“Companies that recognize the opportunity and reorganize for this new market are creating competitive advantage. Companies that don’t risk being left behind and losing relationships to their competitors.”–Peter Kim
The opportunity to reach millions of unknown people on social media often clouds one of the most powerful opportunities–to build and maintain strong connections with the people that care about your ministry or non-profit.
Social Media Provides Real-Time Feedback
Pressing send no longer means you have successfully communicated with your fans. Email marketing tools such as Mailchimp reveal that less than 50% (and often times under 20%) of the total list open a given email, let alone read it.
The other side is instant notifications on Facebook when someone likes or comments on an update, SMS or email messages letting you know that someone RT’d or favorited one of your Tweets, and basic web analytics that tells provides detailed information about the people visiting your site. These tools can help you create meaningful content that establishes trust, adds personality, and allows you to directly interact with people around the world.
Reorganize Around Them
Organizational divisions are mostly useless when it comes to organizing your online presence, since the crowd (your fans, followers, sharers, and readers) determines more of your online value than you. The tendency is to structure your online presence around a top-down hierarchy. The emerging trend is to discover how your crowd organizes, shares, and converses online, and mold your strategy around them.
Empower, Empower, Empower
There are many chances to make others feel encouraged, hopeful, heard, and significant using social media. @ replies, RT’s, and shares can be just as powerful as a “viral’ video.