Digital Outreach

I like writing stories and this is why I will provide a bit of context to the term “digital” and the first modern machine to use digital technology.

A Brief History of the Digital Revolution -

Alan Turing, the inventor of the modern computer was born this month (23rd June) in 1912. The term "digital" comes from digitalis or digitus meaning toes/fingers, which were the main tools of calculation for a long period of time, and are still used today in everyday life to do so. It was therefore only natural for this term to be used to represent almost all of the computer/data science we do today. Turing's machine was the first computer to use the now universal digital binary language of 0 and 1. Earlier attempts including the very first successful attempt to create a computer by Charles Babbage relied on decimal numbers. It is sad that Turing was not alive to see this digital age unfold.

Digital technologies are electronic tools and resources that generate, store or process data. Social media, search engines, big data, smartphones, smart watches etc are all examples of the digital revolution we are living in. Indeed, this very article is another example of the digital age. Modern computers came into fashion in the 1960s, as computers were starting to be used for advanced calculations. This led to a growing need to connect networks and as a result, the Internet was born. The 1980s brought about the commercialization of the Internet and it was sure to become the marketplace of the future.

The first push that made a difference for Digital technologies came in the form of Smartphones. The first one was developed by IBM and they have, since then, come a long way. You can text, fax, email and maintain your calendar from your phone. This for me was the precursor of digital outreach. The second real push came when smartphones met the Internet. It has been a happy marriage between the two technologies. What is there that an application on a smartphone can't do?

You want to exercise, download the app. You want to do grocery shopping or order food without going out, order on the numerous applications such as Deliveroo and UberEats. You are in France and want to talk to your family on another continent - Whatsapp, Viber and Facetime will bring them to you. Hack, you want to date, download Tinder and tons of other Tinder-like apps. Smartphones coupled with the Internet place the whole world in the palm of your hands. This for me was the advent of Digital Outreach in the modern world, where marketing and information plans from big and small companies alike involved multiple digital channels through one person.

Digital Outreach -

What is it?

Outreach is the activity of reaching out to a population that had no previous access to a certain service, wherever they may be. An outreach strategy simply means the way and format you deliver your message and services.

Digital outreach further created a huge need for advanced digital products. This has since become a feedback loop. Digital products such as smartphones, applications, advertisements and social media have made outreach easier and changed the way of reaching the masses. In turn, this outreach has created a bigger demand for newer, more advanced digital products. This in turn feeds Innovation.

But digital outreach was already present before COVID, what’s changed?

Necessity! Before COVID, digital outreach was an option, an important option, but still an option. Since the crisis, it has become a necessity.

What are the most frequently used resources for Digital Outreach ?

• Social media channels - Twitter and LinkedIn : Sharing the latest news with the community in a fashionable manner is Twitter's strong point, whereas LinkedIn is more often used to share the ethos of a company, employer branding, details of Twitter news, job vacancies etc. LinkedIn is fastly gaining notoriety as a complete professional digital outreach media platform, as it continues to add new tools such as LinkedIn Elevate to increase the visibility and boost the impact of content.
• Social media channels - Facebook : FB is considered more of a personal social network platform. This is exactly the network a lot of companies can benefit from. For example, a start-up based on the needs of working mothers - babysitting etc can benefit immensely from a social network like Facebook. For activities such as a cooking workshop, registrations can easily be managed on a platform such as Facebook. But it is important to note that Facebook is not limited to such activities, as it is also a major resource for crowdfunding activities, gaining the attention and trust of the crowds.
• Blogs and LinkedIn articles : Articles can be one of the most subtle forms of outreach and can also be the most direct form. For eg. a Linkedin article can be written for advertising new job positions and explaining the role of each position in it. This article can now be shared as many times as needed. In the more subtle versions, an enterprise does not directly communicate about what they do, but about the broader subject (which is of course related to them). This brings traffic and awareness.
• Events and Hackathons : One of the best ways to reach a massive audience effectively are events. Events can be tailored to suit specific audiences. For instance, a start-up challenge can be best formulated as a Hackathon. It is fun and at the end, a real solution might come out of it. Future collaborations coming out of the connections are bonus.
• Webinars are one of the most common outreach activities to make your technology, science and future ideas reach the masses. Webinars make a talk or a presentation easily accessible and it can be listened to at a later time, thereby removing the scheduling conflicts. This has made the information flow very easy and accessible. Webinars are amazing, but they are not the easiest places to network. To make real connections, smaller intimate events with only 5 to 8 people can be executed. These ones help foster real connections as there is enough time to talk and converse.
• SEM : Search Engine Marketing. By optimizing search engines for keywords searched on them, SEM brings a particular option as the top search result. This results in the page getting more views and in turn, raises awareness and knowledge of the product in question.
• The resources for outreach are never ending. Websites, emails, applications and advertisements can all serve as outreach resources. It is the strategy that is chosen for outreach that decides the resources to be used.

How is the best outreach strategy selected?

Each company has its own needs. The finer needs of the enterprise can depend on their funding stage, product development stage and the personality of the enterprise itself. The outreach strategy is a direct reflection of this need. An enterprise going for crowdfunding can use Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn stories to spread the word faster. Stories are indeed getting more visibility than the content posted on the page.

Emails are at times the best for developing client-specific businesses which need a high degree of personalization every time, whereas new start-ups can readily be born out of hackathons.

To summarize, Digital outreach is not just the modern form of communication, but it pushes the market to develop more digital products and thus feeding the cycle of Innovation.

Written by Dr. Saurabh Tak, edited by Dr. Daisy Harwood