Charities have been urged to take inspiration from the Arctic Monkeys at a one day conference hosted by the Charity Commission yesterday.

Charities can benefit from social media advances to reach a worldwide audience, said representatives of the Charity Commission, the independent regulator for charitable activity in the UK. Citing the success of the Arctic Monkeys through MySpace and the success of 'citizen reporter' Kim Hye Won who writes for the Korean user-created news site OhMyNews, the conference pointed to social networks, blogs, user generated content and broadband TV as potential areas for expansion.

Ed Milliband (pictured), Minister for the Third Sector, said, "The public are rightly demanding more say than ever before in how they interact with government, the media and civil society.

As expectations rise it is increasingly important that government and the media come together with the third sector to answer the challenge of how to increase opportunities for public participation."

Dame Suzi Leather, Chair of the Charity Commission, said:

"New and innovative media techniques are developing more rapidly than most of us can keep pace with. We are entering an age of participative media where anybody with access to a computer has the potential to contribute in a unique and valuable way.

The challenge for charities is to harness this potential and channel it into genuine social change and community action on the ground. This conference will give charities a chance to think about how best they can tap into this vast potential and use it to tell their story."

NMK will be addressing these issues and more at its Goodness 2.0 event on April 10th. Do please join us.