New research from Edelman (with chart compliments of Marketing Charts) shows that your audience needs to hear your message 3-5 times in order to believe it to be true. Does that surprise you? I actually thought it would take more exposure than that.

What does this tell us?

Right Message + Right Time + Reach + Repetition = RESULTS

So, what's all this about digital marketing taking over the world? According to a new study by Edelman which is captured by Marketing Charts:

32% of informed publics* in 20 countries around the world say they trust traditional information sources a great deal, representing a 10% rise from 29% in 2011, and remaining ahead of online sources, which rose 18% from 22% to 26% of these respondents.

It's true that social media showed the largest growth in trust of the various media sources, with 14% citing a great deal of trust, up 75% from 8% in 2011. And that's a good thing.

BUT, don't disregard traditional sources because they cost more than digital. Do the research for your organization and determine the most ideal multi-channel marketing approach.

* Informed publics: aged 25-64, college-educated, in the top 25% of household income per age group in their country, and reporting significant media consumption and engagement in business news and public policy.

Nancy Schwartz, nonprofit marketer, keeper of the Getting Attention blog, and host of the first Nonprofit Blog Carnival of 2012, invited me to submit a blog post about my dream for the nonprofit sector.

"Pick any dream you have – for your cause, organization or the nonprofit sector - and write about it, and how you plan to make it real."

I thought about it, and boy, could I create a long list! How to narrow it down. Hmmm.

Since I don't work on the "inside" anymore, I'll pass on writing my dream for a cause or specific organization and stick with my dream for the sector. Even that elicits lots of dreams and wishes.

So, drum roll…

My dream for the nonprofit sector is that more people will recognize and respect the incredible contributions that charities make to our society. Every time a negative charity article appears in the news, I wish they would realize that it is the story of ONE charity out of 1.6 million organizations in the US, 80,000 in Canada, and over 171,000 in the UK. A drop in the bucket. Yet, the public tends to paint all charities with the same brush.

My dream includes nonprofit leaders – both professional and lay leaders. I wish they could all participate in a training program that helps them understand how important their roles are in positioning their organizations and the sector in general. A solid grasp of marketing and branding principles would be valuable in giving them the tools to promote their causes and respond to any negative perceptions people have.

Collectively, we need to address the misperceptions and build support in our communities for the charitable world. Organizations NEED to spend money to make money. That's how it works.

May my dream become a reality. Amen.

With social media being a relatively new marketing communications channel, how many social media managers working today have a background in the marketing or communications field? Many probably do and yet, I'll bet there are loads of them who don't.

Social media managers are at the forefront of their employers' brands. Every comment, discussion, and interaction is a reflection of the brand. How they write, their word choices, their tone, and yes, even their spelling and punctuation, all contribute to the brand impressions that followers will have.

Whether your organization assigned the job to the youngest, most social-savvy employee, or it hired someone with communications or related experience, it's important that the social media manager has a solid understanding of the brand and can convey the brand personality with every social media post and conversation.