Posted on

Using Media Tools to Advance Your Nonprofit’s Mission

I was honored to join Montgomery Community Media CEO Jasmine Nykole White, MA, MPA, at the Inaugural Nonprofit Conference at Montgomery College. The theme was “Building Nonprofit Infrastructure to Strengthen Community Services.” Jasmine and I hosted a breakout session on “Using Media Tools to Advance Your Mission.”

Are you looking for media tools for your nonprofit? Here are ten tips to get you started.

  1. Storytelling Videos: Create compelling videos that showcase your nonprofit’s mission, impact, and success stories. Use beneficiaries, volunteers, and staff testimonials to connect with your audience emotionally.
  2. Live Streaming: Use platforms like Facebook Live, YouTube Live, or Instagram Live to broadcast events, fundraisers, and behind-the-scenes content. Engage with your audience in real time.
  3. Podcast Series: Start a podcast to share in-depth stories, interviews, and discussions related to your nonprofit’s mission or that of your grantees and partners. Podcasts are a great way to connect with your audience and provide valuable information.
  4. Training: Take advantage of training programs like Montgomery Community Media offers. We offer courses in video production, editing, social media marketing, and more tailored to the needs of nonprofits.
  5. Partner with Local Media: Collaborate with local media outlets or influencers to feature your nonprofit’s work. This partnership can help you reach a wider audience.
  6. Website and Blog: Maintain a blog to regularly update stakeholders about your activities, achievements, and upcoming events. Incorporate multimedia content like images and videos into your blog posts.
  7. Newsletter Campaigns: Send regular newsletters featuring stories, updates, and calls to action to your subscribers. Include multimedia elements to make them visually appealing.
  8. Volunteer Endorsements: Feature video testimonials from volunteers, sharing their experiences and why they chose to support your nonprofit.
  9. Optimize Operations: Use self-guided multimedia for internal purposes by creating training videos to onboard new volunteers or staff efficiently. Produce orientation videos to familiarize new members with how to do business with your organization.
  10. Virtual Meetings: Utilize video conferencing tools for team or board member meetings, reducing the need for in-person gatherings and guaranteeing participation.

Posted on

Back to In-Person Training

As a trainer and lecturer, you don’t really know your impact until the evaluations come in. Allow me to share some comments that make me very proud of my first in-person lecture – outside of teaching at Howard University – since the pandemic’s start. I’ve conducted several Zoom trainings, but there is nothing like meeting face-to-face. The personal interaction, the storytelling, filling the room with my energy is where I shine, and it’s my “superpower.” 

From my client, Legacy International – On behalf of Legacy International, Amideast, and the U.S. Department of State – Palestinian Affairs Unit, a huge thank you for supporting the participants from Palestine during this year’s Professional Development Immersion Program. Your session (Social Media For Your Personal Brand) and the social technovation session were the only training sessions that received a full 5.0 stars from all participants! They were highly impacted by your training and were motivated by your energy and excellent facilitation skills! 

Here’s what some of the participants had to say: 
“I love her. She is funny, smart, professional, and a great teacher.” 
“The most energetic session ever!” 
“It was so fun so nice and glamorous woman I would love to be like her when I grow up.” 
“Very helpful and informative. You get to see from a professional point of view how the media works.” 
“So energetic it changed my mind about being active in social media.” 
“It was very good. We learned how to brand our name and to work more on social media life.” 

Such high praise from an amazing group of young professionals. I’m proud to have given my support to help this very important program to be successful despite significant COVID-era hurdles.

Posted on

You can now call me Professor Ricks!

In celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the distinguished Cathy Hughes School of Communications at my beloved Howard University, I joined the Strategic, Legal and Management Communication Department as an Adjunct. I’ll be teaching a “Social Media and Integrated Marketing” for the Fall 2021 semester and a Programming and Media Planning class for the Fall 2020 session.

This appointment is a dream come true. I’ve always wanted to pour into my School of C Baby Bison. Now I can take my 35+ years of experience in mass communications and give back to the University and the School that helped form me into the professional and leader I am today. I always say, my parents gave me life but Howard made me.

Also, I love full-circle moments.

Here’s to a great school year!

Posted on

So, What’s Your Story?

What would you say if someone asked you to tell them your story? We all have a story to tell. We all represent our own brand. But when it comes right down to it, are you able to tell your brand story. I have to admit, it wasn’t easy for me!

Everyone has a story… here’s mine.

Since primitive humans painted the first images on cave walls, storytelling has been around as one of the most effective ways to convey a message and get others to take action. I have made a career out of telling the stories of others leveraging traditional and new media.

