All hands on deck! We Need MORE Staff! not.

“if we had more staff we would..

…engage better on social media!”
…create more content!”
…serve more clients!”
…analyze metrics and segment audiences!”

Yeah, yeah, yeah. We have all sat in breakout sessions where there are countless good ideas, perfect strategies and amazing resources. But there is always that group of people mumbling or outright yelling, we can’t do that, We DON’T have ENOUGH STAFF. Blah, blah, blah.

First, a big shout out to Kivi for an article that inspired my post! You should read it! Kivi always has terrific resources and her blog post on this topic is much richer in content. I hope I didn't overlap content too much. Some of our examples are similar, but I tried to come from the tech side.

While I will immediately acknowledge that many (if not all) nonprofits are under resourced, I do not think adding staff always solves problems. More staff = more politics, more management, more red tape, more, more, more, then you need more staff because you have more staff.

I think many of our challenges could be solved if we used a more important resource better, time. If we start to value each staff person’s time more than adding more staff, we may just solve some of the issues leading to the need for more staff.

Example 1: We need more staff to engage better on social media.

You can interpret this statement a few different ways. We don’t have a social media expert on staff, we don’t have time to manage all of those different channels, we don’t know where to start or we don’t even have a marketing staff. Whatever.

What I hear: Social Media is not a big enough priority for me to make time for it.

I would argue that this is a time issue, which could be solved with planning, a volunteer (or other staff) and tech.

1. Make time to create simple content plan (better yet, start with a template from a colleague, NTEN, Idealware, TechSoup or wherever)
2. Find someone with existing experience with social media (volunteer or staff) OR learn by DOING it, just find an easy place to start, then budget time to do it. If it is a priority you will find the time.
3. USE TECH! There are so many tools like Buffer, Hootsuite, etc that are free\cheap built to help you listen, engage post.

MOTTO: Don’t work harder. Work smarter. More staff may not fix it. Find existing experience and let the tech do the work.

Example 2: We need more staff to analyze metrics and segment audiences.

What I hear: we don’t care what our audiences want to hear, we just know what we want to tell them. (maybe a little harsh, but eh.)

I would argue that this is a time issue, which could be solved with planning, a volunteer (or other staff) and tech.

1. Make time to create a simple content plan and profile of your audience needs (better yet, start with a ideas from a colleague, NTEN, Idealware, TechSoup or wherever)
2. Find someone with existing experience with metrics and segmenting (volunteer or staff) OR learn by DOING it, just find an easy place to start, then budget time to do it. If it is a priority you will find the time. (Also check out the analysis exchange, free metrics help)
3. USE TECH! This one isn’t cheap but you can solve the segmentation with Tech. Tools like Informz or Higher Ground will do the segmenting, metrics, audience profiling and so much more for you. But you do have to pay for that. BUT that expense is still cheaper than the staff it would take to do it.

MOTTO: Don’t work harder. Work smarter. More staff may not fix it. Find existing experience and let the tech do the work.

Oh, wait, did I sorta say the same thing for both examples? Weird.

Maybe that is because that is what we do, we do the same thing over and over. We have a need, we hire more staff.

Before hiring, think about:
… your process, can it be improved?
… your staff skills, can they be trained?
… your tools, can tech solve the problem?
… your strategy, are you being purposeful?

I am not trying to say we need more tech and less people. I am saying, let's think through some of the challenges we are facing and think through all of the options.

Poking staff with a hot iron isn't branding. (Give staff a voice! Part 10 of 10)

Branding your cattle is as simple as heating an iron and then applying to their skin leaving a permanent mark. So why is branding so hard for an org and it's staff?

