This came up at the ambITion roadshow and is my new favourite theory on social engagement, both online and offfline!
The 90-9-1 principle dictates that while 90% of people are reader/observers, 9% are more actively engaged as editors of content, while a mere 1% are actually creating anything in the first place!
A fascinating insight into how users participate in social communities… read more at http://www.90-9-1.com/
In the charitable sector we to tend to be a little more aware than other sectors of the power of working with volunteers. This week the commercial sector seem to have taken it in a a whole new direction, with BA aksing their staff to work for free. Not quite the same thing chaps…
As reported in the Third Sector this week, skilled professional volunteers could be a vital tool in supporting organisations struggling in the current financial climate. This point was raised by the presenter Jon Snow, at the Charity Trustee Networks annual lecture. As fantastic as it sounds, he did manage to clearly and concisely explain:
He [Snow] said people in his newsroom would not be receptive to charity appeals for volunteers to hand out soup, but would be willing to lend help with web design and communications.
How are you tapping into this unclaimed resource? Please do share your experiences.
Sharing Spaces is a savvy little report for NCVO about co-location. Supported by the Baring Foundation, this NCVYS project was designed to enable a number of national and regional voluntary youth service organisations to happily share premises in London. The findings and guidance would be useful for cultural organisations looking at the same issue.
I couldn’t agree more… for a while now I’ve been getting twitchy about how the word community is being used to cover all kinds of groupings. Now Nathan Gillat’s over at Social Media Today has posted some great thoughts about this.
In short – Nathan’s saying, and I agree, that marketers (and others too) are using community to describe groups they’d like to reach. Whether these groups are real or not is another matter, and something that you’ll only find out by doing some research, often at a local level. Nathan comes up with a useful breakdown of the elements that make up a community:
When we talk about community engagement here at Audiences London we’re talking about reaching these identifiable groups in ways that allows for a 2-way dialogue.
Charles Leadbeater is back with a new essay, commissioned by Cornerhouse in Manchester.
The Art of With looks at the way in which communication, participation and engagement has shifted dramatically due to the power of the internet age, specifically web 2.0 – where we are empowered to give as well as take from the digital world. What does this mean for the arts? How can artists, audiences and stakeholders now make an impact on cultural provision? And how should they? What does it mean for the traditional model of programming and producing?
Rather cleverly, as well as publishing the document (under a creative commons licence – give and gain!) they’ve created an Art of With Wiki – to allow readers to comment on the document and have their voices heard. Very “with”.
This essay is being followed up by a seminar about the issues raised in the paper, at Cornerhouse on the 24th of June. To book your place visit the Cornerhouse website. If you do go, be sure to say hello to Sarah, our Strategic Projects Director.
I was at a great conference yesterday:
Although the event was dominated by corporate PR types, there were some really interesting case studies raised. Craig Elder, Online Communities Editor for the Conservative Party demonstrated that he and his team absolutely understand how social media should be used to get your message out there. I think the essence of this understanding has come from the delicate position of representing a political party – you have to listen to people, not force your message down people’s throats, and that is precisely what was reiterated by several of the speakers:
LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING ABOUT YOU AND THEIR LIVES BEFORE YOU JOIN THE CONVERSATION!
I was delighted to hear everyone back this up! You wouldn’t barge into a pub and announce at full volume how great your next exhibition is would you? No. Sit down, talk to people, find out what they’re interested and find a way to introduce what you think is of value to them about your brand.
Also, I can Highly recommend Steven Davies’ (no, not that one) blog at www.prblogger.com, where he’s just posted a copy of the presentation that he gave about Twitter – WTF is Twitter and why should I care? Very useful for you newbies, I’ve just upgraded to TweetDeck, so I’m an expert myself. Read: proper geek now…
There’s so much to say about the conference, why not search for #dontpanic in Twitter - lots of comments were made throughout the day. And while you’re at it , feel free to check out my tweets – emmclean
The latest briefing from the Arts Council’s 05/06 Taking Part survey reveals a profound correlation between childhood experience of the arts and later adult arts attendance. According to the report, exposure to the arts as a child dramatically increases an individual’s chances of being an adult arts consumer, and is almost as strong a predictor of arts engagement as education.
The research emphasises the importance of current policy and initiatives designed to encourage young people’s engagement with arts activity; projects like Find Your Talent and the current under 26 free theatre campaign, A Night Less Ordinary (check out Anwen’s post to see how AL are involved in this one). Instructively titled Encourage children today to build arts audiences for tomorrow, the full Arts Council Taking Part report is available to download here.
P.S. This might be old news those of you receiving Audiences London’s bi-weekly newsletter. If you’re not already on our mailing list but would like regular tasty morsels of audience candy like the above, sign up to the newsletter here.
The Directory of Social Change have aired their thoughts on BIG Lottery’s proposal to allow the public to have a say win who receives public funding. Their response was a resounding NO! What do you think? You can read the article here.
Hi bloggers
As AL’s Community Engagement Coordinator, I’m going to pitch straight into my first post with news of the latest communities policy from No. 10. The strategy released this month, Fair Rules for Strong Communities, is the government’s approach to ensuring there’s more equality during the credit crunch, or in the words of Hazel Blears (Sec of State for Communities and Local Gov) ‘no-one should get a free ride’. Measures include putting pressure on credit card companies to treat customers fairly, tighter restrictions on who can claim benefits (no longer available for single parents whose children are 7 and over) and a more visible Community Payback scheme – for which the jackets below have been designed…
Emma
Pak
Hannah
Dan
Penny
Helen
Bryony
Alfie
Anwen
Sarah
annetorreggiani
