Do you want to communicate online+offline without a budget?
In my career, I often came across people with a nice idea, committed to what they wanted to do, but with a single, specific drawback: their audience wasn’t limited to their location.
Actually, their location was scattered.
Internet solved this issue- or so it seems.
Because it is still too “technical”.
Hence, the need for experts- and the associated budget.
The target audience of this post is not a purely online company or organization.
And also if you have the financial resources to have somebody do the “technical” part for you…
…you can still use some ideas from this post to “steer” them- and to understand what they are telling you, beyond the jargon (and, maybe, to avoid wasting budget).
This post is not only to share experience on how to use Internet-based channels, but integrating my experience in doing something offline.
Like political or product leaflets, and then direct marketing for services, helping to organize information events, and so on.
This post is actually a preview of a much longer “how-to” article, that will be published on PartnershipIncubator.Com, under the section “Going online?” (the article will be free).
As a preview, I will cover here only the “launch” or “seed” phase, giving you all the information needed to create from scratch a new mixed online-offline presence.
Beyond the “seed” phase the advice had to be tailored- in the “free” spirit, this will be done with a new approach, that I will introduce soon on PartnershipIncubator.Com
What is your purpose?
Reach your audience
The bare minimum
Planning ahead
As usual, you comments are welcome- but as time is scarce, I will be unable to answer to everybody- please contact me on twitter, as @robertolofaro
What is your purpose?
I will assume that the following is true:
- you are in a position to shape the idea
- you think that there is an audience for your idea
- you believe that both online and offline activities will be needed
- you plan to keep communicating for a long time
- you have somebody on your team (or yourself) able to write
Your online activity could be part of a campaign to “keep in touch” with your customers.
Or a way to attract new people to your cause.
Or, why not, your way of updating your teams about the world about something relevant to your cause, activity, or business.
And, at the other extreme, you might just be an individual that wants to keep in touch with an audience that you get in touch with in your line of work- writer, actor, lawyer, consultant, and so on.
As you can see- I did not consider the typical targets, like fan groups or online gaming or other activities.
Because usually they can find plenty of resources, guidelines, and so on.
The main issue is: you believe that your message is stronger if it is coming directly from you.
Reach your audience
The first lesson is: prepare your message. For your audience.
Because you know your audience.
But also get used to understand that there is a difference between a message and the channel that you use to deliver it.
If watch TV, you expect a certain “structure”, that tell you probably in few minutes if you will keep watching that show.
Instead, when you buy a movie ticket, and sit in a theatre, you are often willing to wait a little bit longer before leaving the theatre.
Each channel has an “unwritten contract” between the “broadcaster” and the “audience”.
Now, stop reading, and wander for 10 minutes on YouTube, searching by keywords subject that of interest to you, and then watch some of the “top” videos. And then, come back.
YouTube and Twitter are, in my opinion, some of the most mis-used channels.
The reason is simple: they are free, and therefore it is easy to build a video, or write a message, and post online.
But most videos created by organizations, companies, political activist are really structured not for the typical viewer.
No, the target audience is really a TV audience or, worse, somebody who payed a movie ticket, and is forced to stay until the end of the show.
Probably because the staff producing the videos comes from the typical media school- not from a specific training (well, we all saw movies created by clip or spot directors: it is the flip side of the coin).
The full article will describe the specific issues linked to the use and structuring of the message for each channel. But this post should be enough to help you start
And avoid the temptation to misuse the available (free) channels to massage your ego- and bore to death your audience 
Actually, you can buy digital cameras that automatically produce (or publish) on YouTube.
And you can send SMS from your mobile directly on twitter.
The best way to learn how to use a channel is to join a channel, and “lurk”- watch what others are doing, and think.
But I will give you a shortcut: in this post I will give you some basic information, and in the extended article that will be published on PartnershipIncubator: Going online? I will give a channel-by-channel set of instructions.
The suggestions will be channel-by-channel: therefore, not only on the online channels, but also on the other ways and means to distribute your message and reach your audience.
And now, a short summary of the suggested channels- and the main use.
The bare minimum
I will assume a first “parameter”: the channels are selected by cost range.
And a second parameter: at first, there will be no dedicated resources, and the main “author” will be either the “idea person”, or whoever takes care of the communication with the audience.
Therefore, I will assume no technical skills- except basic Web browsing, e-mail, mobile text messaging (GSM).
For the video/audio part, I will assume that you will use an external technical expert person or team, as a volunteer or as a supplier (depends on your budget).
But that you will be deciding the message and “steering” the technical expertise according to your purposes.
In any case, also if you have plenty of volunteers and budget, the main suggestion is: if you have “on board” experts on each channel, remember that the purpose is reaching your audience with your message, and interacting with them, not showing your prowess at using the new media.
If you plan is to win a prize for the most creative video or use of twitter, no matter what the message is- sorry, we are not on the same boat
When I write “channel”, I use an extended definition: is any communication mean that has a structure and some rules that you need to follow to reach your audience.
For example: a leaflet or a t-shirt are, in my view, a channel.
A dinner or party or “get together” is a channel.
And, of course: a website, e-mail mailing lists, text message list, twitter, youtube- are all channels.
There are multiple uses for each channel, but my purpose is to share what I share with startups etc: a simple, integrated way of communicating across channels, with no technical expertise, and with limited additional effort to what you would, anyway, do.
Therefore, I suggest to create a “forma mentis” that considers channels as a natural part of your communication.
