Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Organizations Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change

Which Social Networking Analysis Term Best Describes Virgin America?

I've been in Washington, DC for the Network Effectiveness and Social Media Strategy Map working session for Packard Foundation Grantees convened by Monitor Institute.   This is a post to help me identify what I don't know about social network analysis and mapping tools with the hope that you'll fill in the gaps in the comments.

I flew back from DC last night on Virgin America.  Unfortunately, the weather in DC kept us on the ground and in the airplane on the runway for a couple of hours.   They permitted the use of cell phones, so I tweeted that even if you are delayed, it's a pleasant experience on Virgin America.   A minute later I noticed Pistachio's tweet about flying Virgin America from Boston and Glenn Stratchan direct messaged me asking what seat I was in because he thought we might be on the same Virgin America flight. 

Since I couldn't use my computer to get on the wifi, I took out my session workbook to review my notes on the module about "Understanding Your Network" which included the basics of social network analysis and mapping.    

Source: Monitor Institute

The visual above is a social network.  Each dot represents a person or in network jargon, a node.  A connection between people is called link.  The definition of links or how you're connected is defined however you want.   Some examples:

• A follower on Twitter or someone you're following
• Someone on your mailing list or rolodex
• Someone you know well enough to call
• Family members
• Organizational reporting
• Communications flows
• Information flows

Basically, connections can describe anything you want to gather data about to make decisions to improve your network or reach your goals.   I've summarized some suggested processes below which simply good research/decision-making frameworks.

Connections can have directions flows, one-way or two-way.  For example, a one-way connection on Twitter is someone who follows you, but you don't follow back.   A two-way connection is someone you follow on Twitter and follows you back.  (BTW, there's an interesting discussion about this on David Armano's blog).  Connections also be strong or loose.  For example, on Twitter, a strong tie could be two nodes or people that engage consistently in two-way conversation. (See this map from Malina).  David Armano likes to talk about how Twitter can strengthen loose ties (two people who are connected on social networks, but don't know each other in real life or very well)

A Hub is a person who has a lot of connections to other people who may not be connected or know one another.  Hubs look like starbursts on the visualization. A cluster is a bounded group of people who are connected, but have few connections to other nodes.  (Think of a Tower-like organization where staff aren't encouraged to network or within siloed departments.)  The Core are people who do most of the work (think wikipedia editors.) The periphery is edge, people who may more connected in other networks and are lurking in your network or dip in.   The nodes on the edge can infuse the network with new ideas or energy if they brought into the fold. (Read Power to the Edges)

How would you describe Virgin America in social networking analysis and mapping terminology?  

That's not a real question, just the idle thoughts of a slightly exhausted airline passenger stuck on a runaway on a Virgin America flight who can't use the wifi to get back to the clouds to summarize the rest of the of learnings/advice about social network analysis that came from Twitter while I was live tweeting.    

(Interesting, one of the back channel comments was the definition of an expert.  My definition is that your knowledge lives in the clouds.   Dave Witzel tweeted it.  At that moment, I realized the limitation of knowledge in the clouds and the definition.)

 
Draw your network

After the presentation on Network Basics (materials here), there were two exercises.  The first was to look at the different social network analysis maps posted on the walls and figure out what was going on.   The next exercise participants worked in small groups using a low-tech method to "doodle out" their networks (magic markers and flip chart paper.)   This exercise reminded me of an exercise I used to do in workshops 12 years ago with nonprofits to introduce the Internet, "Draw A Picture of the Internet"

Some of the maps in the workshop were created with social analysis mapping software.  This is an area of tools and techniques that I have wanted to explore in further depth, but haven't.  

One of the questions that also came up in my mind was: What's the difference between a community of practice and a network?  I tweeted this and Valdis Krebs had a great answer:

The network is the "structure" upon which the community dances and self-organizes... builds network as it needs it.

I used the tag #packnet and asked for the "Poor Man Dummies Guide to Social Network Analysis and Mapping Tools."   Va;dis Krebs and other Twitter users pointed to some great resources which are listed below along with others that I discovered.

One question:

If you are looking at a social network analysis map, you are probably looking for patterns.  Beyond the basic descriptives above, what are the different patterns you might see and what does these mean?  In other words, how do you analyze and apply the information?

The best resource I discovered that answers this questions was "Building Smart Communities Through Network Weaving" by Valdis Krebs and June Holley.   The maps are used to improve the results of your network.  The network map is a snapshot of where your network is "as is."  Network maps are "talking documents" or prompts for reflection and strategy brainstorms.  Network maps support "what if conversations."

The paper goes on to describe five general patterns:

1. Birds of a feather flock together: nodes link together because of common attributes, goals or governance
2. Diversity is important.   Though clusters form around common attributes and goals, vibrant networks maintain connections to diverse nodes and clusters.
3. Robust networks have several paths between any two nodes.
4. Some nodes are more prominent than others.  These are critical to network health
5. Most nodes are connected by an indirect link in the network.

The paper also describes how networks evolve over time - and you can observe this visual patterns.   The paper discusses network weaving techniques to help evolve a more effective network - one that is more woven.

Click to see larger diagram

Some questions related to the network analysis tools that I don't have the answers to, but have started scanning and asking for answers.

• What is a good framework for designing a social network analysis mapping project so you get the most out of it?
• What is a good step-by-step approach for analyzing your map and making decisions?
• Why map your network with a marker and paper? Why map your network with a software tool?
• What information can a social network analysis software tool provide that simple low tech method cannot?
• What are the different tools available? What are the features?   How technical? How expensive?  Are there low cost techology tools for less technical people that provide a resulting map that is useful?

Process Steps

One important lesson is that you should really spend the time framing the problem or your goal.  Also, social network analysis mapping may not be your only source of research - so if you are looking at a complex network and multiple research sources think about staging and phasing.

Angus Parker over at WiserEarth suggests the following process for using simple network mapping tools - these steps could be used with low tech, low cost or more complex technology tools.  This is adapted from a framework developed by Roberto Cremonini from the Barr Foundation illustrated in the diagram below:

 

 

Christine Egger from Social Actions left a thoughtful comment on my Facebook profile about process:

 

I love these social network maps. My concern is that they don't necessarily help you highlight who's missing -- who could/should be a part of your network (because their interests are at stake, because they're buy-in is required for your effectiveness, etc.) but isn't. Do you know anyone who's working specifically to draw attention to the "holes" in our networks? June Holley comes to mind -- need to explore her work more closely -- but any other resources would be appreciated, too.

 

Roberto Evaristo suggested:

When selling to executives, many times I start by showing a picture of a produce section of a grocery store and ask: What is missing here? (and then move to the analogous question that is perhaps close to their heart) What are the gaps that if found could signal opportunities? How to you reallocate resources to the most important gaps?  This set of questions is very difficult to answer, of course -- ultimately, I am asking them "what is that you do not know that you do not know?" (and this is not meant as a play with words).

Within a bounded problem space we have figured out a way to consistently answer that question -- and have been using the result for acquisition integration, sales, knowledge transfer, and much more.

 

Some Off the Wall Ideas To Synthesize into the Process

I've been intrigued by social data exploration and wonder what offline processes might be adapted to working this with a software tool?

The Micro-Sociology of Networks

View more Microsoft Word documents from David Armano.

Also, I wonder how you can integrate some of the thinking for external communication that uses social networks/social media?

The tools

I was not able to find a taxonomy for social network analysis tools.  So, I'm roughly dividing these into two categories: Low-Tech and High-Tech

Low-Tech Approaches

These use tools like crayons and paper and process exercises. 

• Marty Kearns has a diagnostic tool over in his Advocacy 2.0 wiki that gives you a good set of questions to ask after you've created a descriptive drawing.  

• Net-Map Tool Kit is an interview-based low-tech mapping tool that helps people understand, visualize, discuss, and improve situations in which many different actors influence outcomes in a community or network.   It includes a step-by-step guided approach.

High Tech Approaches

• KeyHub: Angus Parker from Wiser Earth has written a review for KeyHubs.  It looks like a social network mapping software that can analyze informal networks within an organization.  There is a tour on the site, free trial, and some case studies.  

• TouchGraph:  Marty Kearns recommended TouchGraph because it is an easy tool if you have a relational dataset.   

• Issue Crawler: Rob Stuart recommended Issue Crawler.   You need a good set of URLs to feed it.  More information can be found here.

• Valdis Krebs - Orgnet Software

• June Holley's Smart Network Analyzer: Sarah Carr from EBM a demo from a webinar (here is the demo).  Software designed by Valdis Krebs and colleagues.

• Rob Cross  Organizational Network Analysis Software

Additional Resources 

Visual Mapping and Diagnostics for Scaling Change: From Steve Waddell, Iscale - this paper has done the impossible!   It has explained social network analysis and techniques in a way that is easy to understand for those who are not experts.  With the onslaught of information and greater complexity in our work, visual diagnostics are more and more important.  There's also a paper that Steve co-authored about a methodology for social network analysis.

Stephen Baker, BusinessWeek - How Much Is A Friend Worth?

Gaurav Mishra, Using Network and Influence Analysis to Map Social Media Consumer  Behavior

Valdis Krebs, Managing Core Competencies of the Corporation: Organizational Network Mapping
Valdis Krebs, Social Network Analysis: A Brief Introduction
Peter Plastrik and Madeleine Taylor, Network Power for Nonprofits and Philanthropy
Bruce Hoppe and Claire Reinelt, Social Network Analysis and Leadership Development
Bruce Hoppe Blog - Visualization Category
Vladis Krebs, Building Sustainable Communities Through Network Weaving
Mark Surman, Hybrid Organizations
Peter Morville's Social Network Analysis Synthesis
John Kleinberg's Course on Networks
How Kevin Bacon Cured Cancer
CD3: Community Impact
Visual Complexity

To The Twitterverse and Beyond: A Taxonomy of Twitter Tools from Brian Solis

Click to see larger image
Flickr Photo By @briansolis and @jess3

Last October, Brian Solis created the definitive list of Twitter Tools, a handy list of Twitter helper applications by key categories.   Given Twitter's explosive growth and crossing the chasm to more mainstream adoption, the palette of Twitter tools has most definitely expanded as Brian notes in his post to more than 1,000 apps.  I noticed this a few months ago, when a few of us analytics geeks fooled around with creating a Twitter Monitoring and Analytic Tools Taxonomy.

That's why I'm was so excited to see that Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas have collaborated on a "alpha" version of the "Twitterverse" of Twitter tools covering a broader taxonomy of uses - from relationship management to work flow support and beyond.

You may remember that they also created the much replicated and shared  Conversation Prism - a map to help communications, service, marketing, and community professionals more effectively navigate the many social media tools. They are asking for feedback on what is missing, suggestions for categories, and other ways to improve the tool.

