Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog
Getting To The Point

Live from New Orleans - NTC

I was in Miami speaking about social media yesterday at a conference of Children’s Hospitals, and today I’m in New Orleans for the Nonprofit Technology Conference.  Tomorrow Mark Rovner and I are giving a session here called, “The Seven Things Everyone Wants: What Freud and Buddha Understood (and We’re Forgetting) about Online Outreach.” The gist is that all the technology tools on display here at NTC and all over the web are shiny and sexy, but they only work when harnessed to basic human needs, interests and desires.  In other words, it’s human psychology - not the tools - are what ultimately leads to your success or failure online. 

Or, as my colleague Jono quotes his friend Nicole, “Don’t be a fool with a tool.” I like that.

You must tap into what people want: they want to be seen, heard, loved, belong, find meaning.  They don’t blog to blog - they blog to be heard.  They don’t join groups because they like Yahoo! groups, they join groups out of a fundamental need to connect to others.

I have a new, simplified explanation for what constitutes web 2.0 or the world of social media.  It’s about three human needs:

1. The desire to be heard
2. The desire to be seen
3. The desire to connect to others

That’s what drives everything from Facebook to Dopplr to Digg.