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HOME FACTS & RESEARCH |
Limited Resources, Unlimited Possibilities - special
interest groups and the internet The military have a term 'force multiplier'. It is usually used in the sense of 'intelligence' or information (1). I conducted a search on the internet and located papers suggesting that the ability to modify the weather could also be a force multiplier in the future (2) ... my search also turned up a music CD entitled 'Perpetual Optimism is a Force Multiplier.'(3) !! I stole (borrowed!) the first part of the title from one of our minister's sermons. I hope to demonstrate that the sermon title is a good one for the discussion this evening, as we take a brief look at how the internet can be used by special interest groups such as this as a force multiplier - building on the perpetual optimism that such groups frequently need.
There is a risk of teaching some here to suck eggs, but I'll assume nothing and hope not to bore you. May I say, though, that I am not an internet expert, my experience coming through playing and experimentation over a period of time. My aim is to stimulate thought and to help you to consider how your promotional strategy may utilise all the resources available to you, including the internet. The internet is a wonderful tool which gives a small group such as GALA the potential opportunity to project a presence as great as any commercial organisation. A competently produced website, a sensible email strategy and targeted use of newsgroups can enable a small group to have a presence out of all proportion to its actual size or membership. The internet can be a very effective tool in financial terms. GALA utilises a wide range of techniques to project its message in the traditional manner, for example, you have a printed newsletter, I've seen a number of letters to the editor (and am aware of a number of others which were not published) , and I am sure that writing letters to MPs and the like along with personal contact are techniques employed. In the same way there are a number of internet techniques and facilities which must be used. We'll look at some of these shortly, but let us not forget that the internet is not the 'be-all' and the 'end-all' and traditional methods must be employed in tandem. Let's look at 3 main internet tools ... 3 planks which GALA (or any similar group) could usefully utilise in its force multiplier strategy. NEWSGROUPS WEBSITES I imagine that most of you have at least passing familiarity with email and I believe that GALA uses it effectively for its in-house communications. Email offers tremendous possibilities as a force multiplier. (By the way I am talking about one-way email distribution lists rather than a two-way email discussion group) (4 ) Ignoring the human effort involved in copying collating and posting a newsletter, by the time you take into account the cost of paper, photocopying, and the stamp, a photocopied newsletter will cost around 69 cents for each copy of a 4 page newsletter. A properly printed newsletter will cost you more. Of course, the newsletter may be placed on a notice-board, filed in a library, passed onto another or left in a tea room for casual reading, but the average newsletter will be read by one person (perhaps), and will probably be consigned to the paper recycling system after a couple of weeks. The cost of distributing the same newsletter content by email is a mere fraction of the above. Email newsletters have the advantage of immediacy (compilation to delivery is achieved in a very short time frame) and it is possible to despatch a smaller newsletter, or information release or bulletin, much more frequently and thus to keep your cause in the forefront of the addressee's mind. There is the danger of email fatigue - I receive around 60 emails daily and ditch the majority of them unread - but the cost of an unread email is much less than that of a printed newsletter consigned to the bin. You still have to derive the content - the bane of every newsletter editor's life! - but there is no reason why content cannot be re-used (perhaps with a digest form sent my email and a more detailed form in the printed newsletter). Some suggest that emails do not have to be as beautifully formatted as a newsletter but impressions and accuracy are still very important. You can operate an email newsletter list quite simply using standard email programs though this can be time-consuming and strewn with potential pitfalls for the unwary, or there are programs for list management. There are various resources on the internet which give guidance for email newsletters. Some points: * Use the BCC function of your email program to keep your distribution list confidential and to avoid lengthy lists of recipients (I once received a 5-line email addressed to over 300 people!) * Ensure that you provide information on how to unsubscribe from the distribution list and that you honour requests to unsubscribe - while people seem to accept that you cannot get off a Readers Digest mailing list, the same cannot usually be said for emails! * Given the wide variation in email programs, many authorities recommend a text based message format rather than HTML though this makes it difficult to send photographs * Ensure you link to your website (good planning and liaison with the webmaster will allow you to put any pictures onto the web in time for them to be referred to from the newsletter)
NEWSGROUPS I am not sure that very many 'ordinary' net users are very familiar with newsgroups. To view newsgroups you have to have newsreader software (I use a freeware program, FREE AGENT) and access to a news server through your ISP. Some ISPs limit the newsgroups to which they allow access either because of the content or to reduce the bandwidth they use. Others have unlimited access. At last count, my XTRA account gave me access to over 57000 newsgroups, with just about every topic imaginable (and a number that are not!). There are some traps for the unwary and you may need a thick skin, but I believe that the newsgroups are fertile ground for special interest groups to broadcast their message. It really does not take up much time and not a lot of technical expertise. My suggestion would be that you find a couple of slightly net-savvy volunteers and target some respectable newsgroups such as nz.general, nz.reg.Auckland.general nz.soc and start a discussion.
WEBSITES Offer great possibilities. Numerous theories abound, from the plain and simple content pages to the light and frippy pages with lots of clever graphics and effects. I tend to favour the former 'simply understated' sites though there is a place for a modicum of embellishments to stimulate interest, make more interesting and readable. In the same way the GALA newsletter incorporates log, text box borders etc. Various steps and considerations:
These are not the only force multipliers available to a group such as GALA. A web strategy needs to be coordinated (though an advantage of participating in newsgroups is that any number can play!)
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