Krywosa, IMC

Remember: when pitching new media usage to your management team that they have no clue what you are talking about. All they know are the negative issues they’ll have to deal with in trying to keep a hold of the reigns. After you walk them through the actual technology, you can then remind them about the importance of transparency. It not only helps you build great credibility, it also allows you to combat those negative comments. The ones you’d never have known if you didn’t implement the two-way channel.

I just tried to do a search for college access blogs through Google and found a few – much to my happy surprise! But, I was quickly denied any further gratification by realizing that none of them had (working) RSS feeds! A few had feeds, but those didn’t work, but the majority had none at all. If college access practitioners want to spread the word about the work that they are doing – very helpful to those trying to recreate this work from scratch – then adding RSS is a must. Without it, you rely on your audience to be engaged enough to run back and check for updates.

Do them a favor and offer working RSS feeds! They’ll love you for it.

I was recently reading Dr. R Craig Lefebvre’s blog post on social networks or mobile usage in health communication campaigns. And I couldn’t agree more with the major assessments.

In working with non-profits its hard to see past the fact that the audience you are serving is poor or maybe even negatively affected by the ‘digital divide’. But I’m skeptical that this divide even truly exists anymore. What the barrier is now,  is what speed are they accessing content at – something that you need to be excruciatingly aware of in developing interactive content.

Many non-profits or community based campaigns may be able to raise funds for television, radio or print ads that feed into a web presence. But, if this web presence requires the use of flash players for content or other media rich content they may be a big fat waste of time.

Further, what good is media unless it has a purpose? Social media and mobile media can serve a purpose where general mainstream media may only serve to build awareness of an issue or of a free service. Beyond that, these venues are also a waste of money, time and usually the big fight it takes to pull them all together in a organization that fears bad press, transparency or change.

Social media, on the other hand allows for ownership of the campaign beyond what an organization can sustain. It provides a space for ideas, support and information sharing.

Mobile media provide updates for pertinent events and deadlines that may hinder your target from taking the actions that you would like them to for their own benefit. They also allow instant access to the social media platforms that you are creating for their use.

No matter what, groups targeting the hard to reach need to create something that will better the lives of their target – not push messages to them. People are already overly inundated as it is and can pick and choose more easily than ever which messages to turn off, avoid or dismiss. By providing content and platforms that integrate seamlessly into their already over-saturated media lives would serve any purpose – profit or not – best.

I’m getting used to fighting the idea that the Marketing Department at my non-profit organization is more than just freebies (see title). I know people are not used to having a MD here, so confusion is bound to run rampant. Its OK though, I know its my job to educate. With patience.

Also, I’m finding a lot of non-profits don’t seem to understand that tactics need a strategy. Its nice to have your logo on a t-shirt, but whats the ultimate response? Web traffic? Phone calls? An influx of clients?

Further, in social marketing – or basically, the marketing of non-profits – your mission should be more than traffic. What does traffic ultimately prove beyond awareness of your service? It doesnt prove that more students are going to college and graduating. It doesn’t prove that more people are donating to saving the whales. It doesn’t prove that more people are basing their political votes on their awareness of Darfur.

These things need to be made priority, not an afterthought.