By Feargal O'Kane from NICVA
Published on 29 May 2007
The NICVA Members' Day on effective online communication was held on Tuesday 15 May 2007 at NICVA. The successful day saw over 80 NICVA members grapple with issues as diverse as YouTube, Flickr and online grammar.
You might think online communication is all about creating expensive websites and hiring experts to sort out all the technology, but it doesn't have to be like that. Effective online communication is all about building relationships and collaboration and there's a raft of online tools out there to help us do just that.
Get your message across more effectively
The NICVA Members' Day looked at how you can make the best use of online communications in your organisation. The training was focused on demystifying the web and giving practical skills to help you get to grips with using the new technology and writing effectively for the web.
Video from the day
We decided to take some footage during the day to give those members who couldn't make it a taste of what they missed. It's only about 4 minutes long, so have a look and let us know what you think.
NICVA Member Days
NICVA Member Days are held twice a year in response to the needs of our members - through the member survey and member requests.
The next member day will be held in the autumn and will deal with Finance and Human Resources issues.
Tools, tips and techniques for communicating online
You may have heard of web2.0, social web, blogs, podcasting, flickr or youtube. You might think these things are just for the 'web-savvy' or 'techie' types, but the technology is surprisingly easy to use.
Stephen Gray and Feargal O'Kane took participants through a whistle-stop tour of the new tools and technologies available for voluntary and community organisations to help them communicate more effectively.
This session explored some of these easy to use tools and provided an insight into how to set up a website/blog and publish photos and videos online.
To help participants see the practical applications of the technoligies and the benefits that effective copy can make participants were asked to put themselves in the position of a small rural organisation - Lisnaskea Community Cottage - that is fighting for survival.
In 30 minutes participants saw that it was possible to take the organisation from no website to an interactive site incorportaing a blog, photosharing and video.
Effective writing for the web
No matter how impressive looking your site is users will only return and engage with your message if the content is relevant and professional.
Too often the actual content on a website is overlooked, or organisations assume that the same content will work in print and on-screen.
John McCormick, Information Officer at NICVA, took participants through the basics of adapting content for the web as well as more practical hints and tips around managing email lists and groups.
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The day was awesome and I got lots out of it.
Thanks again to everyone who presented on the day.
Paul
31 May 07 @ 13:00