The Web Analytics Association is a (young) organization whose goal is to spread awareness, some standardization and generally "fight the good fight" in favor of analytics. The bulk of the web analytics practitioners come from large enterprises, but Sean is running for a seat on the board to give nonprofits a voice.
What major contribution will you bring to Web Analytics Association and its membership?
I’ll spend my time focusing on two markets: early stage funded/bootstrapped startups and non-profits. My mission will be to help in the creation, curation and dissemination of content that matters to these market segments.
VCs, startups and charities/non-profits will find that I’ll be eagerly listening, investigating and representing their measure needs within the organization.
My mission is pretty simple - make analytics more accessible, understandable and usable for non-profits and charities of all types.
By making content happen, and hopefully creating a non-profit & startup class (so that the registration isn't as much), I want to start welcoming folks in the space in greater numbers.
The WAA vote is open to WAA members only, but if you want a nonprofit voice on WAA board, a tweet like this couldn't hurt:
"I support @seanpower re: nonprofits and startups in the Web Analytics Association vote http://bit.ly/dAx5Eq #measure #WAA"
or
"If you're in the Web Analytics Association, don't forget to vote. I support @seanpower. http://bit.ly/dAx5Eq #measure #WAA"
Last week, we launched the first session of the "Social Media Lab," a social media peer group training with a small group of grantees from the Children, Families, Communities Program. I was incredibly lucky to have a fantastic group of participants, all passionate about their work, very knowledgeable, and excited about integrating social media into their work. I also was honored to work side-by-side with esteemed colleagues Shiree Teng, Cheryl Contee, Ashely Boyd, and Dan Cohen.
Here's some reflections:
Thoughtful, Intentional Experiments
Thoughtful experimentation is setting up a low-risk experiment with metrics to figure out what is and isn't working is a social media best practice. If we can be more intentional and disciplined in our experimentation, that's how we gain insights about effective social media use. It prevents us from falling prety to shiny objective syndrome.
It is also a good technique to explore the possibilities of new tools and techniques before investing more time and energy in something that isn't right for our organizations. The add-on to my previous workshops were three "experiment in a box" modules which included Listening, Twitter, and Facebook Fan Pages. The idea is that participants would learn some of the best practices for these social media tactics and then design and implement an experiment and share their results with one another.
There is one problem with this design: Many of us find experimenting difficult. Experiments
require short-term losses for long-term gains. With limited time and
resources, we are often hesitant to make that trade-off. It seems more
direct to pay an expert to tell us what to do, not get a checklist for
an experiment. As a culture, we value answers over questions because
answers allow us to take action faster, while asking questions makes us
think. That's hard work, but worth it because good questions and
gathering
evidence usually guides us to better results.
Gift of Time: Real Time Learning
The problem with one-shot trainings is that you offer a lot of content and information, people get excited, and then they go back to the day-to-day reality of their busy work lives. Where do you get the time to put some of what you've learned into practice? And, when do you get the time to put your hands on the keyboard, shoulder to shoulder with a peer?
We included a big chunk of time for participants to work on their experiments while they were in the room. This is the gift of time. After each participant selected an experiment, we grouped them together and had them work together on setting it up. I did floating consults. This required setting up online curriculum that could step folks through set up and aid their planning and implementation. I created these for Twitter, Facebook Fan Pages, and Listening.
A New Definition of An Expert: Your Network
I think this is particularly important to emphasize if you want to nurture any peer learning, but especially around technology skills. I modeled that I don't know everything. I didn't have the courage to do that when I was younger, but now I understand the power of knowing what you don't know. I love not knowing because it encourages me to reach out to my network and find the answer. I feel strongly that the new definition of a social media expert is someone who has a smart network.
For example, during the lab session, we got a terrific question about bilingual Fan Pages on Facebook. I didn't have direct experience to answer it, but I remembered that my colleague, Manny Hernandez, had extensive experience in social media and bilingual approaches did. So, I demonstrated how to tag a person in a wall post and posted the question:
Manny Hernadez: Should an organization that serves both Spanish-speaking and English-speaking audience (and some only speak one language) have two different Fan Pages in the native language? What are your thoughts? How do you do it?
My tag or shout out also appeared on Manny's wall and it didn't take him long to reply with a link to his post about strategies for bilingual fan pages. But even better, this question posted on my Fan Page wall generated 14 insightful comments with useful advice, including one from the Facebook developer who worked on some Facebook translation tools!
Over the Shoulder Learning on Steroids: Social Learning
Ten years ago, before my son Harry arrived, I volunteered as a mentor for the Computer Club House in Boston. I wanted to get used to being around kids and what better way to do it than volunteer for a computer after school program. One thing I immediately noticed, is how the kids huddled around together at the computer screens and quickly shared what they knew with each other or how different discoveries quickly travelled from one kid to the other. There was a lot of what Nancy White calls "Over the Shoulder Learning."
