Hosting an event? Getting volunteers to help? Here’s our top five ways to get the best from your volunteer support.

1. Set up an online volunteer application form on the organization’s website – An online application process allows you to organize volunteer contact information in a clean and quick process, while providing information to potential volunteers about your event

• Quick note: Make sure you have someone manage the web page in case an influx of questions gets sent your way

2. Divide and conquer – As part of the volunteer application form, have the potential workers designate areas of the event they prefer to work at,  such as greeters, stop watch holders at the end of a race, food/beverage handlers, etc.; once you have a good list going, you can divide up the duties and announce the groups at the upcoming welcome party

• Quick note: Once you divide up the responsibilities, designate someone within your organization to be the point man (or woman) who is in charge of those specific volunteers; this allows for a better flow of communication, instead of 100 volunteers asking questions all at once

3. Host a welcome party – Instead of organizing a boring, stuffy meeting, or worse, no meeting at all, organizations should host a friendly party where you provide food and refreshments

• Quick note: Create a hand-out with important information so your volunteers can take it with them when they leave

4. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best – Create an on-site check-in booth or meeting place for all the volunteers at least an hour before your event begins to reiterate any main ideas you want your volunteers to know and explain any last minute parking or traffic issues that might come up

• Quick note: If your budget allows, provide volunteers with a radio and a designated channel to be able to communicate with each other; if that’s not an option, cell phones and numbers will do the trick

5. Don’t sweat the small stuff – Challenges will pop throughout the planning and executing phases of your event; keep cool and know that even if a volunteer backs out at the last minute, you can handle it

Whether you have five, 50 or 500 volunteers, these tricks can help you stay on track and host an event that people will be talking about for ages. After all, the best part about hiring a volunteer is they are there with smiling faces, ready to help their fellow man.

With the 2012 presidential campaign rapidly approaching, Americans must endure all of the mud-slinging, party bashing and pointed fingers to find messages that really matter.  Unfortunately, this year seems to be even worse.

Apparently, the Obama and Romney campaigns find it extremely important to brutally bash each other via multi-million dollar commercials on national TV.  Last week, the Obama campaign released a TV commercial mocking Mitt Romney singing “America the Beautiful” while showing footage of foreign countries and displaying the text, “As governor, Romney outsourced jobs to India”.

The Romney campaign followed up with a counter punch.  His campaign released a web video mocking the president singing Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together”.  It juxtaposed Obama serenading “I’m so in love with you” with headlines of him rewarding lobbyist and campaign donors.

At this point, you might be wondering who is coming out ahead in this race.  Well, no one is. And what’s even more unsettling, it’s the electorate who’s losing.

We can learn what an effective campaign should look like by NOT following their lead.

Things to remember for an effective campaign:

• First, choose a tactful campaign message that will lead to accomplishing your ultimate end goal.  A strategically smart campaign has a laser-beam focus.
• Know your target audience and tailor your message accordingly. It’s unrealistic to think one message will fit all, so craft messages that are relevant to your target audience.
• Engage your audience rather than just talking at them. Using messages with meaningful feedback will show your audience they can affect your decisions or have input on a situation.
• Utilize the internet. It has become one of the most effective platforms for sharing information.  The internet will allow your campaign message to instantly reach large audiences at a low costs through your website, blog and social media.
• Most importantly, be authentic. Share personal things about you or your organization with your audience. In doing so, they will feel a genuine connection with you.

Keeping these tips in mind will help the success of any campaign.

As for the presidential election race, the public needs well-crafted messages from each candidate in order to make an informed decision come voting time.  Let’s hope this message gets through.

Three ways to increase your company’s social media presence

A social media presence for companies big or small, and everything in-between, has evolved from just being a “good idea” into being crucial for a company’s success and continued growth.  The presence on social media platforms is very important for any company’s brand to help reach company objectives.

Success of your social media campaign depends on your ability to interact with your followers and targeted audience on an emotional level.  Research shows that most people’s decision to purchase a product or service is based largely on emotion.  But how do you create emotionally stimulating content to turn your followers into loyal fans of your brand?

Here are three techniques that can help build long-lasting relationships with your company’s social media followers:

First, incorporate as much personality as possible into your content.  Businesses on Facebook and Twitter are expected to act like real people, so always use first person speech and infuse more personal stories into your content.  Don’t portray your business as a “faceless” organization.  Finding a healthy balance between creative and agenda-driven content will help your page maintain a personal vibe

Second, it’s an absolute must to be relevant.  To keep followers engaged, take the time to craft content that really interests them, solves a problem they have, informs them of a problem they didn’t know they had, or simply makes them feel good about themselves.  Also, have a variety of media within your content.  Images and videos stick in people’s minds the most.  If possible, teach your followers something they didn’t know about your company or product. 

Lastly and probably most importantly, produce passionate content that has a definite tone to it.  The golden ticket for social media success is getting your followers and their friends excited about your business, products and services.  Being passionate about your company and the direction you’re moving will inspire others.  Even if they don’t know it, people want to be inspired, and passion is extremely contagious!

Following these techniques will lead to a vibrant and interactive social media community that will play a large hand in driving the success of your business.

So what are you waiting for? Get going!