People like to talk. Give them something to talk about.

One of the best ways to stir up awareness and publicity for your nonprofit brand is to generate some buzz—word of mouth marketing is free (or at least, cheap) and, even better, highly effective. Plus, it’s something that spans both the online and the offline worlds, and can put your organization clearly on people’s radars in a very positive fashion.

Nothing says, “This organization is worth your time and money” better than a satisfied supporter or volunteer who passionately believes that your organization is truly worth his time and money. The big question is how do you get people chatting? To boost your nonprofit brand’s buzzability, you have to give your brand evangelists something worth talking about beyond the latest direct mail drop or email blast.

Here are five ways to get tongues wagging.

1. Create and Promote Stories that Your Engaged Donors/Volunteers Want to Share with Their Tribes.

This isn’t rocket science. What do people like to talk about? Other people. Nothing generates buzz better than a story about a changed life or someone who benefited from your organization. Just be leery of how you tell your stories—keep the focus on the people involved, not just your organization. You don’t want your stories to sound like obvious marketing pitches. However, if you can present an honest success story that includes bumps in the road as well as the ultimate impact of your efforts, you can create a feel-good story that people will be happy to share.

2. Recruit a Group of Volunteers Who Are Willing to Share Your Brilliant Social Media Content.

I’m going to assume that what your organization is posting, tweeting and pinning is brilliant—or at least engaging—so let’s start there and move to the next step, which is to get people to share said content with their own networks. Once you have a good group of passionate volunteers on board who are ready and willing to be active on social media, it’s up to you to post and tweet interesting and sharable content, and then let them share away. Hopefully along the way, you may even see some content go viral.

Here’s a power tip: Make sure you have actionable items in your updates to drive people to your website, like “subscribe to our emails” or “sign up for our next event.” You can also email out tweets and status updates that your volunteers can natively post to their networks so that they’re not always “sharing” your content, but also initiating their own posts on behalf of your organization.

3. Take Ten Minutes a Day to Build Your Own Personal Brand.

Let’s be honest—most of us waste five to ten minutes a day scrolling through Facebook or our Twitter feed when we could be using that time to be purposeful about promoting our own personal brand. In a world where social media rules, we have all become brands ourselves and everything that we say and do on social channels ultimately tells others what we’re all about. This can be both a blessing and a curse, especially when you want to establish yourself as a thought leader or credible resource for your cause. You have to be aware that everything you like, pin, post, tweet or follow says something about you.

So, a few things you can do to build a strong, credible personal brand include:

• Share your favorite blogs and openly discuss them on Facebook.

• Tweet out industry articles and include your own insights (and use appropriate hashtags so that your tweet will be findable for those doing Twitter searches).

• Participate in Tweet Chats, which often happen in tandem with webinars.

• On Google+, set up your Google Authorship so that Google can recognize you as a credible author that creates great content.

• Recommend and endorse people on LinkedIn, which will likely earn you a few recs and endorsements, as well.

Above all, be likeable. People get tired of showoffs, preachy posters or over-sharers, so be humble and do everything in moderation.

4. Build Your Street Cred.

Here’s where you can generate some buzz offline, because people actually do interact and converse face-to-face, even in a world that’s often ruled by online communication. Simply recruit and assemble a team of people who are excited about your organization and committed to its cause, and train them to be your nonprofit brand evangelists. I’m not talking about recruiting a bunch of door-to-door salespeople and training them to go around, soliciting donations. This isn’t about fundraising; it’s about word of mouth marketing and creating excitement and awareness about your nonprofit.

So start with a group of passionate supporters and volunteers, and equip them to speak smartly about your organization. You could create a welcome kit of sorts, giving this core group a packaged promotional plan, including do’s and don’ts for speaking about your organization, the history of your NPO, the programs and services you offer, a directory of friendly and relevant places to spread the word, a calendar of events, etc.  You could create a catchy name for this group, give them some swag, arm them with the right know-how and intelligence necessary for communicating effectively about your organization—then let them loose and allow their passion for your cause to take over and spread through your community.

5. Finally, Get Your Board on Board.

There’s nothing worse than an unengaged board—but on the flipside, there’s nothing better than an engaged, excited and passionate board that’s willing to champion your cause and influence a community for good. Your role here is to get your members to the engaged, excited and passionate side. When new board members come on, be sure to onboard them the right way, arming them with everything they need to know in order to talk about your organization effectively.

And with all board members, keep them in the loop. Share success stories. Update them about changes in your organization. Educate them about all the services you offer. And empower them—these are the people you can ask to do the heavy lifting. Your board members likely have valuable ties and connections in the community, and you shouldn’t be afraid to use this to your organization’s advantage. Perhaps a board member can get you a coveted speaking engagement, or pave the way for making a big ask of an important constituent. Your board members have the power and influence to generate a lot of buzz for your NPO, but you can’t expect that to “just happen.” You’re the one who may need to ignite the spark necessary to get the fire going.

The main goal of creative writing is to entertain the reader. The writer chooses the right words and style that will convey their thoughts and ideas appropriately. While everyone can be a creative writer because of their capacity to tell stories in a lively way, some children will need more than encouragement. As parents, we can be more proactive in supporting our children so that they can be successful in their writing.

Here are some tips you can use to help your children become better creative writers:

1. Creativity takes time.

While every child has the innate capacity to be creative, we have to remember that creativity takes on many forms. Writing needs higher-level thinking and success in writing is commensurate to the amount of time allotted to prepare for writing. Hence, parents must teach their children that brainstorming is an important part of writing. Encourage your children to spend time just jotting down their ideas. Don’t worry about the logic of the article yet; what’s important is that children get their thoughts on the different elements of their piece. Providing your children with a small journal they can carry in their bags will allow them to capture their thoughts wherever they are.