I think it is because branding is misunderstood. I think Seth Godin says it best in this post:

define: Brand
Here's my definition: A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another. If the consumer (whether it’s a business, a buyer, a voter or a donor) doesn’t pay a premium, make a selection or spread the word, then no brand value exists for that consumer. A brand's value is merely the sum total of how much extra people will pay, or how often they choose, the expectations, memories, stories and relationships of one brand over the alternatives.
A brand used to be something else. It used to be a logo or a design or a wrapper. Today, that’s a shadow of the brand, something that might mark the brand’s existence. But just as it takes more than a hat to be a cowboy, it takes more than a designer prattling on about texture to make a brand. If you’ve never heard of it, if you wouldn’t choose it, if you don’t recommend it, then there is no brand, at least not for you.
If you hear a designer say this (believe it or not, I didn't make this quote up), “A TCHO Chocolate bar, with its algorithmic guilloche patterns, looks like a modern form of currency. “Modern” was always part of the brand brief — no faux traditionalism, but resolutely forward-looking for a new generation of chocolate enthusiasts...” then I wonder if there’s a vocabulary disconnect.
Design is essential but design is not brand.

Understanding branding is not enough. You have to create ways to influence each part of the brand that Seth defined: expectations, memories, stories and relationships.  

You have to work to balance your desire to control or manage your brand while enabling your staff to influence it. But your staff WILL influence your brand whether you help them do it or not. In many ways your staff are your brand.

I think back to some of rebranding that I have been a part of. I was told what the brand is. I was told what to say as a staff person. It was made clear to me that only the leadership team was smart enough to define our brand. My job was to only carry out the orders and stick to the company line.

Some of those things are necessary during a rebrand. But telling someone what the brand is won't change anything until they feel it, support it and become a part of it.

Sorta like a new recipe. You can tell everyone that it is good, even that it is the best. But how can you know until you try.  And even after you try, you may not agree.

Here are the basic steps that I would suggest (most of which you have already started if you read my other posts in this series)

1. Monitor all communications about your brand from your audience and from your staff
2. Publish a set of guidelines to direct brand communications, see this AWESOME article from NTEN about creating a philosophy!
3. Provide constructive feedback and positive encourage on all staff brand communications (as much as possible)
4. Create metrics to inform your efforts
5. Spend time reviewing, sharing and reflecting on the outcomes from the metrics.

Managing a brand is not a simple task, but it needs to be done.  Good luck!

For some further reading on this topic, here is a recent article from Mashable! (if you consider 2010 recent, but just shows this isn't new stuff)

Thanks for reading all of my posts in the series of giving staff a voice. (if you did)

Need Content? Train your staff. (Give staff a voice! Part 9 of 10)

Need content?

Ask your staff. Right? They all have stories, they are the experts.

And you already have a content plan, so the topic is set.

So blamo! Ask the staff to create and just wait for it to be done.

Wrong. We have already talked about all of the obstacles and then I shared some ideas on how to remove the barriers. The key will be to build up to the ask. And one of the best ways to build up to the ask is to progressively build skills and as you build the skills ask the participants to practice.

So where do you begin in this training?

With the basics.

Provide information about writing for each medium.

Web - concise, directed, bullets, data, transparent, keywords, audience oriented, purposeful
--read some good articles

Email - stories, links, call to action, news
--read some good articles

Social Media - when training you need to remember that they are all different. You can count on mass publishing for all of your content. You have to continuously show how to adapt content to audiences and the medium.

Facebook - personality, engaging, images, video, humor, questions
--read some good articles

LinkedIn - professional, jobs, volunteers, news, connections, collaboration
--read some good articles

Twitter - timely, replies, frequent, repeats ok, short, humor
--read some good articles

Not sure if you noticed what I did there. I started by talking about training your staff on how to write, but then send you to a bunch of good articles to read for yourself.

That's right, the first training that has to happen is that YOU realize that no matter how long you have been creating content for any medium, you need to take time to train yourself in order to train others. Take time to read articles (or at least scan them) to refresh your thinking, see new trends or pick up tips.

Then take the articles and use them as training tools. Pick the resources or articles that best match your org, your goals or your approach and share them in a central place for all staff. Using an outside source will establish authority and importance. Plus you don't have to do as much work.

