Enter your email address below to receive current MMT news and weblog posts delivered to your inbox.
The BlogWorld & New Media Expo held last Wednesday through Friday (Nov. 7-9) was quite the experience. Bloggers and new media gurus walked side by side with those asking, "so, what's a blog, anyway?" Breakout sessions were filled with questions and answers and lots of interested participants. Some of the best take-aways for nonprofits include:
1. Ethics: A conversation on ethics for your nonprofit's new media tools is a great way to focus and answer some sticky situations before they come up. For example, if you have a blog, will you allow comments from anyone on anything? Where do you draw the line on user generated content? Any answer is okay, as long as it is agreed upon by your organization and there are objective measures or specific examples to help guide when content/comments have crossed the line.
2. Creating Content: Remember that your organization's story, insight, experiences, and events are unique. You already have original content that is compelling and creative that you can share with your community on a blog, in an email campaign, or in a video. Telling your story the way you saw it, felt it, experienced it will be more interesting to readers and more inviting for them to comment, send to friends, and even help out with your organization.
3. Creating Conversations: All over the internet, conversations are taking place already. You do not always need to start the conversation, but can continue it. Find other organizations online that are blogging or posting video and photos about a topic your organization is interested in (whether it is a similar event, similar service, or in the same community). You can link to their websites or blogs or even YouTube videos and then contribute your thoughts as well. Be sure to always invite your readers and supports to share with you as well.
4. Looking Ahead: The world of technology is moving and evolving rapidly. the tools that many organizations feel are highly needed and beneficial to success were not even around a couple years ago, some not even ONE year ago. What does this mean for nonprofits looking to plan for the future? Education is often one of the most crippling barriers to adoption and success with new technologies. Ensuring that staff capacity exists for continued learning and development for new media tools is a must. For some organizations, this means hiring a staff member dedicated to technology needs; for others, it means creating good relationships with consultants or other outside vendors to assist with changing new media opportunities. Some organizations have staff members that spend their spare time exploring these tools and can step in to help the organization. Others can utilize interested volunteers who are looking for a way to put their geek skills to good use.
Whether you are looking at content, comments or continued support in the future, new media tools should be adapted throughout your organization and decisions made collectively. The information and the tools are available, most of them free! So, if you haven't started using new media yet, today is the day to start!
