Basic Communication Is Changing In Community Development

Basic communication is changing rapidly.

Unless you recognize and address these changes, the effectiveness of your communications efforts within and outside your community will be greatly diminished.

Here are the increasingly less effective ways of communicating:

• Face-to-face meetings
• Telephone conversations
• E-mails
• Voice mails

When you look at this list, the obvious question becomes “what’s left?”

Hold onto your seats because what’s left is developing exponentially. The leaders of your community need to grab hold of and utilize these changes.

I recently was in a meeting in which we discussed a strategy for increasing broadband coverage in Arkansas. One of the participants said the new methods of communicating with each other are having the biggest impacts on the world since the discovery of electricity.

That’s quite a claim. I happen to think it’s right.

If you want a snapshot of how communication is changing, of how various age groups view those changes and of how some businesses are responding, I’ve found an excellent article that will open your eyes: Why No One Under 30 Answers Your Voicemail.

— Dan Cowling

Using Consistent Messages For Community Development

In this era of brand managers, focus groups, insight tests and new media, I think back on what my high school football coach would tell us when we were tired or hurting.

He would yell, “Get back in there!”

How does that apply to those of us in community development?

It means you have to keep your message out there all the time. It also must be consistent.

Too many companies and organizations fall off the face of the earth or change their messages too often. It’s no wonder their development efforts are sluggish.

Here are four ways to keep your community development efforts on the map:

1.  Frequency, frequency, frequency: Did I mention frequency? Have a plan to put out regular communications. The old saying “out of sight, out of mind” is true.

Here’s a general rule of thumb: Your audience should get something from you at least once a month.

2.  Consistency, consistency, consistency: I read recently that the pork industry is dropping the tagline “the other white meat.” That slogan has been used for more than two decades.

I think it’s a mistake to quit using it. They said sales were flat and someone convinced them it was time to move on to a new message rather than putting the message out to a new generation of potential pork eaters.

You should make sure your messages are consistent and continually reinforce your mission.

3.  It’s the message, stupid: I like to read a blogger who uses the moniker “The Ad Contrarian.” Check him out. One of the things he preaches is making sure your message is right. He believes we often get too caught up in technique instead emphasizing content.

Always give your readers rich, interesting content.

4.  Use all the mediums available to you: A lot of social media gurus are advocating social media because it’s free. But consider the costs. Social media is time consuming, and your time is valuable. I advocate using all of the mediums available to you, but make sure you have the funds and time to manage them.

Use the ones that are most effective for you and accessible to your most important audiences.

Following these simple guidelines will help you develop a personality people will remember. Maybe you won’t ever be the other white meat. But if you stay on message, positive results should follow.

— Neal Moore

In Community Development, Messaging Manners Matter

For whatever reason, we judge other people by their table manners. If you eat like a slob, people will think of you as a slob. That’s from EmilyPost.com.

Do you use good manners when you’re communicating to your various audiences?

Or are you perhaps a little sloppy, sending out fragmented messages and communicating too many things at once?

Community development program managers must remember their messaging manners.

A program with which I’m familiar has identified 12 target industries to pursue for its initiative. The same etiquette applies to bridesmaids and target audiences — 12 is too many.

If program managers can’t be convinced to prioritize their targets into a top five (or even fewer), then allow me to suggest a little more marketing and messaging decorum.

One solution for the “let’s communicate to everyone” syndrome is a tool called the message map.

Organizations can benefit from message maps because they bring focus to outreach and education activities while simultaneously customizing messages for priority audiences.

Step 1:  Start by identifying your target audiences.

♦  Remember, prioritizing means you have to pick some who are more important than others. They can’t all be No. 1. 

♦  If you’re unsure about where to start, Wikipedia has a great section on target audiences.

Step 2:  After identifying your priority audiences, a message map requires you to spell out the objective for each of those audiences.

♦  If you have five target audiences, you should have a minimum of five objectives – one for each audience.

♦  Some audiences may have more than one objective.

Step 3:  The next step is to develop unique message points for each priority audience.

♦  A good resource for message development is Dave Kellog’s Kellblog.

♦  Another good resource – Six Steps To Developing A Marketing Message That Sells.

