On freebies and “work” on the web
So how would I get a web site for a non-profit that has no budget?
We’ve surely heard this question before, no? I’ve spent nearly an entire term in the classroom talking about the value of work and how, if people don’t understand what goes into something it’s hard for them to value it.
For too many people, work on the computer is still voodoo magic that gets done by people who haven’t found serious jobs yet. Sure, some of them get rich doing it, but they’re completely off the mental radar for the purposes of these conversations.
Consider that people are more willing to pay someone to shovel their snow, cut their lawn, provide them with processed foods or any number of other things. But when it comes to building a web site as a promotional vehicle for their own projects, they never want to pay. I realize that for some organizations that rely almost entirely on donations this is not a new thing. And they target companies that might be more willing to offer up this kind of work because they can handle it. But the larger the firm, the more significant the request seems to be.
We have a responsibility if we’re working on the web to no longer dismiss how hard something is. It’s alluring to see like the smartest person in the room when you can or to make things seem easy and not like a bother. But the difference between the paperboy on his bike and the graphic designer on her iMac, is people can watch the paperboy and if he were to fall could probably help him complete his route. If the lady on the computer needs something, her client would be a creek.
Since I’ve never worked strictly as a web person, but rather, a strategist I can understand the need to have quality portfolio work. It’s also important to be able to eat and I can think of few industries where investing significant amounts of time and energy working for free, will yield you the sorts of results you want.
Paid gigs are harder to find, but come with many of the same constraints and demands as the free ones. Using your own discretion is the best way to decide when to choose to do free work and when not to. But if we don’t take the work we do seriously, it’s going to be universally hard to convince other people of the same things.
In response to the question the person asked about a site for a non-profit with no money, I hesitated, before finally explaining a breakdown of the various free solutions online that might serve the purpose he was describing and mentioning how cheap a domain would cost, much to his surprise.
Education trumps misinformation, but if no one provides the information, people will continue to remain ignorant about the work that goes into what they perceive as whiz-bang magic.
Friday Links
Here are some random links that I felt like sharing:
Nomenclature: Product Hierarchies (brandsinger)
First Twitter sample clearance? (Mashable)
Twitter as a teaching tool (Tim Nekritz)
1920s proposal to ban women drivers (Sociological Images)
The album of the week is Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
Interview with Joe Favorito
I’ve been reading Joe Favorito’s blog for a while now and I especially enjoy when he dovetails into talking about college athletic branding and marketing.
Joe has been in the business for over decades and he’s worked for two NBA teams, the US Tennis Association, the WTA Tour and other sports organizations during his time in the business.
He was gracious enough to agree to answer a few questions for me for edustir:
Me: Working across different sports leagues over the years, was there a consistent thing that allowed you to integrate well into each of them?
Joe: The ability to find and then tell good stories is key. Everyone has a story, you just have to be able to listen and help good people figure out what their story is.
Me: Some people might look at different sports and think, while the communications issues might be similar that each would require a particular acute awareness to the nuances. Was this something you studied prior to joining a new organization?
Joe: It’s all the education process. I can safely say that when I went to tennis I was not a huge fan, I was not a NBA fan when I went to the Sixers and I had no clue about mixed martial arts (MMA) when I first started at the International Fight League. You learn very quickly by listening to the experts, no matter what the business is.
Me: I focus on higher education and one of the things that’s become apparent, is despite the big business of some revenue sports, there still seems to be a lack of deftness with colleges and universities leveraging the web as effectively as the pros, despite the differences in their customer bases. What do you think it will take for them to begin reallocating their print dollars into new media? Is there a pro parallel that you noticed over your years on that side of sports?
Joe: I think that it is the still the old adage, “the shoemakers kids are worst shod.” College athletics still tend to be very insular for whatever reason, and the fear of investing when there is such turnover slows the growth. Those that invest as brand will grow, it just takes time.
Me: It seems we read stories constantly about a college athlete who gets suspend kicked off a team for something they write on Twitter or Facebook. We see it with pro athletes less, but as a senior communicator, do you think there are ways organizations could get in front of these types of issues or are they just part of the evolving mediums of communication that exist today?