As participants go off and implement their experiments, they will not go alone. We'll have check-in conference calls as well as use the wiki and hashtag to provide just-in-time learning. The peer learning will culminate in having each participant present what they learned from their experiment.
Joyful Funerals
One of the participants was Ashley Boyd from Momsrising who has a significant amount of expertise as an early adopter of social media and genersously shared a lot of what they've learned. Ashely shared a mini case study about their Pacifier Campaign.
Ashley shared a brilliant idea and technique avoid the stigma from failure. She calls it "joyful funeral" -- that you quickly say this didn't work, reflect on why, and move on. That way, on the front end, you acknowledge that since you're experimenting not everything is going to work perfectly - and that there is value in learning from those tactics that didn't work!
I anticipate that we'll probably have some joyful funerals as move through this process, including a few of my own. I hope that we can take the flop out of failure and harness the learning.
Some things I might do differently next time around:
Making the Link To Smart Objective/Audience Identification:
I used the social media game as a peer assist exercise for the first time. In all previous versions of this game, I used simulations (a fictional example of an organization or situation that had a smart objective and audience already defined). Simulations work better because participants can focus on applying the social media principles and picking tools than on defining an objective and identifying an audience.
Next time, I will use simulations based on participants or if budget and time permits, include one-on-one coaching with participants prior to the first session. While participants do complete an assessment form, I think participants might benefit from some one-on-one coaching. It would also be great to have a bank of examples that show an organization's SMART objective, audience identification, and social media strategy.
Social Media Game
I've been using the game now for almost four years in many different versions and reiterations. Many people have also remixed it. When I use it with a large group, I do a fair amount of social engineering to ensure there is the right mix of technical experience, communications experience, and meeting facilitators. Mostly that is done in the room. I think this is still important for even a smaller group.
I also remixed the game recently to incorporate some of the latest tools such as mobile and location-based social networks. And, as such, the game was a little bit more advanced than it needed to be. And while this might have caused some confusion or even stress, I think it is good to expose people to the tools that the early adopters are playing with. Just so they know the basic concept.
Over the weekend, on the heels of this session, I attended a "Playshop" by game designer Nicole Lazzaro. I learned about the four keys of fun in game design as well as the role emotion plays in engaging people. My next task is to begin to integrate this thinking into the game as well as the overall instructional design. Stay tuned for that!
Growing My Instructional Chops
I've been delivering technology trainings as a one-woman band since 1994 when I facilitated workshops in how to use email or create web pages. I've worked with a team to do my social media module, but I've never lead a team of training. I'm learning how to scale when you collaborate with other trainers and how much you need plan or create formal lesson plans.
Today, I stumbled across another reason why I'd like to blow up online contests that use "vote for me" or popularity to make funding decisions. If a contest or program does not lead with social outcomes and if big money is thrown on the table, it encourages social innovation of another kind. Looking for loop holes in the contest rules.
In December, the Pepsi Refresh Contest was hailed as the boldest experiment so far of the number of social good contests over the past three years that have used crowdsourcing and social media to encourage innovative social change ideas or to raise money for nonprofits or shine attention on their do good work. For context, please see this guest post by Bonin Bough, The Global Director of Social Media for Pepsi, published earlier this month on my blog.
Online Vote for Me Contests like the Pepsi Refresh are designed so participants try to get as many votes as possible from their network in order to win a big cash prize. For Pepsi, the top prize is $250,000. There are official rules written by lawyers to protect the corporation and presumably to ward off cheating, gaming the system, or unfair play.
The problem is that if rules do not spell out what is and what is not permissible or are vague, than participants might conceivably use less than ethical tactics to win at all costs. And while I wouldn't go as far to call the following example "cheating," the rules do not say that isn't allowed.
I was looking at the web sites and applications of some of the organizations who were in the top ten for the $250,000 category. I was curious to see if I could learn anything about their strategy and tactics from visiting their web sites.
It started innocently enough when I visited the site of RiverBender Center and noticed all the grassroots support for the contest, including a local bank that was offering an extra incentive for people to vote by giving away "slacker cards." I initially thought it was a good idea.
So, I clicked on the offer and it prompted me to register asking for the same fields that one needs to register at the Pepsi site.
After registering, I got this prompt to go register to vote for the them over at Pepsi and use a specific password -"so that if I forget to vote everyday, some automated bot would go to the Pepsi site and cast a proxy vote on my behalf.
In all fairness, in the contest guidelines, it doesn't say that this technique is a violation of the contest rules.
