Content is great, and frequently updated content is even better. But do any of your content marketing efforts matter if they don’t intentionally convert visitors into leads and leads into customers?

Whether you’re an experienced digital marketer, or just dipping your toes into the process for the first time, it’s very likely you’ve started to wonder about how you can help your content convert more leads. And while this is a specialized process — in fact, many copywriters and marketing firms specialize in CRO, or conversion rate optimization — there are a few things you can do today to help your company write web content that converts.

Aligning the Moving Parts of Website Content

When we talk about content, it’s important to note that we aren’t simply talking about the words you use as you write your website, blog or whitepapers. We’re talking about how your content marketing blueprint (the big picture plan of the content) and your content marketing assets (the format of the content) combine to create web content that converts. It’s putting the pieces together that matters.

Each of these moving parts is important to itself and requires thoughtful planning. And while it may seem like the content development process is a large undertaking, investing time and attention in your overall strategy leads directly to higher conversion rates.

Approach Every Content Campaign With These Rules

With a content marketing blueprint in place that identifies the copy titles and formats that will most resonate with your prospective customers, you can bring your focus back to developing web content that converts.

For every asset you develop, make sure you follow the following three conversion-focused content rules:

1. Freely share your knowledge.

Carefully controlling who can learn what about how your company functions is an outdated business practice. While you should still protect proprietary information, just about everything else is fair game for attracting customers.

Collectively, your company has a lot of experience to share. It’s people has stories to share. Don’t be afraid to open up and share this experience with customers who are hungry for authentic connection with a prospective partner.

2. Target each asset to a persona.

When you sit down to commission a blog article or white paper to support your content marketing efforts, it can be tempting to focus the project on as many people as possible in order to expand its reach. However, untargeted copy is bad copy, and targeting everyone actually ends up targeting no one.

For every asset you develop, pretend you’re answering a specific question asked by a specific person. Using this focused approach for all of your copy — whether you’re writing blog articles, white papers, case studies, or emails — will allow you to form a personal connection with each reader that your audience would otherwise opt out of.

I occasionally speak at different industry events, and like to put myself on the “hot seat” during Q&A time. That’s the same mindset I have during writing — to answer a direct question in hopes that others will overhear and take something away from the conversation.

3. Be conversational.

Different content formats require different tones of voice. But don’t make the mistake of thinking that formal is always better. For example, consider the impact of a polished article on The Harvard Business Review compared to a new blog post from marketing thought leader Seth Godin. These two types of content couldn’t be more different, and yet they’re equally effective for different people in different ways.

The web content you develop for your company doesn’t need to be scholarly or insanely polished to be effective (unless you’re selling to an academician). For many audiences, it can often be more effective if it is conversational and personal.

Consider each of these three steps and then click over to review your company’s website.

• Are you freely sharing knowledge, or alluding to the secretive benefits that arise from working with you?
• Are your blog posts targeted to one persona and one specific topic, or do they try to please everyone (and appeal to no one in the process)?
• Are you striking an informal and welcoming tone, or are you unconsciously reverting to stiff corporate-speak?
• Conversion copywriting is its own science, but these beginner tips can help you plan a website or marketing content project that delivers web content that converts.

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community and was written by Rick Whittington.

Social media marketing is bigger than ever. You basically have to be doing it.

Trouble is, that means it’s competitive. To make a dent, you need a great strategy.

We’ve found some tools that’ll automate steps along the way. If you’re like me, you want to outsource as much as you can to machines. Machines are the future – until the alien wasp army arrives.

These tools will help you build slammin’ social media profiles and start bringing in customers. Sweet, sweet customers. They’ll help you find content, engage influencers, and monitor social media.

But first, you need an account. It takes skill to make a good one. We won’t get too deep into this, but here are a few tips for some of the major social networks:

Setting up for social media success

Facebook

HubSpot says the keys are a great “About” page, an excellent cover picture, and proper use of Facebook Insights.

Twitter

All you need for Twitter is a handle, some nice images, and the right voice. That will lay the groundwork to build a strong brand there.

