No content? No reason to talk.

Last week at OSU, I spoke to a group of informed students in a class on community partnerships.  Their charge was to work on a non-profit writing project like a grant, press release, blog, newsletter, appeal or brochure.  I envied them that they had 10 weeks to do one of those things when I’m working on a mixture of all of them usually all at once in a given week.

My invitation was to discuss social media channels.   Since all of them were on Facebook or My Space (not so many on Twitter - proving that its really still an echo chamber channel for PR flacks, techies and media), and they understood the basic premise to sites like You Tube and Flickr, I didn’t have to start from the ground floor.   Our conversation quickly propelled into - so, what do you do with these sites to promote your respective non-profits?

I used a pretty good example I found from Best Friends Animal Sanctuary.  I haven’t been totally struck by any local non-profits use of all the media, but I’m working on changing that.    Best Friends had integrated the social media channels but with the proper an anchor to its web site.  This may seem intuitive, right? Not so.  If a web site doesn’t have a blogging function, allowing it to be frequently updated, then social media simply won’t work.  A static brochure-site will be as flexible as my aging hamstrings and unwilling to link, feature different types of media, and allow for quick updates.

My message was to make sure you were linking back to the grand central station of content, your web site or blog.  As an organization,  if you don’t have something new or resourceful to say to promote your mission, brand or message through the social media channels, then stay quiet until you do.   Otherwise, mindless chatter, particularly on Twitter, will make people glaze over like a billboard that’s been up way too long.