I have thought quite a bit about whether or not blogging, facebook and twitter are really worth the effort, or rather what the correct balance should be between more traditional communication and the new social media. In typical business parlance I am worried about ROI, return on investment. Does it make more sense for me to spend my communication time writing e-mails, making phone calls and designing newsletters, or sending off tweets into the void, updating statuses and writing blog articles that might just well go unread?
To be honest I don’t really consider ROI that often, as I am not in the business world but the non-profit humanitarian sector. I do quite a lot of things that do not make much business-sense but in which there is a lot of common-sense. I give away much more money than I make. I often help people who can be of no use to me at all. I go out of my way to find the least and the lost that no one else is willing to spend the money to help because it is inefficient and unproductive. I do this because I believe in the brotherhood of all and the larger community, not to make money but because helping one another is our duty as human beings. Perhaps in this brave new world of connections and community online, common-sense has something to share with business-sense.
Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters
The business model is to track every effort made against the amount of return gained through that effort. Efficiency then requires that we maximize efforts that bring in greater returns and weed out useless exercises. This might work well in the corporate world where customers are reduced to numbers and bottom lines are everything, but in the connected world of community both online and for smaller non-profits there is more to consider. The old saying goes, “Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.”
- Goodwill – Communities have long memories. A specific action might not have any immediate result, but continued interaction within a community will build reputation, trust, and positive image that will influence decisions in the future.
- The Tip of the Iceberg – The network of connections that we can track are only the tip of the iceberg. For every person that we actually talk to, there are friends, neighbors, relatives and countless others who are influenced indirectly through them. They will never even show up on our radar until they have need of us.
- Relationship – Once goodwill has been established, people in your community, online or otherwise, will be willing to do things for you even though it brings them no immediate benefit either. People will step up in times of need simply because it is the neighborly thing to do.
So perhaps it is better for us to be less efficient in the short-run to become more effective in the long-run. I liken it to the constant dilemma of “the walk-in”. At times it seems that I can never accomplish anything because there is always someone at my door who just dropped by to chat. I might be frustrated but of course I put on a big smile, offer them a cup of coffee and prepare to “waste” the next half-hour or so chewing the fat. My productivity might suffer, but in reality I know that the personal visit always trumps whatever important project I might be working on, because it is these people who will be donors, volunteers, partners and advisors, they are the ones who will believe in what we are doing and move heaven and earth to see that it happens, all because I took the time to sit down with them, hear their concerns and share my heart. A half an hour not wasted but well spent, but with precious little data with which to track it.
Twitter
Youtube
Facebook