I would love to see a clickable version.  Better yet, I'd like to see a wikispace that included descriptions, links to tutorials, and tips. 

I've used the Conversation Prism diagram in almost every presentation or training I've done since Brian created it (with a credit to the creater and a mini advertisement to read Brian's blog).   The reaction I often get from folks in the room is a feeling of being overwhelmed.   So, what I'd also like to see is the 101 version of the Twitterverse perhaps for the next reiteration of the WeAreMedia Tool Box.

Thanks Brian and Jesse for a terrifically useful map to the Twitterverse. 

140 Smiles

One of the best things about moving to the Bay Area is that I can attend some of the Social Media Conferences without having to get on an airplane.  I'm attending TWTRCON next weekend!

When I registered, I also signed up for the pre-party which will benefit Operation Smile. I know about Operation Smile because Renee Hamilton, social media strategist for the organization, was one of the participants in the WeAreMedia workshop back in February. She also came to SXSW where she launched a small experiment using taking photos of people smiling.

I felt compelled to support Renee and her organization.  I hope you will send them a little twitter love too.

Here's the summary of what they do:

Founded in 1982, Operation Smile, headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, is a worldwide children’s medical charity whose network of global volunteers are dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children and young adults. Since its founding, Operation Smile volunteers have treated more than 130,000 children born with cleft lips, cleft palates and other facial deformities and the organization has a presence in 51 countries. In addition to contributing free medical treatment, Operation Smile trains local medical professionals in its partner countries and leaves behind crucial equipment to lay the groundwork for long-term self-sufficiency.

The 140 Smiles campaign is aimed at raising funds for 140 of these reconstructive surgeries. Operation Smile has partnered with TWTRCON and Common Knowledge, the first Twitter for business conference to be held in San Francisco on May 31st to kick off this campaign. The 140 Smiles launch party will be held Saturday, May 30th at famed San Francisco restaurant Le Colonial and will be streamed live by Twooting.com. The event will be hosted by newly named Twitter Smile Ambassador, Stefanie Michaels. Known by over 500,000 Twitter followers as Adventure Girl, Stefanie is a media entrepreneur, travel expert and Top 100 Twitterer. She will also be a featured speaker at TWTRCON.

So, keep an eye out for the 140 Smiles Campaign. It will launch on May 30th. Search the #140smiles to find other people who are participating. Prior to May 30th you can Tweet your support of #140smiles. I thought I'd give them a little help with a blog post and a tweet. Why don't you?

The Twitter Book: Must-Read Book for Simple, Practical Advice

This is one book that I'm definitely taking with me on the big move, but I'm also giving away a copy too. (I got one free copy because my tweets are featured on pages 121 and 159). Anyway, this small book about Twitter is packed with simple, practical advice for getting you up to speed quickly.   It is one of better designed how-to tech books I've ever seen.

It's a quick read, I read it in an hour.  But it is real value is as reference to keep by your desktop.  It's the most easily digestible, least complex technical book I've read in a long time. 

The text is almost haiku like, illustrated with example tweets.  I think of it as a kinda Strunk and White for Twitter with brevity, wit, great examples, and simplicity.Each color coded section covers:

• Getting Started
• Listening
• Conversations
• Sharing Information and Ideas
• Reveal Yourself
• Twitter for Business

This book is not only of value for those of us in the weeds using Twitter everyday, but also a great book to put on your manager's desk.  I've been using Twitter now for three years and been following the conversation about how to use this tool, so I thought I would not learn much new.  However, I learned so much because of the zen-like simplicity of the book's design.  But, the book also inspired me to improve my Twitter use.  How many technical how to books inspire you?

What I like most about the book is the information design and the more is less approach.  There's plenty of white space - it is fun to read.  I like the smaller size too.   It's also filled with visuals which is really good for someone like me who is an off the charts visual learner.   

I'm keeping my copy, but I have one to give away on this blog.  So, if you want to win a copy, leave me a comment answering this question:

• How is your organization currently using Twitter?  What are your objectives?  What audience do you want to reach?  How are you measuring success?

Smithsonian: Crowdsourcing An Institution's Vision on Youtube

Over the weekend, I took my kids to the movie, Night of Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian.  They thoroughly enjoyed watching the exhibits come to life.  (My kids especially liked the Einstein bobbing heads).   Now the Smithsonian Institution, in a flash of cloud like behavior, is coming to life on the social web.

The Smithsonian Institution is in the midst of a huge strategic planning effort, with new media as one of the focal points for its future.  It looks like their strategic planning process is being extended by the social web, going beyond the traditional flip charts and chocolate chip cookies of all-day planning retreats.  While they may be also be doing focus groups and surveys, it looks like they've added a research channel: YouTube. 

Welcome to Smithsonian 2.0!

They're doing some crowdsourcing via their YouTube Channel.  The Smithsonian has opened the conversation up to the world and is inviting people to submit a one-minute video sharing their vision for the Institution's future.   The question they're asking:

Given the news ways of acquiring and sharing knowledge through technology: the internet, social networking, video sharing, and cell phones—where do you see the Smithsonian's museums and websites going in the future? How can we make education more relevant to you in a digital age?

There's a handful of videos already submitted and just gotta love this one with the baby.

The text of the invitation on YouTube is as follows:

We're looking for a few friends and fans from around the world to help us form the future Smithsonian experience. A revolutionary Web and New Media Strategy project is underway, and we invite you to collaborate with us as we envision a rich new media future for the Institution.

They're asking folks to join this YouTube group and submit a one-minute video by June 30th.  I wonder who they are reaching out to, why they selected YouTube (are there other places where people who are interested in the future of the Smithsonian gather?), are they reaching out to new media professionals as well as others?

It will be interesting to see how they summarizing the feedback and illustrate how they plan to incorporate it into their strategic planning. 

Update:  Found some additional materials from Nina Simond at Museum 2.0

Everyone's Smithsonian

View more Microsoft Word documents from Nina Simon.

Video of her lecture here. Conversation about this on the WestMuse Blog
in the comments.   There was a response from someone at the Smithsonian who answered Dave Cormier's query about why they are doing it and how to nurture the conversation.

Mike Edson is really the guy to address this, as the Web & New Media Strategy is his: http://Smithsonian20.si.edu but since I’m here:

The Voice Your Vision Project is just one more facet of the overall info gathering process. Video contribution seemed like a potentially engaging way to gather some public input, and YouTube was an easy place to set it up. This wasn’t a heavily analyzed endeavor, just another little piece of the puzzle.

The process has been designed to be very wide open within the Institution, so this seemed a easy and fun way to gather some input from the outside using New Media.

Nothing cynical, and no worry about losing funding. The Secretary is a Social Media booster. However, getting an institution as large as ours to undertake an integrated approach to New and Social Media is a big task. Building our systems from the ground up to both meet the internal needs of our researchers and other specialists while still filtering up to meet the needs of our constituents via our websites and our presence on an ever widening array of external social sites is going to take a lot of resources. We need begin to get a view from a lot of perspectives, and this is just one more slice of the pie.

So, not only are they opening up a two-way conversation, they are using social media best practices: listening and experimenting. Also being very transparent.

Mashable Post: 4 Ways Social Media Is Changing the Nonprofit World

My first (solo) guest post was published over at Mashable.  It's called "4 Ways Social Media is Changing the Nonprofit World." 

Looks like it trended on Twitter with the phrase "Non-Profit World"

The post is an overview on this theme and I am looking for stories about how your organization's use of social media has changed the way your organization works.  Not just fundraising and marketing, but programs, leadership, management, and organizational structure.  How are you becoming a more networked nonprofit?

Have  story?  Leave it in the comments.

The first step towards being a networked nonprofit: Simplicity

Books

If you're wondering why I've been a little scattered lately, it is because I'm about five weeks away from  moving 3,000 miles across the country.  This has been no small task - closing up a house we've occupied for twenty years, finding a new place to live and the right schools, and countless other details.  All in the backdrop of cross-country commuting, getting acclimated to a new working environment and systems, and the added stimulus of everything being unfamiliar.

A big move forces you to let go, pare down to essentials.  The less stuff you move, the cheaper the moving costs.  I've been looking at everything I own with a question - "How essential is this?"

Take for example, my vast book collection which I've accumulated over the last thirty years.  (Okay, I confess I'm a book addict)   Unfortunately, books are heavy and when moving costs are based on weight, well, sadly, I had to say good bye to a lot my friends.   Over the past couple of months, I've been shipping them off various nonprofit libraries, friends, and doing giveaways on the blog.  The batch of books in the photo above found a new home at In Defense of Animal and Funding Information Center in Texas.

Simplicity is a good thing.

As you may have read on Allison Fine's blog, we are co-writing a book to be published by Jossey-Bass/Wiley & Sons early next year.  It's tentatively called the networked nonprofit and is how nonprofits can work more like clouds.   As we've been discussing different themes in the book, the concept of simplicity is a good starting point.

The array of social media can appear to be very complex.  But social media and social networks respond to the same needs that drive people; the need to connect with one another in meaningful ways through conversation. Social change happens through conversations, and the job of nonprofits is to organize themselves in such ways as to catalyze and manage those conversations.

Organizations that can really adapt and use social media  need to simplify.   Simplicity boils down to:

1. Identify the essential
2. Network  the rest

It's about letting go - the staff or the organization doesn't have to do it all.   It's also about having the ability to stop doing programs or activities that don't work.   It's also about streamlining decision-making and being more nimble.  It's about a lot more things, but I'm hoping you will share your thoughts on that in the comments.

I got a few responses when I asked for examples via Twitter. Meghan Keaney, United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, responded

One act of simplicity for us is a new freedom around letting volunteers, supporters and advocates drive for a bit.  Giving them the tools to speak on our behalf and having a channel through which they can provide feedback and have a hand in our decisions.  All of this is pretty new, but moving along very quickly.  I think we are rethinking volunteerism and advocacy to include e-based volunteer projects and message carrying even if that message isn’t exactly on brand.

So, do you have a story about how your organization has embraced simplicity in its quest to use social media?


 

The best comment gets the above copy of Secrets of Simplicity!

Twitteracy (Twitter Literacy)

The Twitter Book - A Sneak Preview

View more presentations from oreillymedia.

Howard Rheingold has an interesting post titled "Twitter Literacy (I refuse to Make Up a Twittery Name for It). Stephen Downes went ahead said the word, Twitteracy.  Rheingold points to some research data from Nielsen that more than 60% of new Twitter users fail to return the following month.  Rheingold suggests that is an example of social media literacy:

Twitter is one of a growing breed of part-technological, part-social communication media that require some skills to use productively. Sure, Twitter is banal and trivial, full of self-promotion and outright spam. So is the Internet. The difference between seeing Twitter as a waste of time or as a powerful new community amplifier depends entirely on how you look at it - on knowing how to look at it.

