Enterprise UK Blog

Last week I managed to bag myself a ticket to the media140 Third Sector event held at We Are Social in London. The event focused on how Social Media is and can be used in third sector organisations with talk and debate from leading advocates in the industry. Safe to say being a bit of a social media geek I lapped up the opportunity to engage with like minded thinkers and was interested to see how charities and organisations across the spectrum of size and notoriety approached this. Here were some of things I took away..

It is clear that the constantly evolving technological world we live poses challenges to all no matter the sector. In the Third Sector the effect this has seen a shift from charities being the key drivers of a message to donors and supporters who now have the power to drive the message themselves through social networks and online communities.

The Relationship

Conventionally charities have reached out when they need something (in a top down approach) be that volunteers, money or influence. Social media gives us as charities the opportunity to have a new kind of conversation in which we engage people without asking anything of them.

Having a deeper engagement allows supporters to reach out to us at different points on their journey, empowering them to uptake our offering (having listened to them!) when it is convenient to them and making it as easy as possible. Understanding these relationships, not taking supporters for granted, will create advocates for your brand who will spread the message to people in their sphere of influence shaping your message along the way.

Donor Intimacy

This new need for donor intimacy means there is a case for using social networks as an extension of your CRM strategy and another touch point in your marketing mix. However this means having your organisation actually engaging in the conversation – giving your employees the fluidity to be a part of this. Employees are natural advocates, purveyors of your message and there should be a wide engagement in social media within your organisation. As someone at the event put it “The skin reflects the health of your body – the body being your organisation, your social media activity being the skin that adds a human layer”.

Hang out where people hang out

People will find you as much as you will find them – make this easier for them by going to the communities they already engage in. Remember different audiences have different communities they engage in, and need to be talked to in different ways; the nature of the real time web tool twitter for instance has an audience that is looking for instant gratification compared to other online communities. Be real, be human, empower employees and amplify the voices of your supporters!

Embrace the Wired World!

I think this quote sums up powerfully the potential for the online world to influence and define what we do as organisations and the changing balance of power. Harnessing this through collaboration and encompassing of voices should be at the forefront of spearheading charity efforts both now and in the future.

“A desert dune moves so slowly that it is almost impossible to detect at first. It moves by the windborne propulsion of a billion individual particles of sand, separately and one by one flying from the windward to the leeward. No individual particle makes a discernable difference. Yet the movement of the whole can bury pyramids. On the internet each of us is no more than a single piece of grit. But when we move together, great change is possible.”

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Enterprise in the UK, Entrepreneurship, Ethnic minority enterprise, Global, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Innovation, Passions into profit, Web/Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.