Making Sense of and Making Cents with New Technologies

During the iMA (Integrated Media Association) Conference in February of this year, one recurring theme kept rearing up for me – I was completely lost whenever the program/tech folks would start talking about all the new technologies they were using and getting ready to use.

Back at WXPN we held a briefing on the conference and our Online Director, Jeanne Griffin gave a 15 minute presentation on what she thought were the major themes and new ideas from the conference.  In non-tech speak.  A-ha! 

With that, I was able to start thinking about how I might use some of these new technologies in my membership strategies.

I had hoped this session at the PRDMC would do for attendees what Jeanne’s presentation did for me.  Did it?

Brian Reich from Mindshare Interactive Campaigns presented on the many ways that commercial organizations were using new technologies to market their products. 

Two recurring themes came out of his presentation – 1) we are at a distinct advantage over many other organizations because we already have loads of content.  We just need to get to the act of delivering it over the myriad new formats available online. And 2) collect cell phone numbers.

At XPN, we’re fortunate.  We have a full web team devoted to creating a great site (in fact, we have TWO sites now!).  Not to mention a programming staff that just “gets it.”  We are delivering our content in many, many ways via our sites.  Visit www.XPoNentialMusic.org  to see what I mean. 

My job (and yours) is to go through all of our online offerings and begin to see how I might use various pages and delivery methods to post fundraising and marketing messages.  This, of course, needs to be done with the same care and delicacy as our on-air fundraising and it will be a group effort at XPN to make sure we are not over-doing it.  That means I push for all I can get and the rest of the management team pushes back until we reach a middle ground.

As for collecting cell phone numbers, I think this is the most important piece of advice I got all week.  It is akin to when we heard “begin collecting e-mail addresses” in the mid-90s.  I have a call scheduled with Mindshare Interactive today to follow-up on this and get some advice on exactly how.  I’ll keep you posted.

Here are a few notes that Betsy Harman was smart enough to jot down:
Mobile Phones and E-Mail:

• 80% of communication is accomplished via e-mail, so e-mail remains important for organizations to focus on. 
• However, mobile phones are the piece of technology that people spend the most time with.  
• While Text messaging isn’t as widely used now in the U.S. as it is in other countries, 4.5 billion text messages are sent each year in the U.S. 
• Within 2-5 years, Brian said that texting will be overtake e-mail. 
• For young people, e-mail just isn’t fast enough. 
• In order to send text messages, we need cell phone numbers.  Start collecting them now!
• With mobile campaigns, opt in is required every month.
• PayPal is offering text to buy and text to give.

There are some very innovative ways to use technology for fundraising.  The American Cancer Society did a virtual walk at secondlife - http://www.secondlife.com

Selling sponsorship on program related blogs is a fundraising means we should be exploring.  The program Grays Anatomy has 3 blogs -  all very innovative - and all are sponsored. 

Suggested putting sponsor messages between segments within a podcast rather than at the start of the podcast. 

To read Brian Reich’s blog about his presentation at the PRDMC, check out http://www.thinkingaboutmedia.com/

- Deb Ashmore - Director of Individual Giving, WXPN,  Philadelphia & DEI Advisor for Online Fundraising