How do you know what they are saying about you?
08:28, 13 May 2010
.. Posted in Communication, Outreach and General Mngmt.. Link
During my presentations and trainings, depending on the subject matter, I often ask, "Are your volunteers blogging about their experience with your organization?" And most of the room shakes their head "No." And then I ask, "How do you know?" And the faces in the room are suddenly covered in terror.
How do you know what is being said about your organization or yourself in the public spaces online -- on blogs, in captions on Flickr photos, in newspaper articles, and in public online discussion groups?
Before we were all using the Internet (yes, there was a world without the Internet), I had to rely on a clipping service -- paying a company to have their specially-trained staff to go through volumes of newsprint to look for an organization's name -- and on referrals from colleagues and friends. It was tedious work to be aware in a timely manner of what might in print about an organization or individual.
Now, the Internet makes it shockingly easy to stay on top of both traditional print media and public online conversations that might mention an organization or person.
My favorite tool for tracking what's being said about an organization I'm working with, or even just me, is GoogleAlerts. This free service automatically notifies you if there is any new content online in a public space -- including traditional print media that publishes their stories online -- that mentions whatever phrase or phrases you want to track. It won't tell you about email conversations, as those are private, or about postings on private online spaces (a private online discussion group, for instance, or someone's Facebook profile that has all of its privacy settings on -- so long as Facebook keeps allowing such privacy settings, which it may not always do).
You can use GoogleAlerts or similar tools to track:
- Your name
- Your organization's name
- Your executive director's name
- Another organization (your competition, a partner, an organization you aspire to be like, etc.)
- A particular subject matter
- Etc.
Start with two GoogleAlerts at first -- one of just your name, and one of your organization's name. Putting a name in quotes is best, so that you will get only exact matches (I don't want every newspaper story that mentions Jayne and also Cravens, but specifically, Jayne Cravens, and that won't happen unless I put my entire name in quotes, like this: "Jayne Cravens").
You will receive an email when something is published online with your alert name, with a link to the mention. You can set the alerts to come as the mentions happen (for instance, when the blog is posted that mentions your name), in a daily summary, or in a weekly summary.
Be careful when you choose subjects to track; you don't want to track something generic like dogs, because you will be overwhelmed with alerts. You would want to track something specific instead in one alert, like
dogs abuse Henderson County "Humane Society"
GoogleAlerts or similar tools help you respond quickly to newspaper articles, blog posts -- even criticism. And you most certainly should respond online quickly, with praise, with thanks or with more or clarifying information, as the situation demands.
With all that said, do NOT try to shut down a volunteer's blog about his or her experience with your organization. Blogging by volunteers should be encouraged, not discouraged, within the policies of the organization (not talking about confidential information, for instance, or not disparaging co-workers in public).
