Project SharePoint – Round 2

I figured it was about time to keep my proimise to update you periodically about our implementation of SharePoint. 

SharePoint is up and running and our IS team has tweaked the DNS records to allow for simple access to the site without having to remember a big long URL.  Just a nice one word access to the site.  The following pieces are being used at this point:

• Calendar – at this time limited to a group calendar for tracking days in and out of the office.
• Wiki – this is probably the biggest piece as we continue to load in all of the organization’s projects and cross-reference them as relevant.  This is taking the most work at this point.
• Shared Documents – departmental procedures have been uploaded into a convenient spot so that anyone can access the procedures without having to hunt through a confusing array of folders and subfolders.

The rollout is slow for a couple of reasons.  I want to make sure that we run it through a bunch of testing to see how it is going to function before opening it up to the majority of the staff.  Secondly, we have had some challenges in the department that have taken some focus away from the development so things have slowed a bit.

 I will say this – the biggest advantage that I can see for our application of SharePoint is the Wiki functionality.  Since this application is staying inside the firewalls, there is not a need for external sharing and some of the functionality is more than we need.

Anyway, onward we go.

Who Is Telling Your Story?

Or maybe more accurately, who is telling stories about you?

I was recently doing some surfing to find web references to my employer and discovered some interesting things.  Not that this is particularly new to anyone reading this space or other blogs in the list to the right.  If you aren’t telling your story in as many places as possible, it is likely that somebody else will be telling stories about you.  And yes, there is a distinction. 

The information that you post on Wikipedia about your organization may be consistently different than information that is posted about you by someone else.  If you allow another individual to control your story, you may be sorry. 

And what about Facebook?  Same thing.  Allowing others to dictate the interaction may not be what you want.

Now, I am not saying that you bite the hand that feeds you.  Actually, what needs to be done is create a consistent, accurate access point to your organization.  And then let your donors and constituents make use of the information.

Do you have a FaceBook group created?  Maybe you should think about how you might make use of the space to inform, encourage, and motivate your donors.

Do you monitor Wikipedia to see what is being posted on your space.  It is, after all, an encyclopedia that provides information about your organization.  Has someone done a “dump and run” on your space?  Go clean it up.

Is someone posting your media files to places like YouTube, BrightCove or other hosting sites?  Plan a release strategy that beats them to the punch and grabs viewers back to your website.

Hopefully this helps to stimulate some thinking about making use of the spaces that are available to you.  Take the time to search various locations.  You might be surprised at what you find out about yourself.

Technology vs Touch

Or maybe this should be titled “Lack of Communication Kills”.  In fundraising, we occasionally run into situations where “high technology” and “high touch” do not coexist.  Here’s an example:

The web team creates a wonderful presentation using video about a particular project and posts it on the website.  The presentation is probably done in some version of Flash so that it is viewable by the thousands of people who come to the website each month.  The video is on the website for 2 weeks.

A staff person (responsible for foundation interaction and grant proposals) sees the video for the first time when visiting the organization’s website.  The staffer calls the web team to request a version of the video to be put on DVD or CD so that it can be personally sent to some high level contacts that this staff person has with certain foundations that have supported this project or are likely to support it.  The staff person is told, “Why would we do that when it is already available to millions through the web.”

Here are some lessons to be learned from this:

1. Communicate, communicate, communicate.  All areas of the organization should be informed of creative pieces that are in production so that departments can weigh in with possible alternative uses.
2. Don’t assume that because a production piece is potentially going to be seen by millions, that it will be seen by the people that you most want to see it.  Have alternative delivery methods available.  These will often be high touch opportunities.
3. Don’t assume that because it is going to be published on your website that it will be seen at all.  In all fairness, it probably will but again, look for alternative delivery platforms.  The wider the better.
4. Your website is one of the key fundraising, donor relationship building tools that you have.  It reaches a wide audience on at least a surface level.  However, your web team should not be dictating fund-raising strategies.  Especially when it comes to higher level contacts

Hopefully that provides some food for thought.