But, before we could take on that task, kickoff speaker Alicia Arenas, with SaneraCamp, put us in the proper mindset with a quick and effective lesson on time management.

Many nonprofits nodded their heads in full agreement with Alicia that it takes a careful look at how we’re spending our time, and whether or not we’re using our time wisely, to make sure we can carve out enough of it to include social media and communications planning into our already hectic schedules.

Following Alicia’s opening talk, the nonprofits broke into small groups and the discussions varied somewhat from table to table, depending upon the specific questions about campaigns that were asked by the nonprofits.

Our experienced table captains, chosen for their excellent work in creating and managing successful social campaigns, led the discussions and the groups came up with the following tips and recommendations for getting started with social media campaigns:

• Set your objectives at the beginning: set a baseline of what you’d like to see your campaign accomplish.
• Having a plan will help you more effectively execute your campaign.
• At the end of your campaign, put together a report to quantify what you did, what the results were, and how it matched up to your original objectives.
• Remember: you can only do so much. Even if you learn about new/other social networks, pick only one (or just a few) for your campaign that you know you will have the time to manage effectively.
• Determine the audience for your campaign. Who is your campaign supposed to reach? What do you want your audience to do? Create something for that specific demographic.
• Make it fun. If it’s not fun, people will check out.
• Consider using creative campaigns to get rid of misconceptions.
• Consider collaborating with other organizations on your campaigns and theirs to capitalize on reach.
• Get volunteers involved: Ask them to spread the word about your campaign, like your Facebook page and ask them to share posts, etc. Have your volunteers become your influencers and ambassadors.

Thank you to everyone who attended Action Breakfast on May 9. We also want to thank our wonderful table captains for this Action Breakfast: Ana Flores, Randy Escamilla, Mari Aguirre, Katrina Kehoe, and Fran Stephenson. Your willingness to share your valuable experience with local nonprofits is greatly appreciated!

Mark your calendars for August 8 for our next Action Breakfast and, in the meantime, remember our motto: “One actionable idea.”

Like us on Facebook: Action San Antonio on Facebook.

Photo credit: SXC

Action Breakfast is a week from today, on May 9. We’d like to introduce you to our table captains. They’ll lead the roundtable discussions following an opening talk by kick-off speaker Alicia Arenas on time management.

Action San Antonio invites table captains who bring experience from the nonprofit sector, as well as with social media and technology, to provide guidance and answer questions. We’re grateful for their time and support!

For our May 9 breakfast we welcome:

Katrina Kehoe with KLRN

Randy Escamilla with Siclovia

Mari Aguirre with GenTX

Ana Flores with Nix Health, Bohanans, and San Antonio Cocktail Conference

Fran Stephenson, one of our Action San Antonio co-organizers, with Step In Communication

If this is your first time attending Action Breakfast, we’re excited to meet you. Our event formally starts at 9:00 a.m., but most participants arrive at 8:30 a.m. to have a pastry or a cup of coffee. At 9:00 a.m. we begin with a brief introduction by one of our team which is followed by a short opening presentation. Next, we break up into small table groups to take ACTION! by answering questions and solving the particular challenges discussed at each table. Our goal is for you to head back to the office with at least one actionable item related to social media or technology.

REMEMBER: We’re meeting at a new location. Be sure to join us at Cafe College which is located at 131 El Paso Street.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, May 9!

Alicia Arenas, our guest speaker on May 9

Say the word campaign and most nonprofits start to shudder. The thought of releasing a strategy into the world is enough to give them hives.  Take heart! Your next campaign is just one workshop away at the next Action Breakfast May 9 from 9-11 a.m. at Café College.

The kick-off speaker for this workshop is Alicia Arenas, founder and CEO of Sanera, The People Development Company. She is a distinguished business consultant, coach, corporate facilitator and speaker. Prior to launching Sanera in 2008, Alicia was an accomplished Human Resources leader working in Fortune 100 and 500 companies where she mentored leaders, led Human Resources teams, developed strategic operational plans and oversaw training and development at an enterprise level. In 2010 she launched Sanera Camp, a six week business building “boot camp” for business owners and sales teams.

For workshop attendees, Arenas will focus on developing time management skills, an essential tool to launching social media campaigns.  If you can’t manage your time, you won’t find the time for your next campaign.

