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2014 is very quickly approaching and the Internet is overflowing with “Best of 2013” lists. There’s a good reason for that: the market generally likes them (and not to mention, they are easy to create). Because I write Know Your Own Bone in order to provide nonprofits and visitor-serving organizations with intelligence regarding market behaviors and perceptions, I thought it only fitting to share your (a rather focused tribe of industry leaders) favorite KYOB posts of 2013.
It was a great year on this end! I became a part-time expat living in London (here’s the (perhaps surprising) reason why), the need for organizations to engage with audiences on digital platforms heightened, and the call for organizations to utilize the type of “big data” that I have access to at IMPACTS increased, resulting in a big, busy year of incredibly rewarding work! I hope that 2013 was a great year for each of you as well – both personally and professionally.
Thank you for reading, engaging with, and passing along Know Your Own Bone among your organizations and circles of industry professionals. I am constantly amazed by your passion – and I am honored to aim to provide market insight for such a thoughtful and hard-working bunch of nonprofiteers! I’m thrilled by the prospect that these posts may be providing value for your friends, colleagues, fellow board members and executives, and even college and graduate students. I hope that my work being a nonprofit/for-profit double-agent has been of value!
I’ll stop gushing and get to the good stuff. Here are KYOB’s most viewed and passed-along posts of 2013. These are the posts that my analytics suggest you emailed around the most, shared with your friends and colleagues, and got the most attention within graduate programs and professional development curriculums:
Six Sad Truths that I Have Learned as a Millennial Donor
“Hi nonprofit executives and board members. My name is Colleen Dilenschneider. I’m a millennial donor and I exist.”
Entertainment Vs. Education: How Your Audience Really Rates the Museum Experience (DATA)
“In terms of maximizing visitor satisfaction, VSOs may not truly understand “where their bread is buttered,” and this misunderstanding may result in serious financial repercussions.”
Three Ways The Role of Your Website Has Changed. Is Your Nonprofit Keeping Up?
“There seems to be a misconception that nonprofit websites are immune to the evolution attendant to all other digital platforms…Here are three, outdated ways that some organizations still view the role of their respective websites – and how that old role has long since evolved.
Why Your Audience Is Not Buying Tickets Online (And Why it May Be Your Fault)
“While you may think that you’re making life easier for your potential visitors by selling tickets online, many organizations actually make the act of purchasing a ticket a more expensive and/or more cumbersome process for their would-be visitors… Here are four common conditions that may create needless barriers to your market purchasing a ticket online.”
Leisure Activity Motivation: How People Decide to Attend Your Museum or Visitor-Serving Organization (DATA)
“Data indicate that an organization’s own, internal offerings generally matter less to visitors than does the market’s perceptions of the surrounding macro-environment when it comes to motivating leisure visitation.”
Information Overload: How Case Study Envy Stifles Nonprofit Success
“Too many nonprofits seem to distract themselves from opportunities by making inappropriate comparisons between other organizations and their own… When considering case studies and the operations of other nonprofit organizations, it may help to keep in mind the following four items.”
Does Your Nonprofit Believe This Myth? The Best Indicator That an Organization is Bad at Social Media
“The easiest way to spot an organization that completely misunderstands the role of social media is to look for those boasting that it’s cheap or free. It’s not. And it hasn’t been for a while now.” Here’s why.
Marketing Your Nonprofit to Audiences That ACTUALLY Matter
“Many nonprofit executives are collecting information and doing everything in their power to keep up with nonprofit-dubbed best practices….and, perhaps that’s why a lot of them are still flailing…and why many will ultimately fail.”
Five Key Reasons Why Social Media Strategies Are Different Than Traditional Marketing Strategies
“We have a new platform that didn’t exist in the past – and it has changed a whole heck of a lot about how organizations “do” Communications… perhaps because it has so drastically changed how the market views Communications.”
Social Media Degrees: The New Fool’s Gold for Nonprofits
“Here are the five attributes that organizations should try to avoid like the plague and that, quite remarkably, seem inherent to the type of person who may choose to pursue a degree or ‘certificate’ in social media.”
Cheers to an incredible 2014 for all of your nonprofits, museums, zoos, aquariums, theaters, symphonies, and other visitor-serving organizations aiming to inspire audiences! May this next year bring you and your organizations much success.
Thanks again for following along!