Joe: All evolving. Years ago, sports radio was going to be the death of sports…then blogs, then college sports, at one point it was television. At the end of the day, the medium evolves and adjusts and the level of professionalism seeks its spot.
Me: Do you think smaller, non-revenue generating athletic departments (NCAA Division 2 & 3, NAIA) have as much of an interest in (athletic) brand strategy as much as larger, better known schools?
Joe: They certainly should. It is all about drawing students and finding new streams of revenue and there is no reason why smaller schools should not invest in their brand as well. Mom and pop stores do it, minor league sports team do it…why wouldn’t local colleges who are especially connected to the local community?
Thanks to Joe for doing this, I appreciate it and I hope you do too! Be sure to check out his blog, as it’s a really great resource.
On social networking in schools
Schools banning social networking sites is counterproductive. The reason you still hear so many stories about people getting in trouble about something they’ve done online, is no one has been educated. The teachers don’t often know how to use social web tools, many parents are afraid of the technology and the students therefore just do what kids often do — learn from friends or on their own through trial and error.
Some companies think there an opportunity to sell schools educationally “relevant” social tools at a premium. These sorts of redundant tools frustrate me. It’s one thing to protect and encase localized information within an ecosystem that keeps it there. But it’s another thing to adopt costly half-measures that are endemic only to that system and leave the end users no smarter than they began.
It makes far more sense to teach educators from administration down to the classroom about the power of social media and how it can be leveraged effectively. I don’t expect everyone to use it and if they did, I’m not sure it’d be that useful. But for some enterprising teachers, there are a myriad of creative ways to employ the bevy of tools out there. I’m sure some of it is already happening in a forest where few can hear it.
It’d also be great for students to understand the power of the web. Sure, it means they’ll sometimes use what they learn and experiment. Sometimes, those experiments won’t please people in charge. None of this is new, though. With the mainstream having made a full embrace of the social web, it’s time to teach our children how to be smart online.
Seeing Red: Eastern Washington to install red turf field
When you’re a non-major college team playing at the second highest level of college football in the country, any sort of positive national attention is a good thing. The decision to install the nation’s first red turf field at Eastern Washington University has given the FCS-level team more mileage than anyone probably could’ve imagined.
It began with a $500,000 donation from alumnus Michael Roos is now plays in the National Football League with the Tennessee Titans. His donation was followed by a $50,000 donation from ESPN broadcaster Colin Cowherd. All of a sudden, the $1 million dollar fundraising campaign to make the field a reality was in full swing.
Not to mention a ton of feedback — much of it negative — about the possibilities of a red field. People love tradition and nothing says tradition like a green field. Boise State University’s football team is the only major college team with a field that’s not green — it’s blue — and their recent ascent to the upper echelons of the sport have made that novelty more prominent.
EWU athletic director said that “the uniqueness of the red field was able to generate an amazing amount of publicity.” He’s not kidding. When you’re a small program raising six figures doesn’t happen every day. There are programs at the FBS level that would be happy to raise half a million dollars in less than a year, so for a program at the FCS level to manage to do it is a mini-coup within itself.
It’s astounding that in 2010, people are asking questions about whether a different colored field might somehow affect the way people play the game. You can look no further than a sport like tennis, where the playing surfaces are still different, yet the ball, equipment and players are all the same. At least in tennis, the questions are well-founded. The ball plays differently on grass and clay than it does on a hard court or carpet.
Even a national championship would have a hard time generating the sort of publicity the red field has for EWU, so they’re smart to capitalize on their fifteen minutes of prominence why they can. Since they plan to install the field in time for the fall of 2010, it’ll just give them an opportunity to show the field off to a nation that will be at least captivated with a passing interest.
Maybe there will be a Facebook contest to name the new field? (My vote: The Red Sea) Perhaps an opportunity for a cross-marketing opportunity or a way to offer up naming rights to make the field pay for itself?
For recruits trying to decide between EWU and another school, this kind of publicity could tip the scales in their favor and I’m not just talking about potential football players or even student-athletes.
In a world where everyone is doing many of the same things; creating new traditions within the confines of your values is a great way to cultivate a brand that alums worldwide can be proud of. People might have no idea where EWU or Cheney, Washington are, but they now have a reason to look it up.
That’s what I call a big win.