LinkedIn

Social Media Examiner posted this step-by-step guide to set up a LinkedIn company page. It explains how to use LinkedIn analytics and showcase pages to shine on the professional network.

Instagram

Hootsuite calls Instagram a “critically important social network.” Their guide to creating an account explains everything you need to know to get started. Plus, they recommend some fun photo-editing apps.

Now that you’re all set up, let’s look at those tools.

Tools for better social media marketing

1. Discoverly – find new followers

You won’t make much of a dent without a decent following. You need people to share and engage with your content. That’s how you build brand awareness.

Buffer’s Kevan Lee wrote a great piece on how to get your first 1,000 followers. For every social network, you need:

• A complete and interesting profile
• Links to make your profiles easy to find
• Great content
• Great people to interact with

The Discoverly Chrome extension will help with that last point. When you view a person’s social media or email profile, it’ll show you their other accounts.

Suppose you follow someone on Twitter. Hover over the Discoverly icon, and you’ll see all their other public social networks.

Use it to build stronger connections with customers, clients, and colleagues. Follow your Twitter customers on their LinkedIn and Google+ profiles. When they follow back, you’ve turned a single social user into three.

2. BuzzSumo – share great content

Once you’ve found your followers, you need to make them happy. This means finding and sharing excellent content.

You should also share other people’s work. BuzzSumo makes it easy to find the best content around.

BuzzSumo is a simple tool for researching your industry. Search for keywords and get a list of the most popular content that day, week, month, etc.

Share and comment on these posts to interact with other writers, and cement yourself as a voice in your industry.

You can also see what’s popular on specific social networks. If certain topics are more popular on one network than another, build that into your sharing strategy.

3. Rafflecopter – host a competition

Competitions get social media users engaged. Plus, they’re dead simple.

Our friend Rob Brooks says social media competitions need:

• Clear contest objectives
• The right competition format
• Well-defined rules
• Time- and prize-limits
• A great look and feel

Rafflecopter calls itself “the world’s easiest way to run a giveaway.” In three minutes, you can run a contest across multiple social platforms.

It lets you add multiple ways to enter the contest, from following you on Twitter to signing up for your newsletter. You can assign different point values to different entry options.

It’s a quick and easy way to entertain users, and collect lead information. All for free!

4. Little Bird – find and engage influencers

To make your message heard, find the people with the loudest voices.

Influencers are social media users with large followings that listen to them. They help build brand awareness and direct people to your company. Plus, they make you look good.

The key to influencer marketing is finding the right partners. That’s where our next tool comes in handy.

Little Bird is a great tool for building influencer lists by topic. You feed it a few keywords, and it suggests powerful people to reach out to.

It uses advanced data to help you find the perfect influencer. You can pinpoint specific geographic locations and languages. You can also find two (or more) networks with similar interests, and influencers that appeal to both.

If influencer marketing is your main mission, it’s a great tool.

To learn more, we wrote a whole book about influencer marketing on social media.

5. Hootsuite – social media listening

Once you’re rolling on social media, you’ll need to monitor your progress. Social listening will let you know what’s being said about you, good and bad. Plus, you’ll see whether your campaigns are making an impact.

Hootsuite is a full social media suite with a little to offer for every area of social marketing.

You can schedule posts, curate streams based on Twitter lists or keywords, and collect analytics. It connects with over 35 platforms, so you can monitor all of social media from one place.

It’s also designed to be used in teams. This makes it perfect for sharing social media accounts without sharing passwords, and for effective customer service.

But what if you want to monitor more than just social media?

6. Mention – complete monitoring

Want to find new content ideas, reach out to influencers, monitor competitors, and grow your brand?

Look no further.

Monitor what’s being said about any name or keyword online, then react and analyze conversations.

Specifically for social media:

• A designated Twitter dashboard to monitor and improve your account’s performance.
• Join Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram conversations directly from the app.
• Monitor and analyze competitors’ social media strategies.
• Identify and interact with the important influencers in your niche

And that’s the list!