2. Writers need a conducive writing environment.

Becoming a creative writer needs passion and a lot of practice. Hence, one way to help your children become the best writer they can be is to setup a home environment where their writing materials are readily available, and where they can have the peace and quiet
they need to focus on their task. Thinking of a good way to spend time with the family? Word games such as scrabble can go a long way!

3. Use writing prompts for practice.

We are all familiar with “Once upon a time…”, but there are a thousand and one ways to begin a story. Take some time to help your child get started with the writing process by giving story starters or scenarios where they can base their stories from.

4. Use visual images for writing prompts.

Images from magazines, books and even store flyers are great ways to pique a child’s interest. You can use them as prompts, or simply for providing encouragement. If your child is having a writer’s block, you can start a conversation about an image first, before letting him write down some of the emotions he experienced while looking at the images. Images can also be used as a subject for a story or a poem.

5. Write first and then edit later.

One must always remember that writing is a process. Drafts are called such because the first article that your child will complete is not the final one. It will contain all the ideas, but often it will need to be edited so that the ideas build up to support the story. Hence, it is important that children are given more freedom with their thoughts especially in the first phase of writing. This way, they can write the ideas as they come. As parents, we can help remind children not to worry about grammar and spelling, until everything is completed, and we can help them keep up with their personal creative process. Some parents go as far as allowing their children to record the story first – writing down the story comes next, and editing comes way after.

Parents play an important role in ensuring their children’s success in writing. More than creating a home environment that is conducive to their needs; parents are also instrumental in providing children with the right habits that will enable them to develop into better writers.

As a third generation teacher I wanted to encourage, inspire, empower, bless and provide confidence to my brother educators.

Education as a whole needs more certified male teachers to be positive role models, but the need for Black Males in education is important. This is not to say other cultures are not effective educators, but from my personal  experiences, the influences of Black male teachers in my life; the cultural awareness, relevance to life experiences and need to see a face that is my color was important to me and others growing up in an urban setting.

It provided a sense of stability, encouraged self worth and even though my father was not a part of my life other men stepped up and took upon the roles as father, mentor and educator. Even though all my friends had fathers in their homes and I did not I’m as successful as them because of the influence and support of other Black males.

Black Males in Education * Understand the importance, value and need of education to be successful in American society. They know education is the key to economic stability.

BME * Take responsibility for helping young Black boys and young Black girls to grow into mature and responsible Black adults.

BME * Understand the challenges of being Black and male in American society and try to share their positive experiences with Black children that are not their own. To help them value education, hard work and teach morals and values.

BME * Understand that they will be viewed as Black first above their degrees, salaries, cars, and clothes so must display professionalism and confidence at all times.

BME * Understand they may be the only positive Black male role model in a young Black males and females life. They must try to inspire, motivate, and educate at all times.

BME  * Understand that they are always under a microscope by parents, administrators and society so must always conduct themselves professionally.

BME * Understand they make sacrifices choosing education as a career choice. They do it for the love of children and the opportunity to be a positive influence in society.

BME * Understand they are sometimes viewed as the Custodian, Athletic Coach, Yard Person, Bus Driver or Cafeteria Worker, but no matter someone else’s perception they are still positive forces in the education of youth.

BME  * Understand their responsibility for their families, but sometimes must put others before themselves and their families. Sometimes they sacrifice to save another life outside of their family or bring others into their family.

BME * Understand that they are not Superman and cannot save every child no matter how hard they try. They still try their best to make a difference for all children.

BME * Do not always get the emotional, spiritual and mental support they need when working with children in school and the community, but they press forward and do important work.

BME  * Are sometimes viewed as arrogant, cocky, indifferent, and thuggish when in fact they emanate intelligence, creativity, drive, accountability, spirituality, discipline and strength of mind and will.

These attributes and more are the strengths that Black male teachers display in their classrooms schools and communities. C. G. Woodson (Mis-Education of the Negro)

“Real education means to inspire people to live more abundantly, to learn to begin with life as they find it and make it better.

BME * Understand when they show caring, peacefulness, love, empathy, and sympathy they maybe viewed as soft, gay, unintelligent, incompetent and unprofessional. They are smart enough to know when to be tough with kids and when to show compassion.

BME * Understand that they have a responsibility to be the best they can be every day because they know someone is always watching and judging them.

Written in the Education of the Negro, by C.G. Woodson, “almost every Colored person who could read and write was a missionary teacher among his people.”

What has happened to the Black community today when our schools are threatened with closure, sanctions and state intentions.

Black Male Teachers though few in number carry a power and influence that can raise the potential of Black male and female students. Sometimes it is just the presence of a teacher that inspires. I’m proud to be a Black Male Teacher because I know who I’ am, how important I ‘am, how important I’ am to my students, my peers, and my community. I’m not ashamed to say I love my students for their talents, abilities and potential to make the world a better place.

Society should not feel threatened by Black Male Teachers intellectualism, should not be apprehensive about Black Male Teachers articulation, and not scared of Black Male Teachers dedication to being a Black Male Teacher. Society should encourage male teachers, praise them, pray for them, and support them. Black male teachers show society not all Black men are thuggish, undisciplined, irresponsible, lazy and uneducated.

We have a responsibility to our families, our communities, our churches and our children.

Malcolm X stated “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”

Staff Writer; William D. Jackson