Each Application Period is followed by a Voting Period. Individuals who are only interested in registering on the Website in order to vote (as defined below) will be required to meet the Eligibility Requirements listed above in Section 1 and will be required to follow the directions on the Website to register as a Voter. During the Voting Periods listed in the Application Entry Table above in Section 2, individuals who have registered on the Website to vote for the Applications they think should receive Grants ("Voters") will be allowed up to ten (10) votes (each a "Vote") per Voter per day during each Voting Period. Each Participant in the Grant Program will also be allowed up to ten (10) Votes each day of each Voting Period. For purposes of voting, a "day" shall be defined as the 24-hour period beginning at 12:00:01 a.m. ET and ending at 11:59:59 p.m. ET. Limit one (1) registration per person/email address regardless whether you are registering as a Voter or as a Participant. At the end of each day of a Voting Period, any of the un-used Votes allotted to any Voter or Participant will become void and will not roll over to the next day.
The rules do state that they may allow off-site methods, although it recommends that voter visit the web site:
Sponsor may allow various off-site methods of voting for an Application, including but not limited to mobile, widgets, media (by way of example and not by way of limitation, voting through a cell phone). Sponsor recommends that before a Voter or Participant chooses an Application to vote on, they visit the Website and review the Profile of the Participant for that Application to get more information about the Participant and their Application.
So, is proxy voting an allowable off-site voting method or not? This points out that contests really need clear guidelines and rules to ensure a level playing field for all participants.
Cause Washing Leads to Cynicism (need for authenticity)
Leading with Social Outcomes (theory of change)
Authenticity in Corporate Social Responsibility
Contest Fatigue Sets In
Empowering Stakeholders – Ensuring Change
Use Social Tools to Immerse Stakeholders
As Geoff recently posted some further thoughts and I wondered in a comment:
I’ve been reflecting about the cause cynicism and wondering how much is this something that we as insiders are feeling versus something that is out there more broadly?
Then, I started to think about creative destruction . … what if we could blow up cause related marketing and reinvent so it could have more social impact. What would look like?
What do you think? Should we just blow up these contests? Or do they just need to be better designed?
At this year's SXSW the hot new technology tool was location-based social network tools such as Gowalla and FourSquare. A location-based social network is a social networking platform that is built around the idea of "where you are" and you use it on your mobile phone.
Your status updates are your physical location with a brief shout out or tip. You check-in and your friends know where you are. You can see who else is at that location and you can see where your friends are. And my friends can now know (if I choose to share) the mundane location-based facts of my life, like where and when I buy coffee in the morning and how often I go to the grocery store or the gym. And, when you add new places to the Foursquare database, it can get interesting.
I wrote briefly about FourSquare last November when it was used for a fundraiser in NYC. There are certainly some wonderful possibilities - like putting out volunteer requests and for organizations where they want their audience or stakeholders to explore the physical space. For example, a museum could create a fun treasure hunt by having people check at specific galleries or works of art. Harvard University did an experiment with having students use it to explore the campus. Or you could have your supporters add nonprofit locations and tips to Foursquare.
Allyson Kapin has an excellent post "Foursquare: Novelty or Buzz Worthy?" where she interviews nonprofit social media early adopters asking the question "Should nonprofits take a more serious look at FourSquare and explore ways to leverage it?" The answer: explore it and see if it is a good fit. Start looking at where people check in and how it overlaps with your strategic goals.
I'm only just beginning to see some of the value as a personal networking tool.
I've been dutifully "checking in" and have earned 10 mayorships (in FourSquare you are made the mayor of a location if you check more frequently than others), many badges, and reached a super user level. And while it is a cool new tool, there are important limitations to consider. Location-based social networks have just reached critical mass in the mainstream, although with partnerships with mainstream media it may just reach it this year.
It wasn't until I was at SXSW where there was a critical mass of people I knew who were using the platform that FourSquare revealed some value: If your flight is delayed and your bored, and don't want to kill time alone, you could find your friends. This is exactly what happened.
When I left SXSW, I used Foursquare to check into the Austin Airport. Three minutes later I got a tweet from a colleague, Robert Fabricant, who I hadn't seen since we were on the faculty at PopTech and didn't realize was attending SXSW. Then I got a dm from Paull Young who I didn't get a chance to talk to during the conference.
Also delayed was another colleague, JD Lasica. So, instead of reading trashy magazines, I got a chance to have a great conversation with some colleagues.
It demonstrates that you need to have a critical mass of friends using the platform in close proximity. SXSW and perhaps the NTC would be the only places where that would happen.
Getting on the plane back to the Bay Area, I recognized at least 10 other people on the plane that I knew. And, ended up sitting next to Matt Stewart, Head of Marketing, Alliance for Climate Education. I was a little embarrassed because I was drinking bottled water. Matt later sent me the cool new water bottle. In another curious social networking twist of fate, a colleague introduced me to Matt, who is his spare time is wrote a novel on Twitter. (I tweeted about this several months ago).
Matt called the planes in and out of Austin to SXSW the "nerd birds" because so many people fly in to SXSW that the planes are filled with geeks.
Have you found personal value in using Foursquare? What was it? What value could it provide your nonprofit organization?