Short and sweet. There are a million-and-one ways to market on social media, but these six tools will make a huge difference.

Pick your favorite, or use all of them together. Make them part of your daily social routine. You’ll start building connections and finding customers in no time.

Want to learn more, check out our ebook.

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community and was written by Patrick Whatman.

I’m sure many of you are too young to remember Willie Sutton, but you may have read about him. Willie was an infamous bank robber who robbed hundreds of banks back during a forty-year “career” beginning in the 1930s. Willie is reported to have had a smart answer when someone asked him, “Willie, why do you rob banks?” Although it is reportedly an urban legend, his now-famous answer was, “Because that’s where the money is.”

Even if you never heard of Willie Sutton, at some point in time, you’ve probably been told this by your board or CEO: “Gosh, there are all these big banks (or hi-tech companies, or casinos, or whatever the ‘big guys in town’ are) in our community. Write to them and ask them for a contribution!”

Dollars to doughnuts (no pun on Willie or the police who nabbed him), if you listened to this advice, you struck out. You might have sent a letter to hundreds of businesses and received one donation (if you’re lucky).

Yes, there are a lot of businesses in your community. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Los Angeles, Boston, Atlanta, or a small rural town in Wyoming—there are businesses there! But how do you narrow down the field to which ones will support your cause?

Don’t always think of the big companies in your community. There are lots of entrepreneurs, small companies, and mid-sized companies that are often far more generous that the larger companies and might not be on everyone else’s radar screen. So, let’s get rid of the Willie Sutton theory and start thinking about the companies that are likely to support your organization.

The Ideal Business Donor Profile

First, you need to figure out which of these businesses (whether there are dozens or thousands of them in your community) would be likely to support your organization. Let’s build an ideal business donor profile for your organization. Here are some things you might include in your “Ideal Profile:”

• This business gives to charities similar to ours.
• We have a connection to a top manager/executive within this company.
• This business is “in our neighborhood.”
• We’ve done business with this company.
• This business has given to us previously.
• This business has a natural connection to our mission (i.e., a crayon, toy, or kids’ clothing manufacturer giving to a child care center).
• This company has an interest in supporting the community.
• This company has an employee volunteer program.
• This company shares our values.

What other criteria would you add for your organization? You should be able to sit down with your staff, development committee or board and develop this ideal business donor profile in a matter of minutes—an hour at most.

Okay, so you’ve developed your ideal business donor profile. Now let’s get started developing your list of prospects.

Our Prospect List

Now you’re ready to review your profile and match up the companies in your community to see which ones are your best prospects. So let’s start with a list of “suspects,” companies that might become donors.

Hint: To help you develop these lists, use the brainstorming form attached here and have board members, staff and volunteers develop a preliminary list of people they have contacts with. Be sure to tell them that you are not going to contact these businesses yet but that you are trying to develop a list of prospective donors.

You should be able to develop a huge list within one month by following these steps:

• Meet with your CFO and get the list of vendors.
• Drive around your neighborhood in an afternoon—take someone along to make note of the companies and businesses in the neighborhood.
• Hold a brainstorming session, using the form, with your board at the next board meeting. This should take about 15 minutes.
• Hold a brainstorming session with your departmental staff at the next staff meeting(s). This should also take about 15 minutes at each staff meeting.
• Hold a brainstorming session at your next development committee meeting (another 20 minutes) and any other volunteer meetings you have.
• Spend an afternoon visiting your local chambers of commerce and see if you can get a list (you may have to be a member, so join now). Remember that there might be several chambers in your area. My community, for example, has a major metropolitan chamber, three or four suburban chambers, a women’s chamber, an Asian chamber, a Hispanic chamber and an African-American chamber.

Narrowing the Field

Okay, you might have a list of hundred, even thousands if you’ve done your homework. And it took you only a few weeks! Now let’s narrow the field and fit these “suspects” into your ideal donor profile so they become “prospects.”

