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.
