Top Five Digital Strategies for Social Issue Non-Profits

ITVS recently posted Scott Kirsner's top five digital strategies for social issue filmmakers, a resource for independent producers to promote their work.  

The list is actually relevant to a much wider audience-- especially NPOs that deal with social issues. Here's the list (a little retooled for relevance):

1. Start a blog or create a bare-bones website to generate awareness of what you’re up to; this can be a way for potential collaborators, sources, funders, and media-buyers to get in touch with you early on.

2. Participate and post in existing online communities related to your organization’s topic.

3. Maintain a database of everyone who you’ve collaborated with or who has expressed interest in your organization so you can tap into their network when you have something big on the horizon.

4. Consider ways to allow interested parties to get involved with your organization; since many organizations deal with similar topics (education, medical conditions, social issues), some have “open-sourced” their research, which increases networking capabilities, collaboration, and relevant data.  In fact, the Autism Consortium just highlighted the importance of collaborative data sharing in their October 2008 Symposium.  

5. Think about posting less formal "work in progress" from your organization's daily activities, events, or support staff, which will help build an online presence for your organization, and it will help start conversations with your community with participants at every level.

And here are the Top Five Marketing and Promotion Strategies:

1. Leverage the lists and websites of membership organizations related to your organization's mission to communicate with anyone in the online community (that's everyone) who may be interested in getting involved.

2. Connect with bloggers who cover the issues addressed by your NPO, and ask to link to them on your blog or interview them for your blog.

3. Collect email addresses from the visitors to your website; you can notify them when you have an event coming up.

4. Post content on video-sharing sites or social networking sites, with links back to the your main site; this can help introduce your organization to new audiences.

5. Consider allowing Internet users to comment on your blog. This adds their perspective to your work and, ideally, helps to start a larger conversation about the issues you want to address.

ITVS has a wealth of amazing content and advice for anyone interested in spreading a message in the digital universe.  Even if you don't have any video content to put up on the web, this site will help you think about what your strategy should be for integrating new forms of media into your marketing efforts.