He goes to lay out some reasons why he finds Twitter valuable, a nice counterpoint to Jakob Nielsen's critique in BusinessWeek where he suggests that Twitter gives you ADD and can damage productivity. Clearly, if you use Twitter efficiently and in the right way it can provide value.

Rheingold says that success on Twitter boils down to:

It comes down to tuning and feeding. And by successful, I mean that I gain value - useful information, answers to questions, new friends and colleagues - and that the people who follow me gain value in the form of entertainment, useful information, and some kind of ongoing relationship with me.

That last point about "ongoing relationship" refers to ambient intimacy or the ability to feel like you know someone more deeply even though you may not have met face-to-face or only met once.  As a colleague said to me recently when asked if she found Twitter of value as a professional networking tool,  "If I'm following someone on Twitter who I met a conference,  I might feel more comfortable picking up the phone to talk to them when I'm networking."

Let's dissect Rheingold principles of using Twitter effectively:

To oversimplify, I think successful use of Twitter means knowing how to tune the network of people you follow, and how to feed the network of people who follow you.

The tuning element is about who you follow.  Rheingold has a mix of people he knows offline as well as virtual friends.   I like Vladis Krebs' advice on this fine-tuning which is summarized in a post I wrote a few months back called "If you were stuck on a desert island, and could only follow 150 people on Twitter, who would you follow and why?"  He suggests identifying influencers in different communities to follow versus following everyone.   That's how I fine tune who I follow, but I also like to mix it up with a little serendipity.

How is your organization tuning its Twitter network? 

The feeding part is what you tweet.  Like Rheingold, I avoid over tweeting about myself.  I tend to ask questions, share links both what I discover from my RSS Reader or retweeting links shared by others in my network, and a few personality items (funny, witty, or something that shows I'm a human.)   (BTW, if you want to read some really clever tweets, Shel Israel asked for favorite tweets for his soon to be published book Twitterville - some are hilarious)

How is your organization feeding its Twitter network?   How does what your feed your Twitter networks support your social media objectives?

Certainly, with discipline and a few minutes in the morning as part of your regular routine, you can overcome some the productivity issues that Nielsen points out.   And, with web-based applications like Co-Tweet or HootSuite you can share the tweeting across teams, pre-schedule your tweets and other time-saving tricks.  Even better, if you can't install local clients on your desktop because of IT policy, both of these Twitter productivity tools are web-based.

The phrase "Twitter Literacy" made me think of this pretty funny syllabus called "Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era.

Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness. All without the restraints of writing in complete sentences.

Week 6 of this course focuses on writing in 140 characters or less:

Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets come alive with shallow wit. They'll learn how to construct Facebook status updates that glitter with irony, absurdity, and dramatic glibness. When tweeting, for instance, that "John is enjoying a buttery English muffin," why not add a link to an image of a muffin with butter oozing from its nooks and crannies? Or why not exaggerate a tad and say that there's bacon on that muffin, even if there's not? It's called poetic license when writers do it! Students will be encouraged to show honesty and vulnerability in their tweets: "Lydia is lounging about in her underwear at 401 Park Street apartment #2, feeling guilty about telling her boss that her uncle died but enjoying the day off." There's no such thing as oversharing when you're a writer.

Now that Twitter is being used by more and more businesses and nonprofits,  Twitter Codes of Conduct are being added to social media policies.  I like the guideline that Wendy Harman, Social Media Strategist for the Red Cross said last February in an NTEN Webinar, "I won't tweet anything that would embarrass my mother."

What questions or tips do you have about improving your organization's Twitteracy?

Resources:

Pistachio's Collection of "Getting Started On Twitter Guides" and "Professional Twitter Guides"

What does Social Capital have to do with Digital Inclusion?

A Really Simple Guide to Digital Inclusion

View more presentations from clarewhite.

There's an interesting conversation happening in the UK at a seminar on May 20, 2009 to explore digital inclusion for social capital, building on a paper written by Will Davies on The Social Value of Digital Networks in Deprived Communities. (More information here)

A couple of definitions:

• Digital inclusion is the use of technology to improve the lives and life chances of disadvantaged people and the places in which they live.
• Social capital is a way of understanding the (positive and negative) impact of social networks and norms on people’s lives.

Some questions to be discussed during the seminar:

• What engagement approaches are being successfully used to overcome barriers (such as confidence, content, access) to digital inclusion, for example among young people not in work or education?

• How can we make sure we are not exacerbating existing inequalities by only serving the people already connected? What are successful examples of outreach?

The paper points out the distinction in social capital between ‘bonding’ social capital – strong connections with people similar to us, such as friends and family; and ‘bridging’ social capital – weaker connections with people further removed from us, such as contacts, and acquaintances. 

Tim Davies will be reporting from the Seminar and Amy Sample Ward will be participating in the discussion and live blogging it now doubt.  You can track the discussion happening online with this dashboard or join the conversation on the digital engagement network site  or blog.

My Treo Can Find A New Life on the Frontlines of Global Health, But What Should I Replace It With?

That's a video I took at NTC after dinner when we all wandered into the Apple Store. I realized that I was the only one in the group who didn't have an Iphone.  I've been using a Treo600 for five years and waiting for it to die before getting the next phone.

It's so old that it is retro now.

It's time to let go.   And, I just heard about a way to give my old treo a new life on the frontlines of global health!

FrontlineSMS:Medic today launched Hope Phones, a nationwide mobile phone collection campaign supporting mHealth programs at medical clinics in over 30 countries. The campaign will make use of old cell phones in the US to provide phones for clinics and healthcare workers in the developing world.

According to Hope Phones, cell phones are valuable tools in the battle to reduce disease and illness. The field of mHealth - the provision and coordination of health-related services via mobile communications - is blossoming in response to a global shortage of healthcare workers and the demonstrated impact made by simple, mobile tools.

Hope Phones will make use of the nearly 450,000 cell phones discarded every day in the US. HopePhones.org allows donors to print a free shipping label and send their old phone in to The Wireless Source, a global leader in wireless device recycling. The phone’s value allows FrontlineSMS:Medic to purchase usable, recycled cell phones for healthcare workers.

Okay, that makes it easy.  But what should I replace it with?

But, should I succumb to the Iphone? 

I posted this on Twitter and the advice boiled down to this:

• IPhone lovers came out of the woodwork in larger numbers
• One or two warned that Iphone is candy, avoid it.  Instead get a Nokia or Android.

It strikes me that I didn't ask the right question. I should be asking - What SmartPhone will best support my mobile work flow and communications needs?

• Browse web
• Ability to access my google docs, calendar, and gmail - not only read, but edit
• Ability to read/respond on social sites - FB, FF, Twitter, etc
• Decent Phone
• Ability to type well
• Good camera, doesn't have to be video but that would be nice
• Entertain me when I'm bored in airports

Well, when I saw that Creative Whack Pack is an app on the IPhone, I though that airplane time might be more fun.

Considering ...

Nokia N97 (not out yet)
Nokia E71
IPhone  (when is next version out?)
Android

I need to look at the costs, carriers, and actually feel the phones in my hands.

Can Nonprofit Organizations Work More Like Clouds? How?

 

Source:  Rob Cross, What is ONA? (Organizational Network Analysis)

The illustration above comes from a book by Rob Cross called "Driving  Results Through Social Networks" which is about how to leverage informal networks within your organization or cross-organizational teams.  I'm giving my copy away, but that isn't the point of this post.

I am still thinking the Cloud, Storm, and Tower keynote that Mark Pesce delivered at ConnectingUp Austraila where he suggested that nonprofits need to "look more like a cloud."   The visual above sort of illustrates Tower organizations versus Cloud organizations.  

Let's go back and dissect one of Mark's points:   

Change your organization's culture, work style, and tools to "look more like a cloud.   He said:

If you can permute your organization so that it looks more like the cloud, you’ll have an easier time working with the cloud. Case in point: because of ‘message discipline’, only a very few people are allowed to speak for an organization. Yet, because of the exponential growth in connectivity and Web2.0 technologies, everyone in your organization has more opportunities to speak for your organization than ever before. Can you release control over message discipline, and empower your organization to speak for itself, from any point of contact? Yes, this sounds dangerous, and yes, there are some dangers involved, but the cloud wants to be spoken to authentically, and authenticity has many competing voices, not a single monolithic tone.

My practitioner brain went right into the weeds, or rather Twitter and I posted this question:

I used the hashtag #answerbeth and lots of retreats and some responses: 

"I think there's a portion of ppl in our org who are "cloud" people, but upper mgmt still resists it, hence a clash."

Via Twitter, Steve Ames, of RiverArts described more a "cloud computing" model of how they work (a topic that Marnie Webb addressed at the TechSoup Global Summit a few weeks ago)

First, we use a customized build of Salesforce, which the Salesforce Foundation has donated to us.
We use google docs, chat, spreadsheets etc.  We also use flickr, wordpress, facebook, twitter, ning and we use a cloud based file backup called DataDepositBox, ADP for payroll - using their web interface, Vonage for phones...

Morgan Sully suggested that a lot could be learned from studying cloud culture.  He pointed me over to a study of Networked Culture which is a project of the Institute of Network Culture and an organization devoted to open research in the nonprofit sector, WeKnowMore.

But what Pesce is really talking about culture change inside the tower organization to be more effective deploying social media tactics and to work with the Cloud. 

Still more unanswered questions:

• Can a Tower "look more like a Cloud" and still be Tower?

• Can a Tower morph into Cloud or do Towers have to fall? (And Clouds rises from the rubble)

• How can Tower and Cloud style of working co-exist within a nonprofit organization or network of organizations?

Harold Jarche left a provactive comment on my summary of Pesce's essay:

I think that the concept of wirearchy is between the hierarchy and the cloud and is very much aligned with what many non-profits strive to be. One problem with NP's is that they took their governance structures from for-profit corporations and these are obviously not optimal for the type of work they do.

Ah, a delicious new word:  WIREARCHY  

"a dynamic two-way flow of power and authority, based on knowledge, trust, credibility and a focus on results, enabled by interconnected people and technology"

The site asks what it means for you?

As a Leader - become deeply aware of - and truly mindful about - the scope and reach of interconnected markets and flows of information. Understand how people are connecting, talking, sharing information. Be prepared to listen deeply, be responsible, accountable and transparent.

As a Manager - become knowledgeable about online work systems and how the need for collaboration is changing the nature of work, generally - and the nature of managerial work specifically. Learning how to be an effective coach is all-important.

