In the past 24 hours I attended a webinar entitled The Next Generation of American Giving hosted by BoardSource, watched part of a PBS special entitled digital_nation life on the virtual frontier and received the on-line version of the McKinsey Quarterly which highlighted an article entitled The power of storytelling: What nonprofits can teach the private sector about social media. This was an interview with husband and wife team Jennifer Aaker, Stanford professor and Andy Smith, marketing strategist and excerpts from their book The Dragonfly Effect and how to use social media for your cause.
While I was trying to process and integrate the above, I sent and received numerous e-mails, played Bejeweled on Facebook, e-filed my state and federal income taxes, was friended by the County Executive on LinkedIn and friended someone on For Moms Only which is an on-line support group for mothers who have lost adult children. That was after I posted a review of my 15th book of the year (which I read on my Kindle) on the Goodreads on-line reading challenge… all from the comfort of my home office on a sunny but cold (18 degrees) day in western New York.
The clear message from the webinar which highlighted communication and giving patterns by the different generations – Matures, Boomers GenX and GenYs - was the necessity to communicate using multiple channels if you want to get your message out. Clearly this is not new information but underscored the need to harness technology in both the front and back offices of non-profit organizations.
Many of us have experienced “the blue screen of death” when our computers crash, but here’s a new thing to be wary of……”going dark”. What does this mean? It is when we are off-line, not available by cell phone and in general are incommunicado. This is not acceptable. We must be available 24/7 so “going dark” is something to be avoided at all costs. The take away for nonprofits – figure out how to be accessible and available when supporters want you to be.
The digital_nation featured everything from the World of Warcraft where online gamers from all over the world congregate nightly. They have a yearly confab where they come together and meet each other face to face. One of my grandsons attended one of these confabs and it was like “totally awesome”. There was a lot about virtual reality and how connected everyone can be. Maybe it is my age, maybe it is the number of strong and wonderful relationships I have with people in the real world, but I find it difficult to believe that the virtual world is better than my real world. I am going to be a hold out on that frontier.
As to using social media which was part of the webinar and the focus of The Dragonfly Effect, I totally get that because it is about telling the story of your organization, it is about being inclusive and gathering support for your cause whether it is clean water in developing countries or trying to establish a children’s museum. If you explore the beginnings of any not-for-profit organization, you find that there was a someone or a group of someones who thought….I am going to do something about________and they did. They convinced their friends of the importance and they figured out the mechanics of how to make it happen. It was tedious work….getting incorporated, finding money, preparing by-laws, seating a board, hiring initial staff. Each step was difficult but they preserved. Will it be easier if these individuals learn to use social media more effectively? Probably, but that takes another whole skill set and someone on hand who can update various social media platforms and create distinctive messages for Twitter and Facebook fan pages, or create You Tube videos.
One of the four wings of the dragonfly is engagement. I’m not sure what the other three are. I guess I’ll have to read the book. The four rules for engagement include:
- Tell a Story
- Empathize with your audience
- Emphasize authenticity
- Match the media with the message
This confluence of information has caused me to examine my own communication channels. It leaves me wondering….
Is my phone smart enough? Probably not but maybe my intelligence makes up for that (one can only hope)!
Should I be tweeting? Maybe so, but I am probably not going to.
Should I have a business page on Facebook in addition to my home page? Probably
Do I need to include more about the use of social media when I work with nonprofits and foundations? Definitely
Am I going to take up World of Warcraft? Not going to happen
Will the world of technology continue to grow and expand and change ? Count on it.
Until next time,
Pat