Charities Learning About Social Media Trends

Last Monday 15 November I headed down to the heart of London to attend the 'Technology for Good' event organised by techmap; a day targeted for the not-for-profits about the latest social media trends. I could describe the day as being informative, a good day with good speakers; but that would all sound bland and ordinary! As the other words to describe the day are fantastic and almost magical as the Soho Theatre, the venue of the conference added that extra setting. The speakers would stride on to the stage do their session and walk off. Very much akin to the format of stand-up comedy and yes, there were a lot of laughs from the speakers...but also heaps of good social media trends advice. The speakers were not a big bill of well-known names...they were great experts who knew their stuff; cutting edge with what they had to share with their audience.

All the speakers were brilliant and here are the ones that I am going to mention...James Poulter, Digital Consultant and Social Comms trainer talked about 'the recommendation economy', a new type of currency; where giving and sharing is part of this recommendation economy. James said that we will start to become known for what we share, which is significant for charities and advocacy; especially as advocacy is recommendation! He set out the three principles for recommendations - Direction (how to get there); Narration (about inspiring and the story) and Association (this is about 'me' and what do I care about).

I want to introduce you to Jonathan Waddingham from Justgiving who said that charities should use the web to punch against their weight as it allows them to do amazing things. Jonathan explained that marketing in the past was direct mail, advertisements in the papers, adverts on radio and TV, which were all about selling the brands. There were no conversations, no sharing...but now through social media trends, charities can tell a story and involve supporters. Jonathan stressed it was important that charities talked about the 'you' in its stories as it was no longer about the 'we'.

It was the young Church Pastor Scott Gould, (only in his 20s) Founder of Likeminds who caught my attention and made me sit at the edge of my seat capturing everything he was saying. Scott spoke about humanising campaigns by putting real people in them. He said Apple went from 'me' to 'we'; where the iPod was insular 'me' product and now with the iPad and iPhone it had become about 'we'...we do this together. Similarly society was too becoming about the 'we'. He also spoke about recommendation and called it 'social proof', saying it was all about creating something bigger than us.

So, was the conference worth a day out of the office...I asked Becky Owens, a PR Consultant who works within the not-for-profit sector... "Very" said Becky. "It has given me lots to think about and how its maybe time I get on board with social media."

Photo Credit: techmap website