Personally, I think the campaign is wonderful and will be successful.  However it is a double edge sword – if the projects that receive money accomplish little, Pepsi will receive little reward and much blame for squandering millions of dollars and having nothing to show for it.  However, if Pepsi finds a couple of outstanding programs that do amazing work, then they will benefit from the good work, while being praise and rewarded for giving back to the community.  It always helps to know you consumer dollar can come full circle back to your community.

This 21 century corporate community partnership idea is nothing new, but how they go about getting the information out to the masses and not just existing nonprofits is.

In the end I think this will benefit Pepsi more in the long run then any Superbowl Ad.  How many of those ads do we see three months later?  This campaign could go on for years, will minor adjustments and changes and thing of the brand loyalty they can create.  I just hope Pepsi has a long term strategy for this campaign and these project – there is nothing worse then a corporation throwing one time money at a long term problem with no long term planning.

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Does your staff use technology; do your volunteers use technology? do your donors use technology?  Then why are you thinking strategically about technology?

Technology has become one of the cornerstones of operating a nonprofit – we use email to communicate, cell phone to call and text information,  Websites to provide information, services and collect donations, and yet Technology is not part of your organizations strategic plan.

Now this is not to suggest that you should throw out you strategic plan already in place and start again – that would be crazy!  But what I am suggesting is that your organization take some time and make a technology plan.  Then the next time you’re in strategic planning mode you can use the plan as a junping off point.

What should going into a technology plan?  Start with where want to be and work backwards from there.

Inventory what you have and what you think you might need in the future consider everything from the phone systems to servers.  What you think you might need may very well change right along with technology.  Please don’t forget to considerany purchase cost maintenance and staff needs?

Look at how you presently use technology and how its changed – five years ago you bought a server, now with cloud computing is a server necessary? There are dollars to be saved by looking at these items.

What others areas of technology do you need to look at?

If we Work backwards from  where we want to be we can learn our next step . You can see all the places where technology can help you succeed -  Still need help figuring out the details – drop us a line at info@ishouti.com

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So how does a small business owner, who is focused on getting money in the door integrate social media or even get started.

The first place to start is where you start with any conversation you’re joining – Start by listening!  Find out who is talking about your industry, products, services – see where they are and what they are saying.   Once you’ve spent some time listening, look to see where you can add to the conversation.  What thoughts can you bring, how is something different or the same for you.

Feeling overwhelmed?  iSHOUT interactive is here to help with our quick start programs

Not feeling to overwhelmed yet, good.  Try setting up a facebook or twitter account.   Start with just one and try it out.    Facebook has millions of more users which may be perfect for you, but finding a specific market can be a bit easier on Twitter for most.

Ready to venture a little further,  got thoughts and ideas that don’t fit on Twitter, but don’t really work on Facebook – try blogging or what I like to call a thought log – I use Posterous, but there are other logs to use.  You can post anything and everything at Posterous.  the best part you can post by sending an email – it can even be set up to post to your twitter, facebook, myspace or website. pretty cool and it’s free.

Of course you can always host a blog like ishouti at little more set up and cost involved, but fairly easy even for a social media upstart!

Finally, the how concept of Social Media is to use these different tools to get people to do things – what do you want you customers to do?

Use your new found tools to motivate and move your customers into action.

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Are we telling people in public office that they are no longer able to trust members of the press or the people that they work with and for because their opinions are now no longer allowed to be kept private?

How does this affect the integrity of social media, if we don’t have an ethical standard by which to follow? Social Media should hold itself to the same ethical standards when dealing with off record information as the press is supposed too.

What are people supposed to do now? I think that if someone is speaking candidly and if they don’t want it to be on-record then it should be just that, private and not ever put in print or in this case sound bite. I think TMZ violated an ethical code when they allowed the sound bite of President Obama to go public, but the larger ethical issue is that Terry Moran of ABC should have never let it out in the first place. What is the world comming to when reporters are now allowed to talk about or let slip off-record information?

What direction is social media going, if it allows this information to be brodcast? I think that users of social media should have enough of their own personal integrity to know that sometimes what people say needs to be kept private and is not for public consumption.

What do you think about journalist taking off the record comments and making them public?

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This page will be a listing of deals and specials from around the Silicon Valley.

To get the page started we are offering a free 30 day listing with related deals and specials.

iSHOUT interactive will  promote your business, deals, specials and page free of charge for 30 day via Twitter, Facebook and our blog.

If you would like your business to be promoted for free for thirty day contact us at  info@ishouti.com or at 408 431 1363

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yesterday afternoon, my co-worker and I were starving after a late afternoon meeting and decided to stop for a Burger.  I know, I know, after I posted an article on bad foods, how could I go out and have a cheese burger.  Well I did, so get over it and let me get to the point.

The burger joint we stopped at, is a family owned and run restaurant chain with three locations at the present time.  All three locations are in the San Jose, CA area.  The owners, a husband and wife team, both have a background in fast food management and service.

Everything about the restaurant was fine and this is not a post about the restaurant or burger, but about their marketing.

Their website was weak and didn’t really speak to what made their burgers different and special.  They aren’t on Facebook or Twitter and had a  take-out menu with pictures of the burgers in black and white.

How does a small family business make it’s marketing budget go further?

Here is what I would recommend for this burger joint.

1. A website that showcases the food.

2. A website that showcases the food, yes it’s that important!

3. A Facebook Fan page, with color photos of the food

4. A Twitter account to promote special and information about the company.

5. A take-out menu in color – who wants to see black and white photos of their food?

These are just four simple ideas which would help this start-up compete against the big burger chains they go up  against every day.

Any small business can use social media to compete with big business and every small business must use this powerful and cost effective marketing tool to compete

This is the one time budget doesn’t matter, but a good product and being persistence and proactive does.  Getting the word out about your product through social media is one of the most cost effective things any small business can do.    So, can your business afford to whisper?

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Several weeks ago I wrote a post about social media and sports.  Today, the NFL came out with it’s attempt to control social media.  The difference between the two policies is the NFL’s policy only affects players, coaches, officials, personnel, third-party representatives, and even the media  from updating their status, blogging, or tweeting 90 minutes before a game until post-game interviews are completed.

While the NFL may be able to maintain the policy banning social media for the time being, the real questions is what’s the benefit to the NFL in banning social media?  nothing really other then limit the amount of additional exposure the teams, players and league may get.  How many men would love to read a tweet or facebok post from a player moments before hitting the field or the excitement a player feels right after scoring the winning touch down.

One would think with all the amazing marketing minds at the NLF , they could figure out how to make money on the idea.  Then again, maybe they just haven’t had enough time to develop the plan to make money with twitter and Facebook, but give them time, I’m sure they will.

What do you think of professional sport keeping players and coaches from expressing themselves before and after a game?

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Are you stuck on how to get started, or what to do once you complete setting up a profile?

We’re here to help!

iSHOUT interactive announces the introduction of the 2 quick start social media programs

• Social 101will evaluate your website and set you up on Facebook and Twitter.
• Monthly Maintenance will engage communities and support you marketing plan.

Go to Quick Start for more details.

Can you afford to whisper?

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As all of these platforms, software and product shift and shape around us;

What is your favorite social media tool?  What community platform do spend the most time with?

Tell us who do you love?

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