Throughout the short and intense blitz, Old Spice had uploaded over 180 videos for its campaign, which have generated over 5.9 million views and 22,500 comments. (Source: Network World).

The campaign is fascinating for its viral success.  This chart from Visible Measures shows it’s relative success compared with President Obama’s victory speech, the video of President Bush’s dodging of a thrown shoe, and Susan Boyle’s surprising vocal performance on TV, all major viral hits.

The secret? While Old Spice Guy responded to regular folks (Johannes S. Beals tweeted a request for a marriage proposal to his girlfriend), he also focused many of his responses to questions posed by sports stars, celebrities and major publications.  For example the online tech site Gizmodo asked via Twitter, “will anything surpass the loofah as the predominant body wash-applying technology?”   The response was this.  And of course, Gizmodo posted the response video on its website and other channels, amplifying the views even more.

George Stephonopoulos and  Justine Bateman got responses, as did Perez Hilton (669,000+ views) and Ellen Degeneres (284,000+ views).  Alyssa Milano has enjoyed a series of flirty virtual courtings, including a delivery of flowers from the Old Spice Guy.  Guy Kawasaki (Silicon Valley venture capitalist and social media maven) got a humorous reply, playing off his name:

The first key lesson here is about connecting with your audience personally.  While Old Spice is only responding to a relatively small number of questions, Mustafa is speaking directly to individuals, seemingly person to person, rather than logo to consumer.  There’s a big difference.

Second is knowing how to use your influencers.  Isaiah’s first videos responded to bloggers and journalists that had written about the Old Spice commercials. He then moved to celebrities, and chose random individuals whose questions or comments would make for great entertainment (like the marriage proposal).  By responding to people (and companies) with large audiences, Old Spice is able to leverage their brands to exponentially increase their own success.  And when the campaign starts to get viral, everyone wins.  Gizmodo, for example, is thrilled to have gotten a video response (and a few million people may have just learned about Gizmodo for the first time), and Old Spice is thrilled Gizmodo posted is on their own site (reaching millions of their readers).  It’s a win-win for all.

Third, make it fun! If people are enjoying engaging in your campaign (tweeting, sharing, talking about at Starbucks or at the gym), it will intensify.  Whether you’re selling Old Spice or trying to get people to come to Jewish Trivia Night (my favorite tweet comes from @SixthandI Synagogue: “Test your knowledge to the tune of ‘Let’s get quizzical…quizzical’  I see you dancing 80’s style in your cubicle,” followed by a link to their event.

Want to learn more?

Rick Bakas gives a good overview of why this social media marketing campaign is so effective including a reminder to have fun.

ReadWriteWeb shares the inside scoop on how marketing firm Wieden + Kennedy created and executed the campaign, including all night filming sessions in Portland, OR, where they averaged 7 min of production for each 30 second response.

FastCompany interviews the team that orchestrated the campaign.

And a guy from Reddit asked for the audio to create an Old Spice Guy voicemail message.  He responded with many audio options to create the message.  Now you can have your own.  http://www.oldspicevoicemail.com .  While the 2 day blitz of video responses may have ended this morning, it’s fascinating to see how others have picked up the ball and run with it.

How are you empowering and energizing your community to support your mission and goals?  While the Old Spice campaign may seem leagues away from nonprofit endeavors, the lessons learned from this success surely apply.   Use your influencers.  Make it personal.  And remember to have fun.

Don’t miss out! Interested in becoming a member of our growing Learning Network? Learn more about Darim here, then  c’mon down and step this way to sign up … Memberships are available for individuals and for organizations.  Questions? Comments? Ideas?  Contact us!

BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL NEXT: DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS

(excerpts from a post on ejewishphilanthropy.com)

With an emphasis on community organizing and grassroots mobilization, Birthright Israel NEXT empowers all Taglit-Birthright Israel trip participants and Jews between the ages of 22-30 to be more connected to Jewish community, ritual, culture, and social action. The organization’s goal is to provide the resources and motivation for Jews to discover and develop their own relationship with Judaism, communicate and meet other Jews in the community, and provide an inclusive means for people of all religions to understand and experience Jewish culture.

Creating an inspired, interactive, and compelling online presence is essential to increasing awareness of and participation in our programs, adding to our growing community and encouraging involvement in our events. Therefore, we are seeking a Director of Communications to develop and implement traditional PR and online strategies to provide young people with a rich, interactive experience with our brand. This is an exciting opportunity for a creative and tech-savvy communications specialist with a passion for our mission and a desire to mobilize.

The Director of Communications is charged with crafting a communications strategy for Birthright Israel NEXT and overseeing the full range of internal and external communications, including media outreach, social media marketing, advertising, fundraising, and board communication. The ideal candidate has demonstrated success in leading integrated traditional and digital public relations/marketing campaigns for a cause-related organization with proven results, has outstanding brand-building experience, and superior communications skills.

More info here.

COMBINED JEWISH PHILANTHROPIES – BOSTON FEDERATION – VP of MARKETING

The Vice President of Marketing manages all marketing, branding, communications, public relations, direct marketing, and event management for Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP).

We are looking for a creative and seasoned professional to deepen the CJP brand, grow awareness of CJP’s philanthropic and programming offerings, expand the use of new media and increase the role of online strategies in our marketing mix.

More info on the CJP web site.

THE DAVID PROJECT — WEB DESIGNER/DEVELOPER (Boston)

The David Project Center for Jewish leadership is an international non-profit organization dedicated to educating and inspiring strong voices for Israel through dynamic and comprehensive educational seminars, workshops, and curricula. Our groundbreaking Israel education curricula are currently taught in over 100 Jewish high schools and middle schools, reaching thousands of students around the country. Each year we educate and train hundreds of college students to assume pro-Israel leadership roles on campuses across America and Canada.