• Suspect: A company that might be interested in supporting your cause.
• Prospect: A company, after being compared with your ideal business donor profile, that you believe would support your cause.
• Expect: A company, after cultivation (more about that later), that you believe will make a donation to support your cause.

Let’s get started developing your list.

• Start your business appeal by creating an ideal business donor profile.
• Develop a list of suspects—all the businesses you can think of that might support your organization.
• Narrow down your list by comparing it with your donor profile, and then develop a list of prospects—companies that you believe, with proper cultivation and a good case, would support your organization.

Now go out there out and get them!

This article was originally sourced from Business 2 Community and was written by Linda Lysakowski.

Welcomed with open ARMS

The Australasian Research Management Society (ARMS) is host to more than 2,100 specialists in the management and administration of research from across Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, Papua New Guinea & Singapore. In 2017, the most important date on the society’s calendar is the ARMS Conference, taking place in Wellington (26-29 September 2017).

Conference Convenor Chris Kroger, of GNS Science in Wellington, is expecting between 500-600 attendees. She believes the majority of delegates will be from Australia, which has the edge in the region in terms of professional development. “There is still some room for improvement here and New Zealanders will really benefit from getting our relevant agencies to see how the other countries do it,” Kroger notes.

“One thing that is unique to our profession in New Zealand, is there is no training for it; there is no university degree to be a research manager or administrator. Within Australia there is only one place to train in this field. Our members are predominantly research managers and administrators, mainly from publicly-funded research organisations, universities, research institutes, government departments, and some independent research arms. Health, biotech, or geoscience research - these are key areas and big questions to get right,” she says. “We deal with managing research; it involves securing funding, making sure research contracts are fulfilled, that they are ethical, within the law. All of these things are really important and a lot of damage can be done if getting it wrong. A lot of what is needed we learn on the job.

“So this conference is extremely valuable, to learn how other people are doing the job, and to get a bit of recognition for our profession. Ultimately, the things we learn at these conferences make the process more efficient and safe. It is also a very good opportunity to strengthen networks. Plus, all this knowledge inevitably makes people more employable, it's a real advantage.”

Solid support

Kroger notes that she has received outstanding support from Tourism New Zealand’s Business Events team in bringing the event to Wellington: “We received support from Tourism New Zealand’s Conference Assistance Programme in putting the proposal together in a really nice format, and help in putting a budget together. They provided funding to go over to Sydney to present the proposal, and paid for the ARMS executive and their PCO to fly over to Wellington to look at the venue and discuss a few things. What's also not to be sneezed at is all the insider advice - what do you think about this venue, how about this for social functions?” She is now working with Tourism New Zealand on marketing materials for distribution within New Zealand and at this year's international ARMS event in Melbourne, to increase attendance.

“The support has been above and beyond what I expected - I don’t think I would have taken on the role without that help.”

Wonderful Wellington

Having hosted the event in Auckland and Christchurch in previous rotations, Wellington was chosen for 2017 to tie in with the theme of securing funding and collaboration. “We hope to involve relevant government agencies and have them contribute, and the best opportunities are in Wellington,” Kroger says.

Initially concerns were raised that the destination might mean two flights for some overseas attendees, but Kroger points out that the new direct flight from Canberra to Wellington (starting this year) has helped in connecting the research hubs within both capitals.

Wellington’s compact layout and excellent network of venues and accommodation may also help in attracting attendees: “It is walkable. That's convenient - people like to have a bit of a stretch. Not having to take transport also contributes to costs, so research offices might send more than one person because it is cost-effective to come here.”

The wider appeal of the destination should also work as a draw for attracting delegates from Australia and further afield, says Kroger, who originally hails from Germany. “New Zealand is a beautiful country. People will have the opportunity to enjoy it. Wellington also has a lot of options, going south and going north.”

She adds: “Te Papa is a really good venue. It's big enough to hold all of us, and it's unique to have a museum and conference venue. You have the opportunity to clear your mind in the breaks and look at the exhibitions. We traditionally have a gala dinner and reception and we are looking at all the good options in Wellington for those. We are also working with Positively Wellington to see if there is potential to secure World of Wearable Art show tickets as a pre- or post-conference option for those interested. It should be a great event.”

