Here they are…

Social media

• Quality over quantity with social media. It’s better to do a few posts that get great engagement than spam people.
• Make sure you’re doing regular analysis to see what’s working and what isn’t – I know this can be a struggle for small charities, but it’s so important to make sure limited resources are being used effectively.
• Use scheduling tools to plan out your content at the start of the week/month. But also dip in and regularly check and respond to comments and posts.
• Engage with people and join the conversation. Don’t just push stuff out, but be part of a community. People will remember you!

Twitter

• Respond to people and engage, rather than just pushing out adverts.
• Use Twitter lists. Basically these are a great way to keep up to date on topics and themes that are of interest to you.

Instagram

• Follow hashtags as well as people, so you can see relevant content.
• Don’t just post adverts – think about the human angle of what you do. Share photos of you out on a walk, or eating breakfast.
• The best posts tell a story.

Facebook

• Set up events so people see them in their feed. People will be more likely to spot them than if they have to come to your website.
• Consider small paid ads that are targeted towards people with similar ads.
• Post in groups such as Theatre Practitioners in London, Dramatherapy, London Arts in Health Forum etc.

Videos

• Video is a powerful tool for communication, enabling people to see, hear, read, and engage in a way that goes beyond written text.
• Keep it short – under two minutes is ideal.
• Plan out your script before.
• But don’t look down at it during filming. Keep eye contact with the camera, in a natural way.
• Use horizontal/landscape orientation.
• Sitting slightly off centre tends to look best.
• Steady your phone on a tripod or flat surface.
• Don’t zoom in or the image will be pixelated.
• Face toward a window for great natural light – don’t have the window behind you or you will be a silhouette.
• Make sure to have the video quality set to the highest resolution.
• Charge your phone up to 100% – filming will be draining on your battery life so don’t risk running out halfway through.
• Make sure you have enough memory space as video will fill it up very quickly.

Newsletter

• No more than once a week.
• Consider doing newsletter swaps with other organisations – see if you can feature their events in exchange for them featuring yours.
• Replicate the template in Mailchimp – it saves so much time!

PR

• Think about magazines and websites that have related content, and offer to write for them.
• Offer free spaces to journalists so that they can experience what you do. It’s not guaranteed coverage, but a good way to build relationships.
• Follow #journorequests and respond to call outs. It’s important to remember that when they ask for sources they will be inundated, so be friendly and respond efficiently to any requests.
• Another great resource is AskCharity, where journalist post requests for case studies and stories.

Blogs

• Adding content to the website boosts it in search engine rankings, so it should be regularly updated.
• You can hook content around what you’re doing, relevant themes in the sector, as well as Awareness Days.

Design

• Apply for Canva for charities to easily make fab assets.

Content

• Write regular blog posts that include relevant words to the kinds of thing that your audience might be looking for. This is the bedrock of SEO. Answer The Public is really helpful here.

Resources

• Check out Google Non profits for resources, included $10,000 ad grant.

Released on 20th January 2017, all proceeds from the sale of the single via Bandcamp will go to the grass roots charity group Phone Credit for Refugees and Displaced People. They work to help keep a vital mobile phone lifeline open for refugees desperate to connect with families and to access important services and information.

As Ros and Vas explain ‘We hope our song helps make a difference by raising much needed funds. We chose Phone Credit for Refugees after meeting our Labour MP Stella Creasy at Walthamstow feminist bootcamp and she put us in touch with people who knew this fantastic volunteer group. You can see where your money is going and you are directly helping people to access important services and information and to stay connected to their families.’

The duo wholeheartedly belief in the value of music and the arts for making change. ‘We come from Greek and Scottish/Irish backgrounds and our music stands against the growing tide of suspicion and intolerance. We decided in 2013 that we had to use any skills or talent we had as musicians, as songwriters, as a band to question and challenge, to show what we stood for. Otherwise your music ultimately says everything is fine and acceptable. We also think we can help change our culture by being creative and making our own culture rather than just passively consuming it. This leads to a real communication between artists and people in different countries.’

