Tag Archives: communication

Why I won’t follow you on Twitter

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A few organizations and individuals have told me they aren’t happy that I don’t follow them on Twitter and Facebook and Google+, and, in addition, that I don’t also subscribe to their email newsletters and subscribe to their blogs.

Here’s the deal: you have to earn my follow on Twitter.

I follow you on Twitter if most of your posts are:

  • conversation starters
  • provocative (make me think)
  • elicit feedback
  • directly, immediately relate to my work

If, by contrast, I really like your organization, but your tweets are mostly positive, benign PR pieces like

  • “We have a new catalog”
  • “Our volunteers are hugable”
  • “Our Executive Director is at such-and-such conference”
  • “Our shop hours are changing for winter”

I’m probably going to follow you on Facebook rather than Twitter (if at all).

In addition, if you post to Facebook and you gateway those posts to Twitter, I’m probably going to just follow you on Facebook as well, and not at all on Twitter, because it’s doubtful your message is something I need to read ASAP, and it’s probably too long for Twitter anyway (I really hate truncated Tweats that end with a link to a Facebook status).

I check Twitter at least twice a day. To me, it’s a place for information exchange and debate, and for breaking news, for you need to look at this NOW messages. I’ve noticed that organizations, institutions and consultants that use Twitter with this in mind aren’t surprised when they get comments or questions via Twitter – they even seem to delight at such. By contrast, organizations that use it primarily as an announcement tool get immediately defensive when someone tries to engage them on Twitter – and it’s why I prefer to follow those organizations on Facebook.

Same if most of your posts are “I’m at the airport” or “I’m at such-and-such conference.” It’s nice to know that, but it’s not that much of a priority, so I’ll follow you on Facebook instead.

I check my professional account on Facebook about once a day. I scroll through the updates to get a general idea of what organizations are up to. Not much in term of exchanges or debates are going on over on Facebook among the organizations and institutions I follow – it’s more of a “hey, look how fabulous we are” or “hey, we need money!” place. That’s a shame – it could be so much more – but that’s how it’s shaking down among the organizations I follow on Facebook (and GooglePlus, for that matter). So I pour myself a second cup of coffee and slog through your Facebook status updates, rarely finding anything that makes me go “Wow.” Exceptions? There are a few – and I’ll highlight those on next week’s blogs.

And I may choose to read your email newsletter instead of following you on Facebook or Google Plus or Twitter. Don’t be hurt. I like email newsletters. I like that long moment of single focus and well-written narrative that gives me a more detailed picture about your work than any Tweet or Facebook status update could allow. I do my best to make time to read all that I subscribe to. And as I still have more subscribers for my own email newsletter, Tech4Impact than Twitter or Facebook followers, I appreciate the value of email newsletters.

So, how should you follow me online?

  • Follow me on Twitter if you want lots of short updates from me regarding nonprofits / NGOs, volunteers / volunteering, humanitarian / development / aid, communications, tech4good, and empowering women & girls (updates regarding national and state parks, and tourism as a development tool, are also showing up as well). Or if you want to engage, today, right now, about any of those topics, in a very public way.
  • Follow me on  Facebook or Google+ if you want just 1-3 short updates from me a day, mostly only about what I’m doing: a new web page, a new blog, a conference where I’ll be speaking, etc. And, FYI, there’s nothing I post at Facebook or Google+ that I don’t also post on Twitter; I repeat probably only 25% of what I post to Twitter on Facebook and Google+. And, yes, I post exactly the same things to Facebook and Google+ – I’ve yet to see any reason to use them differently.
  • Subscribe to my email newsletter if you want to hear from me just once a month, or you want a once-a-month tech tip, in detail, especially for nonprofits, then subscribe to Tech4Impact. You will also get a list of all the blogs I’ve published in the last four weeks or so. I get the impression that each of my email subscribers also follow me on Facebook OR Google+ OR Twitter, but not all three.

That’s not how everyone uses social networking. But that’s how I’ve decided to use it. And it could change. In fact, it’s guaranteed that it WILL change, as social media changes.

I would never expect anyone to follow me on on Twitter and Facebook and Google+, and to subscribe to my email newsletter. Unless you were some freaky stalker. Please don’t be a freaky stalker. You probably don’t need to hear about a web page I’ve just updated four times in one morning.

What about LinkedIn? Those connections are for my professional colleagues, PERIOD. Keeping it as a professional networking space has what kept it so valuable to me.

Also see:

 

Who IS that person in charge of your social media?

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There is a large international organization I follow on Facebook and Twitter, and I’m sorry to say that its been making major missteps via these social media tools.

