I talk with conference directors and their teams that program various conferences. This involves pitching different ideas for sessions my team and I consider important.

This year we pitched nine different topics to a variety of conferences. These topics were based on interactions with clients, trends we see, and the topics we believe are important to discuss.

This year two of our sessions were picked up by conferences. I look forward to bringing perspective to these gatherings. In August I’ll be at the 2024 Bridge Conference. I’ll be moderating a discussion about moving beyond Google Grants and boosting social posts. In February I spoke at Faith and Fundraising about how to use holidays to create a marketing plan. This values-based marketing approach connects with people on a human level in today’s digital-first world.

This leads me to the seven topics not selected for conferences this year. These topics are important to discuss even if they may not make the most compelling conference sessions.

AI, Marketing & The Law

With new AI tools emerging weekly, there is no doubt they will transform how work is done for millions. But with every advance in productivity comes a torrent of questions about ownership, provenance, and how to navigate the legal challenges that will inevitably arise.

In this presentation, a lawyer and digital marketer present real-world examples of the emerging legal precedents being established. They will share useful information for navigating your company’s path.

Key Insight – Have a process to track how your team uses AI and set guidelines for its usage. If a question emerges, don’t run from the technology. Convene a diverse group of people within your organization to create your organization’s point of view.

Mindful Strategies: Mental Resilience In Modern-Day Marketing

Cyberbullying, rude comments and jokes, and even hateful language—as marketers, we see it all online. Today, we rely heavily on online engagement, but unfortunately, it’s not all positive.

We’ll explore social media and the essential strategies marketers can leverage to protect mental health, behavioral health, and agility. We’ll discuss practical techniques to establish boundaries, manage digital overwhelm, and prevent burnout to promote a positive, safe environment.

Key Insight – Call out the crazy and create processes to ensure that negative comments do not weigh heavily on any one person. Building a support structure is key in creating a space for teams to reduce burnout and mental load.

Maximizing The Impact Of Your Annual Report

All nonprofits create an annual report. Many are missing an opportunity to use this report to as a promotional opportunity to better connect with audiences.

Digitizing your annual report improves SEO and creates compelling, media-rich ways to share your organization’s impact story. This extends the reach of your annual report by providing a variety of assets and creates a more impactful required deliverable.

During this session, we’ll examine annual reports and the promotional elements they’ve created. We’ll discuss the SEO and content discovery value of these reports. We’ll share promotional strategies to turn one piece of content into multiple content pieces that act as rallying cries for your supporters.

Key Insight – Digitize your annual report to be indexable and engaging. Remember people skim, scan, and then read, so use mixed media to ensure your reports have something for everyone.

Content Discovery Using Solr – Not Your Standard Solr Configuration

Content Discovery does not happen solely with out-of-the-box tools. 

This case study-based discussion explores how we helped ADL revolutionize its website search using Solr and making several Drupal updates. We’ll share how we created a content discovery engine that works for their internal teams and their website visitors. 

Included in this discussion will be our approach to enhancing search. This includes how we batched enhancements and tested incremental updates to ensure each batch improved the user experience. 

Key Insight – Creating a process to test incremental changes doesn’t have to be perfect but directional. Out-of-the-box tools are great, but for many organizations, tweaks are needed. Measuring the impact of these tweaks can be challenging, so standardizing this is important.

Effective Digital Ecosystems – Why They Matter And How To Create One

Most organizations have multiple channels and platforms that must work together to create a digital ecosystem. From platforms like Meta, website(s), and YouTube to channels including email, paid, SMS, etc. there are multiple ways to communicate with donors and potential supporters. 

Today donors encounter multiple platforms and channels throughout their journey. More channels and platforms emerge weekly and budgets often remain pretty flat. Nonprofits must build effective and efficient digital ecosystems that provide audiences with the information they need at all phases of the donor journey.

So how do you create an effective, efficient ecosystem? 

Key Insight – Channles should work together to provide equitable experiences to their audiences. All digital channels offer unique value and uniquely serve audiences and organizations. Understanding this allows you to maximize the impact of each channel.

Social Media – Post Less To Get More And 4 Other Ways To Up Your Mission’s Social Media Game

Nonprofits and mission-driven brands often ask similar questions and face similar frustrations with social media.

This panel will explore examples of nonprofits that have shifted their social strategy to meet their needs. We’ll share tips and tricks used by organizations and agencies to help get the most out of social media without breaking the bank. And we’ll talk about how to create and stick to a strategy across channels.

Key Insight – Stop flooding profiles with content. Less is more and allow your team to focus on creating better quality content. This is what algorithms reward.

How to Win on Social As A Nonprofit – 2024 Edition

With big tech platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and X currently turbulent and in flux, this moment presents nonprofits with an opportunity for a social media strategy refresh.  How do you create content as a nonprofit that generates reach, informs, educates, and entertains?

This session will answer the following questions:

• “Why is no one seeing the content we’ve worked so hard on?”
• “We need more content, where do we get it?”
• “Why don’t we have more followers?”

Key Insight – Standardize reporting and create a structured mix of content to allow you to scale your efforts. Think about how the channels offer unique value and how that can shape the content you produce.