Build your trainings around information that people can relate to. Don't get buried in showing them the steps.

An important note about training staff. Most of the time staff don't want the training until they are already in the middle of the process. They get started and realize they need some help. Make sure your trainings can be accessed at any time. Create cheat sheets, recordings, a list of resources, etc.

So finally, here is the key to all of this. Training staff for digital content needs to be approachable, regular, ongoing, focused on voice\style\approach and fun!

Remove Barriers (Give staff a voice! Part 8 of 10)

Road Trip! The excitement builds as you jump in the car and crank the music! Then you realize you forgot to get directions and didn't fill the gas tank. OK, deep breath.

Run inside, grab the brand new GPS, quickly open it and get those directions. But you have no idea how this thing even works and why does it suddenly have a voice like the Hulk? What button did you push?!? But a bit more fumbling and you got the directions.

Now rush to get gas. Finally on the road! But of course, construction and traffic. oy. If you only knew how to find an alternate route on this GPS or knew this area better!!! But you are afraid to leave the main road and get lost...

Ok, I think I have stressed you out enough or at least I have stressed myself out.

Content creation can have the same barriers which we talked about in the last post. So why did I create this story for this post instead of the last post? Well I don't know.  Just kidding of course. I added the story to illustrate a key point in removing barriers:

Make your authors feel prepared and comfortable.

Being ready and used to the tools is a big theme in my very real road trip story. Come on, we have all been there.

Some keys to removing barriers:

Easy to use tools - make sure the tools fit the situation and skill set of users. If you don't need the Hulk voice option, don't provide it.

Training - Offer regular and on-demand trainings. Schedules are busy, so expecting people to attend and care about training on your schedule instead of theirs can really backfire.

Practice - Your trainings should NOT be a lecture. Make them use the tools. Require them to bring real content to work on in the training. And leverage every possible scenario to get them to practice using the tools. (examples - at staff meetings use the tools as a group, use tools internally as well)

Easy to access support - Provide "on-star" type support. Give them a website with cheat sheets and a real person that can access.

Have a plan - Make sure everyone has their directions, expectations and alternate routes.

Reduce fear - Build a team of champions and cheerleaders to make the tech more approachable and friendly. Share examples of use and success.

Snacks - every road trip needs snacks. (just seeing if you are paying attention)

Don't just expect your staff to jump in the car we call content and drive. Prepare them.

Identify Barriers (Give staff a voice! Part 7 of 10)

There is a fine line between excuses and barriers. Often our role is to know the difference without pointing fingers.

Sometimes the reasons staff give about why they can't use the technology are very real, other times they are just perception or defense mechanisms.  It is easy to sit back and say "I don't know how", "I am too busy" or "That isn't my job." 

These barriers are real to them though, so you need to address them either way. The difference is what you will change. People are quick to blame the tools, but we need to pay attention to the culture, policies, procedures, knowledge, priorities and experience that surrounds our digital content.

So what are the barriers between your program staff and content creation?

Time was the most common barrier that I heard in the form of "I am too busy" or "that isn't my job." But what I usually heard under that was:
"Content won't be a part of my review, so why bother."
"I really don't see the value in creating that content, why does it matter to me?"
"My supervisor doesn't seem to think this is too important either...."
"I don't want to learn another new tool, don't I already do enough around here."
And many others.

But you need to cut through the perception and excuses to find the real barriers and start to break them down.

I would not start with asking everyone what the barriers are. This may encourage them to dig in their heels and stick to their excuses.

I would look to do a content channel inventory, author\owner org chart,  tool catalog and content creation process map before getting opinions.

Content Channel Inventory - First gather a list of all of the different channels of content that need to be maintained. (Website, Blog, Email blast, Newsletter, Facebook, Twitter, Intranet, etc.)

Author\Owner Org Chart - For each of the channels above you should document who the primary owner is and list all of the authors that have access.

