Corporate Social Review Magazine 3rd & 4th QUARTER 2012 | Page 94

clear communication styles send a direct message that people can identify with. These awareness campaigns are aimed at getting people to recognise the work that greenpeace are doing. Other way of creating awareness campaigns could be to get existing community members to share your message to their communities, running awareness driven events and placing advertising campaignns. This stage of the process can cost money to achieve but it does not need to, take some time to build a creatively strong idea and bear the costs in mind, often cost restrictions force us to thinks more creatively than we ever have before. People responding to your message As people listen to a message they will either ignore it, continue listening or begin engaging. Once people make a decision to follow you online they are beginning to test the waters. If the previous stage could be likened to a ?rst date, this stage would be the next few dates. This is the time where people have decided to listen to you more, to begin understanding you more. They don't necessarily trust you yet but they are intrigued by you story, vision and personality. During this time we should be focusing on communicating the right message, taking time out to listen to what they have to say and responding to the questions in as much detail as possible. People experience you The person has jumped past the ?rst few dates and now they are keen to commit to your organisation. They understand and believe in what you are trying to do and want to get involved. Once people get involved they begin to experience the innerworkings of you organisation. This is an exciting time but it is also an important time to make sure that they enjoy the experience. During this time I would suggest creating opportunities for these people to share their experiences online. These experiences become personal accounts of what its like to be involved in the project. People reading these experiences are often encouraged to get involved because they see how easy or great the experience was. People become ambassadors Once people have been involved in your organisation for a while they ?nd they have become committed to the cause and the vision of the organisation has become their vision. These people are the most valuable people in your marketing drive. Equip them! The One Campaign lets these people blog for them. A great way to get their experiences and message out to the world. There are many ways to get these people involved, the key will be to let them share that involvement online to their online communities. This will inevitably lead to smaller communities being built by these ambassadors that are working towards your cause. GivenGain is the social network you cannot live without GivenGain is a social network that connect non-pro?t organisations (causes) with ambassadors (activists). The best advice I can give to any non-pro?t organisation is to get onto GivenGain and begin using it to equip people getting involved in your organisation. An expert in social media, digital customer experiences and helping business engage customers and employees through the use of digital technology. Mike Saunders the CEO of DigitLab, a digital marketing agenc y working with local and international organisations to build a meaningful relationship with their customers. His interest lies in how people use technology, believing that technology is only useful if people use it. Understanding how people use technology helps business use technology to build value into peoples lives. Creating better experiences, more useful products, deeper relationships and more engaging ideas. Contact Mike Saunders: [email protected] Cell: 072 479 2326 www.tomorrowtoday.co.za 92 CORPORATE SOCIAL REVIEW