After her rousing opening preso, we launch into our table groups.  This quarter, we have a whole new crop of Table Captains, including Katrina Kehoe of KLRN, Randy Escamilla of Siclovia, Mari Aguirre of GENTX and Ana Flores of Bohanan’s.

Action Breakfast is free for members of SAN Council. Non-members who are nonprofits pay $15.  For profit representatives are $25. The February Action Breakfast was a sell-out, so don’t wait to register today by going here.

A record-setting crowd gathered last week for the first Action Breakfast of 2012 in the new location at downtown’s Café College. The event opened with a presentation from Denise Barkhurst of Big Brothers Big Sisters on how her organization has made the “leap.”

Afterwards, small discussion groups tackled the topic in various ways. Here’s a recap on the takeaways:

Strategy
Have quarterly staff meetings to keep everyone on track.
Establish a policy BEFOREHAND.
Trade perfectionism for action, in other words, get started and figure out the hard stuff later.
A nonprofit’s strategy should come from their mission and vision statements.
Nonprofits need to carefully balance time management in social spaces.
Don’t try too many networks at once because you will burn out.

Content
Editorial Calendars are gold and can keep you on track.
Monthly and weekly themes help structure messages.
Share content!
Be strategic about content creation.

Audiences
Divide them up and give them meaningful content.
Put your board on social media by creating a private FB Group to enable social discussions and share files.
What does your potential audience consume? Video? Links? Photos? Give them what they want to see.
Here’s the app we talked about: Rescue Time, which allows you to set parameters for your social media surfing habits.

Mark your calendars for May 9 for our next Action Breakfast and, in the meantime, remember our motto: “one actionable idea.”

photo credit: SXC

With Action Breakfast just two days away we’d like to introduce you to our table captains. They’ll lead the roundtable discussions following an introduction to the topic of social media strategy by our opening speaker, Denise Barkhurst.

Action San Antonio invites table captains who bring experience from the nonprofit sector, as well as with social media and technology, to provide guidance and answer questions. We’re grateful for their time and support!

For our February 29 breakfast we welcome:

Jen Hatton with Morgan’s Wonderland

Luis Sandoval, Jr. with Sweb Development

Molly Cox, one of our Action San Antonio co-organizers who’s also working on social media with SA2020

Jennifer Whitcomb with Generation TX San Antonio

Luke Rosenberger with UTHSC Libraries

Janice Carpio with South Texas Blood and Tissue Center

Map to Cafe College

If this is your first time attending Action Breakfast, we’re excited to meet you. Our event formally starts at 9:00 a.m., but most participants arrive at 8:30 a.m. to have a breakfast taco or a cup of coffee. At 9:00 a.m. we begin with a brief introduction by one of our team which is followed by a short opening presentation. Next, we break up into small table groups to take ACTION! by answering questions and solving the particular challenges discussed at each table. Our goal is for you to head back to the office with at least one actionable item related to social media or technology.

REMEMBER: We’re meeting at a new location. Be sure to join us at Cafe College which is located at 131 El Paso Street.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday!

Denise Barkhurst, President and CEO, Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas

We’ve had a slight change in the opening speaker for Action Breakfast on February 29. Armen Babajanian will not be able to join us after all. But we’re excited to welcome Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas’ President and CEO Denise Barkhurst in his place.

Denise Barkhurst became the fourth President & CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas in August 2008. As CEO, she leads one of the top 10 largest Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliates in the country serving 14 counties across south Texas.

Denise’s passion for making a difference in her community and the future drove her to her success in the social profit sector. During her tenure with the organization, the agency increased the number of children served from 500 to over 3,000 in 7 years. Agency revenues also increase to over 3 million during this period of time. This was an increase in the number of children served by 466% and of agency revenue of 451%.

We look forward to hearing from Denise about the social media strategy she and her team created for Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas.

Action Breakfast on February 29 is currently sold out but we do have a waiting list and we’d be glad to add your name to it in the event that space opens up. Please send an email to  actioncampsa@gmail.com.

Armen Babajanian with Big Brothers Big Sisters South Texas

We’re kicking off this year’s first Action Breakfast with a special guest speaker, Armen Babajanian, the vice president of external communications for Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of South Texas. Armen will open our breakfast workshop on Wednesday, February 29, by discussing the social media strategy for Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas.