In the last four weeks, whomever is in charge of social media at this organization has posted a message that, in my opinion, was completely inappropriate and put the organization in a very bad light, as well as repeatedly posting inaccurate information relating to the mission of this organization and not responding to most online questions and criticisms. But no one seems to be noticing at the organization – the mistakes keep happening, and when I made inquiries to two people who work for the organization, they had no idea what was going on online (in fact, they weren’t sure who was in charge of social media activities). 

It’s painfully obvious that there is no strategy regarding this organization’s use of social media. Perhaps the job has been handed over to an intern or two – after all, if you are in your 20s, you are just automatically an online social media expert, right? It’s also obvious that no one in senior management is following the accounts regularly – because if they were, these very public missteps wouldn’t have gone on this long.

It brings to mind a long, long time ago, way back in the 1990, when a lot of marketing directors at nonprofit organizations handed over web site development and management to the person in charge of IT – the person who kept the computers running. These marketing managers saw the Web as technology, rather than as outreach. Web sites for these organizations often were packed with flashy web features, but light on information, and answers to basic questions that someone goes to a web site for – where the organization is located, the nearest free parking, the nearest mass transit stop, hours of operation, upcoming event information, how to volunteer, etc. – were oh-so-hard to find. Many marketing directors were oblivious to the web site’s shortcomings – they never looked at the site beyond a unveiling of such (at which pizza and soda was served in the break room and a good time had by all).

Back in 90s, I worked at an organization where I was the internal communications manager – but ended up in charge of all Internet outreach. The marketing director (to whom I did not report) thought the Internet was a fad and said he wasn’t interested in it, so I was in charge of building the organization’s web site, and in undertaking all online outreach via email and online discussion groups. He never had any idea what I was doing, and was never interested in sitting down and learning. After several months, he realized his mistake, as what was happening online was being talked about by people and organizations we were trying tor reach much more than our print materials.

I said it back in the 1990s, I’ll say it again now: everyone has a role in an organization’s outreach, online and offline. The receptionist needs to see the organization’s main brochure before it goes to print, or the web site before it’s launched – she or he knows the primary reasons why people call the organization, and she or he can make sure these publications include this information. The people that deliver the organization’s programs or interact most with the public, as well as senior managers, including the head of marketing, need to follow the organization’s social media profiles, and their feedback about such needs to be listened to. Everyone at the organization needs to have copies of print publications and, if they have a comment about the usability of an online tool or how the public is responding to the organization online, senior management needs to listen to them.

Just as importantly, your organization needs a fully integrated social media strategy, a plan that puts a reason behind every Facebook status update and every Tweet, one that answers the questions What are we going to accomplish today with our social media use? What are we going to accomplish this week with our social media use? Three months from now, how are we going to measure social media success? Does the head of marketing have a written outreach plan, and are online tools fully-integrated into such – not just mentioned? Does the head of programming have a fully-integrated plan for using online tools, including social media, in his or her written strategy for the coming year?

And, finally, make sure whomever is posting those messages to Facebook or Twitter or GooglePlus or whatever on your organization’s behalf is fully supervised. That person needs to be sitting in on every marketing meeting and every public event. That person needs to be presenting a briefing on what’s happened in the last week – and not just number of tweets, number of Facebook status updates, number of “likes”, number of “friends”, etc., because numbers really mean nothing. And senior management needs to be following what this person is doing online in real time.

Delegating social media tasks doesn’t mean senior management stops participating online. Too many nonprofit organizations, international aid agencies and other mission-based organizations forget that.

No excuses for not having the word “volunteer” on your home page!

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graphic by Jayne Cravens representing volunteersKudos to the Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana for having the words volunteer and volunteers on the home page of its web site, thereby showing immedately the value of volunteers in their efforts. The vast majority of programming that Girl Scouts receive in the USA is delivered by volunteers — unpaid staff — rather than paid staff from a council office or the national office, and Girl Scouts of Kentuckiana shows that it not only recognizes this, but that it welcomes volunteers – by putting those words permanently on its home page.

I wonder why so many Girl Scout council offices do not have those words on their web site. You might find those words on a pull down menu – maybe. But often on these and other web sites for nonprofit organizations or non-governmental organizations (NGOs), I do not see, immediately, that new volunteers are welcomed – and I would see that if it was obvious from glancing at the web site for just a few seconds how someone could get started as a volunteer.

Here is much more advice on the REQUIRED volunteer information on your web site. If your organization or department involves volunteers, or wants to, there are certain things your organization or department must have on its web site – no excuses! To not have this information says that your organization or department takes volunteers for granted, does not value volunteers beyond money saved in salaries, or is not really ready to involve volunteers.

