Difference between revisions of "Issues Forums for organizations"

Revision as of 18:27, 8 November 2010

Participation 3.0 - Inclusive Social Media

How your organization can use Issues Forums effectively.

This handout is designed to help cultural and community organizations effectively participate in neighborhood and community-wide Issues Forums. This is part of our Ford Foundation funded Inclusive Social Media effort.

Unlike your organization's own website, Issues Forums (and similar online spaces like a Facebook "community" page) or a "place blog"), are community streams of content and interaction. Instead of having to build your own audience or EVmail announcement list at great effort, access to local residents is handily presented to you. You may use it when you need it provided what you seek to post fits the local scope of the forum.

At the very local level, small organizations find it very difficult to maintain up-to-date websites that rarely see visitors. While we recommend a basic web "who are you" presence with your own e-mail announcement list (and/or a blog with an e-mail subscribe option) and simpla Facebook Page, for most organizations leveraging the "shared" community stream is highly strategic.

Ready to post? Here are some tips on how participate effectively as an organization.

• Announcements
  • Share them. Stick to local scope.
• Your News, Photos, and Video
  • Don't wait for the local media to discover and report on you, get out there and report on your own activities and events. Have some pictures or video from a community event? Share it. Our software allows you to post photos without having to edit or resize them simply by e-mail or the web. With video, simply use YouTube or Vimeo and post the video using that service's "share" web address.
• Your Issues
  • Introduce them as discussion topics.
• Advocacy
  • Invite people to your local campaigns, share major updates (but not all), see Issues Forums for community organizers
• Monitor the Pulse - Be in the loop on community conversations.
• Individuals Matter - Posts from organizations must be posted by named persons.
• Be Prepared for Questions and Comments - The "cost" of posting to a democraticallly conceived Issues Forum is the chance that participants will have questions or comments. While more likely at the city-wide level, some may even challenge you or post a different opinion.