Conservation Districts — county-level natural resource agencies — seem to be getting more serious about marketing and communications. Some of them have hired me (thank you very much), and their national association has made the topic the centerpiece of the inaugural issue of their magazine, The Resource. If you’re interested in a good overview of the fundamentals of conservation communications, this magazine is a good read.
One of the success stories profiled in this issue is the Muskingum (Ohio) Soil and Water Conservation District, which has developed a consistently successful outreach effort to local print and broadcast media. The authors report:
The district feels its media outreach effor ts have yielded great results. Their public events are always well-attended, and their district office regularly fields questions from local residents who have seen, heard or read about district events or programs.
My hat is off to the district for this, because I know how hard it can be to maintain a consistent media relations effort. But the nagging question is, how long will this activity continue to pay off like this? I did a just a very quick Google search, and immediately found some stories that suggest the news media is dying the same slow death in Zanesville that it is everywhere else.
This recent story, ironically in the New York Times, thoroughly sums up the bleak prospects for the news media.
And as the news media collapses, it’s dragging the familiar and time-tested art of public relations down right along with it — pushing nature protection and pollution control organizations to explore related-but-unfamiliar disciplines that generally fall more under the general heading of “marketing.”
If the online variety of marketing interests you, then create an account over at Facebook and check out what some of the river groups are up to — creating “groups” and “causes” to reach out to those who are interested. Here are a few links to explore:
It looks to me like these and other groups are experiencing a pretty mixed bag of success and failure. I don’t doubt that there is plenty of experimentation ahead before the best practices for conservation communications in the social media are established. But hats off to these groups for taking the chance and trying something new! Even of some of the attempts don’t pan out, in the long run they’ll be glad they took a few risks.
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I agree with Eric that social media is probably the next step for most conservation organizations. However, what evidence do we have that these organizations are actually deriving a benefit from Facebook or My Space and not merely transferring their current supporters up on to the “new” media (while potentially leaving behind some existing supporters). I want to know how many NEW members have joined as a result of their presence on Facebook.
I personally thinks Blogs are a nice way to outreach and connect geographically diffuse areas tied together by a common water resource. I’m not sure how effective Facebook is. It strikes me as such a rabbit hole to lost in, and not a venue for sharing information. But I may be wrong on that.