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Social Media Tools and Web Strategies for Non-Profits

Tag Lines Deconstructed

I just got out of a 3 1/2 hour session brainstorming tag lines for Balance Technology Group. My brain hurts, but a lot of great ideas were generated from the group. When we created the tag line for GoodDogz.org - it was totally organic and we came up with it in about 20 minutes - Choose wisely. Choose for life. It just clicked and totally spoke to our mission. But, normally creating a tag lines isn’t always that easy and there are a lot of different perceptions of individual words, much less tag lines themselves. Should a tag line express what you do or should it invoke emotion? Should it do both? What words should be avoided (the consensus in this particular session were words like innovation, evolution and inspired)? How long is too long? How similar can a tag line be to another company’s line without getting sued? =) There is a lot to think about.

What tag lines speak to you? My favorite has always been from a port-o-potty company in Florida which was “#1 in the #2 business.” Humorous. Relevant. Priceless.

Here is a great resource for nonprofit tag lines as compiled by GettingAttention.org. It’s a great place to start if you need to get the juices flowing.

A million thanks to Scott from FromTheRooftops and the team of Lee and Aaron from Pivotal Brands/Hinge for guiding us through such a great session.

I participated in the Women Who Tech tele-summit today - wow - what a fantastic event! I found the session “Tooting Your Own Horn” really inspiring and chocked full of personal branding goodness. In a nutshell, everyone is worthy of a personal brand and should never be labeled by their job title.

  • Define the skills that you have that other people need and promote them through writing, speaking and networking.
  • Build credibility and trust through successful delivery of work product and knowledge.
  • Google yourself - what did you find (if you are like me, you found that you’re not very popular!)
  • Assess your online identity using the online identity calculator - www.careerdistinction.com/onlineid
  • Buy your name domain - www.myname.com (or any variation that you can obtain) It’s important for personal brand recognition as well as SEO.
  • Sign-up for online identification sites such as Xing, Plaxo, ZoomInfo, Ryze, Ziggs, Ziki, ClaimID, and eCademy.
  • Build a blog and start a conversation - talk about your skills, interests and experiences.
  • Build a website if you can.
  • Monitor your brand using tools like Google alerts.
  • Use privacy settings to help separate your professional brand from your personal life.
  • Live your brand!

Many thanks to Megan Fitzgerald and Lynne D. Johnson for all of the great information!