A more detailed discussion covering all the suggested channels will be published online, with step-by-step instructions.
But, to limit on the bare minimum online ones:
- blog
- just go and register on WordPress.Com for a free blog- you will be able to register something like
.wordpress.com for free, and later on you can connect the blog to a website - Twitter.Com: 140 characters per message, but by using sites like TinyURL.com you can add add linkes and references to anything on the Internet- or use it to “announce” you own new blog posts
- Gmail
- I always suggest to link the “contact form” to a Gmail.Com mailbox, that you can obtain for free, and has all the anti-spam filtering that you need
- SMS
- a.k.a. “mobile text message” the same length as TWitter- but, frankly, use it sparingly; on Twitter, you decide what and when to receive; a mobile is still too intrusive- try to use it only for special occasions
- website
- register a domain (e.g.
.com), also if you do no plan to have a website for now: you can always register (around 10 USD/year, e.g. GoDaddy.Com), then use a free website like Squidoo.Com, where you can create your own “page”, and link your blog, e-mail, etc- all without knowing nothing more than how to write - YouTube
- YouTube.Com allows you to both be a viewer and a publisher; moreover: you can easily integrate videos that you published on YouTube into your website
- LinkedIn.Com it is useful if you have a business audience; originally mainly for marketing and ICT people, now it is attracting a more varied audience- but still mainly business
- Facebook.Com, originally created as an electronic alternative to the usual year end college book, you can now create not just your profile, but also groups, for both your audience/fans and to keep informed your collaborators- all without any technology or cost
- Ning
- Ning.Com if you want more than a website- if you want to create your own community, this is one of many free options; you can then add paid options, to convert it into a full website, à la Facebook (incidentally- you can publish on your own community a video that then appears also on Facebook)
- Meetup
- Meetup.Com: or, use the Internet to meet in real life; it is an organizational tool to keep in touch with a community- or to create a network of clubs, each one following your guidelines, and meeting; it includes also the “mailing list” and “bullettin board”, to keep your members informed
As you can see, I kept my word: none of these option requires a penny- or a technician; you just need a brain and a willingness to manage your own integrated communication.
There are more advanced options, but, frankly, just using properly these channels will help you a long way toward having an online presence.
But this is just a laundry list of channels, how do you use these online channels, and their offline siblings, to communicate your message?
First, by planning your channel use and communication ahead of time.
Planning ahead
This section is better explained by using a case study- I will write in boldface the channels names, assuming that you read the previous sections of this post.
For the adventurous ones, you can do everything by yourself- including updating each of the channels.
Otherwise, have somebody focusing on all the online channels, while you focus on the message; if needed, add somebody instead focused on the real-world channels (meetings, etc).
Timeline for the “seeding” phase:
- create the basic presentation kit; usually, at least one page to distribute, the speech explaining that, and a “concept” document describing the how, what, for- usually, this includes also a logo, motto, two-/three-liner presentation, and maybe also a powerpoint (but, please, keep it to few slides, and a talk on that), or its “Flash” version (useful for posting on YouTube)
- decide how you will make your presence felt- how you will reach the “real world” audience
- create at least the following online presence:
- a Gmail.Com account: this will be the e-mail address that you will give when creating you presence on all the other online “channels”
- a Facebook.Com “secret group” (i.e. does not appears in the group list), to which you will invite all your collaborators
- a Facebook.Com group to which you will invite all the people that will express interest- or will give you an e-mail address
- if you plan to create real-world presence, create also a Meetup.Com group to organize the meetings and so on (at least for your staff; this will save you time and managing manually a mailing list)
- create also a Twitter.Com presence, and link that to both an mobile number (so that you can update it by sending an SMS), and to your Facebook.Com profile, using the application Tweeter, so that everytime you will “tweet”, the status will be updated automatically; the same “tweet” can appear also on your own website- but that is a little bit more technical
- create a YouTube account, to post e.g. your “promo”, and videos from your events in the future
- at this stage, I advise against creating a social network (e.g. Ning.Com- see section above) or “open” Meetup.Com group, as you will probably have to first survive through your initial publishing plan coordination: also a website with more than one-two pages (as a “business card”) would be too much: nothing is worse that seeing groups or sites that have not been updated in ages, if your website is supposed to attract or retain audience; better to just reserve the name, and keep it non-visible
- each real-life event should be used to “feed” the online channels- and viceversa; the meaning is: prepare some material ahead, and start publishing regularly on the online channels, to generate some visibility in the search engines, and keep it up-to-date
- every event should produce material that is posted in your online channels
- elicit feed-back from the people connected to your online groups, and start a monthly or quarterly or weekly (whatever suits you) “short newsletter” on your open groups (i.e. those for an audience beyond your collaborators), by simply adding a new “thread” inside the group; adopt a naming convention that sounds like a magazine or regular newsletter
- all the online and offline activity will help to create enough feed-back and traffic to then justify creating a website or, at least, something to let your online/offline audience to communicate with you- e.g. a ning.com website, and Meetup.Com groups (incidentally: Meetup allows also to create a “ticket” or “subscribption” cost for membership, allowing you to have each real-world meeting group self-sustaining)
And after that? Well, you will probably have more ideas… but you can come back here to see, eventually, the link to the full step-by-step article.
As customary in this unusual blog, each post is updated if and when needed.
Let me know if you need any explanation, or would like a discussion on a specific channel.
Tags: campaign, facebook, gmail, media, meetup, new, publishing, squidoo, tweeter, twitter, website, youtube