For further information about Tourism New Zealand please visit 

www.businessevents.newzealand.com

Over the years, SEO has evolved and become much more sophisticated, but you cannot deny that there are still some common mistakes most newcomers and even some veterans continue to commit. It’s better to return to the start and have a look at the tactics you have been employing so far to avoid being the bungling amateur.

In a nutshell, these are the top ten SEO mistakes that businesses frequently commit. These are also some of the most common SEO mistakes my company regularly find while doing SEO work for our clients at PageTraffic. If you are an SEO, spot these mistakes, blow the whistle and fix them immediately for better results.

1. Low Quality and Copied Content

It’s annoying to find a website which has exactly copied your content from top to bottom and still ranks higher than you in Google search results. The same applies to others. Stop being a mimeograph and create your own original content which is authentic and genuine. Create content that is compelling and of some value to users, and Google will definitely reward you with higher rankings in the search results, or lift it from other websites for penalization by Google. The choice is yours.

2. Internal Duplicate Content

As condemning as copying content from other websites is duplication within your own website. In-site duplicity occurs when you replicate the same content in more than one location within your website or use the same title tags and Meta descriptions on multiple pages. While the former is typically seen on e-commerce sites with several pages listing the same set of products, the latter occurs when content management systems auto generate page titles. Apart from being unique, title tags of each page should represent the content on that page. Don’t slip up on Meta descriptions. Make these as effective and powerful as possible within the 160 character limit.

3. Using the Right Keywords

Keywords can be the heart of your SEO campaign if optimized properly. It is not only critical to use keywords that best reflect the products sold by you but also coordinates with what the searcher types in the search box. Be specific while using keywords. You might think that this particular keyword is fit for your industry but searchers might not necessarily think the same. Before incessantly inserting keyword phrases in your content, get yourself educated on keyword research and analysis first. Another unscrupulous tactic used by SEOs is unnecessarily inserting keywords in the web pages just to improve a site’s ranking unnaturally. The recurring words and phrases create a bad impression and can even earn you a Google penalty.

4. Broken Links

Think of it this way. You see a link, which claims to show you how you will look after 20 years. But clicking on it no longer directs you to the page it is intended to, because it is broken. Now, isn’t that annoying? Don’t earn yourself bad repute by accumulating many such broken links.

5. Getting Links from Incredible Sources

Yes it is difficult to get links from quality sources and equally easier to get them from article directories. But don’t go for quantity at the cost of quality. A single link from a reliable and authentic source is better than dozens from poor quality sources.

6. Not Using Webmaster Resources

Matt Cutts, Google’s Ex head of Search Spam, said that not using webmaster resources and learning about how Google works, is another common SEO mistake. Configure your Google Analytics and Search Console to be updated about your website’s data. Set up conversion goals, reports, and track which keywords and phrases convert the most.

7. Not Using the Alt Tag

Use the Alt tag to name your images. Images cannot be deciphered by the search engines. So you have to fill in the Alt tag to tell the search engine what the image is about. The Alt tag can be a brief descriptive phrase of your image and can include your keyword phrase. Don’t use the same descriptive phrase on more than one image, unless the images are same.

8. URL Structure

Just as it is important to target keyword phrases in your content, it is necessary to name your URL structure after your prime keyword phrase. The URL structure should also be relevant to your website content. This URL structure can help search engines and searchers to relate to your content.

9. Not writing for human beings

Have you heard about the adage, “Jack of all trades master of none?” Well, avoid being that. Instead of writing about anything and everything, choose an area of authority. Google will definitely not want to show you to the searchers when you don’t have expertise on any particular subject. Obviously, it would like the searchers to get their queries solved from masters on that particular topic. If you still want to write on multifarious topics, then don’t anticipate much traffic from search engines, because as such you are categorized only as a personal blog or website.

