Bare Feet StudiosTo Do and Forget: Managing the Incomings with Todoist
Todoist Review
I’ve been using Todoist to help me manage my to do list. A key part is being able to capture things so I can forget about them until they are relevant.
I am the lucky winner of a life that involves managing or participating in many different projects, and many different styles of projects. I’ve noticed that just keeping track of the ideas and the assignments had become a stressor extraordinaire. I love and use Basecamp for a few of my “top level” projects, as I can track or organize my diverse assets, messaging, and assignments there.
But for all the other stuff — the messy stuff that is sometimes work-related, sometimes dream-related, and often just plain personal — I was as much a mess as my list was. I was using a combination of Reminders on my iPhone/Mac (love the syncing and easy access while out and about) or scraps of paper (yes, old school, yet super fast when I’m on the phone or something), and god forbid, some things were left in email limbo.
Yes, all that is a little embarrassing to admit in public.
Here’s Hope for Workaholics
I am in a writer’s group and also I also coach a mindful social business group where we each post daily progress and process notes about how well we are inching along to our daily, weekly, and session goals. The Q&A is designed to motivate and feed the brain so it wants to do more, by acknowledging accomplishments of any sort, and to raise consciousness, by exposing the critical self-talk that hinders so many, so often.
On Sunday night, I posted my updates and now I want to share them with you. This public sharing serves to anchor an “aha” in my own world – I do it to expose my inner critic and build muscle for the new ideas. Then, if you find it useful, I just love that!
First, the Artist Date:
I had an artist date today. Rode my bike to the beach, swam (in and out) several times, LAID DOWN (OMG – I almost never do that!), walked, and rode my bike the long way home. It is amazing how much that helped boost my mood and my physical energy.
Over the years, I’ve had an incredibly hard time dropping the work stuff and doing positive things to feed my mood and my energy. On the other hand, I’ve gotten really good at resting more; I endorse sleep as both a tonic for whatever ails you as well as an elixir that can reveal secrets to you. But stopping, “before things are done” is a challenge. This thought, “Just get it done now, so it isn’t hanging over you” has ruled too many days and nights for me. Being a Capricorn, and a workaholic, I can outwork almost everyone I know. That, my friends, is turning out to be more bad news than good news. My strength is also my weakness. Read More
Stop Learning and Start Doing
It’s not often you’ll hear such a barking-style suggestion from me. But I’ve decided that analysis paralysis has taken on a whole new realm in the world of using the internet to grow your small business or entrepreneurial venture. Webinars proliferate. Joint Ventures and VIP Days are hot. You’ve got to know all about lead capture pages. What is happening in your sales funnel, by the way?
So for myself, I’ve spent the past year not launching things while stuffing my brain too full as if I were at a virtual all you can eat buffet, week after week. What all these marvelous learning opportunities did for me though, was erode my confidence and feed the panic-prone monkey mind, kid mind, in me. I’ve spent money. I’ve invested time. I’ve made plans and doubted many of them. Because I let myself be victimized by the “you’ve gotta know this to get that!” syndrome. Read More
Mindful Social Media
Social Media practices have been such a fast and furious development over the past 10 years. (This blog is now 11 years old.) I was one of the active promoters, one of the pollyanna’s who saw so much hope and promise. (I still do.) But over time, the tools of social have also been something of a mainline drug into the limbic system. This has been much more incessant and compelling than the traditions of advertising. Though both worlds use those same ancient human fears to motivate us into new behaviors (aka buying other people’s shit), social technology has allowed it to be instantaneous and persistent.
Which has led to extremes of panic-driven decision-making and the setting of incredibly unrealistic standards for small businesses, independent creatives, nonprofits, and solopreneurs to achieve.
Hence, social media stress.
“I’ll never have enough time, I’ll never have enough reach, I’m not techy enough, etc.” This naturally has given birth to mindful social media. Those are not opposites – they actually play quite well together!
