been linked to Eventbrite, and for good reason—it’s free! That’s right, completely free to create an online event.
Planning an event is stressful enough, without having to worry about ticketing, too. Another great feature of Eventbrite is that if your event is free than so is their service—they provide the perfect platform to promote it within your area without paying a thing.
The fees only begin when you start selling tickets, and what you pay for them to take all the stress out of online ticketing is minimal:
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Eventbrite Fee 2.5% plus $0.99 per ticket *Cap fees at $9.95 per ticket for organizations |
Processing Options
Standard Credit Card Processing Fee: 3% of ticket value
Paypal: 2.9% of ticket value + $0.30 per transaction
Google Checkout: 2.9% of ticket value + $0.30 per transaction
Authorize.net: rates vary |
Kevin and Julia Hartz, husband and wife co-founders of Eventbrite
Since Eventbrite’s inception in 2006, the company has slowly been taking over the ticketing industry. They recently received a $50 million investment that makes some believe they could begin competing with larger sites such as TicketMaster and StubHub.
The first sign of them being ready to step it up comes from their recent partnership with Facebook’s “Buy Tickets” feature—a partnership that occurred within 48 hours of the new feature’s launch. This seamless connection comes from the relationship that was already in place between Eventbrite and Facebook from their work together on Open Graph, which helps people tell stories about their lives through the apps they use.
The way the new “Buy Tickets” feature works is that when someone creates an event using Eventbrite, they will be given the option to “Publish to Facebook.” After this is done, the event will be on Facebook and they simply invite people to their event, or make the event public for the “Buy Tickets” button to appear.
The new feature will allow Eventbrite users to seamlessly link their events to Facebook.
Sharing events on Facebook happens every day; it’s coordinating where to send the money for these events that gets messy. You have to either be directed to another site to pay or you show up to the event and hope there are tickets left. Taking out the middle man makes sense. Kevin Stone of the New York Times quotes Eventbrite CEO Kevin Hartz saying, “Events are naturally social. You are certainly likely to share with others what conference you are attending, what club event you are going out to or what class you are going to take.”
Eventbrite has been growing steadily since its founding in a small one-room office in San Francisco back in 2006. It took off in 2010 and by 2012 it had more than tripled in size. Much like Pinterest, Eventbrite doesn’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon, and is the one to watch when it come to online ticket sales.
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