NXNEi: a nonprofit communicator’s experience
Friday, June 18, 2010 |
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Categories: Marketing communications, Public relations, Stakeholder communications
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This week, I attended the first ever North by Northeast Interactive (NXNEi) for two days. I’m certainly not a techie – I’m a communicator and copywriter – but I’d heard so much about SXSWi and I wanted to see what the buzz was about. I attended with the perspecitve of a nonprofit communicator, participating in the following sessions:
- Design for Change, It Makes Cents
- UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging. Social Media and Viral Marketing
- Making Ideas Happen: Key Insights on Creative Execution
- Can Social Games Do Social Good
- Save Lives with 140 Characters or Less
- Web, Life and a Better World
- Web 2.0 Suicide
- User Generated Content: The Audience Delivers
- At the Heart of It: Struggling to Connect in a Virtual World
These topics were fairly diverse, but drove home some key messages for nonprofit communicators:
- New technologies are happening, whether your organization is participating, or not.
- Consumers want to, and should be part of the conversation. Treat them well, and they’ll even do much of the work for you.
- There are so many emerging and highly creative uses of technology. It’s ok if you’re not ready for all of them: focus in on one or two that fit strategically and are manageable for your organization.
- Our audiences want to know what’s in it for them.
- Now more than ever, the barriers between nonprofits and their stakeholders/supporters are dropping. Instead of fearing this as vulnerability, embrace it as an opportunity to connect like never before.
I found it very timely that just yesterday, I came across this great presentation by DVQ studio on five trends that are redefining nonprofit communications. Definitely worth a review – and perhaps worth sharing with the slow adopters in your organization!
The ways in which we communicate continue to change at a breakneck pace. For example, it may seem hard to believe that in the near future, tools such as e-mail could very well become old-fashioned and maybe even obsolete. But the same old communications principles apply, so use them: figure out where to find your audience and connect with them there!
Comments
MO
Great point, Mike. Consumers have more choices than ever and they no longer have to sit and wait for organizations to decide how they will get information. They’ll definitely appreciate being consulted.
“[...] figure out where to find your audience and connect with them there!”
This is great advice. I often read debates about the appropriate ways to handle certain technologies…whether Twitter should be used to promote an organization’s news and events or if that’s too “corporate”, for example.
I think a great way to manage these dilemmas is to simply ask your audience what they’d like to see on those channels. Then you’ve done two things right: You’ve given them what they want, and you’ve included them in the process.