In The problem with Boulder, CO, Suzanne Shelton discusses a recent Wall Street Journal article saying that residents of Boulder, long known for its environmental bent, aren’t responding to the city’s incentives to make their homes more energy efficient.

Instead of agreeing with the article’s conclusion — that if Boulder treehuggers aren’t going green, all is lost — Shelton examines why this might be so.

What she discovers is that the campaign’s messaging is off. It doesn’t explain to environmentalists how home energy efficiency affects climate change, and it doesn’t explain to “cautious conservatives” that energy efficiency has a strong return on investment, a message that would appeal to them.

She concludes that “in short, all is not lost,” that the city just needs to target its message better.

This piece is a good reminder of the need to carefully target all communications — even to those you think are true believers.

It concludes with this thought:
We have to be realistic, though: New media isn’t going to stop censorship, overthrow oppressive regimes or heal the people of Haiti alone. Social media has transformed communication, media, and the transmission of information, but it still takes people on the ground to pull people out of the rubble or to fight for freedom.

This is true. But social media tools have the power to do two things: raise awareness of issues worldwide in ways never seen before and to connect the people on the ground who are ready to band together and act.

Use these tools properly, and they can help bring substantial change to your organization and the world.

But what happens when someone clicks that button to interact with your organization?

Recently, I unsubscribed from e-mails telling me about an upcoming spa week. In return, I received this notice:

“Your request to unsubscribe from the ’spaweek-2′ mailing list has been received and will be processed shortly. You will be notified of the success or failure by email.”

Hmm. First, it wasn’t friendly and didn’t invite me to come back later if my needs changed. Second, it didn’t even promise to be successful!

It did, however, serve as a good reminder that if you work in online communications, testing is essential. Push all of those communications’ buttons. Make sure the links work, the signup or unsubscribe process is smooth, and that all the messages you’re sending advance your goals.

BurrellesLuce has released a new edition of Top Media Outlets: Newspapers, Blogs, Consumer Magazines, & Social Networks. Included are the 100 leading daily newspapers, the 25 most popular English-language blogs, the 25 largest U.S. consumer magazines, and the 20 busiest social networks.

You can download the current report for free.

Here’s a group that does it right. I recently received an invitation to rejoin the American Alpine Club (AAC) and get these items:

• Free AAC Patagonia organic tee with Teton mountain artwork.
• Free one-year subscription to Climbing Magazine (or extension to current subscription).
• Coupon for 20% off your next order at Patagonia.com.
• Coupon for $15 off a $75+ order at MountainGear.com.

Excellent. Why? Because the special offers were closely aligned with the interests of prospective AAC members, feeding both their emotions (the shirt and magazine with pictures of mountains) and their practical sides (gear discounts). And they were good deals, potentially returning more value than the cost of membership.

Next, the e-mail reiterated the membership value: “Special offers aside, membership in the AAC is a great value.  Remind yourself of the benefits, and see what others in the climbing community value about membership.” It included a link to a long list of benefits and testimonials from climbing stars.

Think about your organization’s promotions and long-term benefits. Many groups rely on calendars, stuffed animals and the like — perhaps nice to have, but not compelling enough to prompt people to sit down, work the math and call your deal a steal. For the AAC, partnering with related companies was a smart move that enabled them to pump up their offerings.

Are your promos and benefits both targeted to your audience and useful? How can you provide hard value that will enable you to convert prospects and retain members?

Marilyn Gaston and Gayle Porter are health professionals who decided to do something about the fact that African-American women are dying at high rates, mostly from preventable causes. They wrote a book called Prime Time: The African American Woman’s Complete Guide to Midlife Health and Wellness. But the book alone didn’t do the trick, so they launched Prime Time Sister Circles, described as “part health course on exercise, nutrition, and stress, and part support group.”

Of the 130 women who have participated in the pilots, 68 percent have kept up their health improvements for more than a year. They were invited to the White House today, and President Obama recognized their efforts.

Information got the pair’s project started, but community kept it going. An online community can do the same for other causes, providing people with similar goals and interests a vital mix of information and encouragement.

Case in point: I’ve recently helped to launch an online community for approximately 1,500 senior center professionals through the National Council on Aging (NCOA).