This position will involve the updating and improvement of our current website on a regular basis. The individual will be responsible for implementing changes and improvements to our website consistent with the mission of our organization. In addition, the individual will be responsible for working with other staff members to keep the information on our website current.

More info here.

Additional jobs at UJC in New York and other Federations nationwide.

Got a job to post?  Add it to the comments with a link to more info!

There are a few basic things you can do to make sure your synagogue/organization appears near the top of any searches. For detailed information, here’s a fantastic Guide to SEO for Non-Profits. And following is a general overview of 3 key items:

Content Still is King: Google, Yahoo! and MSN (the top 3 search engines) and other search engines send web robots throughout the Internet to index words found on the pages of websites (especially home pages!) in order to better determine the appropriateness of search terms for a particular site. You should take a look at your site and make sure the name of your organization, the location, and keywords (see below) are repeated throughout the site. Obviously, you don’t want to go overboard, but, if nothing else, insure that your home page includes text describing your synagogue/organization.

Keywords: In the backend coding of your website is a list of keywords describing your site. Search engines use these key words to determine search rankings. When deciding on these keywords, put yourself in the shoes of someone who has just moved to your area and is looking for something that you provide. What terms would they use? “Synagogue Chicago” is obvious if you’re a synagogue in Chicago, but what other terms would people use to find you? For more info on keywords and how to choose them, click here. If you are a Darim member, contact support@darimonline.org and we can show you what keywords are currently being used on your site.

Reciprocal links: how many other sites link to your site? Some search engines use the number of sites linking to your site as a method for ranking your site. We recommend to clients that they beef up their “local links” section by contacting local and national organizations to seek reciprocal links (some folks call it a link exchange). It helps both sites increase their rankings, and of course, it provides good content on your site by providing your visitors with great content and a comprehensive list of resources. For an example of how one of Darim’s clients used their Local Links section in order to increase both service to their members and their Google rankings, click here: http://templesholom.com/resources/. Your list doesn’t have to be that extensive, but it provides a starting point for ideas.

For more information on SEO, Deborah Finn wrote a guide and published it on her blog, which is targeted specifically to the non-profit sector.

• Is your website URL (www.websitename.com) printed on each staff member’s business cards?
• How about adding the website name as a clickable link in each staff member’s (and volunteer’s!) email signature? We see a lot of signatures with the address and phone number, but not a link to the website.
• Is the website URL printed on your stationery? How about any marketing collateral; brochures, flyers, etc.?
• Have you contacted local Jewish organizations and proposed reciprocal links? Create a section on your site for Local Links, list other Jewish organizations, and ask them to do the same. Here’s a great example of that: http://templesholom.com/resources/

Do you have other ideas? What have you done to market the website? Comments are welcome!

Google is introducing a new web browser, Chrome.

Knowing that people seek, access and absorb information in many different ways, they have offered many different points of entry for learning about the browser. The most important part of their campaign is how they are inviting us inside to understand the process, not just selling their product.

Through cartoons, video, and text (blogging), they are telling the story of why and how they developed a revolutionary new offering. And it’s powerful. As a user/reader/watcher you are invited inside the process and the story — and invited to become part of the story by actually using Chrome.

In addition to these storytelling offerings, Google also has produced videos to introduce you to the features of the browser – a “how to” guide.

So… What can we learn from this?

First, “how to” may be necessary but it is not sufficient. Logistics are only part of the story, and the personal connection (even to a developer in another state from another generation who is using words that sound Greek to you) is critically important to feeling engaged. American Jewish World Service has done a great job of this with their videos developed with See3 to show the real experience of real people who are involved with AJWS. Donors, volunteers, staff all have powerful and important stories to tell.

Megillat Esther, by JT Waldman

Second, visuals, and especially video, offers more momentum than plain text. While I would be hard pressed to READ the whole story, I’m delighted to watch a few minutes of video.  JT Waldman transformed Megillat Esther into a comic book (it’s kosher!) which has engaged young (and old) in a text that they otherwise might not have ever studied. (BTW, he’s now working on the Tagged Tanakh project — way cool.)

There are many circumstances when we have a hard time capturing the attention of our audiences for important things. The congregational meeting, for example. Introducing a new staff person or board chair. Showing the added value of the new classrooms that are under construction to fuel the final stages of a capital campaign. Sharing the impact of participating in a mitzvah day. Orienting new families to the traditions and customs of your congregation.

What do you learn from these various approaches? How do you see it applying to you work? Got something to share? Tell us!

See below to hear the Chrome Story for yourself:

While many people think the word “marketing” refers to trying to sell something, it’s really much more beautiful than that.  We can look at the Jewish community in 2 different ways.  Commonly, we see institutions which are trying to get people to become members, attend events, and make donations.  Through a different lens we see groups of people with common interests, needs and locations coming together to form communities.  And as these communities grow, they need some structure to support their activities.

The mistake we make in thinking about marketing and communications is that we put the institution first, when we should be putting the individual, and the community needs first. It is a subtle but important difference.  The exciting thing about “web 2.0″ — both the technology tools and the culture evolving with it– is that it brings us back to the centrality of the community over the institution.

Our Learning Network session tomorrow for Darim member congregations is a first step in examining this shift.  “Communications” are more than a standard issue bulletin and the phone tree.  Communications today is about weaving together the community.  It’s as much about listening and responding as it is about hawking your wares. If you are a member can can’t attend our session you can find useful resources and an archive of the webinar in Dirah.  If you’re not yet a member of Darim you can learn more on our website.

Coming soon – some reading recommendations for rethinking your assumptions about marketing and communications. Stay tuned.