10. Non crawlable site

Lastly, everything is in vain if your website is not crawlable. According to Google, not enabling your website to be crawled by Googlebot is the biggest mistake made by webmasters. No crawling means no indexing and hence no ranking.

11. Now, it’s your turn

Tell me what other SEO mistakes you come across regularly? What is the most frustrating out of the ones above?

This media release was sourced directly from Business 2 Community.  

Recently, Ernie Smith wrote a good piece about starting online communities in Associations Now. In the article, he referred back to the Reddit volunteer moderator revolt I wrote about last August, and offered some tips for organizations just beginning to build online communities. For associations looking to build strong online communities from the ground up, I’d build upon Ernie’s tips a bit, as follows:

1- DON’T JUST BUILD FOR YOURSELF–BRING EVERYONE ELSE ON BOARD.

For many associations, the first step in building an online community is purchasing software. While software is the foundation on which your community will live, there are important steps to take before you start building. Start developing relationships and creating a shared vision for what the community can become early on, before you buy any software or even start the selection process. Consider creating a community steering committee who will ultimately become your community champions. The more personal the interactions you establish before the community is built, the more buy-in you’ll have before the community is even up and running–and the easier it will be have those champions begin cultivating a strong community once it’s up and running.

2 – BUILD A COMMUNITY FROM AN EXISTING BOND.

This is where associations have a distinct advantage over brands looking to build online communities–association members already have an existing bond, which is baked into the association. However, far from being a slam-dunk, in my experience, this is often a loose bond. Yes, your association represents an industry or a profession, but while that bond does already exist, you may see better success building a community around a smaller segment of the membership with a bond stronger than mere shared membership or professional affiliation. For example, instead of just one overarching community for all members, initially focus on special interest groups, new members, members who hold the association’s certification, etc. Those niche groups will likely bring you some early wins in terms of engagement, participation and enthusiasm about the community, and you can then use those successes and community champions to springboard your community to the broader membership.

3 – JUST BECAUSE A BOND EXISTS DOESN’T MEAN THEY KNOW YOU DO.

This one is sort of a head-scratcher for associations, because obviously your members know your organization exists. That said, to grow their community, associations should leverage their other points of contact with members (newsletters, social media, magazines, events, etc.) to continually raise awareness of the community. General calls to action like “Join a conversation with your peers!” are less effective than specific calls to action like “See what [specific member or industry expert] had to say about [hot topic in the field your association represents] this week in our community.” Also, look at your community as a hook to bring new members on board, or at least to raise awareness about your association among the broader community of potential members, customers or event attendees. Even if your community is a member-only benefit, there are ways to surface interactions and resources behind the community wall to larger constituencies.

4 – MAKE SURE YOUR COMMUNITY MANAGERS ARE GREAT STORYTELLERS.

Hmmmmmm. What community managers? Let’s get real here. Most association communities don’t have a manager. They took the “if you build it they will come approach”….and the results often are proof positive that this strategy just doesn’t work if you’re trying to build a strong, engaged community (and who isn’t?). My most successful clients have one thing in common: A dedicated community manager. Even if they’re not great storytellers (and most of the ones I work with aren’t!) this is still the #1 predictor of success. If someone is focused on community, the community thrives. Whodathunkit? So storytelling aside, make sure your community managers just ARE…as in, have one–or, ideally, more than one.

5 – ALL EMPLOYEES SHOULD KNOW SOMETHING ABOUT COMMUNITY UPKEEP.

This one is spot-on and I agree entirely. One of the top roles of a community manager (assuming you have one) is coaching other staff on how to engage in — and harvest the benefits of — the community. The full time community managers I work with hold regular meetings and brown bag lunches with their co-workers to ensure the principles of effective community management are spread far and wide. And more than just community upkeep, the more staff who are aware of what’s going on in the community, the more likely your association is to be successful in integrating the community into all aspects of the association’s other offerings…which, in turn, will fuel continued community growth and engagement.

This article was originally sourced from Social Fish and was written by Ben Martin.

