Google Buzz And Blogging For Non-Profit Organizations

by Elias Shams
One out of five people I know in DC works for a non-profit in town. There are at least one or two of such organization at every block in DC.  So, no wonder.  Although, the non-profit organizations have been pretty savvy in using  social media, I have been hearing mix messages about the way they have been using them compare to the profitable companies though. They do realize the importance of the social media for their survival in such tough economical condition, but not many of them have been using it effectively. In particular, their blogging method and their lack of familiarity with the social bookmarking tool Google  released last month,  Google Buzz.

It looks like they are all in pretty good hand using Twitter and Facebook. So, here are a few important tips I put together with the focus on Google Buzz and blogging.

Google Buzz Geo-Location

Although, this feature has created some nasty buzz for the average users, but I think it is a cool feature for the corporate and the organizations.  Consider the ability to integrate geo-location with Google Maps into your social network activity. Your audience will be able to see  your social activity on the fly.

Buzzing about the a campaign to a large audience with geo-location features lets your audience see in real-time all the people talking about the campaign in their area — especially in densely packed areas like Washington, DC.

Buzz can potentially broadcast a cause marketing campaign to a much larger audience than say Twitter or Facebook. The geo-location feature, can give a program a real-time that can’t be replicated on another social media platform.

Google Buzz also connects your organization to various type of people

Google Buzz allows people to publish private streams to specific contact groups. This is a perfect way to include staff members who don’t use social media in important real-time conversations. You can intelligently blend workforce conversations between various type of people, savvy and non-savvy, old and young.  Crossing the streams may enable better communications.

Ability to manage your public dialogue much better using Google Buzz

The public threaded conversation stream is one of the best feature Google Buzz can benefit your organization – a much better feature than Twitter’s disjointed @reply conversations and hashtag-based threads and the facebook Wall.

You will be able to maintain a clear stream of thought around a topic, and at the same time, do it in a public forum where someone we might not be able to envision being interested could join in.

Although Google Buzz can help with crowdsourcing ideas and conversations but I wouldn’t use it as a replacement for project management tools like Basecamp, simply because once its out on Google buzz, it has less walls than facebook, and when you are talking about business processes who do you want seeing behind those closed doors?

Overall, I think Google Buzz has a lot of potential and is great for connecting multiple conversations. My concern is that it requires people having Google account and using gmail. The reality is not everyone using GMAIL.  There are a large number of people out there using gmail though.

Another factor is that Buzz needs those other networks, like Twitter, to survive because it pulls in from them. Although, I would recommend anyone using buzz not add Twitter as one of the feeds it pulls in. Simply because most people who follow them on buzz probably follow them on Twitter and tweets are often mentioning the things you also mention in your blog or is used to promote those other spaces, plus it just fills up the stream to quickly.

And, finally your blog

Hope you have one. If not, you need to build one or shut down the organization.

To build an effective blog, you need to identify an objective that links to your communications goal or theory of change and, of course, identify the audience.

First, why your organization must blog
Blogging for your organization is vital to creating a public personae and making your organization accessible. We are in an era that is is very important to be public and accessible. You will be surprised the awareness your organization will receive in such short period of time by blogging (assuming you blog right).

Second, Pick the right blog name and subject
Start by defining the audience with whom you want to have a relationship. Presumably, they are your customers, partners, suppliers . You should think about what kind of information they would find valuable. Take this blog “Awesome DC” as an example. My intention with this blog is to show the world Washington, DC is much more than just Politics, corruption, and scandals. Frankly, I am not sure of that myself either, but will try I have been covering everything happening in Washington DC, with the focus on the technology, parties, clubs, events, social media, and of course the awesome Washingtonians.

Make sure the topic is something that your organization is passionate about and write on a regular basis. It is very important you will have fun doing it.

Third, Your Blog’s Voice
Be authentic… Be transparent… Get inside your readers’ minds, and do NOT be offensive or take big public risks

Fourth, ask for feedback
You should ask people to give you their feedback in the comments. People love to offer feedback and sometimes are just looking to be asked.

Based on my experience, the problem for a large organization is that the person that should be blogging, the one that should be the voice of the organization, is “too busy to write” or frankly, doesn’t have the writing skills.

Writing can be intimidating. But the payoff for successful blogging makes it worth overcoming all of the reasons not to. I think if more leaders worked closely with professional writers to help them find their voice, help them communicate, and assist them until they were comfortable doing it on their own, we see a lot more successful business blogs.

You may want to consider teaming up with a  “social media” vendors that can help you to present your organization in the best light possible.