It’s very easy to find ourselves chasing that next social media toy or running to catch up with what we think other people are doing to increase followers, likes, and all the other measurements that get bandied about. But every now and again we need to go back to GO, and think about what it is we are actually trying to achieve. This is particularly important if we are also having to justify our time and efforts to others in our organisations who might feel that we should be investing our resources in different directions.
If you’re wondering how you’ve got to where you are, and what you should do from here, then have a read of this very interesting article by Eric Rardin, writing in Frogloop: Google+, QR Codes and Second Life? Take a look at that graph of technology hype!
You could also do a lot worse than follow the advice of Joshua-Michéle Ross, writing in Mashable, who advocates visualising your social media presence and then rationalising it. Here’s his article.
Are you using a tool to help you visualise your social media output? If so, what is it?
I love the graph in the Frogloop post and totally agree, I think you can chart any technology / social networking website along this!
But there is a danger (and i’ve seen this countless times in the sector) that senior managers or trustees say “its not for us” or “give it time to bed in first”, however if you wait too long you’ll always be playing catch-up and the game will have moved on anyway!
Yes, get the nuts and bolts of ICT right first, but we shouldn’t dismiss tools with a low entry cost such as QR codes or Google+ as soimething to avoid.
Who knows if QR codes will be used in 12 months time? However they are here now and if used effectively can be very useful.
Its why its important that staff at all levels understand or at least have an appreciation of the value of each type of new techology and aim to be ahead of the game where appropriate.
And why not! Why shouldn’t our sector be at the front instead of being always seen as a place from the dark ages!
Thanks, Paul, this is very interesting. Perhaps there’s a balance to be struck here between being early adopters (and you’re so right, why not have the voluntary sector lead in this field?) and having a solid understanding of what it is we are all trying to achieve. With that understanding of our aims as a bedrock, we can then look at all the new twiddly things that are coming up all the time and ask ourselves how we can make that work for us. And you’re also right, so what if those tools are going to be gathering dust in a year’s time… if they work now, then let’s use them!
Thanks for your comments, as always!
Pingback: Five Top Fives: Makes You Think | Theverytiger's Blog