If you hide your struggles, how can you get help? (Part 6 of 11 NetNon series)

Family Restaurant may have to close after 75 years of operation. In the days of fast food and big chains, small restaurants depend on their community to support them. The Family Restaurant is the poster child of this impact. If you want us to stay open we need you to visit us.

How many times have you seen a story like that, remembered the place fondly and then went to visit to support them?

Budget shortfalls, program delivery challenges or even mistakes can be opportunities to garner support for your organization. But we treat them as shameful things that expose weakness. We hide our problems, we mask the truth and we put on a happy face.

Now don’t get me wrong, there are things that have to be and should be confidential, but at what point do you tell the truth. I know what you are thinking, why do we have to tell the truth, why open up our books and share our dirty secrets? Can’t we just come up with a good slogan, rally a cause and raise money?

That might work, but what if you are missing a different opportunity by hiding information from those that want you to succeed. What if money isn’t the only problem? What if you allowed your supporters inside your walls, get their hands dirty and fix the root causes, not just give money.

Obviously this is easy for me to just type and say, reality is a lot harder. But here is what I would challenge you with. What is your organization’s first thought when it comes to information? Is it, noone can see this until it is approved? Does the question even get asked, should we share this?

The Networked Nonprofit Chapter 6 is all about transparency and a culture of sharing. The point of sharing your struggles isn’t the focus, but it was the core thought that I grabbed onto. The book does a great job of talking about the different types of orgs with sharing: the fortress, transactional and transparent orgs.

Sharing numbers is super easy

Sharing stories takes time

Sharing who you are and the challenges you face takes courage

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 6 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.

Social media doesn’t create friends, people do (Part 5 of 11 NetNon series)

Listen, converse and build strong relationships. There are many different variations of the basic steps of social engagement, but they are all very similar. But how does that fit in with reality?

The reality is that many orgs have a couple designated people that are allowed to speak on behalf of the organization. Those people “know the party line” and can answer properly. We have been burned before so staff are asked to not reply on behalf of the org. This causes a direct conflict with the listening and conversing steps if the people starting your social media aren’t one of the “designated people.”

So we stumble across some mentions of our org, but we don’t reply because we don’t have the authority and it isn’t a big enough deal to pass up the food chain. Strike that up to missed opportunity.

Social media gets launched and so begins the next internal battle, will we use our powers for good? Do we start with the intention of being social or are we so focused on the end goal that we miss the party? Do we try to maintain control so tight that we push everyone away? Do we create a sense of trusting the good in people or are we always braced for the worst?

So many people think that the reason starting or running good social media is hard is because the tools are technical, technology is advanced or above their skill level. But the real challenge is in why you are using it, is your org really ready to be social?

Social media doesn’t create friends people do.

Don’t just read that sentence and move on. Really think about it. The social media tools don’t mean anything without the people behind it. So are there people behind your social media strategy or a set of processes, programmed responses and one way communications?

If every conversation has to start with YOU saying something, I will get bored. If you let ME start a conversation and YOU reply, that means more. You actually wanted to know what I have to say and replied.

Think about it, don’t have that friend that always wants to drive the conversation, you have to talk about what they want…. They are so annoying. Maybe I have something to say about a different topic.

I am going to share my thoughts about the book "The Networked Nonprofit" by Beth Kanter and Allison Fine over 11 posts, this was part 5 (one for each chapter).  But rather than just tell you what the chapter is about, I am going to share what I learned from it, any reactions and extra thoughts that I would add.  However the big caution I have with this, is that I am just not as smart and experienced as Beth and Allison, so you should probably just buy the book.

YMCA of Metro Chicago shares Facebook Resources

Detour again... So I have been too busy with silly videos and work to keep going with the #netnon posts, but I do promise to get back to them next week. But this week I have to share something from the IT team at the YMCA of Metro Chicago (my job).

We recently launched 15 Facebook pages for our YMCA membership centers. And on our new YMCA of  Chicago IT blog we have shared a PowerPoint case study, which is cool, but...

Even cooler is the Facebook Manual! No sorry, it does not teach you how to use Facebook. Rather this is what we created to help guide our authors.  Notice, I said guide our authors, which is slightly different than just rules.

Anyway, here is the link, go check it out NOW! 

http://ymcachicagoit.wordpress.com/2010/11/02/facebook-launch/

Scope Creep the Band

Slight diversion from the #netnon series.  I would try to give this video an introduction, but it really doesn't deserve one.