I have been thinking about the way organizations can use the internet to spread their stories and get people to help with their missions. I have been recording my thoughts for the past several months and figured that it was about time to share them with you.
Participation and Online Communities
Organizations need to give the people that visit their website ways to participate and communicate with each other. This can be done through forums, wikis, and blogging. By giving people the power to do this people cancommunicate with other people that have the same interests. It also allows for new ideas to be shared with the community.
Creative Expression of Ideas
The internet is wonderful in that it allows anybody to share what they have created with anybody else in the area. Organizations can benefit from this by having people design t-shirts, make art, take pictures, make videos, record music, write prayers and anything else imaginable. These creation will be based around the theme of the organizations purpose and mission.
Spreading the Word
All organizations want to get their message out their and have people here their stories. Organizations can do this through email newsletters, tell a friend buttons, banner and buttons for people to put on the websites, social recommendation service buttons (digg us, add to delicious, ect.), ecards, downloadable desktop wallpapers, and more. Another avenue that can be used is txt messaging marketing campaigns. Give people video clips or audiosnippets to add to the end of their personal videos and podcasts that they upload to YouTube and other sites.
Contribute
Many organizations goal is to aquire financial contributions. I think that organizations should tell their stories and get the word out there. Allow people to express themselves creatively and participate in online communities, then politly ask for money. Maybe give them something for their contribution such as a self published book.
Make sure that you embrace online communities that have already been formed such as Facebook, Myspace, YouTube, and many other sites.
Other ideas that have have thought include the following.
-Starting a blog network based around you organization’s mission and purpose.
-Start an online ad network (such as The Deck) and have the profits go towards your mission/purpose.
-Start a job board for jobs that
I hope that I dont need to tell you to blog. Having a blog for you organization allows you to chare your ideas and stories with anyone. Furthermore, tell stories and have a strong prescence offline as well. I wish you and your organization the best of luck.