My background is in broadcast media with two decades of experience producing for network and cable TV. For ten years, I dedicated my career to social and digital media. But whether I’m telling a story for millions of viewers on television, thousands on social or helping thought leaders and organizations craft their messaging, I am a storyteller at heart.

Schedule a time for us to chat so we can start to tell YOUR story! https://daniellericksproductions.as.me/

Posted on

Preparing Students for a Career in Digital Media

PGCC and PGCPS Host the 5th Annual Student Media Day

On November 16 and 17, Prince George’s Community College (PGCC) partnered with Prince George’s County Public Schools (PGCPS) to host the 5th annual Student Media Day. More than 150 high school and middle school students convened on PGCC’s main campus in Largo, Maryland for the two-day event.

The event is designed to help encourage students interests in pursuing careers in mass communications. My workshop allowed students to see how they could make a career out of social and digital media and maximize the social following they have already developed.

Students also had the opportunity to anchor a live news show produced by PGCC mass communication students, get first-hand experience with the latest in digital video technology, and interact with local media professionals.

It was an exciting day for the students as well as PGCC and PGCPS faculty and staff.

“I enjoyed seeing students actively engaging in the workshops, learning about the magic of digital video technology, interacting with local media professionals and having fun participating in our live newscast in front of the camera as anchors and reporters and behind the scenes as part of our production crew,” said Angela Mathis, senior producer and adjunct faculty, Prince George’s Community College.

Beyond the workshops, Student Media Day provides “an opportunity for students who are taking video production classes in the public schools to visit PGCC’s campus, explore their interests, and learn from professionals working in their field.”

Click here to view more photos from this year’s Student Media Day.

Posted on

The Huffington Post is profitable, although just barely.

According to Newsweek, in an engaging profile of Arianna Huffington, the popular and expanding Huffington Post generates little more than $1 per reader each year. So while it is clearly the winner among Internet media companies a new business model may be in order.

Amplify’d from www.newsweek.com

Charles Ommanney / Getty Images for Newsweek

Arianna Huffington at her home in July.

If you had to declare a winner among Internet media companies today, the victor easily would be Arianna Huffington. Her site, The Huffington Post, attracted 24.3 million unique visitors last month, five times as much traffic as many new-media rivals, more than The Washington Post and USA Today, and nearly as many as The New York Times. HuffPo’s revenue this year will be about $30 -million—peanuts compared with the old-media dinosaurs, but way better than most digital competitors. And HuffPo has finally started to eke out a profit.

Those numbers, however, don’t fully convey the site’s place in this new-media world. What began five years ago as a spot for Huffington and her lefty celebrity friends to vent about the Bush administration has become one of the most important news sites on the Web, covering politics, sports, entertainment, business—along with plenty of tabloidy stuff to drive clicks, like photos of “Jennifer Aniston’s topless perfume ad.” HuffPo’s mission, Huffington says, is “to provide a platform for a really important national conversation.”

Read more at www.newsweek.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/83hu
via Amplify.com
Posted on

The Huffington Post is profitable, although just barely.

According to Newsweek, in an engaging profile of Arianna Huffington, the popular and expanding Huffington Post generates little more than $1 per reader each year. So while it is clearly the winner among Internet media companies a new business model may be in order.

Amplify’d from www.newsweek.com

If you had to declare a winner among Internet media companies today, the victor easily would be Arianna Huffington. Her site, The Huffington Post, attracted 24.3 million unique visitors last month, five times as much traffic as many new-media rivals, more than The Washington Post and USA Today, and nearly as many as The New York Times. HuffPo’s revenue this year will be about $30 -million—peanuts compared with the old-media dinosaurs, but way better than most digital competitors. And HuffPo has finally started to eke out a profit.

Those numbers, however, don’t fully convey the site’s place in this new-media world. What began five years ago as a spot for Huffington and her lefty celebrity friends to vent about the Bush administration has become one of the most important news sites on the Web, covering politics, sports, entertainment, business—along with plenty of tabloidy stuff to drive clicks, like photos of “Jennifer Aniston’s topless perfume ad.” HuffPo’s mission, Huffington says, is “to provide a platform for a really important national conversation.”

Read more at www.newsweek.com
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/83hu
Posted on

New York Mag Links Up With Foursquare. Have you checked in lately?

A magazine taking advantage of location-based social networking. I have to say this is genius. I can see an immediate link between an actual venue an geo-location sites… but a magazine? Hats off to their digital, marketing or whatever department came up with this partnership.