As an Employee - become more aware of the changing nature of work, and the traditional structures of authority. Develop a clear understanding of how to be both empowered and valuable and of service. Understand how to navigate on one's own through a constantly shifting landscape of work.

As a Citizen - understand the possibilities and responsibilities inherent in open and public dissemination of information. Understand and exercise the responsibilities of citizenship in a country. Understand how to have influence via electronic participation and collaboration.

And finally, I'm finished with this book and don't want to pack in the moving van that is coming in a few weeks to move us from East Coast to West Coast.   So, I'm giving it away.   If you want a copy, leave a comment on this post answering this questions:

• How is your nonprofit working or trying to look more like a cloud?

Newsmastering for Professional Development 2.0 Dashboard: Online Community Management Aggregator and Report

My colleague Marshall Kirkpatrick at Read/Write Web gave me a sneak peak at their Guide to Online Community Management Report and Aggregator.   This is a premium service and it well worth the investment.

The report condenses and summarizes the best thinking about online community management from a cadre of experts - those are online community manager practitioners and gurus.   If you're new to the topic, it is a great way to get up to speed and will would definitely help you inform your strategy.

The other half of the guide is an online component to help you keep up to date.  It's called the RWW Community Management Aggregator.   It is a mashup of RSS feeds on one page that includes:

• The ten best or "must read" blog posts from selected blogs.    The filtering of these posts is handled automatically is based on the number of comments, inbound links, and other signs of engagement.  (Hmm .. sounds like a mashup of RSS run through Postrank)
• The Twitter accounts from a small group of gurus/practitioners in online community management
• Blog roll
• Exportable OPML feeds for all blogs and hot posts

It strikes me that this a fantastic model for professional development 2.0 for online community managers or what education technology bloggers like Stephen Downes call "Personal Learning Environment."  Or a listening post (it's what I have patched together for my blogging listening post, although I it isn't a pretty as Read/Write Web's Online Community Management Aggregator)

It is a premium service, you have to pay $299 - but if I was planning an online community strategy or a practitioner, I'd sign up for this service in a heartbeat because setting up such a system is very time intensive.  Also, if I was new to the field - it's really overwhelming to play catch up.  The combination of a synthesis of knowledge from the past year or so, along with a way to step into the river of news about online communitymanagement best practices without drowning is worth the price of admission.  

 I'm also thinking about the recent social network nonprofits study and this is exactly the type of strategy advice that some nonprofits need to get better results with their online communities.

You learn more about the report and aggregator here.

So you want a Facebook Fan Page for Your Nonprofit? Here's the Scoop!

 

NTEN offered a fantastic Webinar today featuring Randi Zuckerberg, Director of Marketing at Facebook and Adam Conner from the DC Office on the emerging best practices for nonprofits who want to set up Facebook Fan Pages.

Here's the description

This webinar will be a resource for non-profits and other organizations for social good. Expanding on the Non-Profits on Facebook page, we want to help you harness the power of Facebook and bring positive change to the world. Facebook empowers non-profits by enabling them to mobilize communities, organize events, increase fundraising, reduce costs with free online tools, and raise awareness through viral networks.

I learned a lot, but I did not capture it all.  Rumor has it that David Krumlauf was taking great notes, so I'm hoping he'll blog them or fill in some gaps here in the comments.

Here are my notes and I've added some of my own references and links for more context:

Overview:

• Facebook is in 30 languages, with 200 Million Users  (want some more demographics on users, check out Nick O'Neil's Demographic Page)

Profiles VS Pages

• Profiles are for individuals,  Pages for Organizations

• Recently redesigned pages to be more like profiles

• Pages are optimized for mass communication
• Profiles are optimized for individual communication

Note that their TOS says you can't create for an individual who doesn't exist.  If you do, they will delete it. (Some of you may remember the flap about Ranger Rick from 2007)

A question that everyone asks - "When should my group set up a Fan Page versus a Facebook Group?
Best Answer yet:   Set up a Facebook FanPage as your main presence or outpost and use a group for more adhoc, smaller organizing.

Tips for Setting Up Your Fan Page

1. Keep your page name short and accurate, can't change after you create it

2. There is a day or two lag for it shows up in search

3. Content is lifeblood of your page
4. Start with information tab: be complete, accurate, and honest
5. Fan Page backend is like a cms and if you know a little HTML you can do some spiffy stuff
6. Not all applications are optimized for pages, visit the app page to check
7. All pages require ADMIN - designated FB profile - for security reasons because they want a real person
8. Admin are not public - add multiple admins - invite by email or FB - always have multiples as a precaution so you don't loose access to the page.  Standard best practice
9. Wall Tab - accuracy updates of information.  "Write Something" lets you post rich content"
10. More interactive content is better - the Wall is a history of interactive
11. Worst thing you can do with a page is dump an RSS feed into the Page - won't be as successful
12. When you make updates to the Page, it appears in the streams of your fans or people who have joined your page.  This is very powerful viral marketing
13. When you start to write in the "write something" you get options to add links, photos, videos - post things that are beyond promotion content. Be interactive, make it interesting, provide behind the scenes content.  Incorporate events into your page.  "Exclusive content is good"
14. Shed the tradition PR schtick content and make it real.
15. Red Cross Fan Page is a great example.  So is One Campaign and Stanford University.
16. Lexicon on Facebook lets you track words and phrases

Some Good References

www.facebook.com/facebookpages
www.facebook.com/nonprofits
www.facebook.com/influencers
www.facebook.com/help
www.facebook.com/advertising

Q&A Nuggets

• Nonprofits on Facebook set up as a mechanism to share nonprofit best practices on Facebook.  That's the intent of Facebook.com/nonprofits so everyone can learn from it.
• Fan Pages have a metrics tool that has just upgraded.  It's called the insight tool -- you can see better metrics for the Fan Page
• If you set up your Fan Page before the nonprofit category, don't worry.  They are working on having the ability to change it, but not high priority.  Doesn't control the search.
• Why can't you invite Fans to your page?
• It's intended to prevent spam. Nonprofits are nicely behaved, but others are not so nicely behave.   That's why there is a limit 30 people to invite to your page
• You can send an update to your members, it's like an email blast and encourage them get people to join.
• Yes, you can link Causes to your Facebook Page - Causes will be rolling out some new information next week, so be sure to check the Nonprofits on Facebook.
• It is useful to have a group for more intimate conversations, where a  page is more public
  You can have both.  Groups are good for small scale organizing. Pages are more public presence
• Nonprofits vanity urls are coming, they're discussing.  (Don't know what the heck a vanity url is?  Read Nick's post) 

How to let people know how to join your page?
(1) Put the Name of page so when people search for it - they will find it
(2) No direct way to subscribe
(3) Fan of your page via SMS - text fan name of your page to the Facebook short code (FBOOK (32665))

Can we delete our group?
Deleting groups is difficult - there is a form you can fill out to have the group deleted - use the help page to do it.

The real scoop about a successful fan page.

"We want to encourage you to experiment. Let's be honest, takes an effort to build a community
Just because Facebook is free doesn't mean it is easier to get a million fans.  Don't start from scratch - look at the other groups that are already talking about your cause and experiment or piggy back or do cross promotion."

Add Apps Strategically To Your Fan Page - at minimum you want video, photos, Causes, and a few others.  "Think like a user, what would encourage your to click through?  Your fans don't think about you 24/7.  So for the few minutes they might visit you, what do you want them to know?" (Here's some good nitty gritty how-to information on which apps to add to your Fan Page)
 

Facebook

• Facebook Pages versus Groups
• Intro guide to using Facebook from Master New Media
  8 Essential Apps for Your Facebook Fan Page
• Overview of FaceBook from HowStuffWorks
• Facebook Pages Best Practices - by Heather Mansfield
• How To Create and Promote Your Facebook Fan Page - by Mari Smith
• Why You Need to Make a Facebook Fan Page for Your Website NOW! 
• Why You Need to have a Strategy before you make a Facebook Fan Page NOW! byJeremiah Owyang
• Who, What, and Why of Facebook Fan Pages by Beth Kanter
  Tim Davies - Facebook Pages vs Facebook Groups Pros/Cons
• Social Media Today, Best Practices for Facebook Pages
• Jeremiah Owyang - Testing Facebook Pages
• Jesse Stay - Ten Things You Didn't Know About Facebook
• Jesse Stay - What You Get From Facebook Pages Series
• App/Gap Blog - Should your business with Friends with Facebook? (analysis of using Facebook groups)
• Jenny Ambrozek, Ten Tips for Getting Business Value Out of Groups
• Heather Mansfield, Facebook Best Practices - Interview
• Shara Karasic, Setting Up A Facebook Page
• Facebook FAQ on Pages
• Five Lessons Celebrities Can Teach Us About Facebook Fan Pages from Mashable
• Five Elements of A Successful Facebook Fan Page by Mashable

Did you write a fabulous tip sheet for Facebook Fan Pages?  Also, I had major brain blip and forgot the name of the polling app that they mentioned.  Anyone retain that? I thought it was wire something.  A friend on Twitter say it was "Ask A Friend." 

 

Remix, Reuse, or Repurpose This Blog Post! Creative Commons Teachable Moment

Remix this Powerpoint

View more presentations from kanter.

I've been an strong advocate of Creative Commons for the last four years, have written many blog posts, and even taught a workshop or two on "Open Content."

(If you don't know about Creative Commons, it was founded in 2001, with a mission to increase the amount of creativity (cultural, educational, and scientific content) in “the commons” — the body of work that is available to the public for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing.  They provide tools that let everyone have a simple, standardized way to grant copyright permissions to their creative work. The Creative Commons licenses enable people to easily change their copyright terms from the default of “all rights reserved” to “some rights reserved.”   Poke around the web site and their wiki to learn more about their work and be sure to watch this brief, inspiration video about "Shared Culture.")

The licenses let you pick how to publish your work and grant others the right to reuse it.  Three years ago I created that PowerPoint deck based on a discussion I had with Mike Seyfang and Stephen Downes trying to really deeply understand which license to use.   I came to the decision that the "By" attribution license was the best for me because I wanted to make it easy as possible to share the work.   This licenses means that you don't have to ask permission to reuse, remix, or repurpose the work as long as you attribute the creator. 

Last week, I got an email from my one of my blog readers and asking me if my work was copyrighted because one of my original diagrams was used in the attached slide deck shared from a recent Webinar.  I replied, my work is licensed under Creative Commons attribution - as long as it attributed that is not a problem.  They responded, "But what if the person who reuses your context slaps their logo on it and add a "All Rights Reserved" on the slide.  What does that mean?"