Armen started with Big Brothers Big Sisters in 2001 in the Houston office. In 2003, Armen started overseeing operations for the program in Kerrville, covering Kerr & Kendall counties. Armen was at that position for over six years before relocating to San Antonio to continue his work with Big Brothers Big Sisters as VP of External Communications.

Armen is responsible for agency communications and public relations, ensuring effective and consistent dissemination of the agency’s mission and programs. Armen has been a Child Advocate volunteer with CASA and is a Big Brother mentor to his Little Brother Tyler who is a sophomore at Our Lady of the Lake University. He has been matched to Tyler for almost 8 years. Armen is also a Big Brother to Jesse who is 14 years old. Armen has been a member of Rotary since 2008 when he joined the Club in Kerrville.

Action San Antonio is proud to welcome Armen as our guest speaker. His opening remarks will spark new ideas and get our conversations flowing as we break into table discussions about how your nonprofit can create, or fine tune, your social media strategy.

Action Breakfast on February 29 is currently sold out but we do have a waiting list and we’d be glad to add your name to it in the event that space opens up. Please send an email to  actioncampsa@gmail.com.

From Eole's Stream on Flickr.com

In honor of Leap Day, and because we don’t want you to wait 4 more years before you get started, Action Breakfast is going to focus on Strategy!  What is it? Why do you need it?  You won’t want to miss the first Action Breakfast for 2012 on February 29 at our NEW location, Café College.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

First, Armen Babajanian, the vice president of external communications for Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) of South Texas is going to share his nonprofit organization’s journey into social media and give insights into the strategy behind it all.

Babajanian has been with BBBS since 2001, starting in the Houston office, then in the Kerrville office for six years before coming to San Antonio. He has been a volunteer with Child Advocates SanAntonio (CASA) and is a two-time big brother himself.  He is also active in the Rotary Club.  He has a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a master’s degree from UTSA.

After a rousing kick off presentation, courageous table captains will guide participants through a question and answer session as well as custom problem solving at each table.

As always, we will share tools, tips and help.

In honor of Leap Day, the Action San Antonio team has exciting news to share about new opportunities, so don’t miss it!

Wednesday, Feb. 29

Café College

131 El Paso Street

San Antonio, TX  78204

210-207-4528

Registration:  8:30 a.m.

Workshop 9 a.m. – 11 a.m.

Action San Antonio offers quarterly breakfast workshops for nonprofit organizations to assist them in adopting social media and technology into their organizational practice.  The group also sponsors an annual Action Camp in October. For further information, e-mail us at actioncampsa@gmail.com or give a shout-out on Twitter to @colleenpence, @fransteps or @themollycox and use our hashtag #actionsa.

Go here to register.

Get these dates onto your busy calendars now! We’ve got exciting plans in store for Action Breakfasts this year so you won’t want to miss even a minute. Stay tuned for a post next week with details about our new location and the topic for our first breakfast on February 29.

2012 Action Breakfast dates:

Wednesday, February 29

Wednesday, May 9

Wednesday, August 8

Action Breakfasts bring nonprofits in San Antonio together to learn about social media and technology including best practices; examples of what other nonprofits are doing; and how nonprofits can integrate social media into their existing marketing and PR plans. Registration and breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m. and we kick off each workshop with a speaker at 9:00 a.m. Following the speaker’s brief presentation, we break into table discussions where attendees ask questions about the topic and share their experiences with each other. Questions? Leave a comment or email us at actioncampsa@gmail.com.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, February 29th!

Photo credit: SXC

Due to personal and professional commitments, Debi is stepping away from her organizing duties as a founding member of Action San Antonio. Fran, Molly Cox, and I want to thank Debi for her dedication and devotion to helping us make Action San Antonio such a success. With her help, we’ve been able to serve many of San Antonio’s nonprofit organizations by providing top-notch social media education through free quarterly breakfast workshops and a low-cost annual unconference.

We hope Debi will join us, from time to time, as a returning Table Captain to help facilitate discussions and to share her wealth of communications experience.

Quarterly Action San Antonio Breakfasts for 2012 will resume in February (watch for a Save the Dates post later this week). We look forward to seeing you soon!