FMC looked to xiik to design and develop their new site, which recently helped them attract and register participants for their campaign-building town hall events — critical social opportunities to spread their message. The events promoted on the site also helped them garner national media attention.

In a featured article on the Huffington Post this week, FMC project director Daniel Heimpel writes about the education needs of children in foster care. He also describes their successful series of town hall events produced in May.

Driving attendance to FMC’s events was easier thanks to their website, where their content management system enabled them to incorporate a simple registration form alongside engaging program information — a vital interactive moment to compel people who are casually interested into confirmed event attendees. Additionally, the site’s ubiquitous social media integration allowed for attendees and community partners to share event content across their online networks, expanding FMC’s reach beyond their own resources.

The ease of use of FMC’s site is a tremendous benefit to them. And if you’re part of the typical non-profit — short on time, capital, and human resources — such a site could be immensely beneficial to your organization, too.

Unsatisfied with your current site’s capabilities to draw attention to your cause and loop people into your mission? Let us know in the comments section or contact us so we can help you reach your goals.

Although I consider myself a good driver (minus the slightest case of road rage), I am also one of millions of people driving Toyotas all over this country. Every time I jump on the Interstate, I wonder if this will be the day that my car decides to play Toyota Roulette and careen out of control.

In college, I had a friend who liked to drive down a big hill on campus with his windows down and yell “NO BRAKES!” just to freak people out. It was pretty hilarious. And although I still laugh at that prank, I never thought I might have to revisit those words in a real-life situation. It’s been in the back of my head as one of those things I might resort to if my Prius decides to become a death trap.

Beyond the obvious engineering lapse, my biggest complaint is that Toyota has utterly failed to communicate with car owners about these problems. A few months ago, I received a letter telling me that the floormats were to blame for “acceleration issues” and that I should remove them. However, in the several instances of out-of-control cars that have been publicly reported, most experts point to the computerized braking system as being the probable cause. Toyota also says the safety issue is only limited to later models, although the cars that are affected seem to run the gamut from 2005 to current models.

Like any company enduring a PR nightmare, Toyota needs to learn the tough lesson that the truth is always the best defense. In the name of both safety and salvaging its brand, Toyota needs to admit the full scope of its failure and not mislead its consumers with half-information. While they might lose money in the immediate future, coming clean and taking full responsibility will help build confidence and trust in the company again.

In the meantime, perhaps Toyota will consider changing their tagline to moving forward…and forward…and NO BRAKES!

Evaluate Your Goals
How has your business changed in the last year? What’s 2010 going to look like for your industry? Do current sales meet your expectations? Are you making a compelling case for your product or service to a targeted enough audience? What have you learned? We all work hard every day to keep the little gears grinding, but it’s crucial to take a step back periodically to tweak your overall course. Sit down to restate what you want for 2010, assess what worked in 2009, and imagine how you can shake up those pieces that need more focused attention or an entirely new tactic.

Listen to Your Audience
The best source of advice is often those people you are looking to please the most: your clients. They can offer valuable clues to engage them if you’ll just listen. Now, listening doesn’t involve just our ears anymore; there are many tools marketers can use to better understand their audiences. If you haven’t already, install data metrics & tracking software like Google Analytics on your web site to audit geographic demographics and behavioral patterns of your site’s visitors. What pages keep your visitors’ attention the longest and where do most flee the site. Research tools like Quantcast can be leveraged to get an interesting picture of the internet trends for your target audience. And get on board with digital word-of-mouth by staying involved with social media sites.

Audit Your Methods of Communication
Remember when people used to just talk to each other? Like face-to-face? Yeah, well there’s an increasing number of ways to interact with your clients and the most successful efforts are those that integrate several modes of communication, proportionate to the habits of your target market. Your options these days are in-person, phone, HTML email, your website, ads on other Web sites, social media, and traditional forms of advertising like mailers, print ads, television, and radio. Do you have the right mix? Are the tools you’re using having effect? Are you cross-promoting (i.e. social media links in email blasts)? Is your website too content heavy? Consumers respond more to visually engaging experiences online rather than a page of text. Are there any opportunities to convert paragraphs into interactive media like video, slideshows, etc?

Rethink Your Budget
Some businesses think they should axe their marketing budgets when the economy goes south, but there are more responsible tactics to trimming expenses.  Strong, effective marketing campaigns don’t always mean dropping big bucks.  Consider the return on your investment, which is highly trackable these days. Strategically targeting and communicating with your audiences can help grow your business. Can you redirect resources from an underperforming activity to one that’s working? Is the underperforming activity failing because your approach is not quite right or because it’s simply not a smart way to reach your audience? Ask these questions before making cuts. And marketing cuts may be unavoidable, but the most critical imperative is for you to prioritize. It may take more planning, but as the economy rebounds, your business will have remained relevant and visible in the public eye. And you’ll outperform those less savvy competitors.

Be True to Yourself and Your Business
Be authentic. People are often smarter than we give them credit for and many can see through a false façade. We as consumers appreciate authentic, heart-felt communications. And in this digital age, anyone can try their hand at the latest new-fangled gadget or digital idea; but those who succeed in digital media approach it with careful planning, research and strategy. Does your brand adequately reflect your company’s values and culture? Avoid hyperbole. Sure, find the magic in your company’s story, but don’t over-promise and under-deliver. Good branding (and by extension, marketing) is about defining an identity and purpose of being that everyone can unabashedly embrace. Create an organization in 2010 that you, your employees, and your clients can all be proud of!

For those of you who are wondering, ghost blogging isn’t the practice of dead souls opining via WordPress or Blogger, but rather when someone writes, edits or posts blogs on behalf of another person, entity or corporation. As someone who has ghosted for politicians and CEOs in the past, I was interested in hearing what other social media leaders think about the practice.

On the pro-ghost blogging side of the debate was Ryan Puckett, who handles editing content and posting on his father’s real estate blog. Puckett argued that the focus is the message, not the medium. He pointed out that spokesmen have existed for thousands of years – Aaron was Moses’ spokesman, after all.

Taking the opposing side was Raquel Richardson, who argued that the issue of authorship raised ethical quandaries when readers don’t know who is really writing posts.

Ghost blogging is not a cut and dry, black and white issue.  Generally, I think that as long as the credited author of the post reviews and approves that post, ghost blogging is acceptable. It’s much like having a speechwriter — ultimately, the speaker is responsible for the content of those statements. Of course, if you’re a writer like me, then maybe you want credit for what you’ve written.

So let’s continue the conversation. What do you think? Should ghost blogging be revealed? Is it ethical?

If you’re interested in watching the whole debate and Q&A session, please check out the recorded UStream. And make sure to check out Indy Social Media Breakfast on Facebook for updates on the next meeting!