It was affecting me, in negative ways, in ways I didn’t like. And I’m someone who has loved doing social business and helping others do the same! Since social business is not going away, I’ve decided to bring my lifelong love of consciousness more actively to the foreground. One of my mindful restrictions is to limit myself to 15 minutes for the draft of this post. So here are a few ideas to chew on. Then, tell me how you stay connected without losing your soul. I’m collecting ideas!
Mindful Practices for Social Business
- Throttle way back on feeding the beast with all my ideas, adventures, and moods. Now, I am more selective. The result is less pressure to perform. A little scarcity of me, is, I think, a good thing for my brand.
- Stop reading Facebook in bed. It’s rarely inspiring or soothing; I can get caught up with my dear ones in about 15 minutes a day. I enjoy this most when I am fully awake and have my full-sized keyboard to play with. It’s made a real difference.
- Trust my intuition on what to post and when. I know, it sounds crazy. But I truly believe, “It’s all about the energy.” If there’s one thing I’m really good at, it’s about reading and understanding the energy.
- Don’t worry about what’s not getting done; focus on and acknowledge what is getting done. Yes, every drop of you that is given to this world, is precious and counts.
- Don’t complain. That is for me; there are plenty of others taking care of that space. I feel the urge, trust me. I just try not to give into it these days. At the end of the day, that’s not how I want to use my energy and it’s not how I want to be remembered.
Time’s up! Thanks for reading.
To complain is always nonacceptance of what is. It invariably carries an unconscious negative charge. When you complain, you make yourself into a victim. When you speak out, you are in your power. So change the situation by taking action or by speaking out if necessary or possible; leave the situation or accept it.
— Eckhart Tolle
Aloha,
Photo credit: by Shyamanta Baruah on Unsplash.
For more on this topic, I invite you to learn about my Mindful Social Business Coaching program and to check out my personal blog, for more far out ideas on consciousness.
A Love Letter to The Amazing Andrew Sullivan
I have been reading you, Andrew, since 2004 – 4 years after you started blogging. You were more conservative back then, but always brilliant and weird. Those two qualities really drew me to you. I’ve been talking about you several places, but so much is coming up today that I am choosing a public homage – that also turns out to be a private wakeup call.
What you have done, is truly pioneer using the web your way. You turned off blog comments years ago because of the troll factor. But you actively encouraged reader feedback and each day, your posts include anonymous reader feedback. We the people could not use you as a platform to promote ourselves but we could engage with you, and therefore your readership, by adding value to the ideas and the energy. You left a salaried post and built-in exposure at more than one prominent publication, finally settling into your own home with no ads, supported by your fans.
You were openly gay before it was safe, before it was cool.
You published the first cover story on gay marriage, making the *conservative* case for it, back in 1989. Yes, fucking 1989. You are willing to show your true passion publicly, regardless of what others thought. You openly admit to changes of heart and opinion. You embrace your sexuality and do not hide it from your readers. How weird and wonderful to read 20 posts in a day that could range from NSFW shit to praising a pope – yes, one of the many puzzle pieces that “don’t fit” is the fact that you are a Catholic. I am a “recovering Catholic” – no desire for any religion these days much less one that played an important role in my own childhood pain.
I emailed you the day I learned you were quitting blogging, and told you, I get it. I wished you well. You owe me and everyone else nothing. And now a week later, the shock is wearing off and I am feeling extreme sadness for the loss of what you created. I have cried several times this week as I have visited your blog and once again experienced the beauty of contrast, the thrill of new voices, the videos you and your amazing staff find and share, the updates as things change inside a post, and most of all, your open-hearted, fiercely intelligent advocacy that is not done at the expense of anyone else – well, except maybe a little bit at the expense of Sarah Palin. But IMO, she asked for it, indeed perhaps thrives on it.
Somewhere in here I want to mention your love of dogs Andrew. Me too. It is one of those powerful and irrational connections I feel with you. Our dog died less than a year ago. Yours too. Thank you for not hiding the grieving. You moved the consciousness of understanding animals so far forward.