I decided to look at how my work was being reused and realized there was a teachable moment about Creative Commons "by" attribution licensing.    So, I asked Mike Linksvayer, Vice President, at Creative Commons, Mike Seyfang and Stephen Downes for their thoughts. I also threw some ideas out on Twitter and Dave Cormier, Hildy Gottleib, and Harold Jarche also responded.  Since "sharing" is a theme in the book that I'm working on with Allison Fine, we also batted the ideas around as well.

When I first decided to share my work through Creative Commons, my motivation - as I've stated before was that I wanted people to not only re-use the work, but to make it easy as possible for build to build and extend the ideas.  I didn't want the barriers of asking for permission or having to retain a "verbaitem" copy because that would get in the way.  The conditions of the license is that people can use it - as long as they "provide attribution in the manner specified by the author."  The license itself doesn't specifically define attribution. 

When I looked at the diagram, I wondered:

• Can they really copyright my work under this license?
• Why didn't they link to the original context?
• Why didn't they include my name and blog name?
• How do you encourage people to build on your work versus cut, paste, and attribute?

Mike Linksvayer gave me an answer to the first set of questions:

One can create an adaptation incorporating your work and release the former under whatever terms they want (including default copyright/all rights reserved) so long as they give you credit and provide notice of the license you offered (ie that they used your content under CC BY, even if the resulting work is All Rights Reserved).

The licenses offer a fair amount of flexibility to licensors (to specify how to attribute) and to licensees (how to do so in a manner appropriate to the medium being used). See the full license text for exact wording of that -- see 4(b) of creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/legalcode -- and maintaining license notice is the previous clause, 4(a).

You could require that attribution include a link back to the specific post where you published the content (ie also where you offered the license).

You'll see a bunch of examples of attribution and you'll see a bunch of examples and a lot of explainers like this one from Molly Kleinman.

It probably should go without saying, but for anyone who stumbles across this, (1) one can always ask the licensor for permission to use outside the scope of the license and (2) one may not need a license at all if your use constitutes fair use/fair dealing or triggers some other copyright limitation or exception, though unfortunately this isn't likely.

All that said, I'm not a lawyer and this is't legal advice!

I don't think they were trying to pass off my work as their own - perhaps they used "All Rights Reserved" as part of their powerpoint template and it is just added automatically to each slide.  But, then again, perhaps I'm being sloppy.  I don't have a formal attribution policy.   Hildy Gottleib pointed to her policy for her work which grew out of a plagarism issue.

Having an "attribution policy" where you "demand" attribution is good, but then there is the onerous work of ownership - policing it.   That seems like Tower behavior to me.     

@davecormier  I can't tell what's 'my own content' anymore. think I've decided to stop 'demanding' attribution.    

@HildyGottlieb Yes, completely. I WANT people to build on our stuff. I just don't want them saying that our stuff is THEIR stuff! :-)

@davecormier  my license says you must tell people i did this sounds very demanding. a teachable moment would be want to use this stuff? click and explain the complexity of ownership.

Hildy, in a follow up email, that she was thinking through how to create a program that actually encourages people to share the stuff, but also build on it and to do so in a way that makes it clear that her organization was the source of at least some of the building blocks.

Stephen Downes' comment was insightful:

"My stuff is all over the web, and I don't really bother looking to see who is using it or in what context. Life's too short. In fact, I think that the agony people get into over copyright and licensing and all that is reflective of a (very successful) propaganda campaign, one that has really convinced that that their creations are completely their own and that they should be militant over the ownership of them.  In fact, 90 percent of anything we create is borrowed. It is extraordinarily difficult to show any flash of originality. And such flashes of originality made sense only when embedded in a surround of other people's work."

Allison Fine and I had an interesting email thread, where she pointed out:

We want to create nonprofit sector leadership that values giving credit as much, if not more, than getting it.

We don't want Credit Free Zones we want Credit Full Zones! We want people to be aware that what they're working on is building on the work of others (which they too often haven't wanted to admit to themselves or funders in the past) and they should give appropriate - dare I even say heartfelt - thanks and credit for that work, just as they hope others will do for theirs. People can say how they want their work attributed - or without that the creditor would be wise to be generous and forthright and transparent in their crediting - better in the long run, for their work, for the health of the network, to apply credit generously.

So, here's where I've landed with all of this.  Want to use any of this content?

This blog is under a Creative Commons license "By" Attribution. I'm not going to waste precious time policing how you attribute my work or ideas because I am assuming that you will be forthright, transparent, and generous in your attribution.  My hope is that you go a little beyond reuse (cut and paste and attribute) and add some value to the sharing chain.  I'd love to know how you have reused, remixed, or repurposed my content so I can learn from how you have extended the ideas or added value to the sharing chain, but it isn't a requirement. But please don't be evil and not attribute with my name, blog name, and link to the blog.

Cause Marketing or Cause Me To Puke Marketing? Interview with Scott Henderson

Scott Henderson - Photo by Ms. Jen

I was supposed to be leading a workshop at the Cause Marketing Forum on Social Media and Cause Marketing at the end of the month. I was looking forward to it because Michael Hoffman at C3 was a sponsor and participating.   Unfortunately, I had to cancel and asked Scott Henderson if he'd do on my behalf.     

I met Scott online over a conversation in the comments  when I wrote some reflections about David Armano's personal fundraising campaign back in January.  I also participated in a campaign he organized for Share Our Strength.  

I decided to do an interview with Scott to learn more about what he is learning about Social Media and Cause-Related Marketing.  The title of this blog post comes from a post that Scott wrote the other day that I couldn't resist stealing.

(1) Who are you?

I am a cause marketing director for MediaSauce, helping non-profits and corporations use online media to pull off their next big thing.

(2) Can you tell me about the "Pledge to End Hunger" that you recently launched to benefit Share Our Strength?

Goals
The main goals were to raise awareness of childhood hunger in America, give people the tools to take meaningful action to help end this solvable problem, and create a case study from which non-profits and corporations could learn how to better use social media in their cause marketing.

Audience
Our primary audience was more of a profile than a group.  We were seeking to find individuals who cared about the cause and would be willing to rally their respective communities (social media and in-person) to take action.  Working from that profile we identified four categories:
1) Active Twitterati and bloggers from different niches
2) SXSWi attendees & ambient attendees (those following from home)
3) Individuals in the email databases of the corporations & non-profits leading the campaign, and
4) Wild cards - people separated from us by 2-3 relationship degrees who fit the profile 

Strategy - 
We chose to center the campaign around the 2009 South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSWi '09). It's an environment that attracts some of the most connected people in a wide variety of industries, creating a unique opportunity for ideas to take root in wider audiences. (Twitter found that out in 2007.)  We knew there would be much anticipation and conversation about SXSW in the weeks leading up to it and believed a cause initiative could generate momentum from it.

We started by assembling a team of individuals and companies to serve as our leadership team.  We wanted this campaign to focus on the issue of childhood hunger in America and the fact that many different organizations and people were coming together to take up the cause locally and nationally.

The online strategy called for a standalone website to serve as the campaign's main hub and social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to help create traffic.  To help us launch the campaign, we enlisted the help of two respected social media industry professionals to co-chair the campaign and organized about 50 individuals from a cross section of industries and niches that were actively engaged on Twitter and blogging to serve as champions.  We also utilized limited email sends from Kimball Office, MediaSauce, Kompolt, Capital Area Food Bank, and Share Our Strength to their respective databases. 

Our plan was to drive traffic to the website and provide a clear, easy path of action for those who visited and felt compelled to help.  We made it so it didn't cost money for person to be a philanthropist.  An individual "contributed" 35 lbs of Tyson food just by signing an online pledge to take a meaningful action to help end childhood hunger in America.  If 1,000 people signed the Pledge, Tyson committed to deliver a semi-truck of food to the Capital Area Food Bank during SXSWi.

People signing the Pledge had three options to act - give, volunteer, and/or share the message - and the website provided ways to fulfill each action right then and there.  It had a link to the Share Our Strength online giving form, another to a zip code search tool to find local food agencies to volunteer, and multiple tools for sharing the message - including a widget that showed the current tally of the Pledge to End Hunger.  We placed the emphasis on asking people to share our message, since that would invariably lead to more people to see our message, thus increasing the number of people donating and volunteering.

Knowing this campaign could get serious traction and blow past its initial goal, we planned for a Phase II.  With Tyson Foods willing to donate up to three more trucks, we decided to direct those trucks to the states which generated the highest number of people to sign the pledge.  To help fuel this state-vs.-state competition, we built the map on the website to show the number of pledges from each state and altered the message the pledge tally counter to include the top five states in order of their real-time tallies. 

Metrics for Success -
Primary: # of people signing the pledge.
Secondary: $ raised for Share Our Strength.
Leading indicators: Unique site visitors, Tr.im url click-thrus, Facebook cause members, YouTube videos viewed, #HungerPledge usage, and SXSWi podium mentions.

Results -
With the help of the HungerPledge Champions and email sends, we launched the campaign on Thursday, March 5, which turned to be our single largest day of traffic. In the first 28 hours, we reached 1,000 people signing the pledge. By the final deadline of March 20, we had about 4,600 people sign the pledge.  In total, we raised $28,000 from 714 people for Share Our Strength - with around 95% of them being first-time donors.  Over 19,000 visitors came to the website over the first 21 days and we welcomed 2,600 people to our Facebook Cause group.

The story that we think best characterizes the campaign is the one about Michele Helsel.  Michele took it upon herself to spearhead Missouri's second-place finish.  She devoted her energies to the campaign for two reasons: her company (Kimball Office) was one of the sponsors and, more importantly, her parents are long-time volunteers at a food pantry in St. Charles, Missouri.  When we announced that the extra trucks would go to the states with the highest pledge totals, she set the goal of placing in the top three and getting a truck for her state. 

For two weeks, she leveraged every single phone number and email she had to get the word out.  Interestingly, she didn't use Twitter, Facebook, or other social media.  Just old fashioned phone calls and emails.  She reached to her church, her family's Elks Lodge, her husband's Harley Davidson club, her parents' contacts, the local food pantry, and all her customers and distributors (she's the St. Louis sales manager for Kimball Office).  With one week left in the pledge tally deadline, Missouri was barely in the top ten.  By the end, the Show Me State was comfortably in second with 509 people signing the pledge.  And it was all because one person realized they could help the community and had all the tools at her disposal to rally her community.

3. The principles of success? Keys to success?

The most critical key to successful cause marketing is that the cause must come before the marketing.  Too often, we see corporations (and even non-profits) put their brands and products/services before or side-by-side with the cause.  People are constantly searching for authenticity and will shun those they think are being opportunistic.  If you don't give the spotlight to the cause or give little emphasis to solving the problem, they'll discount your campaign right away.  It's very similar to life - we tend to admire those people who do good in humble ways. 

