the Chinese vase balancing act of GuiMing Meng (via Dance Project Sequence inc. online reviews)
Well, time to go back to work! Thank goodness. Didn’t think too much about the office or communications over the break (whoops, busy Monday ahead tomorrow!) but in between fending off requests for popcorn at the Big Apple Circus just before Christmas I was reminded of what CMW trainer and professional storyteller Susan O’Halloran taught me is the “rule of three.” As Wikipedia puts it most succinctly, the rule of three is
…a principle in English writing that suggests that things that come in threes are inherently funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. From slogans (”Go, fight, win!”) to films, many things are structured in threes. There were three musketeers, three little pigs, three billy goats Gruff, Goldilocks and the three bears, and Three Stooges. (Link to full entry here)
Here’s what I saw and here’s how I think it applies to our work, especially in tough economic times.
Angela Siefer offered virtually out of the blue to do a social media workshop at CMW last week… it filled up in 2 hours! (If you wanted to go and couldn’t get in, we apologize and will see about holding similar free sessions in the new year–contact me or comment here with suggestions or questions about this). She wrote this guest post after the event.
Social media is a conversation that can easily expand. Social networking is a piece of social media. Social networking develops relationships.
Social media is another avenue for promoting a business or nonprofit. An avenue that if integrated into an organization’s overall customer service/promotion/sales strategy can produce amazing results. Folks who do not use social media or slightly use it often find the field overwhelming.
Last week I launched Shiny Door with my first social networking presentation (Net Tuesday Chicago) and my first two social networking workshops (Community Media Workshop and New America Foundation). One of the attendees asked if she must have a Facebook profile before creating a Group to promote her organization. I am so ingrained in social networking, the issue had not occurred to me. That was when I realized I need to include a discussion at the beginning of the workshops about the structure of social networking and the importance of the individual.
In order to promote a business or nonprofit online, one needs to first establish an individual presence online. Companies and nonprofits are often uncomfortable putting themselves out front. They are accustomed to promoting the organization itself. We all know that organizations benefit from individuals networking offline, (this is why networking events are popular and why some folks even attend events at all). Online networking very much relies upon the individual. Organizations have an online presence but since we cannot physically see with whom we are having a conversation, we want to know that who represents that organization is a real person. Why else would automated help systems be given first names? “Hi-my-na-me-is-Ju-lie. I-will-be-as-sis-ting-you. Pl-ea-se-pr-ess-1-to be an-noy-ed-by-me-per-son-al-ly…”
A social media strategy must be based in the understanding that organizations represented online are represented by real people. Those real people have real personalities. Each of them will not represent the organization in exactly the same way. They can be given guidelines and tools to assist them but the reason others will want to communicate with these representatives is because they are real and interesting. Its very difficult to comment on a blog post when the author is “admin” because you do not know who you are address your comment toward.
So, first step in creating a social media strategy is to use social media yourself. As an individual. Watch, listen, participate. Second step is to mix your organization into social media. But that is a second step.
We’ve written before about Colonel Tribune–he of the newspaper sailor hats, aka the online avatar for The Chicago Tribune. Today he needs your help, if you are on Twitter–you can nominate him for a Shorty Award.
Full disclosure, the Colonel is also invited to keynote the 2009 Making Media Connections conference. Another time we could ruminate on what role the Colonel and others of his ilk have to play in the future of news, whatever the heck that looks like.
Anyway, poor guy has had a helluva week, what with bankruptcy, spreading the Blagojevich complaint, and announcing the Bears are on Channel 50 for people like me who still do not have cable. So if you twitter, give him a plug. Nominate @coloneltribune for a Shorty Award in #news. Do it… for Chicago!
and ps, raise a glass with him tonight at the Col. Tribune tweet up…
Is the new web site of Claretian Associates the virtual equivalent of a new mural in the neighborhood?
If you can’t blog about your wife’s new web site, what can you blog about? She works for Claretian Associates “building community in South Chicago”–the post steel mill community where we met, actually, nearly 20 years ago (but who’s counting). Since Claretian Associates is a grantee of Chicago Local Initiatives Support Corp.’s New Communities Program, she had access to the template and back end they hired Webitects to create (they also developed the NCP’s own massive site with news and content from the South, West, and Northwest sides).
