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As Social Media Landscape Gets More Crowded, Strategy Matters More Than Ever (VIDEO)
Guest Post: Susan Herr, PhilanthroMedia
According to the Nonprofit Technology Network’s (NTEN) third annual Social Network Benchmarking Survey, 90 percent of nonprofits are using at least one commercial social network like Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. While adoption of such platforms by the broader nonprofit sector dwarfs that of foundations (our 2011 survey shows use Twitter at 29% and Facebook at 27%), it illuminates the extent to everyone must now compete in a public square jam-packed with virtual soapboxes.
To Holly Ross, executive director of NTEN, these numbers suggest that both nonprofits and foundations have entered a new phase in which being a part of the social media universe is no longer enough. If you want your message to be heard, it must be driven by strategy that informs every aspect of how you participate, including making sure the specific social media platforms you pick to carry your messages are the right ones for the goals you want to achieve.
The Art of In-House Persuasion (VIDEO)
Guest Post: Susan Herr, PhilanthroMedia
If your boss and colleagues don’t understand the very strategic work you are doing, is it your fault or theirs? That is the question that Network for Good’s Chief Strategy Officer Katya Andresen forces us to consider in this interview I recently conducted with her on “The Art of In-House Persuasion.”
Making Change By Working Together
Guest Post: Chris Palmedo, Northwest Health Foundation
One of the common refrains among members of the Communications Network is the need to seamlessly integrate communications with program work. We’ve talked about Kumbaya. We’ve encouraged ourselves to develop “closer working relationships” with program staff, to “shift the culture toward one of mutual respect” and to “get people to care enough” about communications. And we’ve been warned not to be to paternalistic in converting program staff who don’t “get it.”
Fortunately, my organization does “get it,” and I’ve been thinking that, perhaps, some views from Northwest Health Foundation’s perspective can provide some insight for my colleagues at other foundations. My experience working with program staff at our foundation goes beyond “mutual respect.” It’s more like “mutual challenge,” where program and communications push each other – and the organization – toward a common vision of social change.
Monitoring Your Online Territory
Guest Post: Mitch Hurst, MH Group
As social media becomes more ubiquitous organizations need to better understand how their issues are being influenced in online conversations. There’s a lot of talk about “listening” to discussions taking place online and, particularly for organizations that serve broad constituencies, monitoring social media to gain a better understanding of how issues are playing out.
Are You Tapping the Wisdom of the Crowds?
(At our 2010 Communications Network Conference in Los Angeles, James Surowiecki, author of The Wisdom of Crowds, offered some suggestions on how foundations can tap into the collective thinking of crowds. In her guest post below, Rebecca Arno, Vice President of Communications, The Denver Foundation and Chair, Communications Network, shares some examples of how new communications technology is supporting crowdsourcing in philanthropy. Her post is reprinted with permission from CausePlanet.)
Social media has great power to connect people within and across communities–geographic communities, communities of practice and interest and communities of faith and belief. How are nonprofit organizations mining these connections to achieve their missions? Crowdsourcing is often the answer.
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