Reflections - A Year in Review

When Menisha and I met last week to touch base, catch up, and assess our next steps for Press Pause Collective, it took us both by complete surprise to realize that a full year had passed since we launched this humble side-hustle. The past year has been filled with our fair share of challenges and successes, but more than anything else we’ve experienced the satisfaction of accomplishing what we set out to do - help small businesses, charities, and nonprofits achieve their goals.

As we move forward with even bigger goals for the months to come, we’re highlighting some of our favourite projects to give you a taste of what we’ve been working on.

1 - Strategic Planning and Facilitation

So much passion and lived experience goes into starting your own charity or non-profit, and that passion can help get you off the ground. But once you’re off the ground, where do you go next? This is where it helps to build out a strategic plan, and sometimes, having an outside eye is the best way to organize all that passion into coherent, actionable, steps.

Working with a small non-profit client, we met with stakeholders to conduct a virtual town hall session that included a user generated SWOT analysis and discussed priorities for the future. From there we sorted the key findings from our discussions into five main themes, and translated them into short-term and long-term goals for our client. In the final stage, we organized all the information into a scheduled calendar of activities (GANTT chart) with measurable metrics for success.

We will continue to provide guidance to this client as they embark on their strategic plan and assist with tracking outcomes that will ensure they remain on a path to success.

2 - Social Media Strategy and Management

Your social media content may very well be the first window into your organization that a potential donor, customer, or beneficiary sees, so strategically developing what messages your channels convey, and who they are saying it to is key.

Partnering with a large hospital foundation, we worked closely with their in-house Communications team to determine key messages and branded content they needed to deliver. We refined those messages into platform-specific content with accompanying links, articles, imagery, and/or video to ensure a steady stream of engagement.

In addition to messaging on existing platforms, we took the lead on auditing old/defunct social media accounts and provided best practices for healthy social media practices in the future.

3 - Website Maintenance, Redesign, and Build

Websites are often thought of as a static online presence, but the reality is that your website should always be up-to-date, secure, and relevant to visitors.

Working with a large foundation, we continuously monitored the site for out-of-date content, and replaced it with new, relevant material. We also created a series of event and theme-specific microsites with pertinent and timely information, and tied this content to monthly newsletters and e-blasts.

Continuously monitoring and updating your web content in accordance with SEO best practices ensures that potential donors, customers, and beneficiaries find you first and easily understand your mission, vision, and values.

4 - Social Media Advertising

Organic social and web content reaches an audience that already knows about you, but how do you find new leads, potential donors, or customers? A great way to do this is building ad campaigns on social media and tracking your success rates.

We worked with a small social justice-based online platform, and created a series of lead generation ads to build awareness and gain support for causes most important to Canadians today. Through online analytics, we were able to assess the return on investment of these campaigns, and adjust/edit to maximize results for the organization.

Online advertising, when done correctly, is incredibly effective, as you can track results almost instantaneously and make changes and updates to meet and exceed your goals. You can also target advertising to key audiences, or exclude audiences that may not perform as well.

We continue to create, edit, and optimize a series of social media advertising campaigns, bringing significant results to our clients within and under desired budgets.

These are the four main areas in which we saw unparalleled success for our clients and growth for the Collective as a whole. We are so grateful to those clients who trusted us with their work, their passions, and missions. We are so thrilled to see them succeed in making their communities a better place, and knowing we had a small hand in that.

As we embark on year two we are excited to announce that submissions are now open for new clients, and contracts are secured on a first come first serve basis. We’re looking forward to bringing accessible support to more small businesses across the country, and we thank our network for cheering us on along the way. If you’re interested in working with us and exploring how the Press Pause Collective can help you, please reach out by email at hello@presspausecollective.com