In terms of online and social media, the main principles are:
1. tell a clear, compelling story,
2. give people clear, simple action steps,
3. make it easy for people to share your story/join your cause,
4. show real-time results to give immediate gratification,
5. be prepared to converse and respond to people with little delay, and
6. realize not everyone is going to care. 

If you plan to conduct a campaign (which I hope you do), be sure to devote resources and energy to illustrate the impact your campaign makes.  Too many organizations conduct drive-thru philanthropy and don't spend the resources on showing the results of what was achieved.  We're still posting content on www.pledgetoendhunger.com about the four food banks receiving the trucks.

4. What would you do next time?

From a website design perspective, we would have made a non-flash mobile version of the website.  Using flash for the pledge form hindered us with anyone who came to the website on their iPhone (no flash player).

In terms of the overall campaign, we would have placed a greater emphasis on sending a series of emails to existing databases, especially to those who signed the pledge.  These databases represent people who already have an existing relationship with an organization and will be more likely to help than a brand, new person.  In addition to using our email databases more, we would have put a greater effort on assembling a coalition of local hunger relief agencies.  Those organizations who joined the campaign midstream did deliver results and were the ones who stood the most to gain.

From a social media perspective, we would have used Facebook differently.  The decision to create a Facebook Cause group was almost an afterthought for us, since we were more focused on Twitter.  Simple arithmetic can show that Facebook has a significantly larger audience potential.  Even barely cultivating the Facebook Cause, the membership grew pretty much organically to the 2,600 person total.  While some have questioned the value of Facebook Cause, we think it has great value in creating awareness thru peoples' existing relationship networks.  Since we didn't have the donation button activated, we can't comment on how many direct contributions came from that group.

5. How is social media changing the nonprofit world? Cause-marketing?

Both are being impacted just like everything else.  Social media make it very easy for the 1 billion who own personal computers and 3.3 billion who own cell phone to connect, communicate, and collaborate in ways not possible before.  People now have greater expectations of intimacy and immediacy with other people and organizations.  Further, they realize that change can happen with a much faster velocity and are no longer satisfied with incremental change.  At the same time, organizations have to compete harder to gain people's attention, which is being splintered by the seemingly infinite number of screens saturating us with media.

Non-profits for the most part have been accustomed to relying on their magazines and direct appeals to be their main connections to their supporters.  They've mostly been able to set the schedule for communications and have often defaulted to the annual solicitation as their lifeline.  Now that we're no longer bound by broadcast messaging, non-profits are scrambling to shift their personnel and financial resources to more two-way communications.  It's no longer enough to have a static website, e-newsletters, and email solicitations.  The most prevalent trend for non-profits is that they want to stop experimenting and get a sustainable strategy for integrating online media into their entire communications and fundraising operations.

In terms of cause-marketing, social media make it much easier launch these initiatives.  We expect to see even more cause-marketing plays using social media - for better or for worse.  It makes sense, since corporations are experiencing the same higher expectations for intimacy and immediacy.  Consumers want to know that the businesses they patronize are doing something for the greater community, not just for themselves. 

Because we'll see a greater number of cause-marketing initiatives, we can also expect a greater number of failures.  We'll also see a greater number of successes.  People's expectations for the quality and originality of these campaigns will grow.  It won't be enough for companies & non-profits to launch these campaigns using strategies and tactics already used.  We will also see a higher bar set for the results that need to be achieved.  It won't be enough to raise dollars and generate traffic for surface issues.  People will expect to see these campaigns solve the root problems and change the social dynamics causing the problem in the first place.

I am excited about what the coming months and years will bring.  I think we're in the early stages of a complete reorganization of how we work together to solve social problems.   Self-organized swarms of individuals will have equal footing with the non-profits and corporations.  These self-organized swarms won't be satisfied to wait for non-profits and corporations to lead.  They will take the initiative like they did with Twestival to rally around a cause and raise money and awareness with little involvement from the non-profit.  They will also begin to create more media properties like www.pledgetoendhunger.com that promote the broader cause and bring various international, national, regional, and local non-profits and corporations together to create systemic change, not just local change.  Savvy non-profits and corporations will realize this and adapt accordingly.

Mark Pesce at CUA09 - Think Like a Cloud, Make a Storm, Kill the Tower!

Photo by James Jordan

I'm actually in the clouds, flying to California on Virgin America using the (not free) wifi listening to Mark Pesce's keynote via Mike Seyfang  delivered the other day at Connecting Up Australia the Nonprofit Technology Conference in Australia (see web site for details).  I keynoted the conference last year. (This year Peter Deitz and Jay Dedman and Ryanne Hodson are there)

I was going to participate remotely via hologram as Doug Jacquier describes skype for a roundtable with Mark, but my crazy schedule, time zone dyslexia and not realizing that I would actually be on a Virgin Flight with Wifi .. oh well.

The audio is fading a bit, so I've been thinking about what Mark wrote in his essay, "Sharing Power (Aussie Rules)"  I read the essay three times, I mind mapped it, and have been noodling on it for an hour or two.   Here are the bits that resonated with me.

He talks about the "Cloud"  a word to describe how we're all more closely connected through social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and etc.  And how our connectedness is resulting in new collective behavior that can't be controlled.

The same sort of engine which powers Wikipedia can be put to work across a number of different “platforms”. The power of sharing allows individuals to come together in great “clouds” of activity, and allows them to focus their activity around a single task. It could be an encyclopedia, or it could be providing reliable and judgment-free information about sexuality to teenagers. The form matters not at all: what matters is that it’s happening, all around us, everywhere throughout the world.

The cloud results from the "human condition of hyperconnection."  I came across a study of "hyperconnectedness" about six months, blogged it here.  It estimates that 16% of the population is hyperconnected and identifies that hyperconnected people have these traits:

• The boundary between work and personal time is virtually non-existent.
• They use many more devices, channels, and tools then "regular" people.
• Hyper connectivity among employees has the potential to increase security risks due to lost hardware, software, internet transfer of files, etc.
• They are generally early adopters of new technologies and consider themselves to be global people.
• Only 1/3 of hyper connected people see themselves as early adopters
• They are generally always on, always connected and see this as a good thing.

If you want to dive into more details into this condition, see the hyper connectivity blog.

Pesce points out that this condition leads to observational learning from watching other people's behaviors online.   Something he terms hypermimesis (which if you google can mean morning sickness) but means that these behaviors can be replicated quickly.  He also defines it as the formation of communities of interest can form around particular behaviors, or "clouds" potential.  He goes to list some examples and asks "How many examples do we need to name before we admit  that the rules have changed, that the smooth functioning of power has been terrifically interrupted by these other forces, now powers in their own right?"

Next he talks about how our online social behavior has shifted the power system, but first defines the old power system:

The entire nature of power has changed, as have the burdens of power. Power has always carried with it the ‘burden of omniscience’ – that is, those at the top of the hierarchy have to possess a complete knowledge of everything of importance happening everywhere under their control. Where they lose grasp of that knowledge, that’s the space where coups, palace revolutions and popular revolts take place.

He describes the power shift that the cloud presents and it's burden of "always on."

This new power that flows from the cloud of hyperconnectivity carries a different burden, the ‘burden of connection’. In order to maintain the cloud, and our presence within it, we are beholden to it. We must maintain each of the social relationships, each of the informational relationships, each of the knowledge relationships and each of the mimetic relationships within the cloud. Without that constant activity, the cloud dissipates, evaporating into nothing at all.

I'm struck by this.  I understand it, particularly because I'm writing this at 30,000 ft in the air above Virgin America, literally in the clouds.  He goes on to provide some historical context for clouds disappearing by discussing the dunbar number and tribes.  He talks more about the cost of maintaining the cloud:

While we might desire to extend our power and capabilities through our networks of hyperconnections, the cost associated with such investments is very high. Time spent invested in a far-flung cloud is time that lost on networks closer to home. Yet individuals will nonetheless often dedicate themselves to some cause greater than themselves, despite the high price paid, drawn to some higher ideal.

I think this is connected to what Rheingold's Attention Literacy piece, but I have go back and read it again.

He discusses the high price of hyperconnectivity for individuals AND for organizations.

For each of us, connectivity carries a high price. For every organization which attempts to harness hyperconnectivity, the price is even higher. With very few exceptions, organizations are structured along hierarchical lines. Power flows from bottom to the top. Not only does this create the ‘burden of omniscience’ at the highest levels of the organization, it also fundamentally mismatches the flows of power in the cloud. When the hierarchy comes into contact with an energized cloud, the ‘discharge’ from the cloud to the hierarchy can completely overload the hierarchy. That’s the power of hyperconnectivity.

And here's is the most important bit for nonprofits.  He talks about the strengths and costs of the hierarchy (organizational structures) and the cloud - and that the two forms are not compatible.  But nonprofits need to focus on the interfaces that connect the hierarchy to the cloud.  (This is one theme Allison Fine and I are writing about in our book)

In the 21st century we now have two oppositional methods of organization: the hierarchy and the cloud. Each of them carry with them their own costs and their own strengths. Neither has yet proven to be wholly better than the other. One could make an argument that both have their own roles into the future, and that we’ll be spending a lot of time learning which works best in a given situation. What we have already learned is that these organizational types are mostly incompatible: unless very specific steps are taken, the cloud overpowers the hierarchy, or the hierarchy dissipates the cloud. We need to think about the interfaces that can connect one to the other. That’s the area that all organizations – and very specifically, non-profit organizations – will be working through in the coming years. Learning how to harness the power of the cloud will mark the difference between a modest success and overwhelming one. Yet working with the cloud will present organizational challenges of an unprecedented order. There is no way that any hierarchy can work with a cloud without becoming fundamentally changed by the experience.

The last section of the essay talks about the cloud, tower, and storm, elegantly pushing the metaphors.

All organizations are now confronted with two utterly divergent methodologies for organizing their activities: the tower and the cloud. The tower seeks to organize everything in hierarchies, control information flows, and keep the power heading from bottom to top. The cloud isn’t formally organized, pools its information resources, and has no center of power. Despite all of its obvious weaknesses, the cloud can still transform itself into a formidable power, capable of overwhelming the tower. To push the metaphor a little further, the cloud can become a storm.

He also points out a pattern of how storms get started. 

In other words, five people have to take the lead, leading everyone else in the cloud with their dedication, their selflessness, and their openness. This number probably holds true in a cloud of any sort – find five like-minded individuals, and the transformation from cloud to storm will begin.