The Unofficial Web site re: your organization/program

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The Internet took away much of the control regarding information – what’s available and who controls it – that organizations and individuals had enjoyed previously. One of the results of this anyone-can-share-information platform is that there are many unofficial web sites for nonprofits, government agencies, NGOs and other mission-based organizations.

Look up a specific USA national park or state park on Google, for instance: you will receive a long list of web sites that offer information about that park’s features, accommodations, programs and more – but which is the *official* web site? It can be hard to find it amid the unoffical ones. And consider this: is the official web site as good as some of the unofficial ones?

You can go to the Peace Corps web site (which is excellent) and learn how to be a volunteer. You can also go to several unofficial web sites for advice, like Peace Corps Online, the “Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteer,” or this one by contributors to the Unofficial Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook. Why do these unofficial web sites exist? What information do they provide that the official web site doesn’t? How does the Peace Corps feel about them? You might be surprised at the answer to that last question!

 

Unofficial web sites for nonprofits, government agencies and NGOs pop up for a variety or reasons. Some of these unofficial web sites are nothing but online ad farms; the goal is to use the well-known name of the nonprofit to get people to visit the web page and then click on advertising, for which the web site creator gets money (sometimes as little as a penny per click). But some unofficial sites are set up because someone feels passionately about a subject and feels the official web site does not provide all the information that is needed. Often, these people wrote the organization and suggested this or that change/addition be made. Maybe they got the standard, insincere Thank you for your email. Your suggestion will be taken into consideration. blah blah blah. Maybe they got no response at all. And months later, when nothing changes on the web site, they decide – hey, I’m going to do this myself!

Unofficial web sites may provide important information regarding your organization that isn’t available on your official web site. They may provide better information that what’s on your web site. In either case, they can be drawing traffic away from your official web site – or, in fact, they can be generating more traffic to your official web site and programs.

What should you do if you discover there’s an unofficial web site about your organization, a specific program at your organization, about volunteering with your organization, etc.?

  1. Determine why the site exists. Is this an ad farm, or is this an individual who cares deeply about your organization and wants to help people connect with it? Which it is will determine how best to approach those behind the site – if at all.
  2. If you cannot find a “contact us” link on the unofficial web site about your organization, go to the WhoIs database and see who owns the site; you will be able to find email addresses there for the site administrator/owner (as well as a postal mailing address).
  3. If the site is merely a verbatim repeat of what you already have on your web site, offering no different or additional information, write the site administrators and request they take the information down. Remember: for whatever you write, YOU own the copyright, and you have the right to demand your copyrighted information be removed. Welcome the administrator to link to your site, as an alternative, but make it clear that over-quoting is copyright violation.
  4. If the site implies that it is somehow officially-affiliated with your organization, write the site administrators and tell them this will need to change. Offer a sentence or two that you would like on the site that will clearly disclaim any official ties between the site and your organization. If no change is made and the site continues to portray itself as someone officially-affiliated, have your legal council write a letter.
  5. If the site provides inaccurate information, contact the organization and say so! Be specific!
  6. Is the site in response to a lack of information on your web site? If so, remedy the situation! You can ask the site administrator for permission to use his or her material on your site, offering him or her a thank you for that permission, or, you can create your own information that you believe fills in the gap on your own web site. Whether or not you remedy the situation will be determined by the Internet community; if they like your new information, they will replace links to the other web site to your own. If they don’t, expect that unofficial web site to remain high in Google searches.
  7. Does the site address subjects that your organization is not allowed to, because of legal/liability issues, or because it’s not directly related to your organization’s mission? As long as there is no violation of confidentiality policies, nor violation of the law, you may need to stay hands off. But not being able to include such information on your own web site doesn’t mean you can’t have a partnership with that official site. For instance, this unofficial web site for Peace Corps members, Peace Corps Online, is referred to by the Peace Corps official web site. And you will note unofficial volunteering web sites listed at the end of this blog that, I suspect, the parent organization or government agency is quite happy about.
  8. Is a thank you in order? Be honest: does the web page or web site drive people TO your web site? Is it well-written? Is it factually-correct? Does it address subjects that your organization is never going to do, for whatever reason? If your answer is yes to any of these, you need to write the administrators and thank them for the page or site, however much it hurts to have some of your information control taken away from you. It’s up to your organization to decide if this web site information needs to be incorporated into your official site, or if it’s actually a good thing that it’s outside the official fold. Either way, create a good relationship with the person or people behind this site. You might even be able to bring them into the fold as a volunteer!
  9. Educate staff and volunteers about this unofficial web site. Is it appropriate for them to refer people to these unofficial pages, for instance?