But there is also a virtual rubber band snapping at my wrist.
Why on earth shall I continue to let you be my proxy, for myself? Why pressure you to be the voice of diversity and weirdness and self-acceptance, when I can do a better part representing myself in that theater of absurd life as we know it today?
So today marks a turning point for me.
#WWID
What would I do, if I weren’t so afraid? If I cared less about others’ opinions of me? If I didn’t have to know, with certainty, who I am before I acted on some little flicker of interest?
“What would so and so do” is a reference to the deep emotional story in Hawaii of legendary surfer and lifeguard Eddie Aikau, who drowned at sea during a massive storm seeking help for his canoe mates. (well, and of the What would Jesus do meme too.) What Would I Do is a shifting of responsibility from living life through other people’s eyes, regardless of how beloved or inspiring they are. Because for me, what is the use of inspiration if I don’t anchor it inside my own cells, my own bones, my own actions? For me, it just leads to more depression, more withheld everything, more stifling of my true nature. (More on that later, as one of the most confusing things for me has been how much I love Hawaii and so much of its ethos and yet also find myself unable to breathe at times because of the stagnation of group mind and stuck-ness in the past.)
This is my view from My Transition in Consciousness. I own several blogs. I decided to put this post first on my business blog. That is the place where I have been most reserved, most adhering to protocol, most afraid to upset anyone even while embracing for over a decade the liberation that is social media: a form of communication that is based on personal and authentic sharing to build relationships. Somehow, you managed to be both classy and crude on the same page, on the same day – that is sheer mastery IMO.
I have been authentic, but not thoroughly so. You will not find lies or misrepresentations here, per se, but you can assume there is a decade of withheld opinions, beliefs, and desires. Even as I espoused to thine own self be true, I have hidden behind politeness and some fictitious set of best practices.
Andrew, the Beard of the Week perhaps sums up the mechanics of your brilliance for me. I am not a beard lover. I am the opposite. But because you have bared so much of yourself over the years, and I have come to love you and respect you so much, I chose to look at them with “fair witness” curiosity. You have built up SO MUCH credibility with me, that I am willing to drop any prejudice to engage in further examination. Thank you for being so visual, so self-accepting even in the midst of so many expressed doubts. That truly is the secret sauce I believe.
It’s turning into a really long post.
But for that too, I thank you Andrew. You held firm to long form writing. I have no idea how you consume so much in a day, but I am not going to worry about that. #WWID no longer supports worrying about others, even and especially the people I value as deeply as you.
So for all you have done, let me now stop depending on you to do that for me and let me do that for myself. Your quitting is actually kicking me out of your nest. This may be the thing for which I am most grateful to you!!!
So I leave you readers with the video that inspired this post today, Leaving, by the Pet Shop Boys. (Andrew posted it today.) It’s been raining hard here where I am in Palm Beach, and well, it just all fits together so poignantly well. Also because I love music, and dancing, and if I could have one more Andrew wish, it would be to party on the dance floor to 80’s music with you, Andrew, just having some fucking fun.
As a straight female reader, I am in the minority. So what, I ask myself now? Andrew Sullivan, you are amazing. And I imagine I will be very pissed if I don’t get emails from you, letting me know what you’re up and how I can continue to share this weird, wacky, wonderful world with you from time to time.
Love,
Rox
Mindful Goal Setting
I really wanted to promote my Mindful Social Business Coaching program during the holidays. But I was overwhelmed by the hype being delivered by the email lists to which I myself am subscribed. I really am committed to creating a hype-free zone here for us. So as each day went by, I went inside and listened for a compelling “message to market.” None arrived.
Oddly enough (or perfectly so) the January 5 session started and we had acquired two new members. They joined without me doing anything extra. My commitment to myself is to walk my talk more often, to step away from the effortful approach to work and relax into the mindful approach. The key essence of mindfulness at the moment is that each of us has the full backing of something much more vast and powerful than a single mind-body. So we don’t have to follow endless formulas or ever feel frantic; there is enough, including time.
