SiftGroups - Insider - October 2009

Welcome to SiftGroups Insider

Once again the promise of some bacon and strong coffee (or perhaps the opportunity to hear from a line-up of excellent speakers) enticed a great turnout to our latest breakfast seminar.

This time the discussion was centred around helping Not-for-Profit organisations emerge from the recession in a strong position by taking maximum advantage from their social media activities.

We welcomed back Lawrence Clarke from his brief absence. His insights into the benefits that organisations can take from online communities were tempered with the stark warning that if NfPs and member bodies don’t offer more value, their members will stop paying their subs and go elsewhere to associate and socialise. Of course, careful management and nurture of communities can head this particular risk off at the pass.

James Skinner
COO, SiftGroups

SiftGroups News

Look out for details on our next event, The Twitter Masterclass will provide expert advice on how internet phenomenon Twitter can benefit organisations and not-for-profits.

Led by Dan Martin, editor of BusinessZone.co.uk and recently named the 10th most influential political blogger on Twitter by The Independent, the session will use real and practical examples from the commercial and not-for-profit world to illustrate how the site can boost membership, drive up revenues and raise awareness of charitable causes.

Also included will be a live case study from a not-for-profit which has achieved huge success using the network.

If you are interested in this event or would like to find out more about SiftGroups, please call Polly Holbrook at pholbrook@siftgroups.com / 0117 915 9600.

Watch this space for further news on the event that we are planning to hold will be in conjunction with The National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and other SiftGroups events.

VSO - a community for volunteers

Facts

As an international federation of member organisations contributing their resources to a shared development programme, VSO has worked for more than 50 years to address poverty and disadvantage in developing countries. VSO’s approach involves bringing people together to share skills, build capabilities and promote international understanding and action.

Challenges

Timetabled to coincide with its 50th Anniversary, VSO wanted to embrace the potential benefits of adopting a social networking platform to enable its members to engage and share with each other without the constraints of physical boundaries. Alongside an immediate need to provide English-language resource, any technology platform would need to scale to support overseas VSO offices in maintaining a web presence. As with any social network, delivering maximum benefits and ROI would depend heavily on not just developing a sound technical solution, but also on nurturing and sustaining the community.

Any volunteers? How to reduce costs and increase activity

By Lawrence Clarke

All online communities cost. There is a cost to specify and build or configure an existing application, the cost of hosting and the cost of ongoing maintenance. These are tangible costs, often fixed, that those responsible for budgeting across the organisation understand and for which there are precedents. But as discussed under What is an online community? pricing the technology does not provide the true cost of an online community. The real cost is on-going human facilitation, moderation,...

Read more and comment on this blog post.

Recession is a good cure for complacency

By Lawrence Clarke

On the outside it’s surprising how many businesses rely on the continuing buying habits of their customers when times are hard. For many the assumption is that inertia will prevail despite the economic gloom. On the inside it’s understandable. After all many business models are based on our inertia – our reticence to change. The one inertia selling model that breaches the Distance Selling Regulations is the demand for payment for goods or services supplied when you haven...

Read more and comment on this blog post.

Some more gems from our community management experts

Work with the rule of participation inequality

Ninety percent of your audience will consume but never contribute, 9% will on occasion add their thoughts to another’s content and 1% are your advocates - passionate and informed enough to share and contribute on a regular basis.

Read four more tips

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