While few of the concepts at the 2.0 nonprofit conference were hardly new to me (Use twitter! uh, ok.); it was good to see where other nonprofits were and what the nonprofit leaders in the space were doing, and what the lessons they had learned were.
Again, trying not to sound snooty here, but the lessons weren't very "new" either, but the way they phrased them were -- instead of speaking about crowdsourcing, peer-production and open source/sharing, the presenters framed the same general concepts in communications and strategy language like message control (it's dead), reader-focused theories of change, stakeholders/champions, voice and vision, and so on. This gives me more relevant vocabulary to use to champion the full-sharing concepts when I speak with nonprofits.
Read on for my run-down and links to even more event notes!
The first day was 100% Google.org
Google sees its mission as organizing the world's information and making it accessible and useful, and considered nonprofits as an important part of that goal; as we're historically the bridges from "expert" level research to mobilizing the public around issues using more approachable and actionable language. So as part of that, they make all their enterprise-level tools available for free to nonprofits, as well as provide free advertising in the form of the adwords grants. Unfortunately, most of the sessions were pretty introductory, but there were some great gems and proofs-of-concepts.
"Cloud Computing"
Google is promoting "Cloud computing"; which is outsourcing what's historically been office-centric technology -- email, documents, etc. to a large firm (google) who's core competency is building these tools. This makes lots of sense to me, and it's something I want to start moving towards (I already moved my personal domain, JonCamfield.com, to); at least for email. Why spend $4k every few years on a new email server, money each month for spam filtering, and spend untold numbers of hours on maintaining it when we could get a better, simpler system for free using gmail as the "back end" ? They have shared calendaring, contact lists, etc. etc. Idealist.org is one of many large organizations that is now totally committed to GoogleApps for their office.
YouTube for NonProfits
They've added an analytics tool to see who's watching your videos, and appear to be trying to really jumpstart nonprofits as content providers -- they've even lifted the time/size limit for nonprofit uploads!
Google Grants
This was mostly "use google grants!" but there were a few key tools; there's a poorly-linked-to "keyword tool" that helps you determine the popularity (and, thus, value) of search terms you're considering "buying". They then gave a few ad tips for making the most out of AdWords:
- Use the keyword in the ad title text (to capture the user's eyeball, since that's what they're looking for and just searched for)
- Second line (first of "text") should be clear short engaging description of what you'll go to
- *Third line is call to action
- 4th is the link
Google Apps
- Google Sites could be a great way to engage constituency or as an intranet with easy webpage/section setup by users
- Google Presentations can now effectively be a powerpoint-broadcast with live text chat; combine with a conference call number and it's a free webconference!
- Google Docs/Spreadsheets are really well set up for collaboration
- Google Spreadsheets can now create live widget-izable charts based on spreadsheet data!! (Another reason to use GoogleApps more!)
The second day was a lot more theory/what you can and should be doing with Social Media
Holly Ross of NTEN began the day
Her plenary reinforced the change in information and the role that nonprofits have played as librarians/translators, and how that must change to more of a facilitative role now. NPOs are now a bottleneck between their stakeholders and the information they're looking for; and NPOs need to find more and easier ways to provide this information and enable the users to then spread the message to their own networks. People don't need as much "basic information" like best practices and tip sheets -- your website is not a destination for that information anymore, google is. Your role is to be a better information broker/conduit.
Holly then laid out a compelling web strategy:
- Does your website help you LISTEN?
- Does it start conversations?
- Does it let users share?
- Does everything fit together (branding/interlinked, as well as technically)
""Do not treat web 2.0 like web 1.0 ; email is not a conversation, static webpage is talking at them; socmedia means talking with, not just sending out messages -- it's about conversation and sharing; turn strategy over to stakeholders"
She strongly encouraged the use of blogs by people at the organization talking transparently and honestly about the organization, as proving grounds, places to hone the message based on comment feedback and finding a valid and specific voice. She further encouraged people to blog/twitter completely separately from the organization, but as professionals, as a way to add a human connection/dimension and more places for stakeholders to comfortably interact.
Tucker McLean presented on SalesForce, which provides 10 free user-licenses to nonprofits. SalesForce is also integrated with GoogleApps, and can be used in a variety of interesting and flexible ways. We might even look at it to see if it can be re-aligned to be a GMS. Red Cross used it to track volunteers and partners in their response to Katrina, and the Center for Employment Opportunities uses it as a case management tool. SF has a 1/1/1 "strategy" for their CSR; 1% of time, 1% of product and 1% of equity goes to nonprofit causes, in 2007 alone SF employees did 77,000 hours of service in the form of consulting, CrossCultural Solutions service trips in Peru, and Habitat for Humanity work.
Social Media and Messaging was a topic I ducked into after the SalesForce talk; the big takeaway was "message control is dead" -- stakeholders are champions, not servants, and if they have a personal stake in your org's success, they will spread the message for you -- the message might vary, but it will be more powerful because of the network/personal connection.
MoveOn gave a talk on their view on email marketing/communication, focusing on two strategies, the moment and the movement:
Moment emails consist of three parts:
- crisitunity; crisis==opportunity; hooks for message/action
- rftc reader focused theory of change ; call to action with an acheivable goal that engages user
- ask: actual action that leads the rftc; show your support/raise your voice is not an ask; not a direct action; donate or write or etc. for a specific cause/event
- 3 parts; crisis/opportunity, enable/show community / ask : 2-3pargraphs before the link, goals and timeframes can help if don't make too long
- strength test: make sure top text is strong; add strengtheners under the fold to bolster any weak spots; credibility, show reasons why
Movement focused emails look at the bigger picture. For example, MoveOn lost 400 battles in a row, but the progressive movement it champions was still positioned as a "winner". The "big picture" is only needed in new programs or refocusing; not in every email. It contains text on what's "really" going on, emphasizing the power of the community; who "we" are; identifying the org as well as other community members with text/quotes/stories/photos/videos, and a vision/goal statement.
Ami Dar of idealist presented at lunch; mainly as an advertisement/vision piece for where Idealist is going, idealist is trying to be the main platform/tool/site for global civil society networking (competinig with Change.org in features). Interesting note on the branding problem for all nonprofits; Coke spends $3M/day to maintain their brand, despite it's almost 100% global brand recognition.
Social Media Panel had Michael Silberman from EchoDitto (and the Dean campaign), Randall Winston (Causes/Facebook) and Eliza Byard, GLSEN
More focus on the importance of letting go and empowering the users -- case in point; UNICEF had been uninsterested and even against engaging Facebook causes, until a 14 year old in Washington decided to create a Cause to donate to UNICEF; she built the group to 100,000 people and UNICEF started paying attention when they goy a check for $10k; but it was entirely user-driven with no management/communication oversight from UNICEF.
That being said, ongoing work in social media requires a staff commitment, both from current staff and from a dedicated "online community organizer"
The end-of-the-day closing comment was
"pick one thing and lose control of it"
Even More notes:
My full notes are at http://joncamfield.com/wiki4dev/index.php/2.0_NonProfits
ForumOne folks blogged more extensively about the conference
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