New Media Mania

Published on Sunday, June 01, 2008
ARTICLES

This past April the Atlanta conferences - SPN's Leadership Development Breakfast, Heritage Foundation's Resource Bank and Atlas' Liberty Forum - was all abuzz with "New Media." Panels were dedicated to the topic; think tank executives in hallway conversations unleashed questions about it. What is New Media?

New Media is often used to encompass all digital media. This includes digital video and television, the WWW and digital audio. Print media, analogue video and analogue audio are not New Media. However, this very traditional (in nano time) definition is not what most people are asking about.

The bigger umbrella definition combines digital media and Web 2.0 (user-generated online content, such as blogs or social networking sites). This marriage allows for much more dynamic communication and marketing opportunities for comparatively little monetary outlay. As marketing becomes a more instantaneous two-way street, it can help strengthen an organization's relationship with its supporters (refer to "Got Internet Activists," SPN News Jan./Feb. 2008). Perhaps most importantly, it adds a modern arrow to the quiver for fulfilling your mission.

If you are thinking about adding New Media to your organizational repertoire, take a serious look at how you and your staff will implement and make it work. Do this well before you hire someone to oversee the effort. Among the foundational questions to ask are:

• How can New Media support my organization's mission?
• Are we ready to dedicate staff time to supporting a New Media project?
• What training will our staff need for a rudimentary understanding of New Media and how it can dovetail with their work?
• Can we link our New Media plan with our overall media plan with success?
• Is the communications director (or am I) ready to step out of his or her comfort zone?
• What will the proposed New Media project do to our organization's reputation?

A New Media component can: complement well an organization's external communications strategy; supply new ways to coordinate internal projects, such as an organizational wiki; and help create closer relationships with supporters. Review the above questions; once you've sufficiently answered them, you can make a more informed decision about whether, and how, to proceed.