They’ve previously contributed to the #moreincommon album in aid of Hope Not Hate, and found ‘a growing sense of horror ‘ through the experience of seeing our world fall apart in some ways, but know that ‘we have to wake up and act now to ensure our silence is not taken as acquiescence.’

But we have to finish our chat. They have to rush off and pick up their makeshift drums ready to bang outside Downing Street in protest against the UK government’s apparent complicity with Trump’s immigration policy and terrifying populist extremism. No silence here. ‘There is a time for songs and a time to take to the streets.’

We can make a noise too, helping the most vulnerable speak simple words of reassurance to loved ones, by buying Time to Mourn/From Fear to Fury here and see them live on March 18^th at the LOUD WOMEN Volume 1: Album Launch Party, with all profits going to Women’s Aid.

First published on Joyzine

Opener AM Story from Schizo is like a soft style Blood Red Shoes, seductively gritty and studded with reverb. Their second track is a psych fuelled lo-fi trip that mutates its way through a maze of dissonance and copulating guitars, Endorphin Portal is an earnest drugged out zenith of carefully structured electronica in which the corrugated frustration lingers long after its ending.

The Bordello’s Hit It has a bit more drive and pumping beats, catchy as hell with its meandering earworm of a bridge, whilst A Little Sadness is a sweet and melancholy flicker from a torn heart looking out hopefully towards an expansive horizon, even from the perspective of grey pavements and desolate skies. As a taster for the full length release, it’s an off kilter triumphant wonder.

[bandcamp width=350 height=470 album=2465690011 size=large bgcol=ffffff linkcol=0687f5 tracklist=false]

Originally posted on Joyzine.

Reviewed by Becky Glass

It starts well: coats draped over rows of vinyl, spotlights on low, and a crowd so benevolent they’re emitting an actual glow. The semi-transformed Oxfam shop on Kingsland Roadis an enchanting venue from the off – relaxed, calm and unpretentious: quite a surprise for mid-town Hipsterville. Add the lively warbling of Kyla La Grange to warm up the crowd and you’ve got a winner.
We had a winner. Emerging quietly confident, murmuring the first notes of her first song, Lucy Rose’s voice washed over the jumble as bewitching, as natural, as warming as sunlight.
The effect is soporific and uplifting at once. It’s a folksy Feist; Laura Marling without grit. And it’s addictive: the melodies and the sound get into your head, as weirdly familiar as your own thoughts.
Appreciative, undemanding and solid, Lucy makes a natural stage presence, unaffected in conversation with the crowd. ‘This guitar is a terrible instrument,’ she says, ‘When I’m rich and famous enough, I’m going to smash it up on stage.’ I don’t believe her; I think she’d recycle it – but the affected shyness, the artful wistfulness that makes other female folkstresses so irritating just isn’t in her at all.
In these respects, she’s a joy to watch. But if there’s one thing Lucy’s music can be faulted on, it’s a lack of passion. There’s just no rough edge to her: her words are expressive, but don’t seem to connect with real emotions. It’s not the troubled, tortured cry we’ve come to expect from a girl and a guitar.
But for Lucy, therein lies her charm. She really seems authentic, truly herself in her music. It’s lovely, it’s honest, and in its insistence to be simple, it’s wonderfully strong.
There isn’t much around at the moment that can have such a hypnotic effect on you – especially live. If just for that, Lucy is worth a watch.
And angst is passé anyway.
http://soundcloud.com/lucy-rose/first-mix-m-02

A night of break-though indie acts brought to you by It’s All Happening, taking place at Proud Stables, Camden, all  to raise money for the wonderful work of Oxfam.
Check out the line up…

Orlando Seale and the Swell
http://www.facebook.com/orlandosealeandtheswell

What might your excuses be?
‘It’s a Sunday night’ – exactly, what else are you doing?
‘It’s £5 – that could get me a milky coffee and half a stale pastry on the way to work tomorrow’ – or it could get you a night of excellent music AND help save lives
‘Who are these bands?’ – have a listen to the links, and embrace the joy of discovering something new. It’s what makes us human. That and being unable to hang upside down from a tree.
See you there then!