I recently did a training at a Conference. One of the other speakers on the Platform enthusiastically espoused the benefits of Facebook and how it would help people get younger volunteers.
I talked about all of the other things people would have to do to change their organisations like change.
I was a bit disheartened to hear at the end of the day, how many said their first action returning to their agency would be to set up a Facebook page. I can understand why. Going online and adding yourself to the Facebook maelstrom will take 20 minutes. Re designing your volunteer roles, restructuring your training and educating your current volunteers on how to welcome new ones is harder and takes more time.
But for most of them the Facebook page will "fail" without other key changes. Social Media is not a panacea. In fact for many organisations, it is a waste of time or distraction. Which is why I was glad to see this brilliant article on Why-your company probably doesnt need a facebook page
Worth a read.
I talked about all of the other things people would have to do to change their organisations like change.
I was a bit disheartened to hear at the end of the day, how many said their first action returning to their agency would be to set up a Facebook page. I can understand why. Going online and adding yourself to the Facebook maelstrom will take 20 minutes. Re designing your volunteer roles, restructuring your training and educating your current volunteers on how to welcome new ones is harder and takes more time.
But for most of them the Facebook page will "fail" without other key changes. Social Media is not a panacea. In fact for many organisations, it is a waste of time or distraction. Which is why I was glad to see this brilliant article on Why-your company probably doesnt need a facebook page
Worth a read.
Martin,
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean! So many people are jumping on the social media bandwagon without understanding that to be of any use it must be couple with a change in strategy as well.
It can be very helpful, but the organisation must understand how it fits in with their broader strategy, and what structures need to be implemented to support it. What's the point of "engaging" people via social media, if there is no methods in the org to respond to or implement feedback?
A social media strategy must be grounded in the organisational model, not a thoughtless add-on, otherwise it'd worthless.