What is Mindful Goal Setting?
It is an inner-directed approach not a follow-someone-else’s approach. It’s why I am calling 2015 the year to stop learning and start doing. The abundant supply of “listicles” (10 Things to … and 5 Essential yadas) are out there – as we want them. But what I find is that our brains have become so hooked on them, that it is easy to experience paralysis. You start to work on your blog, and you think: I’ve saved some lists somewhere to tell me how and what to do. The trouble is, many of those lists create false simplicity. One of the “Five Essential Steps” could actually take weeks to accomplish. I find this so energy-draining, distracting, and non-productive.
Instead, trust that you can just Start Now. When you run into a question, you can search for that answer and then get back to your doing. So find time, maybe in a beautiful or favorite place, and sit quietly with a notebook. Let your mind wander and ask yourself, what would make you happy? How might you accomplish that? And when you have a few answers, start to arrange them in a SMART Goal format.
S.M.A.R.T. Goals Make Things Easier For You.
S: Specific
M: Measurable
A: Action-Oriented
R: Reasonable and Relevant
T: Time-Defined
Let’s Compare & See How It Feels to You.
Common Goal:
I want to blog a lot more and use social media to grow my business.
(Admirable but large and diffuse. How and where do you start? How will you know if you are succeeding?)
SMART Goal:
I commit to blogging at least once a month and to using social media for my business at least 3 days a week for 30 minutes per session.
Mindful SMART Goal
I commit to blogging at least once a month and to using social media for my business at least 3 days a week for 30 minutes per session. I will track my efforts and evaluate my progress every two weeks, so I can adjust as desired.
Mindful UN Goal
This is the really out there option, that actually involves no goals. You can still go through the above process – it can help you organize things and orient yourself. Then, be willing to show up in the here and now and trust that each day, as you listen to your truly focused inner Adult voice, you will know what to do. And at the end of each week, then each month, etc. you will be able to delight at where you have arrived. Sometimes the universe has way MORE in store for us than we can imagine. I always like to make room for that!
If I could give you anything this year…
It would be the knowledge that you’re good enough, you’re smart enough, and doggone it, people like you! (Thank you Stuart Smalley) You can start using social tools today, without reading another article or taking another webinar. Yes, you can start anywhere — there is no perfect place or time to start. You will learn so much more by doing, than by studying. And by doing, you will start getting results.
Join Us for Coaching and Accountability
If you would like to be part of a brilliant group of other solopreneurs, artists, nonprofit leaders, and business owners who are using coaching tools to start doing, please join us in the Mindful Social Business Coaching program. Because even the most brilliant can benefit from the wisdom and support of others in the privacy of your own computer.
Aloha,
P.S. A version of this was originally published to our email list. Please click here if you want to be on it. I really liked it, and it is still January – time to think about or re-think about what you want to do in 2015 and what you want to do, today.
Announcing: Your Mindful Social Media Business Coach
I want to be your social media business coach, offering a mindful approach to using these tools, and especially dedicated to consultants, artists, small business owners, marketing managers, and nonprofits. This is an idea that has literally been on my wish list, years in the making. But it was only recently that I found an awesome web-based platform. Read More
Thank You to Basecamp – You Are Amazing
Is it just me or is it getting harder and harder to be wildly surprised, out of the blue, with something so totally unexpected that your first reaction is, this must be a prank? The internet has us all so connected and up to date on life as it is unfolding. We have become a society of know-it-alls (or maybe that is just me), in a very wide sense of that phrase. We’ve seen the hottest videos, know about the scams, and if we get asked a question we can’t answer, it’s easy enough to hop over to Google and get smarter in an instant.
So when we received a packet in the mail from 37 Signals, now known as Basecamp, with pretend passports, luggage tags, and a giant sheet of paper listing 10 cities around the globe for a free trip for two to the location of our choice, I was stunned! Shane and I scoured the materials, looking for the catch. This sort of thing is usually a sweepstakes with one in a million odds, disguised as a free trip. But knowing it came from 37 Signals, it had to be real.