Tool Catalog - Create a list of all of the tools that are used to manage, create and share the content.

Content Creation Process Map - Break down the steps, authors and tools that are needed to manage each channel and then try to give the all of the channels some sort of overall structure.

This is just a beginning to the type of inventory and process map that you should have, but it is a good start to help you identify what the real barriers are.

Set Expectations (Give staff a voice! Part 6 of 10)

Training staff isn't enough.

Just because someone knows how to do something, doesn't mean they will do it.

People need to know what is expected of them, what is in it for them and what success looks like. Training people on the steps and process does not help with this.

I have often heard it said that kids will live up to their expected potential, not their actual potential. I think the same holds true with staff and technology.

If we treat them with kiddie gloves and expect only minor activity, then that is what we will get. But if we set clear, reasonable expectations, remove barriers, reward behavior and document success, then we can help them achieve their actual potential.

Technology and soon digital content, will be a part of a majority of jobs. We are doing our staff a diservice if we ignore this and shield them from this responsibility.

As a part of our effort to enable digital efforts we worked to set expectations of:

• Posting to the website weekly as a team as a minimum
• Posting to Facebook 2-3 times a week as a minimum, prefer daily
• Update website information regularly (hours, staff, schedules, etc)
• Sending a monthly email blast that contains more than just promotion
• Balance all content (third=promotion, third=sharing stories, third=informative)
• Monitor comments and reply daily
• Reply to all contact us and tour requests from our website
• Manage any new functionality or apps added to Facebook pages
• Keep 2 staff trained as authors for digital channels for each center

And we had more. But the key isn't making a list of rules and regulations. Rather the key is to provide insight on WHY these are important and how they impact their job, plus make it easy for them to meet these expectations.

Also make it very clear what support they can get from IT, Marketing and other management resources. This has to be a shared responsibility.

Beyond listing the tasks they are responsible for, you should set the tone for behavior.  Most places have an employee policy that lists all of the things that staff can NOT do.  But do you have a list for your digital content of what they SHOULD do?

You can look over our manual and policies which attempted to balance these different things. But we used regular emails, metrics, reports and trainings to keep these expectations clear and in the front of the conversation.

Anyway, the point is we can't just train and give a set of rules. We need expectations to be set.

Prepare your staff (Give staff a voice! Part 5 of 10)

Imagine sending one of your staff members to a press conference without any notice, without telling them what to talk about. Just train them about what a press conference is and how it works. Then hope for the best.

Yeah, it's like that.

It is easy to memorize a speech and post prepared content. It is not easy to manage a community and reply to the tough questions.

We can spend as much time as we want training people how to use social media, how it works, how to create good content, but do we prepare them for the questions, flashing cameras, criticisms and onslaught of a press conference?

In social media you have to expect some unhappy people, some trolls (people who like to complain and start fights) and some mistakes.  Do we do enough to make our staff ready?

In our trainings we focused on what our staff were already comfortable with. We started with talking about what people call about the most. We then talked about what are the most common and most difficult questions they get in their onsite comment boxes.  We asked them to think through their replies that they use in person. Then we helped translate those to an online situation.

The big trick is deciding when to reply, how much to say and knowing when to take it offline.

One big thing we emphasized was to not to jump to deleting a post or banning a user. Can you say backfire?

Our training was two parts.
Motivation - First we used the Air Force blog response chart to talk about how to understand WHY people are commenting. Because understanding motivation is key to the reply.

Respond - Then we had a comment response chart of our own to help them to decide if and how to reply\act.

That was our idea of how to prepare them.

Smarter Than You

We're Smarter Than You

 Can you mitigate your remotely exploitable nodes? Of course you can't. Do you know how to configure your VPN server racks with AJAX overlays? Don't even pretend you do. What happens if an unauthorized user interface tries to query your Oracle® detection points? Do you know what to do then? Duh. Of course you don't. You're not smart.

