Currently, I’m blogging about taking on the leadership of Minnesota Women in Marketing and Communications. In June I become president and the blog will provide some insight into our members, what our organization hopes to accomplish this year and recognition for the fantastic members who do so much to make our events and marketing happen. You canview it at mwmcprez.wordpress.com.

Our struggle, although we were in the for-profit world, was that the company wouldn’t spend any money on research. Years ago they had done focus groups and had very general, and essentially useless information. Instead of knowing directly what our target market wanted, we had to rely on what the marketing manager’s wanted. When it comes to evaluating creative, this approach becomes subjective very quickly and the needs and wants of the customer are overruled by what the people in the room like. This is not the way it should be done.

Now, how does this relate to framing? Framing is an attempt to get communicators out of our traditional mode of telling people what we want them to know. The PR planning funnel includes some research on the audience at the beginning so that a measurable goal can be set, but the planning remains focused on ‘what we want you to know/do’ until the end of the program when the audience is measured again.

Framing brings a nuanced psychological and sociological approach to message creation.
As someone who has been in communications a long time, it does not seem like a revolution in communications planning, but an attempt to bring the focus to the audience(s) and force communicators to better understand who they want to talk to. A continual criticism of communications, and PR in particular, is that practioners are afraid to let go of their singular control of communications, and hence have been slow to adopt to more interactive dialog of new media. Framing is a useful rubric for us communicators to remember that we, as individuals, are not the target of the communications, so we need to understand the target audiences’ needs, media habits, biases, values and work.

A concise and practical discussion of framing can be found at www.asaecenter.org in Rebecca Leet’s article, “Top Five: Framing Messages for Full Effect.” Leet directs communicators to not plan their communication in a vacuum, but understand the interests and motivations of the audience, find the overlap and determine the action that the communication should create. To read the article, click here.

The July Brown Bag lunch hosted by the Minnesota Council on Nonprofits featured great resources and tips on framing:

-The Frameworks Institute (www.frameworksinstitute.org) which includes PDF documents on their proprietary process and much more in-depth information.
-”Don’t Think of an Elephant” by George Lakoff.
-Create a chart in the office with stakeholders in the first column. Each subsequent column breaks down the following by stakeholder group: key messages, what group knows/values, preconceptions/barriers by group, overcoming preconceptions/barriers. This is a work in progress that allows all in the organization to share knowledge they gain about perceptions and messages to counteract misperceptions. Sounds like a new take on an old sales technique and that is just what it is.
-Soliciting outside opinions can be done with the help of the board. Ask board members to ask their neighbors three quick questions about the nonprofit or area of service to gain some insights from those outside the organization.

Don’t be afraid to ask vendors, especially advertising and other services, if there is a nonprofit discount and if you are a 501(c)3, ensure that you are not paying taxes for big ticket items and events venues/meetings/meals.

In advertising, most publications offer 10 to 20 percent discount for nonprofits but its possible to save more with ROP or Run Of Press space. Basically, it is severely discounted advertising space that the book needs to fill so they can go to press on time. If your organization has a canned ad ready, let the sales reps know that you may be interested in ROP for the right publication.

Paine builds a compelling case for targeting specific media and measuring the “on message” content instead of column inches or ad equivalencies.

Aimed at corporate communicator, Weiner writes, “for as little as $20,000 annually, a corporate communications department can track its own reputation as well as those of its competitors and peers.” Gulp. O.k., that figure is close to the salary offered at some nonprofits for a communications professional.

Despite the bent toward corporate communications, the book offers real meat for the nonprofit communicator. Using research by Delahaye, where Weiner is president, he presents a research-based ranking of what portion of media is most remembered by viewers/readers. They are, in order of impact:

1. Front page or cover [placement].
2. Headline or lead.
3. Initial mention.
4. Extent of mention.
5. Dominance.
6. Visuals. [i.e., having your organization's photo, logo or other visual element in the story].

The “Impact Score” is one piece of how Delahaye measures organizational reputation and Weiner presents content evaluation in a clear and concise way.

An outstanding feature of the book are the full texts for executive and media audits.

The Minnesota Council on Nonprofits holds a monthly brown bag lunch for communicators and the June get together focused on more advanced web tools–Web 2.0, so to speak. Here are some resources and tidbits I collected at the meeting. My apologies to those in attendance for not giving you each credit for your contributions.

Blogs and blogging
-Just like any publication, set some ground rules for topics, tone and style before launching a blog for your organization. It can be an essay, letter-form or book review. One animal rescue group has a resident cat blog about a rare feline disease and gets emails from around the world from pet owners who appreciate the information.
-A good resource is Debbie Weil’s book “Corporate Blogging,” recommended by Susan Murphy of the Improve Group.
-The number of links within a blog will increase it’s rating in Google and other blog search engines. For nonprofits which are often building community with other local nonprofits, businesses or government agencies, it’s a great opportunity to grow those connections. Email for permission before creating links, according to netiquette.
-Software options include Movable Type and Word Press.
-The Minnesota Council on Foundations web page contains a list of related blogs.
-Another resource is Tech Soup.