'Tis the season for event planning, but how do you plan an event when donors are sheltering in place? Crossroads Fund is a public foundation that supports nonprofits and groups in the Chicagoland area working on social, economic and racial justice.
The transformation of their popular annual "Seeds of Change" spring gala into a vibrant online celebration--complete with DJs and awards--offers a great example of how to pivot from a traditional offering to an online format that is still full of celebration (and still meets fundraising goals). Here are our 5 top tips for moving events online.
Google recently released a new update to search algorithms, which features improved AI with a greater ability to read and understand more content. Having a clear sense of how your customers search (and what they search for) can enable you to use SEO and empathy to connect in a way that meets their needs.
Faith communities can play an important role in troubling times and both video streaming technology and social media are playing an important role in helping people stay connected.
This week, I’ve been impressed about how my own community, First Unitarian Society of Madison, WI adapted quickly to not only do collaborative “streaming” services with other Madison-area UUs, but to also offer meditation groups via Zoom, bedtime stories, parent check-ins, singing, “knit ins”, children’s music time and spiritual education, virtual campus ministry, and even virtual coffee hours. A recent case study about REI's Opt Outside campaign shared by Sprout Social has some interesting takeaways I want to share with you. Hopefully these successful tactics, and some insights about each, can help you in your work.
In December of 2018, Sarah Best was a speaker at my Rotaract Club meeting, a student organization that I co-founded on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus. She delivered an inspiring presentation about her path that lead to her founding and CEO of Sarah Best Strategy. What stuck with me the most was that she emphasized the potency of always asking questions and forming connections with others, so I did just that. I reached out to Sarah the following day and was fortunate to be offered an internship with Sarah Best Strategy the following semester.
Fall is in the air. As I sit at my gate at the Dane County Airport heading off to the first of two conferences we’ll be covering this month with live social media support, I can’t believe how quickly this year has gone by.
A well-crafted annual report can be a powerful vehicle for sharing your message and accomplishments. Once finished, organizations often step back and strategize how to convert the full-breath of the report into engaging social posts. But what if you approach the annual report from a social media-first perspective at the very outset?
Sarah Best, CEO/Chief Strategist of Sarah Best Strategy (SBS), has recently been selected for the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program at Babson College in Wellesley, MA. The highly competitive program focuses on mastering financials and planning growth strategy for business. Ms. Best will join a national cohort of 150 small business owners via a combination of online and in-person learning. Curriculum topics include financials, marketing, leadership, activating growth and a tailored independent growth plan.
SBS officially turned four this October—and to celebrate, we asked Sarah to share everything she’s learned so far. But that could take up a whole book! So instead, she narrowed it down to the top four lessons she’s learned in the past four years. In her own words, here are those lessons.
The Sarah Best Strategy team is in Orlando, Florida this week, doing live social media for the 66th Annual IWCS Cable & Connectivity Symposium Conference.
We've done live social media executions for many conferences, fundraising events, and theater festivals. Live social media can help drive key business results, such as generating millions of impressions, improving customer experience, and promptly addressing (and containing) negative feedback. Capturing the energy of a live event is also an incredibly powerful way to share the story of a brand. Here are some keys for success that we've picked up through our work. |