Step 4:  The final step in the message mapping process is to determine which tools and tactics will be used to communicate each message to the target audiences.

Are you starting to see why 12 target audiences is too many?

If you’re communicating correctly, your education and outreach program will be focused. You’ll be judged not by whether you’re chewing with your mouth closed but instead by the focus of your messages.

— Lisa Bondurant

Tar Balls, Twitter And Community Development

For those in the tourism industry, here’s something to remember: Twitter is your friend.

My family was scheduled to go on vacation at Gulf Shores on the Alabama coast.

We had heard about that nasty BP well gushing oil into our beloved Gulf of Mexico.

Had the beaches near our hotel been affected?

Was the water safe?

Was the sand oily?

Did it smell bad?

Was the beach overrun with cleanup workers?

I would have had a better picture of the situation if my resort had been a bit more social media savvy. I wouldn’t have had to call them each day in a panic about the possibility of a ruined beach.

Why couldn’t my hotel just crank up its Twitter account and start posting updates?

The people at the hotel kept telling me they had no control over their website.

No website control?

No problem.

Here’s a great way to avoid hundreds of anxious calls a day from vacationers with reservations: Tweet people.

OK, now that my rant is over (yes, I needed a vacation), let’s look at the real issue:

Twitter is a great way to keep your friends, stakeholders, board members and others informed, involved and engaged in real time as you develop your community outreach and education programs.

If you’re managing a community development effort and you don’t have a Twitter account up and running (by running, I mean posting daily, preferably more), what are you waiting on?

Quit trying to get everything in your program perfect and start talking to your stakeholders.

What’s that? You don’t know where to start on the Twitter front?

Here are a few resources to get you started:

1. Welcome to Twitter Support: Getting Started on the official Twitter site. This has simple instructions.
2. Adelie Studios: Getting Started with Twitter. There are practical tips. It’s nothing too fancy, but this is useful information.
3. Practical 101s: Getting Started With Twitter. This is a visual guide to getting started coupled with practical strategies.
4. And the mother of all getting-started-on-Twitter resources is at Pistachio. This includes includes how-to information, videos and other resources.

Are you ready to tweet?

— Lisa Bondurant

Dipping Your Toe In Social Media To Advance Community Development

Are you intimidated by social media?

What does social media even mean?

Is it the same as new media?

What’s social? We’re all social to a certain extent. We like to interact with people.

That’s really the core of social media. It’s all about interacting.

Many of us are throwing ourselves into social media.

We’re determined to understand it and use it as a viable marketing and communications tool.

Meanwhile, there are others watching from the sidelines, not sure just what to do.

The rest of us are convinced that it won’t affect us in any way.

• We have no plans to use it, much less understand it.
• I’ve heard many people say, “I have no use for it.”
• That’s like saying you have no use for radio or television.

You can’t afford to take a stance like that.

Here’s some advice for those who are totally standing on the sidelines or those saying “I have no use for it.” Granted, you might stay where you are, but I want you to try an experiment before you give up.

Do these five things:

1. Open a Facebook account. It only takes a few minutes, and you can choose to put up minimal information. Now find 10 “friends.” It’s easy. Just go to www.facebook.com.
2. Open a Twitter account. Again, it only takes a few minutes. Go to www.twitter.com. Find some people to follow. You might even get ambitious and add a “TweetDeck,” which allows you to monitor your tweets and Facebook posts at the same time. It’s at www.tweetdeck.com.
3. Get a Google Reader account. Again, it just takes a few minutes. Search www.google.com Google Reader. Follow the instructions. Subscribe to five sites about social media. Read a few things each day.
4. Read as much as you can about social media. Just Google “social media,” and that should give you enough reading for about four years. You might even consider the book “Social Media Marketing For Dummies,” which is available at most bookstores or online stores.
5. Dip your toe, the water’s fine. If you think there’s too much stuff, you’re right. If you think it’s almost incomprehensible, you’re also right. But you won’t know more than you do right now if you don’t get started. If you’re above the age of 50, you might want to take a “youngster” along with you for guidance. 

Check out this presentation at SlideShare, a wonderful site where people share PowerPoint and Keynote presentations. It’s called “Social Media For Dummies.” There’s no narration, but you’ll follow along just fine.

— Neal Moore