This is a quote from http://www.duhcorp.com/. As I looked over that website I was laughing and chuckling because it seemed like I had worked with this company before....

Concern eventually set in though and then I started thinking. What if this is how nonprofits really feel when our "experts" talk to them?

When talking about technology planning I have often mentioned how some nonprofits lack enough knowledge to know where to start. Are they hesitant to ask for help because they have gotten this speech from a vendor before, maybe not directly, but it was implied? Yes, I think so. 

Technology responsible person in your org. My suggested approach to avoiding the "we're smarter than you", is first to avoid vendors like that if possible. Second, appoint someone to be the technology responsible person in your org if you dont have full-time IT staff. Then get them some training so they can understand enough technology to make strategic decisions!

NOTE! I did not say get them "Technology Training", I said get them training to "understand enough technology to make strategic decisions!"

I did not intend to turn this post into a rant or a pitch for orgs I love, but that is where my typing has led me....

A great example of the type of training needed is the Technology Leadership Academy from NTEN. This Free, Intense 9 week training gets your org prepared to make better decisions in technology. http://www.nten.org/techacademy
(in disclosure, I do present one of the sessions for this training, but I do not receive anything for promoting it, I just love what NTEN is doing!)

Then look at the webinars that NTEN.org, TechSoup.org and Idealware.org offer. When a new project or planning phase starts allow a little time to research what should be considered, collect sample documents from other nonprofits and be more deliberate in your technology planning.

And one final thought about www.duhcorp.com, I was a little disappointed that there wasnt more content and pages to read, but the site was fun! The part I found best is that they are making some money off of it to with the ads.... why didn't I think of that? And a huge tip to John Merritt (@johnmerritt) from the San Diego Y for tweeting about the site.

Program Staff as Digital Editors

Content requires work and skill. Lots of people just ignore that fact. They get all excited about content strategy, communication plans and social media. But they hardly ever spend time talking about how to equip their staff to be content creators.

Some orgs look to hire copywriters, publishers or whatever. But I like to look for ways to build up all staff with the skills that they will need going forward with every job of the future. Here is a presentation that I did about this topic. I hope it is useful.

Program staff as digital editors

View more PowerPoint from Steve Heye

5 Ways to get Digital Content from Program Staff

Fresh content is a key element of a good website, we have all heard that, right? But a simple concept does not mean it is easy to make happen.

One of my favorite posts I have ever written was 5 secret ways to trick your colleagues into becoming content creators for your website.

I have been thinking about this more and I have a few more thoughts. Even today as technology becomes more common, many people are hesitant to create content for a website or email newsletter. So how do we get this content created?

1. Fill in a printed marketing worksheet - create a simple worksheet in the format of the content that you want them to create. Keep it short and simple.
2. Regularly scheduled collection with feedback - practice makes perfect. Or as my wife says practice makes permanent. This means that if if you practice something wrong , it becomes hard to learn it the right way. So while it is a great idea to gather content from staff of you never provide feedback, how will they improve?
3. Recorded phone call - want a deeper story or article? Get a group of program staff on the call, ask the right questions and let the conversation happen. But don't forget the key part, record it. It is better to record it and take your notes later, that way you aren't distracted on the call.
4. Join their meeting - talk to them on their territory. Don't ask questions, just listen. If you need to ask questions, consider prepping one of the program staff to lead and ask the questions to make them more comfortable.
5. Ask them their story - every staff member has a story about why they work there, why they love the mission or some great experiences. Give them a chance to tell their story.
6. Identify the barrier - staff will always have excuses about why they don't create more digital content. Look past the excuses go find the real barriers, is it the tools, unclear benefit to their work, fear of making a mistake or ??? Then find a way to help break down those barriers.

Yeah, I know there were 6, but consider it a bonus.

How do you get program staff to contribute digital content?

Enabling Program Staff to Become Digital Content Editors

So I have been busy writing a long blog post for NTEN and have neglected my own blog. So rather than write another post, I will just share a link to the blog post on NTEN.

