If you were not able to make NTC this year or attend all the great sessions you wanted to cram in, check out more key take-aways from nonprofit campaigners below.
Design Matters! This theme came through in the traditional sense in Seth Giammanco's Ignite Session, but it also struck me in the way design impacts advocacy in the session Bringing Community Organizing Into Online Social Media Campaigns with Amy Sample Ward (@amyrsward), Ivan Boothe (@rootwork), and Debra Askanese (@askdebra). Their session broke out in the second half into groups discussing specific cases from the participants’ experience. The case studies and overview of community organizing they presented made the point that online campaigns are more likely to succeed when they incorporate basic principles of community organizing - movement building, strategy, community accountability, meeting people where they are, and leadership development. It was a great lesson in campaign design, but it also reiterates the reality that social media conversations call for the same kinds of engagement we would bring to conversations we have in person. In this way at least, the new medium isn't radically different at all.
This similarity was reaffirmed again in another session, Building Stronger Online Communities Without Losing Your Sanity from Manny Hernandez (@askmanny), Peggy Duvette, Christine Egger (@CDEgger), and again Amy Sample Ward. They made the point that there is no autopilot. You can't automate community building, it has to be personal and the success of your efforts is built on hundreds or thousands of little positive engagements with community members.
And Mark Rovner's (of Sea Change Strategy) session on using humor in campaigns was an NTC high point. What a blast to be in a session that reinforced the power that a sense of humor can bring to your communications. We love it when we have an opportunity to run funny campaigns, and this highlighted some of the many ways organizations have tried using humor to inject some personality into their communications. We laughed, we winced, we drank a little beer--and walked away excited to cook up the next high-performing funny campaign.
Mark Horvath's presentation on Invisible People demonstrated how smart use of social media -- combined with compelling storytelling and town-by-town community organizing -- can build a movement for long-term social change. Beyond raising awareness or dollars alone, Mark uses social media to make visible and amplify the voices of the homeless that are too often left unheard. Mark also reminded those of us in the nonprofit tech community to share -- our stories, strategies and successes -- because those working on the same issue are not competitors, but allies.
David Kobia's presentation on Ushahidi reminded me that social media isn't just about Twitter and Facebook, but that mobile phones alone can have a powerful impact in stopping violence and bringing medical aid in places around the world. Indeed, just this week, Ushahidi's platform is powering the Sudan Vote Monitor, aiming to make elections in that country more transparent and democratic.
You just don’t see this type of panel topic at a technology conference. But, as you can see from the session topic examples I gave earlier, the Nonprofit Technology Conference, isn’t all about technology anymore. Social media has changed the face of communications and the technology piece of it often is the means for communications and outreach. So, if social media has turned this conference into one that has a strong focus on communications and community building, well, then topics of diversity should be discussed and discussed more!
Diversity really affects all aspects of a business or organization – not only its internal workings and the quality of its outputs, but also how successful it is at reaching its goals, targets, and serving its stakeholders.
The session on how to do better webinars provided a list of tips for running a smoother webinar include pausing every 10 minutes or so to recap what the last chunk was, and announcing what the next chunk will be, with a slide that says so in writing. Seems obvious, but I never did that.
Tim Walker and Michael Silberman from EchoDitto have a piece up that's a few weeks old, called 'Web Thinking' and you can read it here. I'm not sure any of it is brand spanking new or original, but the manifesto style writing and discussion that follow got me all excited. It's a nice framework for understanding where our work is headed, as online organizing professionals.
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