Because Basecamp, aka 37 Signals, is the Real Deal.
“As a token of our deep appreciation for your long-term business, we want to do something really special for you.”
Yes they did! Imagine one of your vendors, giving you and your business partner, a free trip to Paris (from Maui), including airfare, hotel, private car to and from the airport, Metro cards, daily breakfast, and some spending money! Oh, and covering the extension airfare to Dublin for a personal side trip. Oh, and letting you pick the airline so you could use your miles to grab some upgrades. And doing all of the booking for you. And lastly, patiently waiting from February to September for us to create time and space to enjoy this adventure. Yes, this was a wild and wonderful surprise!
We easily continue to love, use, and evangelize Basecamp, for our client projects, our internal projects, and even for managing my elderly parents’ medical history since 2008. (Care providers are blown away when they see how easily we pull up 6 years’ worth of medications, doctor visits, et.) In fact, I cannot imagine my life without it.
We are just now returning from the two week experience, where we are able to get away from our so-called normal lives and truly breathe in the art of Paris, the legendary magic of Ireland (where I took a 5-day Mindfulness Tools Training) and Shane extended to Stockholm to visit his friend and inspiration, Vu Bui and see a stunning photo exhibit by Joyce Tenneson, another of Shane’s teachers. We have been restored, refreshed, and exposed to so many new ideas for our ever expanding creative and professional pursuits.
A few contemporary Paris Art Links
Gagosian Gallery, Peter Lindbergh Exhibit
Yan Marczewski, Painter
Ren Hang, photographer
Thank you, Jason, David, Andrea, and all of the brilliant people at Basecamp! We love you!
The timing was delightfully flexible.
We received the invitation in February. We traveled in late September, early October. It took seven months for life to line up in our favor, with no pressure coming from the Basecamp crew. Shane was able to create, install, and take down his solo art exhibition. I was able to plan and attend my Mom’s 90th birthday celebration. We were able to nicely wrap up several client projects before launching into new ones. September in Paris was so delightful!
The trip planning was gracious and personal.
It was interesting to notice how Shane and my brains kept trying to throttle the experience, while Andrea kept saying, “Yes.” and “Sure!” and “Why don’t we add on a private car service to and from your hotel; I can’t imagine you’ll want to deal with public transportation after traveling for nearly 24 hours!” Even when I wanted to add on a stop in Dublin, Andrea included it in the plane ticket, no problem, no need to backtrack.
The result was more than we could have imagined on our own.
Who knew that we were each really hungry for a change of place, a change of people? How did the Mindfulness Tools Program pop into my brain, and there just happen to be a program nearby at the time we wanted to travel, and on short notice they would still have room for me? How ironic, that as Shane and I expand our business in new directions, that we would be able to fly off to Europe for two weeks of being educated and nourished in all dimensions! It was clearly magical how quickly, easily, and richly the trip fell into place for us.
Please enjoy a few photos from our trip.
You can also see more on Instagram, at hashtag #roxshaneOTR. (OTR = on the road) Then, when you want to get your business more organized and help your clients help you, hop over to Basecamp and check it out.
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- Our paid upgrades came through! Viva la France!
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- Shane capturing the sunset over the Atlantic, en route to Paris
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- Shane's modified sunset from 39,000'
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- Touristing at Sacre Coeur on a perfect Paris day in September
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- Shane taking in the Paris street vibe, over wine, first lunch in Paris
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- Rox feeling Parisienne, or maybe, it's the jet lag. First lunch after arrival.
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- Fresh fruits and vegetables, in mostly GMO-free Europe
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- Kate Moss looking over Shane's shoulder, Gagosian Gallery, Paris, Peter Lindbergh exhibit
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- Shane, glassing, at the Louvre
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- Desperately seeking high speed wifi, Paris co-working, coffice
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- OMG sunset from our room in Paris. Linger on the details.
