The protest movements sweeping through the Middle East right now are a vivid reminder of how powerful the internet is – and how most of us have been wrong about exactly why.
Most of us have spent the last 15 years admiring the internet for its power at content delivery. YouTube, Kindle, iPlayer… there’s no doubt that it’s brilliant at that.
But we’ve mistaken the balloons for the birthday party. Because the real gift of the internet is more profound. What the internet makes possible – in fact, what it makes inevitable – is faster and more open conversation.
The Middle East protest movements may be taking place on granite streets, but they’re being organised on Facebook and Twitter.
The internet connects people like never before, whether that’s protesters in Tahrir Square or customers in a Groupon deal. It moves people previously separated by distance (geographic or temporal, real or imagined) together. Previously long-distance relationships are moving closer and closer to real-time. And as we’re seeing, that can have surprising, world-changing consequences.
Charities need to cotton on, and quick. We’ve been talking about fundraising as ‘relationship building’ for a long time. But in truth, these relationships have been largely arms-length: occasional newsletters, annual reports and, of course, appeals. Our websites are almost all about content: video, images and text… lots and lots of groaning pages filled with text.
This has to change. I’m a writer, so I believe in content. But our content has to get smarter and more targeted. And we need to start putting conversation at the heart of it.
I believe there are some lessons to be learned from an unexpected place… And if you can’t wait for my next post, you should ask me out for lunch.
I’m currently working with charities from the global to the local, helping them grow income and involvement through better communications. For more advice on how to make your charity’s communications work harder for you, please get in touch.
Filed under: Website content, Charitable organization, charities, charity, charity website, communication, donors, fundraisers, getting donations, internet, magazines, Middle East, newsletters, non-profit, Online Communities, online fundraising, supporter communications, Twitter, website