I put on my CMW cap and asked her what was hardest about pulling it together. None of it, really (ha, like I wasn’t listening the last few weeks when she came home from working on it… no, just kidding). The hardest part, she said, was just making time to do it. But now she loves it… and now they’ve left the world of opening Adobe Contribute and Dreamweaver to mess with their Web site, it’s going to take a lot less time to share news about their work, their community, and the organization. Can you afford the time to fix your web site? Can you afford not to take the time?
In a week with a bankruptcy, a corrupt governor, a global story about workers and the financial bailout, where do you start? It’s almost too good to be true!
Tribune Co. bankruptcy is bizarre… but it’s more about the news business than the news. Yes, we may quibble about what it looks like and what stories end up in the paper (my personal least favorite from my local Tribune this week is a magazine article noting that Logan Square is “hot.” Still? Just now? Again?) Anyway, we may not always agree with our editors’ choices but would still lose big time if pro journalists, who go find stuff that they think we all need to know, to fade away.
As Vincent Duffy, news director of Michigan Radio, said at a panel discussion in Flint last week, “You can’t yet get a computer to actually stick a microphone in [Flint] Mayor Williamson’s face … I don’t know how you’re going to hear the news in the future but you are going to hear us [journalists] reporting.” Also on the bankruptcy, remember that the Chicago Reader declared bankruptcy a few months back and they are still publishing fine.
A quick side note on the news business, crucial to remember when you think about the model: ethnic and community news outlets are doing fine! So before we go to thinking about the death of news, let’s celebrate the kind of journalism that makes a governor try to knock out a Tribune editorial board member (if John McCormick does not get a raise out of this, it’s a shame–bankruptcy or no) and raise up our community and ethnic news outlets, like this morning’s story (quoting, ahem, me).
Lauri Apple and Rebecca Wellisch from Women Employed took time out of their work to answer a few questions about how the organization is using social media to advance its mission:
Q. You mentioned you’ve been using social networks that you already know about from your personal life to spread the good word about Women Employed. Why is WE doing this now?
Using social networking websites such as MySpace and Facebook enables us to reach new audiences and keep our supporters apprised of our initiatives. They help us reach out to people in their teens, 20s, and 30s, with whom these sites are especially popular, and help engage the next generation of advocates for workplace equity. And they offer tremendous flexibility — we can post links to articles, inform people about events, and recruit new supporters, with a level of ease that a regular paper newsletter or even an e-newsletter (which takes time to create) can’t offer.
Q. Why should nonprofits consider making promotional videos like Women Employed’s 35th anniversary video? What are the benefits?
Flint is famous for its Coney Island spots; a new owner gave one a new name.
Well, move over Hyde Park and make room for Flint!
My daughter goes to pre-school across the street from the Obama family home, so like a lot of neighbors the fam and I feel an extra share of pride in our new president. But it looks like we’re going to have to move over to leave some room for Flint, Mich. — not coincidentally, site of the Workshop’s next one-day Michigan Communications Project mini-conference next Friday, Dec. 5.
According to Good Morning Flint blogger, local attorney, and former Flint ombudsman Terry Bankert, it’s the first sign of the “Obama Stimulus Plan.” Read the rest of this entry »
The Knight Foundation has produced a new site for grantees that it’s sharing with other nonprofits on how to produce a better press release (credit to Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Give and Take blog for reporting it). Should you check it out? Here’s the path they lay out to news media success:
Tip #1: Pinpoint your story.
Tip #2: Find the right news outlets.
Tip #3: Spread your news clearly, accurately.
Tip #4: Stay in touch with the funder.
Seems like pretty much the classic path. We like the thought that you might want to consider your funders as news outlets/audiences for your organization (depends on the foundation and its capacity, of course).
It’s good to see more attention to how nonprofits communicate… we’re looking into the trend among philanthropies and nonprofits toward investing more in effective communications for an article in the Foundation Center’s Philanthropy Annual publication, so stay tuned for more thoughts on this topic!
Community Media Workshop
at Columbia College
600 S. Michigan Ave.
tel: 312-369-6400
fax: 312-369-6404 cmw@newstips.org http://www.newstips.org
Community Media Workshop
Connecting the community with media, the Workshop promotes news that matters... through coaching and training that reaches about 2,000 nonprofit communicators a year.
represented by real people. Those real people have real personalities. Each of them will not represent the organization in exactly the same way. They can be given guidelines and tools to assist them but the reason others will want to communicate with these representatives is because they are real and interesting. Its very difficult to comment on a blog post when the author is “admin” because you do not know who you are address your comment toward.