This is what Clay Shirky was saying during the NTC Keynote when he said there was always a small group in the center of the groundswell. (Ethan Zuckerman recently did an analysis of tweets from Moldova and found this to be true.  And, if we look at charity:water, it got started with a small group lead by Amanda Rose as well)

He also describes how the storm grows in intensity - similar to what we have observed with participation in online communities over time, but more powerful perhaps because of the networked effect.

At the end of that transformation there is still no hierarchy. There are, instead, concentric circles of involvement. At the innermost, those five or more incredibly dedicated individuals; then a larger circle of a greater number, who work with that inner five as time and opportunity allow; and so on, outward, at decreasing levels of involvement.

He talks about how difficult it is to stomp out a cloud because of its decentralized nature.   But more importantly, he describes the quality of leadership of a cloud or networked leadership.  In a phrase, all you need is love ...

What, then, is leadership in the cloud? It is not like leadership in the tower. It is not a position wrought from power, but authority in its other, and more primary meaning, ‘to be the master of’. Authority in the cloud is drawn from dedication, or, to use rather more precise language, love. Love is what holds the cloud together. People are attracted to the cloud because they are in love with the aim of the cloud. The cloud truly is an affair of the heart, and these affairs of the heart will be the engines that drive 21st century business, politics and community.

This reminds of something that Nancy White was writing about a while back about community indicators and the Beatles song, "All You Need Is Love." I think it was 2006 when the entire room of 1400 bloggers burst into spontaneous singing of this song at BlogHer.  I couldn't find it, but did find a connection through her writing about slow community which is very un storm and cloud like.

He ends with a call to action to organizations about understanding, working with, and leveraging the cloud.

All of you have your own hierarchical organizations – because that’s how organizations have always been run. Yet each of you are surrounded by your own clouds: community organizations (both in the real world and online), bulletin boards, blogs, and all of the other Web2.0 supports for the sharing of connectivity, information, knowledge and power. You are already halfway invested in the cloud, whether or not you realize it. And that’s also true for people you serve, your customers and clients.

His advice: (1) Embrace the cloud - it isn't evil. Don't be scared of it. (2) Work like the cloud within your organization. I think he's talk about culture change. (3) The Cloud is evolving and changing pretty quickly.

Mark is keynoting the Personal Democracy Forum this year in NY in June and this is the theme of what he is talking about.  I wish I could go, but the moving van is arriving that day.

There's a lot more to say about this essay and thinking, but the plane is about to land soon and I have to get out of the clouds ...

Nedspace Co-Working Space in Portland, Oregon will send three Cambodians to college if ....

In December 2006, I launched my first experiment in using social media for fundraising - raising $800 on my blog to help send Leng Sopharath, a young Cambodian woman, to her freshman year at college.  I have used social media to help raise the money for her tuition through the Sharing Foundation in 2007 and 2008.

My motivation was a simple act of reciprocity (not what you might read in some of these comments).   Cambodia brought me my two beautiful children and I felt strongly that we should give back to the country in some way.   That's why in 2006 when Leng Sopharath did not have a sponsor for college, I stepped forward. (She is also an orphan and lived in the same orphanage as my daughter)

The problem was I didn't have any idea of how I was going to make a donation of that size after exhausting all my offline networks.   Why don't I blog about it and ask readers for help I thought? A group of 30 people chipped in and Leng Sopharath went off to college.    I got into social media infused fundraising by accident as an act of reciprocity and human kindness! 

I committed to supporting Leng Sopharath's education for four years as well as providing moral support through regular letters we exchange.   I've been thinking about her senior year and how to cover that.  I was delighted that Mark Grmes, from nedspace, who has been a repeat donor to my Cambodian campaigns made me an offer I could not refuse.

If he can rent out the 4 remaining offices (at $400 ea) and 60 hot desk spaces (at $175 ea) by 5PM PT Monday June 1, 2009 at his co-working space, NedSpace,  he'll not only send Leng Sopharath to college, but to other Cambodians through the Sharing Foundation's college education program.  Plus he will also donate $5000 to Epic Change.

NedSpace is a 7,500 square ft co-working space for startups, innovative tech companies, artists, nonprofits and social entrepreneurs located in the heart of downtown Portland, Oregon. NedSpace is located at 920 SW Third (between Taylor & Salmon) Portland, Oregon.  You can request a  NedSpace tour via Twitter @neddotcom or phone 503-502-0185

This is a modest request and who knows if it will work.  You don't have to get out your credit card, vote for anything, or ask your friends to do anything.  If you feel so inclined and if you know someone in Portland, Oregan who needs affordable co-working space, please share this information with them.  You can help out a friend or colleague, help Nedspace reach its rental goals and help send a couple of Cambodians to college and school in Africa.  What could be better than that?

Which Social Network Use Base Is More Altruistic?

Pete Cashmore of Mashable has a post that asks an interesting question:

Facebook, MySpace (MySpace reviews), LinkedIn (LinkedIn reviews), Digg and Twitter are often compared in terms of features, but which one has the most generous users?

The question is interesting to explore, although the post is about a clever fundraising campaign called the "Altruism Challenge" launched by a Canadian charity called "The World Partnership Walk" to raise money to fight global poverty.

I don't think that you can really compare the entire user base of one social network with another.  In this example, the amount of money raised on each site has more to do with how the organization has built a following, identified and nurtured relationships with influencers.

What do you think?

Target Facebook Challenge: Ten Large Charities Compete for Votes To Divide the $3 Million Pot

While I was offline today enjoying Mother's Day and the beautiful weather (as much as I could with seasonal allergies),  Target launched its version of an online contest. 

It's called Bullseye Gives, a special Facebook page inviting folks to decide how they should allocate $3 million among ten large institutional charities, including:

Parent Teacher Association
Feeding America
The Salvation Army
American Red Cross
National Parks Foundation
Breast Cancer Research Foundation
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Kids In Need
Operation Gratitude
The HandsOn Network/Points of Light Institute

Funding will be allocated based on the percentage of votes each organization receives.

I went over to cast my vote for the Red Cross, they had 2% of the votes which means that they would receive $74,000 or 2% of the total. You can vote once per day, so I'll probably come back and vote for the other organizations where I have relationships with their social media strategists.  (I voted for the Red Cross in honor my colleague Wendy Harman)

Ever since the first online competition launched in December 2006 by Network for Good and Yahoo (ahem, I came in first for my charity, the Sharing Foundation), online contests have been a popular way for corporations, Web 2.0 companies, and even foundations to give away money.  We've seen a number of reiterations, from those that allow anyone nonprofit to enter to those that are for a select group of participants.  

Today's New York Times article by Stephanie Strom describes some of the most recent online contests, including the Case Foundation’s Giving Challenge, a contest conducted through Causes on Facebook, Network for Good, Global Giving and Parade Magazine in 2007. 

The design of the Giving Challenge was such that any organization, even small grassroots organizations, could enter and even win.  (I know from first hand experience) The design of the challenge leveled the playing field because the winners were based on the number of unique donors and any nonprofit could enter.

There have been many remixes of online contests since the Giving Challenge, so many that I can't quite remember all of them.  Some that come to mind include:

• Razoo March Madness which offered $10,000 in prizes for the organizations that got the most donors.  Razzo by the way has been early pioneer in the online contest, having launched an early contest on Facebook shortly after it opened up to those older than colleges and again in October, 2007.

• Charity SmackDown had teams of celebrities paired with corporate sponsors to raise money for nine different charities.  This contest was based on the total amount raised.  Stand Up for Cancer and Corbin Bleu were the winning team.  Scott Henderson was one of the organizers (along with Chris Noble).  Scott will be leading a workshop at the Cause Marketing Forum later this month and I will be sharing a fabulous interview with him about his learnings from this event and the Pledge to End Hunger.

Some contests don't requires donations to win, but votes. Take for example, the IdeaBlob that gives organizations (and individuals) the opportunity to present an idea and get votes.   There are several sprints and the winner gets $10,000.  (EpicChange was a winner in last week's sprint)

There have also been online contests on Facebook that are sponsored by a corporation and the winning nonprofit simply has to get their supporters to join the group.    The Red Cross won $50,000 last December and prior to that the Humane Society of the US won $50,000 from MicroSoft.

The Target contest model uses the "let's vote and divide up the pie" method amongst a smaller group of handpicked contestants.   This same model was used last fall by Tripadvisor to divde up a $1 million pot between 5 large charities.

Winning an online fundraising contest requires a particular strategy.   Last fall, Allison Fine and I did a research study on the America's Giving Challenge based on interviews and surveys of participants.   The lessons learned will be useful to organizations competing in future online contests.

I'm of two minds about online contests.  On the one hand, I think competition is healthy and pushes us to take a few risks, innovate and explore these new tools, particularly if the potential reward $ is big.  On the other hand, online contests remind of an experience I had in Hawaii feeding fish and makes about the drawbacks like cause fatigue, transactional vs relational, and promoting scarcity thinking.

What's your take on online contests?  Entering one this year?

Happy Mother's Day!

I had a lovely surprise this morning!  Flowers, cards, and kisses.  Had a great Mother's Day.

Every year, I send my own mother flowers that also support our local NPR station, WBUR.  I'm one of those people who orders the flowers during the last hour.    This year, somehow the card accompanying the flowers got mixed up.   My mom got a card signed from a strange name saying "Hope this makes it up for it."    So, somewhere out there today, another WBUR's supporter's mother got some flowers signed "Happy Mother's Day from Beth."

Study Provides A Baseline for Nonprofit Use of Social Networks

During the NTC, ThePort Network, Inc, NTEN, and Common Knowledge released results of a survey that examines the use of social networking as a marketing and fundraising tool.  There was also a webinar presentation of the results.   The survey polled 978 nonprofit professionals about their organizations’ use of commercial social networking sites (e.g. Facebook), as well as their own hosted social networking communities.

Some definitions they used in the study:

"House Social Network" refers to a socialnetworking community built on a nonprofit's own web site. 

"Commercial Social Network" An online community platform owned and operated by a corporation such as Facebook.

Where do branded social networks like Ning sites fall? 

The survey provides us with a baseline of social network use by nonprofits.

Some highlights:

• Capacity:  Nonprofits are committing staff and budgets to support social network projects and presences, although budgets are small with four-fifths of respondents reporting at least one-quarter of a full-time staff person (10 hours per week) to social network strategy implementation. More than half of respondents expect their staffing or budgets to increase over the next 12 months. According to the survey, nonprofits are more likely to grow expertise from within than use outside help. 

• Strategy: Nonprofits prefer to use more traditional communications and marketing tactics to promote their social network presence – prioritizing web site, email list and events to get the word out about their online communities. 