The third Twestival will take place on Thursday, March 25th in cities around the world. The event was the brainchild of Amanda Rose, who launched the first Twestival in February 2009 that raised money to support Charity:Water. Thursday's event will support Concern (on Twitter), an organization that seeks to provide education aid to some of the world’s most poorest communities. My colleague, Geoff Livingston, has a great post about Twestival over at his blog.
You can go to the site and find an event in your community or city. I'm planning on going to the Palo Alto Twestival - will I see you there?
And, speaking of charity:water, Monday was World Water Day, but that doesn't mean you can't talk about the issue year round. Randi Zuckerberg suggests these Facebook Fan Pages, Geoff Livingston offers this post on the issue of clean water, and Case Foundation blog points a great way to give water this week:
I've been buried putting the final touches on some new curriculum for social media and nonprofit peer learning approaches. It's the dance floor and the balcony - both strategy and tactics but deployed in a lab with focused experiments, measurement, reflection and learning from peers. And, most importantly, designed for people to have fun doing it. (I'm drawing my inspiration from 4th grade science experiments and science fair.)
To build an effective strategy, one needs to identify an objective that links to a communications goal or theory of change and, of course, identify the audience.
I've been translating different audience analysis frameworks to a nonprofit context. These include:
Audience Target Group Identification: This is the most important question and may be informed by research or listening. Who is target group you need to reach with your overall communications objective? For this, I'm drawing on the Smart Chart of Kristen Grim and from working with a cadre of smart nonprofit communications folks who have remixed the social media game.
Primary and Secondary Social Media Research: Once the audience is defined, it is important to fill in the gaps with primary or secondary research. The primary research includes surveys, interviews, and observation. I've been collecting secondary research and stats on social media usage and typically share synthesis of the most recent information in every workshop.
Socialgraphics: I have been using the Forrest Social Technographics framework, but it was developed a while ago and the environment has changed. A few months ago, Charlene Li and Jeremiah Owyang, offered a free webinar about Socialgraphics or understanding your audiences' social behavior. They presented a framework called "The Enagement Pyramid" which is based on Jake McKee's 90-1-9 rule and gave different corporate use cases for social behavior for each level. I used the framework to analyze nonprofit examples. I also created some fun group exercises for folks to learn the concepts.
Pscyho Socialgraphics!!
In thinking about this, I felt there was something important missing. But, then I stumbled across a post by my colleague Adrian Chan who is an expert in social interaction design and I've had the opportunity to get to know and talk shop with for hours. His recent post Why User Competencies Matter in Social Design was a major breakthrough for me and circled me back to Jennifer Aaker's research.
In designing for social participation, Adrian Chan urges us to consider user goals and needs — even interests, features, functionality, and adoption. Best practices and popular ways of using social media guide us in our decisions. What is also important to consider users psychological motivations and build that into your strategy. Here's his suggestions:
Goals and rewards – Consider the kinds of goals you might set and the rewards that may be earned by users who reach them. These might be personal goals and rewards levels, tasks, challenges, or points. Or social goals and rewards, resulting in status, ranking, visibility, lists, features and spotlighting members.
Moods and feelings – Give expressive users ways in which to communicate their moods and feelings. For example, emoticons and gifts, or icons to be used and exchanged with friends or attached to messages and content. These small gestures, while small, can be curiously compelling.
Knowledge and learning – For users interested in research, information, bookmarking, and more search and browse-related activities, provide ways to share discoveries. Capture those learned moments and make them visible — perhaps surface and validate experts and top contributors.
Giving and receiving – For users who enjoy social transactions provide gifts and a means of passing them around privately and publicly. Gifting is a highly social form of communication, and besides being kind, engages a sense of reciprocity in most of us. So it’s naturally contagious.
Helping and assisting – Some users are just naturally good at paying attention to others, and enjoy helping and assisting those with needs or questions. Design ways to surface these needs and create channels by which helpers can pitch in.
Reviewing, recommending, and rating – Users equipped with opinions and a sense of taste can make valuable reviewers and recommenders. Design ways to capture their contributions as social content. This can be designed then into lists, favorite, trends, news and more.
Asking and answering – In a world of search, there are still many occasions when users want to ask questions and get personal answers. And in a world of search results, there are those who enjoy sharing their knowledge, expertise, and help. But questions disappear if they are not captured and paid attention to.
Announcing and sharing – There are users so on top of news that furnishing them with means to announce their discoveries makes for an easy and effective way to keep social content fresh and interaction active. Topical organization, along with trends, help users sort and filter what’s relevant to them.
What do you know about the target audience you are trying to reach with your social media strategy?
Back in September, 2008, after reading this post by Chris Brogan about taking your blog to the next level, I was inspired. I knew that I was outgrowing my information design as well as my blogging platform. I started blogging here in 2003, it has become increasingly difficult to find older posts because I have too many categories and an
idiosyncratic way of organizing them.