There are now 19 different threads on the Forums, and of those two stand out.  One is a discussion of the vision for future senior centers that has garnered nearly 650 views. The other is a  “virtual party,” a time-honored tradition that lets members of NCOA’s National Institute on Senior Centers gather online for a designated day of sharing; just under 300 people have viewed it.  While there is constant traffic to the Forums, the next most-popular item, posted before these two stars appeared, has just under 200 views.

This technology is more robust and user-friendly than its predecessor, but that alone does not make the online community a success. Instead, it is finding — and promoting — these hot-button issues that draws people to the community.

As we explore ways to uncover those hot topics, I challenge you to consider the needs and desires of your audiences. What do they care most about? What gets their hearts racing, with joy or fear? Offer them a chance to learn about and discuss those issues, and they’ll keep coming back.

• $1 million in gross revenues and 30,000 visitors.
• 3,000 cases of wine sold; 20,000 tasting glasses given away.
• 30 medals.
• 6,000 people receiving weekly e-mails.
• $30,000 raised for charity.

What are the folks at BOW doing right? For one thing, they have a great product; the 30 medals support that. But I believe the quality of their wines is only a part of the reason for their success.

Another part lies in these sentiments: “We have achieved our first and primary goal of creating a place of community…. Our staff have become our friends and given us so much of their time and capabilities and heart.  Their work shows in all that we are.”

BOW is a friendly, welcoming, laid-back place. Wine snobbery is absent; you’re more likely to be greeted by a cheerful hello from the owners or staff or a wet-nosed kiss from a pooch.

And of course it helps that the BOW folks know marketing. The BOW branding is evident in everything from the paw prints stamped onto the bottle tops to the dog pictures taken by a local photographer on the walls. They’ve involved the whole community by teaming with local artists, charities, and food vendors on weekly events. And their Friday e-mails, written in the owner’s voice, make the weekend’s coming events sound so fun that I read them even if I know I can’t make the hour-long trek, because they’re a nice break to the workday.

There are many lessons here that all organizations can heed to build their communities, and their success.

In a recent blog post, Steve Daigneault shares a creative and effective idea he’s put into place at Amnesty International USA. He’s developed e-mail guidelines that determine what the organization will communicate, and how often.

These guidelines hold that the best e-mails show a crisis, an opportunity to solve the crisis, and a way to take action.

The guidelines also impose a limit on the number of e-mails the organization can send per month, while allowing a few special exceptions. Program supervisors decide which topics are the most important from their monthly allotment, not the online team.

Daigneault has found e-mails that clearly show the importance of the news, as well as the advocacy strategy, far outperform others.

His guidelines provide a solid, sensible approach. If you set your guidelines in advance and communicate them to all e-mail senders in your organization, you will manage expectations internally and bring greater peace to e-mail decisions. You’ll also bring greater peace to your audience, with clearer, more-actionable e-mails and a less-cluttered in-box.

That sounds like a solution on which everyone can agree.

An online version of the humble shelter where the company’s first tools were forged 40 years ago, the Tin Shed now contains stories, pictures, audio, videos, and maps that cover everything from the company’s history to adventurers’ trips to company environmental initiatives.

The cool factor is off the charts. Enter the Tin Shed and click on the mandolin resting on the work bench. You’ll get the story of two scruffy guys who carry this instrument and a tin whistle on their climbs. You can watch them climb up big rock walls, see maps of their route, and hear them play music at camp.

Click a snow globe, and you see a slideshow about a climbing trip in remote Pakistan. The trailer of a movie with huge waves, surfing and sailing, high mountains and climbing also lives in the shed.

The silhouette of a bear leads to a description of the Freedom to Roam initiative, a Patagonia partnership to establish wildways so that animals can migrate between protected areas.

The site is very user friendly. You can use arrows to pan around the shed’s four walls, leave through the back door and come back in the front, and easily select the slideshows or videos for each story line. The photography is superb and the media high quality.

Am I more likely to buy from Patagonia having seen this? No–I buy from Patagonia because they make environmentally responsible, quality products. But I could spend a happy afternoon poking around in the Tin Shed, and that raises awareness.

How could a nonprofit apply this concept? Think long and hard about what your audience holds dear, and what interests them most on a personal level. Check out the Freedom to Roam and All Points South entries for examples of how to portray a cause in an engaging way–and start tooling around with ways you can creatively employ stories, pictures, icons and other details to fascinate your audience.