AuSAE Networking Lunches offer a great chance to get out of the office and meet new connections in the sector. Each lunch also features an insightful presentation on various topics of importance. Attending a lunch is a great chance to see what AUSAE really offers which is a place like-minded professionals can gather and share workplace challenges and achievements over a delicious two-course luncheon at a great venue. Check out the upcoming lunches below. We would love to see you there!

Sydney | From "Compulsory Union Ticket" to "Membership of Choice" on Thursday 7 July

Stephen Hale (Head of Marketing & Communications at Mortgage & Finance Association of Australia) will share how the MFAA is improving member engagement and retention within the compulsory membership [more]

Brisbane | Creating a Behaviour Based Culture on Thursday 14 July

Michelle Trute (CEO at Diabetes Queensland) will explore the behaviours you are really wanting your staff and volunteers to adopt in your organisation. How do you define [more]

Melbourne | In Conversation with Tom Garcia on Friday 15 July   

Tom Garcia (CEO at the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees) will discuss the role he has played in driving AIST’s advocacy on the superannuation reforms and governance. He will share his experiences working with government, sharing industry messages and advocating for your members and how his experiences can [more]

Canberra | How to advocate your Members on Monday 1 August 

Genevieve Quilty (CEO at Optometry Australia) will discuss Optometry Australia’s responsibility to raise the united concerns of the sector with decision makers and to influence the necessary changes to support [more]

ShowGizmo is offering all AuSAE members free Lead qualification or Digital Passport with any app licence. These two features have a standard price of $3000AUD and $1500AUD respectively so, it really is a sweet offer!

ShowGizmo was founded in 2010 and has produced apps for thousands of events throughout the world. All of their products are beautifully intuitive and designed with maximising engagement at events at the forefront. 

For further details on this offer and all about ShowGizmo or to arrange a one-on-one demo and to find out more about deploying ShowGizmo at your next event. Contact Josh josh@showgizmo.com Phone 02 8599 7234 www.showgizmo.com.

The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (ACPNS) at the Queensland University of Technology is undertaking the second Giving Australia study during 2015/2016 on behalf of the Australian Government Department of Social Services and the Prime Minister’s Community Business Partnership.

Nonprofit organisations are invited to participate.

As this survey asks about your resourcing, it is essential that whoever completes it can access information about the organisation’s financial position, fundraising activities and volunteer management.

If this is does not describe your role, please forward this email to an appropriate person within your organisation.

What is the survey about?

This survey focuses on your organisation’s experience with aspects of fundraising and development activities, community business partnerships, social enterprise, volunteers and new technologies.

The purpose of the Giving Australia 2016 research project is to collect comprehensive, up-to-date information on giving by individuals, collectives and businesses in Australia. With this survey we hope to be able to provide your organisation with information about:

• What resources successful organisations use in fundraising and volunteer recruitment
• What resources nonprofits need in order to improve their fundraising or volunteer recruitment
• What new technologies are being embraced by nonprofits and how these are being used

In order for this project to be of most benefit to your organisation and the sector as a whole, we need to obtain accurate data from a wide range of organisations. We do hope that you will take up this opportunity to participate in the largest study of giving and volunteering ever undertaken in Australia.

Click here for the link to the survey. 

Please complete this survey by 16th July 2016.

All comments and responses will be treated confidentially. Please note that this study has been approved by the QUT Human Research Ethics Committee (approval number 1600000098) and the Australian Government Statistical Clearing House (approval number 02476-01). Our partners in this landmark study are the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology (CSI Swinburne), and the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs. If you have any questions about the authenticity of the survey or about the Giving Australia project in general, please email the Department of Social Services partnerships@dss.gov.au

AuSAE has welcomed new members from the following organisations this month.

Is your organisation on this list? If your organisation is on this list as an AuSAE organisational member but you are unsure if you are part of the membership bundle, please contact the friendly AuSAE team at info@ausae.org.au. 

Not on this list? To join AuSAE today please visit our membership information page here.