Addie McGowan, a team member at Bigfish Creative in Memphis, Tenn. since 2010, talks social giving and how to monetize social media with the Oxford/Ole Miss chapter of PRAM on Wednesday, March 26.
My colleagues and I are always trying to develop professionally. Thankfully, we’re allowed the opportunity to participate in the Oxford/Ole Miss chapter of the Public Relations Association of Mississippi.
Each month, we meet to hear from guest speakers from a variety of different backgrounds throughout the public relations field. Recently, we heard from someone with an outstanding knowledge of social giving.
Addie McGowan oversees all the social goings-on at Bigfish Creative, a marketing/web development firm located in the swanky digs of Minglewood Hall in Memphis. More importantly, Addie and the folks at Bigfish have an incredible knack at developing online giving sites that actually elicit a response from their clients’ patrons – an act that is incredibly difficult to achieve in the non-profit world.
Not only did Addie discuss some of Bigfish’s work with their clients (check it out, pretty cool), but she also talked about how we, as an institution, can better relate to our audiences. My big takeaway from her presentation came in the form of this quote:
“Treat your alumni like students and your students like alumni.”
That’s a pretty earth-shattering quote (for me, at least). At its core, it means that as institution, we should be constantly reminding ourselves that our alumni loved their time on campus and love to be reminded. Meanwhile, our students today will be the alumni of tomorrow and audience upon which we will rely.
So thanks to Addie for being such a great presenter and here’s to more cool PRAM speakers this spring.