How to Create a Unique Online Communications Strategy: David Roodman and His Open Book Blog

Have a new report, book, or event at your organization and need to build a buzz and get the word out?

Come join us to hear how Center for Global Development microfinance expert David Roodman used online communications, including social media and blogging, to build momentum for his upcoming book about microfinance, Due Diligence (to be released this spring).

Featuring
David Roodman
Senior Fellow, Center for Global Development

Hosted by
Jessica Brinton
Co-founder of Development Communicators Network
Media Relations Coordinator, Center for Global Development

Thursday, December 1, 2011
4:30pm – 5:30pm

at
Center for Global Development
1800 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Third Floor, Washington, DC

Please RSVP Here

As part of an ongoing event series of speakers and workshops for communications professionals in the international development field, the Development Communicator’s Network is hosting a new roundtable discussion at the Center for Global Development (CGD). At the event CGD Senior Fellow David Roodman will discuss how he used online communications, including social media and creating an ‘open book blog’, to build momentum for his upcoming book about microfinance, Due Diligence (to be released this spring). This discussion will be geared toward a communications practitioner audience that is interested in learning from David’s remarkable success in building an online communications strategy.

David Roodman is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development currently focusing on microfinance. His forthcoming book Due Diligence asks bottom-line questions about what we know about the benefits of microfinance, and what that implies for how it should be supported. He wrote the book through a pathbreaking "open book" blog, where he shared questions, discoveries, and chapter drafts. Roodman has been architect and manager of the Commitment to Development Index since the project's inception in 2002. Roodman has written several papers questioning the capacity of common cross-country statistical techniques to shed light on what causes economic development. He co-authored a 2004 American Economic Review paper that challenged findings of World Bank research that aid works in a good policy environment. His non-technical Guide for the Perplexed builds on analysis of methodological problems and fragility in other studies.

The Development Communicators Network is a new group for communications professionals on the 'front lines' of communications in the international development field. The Network provides an online platform for sharing tips and tools, as well as a an ongoing series of communications related events focused around online communications to help professionals improve their communications reach. The group is an informal partnership between professional communicators at leading international development organizations including the Center for Global Development. Learn more about the Development Communicators Network and sign-up here.

‘SM4D: How Others Do It’

This summer the DevComm Network tackled the topic of social media for international development by hosting the event: ‘SM4D: How Others Do It’ with panelists from a range of development organizations including The ONE Campaign (advocacy), the World Bank (international institution), Council on Foreign Relations (think tank), and Mercy Corps (implementer).

As panel moderator, UN Dispatch’s Mark Goldberg kicked it off with the basics of how do you (and your type of organization) use social media to further causes in international development? As the event progressed, the discussion ranged from general tips and tools, to what works and what doesn’t, to how different orgs are using the same tools for very different outreach goals: See the questions and video clips below!

Some highlights:

Melinda Wuellner with CFR talked about how – as a think tank – CFR uses social media as another device in the communicators tool box to push out CFR materials and to help create a brand for their experts. Her challenge is to stay neutral and to ensure it’s clear that although experts have opinions—CFR as an institution does not.

Malaka Gharib with ONE talked about the ways in which social media allows her to share interesting materials from a wide range of development organizations. Her tips for the audience included using materials from other organizations (with permission of course!). Need a pic? Ask an on-the-ground org like Mercy Corps or CARE.

Salma Bahramy with Mercy Corps offered a unique perspective as a communicator for an organization that is really a network of development providers doing on the ground work in high risk regions. She explained how Mercy Corps’ social media presence provides a channel for sharing their stories and cluing their members in to what is going on in a particular region. To keep up-to-date content MercyCorps sends communications folks wherever they can to document with social media, photos, videos and blogs.

Jim Rosenberg with the World Bank gave some of the most overarching advice to all of us social media development folks—he emphasized that social media is successful because it provides and open dialogue. Jim said being flexible and responsive to your followers shows engagement, and that steady consistent action on Twitter and Facebook is also key to keeping your audience tuned-in. He also talked about how these platforms form a digital layer of our lives—the personal and professional mingle, and it’s a good idea to have clear guidelines and standards to know how to act online.

Want to ‘see’ the answers to our burning questions?

Q: How do you manage your Twitter accounts and how many do you manage?

A: See panelists respond: Click here.

Q: Is the strategy different for Facebook and Twitter? What is “worth” more?

A: See panelists respond: Click here.

Q: How do you handle the often personal yet professional nature of Twitter?

A: See Jim Rosenberg with the World Bank answer: Click here.

Q: How do you deal with emerging criticism online or through social media?

A: See Malaka Gharib with ONE unpack how they handled recent criticism against Bono: Click here.

Q: How are you handling new and emerging social media platforms like Google+?

