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!