• Policy: The communications and marketing departments are most likely to own the social network project, with fundraising and executive management the next most common boosters of the nonprofit’s social network projects.

• ROI: Very few nonprofit survey respondents are generating real revenue on commercial social networks like Facebook or branded social networks on their web sites. On Facebook, about 39.9% of respondents have raised money via fundraising, but 29.1% have raised $500 or less over the past 12 months.  On social networks on the organization’s web site, 25.2% of nonprofits survey respondents are fundraising and 1/3 of these fundraisers accumulated $10,000 or more over the last year.

Some thoughts

Capacity

A few months ago, I came up with a somewhat arbitrary framework to answer the age-old question, "How Much Time Does It Take To Do Social Media?" and contributed it to the WeAreMedia Wiki.   I laid it out in terms of type of project and minimum amount of time to accomplish.  I scaled the projects in terms of crawl, walk, run and fly.    For social networking projects which is all about online community management, I estimated 20 hours to get results.   (Those are flying projects)

Community management is more than blasting out messages to members of a Facebook group or posting or streaming content onto your house social network.  It's NOT about "Here's my crap and now let's talk about it."   The work flow is about relationship building.  I was quoted as saying that USAToday. That takes time and skills.

So, it isn't necessarily a function of how much staff time is allocated, although I believe 20 hours is probably the minimum.  It's how that time is being spent.  Is it spent deploying "traditional marketing tactics" or the hard work of community building one relationship at a time.  If not the latter, chances are the effort won't be as successful.

Strategy

My colleague, Allison Fine, in her analysis of the study wondered why groups would choose to set up a house social network rather than use a commercial site and what are the benefits and drawbacks of doing so?  There's a lot of advice available on how to make that decision (see slide 30), but there's a lot to be learned about the steps nonprofits are taking to develop their online community strategy on social networks or house social networks and a greater understanding of the life cycle of a nonprofit's social network community.

What isn't being discussed or described, except in self-organized pockets of the social web
is the overlap between communities and networks.  Remember self-organized networks of people coming together in a moment don't just happen all alone, as Clay Shirky reminded us - there's a core in the center.  

Another point on strategy is whether or not the social network (house or otherwise) is using more of a "cross-posting" strategy versus community building effort - and having an understanding of the pros/cons and potential results.


Policy

According to the survey, the communications and marketing departments are most likely to own the social network.  I wonder how or if  silo culture is or is not getting in the way of better results and the whole nonprofit organization owning its social networking effort.  We are seeing more and more nonprofits develop effective social networking policies that may pave the way for more higher returns if culture is considered.  


Metrics

At least the survey did not proclaim that lack of impressive dollar amounts raised as a failure of nonprofits using social networks.  There's a lot more learning -- especially around connecting social networking results to real change that needs to be happened.  And that won't happen because scarcity mindsets keep us focused on using social media for other objectives.

The survey asked which metrics respondents used in their definition of success for their “house social networks” (social networking community built on a nonprofit’s web site). Respondents indicated that they used number of members and the amount of user-generated content, with fundraising was a lowest ranked metric. What’s unclear is whether or not nonprofits in the survey are measuring engagement and return on relationships.  Of course, that would assume a broader use of networks than just fundraising and marketing, take for example this recent article about social networks and nonprofits from USAToday.

The study provides a great baseline for nonprofits and social networking activity from here forward.

Research Studies of Nonprofit and Social Media Adoption

Inside the Social Networking Nonprofit Study by Influential Marketing Blog

Overbook Foundation Web 2.0 Study by Allison Fine
Nonprofit Technology Survey from Robert Morris University (all technology, includes 1-2 questions for social media use)
Blogging for the Hearts of Donors by Eric Mattson
Social Media Adoption Study by Eric Mattson
Social Media for Social Causes Study

The Interpretive Dance of Social Media Adoption

I've been designing and delivering technology trainings for nonprofit organizations for the past 15 years,   I try to find fun ways for people to understand and feel comfortable with the technology.  Not so much how to use it, but how to use effectively.  Humor helps. 

Over the past five years, I've been focusing on social media.  In the early days, the big hurdle was getting to shared understanding of what social media really means.  In 2007, Michael Wesch, a digital anthropologist, created this striking video called  The Machine is Us/ing Us, to explain in five minutes what the Web 2.0 or social media was all about.  

In workshops, I'd play the video and have folks jot down words or themes.  I'd aggregate the responses to create a shared mental map.  Over the years,  I used this exercise for different audiences, from filmmakers to university professionals.  This exercise is most appropriate for people who want to know the what/why versus the best practices of how to do it.

Social media is all about the linkages to people versus content and the ability to self-organize and co-creative.   Its the power of being about to work in a networked way with a group that isn't predefined.  

I was delighted to discover the above remix of Wesch's video, "The Machine is Us/ing Us Dance Remix" via Elsua who helped me get to the Cambodian bloggers conference back in 2007. The remix epitomizes the era of social relationships (see Jeremiah Owyang's Five Eras of Social Web). 

I started thinking about interpretive dance and social media adoption challenges after listening to Stowe Boyd's interview with Dion Hinchcliffe about Open Enterprise.   (Dion is one of my favorite visual thinkers, well after David Armano)

Interpretive dance, is when a dancer (or dancers) often improvising (though sometimes it is choreographed) a dance to another medium.  Technology adoption is part choreographed, part improvisation.  The point of that Hinchliffe makes about best practices for adoption of Enterprise 2.0 (or social media for inward facing work) is that there aren't any best practices.  You have to improvise!

According to Hinchcliffe "Organizations are unique, and operate in very different ways and therefore what may work for one business may not work for another."   And if you're talking about organizations working together with other organizations, that is also unique.

So, we should try to avoid at all costs asking this question first "What tool should we use?"  Stop thinking that adopting social media or social software or online collaboration tools is a matter of selecting a tool off a menu.  There is a process that requires understanding the space between the tools and the people and having someone who knows that space so well they can an interpretive dance between the technology and the users.  

Elusa has a great summary of the Dion's interview here

Who in your organization, community, or network serves as the intepretive dancer?  What style of dancing?

Ning for Dummies and Me 2.0 Book Winners

Photo in Flickr

I finally got a chance to meet Manny Hernandez, author written the "Ning for Dummies Book."   He is founder of The Diabetes Hands Foundation, a non profit that operates two niche social networks for people touched by diabetes: TuDiabetes (in English, with close to 8,200 members) and EsTuDiabetes (with close to 3,200 members, which is turning it into the main community destination for Spanish-speaking diabetics). Both have been runaway success stories.  You can read more here.

A few weeks I ran a book giveaway for five copies of his book.   You had to leave a comment indicating your goals, audience, and how you'd measure success of your Ning Community on this post which also includes a round up of Ning resources.

The lucky winners (selected randomly) of the Ning for Dummies book giveaway are:

Jon Boroshok
Tedd Nunn
Kara Carrell
Andy Ellis
Robin Mohr

I expect some good case studies at some point.

The winner of the ME 2.0 book giveaway by Dan Schawbel is Lloyd Budd who in a gracious act of pay it forward asked me for a Canadian charity to make a donation to in my honor.  To close the circle,  I connected him with Tanya Davis who raises money for Diabetes in Canada.

In about 8 weeks, I'm moving to California and need to pair down my book collection.  I'm looking for nonprofit libraries that could cover the cost of postage for a box of books in exchange for a donation of some of my books.  They cover a variety of topics, web technology, social media, training, evaluation, information design, management, and etc.   Drop a note in the comments.

Social Actions Change the Web Challenge Winner, Zemanta, Pays It Forward

Peter Deitz and Joe Solomon performed a skit at the NTC to announce the Change the Web Winners.  (disclosure, I was a judge(=)

1st Prize ($5,000) - Social Actions Interactive Map
2nd Prize ($3,000) Zemanta's Related Social Actions for Bloggers 
3rd Prize ($2,000) - SquarePeg's iPhone Application.

Congratulations to the winners and all who submitted an app! The Change the Web Challenge such a huge success! Read more here.

But what's really cool,  one of the winners, Zemanta, had decided to pay its award forward.  It launched a challenge to bloggers to "Blog For A Cause" throughout May in aid of global charities.  Zemanta and partner Weber Shandwick's Social Innovation Greenhouse will donate $6000 prize to most blogged about charities

Bloggers who want to take part should go to http://www.zemanta.com/bloggingforacause for details on the challenge, and start blogging about their favorite charity right now. Zemanta will split the prize money between the charities that are most blogged about over the course of the next four weeks.

NTC Day of Service 2010 As Pizza By The Slice

Photo by Joel Zimmer

The annual Day of Service at the NTEN NTC Conference has been a tradition since 2000.   A group of nonprofit techies share their time and expertise with nonprofits from the local community.   I've had the pleasure of being involved, along with long time colleague Cheryl Hanback, since almost the beginning.  

Orlando Roundup 2002 - Day of Service - We Won The Swimming UpStream Award!

This year we saw a record turnout with more than 100 volunteers assisting about 60 Bay-Area organizations.  In addition to the one-on-one consulting (captured by WeAreMedia Flickr BootCamp folks), a large group of nonprofit techies headed out to install two wireless networks, with equipment provided by Cisco, at the St. Anthony's Foundation and on Treasure Island.

Yes, this is a great feel good event!   Lots of good stories. We're not proclaiming wide ranging social impact, just giving a little back to the community. 

Over the years, we've reiterated this event - from office visits, types of volunteer tasks, amount of time, workshops, and lots more.   One thing does seem to stay constant.  Every year we have last minute cancellations, no-shows, or people who show up for the event who didn't sign up.   Because we try to match volunteer skills with organizations on a one-on-one basis, sometimes a volunteer's organization does not show up or we have to assign two volunteers to work with one organizations.

Because of the one-to-one matching of volunteers and 60 organizations, the logistics get unnecessarily complex -- (the incorrect table numbers were completely my fault, BTW.)    Cheryl Hanback had a brilliant idea.  She suggested that we set up tables organized by topic.

Yes, pizza by the slice!  Let me explain. 

Here Comes Everybody author Clay Shirky, keynote speaker at NTEN's Nonprfit Technology Conference told many inspiring stories and offered pithy quotes (captured expertly by Chad Norman)

One story that stuck in mine came when he explained how moving to New York City from the midwest changed his perspective, because the population was big enough that you could sell pizza by the slice.  So, it mean that pizzas were being created and baked before knowing who would purchase and eat them. 

Maybe this is will solve the problem? 

If you participated as a volunteer in the 09NTC Day of Service, please give us a few minutes of your time and let us know how we could improve the event going forward.

Also, I set up a DOS wiki and gathered up what I could find in terms of documentation - if you have photos, videos, or other a blog post, please add.