With all that said, I should note that there are two organizations I have created unofficial web pages for.

One is a for-profit organization that has an online questions-and-answers forum. The same questions about volunteering and community service get asked again and again. So I created unofficial pages that answer these FAQs. I have Google ads on the site that have generated enough revenue to pay for all of my web site expenses (which in this economy, was something I very much needed!). People, especially young people, that use the forum are getting their questions about volunteering answered more thoroughly than ever before as well. I still can’t believe this for-profit company didn’t think of doing it themselves.

The other is for a nonprofit organization. My page is regarding my favorite program that this nonprofit undertakes. IMO, the organization does a lousy job of helping its target audience access that program. Six months ago, I created an unofficial page to help people access that program – and it now ranks second in a Google Search on the program topic.

On a related note, see

Social media: cutting both ways since the 1990s

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Social media — those avenues to send instant, short, widely-distributed messages and images — cuts both ways:

  • It can be used to organize protesters, but it can also be used to identify protesters and arrest them.
  • It can be used to spread information, but it can also be used to spread MISinformation.
  • You can use it to promote your organization and cause, and others can use it to tear down your organization.

And it’s been used to organize protests since the 1990s – so can we stop now with how “new” it all is?

Back in 2001, while working for UNDP/UNV, I researched how handheld computer technologies were being used, or could be used, in community service / volunteering / advocacy. It wasn’t called “social media” or “micro volunteering” back then, but even without the snazzy jargon, I knew something very exciting was going on, something that was changing the way communities are engaged and mobilized. Among the discoveries in my research was that grassroots advocates had used handheld computer or phone devices to help organize and direct protesters during the 1999 Seattle demonstrations against the World Trade Organization, and that in 2001, protesters in the Philippines used cell-phone text messaging to mobilize demonstrators to help oust President Joseph Estrada. In addition, in China, also in 2001, tens of thousands of followers of the spiritual group Falun Gong continued to exist-despite a harsh crackdown-in a vibrant community fed by the Web and encrypted text messaging. I created a web page just on the subject of using text messaging for advocacy – but I was not the first to do so, as you will see on the page.

I also noted in that page that hand held technology can lead to widespread misinformation as well: “Musician and U.S.A. Green Party activist Jello Biafra noted in an article on Zdnet.Uk: ‘Be careful of the information gossip you get on the Internet, too. For example, late in 1997 I discovered out on the Internet that I was dead.'”

We’re not hearing enough about how effective Web 2.0 tools are in promoting misinformation and negative speech. For instance, micro-blogs, tweets, texts and other technology spread misinformation about and within Haiti, as well as other disaster zones (it will be interesting to see what misinformation gets spread in Japan). During the swine flu panic in the USA a while back, we saw Twitter’s power to misinform, and rumors still affect polio eradication campaigns. So-called “new” media has helped spread misinformation to derail government health initiatives here in the USA rapidly and efficiently.

It’s not just the misinformation that’s a problem in trying to use social media to mobilize community activists and educate the public: in an interview with Radio Free Europe, Evgeny Morozov, author of The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom, noted that internal security agencies welcome the use of new- and social-media tools. “The reason why the KGB wants you to join Facebook is because it allows them to learn more about you from afar,” he said. “It allows them to identify certain social graphs and social connections between activists. Many of these relationships are now self-disclosed by activists by joining various groups.” Al Jazeera profiled cases in Azerbaijan, Tunisia and Moroccans where the government or those opposed to any change in government were, indeed, using Facebook accounts to anticipate protests and easily monitor and arrest protesters.

And then there’s social media, like YouTube and blogs, being used by GOTCHA media advocates, as I blogged about yesterday: there could be just one person in your community with a video camera and a dream of humiliating your organization right out of existence, and social media makes that easier than ever to do.

Don’t roll out the comments saying I’m anti-social media. Don’t start pulling your hair and gnashing your teeth, chanting, “Jayne hates Web 2.0!” I love the Interwebs. But it’s long-overdue for a reality check on all these “Twitter revolutions.” Yes, there are lessons to be learned – but we’re not focusing on the right lessons. Back in 2001, the Ruckus Society featured Longwire’s Communications Manual for Activists on its web site, and included tips for using various hand held devices and avenues-two-way radios, CB radios, cell phones, pagers, satellite communications and more in community organizing. Those lessons from a decade ago could teach current activists a lot about using social media tools effectively.