A BIG THANKS to Debra Askanase (http://www.communityorganizer20.com), Jason Dobrolecki and John Oliver people for their help with this article! They read it for me and made it so much better. Thanks!

Here is what it covers:

Elements to enable digital editors:

• Publish metrics (recognition, competition, feedback)
• Establish structure and accountability
• Remove barriers
• Regular training and resources
• Enable individuals while managing the brand

It’s important to note that the type of content an organization wants to publish should be identified by its communications department, and the process for gathering that content (which is what I write about below) should be developed in collaboration between the communications and technology departments.

http://www.nten.org/blog/2011/10/14/enabling-program-staff-become-digital-content-editors

IT Clones or People? (Part 5 of 11 on Managing Tech 2 Meet Mission)

An army is a set of soldiers that are taught to follow orders, stay in line and do their job. Soldiers are pushed to loose their identity, hide personality, and fit in.

Special Ops teams though are chosen for their special talents. They are carefully selected to build a balanced team.  Each member is encouraged to be an individual but act as a unit.


But who gets selected for the Special Ops team? Is it solely based on skills, qualifications, experiences, certifications, etc? No, I would have to venture that there is more to it than what you know and what you can do, it is also who you are and how well you fit in with the team.

Think about all of the best army movies, superhero teams and even in person teams you know. Is the team a group of clones like stormtroopers that always get along? Or is it a team of individuals that can lead to some disagreement, difference of opinion but believe in a similar cause?

Obviously I am exaggerating this, but one of the things that we stressed in our tech team interviews is personality and how it will mix with the team. I have seen many managers that look to hire almost exact replicas of themselves.  They look to find someone they can get along with. But many of the most successful IT departments I have seen are composed of many differing opinions and personalities.

So the only thing that I would add to the chapter by James L. Weinberg and Cassie Scarano called Finding and Keeping the right people is to be purposeful about personality. This would include some exploration of the commitment to the mission that you work on. The chapter does offer a very comprehensive structure to follow in hiring, plus numerous easy to implement tips. Much of which was new learning to me, I will have to reread this one a few more times.

The part I really liked was how much they talked about what you should do before you even begin looking. Too often I see a rush to fill a quick staff need, rather than think through what the long term role that is needed.  I have seen so many job descriptions that stress an immediate need for technical expertise.  But what I have learned is that often it is easier to teach the technical skills than it is to find a team member.

Getting the right IT staff is not talked about enough. The success of IT Alignment depends on the staff more than the tools. How can IT have a solid relationship with the org if the IT team isnt purposeful in creating it's team to focus on relationships and mission?

FUNNY (TO ME) RANDOM THOUGHT: Often technology is thought of as just a set of tools. Isnt hiring staff only for tech skills treating them like a tool?

Over 11 weeks I am doing a themed series of blog posts. Each week I will write about a chapter of the book called Managing Technology to meet your Mission. This week is on the 5th chapter by James L. Weinberg and Cassie Scarano called Finding and Keeping the Right People. You should totally buy the book. (In case you are wondering, I am volunteering to do this, I am not getting paid or in any other way reimbursed for this. I just love NTEN and their events.)

Flickr photos by The U.S. Army and by Official Star Wars Blog

Using Social Networking to build your YMCA career

For the last month or so I have focused my blog on IT Alignment to celebrate the book launch (all 5 of my readers wish I would stop by now).  Well I am doing a quick off topic post to share this slidedeck that I used at a Chicago YMCA staff conference to talk about how to use social networking to build your career.  I am missing things and would love some feedback.  

The sessions went very well, thanks for asking.  I had just over an hour to present.  The majority of the staff were new to most of the topics that I covered so I tried to keep it fairly simple.  Over the next year I plan to continually run trainings on teaching individuals how to use social networking within my YMCA.  Our staff is by far one of our biggest assets, so who better to represent the YMCA online?  Of course the next step is to get our members to represent us, but one step at a time.

