Keeping it real
When adding online and social media into the traditional communications and marketing mix, it’s easy to be swept up in the technology. Because online can provide us with so many metrics, it’s easy to forget you’re dealing with people, not numbers on a spreadsheet or fancy graphs in an analytics package.
Numbers are nice. But connecting with people is better – and more important.
I think if we can start our work with the mindset of “What behaviour do we want to create that people will want and need?” rather than “How do we do this thing that we’ve always done, but do it better digitally?”, we could more easily be creating these analog interactions in a digital world.
- Nic Hodges, “Uneven Distribution”
If your mindset is to do the same old thing in a new medium, you are selling your organisation short. It’s time to flip your thinking.
- Don’t just make people read your stories. Listen to your supporters stories.
- Don’t just wait for people to come to you for help. Proactively seek out opportunities for you to help people.
- Don’t just create communications. Create community.
Rather than isolating people, the use of social media and other online technologies increases how well-connected people feel to each other and to the causes they love.
- Kivi’s Nonprofit Communications Blog, “2010 Predictions: Number 1 is I’ll Keep Referring You to Beth”
How are you using social media to learn more about your supporters as people, and the stories they have to tell? How are you building a better community?
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