Connectors, Hubs and Web 2.0: Seven Steps to Strategic Communications

By Lauren-Glenn Davitian
At midnight of April 18, 1775, three horsemen galloped through the towns of Lexington, Concord, Lincoln and Cambridge, Massachusetts to mobilize American patriots to fight the advancing British army. But in the history of The American Revolution, Paul Revere is the messenger we remember. One of the main reasons for this, argues Malcolm Gladwell in The Tipping Point (2000), is that Paul Revere (silversmith and community activist) was well known within a large circle of family, friends, neighbors and collaborators. Gladwell describes him as a “Connector” – a person who knew large numbers of people and was in the habit of making introductions.

Today’s Connectors use electronic tools to mobilize their social networks. They are human “hubs” – who communicate through email, text messaging, RSS feeds and virtual worlds. They share digital voice mails, pictures, and videos that gallop down high speed networks. Instead of horses, Connectors use electronic tools to maintain existing ties, strengthen them and forge new ones. These modern Connectors have been defined as the social equivalent of a computer network hub–and play a critical role in today’s networked society.

In 2007 it is almost redundant to describe the impact of the Internet, high speed connections and handheld digital devices on how we work and entertain ourselves. Clearly these are technological marvels. But the REAL change is that we have ALL become Connectors – capable of using our own social networks (each of us relies on at least 50 people for important decisions) and the new generation of collaborative internet tools (a/k/a Web 2.0) amplify these relationships. The power of the individual to work with others and make change happen has moved to an entirely new scale and it is essential for us, as community media makers and nonprofit leaders, to consider its implications.

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How can nonprofit organizations utilize web 2.0 tools to mobilize our social networks to make social change happen? Let’s think first about the work we are trying to do. Simply put, nonprofits organize their work around four key activities. We Welcome (Prospect), Educate (Cultivate), Ask (Engage) and Thank (Stewardship) all of the people we serve (clients, board members, volunteers, staff, support circles).

Consider these “seven steps” as a framework for a communications strategy that supports engages people in your cause and mobilizes them to make the world a better place.

1. Assessment – We begin by asking series of questions that focus our thinking on WHO we serve and what is important to THEM. Once we better understand the VALUES of the people in and outside of our organizations we will know the best way to Welcome, Educate, Ask and Thank them. This is the core of our communications strategy. We can draw from excellent sources for this work including the Spin Project (www.spinproject.org) and NPower Seattle’s Tech Savvy Tools for Nonprofits (www.npowerseattle.org).

2. Awareness – Now we look at other organizations that operate in our “space.” What trends affect our work? Who else is doing what we do? Who does what we WANT to do? What stories are they telling? How are they presenting their information? What does their web site look like? Do they have email strategies? What interactive tools are they using? How do they know their strategies are working? For questions like these, we go directly to hubs of nonprofit support, such as www.techsoup.org and www.nten.org – treasure troves of best practices in all aspects of nonprofit operation and communications. Don’t miss Ted Talks – www.ted.com if you want to get a glimpse of the future. It helps you think through your big picture strategies.

3. Planning – Once we gather information from our “stakeholders” and understand how other organizations engage and animate their membership, our plan starts to take shape. Who is our AUDIENCE? What are the KEY MESSAGES of our organization? How do we SPREAD THE WORD? What tools do we use? What our the GOALS? How do we KNOW we’ve reached them? The answer to these questions clarifies what it is we need to learn and how we change the way we do business. Which leads us to:

4. Training – How do we use new tools to spread the word? What skills do our staff, board, volunteers need to know to help with this effort? Where do we find training? Can someone in the community help with new databases, web platforms, content management systems, open source tools, on-line applications that range from wikis to mapping to video uploading to information management? Again, aggregators like NTEN and Tech Soup point us to countless, rich sites designed to answer all of these questions.

5. Tech Support – The same questions apply to tech support. Most nonprofit organizations do not have the in-house expertise to manage computer networks and new media applications. This work often falls to “accidental techies” who solve problems while doing their primary job. www.TechFinder.org is one way to find organizations to help with this work. But more importantly, organizations need to build tech support into their budgets and grant proposals if they are going to be able to maintain the growing IT infrastructure required by modern nonprofit organizations.

6. Content Production and Organization – Content is the currency of a knowledge economy and a major asset of all organizations. From word documents to blog posts to video and audio production – how do we produce and organize our content so that it can be retrieved, used and archived? Nonprofits are moving quickly toward “content management systems” as a way to structure communications to the outside world AND within their organizations. There are hundreds of open source platforms (http://www.cmsreview.com/OpenSource/directory.html) as well as customized systems (Convio, Kintera and Salesforce being some examples to look at.)

7. Partnerships – Remember what we said in the beginning: the nonprofit’s GREATEST asset is its human network of staff, clients, board members, champions and partner organizations. Who are the natural allies of your nonprofit? Are there people and organizations who should be welcomed, educated and asked for help? Have we thanked our current partners lately? Who can we lean on as we carry out our mission to change the world? A regularly updated map of our current and potential partners is a key part of a successful communications strategy because it points directly to the community building we have yet to do.

Peter Drucker said: “Community building talent is the single most precious resource in the modern world.” To make social change happen, we must be strategic about how we build those social networks and use interactive tools to welcome, educate, ask and thank our communities.

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Lauren-Glenn Davitian is the Executive Director of the Center for Media & Democracy in Burlington Vermont (www.cctv.org).