Amplify’d from www.mediaweek.com

mw/photos/stylus/112207-NewYorkMagM.jpg

New York magazine’s Web site nymag.com has linked up with Foursquare,becoming the latest in a rash of traditional media companies tohook up with the location-based social networking service.
 
Users of the service can “check in” when they visit localbusinesses, alerting friends of their location while earning pointsthat can be redeemed for perks at the business. In recent months,The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Time Out New Yorkhave partnered with Foursquare to distribute news and othereditorial content.
 
New York magazine is using Foursquare to grow the audience for itspopular restaurant, bargains and nightlife listings, data thatcurrently drive 10 percent of its Web traffic.
 
New York’s followers on Foursquare—which number 7,000—will haveaccess to tips from the magazine’s online database that includes5,000 restaurants, 1,600 bars and 5,500 stores.Read more at www.mediaweek.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/80xr
via Amplify.com
Posted on

Huffington Post well on it’s way to becoming an Internet Newspaper

At a time when traditional newspapers and publishing as a whole are facing some of their most challenging times, the Huffington Post has found a way to remain relevant. Positioning themselves as an “Internet Newspaper” is a brilliant idea in my book or rather… iBook.

Amplify’d from www.thewrap.com

Last summer, when the Huffington Post was prepping the launches of its sports, tech and books sections, Arianna Huffington told me – and anyone who would listen – that her goal for HuffPo all along had been to create an Internet newspaper.

“We always knew that with our core values of news and opinion and community, we wanted to cover more than just politics,” Huffington said. “We needed to speak to more than that, to move like an Internet newspaper.”

On Wednesday, Huffington inched even closer, launching a travel section.

The section, HuffPost Travel, will be edited by Kate Auletta, the daughter of New Yorker writer and author Ken Auletta and former assistant features editor at “WSJ.” – the Wall Street Journal’s luxury magazine.

Read more at www.thewrap.com

See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/80xh
via Amplify.com
Posted on

New York Mag Links Up With Foursquare. Have you checked in lately?

A magazine taking advantage of location-based social networking. I have to say this is genius. I can see an immediate link between an actual venue an geo-location sites… but a magazine? Hats off to their digital, marketing or whatever department came up with this partnership.

Amplify’d from www.mediaweek.com

mw/photos/stylus/112207-NewYorkMagM.jpg

New York magazine’s Web site nymag.com has linked up with Foursquare,
becoming the latest in a rash of traditional media companies to
hook up with the location-based social networking service.
 
Users of the service can “check in” when they visit local
businesses, alerting friends of their location while earning points
that can be redeemed for perks at the business. In recent months,
The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and Time Out New York
have partnered with Foursquare to distribute news and other
editorial content.
 
New York magazine is using Foursquare to grow the audience for its
popular restaurant, bargains and nightlife listings, data that
currently drive 10 percent of its Web traffic.
 
New York’s followers on Foursquare—which number 7,000—will have
access to tips from the magazine’s online database that includes
5,000 restaurants, 1,600 bars and 5,500 stores.Read more at www.mediaweek.com
 
See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/80xr

Posted on

We are off to the races… live Tweeting!

Tweeting every detail of the NASCAR race
Tweeting every detail of the NASCAR race

One of the aspects of creating a brand presence for clients is developing a Social Media strategy.  It can be anything from setting up a client’s Social Networking page, creating a viral marketing campaign, to live Tweeting an event as a marketing or promotional tool.

Patering with Richard Montgomery of Rixstar Studios we introduced the value of social media to WHUR-FM, sponsor of NASCAR driver Marc Davis.  Davis, a 19-year-old from Silver Spring, MD is NASCAR’s only African American owner/driver. He made his first NASCAR Nationwide Series owner/driver entry at Bristol in March.  During one of his qualifying races in Virginia I did a three-day Twitter campaign live tweeting from the NASCAR cockpit.  Rick and I developed a campaign designed to drive attention to the race and to Marc Davis before, during and ultimatly, after the race.  Our efforts were successful enough to create a buzz and ultimately got the racer a write up in the Washington Post.

This is the power of Social Media and developing your brand!

(Marc Davis photo courtesy Of Harry Davis)
(Marc Davis photo courtesy of Harry Davis)

See what the Washington Post has to say about Marc Davis

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/22/AR2009052203425.html

The WHUR-FM Car #39
Moments before the race I sneak in a picture with the Marc Davis WHUR-FM Car #39

A moment before the race
I share a moment before the race with Marc Davis

Marc Davis creats the crowd
Marc Davis greets the crowd just before the race

Rick of Rixstar Productions
Richard of Rixstar Studios is always ready with camera in hand to document event