This query is inspired by Pete Miller from the Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company -- and others who have been on to the same theme. As you will note in other threads on this forum, we have begun asking specific questions about addresses, phones and other methods of communication and had some terrific feedback. Before we continue these communication-specific questions, we’d like to take a step back and ask about methods of communication in general. As Pete mentioned in a post a few weeks ago, let us give some thought to “a generic view of media of communication”.
Thinking generically about communication with constituents:
1. How do you communicate now with your constituents, and how do you seeing this communication changing in the future?
2. How do constituents communicate with you now, and how do you see this changing in the future?
3. Regardless of communication method, are there similar properties that you would like to see across the methods of communication?
4. Any other thoughts on the broadly generic topic of constituent communication?
So, a chance to think broader and outside the box, look forward to hearing from you!
Andrew
Hi,
Most of our patrons contact us by phone (those that do expect a response by phone), second via e-mail (and expect a response in kind). We currently contact them via e-mail blasts and postal mail, primarily.
From: Tessitura Next Generation Forum [mailto:forums-nextgeneration@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Andrew Recinos Sent: Monday, March 15, 2010 4:12 PM To: rbernard@smm.org Subject: [Tessitura Next Generation Forum] Communication Methods
Beware the Ides of March! The Next Gen team has second question for the community today...
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Spam Not spam Forget previous vote
To follow up on Ray's comment, here at the Science Museum of Minnesota those of us in marketing do have 2-way conversations with our constituents on a lot of social networks these days:
- Twitter- Facebook- YouTube- LinkedIn- Flickr- MySpace
I'm not sure how these forms of communication may change in the future, except for the fact that there are always new social networks popping up as well as others going away. (we still have a Friendster account, although nothing is really happening there!)
We're also starting to do text messaging campaigns. We've offered discounts on museum admission if people text a certain word - and we're building our list of phone numbers who want to receive SMS (text) communication from us on their phones. Would be fun if this could be done through Tessitura, or at least tracked in Tessitura somehow.
Phone and Email will continue to be important but I think you will start seeing more and more people moving towards social networks for 2-way communication. I would love to see something in Tessitura that allowed you to enter various user IDs in a constituent record (or at the very least, URLs). I would also really like to see a way for Tessitura to easily utilize services like Facebook Connect to make it even easier for people to get into your site.
I also think doing some kind of text messaging from inside Tessitura would be wonderful, although the controls around it would have to be pretty rigid. Patrons might put up with an email being mistakenly blasted to them, but plenty of folks are still paying for text messages on a one off basis and costing them money by sending messages they haven't signed up for would be a good way to lose them entirely.
Hi all,
I was just reviewing a whitepaper about fundraising for the future, regarding the different giving patterns of various generations. I've got some questions about their methodology and results, but one of their conclusions seemed valid and reminded me of this thread. I quote it here:
3. The donor database of the future must track all channels and interactions.Most donor databases are built either for major donor fundraising (an entirely different conversation) or for direct mail. In either case they fail miserably at tracking and accounting for multichannel behavior, or helping design and manage multichannel campaigns. Furthermore, they rarely track participation across the organization outside of donating and attending events. Thenext generation of donors is not just giving through multiple channels; they volunteer, advocate, participate in and, for some organizations receive services, as well as champion the cause to others. Traditional donor database systems based on the old model of financial transactions do not provide the relationship insight the next generation donor needs and expects. The ROIconversation cannot even begin until this need is effectively addressed by a new generation of integrated marketing database products.
The full whitepaper is at http://www.convio.com/files/next-gen-whitepaper.pdf.
Beth