At a recent session sponsored by Forum One Communications, the Smithsonian's Michael Edson highlighted some of the common misunderstandings about leveraging the online space.
First of all, you are competing with everyone in the world to be source of information. You can no longer rely on your mission and reputation as the primary draw to your content. There are too many voices out there talking about your issues in engaging ways with better search results.
You not only have to find new and engaging ways to get people to your website, you have to disburse your content to key networks where people congregate.
Overcoming these challenges online requires organizations to overcome some misunderstandings:
1. The internet is not a megaphone. It is a new way of getting work done. The days of using solely as a marketing tool are gone.
2. Your audience is external – focus externally. Don’t focus all your efforts on innovation and discovery from inside the institution. Catalyze productivity, innovation and discovery "outside the institution, beyond your four walls. Remember Bill Joy’s Law: “No matter who you are, most of the smartest people work for someone else." Create and leverage your online brain trust.
3. Don’t be fixated on web 2.0 and social media – there’s no such thing as social media, it’s just doing stuff with a computer, everyone go to bed. @elliotharman
4. It's not about the desktop internet – as of November 2009 there were more than 2.5 billion mobile subscribers
One of the most valuable resources that Edson highlighted is the Smithsonian's Web and New Media strategy process, a wiki about the process open to the public.
Edson explained that he had to compress an hour-long talk into 15 minutes. But never fear, he posted the longer presentation on his SlideShare.net account - which I've embedded below.
Michael Edson @ Forum One: Strategy and Audience (long version)
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