Using Social Networking to build your YMCA career

View more presentations from steveheye.

IT Alignment does come into play here though, I cant resist sorry.  By taking the time to focus on the helping the individual staff help themselves, not just help the YMCA, we were able to change the relationship between staff and the IT Department.  This session and conversation focused on helping them, not me.  By taking the time to share that, answer questions and have a real human conversation with them on their turf, changed the way they saw our department.  That is a key element of IT Alignment.

As John Merritt from San Diego YMCA always says, "ART= Alignment, Relationship, Transparency." Well we took time to add to our relationship with our staff.

5 secret ways to trick your colleagues into becoming content creators for your website.

Shh, don't share the following with ANYONE! Keep it to yourself and trick your colleagues at work into becoming the content creators that you know they can be.

One of the biggest complaints I have heard over and over again is that it is hard to get staff at organizations to contribute to content to the website. The IT or tech team should not be the ones writing the content of the website. Nor should it only be the marketing staff, who wants a web site full of marketing pizazz.

But our staff are so busy that they just dont have time to contribute solid content to populate the site. Well here is my list:

Top 5 Ways to trick your colleagues into becoming content creators for your website.

6. Job description. This may seem like you are forcing people, but you have to look at this as just part of their job. Work with supervisors, HR, "C" level staff, etc. to get web site content into all of the appropraite job descriptions. Even if you cant get it into existing ones, there are always those new hires. Now granted, this wont automatically make the content good or even make it happen, but at least their is a small awareness.

5. Three ring binders. Look around for things and pieces of information that people have thought is important enough to keep in a written format like a three ring binder. YMCAs are famous for having a whole shelf of these at the front desk and in every YMCA program directors office. Find what is most useful and repopulate that content into your intranet or web site.

4. Ease it in. Start with an intranet, instead of a public website. Get people involved in our intranet. Get them used to using the web to submit content. Do simple things like a discussion board, a book club, transferring manuals from paper to web, write stories about their background, etc. Get people to start a wiki, start with a small group, then brag about how cool the project is. Then others will want to join.

3. Competition. Pick a couple people that you know are ready to give content, then get that published on your site. Then go overboard in recognizing those staff within your org. A few others will want to join in based on that. Then continue to publicize the people that are contributing. Maybe even create a quarterly award for best content, include a free day off and a cool tshirt. But the most important key is to get those people not contributing wondering why they arent involved.

2. Bribery. Bribe them with food and hold an in-person meeting. Schedule a meeting focused on a topic that you need content for on your site. Then invite the people that have knowledge on that topic to a meeting and serve some pizza, ice cream or something. Get them talking and have someone take notes. Take a quick break. Have someone fast and furious rewrite those notes into some sample content for site. When people return, show them the content and have them react and help rewrite. Then publish and be sure to give all the credit to those people.

1. Steal it. Ask your colleagues a question in an email and dont tell them you plan to reuse it on the web. Just ask a question. Take their reply and rework it as content. Then send it back to them with this quote, "WOW, I was so impressed with your answer that I would love to have this content on the org web site. I attached what it could look like. Could I get your permission to post this?" But dont stop with stealing emails. Look for content to "steal" from discussion boards, memos, handwritten notes, brochures, presentations and more!

See what I did! I tricked you also! I said there were five and I wrote six. OK, I only did that because a top 5 sounds cooler than top 6.

Any Hoot. I would suggest by first trying to figure out what the biggest barriers are at your org. Is it a fear of tech? A feeling they arent the expert? A lack of time or resources? Unsure of what to write? The key is to get them to write that first peice, get permission and show that person how smart and great they truly are (BUT BE GENIUNE!), then next time maybe they submit it more willingly.

I am not claiming to be an expert on any of this, but obviously I was smart enough to trick you into reading this. Maybe now I can trick you into writing a comment?