If it is hard for me to find content, than I can't imagine how what it is like for you, the readers. Allison Fine once joked that my blog was like entering the portal in Being John Malkovich.
I thought I could do it myself, incrementally. Redirect blog to domain name, export content to a new platform, and use of the pre-formed themes for my design. I started to read posts about un-cluttering your blog and design checklists:
I got terrific suggestions from folks like Lorelle and even did some playing around with paper and scissors. But I got stuck! Like a deer in the headlights.
My Zoetica colleague, Geoff Livingston, suggested that I don't go the DIY route and work with a professional web/blog designer! And, am thrilled to announce that I'm working with Allyson Kapin and Jared Seltzer of Rad Campaign. They have graciously agreed to let me write about what I learn about a blog redesign process.
Our first task was to an assessment to look at the strategy as well as the design elements. The strategy covered:
Objectives
Positioning
Targeting
Benefits
Messaging
Call to Action
I'd like this new blog to be a cleaner version of Beth's Blog with less clutter, but no so polished. I want the blog design to reflect being authentic, and generous in sharing knowledge. I also want the blog to be a fun place to visit and more interactivity, at least in the comments. I feel like my current platform gets in the way of building community and conversation in the comment threads. I want something with white space, that's visual, and is not boxy corporate.
The most important part of a redesign process - after you map out the strategic points - is to look at a lot of blogs and identify design elements you like. This helps you develop a common vocabulary with the designer.
The next step is to start thinking about the information architecture and this, of course, flows from the objectives.
I'm also going to be working on the SEO strategy with colleagues Dennis Yu and Jonathan Coleman. Which will come after the look and feel piece.
So stay tuned! Have any advice for going through a redesign process?
Note from Beth: Every now and then, I get asked when did you first discover the power of the social web? I actually have a repertoire of stories, but one of them is about Michaela Hackner (Kalabird.) I connected with her through her amazing photos of Cambodia on Flickr when I was covering the Cambodian blogosphere for Global Voices over five years ago.
Somewhere around 2006 or 2007, I got a call from Michaela asking for advice on a career path for Nonprofit Technology. I spent some time on the phone answering questions, referring resources, and later introduced her to colleagues.
In 2008, I had my first opportunity to speak on a panel at SXSW called "Pimp My Nonprofit" with Ed Schipul as the moderator. We had to replace one of the speakers and I recommended Michaela. She did a fantastic job. At this year's SXSW, I was invited to participate on a flash panel about women and technology conferences which ended up being about mentoring. I used the example of recommending a Michaela, relative newcomer to the nonprofit technology field at the time,for a SXSW panel.
So, it is with a great pleasure that Michaela shares some of her experience and takeaways from this year's SXSW.
Andrew, Bill, and I just got back from the South by Southwest Interactive Festival, where we spent nearly a week drinking from the proverbial technology innovation firehose. We attended numerous panels, connected with colleagues and friends on nonprofit technology and social good, and had skillets of queso in between. We heard a lot about the use of crowdsourcing, the latest Twitter apps, and why content strategy is so important. We also "checked in" using FourSquare and Gowalla everywhere.
But beyond all of the hype and noise, the most dominant theme I keep coming back to is that community is and always will be King. Even if you have the most awesome web site, campaign, or cause out there, you need a thoughtful and dedicated community behind it in order for it to be successful.
Both online and offline, communities are not only the way we identify ourselves, but more importantly, they are the most authentic and powerful vehicle for change. Our communities vet good ideas, apply the "trust" layer, and motivate us to take real action — from donating to becoming an advocate. It is the groundswell of communities that provides the momentum and sustainability for social change.
This week has reminded me that the power and benefits of getting communities together in person shouldn't be overlooked. We are all part of several communities in our own lives — some we connect with regularly, others maybe every few months. Some may exist solely online. South by Southwest reinforced the true value of connecting like-minded groups in person — particularly in our field. It will not only strengthen pre-existing ties, but that real-time collaboration and connection will also lead to innovation and initiate numerous trajectories for social good.
And, it's amazing what we can accomplish when we get together. For example, through a Twitter campaign during the conference, Mark Horwath raised $50,000 for his organization InvisiblePeople.tv to help promote awareness of homelessness in America. During a panel on fundraising, Donors Choose raised enough money to fund a music classroom project in Austin. Other panels on social good explored crowdsourcing ideas to change the world, and brought folks together during the CauseLabs to brainstorm offline solutions to ending hunger in America. Many of these examples leveraged online network lessons, however, the follow-through and enthusiasm around them was fostered by in-person connections.
Human contact leverages passion that sometimes gets lost online. It re-energizes and inspires. It reminds us why we do what we do. And am I ever energized.
My first South by Southwest experience was three years ago, when I wandered from panel to panel, seeking like-minded folks, intent on using technology for good. I came across very few and was slightly discouraged that the groups that mattered most weren't tapping into the valuable information generated by the conference.
