Mustang (2015), directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven, is a study in the unbridled power of girlhood. Five sisters, strong, powerful, wild, tender, and bonded closely to one another, are caught at the precipice of womanhood. Their grandmother and uncle attempt to shove them into adulthood (or, rather, lock them up and give the key to adulthood away to their future husbands).
The results are sad, inspiring, tragic, endearing, and unexpected.
Sweet Bean (2015), directed by Naomi Kawase, is one of the most aesthetically pleasing films I’ve seen in the past few years. It’s a slow stroll through cherry blossom season, with each character and storyline finding their own rhythm and pace.
Sentaro (Masatoshi Nagase) opens the movie with a slow, lumbering gait. He practically drags the viewer into work with him. Tokue (Kirin Kirie) hobbles into Sentaro’s pancake shack (more on this later) in a somewhat starstruck manner. She marvels at the trees, the wind, the possibility of working for Sentaro, and the viewer is easily pulled alongside her for the rest of the film. Wakana (Kyara Uchida) is a young teenager who visits the dorayaki shop Sentaro runs and gently brings all of the characters together.
Thunderheart (1992), starring Val Kilmer, Graham Greene (the actor, not the author), and Sam Shepard is an older film which could and should still resonate today. Fred Ward, Sheila Tousey, Ted Thin Elk, and John Trudell also star in the movie, creating an excellent ensemble where allegiances and alliances shift constantly before the viewer’s eyes.
Did you know there’s a way to monitor the web for any and all mentions of your non-profit or small business name? Well, there is and it’s called Google Alerts. And they can monitor much more than the name of your organization: they can be used to monitor everything important to your cause.
In this post, I’ll show you how to set up Google Alerts and then offer suggestions on ways to use them. Keep reading →
In a previous position, I was in charge of the social media channels for a non-profit. We received significant feedback from our audiences offline that Facebook was a major way they heard about us. One person mentioned seeing our posts all of the time. Another loved our Meatless Monday recipes. Another person found out about an event through Facebook. Everyone seemed to comment on a facet of our Facebook posts that they loved.
And while I appreciated that feedback, my Facebook data on the website told a slightly different story.
Inbound marketing, as I’ve written about before, is a technique for bringing more fans into your non-profit engagement funnel by providing them with a product, service, or piece of content for which they give you their name, contact info, and permission to contact them in return. It’s an underutilized marketing tool in the non-profit world, but can reap major rewards for the creative organization.
But inbound marketing requires a major shift in thinking for most non-profit staff. First of all, it usually requires a product, like a white paper or ebook, when we’re used to providing services. Second, it requires non-profit staff to think of themselves as authorities when we’re much more used to thinking of ourselves as servant leaders. And third, it requires us to withhold something in return for a name and contact info, something we don’t often do.
So, with these major barriers in mind, this blog post is a starting point for you to think about inbound marketing ideas for non-profits – to get more people involved in your cause.
In the fall, I started working with a coffee shop owner who knew he needed to be more active on social media. More than just active, he knew he had a few challenges and opportunities on his hands. First, his customers – and even some of his staff – didn’t know about many of their sustainability practices. For example, they serve organic coffee and recycle all of their coffee grounds with a local composter. The ethos of his coffee shop wasn’t being promoted or even shared.
Also, he wanted to share more local news and more information on the sustainable coffee industry, to supplement posts and shares about his own shops.
This is a case study of how we produced some astounding results in just one month.