From Media to You

Almost any non-profit will tell you that it's hard to get your message out to community members when you are working with a small or even non-existent marketing budget. We all know that marketing is important, but at the end of the day we know that hiring qualified staff to work with the students to have a safe and compassionate learning environment or being able to get students off of our waiting list for programs is even more important. We rely heavily on word of mouth to get our stories out there to show the success of not our programs but of our kids and the leaps and bounds they are making when they have that consistent place and they know someone cares while their parents are at work.

Social marketing is still rather new. I remember when Facebook was just for college students and now it seems like it's a free marketing platform more than anything. We use our Facebook page to share what we are doing in program as well as to share our love and support to the community that gives so much to us.

As I was updating a few things on our page this morning, I saw we were at 497 "likes." Three more and we would hit the milestone 500! Now, if you are not an avid Facebook user, one thing that is important to know is that a "like" when it comes to marketing is not so much about popularity as it is about people being engaged. If I "like" something on Facebook and I have 300 friends myself, my 300 friends could potentially see that, broadening the awareness for our organization. When I came back and checked the page after lunch, I was amazed. ScanDubuque, Stan's Coffeehouse and Resources Unite took to sharing our post and I am excited to say that we blew our goal of 500 out of the water and are now close to 700!!

Thank you for helping us spread the word. We feel your support and appreciate it so much! So from me to you, we like you as well and look forward to growing and impacting even more youth in our community!