Two years ago I was a panelist on one of the few nonprofit technology panels, "Pimp My Nonprofit." A few of us got together to talk about nonprofit technology in the hopes of generating more interest from our community and broadening the focus of the festival. We received a lot of great feedback and the idea took.
This year there was an entire conference track dedicated to social good. In the maelstrom of consumerism and high tech gadgetry, the idea of changing the world bubbled to the top. Even if people weren't nonprofit technologists, many were still focused on making the world a greener, more diverse, and selfless place. The positive intentions from folks were heartening and awe-inspiring, and contagious. I felt honored to be part of such an amazing group of people using their awesome technology powers for good. And, being there in person allowed me to build new relationships with other changemakers, and further cement the connections I had within the NPTech community. I am ready to do big things, help people, and make some real strides this year. I know my dreams are possible because of everyone else I met who is equally committed to those goals.
Together we can do it. We will use technology to stay in touch and collaborate on ideas. Hopefully, just as our passion starts to dwindle, we'll find ourselves in the same room again, sharing examples and learnings, promoting the causes we care about, and collaborating on how we can heal this world a little bit more each day. And that will make all the difference.
The Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) is to nonprofit techies what SXSW is to social media professionals. Translation: You have to go!
I've been going before the NTC was the NTC. This year's conference will celebrate the 10th Anniversary. Woo Hoo!
While the registration is affordable, when you add the travel and lodging, and it is stretch, especially if you're just starting out. But that hasn't deterred dedicated and passionate folks, younger people, in the nonprofit technology field to take to the social web and ask their friends for help.
That's why I want to help Kara Carrell. I feel it is important to help encourage the next generation of nonprofit techies. She isn't some random person. I had the pleasure of meeting her back in 2008 at the Making Media Connections Conference in Chicago where I delivered the keynote.
Last year, my friend, Eddie Harran, successfully launched a campaign to get to the NTC from Australia. I helped, of course, and as a bonus got some timtams. This year it is Kara C is trying to raise the extra funds to get herself to the NTC. It's a modest goal - $10 will go a long way.
I've already donated my extra frequent flyer miles to another attendee, my hotel points to another, and have donated to Kara's campaign. Why don't you?
Mark Horvath, known as "HardlyNormal" on Twitter and who is a tireless advocate for the cause of homelessness, was the winner of the SXSW Pepsi Refresh Challenge. Gary Vee, a social media celebrity champion and many others, helped this cause win the contest and receive a grant of $50,000 for Invisible People TV.
Mark uses social media to tell the story of homeless people in America. He plans to use the grant to create a training program to teach homeless people to use social media tools to tell their own story. As his celebrity champion, Gary Vee, says in this video, having homeless people use social media to leverage their situation is a powerful idea.
The SXSW Pepsi Fresh Challenge matched three different causes with three social media rock stars. The rules were simple, the winner who got the most retweets of a unique tag won. Gary Vee used the tag RefreshGary as part of the session hashtag which was certainly helped, although the rules only counted a specific user's retweet once within a two-hour period.
Social media celebrity charity endorsements with social media rock stars helped raised the visibility of the contest and as a by-product, the different causes. I think it is important for the contest design to think about sustainability, longer term results, and doing no harm to charity. I think what propelled Mark's success are the very principles that Gary Vee lives and breathes everyday and writes about in his book, Crush It:
Passion: You can hear it when Mark talks about his issue, you can see in his tweets, and in everything he does to raise our awareness of homelessness. He doesn't give up. I had the opportunity to watch him work first hand as he gave pizza for some of Austin's homeless outside the bars where other SXSW attenders were having a good time at parties.
Community Builder: Mark never pitches his cause when he first meets you. He doesn't pitch. He tries to help you. He reciprocates, he listens. He has built a supportive network of people who help him fuel his cause. He knows how to empower people in his network as well as say thank you
During SXSW, Mark was doing interviews in the Beacon Nonprofit Lounge. I was honored that he asked me for an interview and even more honored that Debra Askanase was on the room to live blog the answers.
I sent a note thanking Debra for her post and we had a quick email. She shared a wonderful story about yet another one of the wonderful people in Mark's Network, Jessica Gottlieb
She's quite a powerful force. She tweeted last night something like "if you want to talk to me tonight, you'll have to use the hashtag #refreshgary."
I thought it was such a great idea I told her so and tweeted: "I love that @JessicaGottlieb says "If you want to talk to me tonight you'll need to use #refreshgary." I'll ask the same, pls. Good cause."
She responded to my later tweet to her pointing out that people could only tweet the hashtag once every hour or so: "@askdebra yep. but there's one hour left and I have 13,000 followers. I'd like as many replies as possible."
Then she tweeted to me: "@askdebra I'm totally aware that I'm spamming, I've been so impacted by @invisiblepeople that I'll ask forgiveness of my followers tomorrow."
