hayduke

I had a great chat with Ted Fickes and Rachel Weidinger on Twitter yesterday.   Since it lasted all of 5 tweets of 140 characters each, it was short and to the point.  I'll summarize:

It's not about you. It's about your network.

We live in a new world, a world where people aren't looking to authority figures to answer their questions -- they're looking to each other. The best thing you can do as a nonprofit is show off your network.

Chris Brogan had a nice, clear example of how to do this in his latest newsletter. (Do you get his newsletter? You should.)  He says: 

• Subscribe to the blogs your customers might read.
• Point out stories from those blogs you think customers might like.
• Write original content that relates to your customers' needs.
• Learn from customer service what customers are asking about.
• Deliver stories about complementary brands you don't own.
• Answer all and any customer concerns that are generic or might apply to more people in a blog or email newsletter, instead of just 1:1.

Do you see how quickly this can be implemented? Does it take more time? Yes. Can it be far more effective than your current marketing? Yes. Does it take a few experiments? Yes. Should any of that be a reason not to do it? No. Good?