publication date: Oct 30, 2012
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author/source: Janet Gadeski
The
Huffington Post
is all about content, and according to its Canadian general manager
Rashida Jeeva, so is the online world.
Do you want your supporters to talk about you, give to you, work for you and
introduce others to you? Then you'll want to give them content to share in
their online networks.
Content, she claims, is the fuel of the social web. Consider
the statistics that Jeeva shared at October's
ArtezInterAction conference in Toronto:
- People spend over half their online time (53%)
on published content such as portals, entertainment and news, and nearly another
third in places that allow them to share content (social media, 23%; email 7%).
- Every minute of the day, Facebook users share
684,478 pieces of content and Twitter users send over 100,000 tweets.
- 27,000,000 pieces of content are shared each
day, and that figure doesn't include messages related to content - just the
actual share message.
- When messages are industry-specific, and
especially if they include a product or brand name mention, they're even more
likely to be shared.
- People are much more likely to share content
with friends and family than with colleagues or the general public. That means
that overwhelmingly, they're sharing with the people most likely to be
influenced by their opinions - including their preference for your charity.
What can your charity, even if it's a grassroots
organization, learn from the Huffington Post? The site's content, Jeeva
explains, "encourages and enables every reader to become personally engaged on
a variety of levels, from taking action on matters of serious social
consequence to displaying small individual acts of support."
So start small. Take a look at your supporters and figure
out where they're interacting on the Web. Engage a volunteer or two, and give
them the information and brand guidelines they need to help you reach out.
Resources on getting started in social media are plentiful - get sharing, and
get your supporters connected even more powerfully to your cause.
