by Jayne Cravens
via coyotecommunications.com & coyoteboard.com (same web site)
Are you a techno-hypocrite? Is your organization promoting online tools that your staff doesn't use themselves?
Mission-based organizations - nonprofits, government agencies, schools, etc. - launch all sorts of online activities and services for remote staff and volunteers, for clients, and/or for the general public. For instance, they may have online discussion groups, an intranet where staff and volunteers can share profiles about themselves and updates about their work with each other, an online service that is promoted as central to the organization's mission and identity, or an app that somehow reflects the goals of their initiative.
They also post lots of information, even launch specific campaigns, on social media - on Facebook, on Instagram, on Tik Tok, on YouTube, etc.
But is your staff showing leadership in using these online tools
themselves? Are they "Walking the Talk" regarding your
organization's online activities? Are they "liking" and sharing
your social media posts with their own networks? Are they
commenting on them? Because if they aren't doing at least some of
those things, it's hurting your number of views and greatly
limiting your online reach. If your board members, staff and
volunteers would at least "like" your social media posts, it could
give you greater reach online than buying ads.
Also, if staff at your headquarters aren't using your intranet, why should your field staff? If staff members aren't checking in regularly to your public online services, how can they promote it to potential funders and to others? If senior staff aren't using an app, why should mid-level staff? If they haven't shared a post your organization made on Facebook, why should anyone else?
For those who use the Net to teach students in remote locations: are the online profiles of your staff, teachers and tutors all up-to-date, for easy access by the students? If your staff and instructors aren't using your online services, why should your students?
One of my favorite under-utilized tools at most organizations is their intranet, that collaborative space that's private, that's only for staff and volunteers, where collaboration and information-sharing is supposed to happen. If your organization is to use an intranet successfully, regularly sharing information, regularly updating it, regularly relying on it, etc., all staff must embrace it. From the person who answers your phone to your executive director, everyone at your organization should have FIRST HAND experience using such, and this use should be tracked and evaluated regularly. Their pictures and profiles should be updated regularly. The latest and most important information from individual offices should be posted on the intranet. If this is not the case, you need to do a better job emphasizing to staff that this is a REQUIREMENT, not an option. You may even want to tie use of these online forums to individual staff performance evaluations. A good way to compel staff to use the Internet: don't email a person the information he or she is looking for, but, rather, send them the link to such on the Intranet.Let's look at online discussion groups next: if your organization has an online discussion group, ALL staff should be logging in at least monthly and appropriate staff should be regularly responding to posts. There are ways to track online use via computer, but a better way might be asking staff members regularly what has been most interesting to them on the online forums lately; if they can't answer, they aren't looking.
Let's look at social media: have all employees, consultants and
volunteers been invited to "like" your organization's Facebook
page? Are they regularly encouraged (but never required) to at
least "like" your organization's social media messages and even to
share such? Is your senior staff and board members taking
leadership roles online, "liking" most, if not all, of your
organization's status updates, and even commenting occasionally?
At your next board meeting, ask everyone to pull out their
phones, log on to Facebook (if they have such) and to find your
organization. Ask them to "like" the organization, if they haven't
already. Ask them to scroll through some of the posts and to
"like" some. Ask them to pick one to share with their network
right then and there. Then have them log into Instagram, to find
your organization, and to "heart" some of the posts. Do all of
this at your next volunteer meeting as well.
At your next event, ask folks to do the same.
Some employees, volunteers and clients may say they don't want to
"like" or share work-related posts - and that is FINE. That is
absolutely their choice. But for your board not to do it and for
staff that promotes these tools to not do it - that's NOT
reasonable. Why should people do it if they don't?
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