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- Words on the wall; Paris is for writers
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- More napping, Marais district, local park
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- A rare couple selfie, Rox and Shane, walking along the Seine
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- Google Glass reporting Paris weather, view from our room
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- Champagne! At Cafe de Flore
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- Lunch with my friend Alicia in Paris.
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- Paris at rush hour, driving by Madeleine Churchill, via @Uber_Paris
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- Unauthorized pic of the amazing @HaileyTuck at the legendary Luc des Lombards jazz club
Hailey Tuck at the legendary Luc des Lombards jazz club
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- Hugs with singer Hailey Tuck after her sold out performance at Luc des Lombards
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- The artist, Shane Robinson, gazing at the work of painter, Yan Marczewski
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- Homing device delivered us to the Apple Store in Paris
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- Travel Moment: fresh flowers from the neighborhood garden shop
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- Musée d'Orsay - scaled well beyond the average human
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- View of The Louvre Museum from Musée d'Orsay, across the River Seine
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- Shane and Rox in front of the pyramid at The Louvre
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- Taking @Uber_Paris, serendipity as we pass by L'Arc de Triomphe
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- Ren Hang photo exhibit in Paris, looking to the crowd on the sidewalk (@RenHang330)
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- Gallery visitor inserting herself into the artwork of @RenHang330
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- "It's not a sign of good health to be well-adjusted in a profoundly sick society." J Krishnamurti
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- Arrival at Art Hotel in Paris
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- Golden hour, Stockholm waterfront
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- Which way? In Sweden, it appears they are all beautiful.
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- @VuBui looking at the day's work, surrounded by mead and meat in Stockholm
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- Water views in Stockholm
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- Rox skygazing (and napping) at the shore in County Wicklow, Ireland
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- Beauty and Mystery in the Irish bog on an autumn day in October
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- Shane, Austin, cameras are us, on the movie set for Braveheart
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- My mindful friend and tour guide extraordinaire, Austin
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- Trees at Glendalough
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- Moss on a fallen log; life goes on.
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- Can you find the deer hiding in the tall grass?
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- Leaves on the boardwalk at Glendalough
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- Gorgeous green in the Irish woodlands
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- The irresistible lure of an empty path in the woodlands
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- Waterfall and Graffiti
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- This river is full of life, at Glendalough.
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- Busting the myth of the four leaf clover. (1 in 10,000)
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- One of many waterfalls at Glendalough
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- Lake gazing at Glendalough
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- Oh dear. Long live the sheep. Dogs, mind yourselves please.
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- Fern and rocks at Glendalough
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- Bridge in County Wicklow, at Glenview Hotel
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- Shane snacking on Guinness and onion rings
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- Rox skygazing (and napping) at Glendalough. Multitasking at its best!
Aloha,
Join Our List and Increase Your Internet Literacy
I am celebrating 10 years of work using social business* tools, by, ahem, finally starting our own company email list. Yes, you can hear the horns of #irony blowing loudly at this moment, as I have set up over 50 email lists for clients over the years and it is one of my Number One recommended tools. All I can say is that we never needed one to accomplish our goals, until now. We have been a boutique consulting agency. Most of our clients are not that. If I have learned anything over the past 18 years of working in the “internet space,” it’s that there are more choices available than there are truly relevant tools. Scroll down to hop on the list.
Yes, your online business strategy is not one size fits nor all nor is it shoot as many bullets out there as you can and hope you hit a few targets.
I am launching a coaching service now and that is a very different type of business than a small digital agency. As an agency, we have clients for the longtime – our two largest have been with us the longest (and yes, those two data points are related) – since 1997. We have received all of our work through referral – either directly from an existing client or from my many years as a public speaker.