There are trade offs that happen when a cause, free agent fundraiser or nonprofit participates in one of these "vote for me contests" sponsored by a corporate brand. People are smart enough to know what is authentic and what is not. And, sometimes cause marketing from brands can get in the way of building a passionate and committed community around a cause, particularly when heartfelt thank yous are edited out. Nonetheless, this is a victory for Mark's cause!
The art and science of crowd sourcing for social change
Next practices in integrating social media for program delivery that leads to social outcomes
We used a broad definition of crowd sourcing, simply stated as:
Getting ideas, content, volunteer tasks, money, or other things from
a wide swath of people. And that’s good thing for solving complex
social problems with innovative ideas. During the session, it was
pointed out that crowd sourcing is a way to people, organizations, and
communities work together for mutual good, and without competing.
For the Case Study Contest, we used a submission form and then asked our networks and communities to participate by submitting examples of how they have integrated social media into program delivery. We also asked the community to vote and rate the examples. Then, we asked the panelists to pick a few to share during the panel. These were (as captured by blogger Marcia Stephanek):
Open Green Map,
offered up by Holly Ross, helps communities map their eco-friendly spots,
whether it's a bike rack or a solar-heated apartment complex or a
public herb garden. Using this open source collaborative platform, the
Manhattan-based nonprofit has so far engaged more than 600 communities
in 55 countries in creating citizen maps to catalyze new environmental
projects, large and small. The maps are made by community members. OGM
helps.
Seattle Free School,
suggested by Amy Sample Ward, uses social media to organize classes and teach
students. “The owners found each other via social media and the project
was born from the interaction,” Ward said. “This is ‘for the community
by the community’ education and engages the best local experts to share
their knowledge and experience for free."
Invisible People,
an nonprofit that uses video storytelling to help de-stigmatize
homeless people. "Our hope is that you'll get mad enough to do
something," its Website reads. Invisible People uses crowd sourcing to
select the best stories and interviews.
My goal for the session was to create a fusion between the traditional talking head panel, followed by Q&A and a core conversation. I was also wanted to interject crowd sourcing from the audience in the room or via the hashtag on the Twitter (crowdx) in real time. So, armed with an improvised mobile wireless mic, I used an Oprah style facilitation. So after introducing the panelists and topic, I quickly left the platform/stage and roamed the audience to ask them questions or share stories related to the topic.
So, for example, after our panelists briefly shared the above examples, I asked the audience for other examples. A funny thing happened. I knew a number of folks in the room and I was staring them down, hoping they would speak up first. I think with Oprah style "person on the street" type interview - you want to begin with someone you already know, perhaps seed a few opening stories.
I noticed the brilliant Andy Carvin in the front row and looked him straight in the eye and he waved me off. Then I asked Claire Sale if anyone had offered an example on Twitter. Claire, who didn't know Andy, said "Someone named Andy Carvin mentioned that I asked each of the panelists to create an ignite style presentation cited Project NOAH. I told the audience that I was hoping he would speak and Andy shared a few more examples, captured here by Marcia Stepanek.
I was modeling crowd sourcing and my new definition of an expert: Your expertise is in your network. I wanted to make sure that the backchannel was less of a place for snark, but more a place to capture ideas, insights, and resources. I kept encouraging people to add their urls or best resources into the stream, add insights, or make corrections.
Ben Rigby, who was also in the room, was testing an awesome new twitter tool he created called "Tweet Notes" which helps you summarize the tweets, add the most tweeted links, and most frequent participants. We had a total of 1500 tweets during our panel and this tool made it easy to sort through. Peggy from Wiser Earth went through the resulting transcript and pulled out some of the key tweet points and users. We were also lucky to have Sarah Davies live blogging notes as well.
In order to pull this off (and I think it worked out), it required some preparation before the session. We had several phone calls and collaborated using a google document to capture notes and tasks. The first layer of preparation was the content. I created a script of conversation starters/questions about crowd sourcing and using social media for program delivery. I asked each panelist to create an ignite style presentation to answer the questions briefly. Amy Sample Ward shared her thoughts in a blog post along with her presentation.
Then I reviewed each slide deck and created a compilation (see above) and developed the final script. The only rule I followed was that not every panelist had to answer every question. I identified a person to kick off the answer. I wanted to leave space to improvise question probes and pull in people from the audience or encourage people to put ideas into Twitter. We had too much content, so next time I'd only prepare half as many questions.
I also prepared a list of urls for the Twitter Advocate, Claire Sale, to share in the stream to model sharing of resources. I also promoted the session to people in my network who were not attending SXSW to participate via the hashtag, an example of real time web.
What would I do differently for next time?
Get a hand wireless mic
Get to the room early and rearrange the furniture to accommodate better moving around during the discussion. The seats were set up theatre style and 15 minutes before the panel, the room was packed.
