Every now and then someone refers to me as a "social media guru/expert" or some such.  I'm flattered, and I appreciate the compliment - really I do - but I hate the moniker. It makes me cringe. It forces me to ask the introspective question - "Have I become the yammering social media moron?"  Whatever I am, I don't want to be thought of as the guy that does nothing.  So I'm trying to practice what I preach -  I'm trying to shut up and do something.

Today, that something was to go meet with Mary Walters, Executive Director of Sapulpa Community Care. Mary is awesome: tough as nails, amazingly funny, no nonsense, ex-military, gets things done, and super passionate about helping folks. She's a 16 year veteran of Sapulpa Community Care but speaks with the kind of excitement you'd only expect from a new summer intern who didn't know any better.  Spend a few minutes with Mary and you can't help but be overwhelmed with a sense that you can do more.

With a staff of one and a half, Mary managed to help something like 600 families over the last year.  Sapulpa Community Care (a Tulsa Area United Way agency) provides food, clothing, and financial assistance for utilities, medicine and housing to qualified clients. But it's not so much what they do but how they do it that really impressed me. Part of their food pantry feels like a small grocery store where clients can select food and other items for themselves.  Mary prides herself on being able to go above and beyond what many other food pantries can offer by providing perishable items like meats and vegetables in addition to the typical can good and boxed food fare. Their Kids Klozet feels a little like Urban Outfitters and is stocked with brand new clothes and complete with dressing rooms where kids get to "shop" for their own outfits. And every child - especially of reading age - leaves with a new book and a toy.   It's an amazing facility that seems highly organized and efficient.  I was really blown away.

So where do I fit?  Well, Mary is tack smart and is strong believer that God will provide, but she also recognizes that she might be missing some opportunities on the internet. Neither Mary nor her staff are particularly tech savvy and there's little if any budget for website design, fancy creative work, or, heaven forbid, social media gurus. So I'm going to help Mary get started with the basics.  Here's our short term game plan:

1.) Move the website to a WordPress platform. The existing site is okay, but it's static and difficult to change, plus there's no analytic data available to Mary and staff. WordPress will give Mary an easy way to update most of her website directly without the expense or hassle of an external vendor or volunteer.

2.) Implement Google Analytics. Mary and I brainstormed about a lot of different tactics, but before we charge off in a direction we have to answer some basic questions like - Is anyone coming to the web site now? Google Analytics will not only help us establish a baseline but will also help us understand whether or not our efforts are having any effect.

3.) Rework some web content. I had spent a fair amount of time with the existing website before I went onsite - yet I was taken aback with Mary and the facility. We're gonna try some things to try to capture that sense of excitement on the web and see if it makes a difference for web visitors. We're thinking multimedia - Flip videos on YouTube, and lots more photos.  The goal is to do a better job of explaining services to people who can use them (or to people that know people who can use them) in ways that are inviting and respectful.

The long term plan is still a little murky - we've only just started and we don't yet know if we have any web traffic to speak of - but we're talking about email campaigns, maybe a blog, and lots more functionality on the website itself.

So where's Twitter and Facebook?  Not there. Not yet. The reality is that Sapulpa Community Care (like many small nonprofits) needs a solid foundation online with a more functional website and analytics. Without that foundation there's no destination for those contacted through social media and no way to measure their arrival. Every minute counts for Mary so Social Media will only make sense when we have systems in place to be able to measure the effectiveness of those efforts.

I think that if done right I can help make a real difference for Sapulpa Community Care. I think that with very little financial investment and a some strategic focus that we can leverage technology to help increase community awareness, make services more accessible to those in need, and increase charitable giving for this very important organization.

I'll keep you posted on our progress but in the meantime check out their existing website and consider donating time, food, clothing and/or money.

That's what I'm doing. So what about you?