The coaching service I will be offering is for individual, not business, entities. I can and want to serve many more people. So having an email list is now a key component of both my marketing and my customer support strategy. I am so excited about the platform that I have bought into and will be announcing that in a few weeks. For now, I am reaching out to anyone who meets any of the following criteria, and inviting you to join my email list. Those of you on the list will be the first to get an invite to the coaching program!
You might want Rox as a coach if…
- You feel overwhelmed by how and where to market your business online.
- You know what you should or want to be doing, but somehow, it’s not getting done.
- You want a community to find information quickly and experience respectful support.
- You don’t want to pay high one-to-one coaching fees.
- You want access to a library of vetted resources to help you be more effective and efficient.
- You want to do all this in a private virtual space, on your own timeframe.
I sincerely think you will want to join this list if any of those statements apply to you. This coaching will be for amateur as well as professionals,. Why? Because, based on my own experience, I bet you are lacking focused motivation far more than you are lacking information. I’ve been using a similar coaching service for over a year and half for my writing projects, and it has changed everything for me. I am writing more, enjoying it more, and publishing more. I can hardly wait to launch this and create a community for us focused on building internet literacy and then acting on that!
Thanks so much for reading!
Love,
* When I say “business” I mean any work that you do, be it a for-profit company, a nonprofit, a hobby, or a dream working its way to becoming true.
Social Media Case Study: Collaborate with Traditional Media
Let me introduce you to my client, HCAP – Honolulu Community Action Program, Inc. They are among the top 10 largest nonprofits in Hawaii, with a wide range of services being provided across Oʻahu. I have been working with them for the past few months as a Social Media Executive-in-Residence. Somewhat surprisingly for an organization of its size, it had managed to avoid having any presence on social media until we started working together last October! On the other hand, it was a brilliant opportunity to start with a very fresh slate and create things, consciously, from the ground up.
HCAP designated an internal group of six who would form the social leadership team. They are a mix of communications, IT, and management – so we have terrific access to a wide range of talent and organizational knowledge. Our scope of work ranges from setting up a presence (and numerous associated tasks) on the leading social networks plus lots of training plus developing a new web site and also a web-based email system. We work in Basecamp, an online project management system we’ve been using for 10 years, combined with weekly Skype video conference calls and a few days a month where I am on-site working in the office and various satellite locations.
Please take a moment to Like them on Facebook and follow them on Twitter:
It started with #GivingTuesday.
One of the initial goals was to be up and running in time to participate in the 2nd annual #GivingTuesday campaign that takes place the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. It is in the general category of Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday – all designed to focus consumer attention in various targeted ways. This was a stretch, especially considering that HCAP is a cautiously-managed nonprofit. Making rash moves was not part of the plan!
On the other hand, having a specific goal and being able to join with thousands of others across the country in a cause much bigger than any of us, was too good an opportunity to miss! We decided to approach Giving Tuesday as a learning opportunity as much as a social media campaign.
What we did not expect was getting front page coverage in the Pacific Business News! In addition to building our strategy for the social campaign, we also wrote a press release and sent over a fact sheet to PBN about #GivingTuesday. We included the other local nonprofits who were participating. Remember, “sharing is caring” is a fundamental element of social media.
This led to HCAP’s Planning and Development Specialist, Tehani Diaz, being interviewed for a piece PBN did on the events. That was great and we were grateful! A few weeks later though, Tehani and HCAP landed on the home page of PBN, in a feature article under the Nonprofit Strategies column. This was powerful exposure in the community, aka earned media, that resulted from social media activity.
Not One, Not Two, But Three
So in less than four full months, HCAP has now been covered three times in Hawaii’s leading business publication. You can see the articles here, though some may require subscriber access:
Hawaii Nonprofits Join Giving Tuesday
How I Logged My Nonprofit onto Social Media
Honolulu Community Action Program gets $120k to help low-income workers find jobs
Thanks to Jenna Blakely for her converage and conversation!
@HCAPhi So glad we connected this year! Stay in touch HCAP team! Aloha Friday :)
— Jenna Blakely (@pbnjennab) February 7, 2014