A: See panelists respond: Clickhere.

See and Share the Full Video here:

Still Want More Tips?

Frequency and Timing of Posts. Twitter users should tweet as much as possible as a means to increase visibility (6+ times a day!). It is unlikely an organization will lose followers for tweeting frequently; on the other hand people are likely to start following an organization that is active. It was also suggested that tweets be spaced out throughout the day. Between 5:00-6:00PM is one of the best times to post important information, as many people check their Facebook and Twitter during the evening commute.

Facebook vs. Twitter. The audience on Twitter tends to be professional whereas Facebook speaks to a broader audience. In general, a Facebook “like” holds more value than a retweet. Since Facebook is more personal, a “like” indicates a greater level of engagement. Because of the personal nature of Facebook, it is wise to limit to three postings per day. Photos and links are key.

Media Outreach. Tweeting has a number of advantages over traditional media outreach. For example, composing a tweet is far less time consuming than composing a traditional press release. Additionally, important points can be repeated frequently over Twitter, whereas the impact of a press release fades quickly. Panelists also highlighted the appeal of social media in terms of engaging with the audience; one panelist pointed out, “it’s harder for people to hate you if they know who you are.” So branding is really important on Twitter—and is one reason why personal Twitter accounts are more fun to follow!

Content of Posts. Panelists mainly use social media as tool to deliver news to their audience. Think tanks in particular are careful to never put opinions in tweets. On the other hand, advocacy organizations use social media to push campaigns. One interesting point was that most panelists agreed that social media wasn’t effective for fundraising, and that email campaigns remained more effective for some outreach objectives.

New Forms of Social Media. Panelists briefly discussed the utility of Google+. Several panelists admitted to experimenting with it, but will wait to see if it catches on before they decide to get involved. One interesting function of Google+ that was mentioned was the Hangouts option, which is essentially a videoconferencing application. This has the potential to be a great way to engage with audiences, although some type of moderator function would be needed before that could work effectively.

How can we make this network work for you?

Development professionals from a wide range of organizations gathered in Washington, DC last week to share ideas and suggestions on how to build a network that helps us do our jobs better. Sara Pruneski from the Glover Park Group kicked off the discussion with a brief overview of the communications work she does for the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network (better known as MFAN). We then went around the room to collect people’s thoughts on what they’d like to see moving forward.

Some people hoped to be able to leverage the expertise of peer organizations to reduce the learning curve—several suggested that a session on social media strategies would be very helpful. Others hoped to build collaborative campaigns to reach broader audiences with their research and messages. A graphic designer in the room hoped to find others who were creatively using visual art to inspire people to care about development issues.

Photo Credit: http://www.wegerbauer.com

One specific idea was to design an easy way to ask for help with specific communications questions—an online helpline of sorts. We are now investigating ways to create something like this for our network without further filling our inboxes. Look out for more ideas on this in the weeks to come.

With registration open just over a week, we already have 160 new members! This is great news. It means the online directory has already reached the “critical mass” needed to make it a useful tool. The more members we have, the more useful this will be to all involved so please encourage other communicators to join.

If you weren’t able to make it to the launch event but have an idea for how to make this network useful, please leave a comment below or send us an email. Alternatively, share a success story—an episode in which collaborating with someone outside your organization made your work more effective (even better if you met them through this network!). As one example, Pauline Zalkin, a consultant for Devex, says that the Network has already helped her line up two new guest blog posts for a blog on development innovations blog she runs.

To sum it up, the Network is off to a great start, with a new event for next month already in the works and great ideas to continue to improve and grow the group. Stay in touch on the network’s website (sign up here if you haven’t already) or by following us on Twitter.

Announcing the Development Communicators Network

Are you working to expand your organization's reach through communications -- including social media and traditional media outreach?

Join the Development Communicators Network, a new platform for communications professionals on the 'front lines' of communications work in the international development field. REGISTER HERE.

We'll be providing an online platform for members to share contact information and resources, as well as hosting tweetups, happy hours, and workshops to help communicators meet one another -- and learn from other professionals in the DC area. We hope this network will lead to better collaboration among organizations with complementary missions and ultimately help good ideas reach more people.

Get started today:

1. Join our online network, which includes a password protected contact directory of communicators at our organizations, an interactive calendar, and resources.
2. Use our new Twitter tag #DevComm if you have a communicators tip or question for the development community, and follow us @DevComm411
3. Keep posted with updates on events, Tweet-ups, and other things you need to know.

The Development Communicators Network is an informal partnership between communicators at the Center for Global Development, the Connect U.S. Fund, InterAction, and the UN Foundation. We are interested in any and all ideas for how to make the network as useful as possible. If you have an idea, or if you're interested in helping to guide this project as it takes shape, shoot us an email at devcommnetwork@gmail.com.