Are you a leader in your social benefit organization? Are you interested in learning more about the basic building blocks necessary for supporting a dynamic, engaging web site that reaches out and deepens relationships with your stakeholders? Are you thinking about how to move your organization on to the social web dance floor but not sure where or how to start? Read on!

I’m sure you appreciate the impact social technologies are having in all sectors locally and around the world. Your leadership role now includes managing how your organization connects, networks, and collaborates with your diverse stakeholders. Also, your new role includes learning how to listen to your stakeholders in new ways so you can adapt and respond to a rapidly changing environment.

These are challenging & exciting times, full of new opportunities to engage the communities you serve in furtherance of your Mission. To move your organization on to (or closer to) the social web dance floor, I’ve put together a simple model that illustrates what I see as the building blocks necessary for supporting a dynamic and engaging web presence. A core value that is front and centre of your organization’s transition to the social web is “incremental changes over time”. The transition doesn’t’ happen overnight – take it slow!

Here are the building blocks for your web site:

1. An organization’s willingness to engage their constituents with online technologies in places where your stakeholders currently inhabit  i.e. social networking sites, collaboration & networking platforms, videos, photos, blogs, twitter, etc.
2. A well crafted online communication strategy based on your organization’s Mission and goals. With your online strategy you will develop specific policies and procedures so that your staff and your organization operate safely within your online policy framework.
3. A web site that is user friendly with a content management system that allows you and your organization’s staff to add content, monitor & evaluate the conversations and interactions taking place on your site.

These building blocks were applied in a recently completed project for the York Region Alliance to End Homelessness. The YRAEH’s willingness to use social technologies, coupled with their online communication goals and use of a staff driven web site has transformed their organization. YRAEH is now actively enrolling members in their network and collaboration groups. They are also using a range of social media tools such as blogging, video and photos to engage their constituents.

In another example, our building blocks are part of the Multi Media Film Council of York Region. My partner Alain Hurtubise (iAutomate) and I developed the first phase of the Film Festival site. Now that the first year of the festival is drawing to a successful close, the Film Festival Council has asked us to broaden the ways in which multimedia artists can interact and share their productions on the site.

To meet this goal we will add features such as photo galleries, video exhibits, membership options, purchasing options, private spaces for networking and collaboration etc. The Film Council is also interested in having us develop a resource bank of multimedia tutorials, social media guides and an online peer mentoring system that can support youth as they develop their skills.

We are using the term “networked social benefit organization” to describe the results that are achieved when you combine these three vital building blocks.

Thanks for  reviewing our building block framework. If any of these ideas resonated with your situation or your organization’s online goals, please give me call or an email. I would be happy to  chat with you about your vision for a stronger more responsive web presence for your web site. Better yet, leave a comment on this post so others can follow our conversation.

P.S. I took the metaphor “From the Balcony to the Dance Floor” from Beth Kanter’s blog post titled The Dance Floor and the Balcony Social Media Training. As usual, Beth’s perspective is spot on. Here is how she explains her metaphor.

I used this metaphor to talk about the importance of having both the strategic view of social media as well as the hands-on experience of the tactical and tools. It is important to shift between the tools and that strategic overview. As one participant noted in the discussion, a big problem she observes with social media within nonprofits is that the leadership is “divorced” from the social media and tactics are delegated to the “young person on staff” without strategic insight.

Related Posts:

Building Networked Social Benefit Web Sites – were getting there

Canada Online With Social Media – implications for non profits

Building Better Relationships in Your Non Profit – Canadian Data Released

Cooking Up a Collaboration Web Site with Drupal and Open Atrium

Brent Uncategorized dancefloor balcony socialbenefit blocks