Free Is The New Currency

Jake Brewer over at The Realist Idealist wrote a post about a recent cover story in Wired Magazine by Chris Anderson entitled “Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business.”


Brewer summarizes the article this way:

Though Andersen focuses almost entirely on the application of “free” for business (i.e. how Ryan Air can sell you a ticket for $20 and still make money, or how Comcast gives a DVR away, or how you can get a free cell phone, or…you get the idea), his underlying premise should theoretically extend beyond it. That premise: As an entity or commodity (eg bandwidth, storage, phones, processing power etc) goes digital it inherently moves ever closer toward being free.

And then he asks an interesting question: How does this concept apply to the social sector and global issues like hunger, homelessness, or HIV/AIDS?

It's a fascinating question - and one that's worth some discussion. The underlying element, in my opinion, is that free is the new currency in business because value flows from credibility. Since the internet has shifted credibility into the public, rather than the private, arena, establishing credibility now requires massive public exposure - which can only be done without charging for access.

An expert (Jeremiah Owyang is a great example) now establishes credibility in his/her field by giving away expertise in the open market. Once credibility is established, dollars follow from those who wish to consult privately with the guru.

For non-profit organizations, the question is how to similarly establish credibility in the public arena - and derive value from that credibility.

For example, if your non-profit could establish itself as the undisputed expert in the public arena for - say - distributing resources to the homeless, who else might find that expertise valuable? Couldn’t you offer that expertise to private buyers looking to do the same outside of your organization’s reach? NGOs and city governments pay consultants for those services now - why not pay your organization for its insights and advice?

When you're thinking through your organization's communications strategy, how much have you thought about the value of your experts and in-house expertise? Could they fit into the revenue model of your agency? What are you doing to link their market value to your own? How much freedom have you given them to establish credibility for your organization within their sphere of influence?

You might be surprised to find that by giving your expertise away for free, it suddenly becomes much more valuable.

Teaching Philanthropy

Dragon School in Oxford, England has hired a Director of Social Impact and is planning to offer "generosity" classes, which will introduce lessons on philanthropy as an alternative way to give back to the community.

[photo credit: www.psfk.com]

I think this raises a fascinating cultural question - outside training our own children, how exactly do we as a society train our children to become philanthropists? And how do we give them the tools and information they need to evaluate whether or not their actions are helping - or hurting - others?

For those of us charged with spreading the word about the organizations we believe in - how often do we consciously consider speaking directly to an audience of children? What has your organization done - and what should it do - to specifically reach out to this younger audience?

Bringing Community In-House

Both Facebook and Google are exploring the idea of portable community - which means that soon corporations and organizations will be able to create and embed applications and widgets from both community networks into their own websites.

Facebook's recent announcement (which is converted from very geeky tech-speak to real language beautifully by Jeremiah Owyang - a true industry guru - here) means that organizations will soon be able to move active Facebook onto the organization's main website more seamlessly.

Similarly, OpenSocial will allow anyone to build an application and embed it on any site that accepts OpenSocial (again elegantly converted from tech-speak to real language by Owyang here) meaning that organizations can build and then reuse the same elements over and over again in multiple settings.

Both of these developments are still very new and still need to be allowed to evolve further, but the idea of portability is what matters. Soon your organization's website - on it's own - will not be enough to spread your message or house your community of supporters. Start thinking now about how to create the kind of presence online that will allow users to interact with you wherever they are - and will allow them to act as evangelists for your organization within their own circle of friends.

Communications Planning for your Non-Profit

If your organization has never taken the time to create a formal communications plan - now is a great time to do so. Set aside a day if you can, half-a-day if that's all you have, and work through the details of your organization's plan.

1. Start with a situation analysis - what's happening in your organization? In your sector? In your industry? Be honest and take the time to analyze what has recently changed, and what lessons have been learned.
2. Next move into objectives - what are your communications objectives for the year? What objectives did you achieve last year? What objectives are still outstanding?
3. Examine your target audience(s) - who do you normally reach? What new audiences should you look to reach going forward? Where do your target audiences get their information? How do they pass information amongst themselves?
4. What research is available to you? When needed, do you have ready access to facts to facts and figures that support your claims. Have you made that information available to others? Does your organization do research it can share? Do you need to commission research to show progress from year to year?
5. What are your key messages? Can your staff, volunteers, donors, board members and funders repeat them easily? Do you need to adjust your key messages to be more relevant to new audiences you've targeted? Do your key messages have supporting stories, photos, videos or sound? Are those easily available to press contacts? Do you have a plan to keep those elements updated and fresh?
6. What's your press strategy? How are you going to get the word out about your organization's work this year? Will you focus on generating coverage related to calendar events and milestones? Will you establish press coverage goals by quarter? Do you have an online strategy that extends beyond your website? Is your website set up to help members of the press easily find what they need? Have you identified individuals that are ready to work with the pres on short notice? Do additional people need media training? Are there organizations or groups with whom your organization should look to partner for increased exposure?
7. How will you monitor and evaluate your work? What metrics should you track? How often? What thresholds differentiate between success and failure? Who should have access to the data?

Take the time now to tackle these tough questions with your organization's core team, and set up a session now to revisit your progress in six months. You'll be glad you did.