Why you can’t have a huge, active community paying attention at all times
- Mon, June 18 2012
- Filed under: Social networking and web 2.0
I’m often asked, “How do we scale our dedicated fan base?”
Here’s the challenge.
A lot of organizations (both nonprofit and for-profit) start with a dedicated following. Then they try to grow their community bigger and bigger. Along they way, they keep talking to their audience as if it was one, homogeneous audience. But it’s not. A lot of people lose interest, because they care about different things. The audience starts disengaging and dwindling. And you might end up with a small audience that isn’t dedicated at all.
That’s the rub.
As Clay Shirky said in his book, Cognitive Surplus, “People differ. More people differ more…and intimacy doesn’t scale.” He says everyone wants three things:
1. A large group of people
2. An active group of people.
3. A group paying attention to the same thing.
It would be nice and easy if you’re in nonprofit marketing to have that be possible. But the problem is, you have to pick two. You can’t have all three at the same time.
So decide. As you grow and your audience diversifies, are you willing to segment that larger group into smaller groups? And talk to each of those smaller groups in a different way, based on their interests? It’s what you need to keep growing. One message does not fit one mass.
Comments
Understanding that your audience is diverse is only half the problem solved, determining what each person’s diverse interest is is the other half of the problem. In conservation of natural resources, there are folks who are interested in preservation of farmland, erosion control, wildlife habitat improvement, water conservation, soil quality, to name just a few topics. Determining what subject to emphasize in an information campaign is daunting to say the least: If it’s too broad, it loses relevance for many with only one particular interest; if it’s highly specific, it leaves out other interests altogether. Bringing new people into your audience often requires a “shotgun” approach until individuals self-identify their interests. Only then can you begin to address their concerns with actions and programs.
Segmentation with a good database, that allows you to do it easily and save these sorts, can make a huge difference in providing more customized outreach. Too often I hear groups say it takes hours…it should take 10 minutes or less to figure out the sort.
I encourage people to think about what I call “value buckets” rather than only the current donor, lapsed donor and prospective donor sorts. If they came to a program or event, that could be a helpful sort until you get to know them better. Or, if they volunteered at a particular program, that is very helpful as it allows you to acknowledge their gift of time too—in a specific way.
Thanks for focusing on this. On a related concept, instead of one elevator speech, I encourage people to have three to four. And, once you have a sense of what someone is interested in, you can then lead with something that resonates.