Have fewer discussion questions - focus on one topic, not two
Have a brief over that lays out the definition and concept models
Have a few "plants" people willing to share a story or resource or disagree with a panelist come early in the session
Have brilliant panelists like Amy, Holly, Kari, and David - they truly made it work!
Have a brilliant audience
Prepare enough to be able to improvise and riff but not too much
My biggest regret is that I didn't get a chance to give shout outs to every single person in the room who had something to offer and particularly to those folks who I know and love and couldn't get to them because of the layout of the room.
Holly Ross created a page over at the WeAreMedia wiki summarizing the posts and links. If you were in the room or not or have additional thoughts on crowd sourcing, please add them to the WeAreMedia Wiki.
If you were in the session or participating through Twitter, I'd love to know how it could have been improved for next time?
I'm happy to announce that our Zoetica iPhone application, is now live on the iTunes store. It provides a complication of nonprofit tech and social change blog feeds.
So, now you read a great collection of nonprofit, social change, and social media content your iPhone (download now). Content feeds on the application include:
iPhone App 1-2-3: Build, Distribute, and Promote Through All Channels
As a prelude to this launch, back in January I created an iPhone app for Beth's Blog also using AppMakr. It was a low risk experiment on AppMakr to test drive the service before selecting a vendor and to learn what was involved. AppMakr offers a very user friendly interface to create a
native iPhone application that you customize with images and content
feeds The result is a simple informational app rich in content.
It is a great service for nonprofits that want to serve up content for supporters on an iPhone, but have
an extremely limited budget, no design skills, and lack iPhone
programming expertise. But using the service to create the application is only one third of
the process. You need to get it approved and published on iTunes for
distribution and, of course, you have to promote outside of the iTunes. iPhone apps are not
a build it and they will come project!
I'm seeing more and more nonprofits add iPhone apps (or other mobile apps) to their marketing mix. For example, just take a look at the explosion of mobile apps for museums. and especially since the dramatic success of the Red Cross Haiti text fundraising. But text fundraising is a whole different type of project than delivering content which might make a good "toe in the water with mobile" low-cost experiment.
But there is a whole more possible than simple content delivery. The Capital Area Food Bank of Texas (CAFB) recently launched iPheedANeed,
the first iPhone application launched by a food bank to-date. It is designed to do more than deliver content on the issue of hunger in Central Texas, it also has interactive components such as a game featuring a
virtual "Kitchen Cupboard," where users can stock their kitchen shelves
with healthy, non-perishable food items they've caught. (Going beyond content delivery does require a bit more resources in the creation/production of the app)
Promoting Your App Through Multi-Channels
There are many creative ways that you can market and promote your iPhone or other mobile app to your target audiences through multiple channels. You want to incorporate it in your existing marketing strategy and the very first thing you should do is put a big link and announcement to your iPhone App to download on your web site, blog, social media profiles, print publications, etc. In addition to the iTunes store, there are other directories and curated niche lists. And, of course, you want to track with analytics what tactics work or not, and improve over time.
What iphone marketing tactics have you used that were successful? What are some creative ways that nonprofits are marketing their mobile apps to target audiences?
Social media is in is toddler hood, especially as it applies to cause-based corporate giving campaigns and CSR initiatives. Due to the very public nature of pioneer campaigns, we are able to peer into the box to gleen the strongest approaches towards social media and avoid the weaknesses.
At Zoetica, we have been examining social media-based cause campaigns in depth and would like to offer some thoughts on how corporate social responsibility is evolving in the 21st century. You can read our in-depth post over at Kami's blog.
A fusion approach that balances marketing with social change is needed. Clearly, more research needs done to study what leads to meaningful
change in cause-based campaigns and CSR initiatives. As a part of my
research fellowship with the Society for New Communications Research,
Kami Huyse and I are working on research about how companies
that contribute to online communities fare in this important metric of
change, and if this also contributes to the bottom line as well.
Through this, and other research, we hope to further the case for tying cause-related marketing to social change outcomes.
Note From Beth: Since 2007, I've been using, adapting, and remixing the Social Media Gamesocial media workshops for nonprofits. In fact, just last month, I took it to India. Last year, I facilitated a version of the Social Media Game for Packard Grantees as part of a convening on Network Effectiveness in Washington, DC. Dave Witzel was a participant in the workshop and thought the game could be adapted as apart of training on social media at the staff retreat. The big challenge with training is the challenge of transfer - after people go through a training - do they actually put the knowledge and skills into practice?
Also, the game is licensed under creative commons - which means folks are welcomed to use as long as share and share like (with attribution). EDF has embraced the spirit of this sharing - not only remixing a version of the game for their organization,but also sharing back the materials and what worked!
That's why I invited Kira Marchenese, to write a guest post about has happened since the training last year.
Last fall, we marched all 350 or so Environmental Defense Fund staff through two days of a social media challenge. Looking back, I’m happy to report that the experiment paid off.
Why did we do this?
We know that very soon, social media will no longer be optional. Already, some of our advocacy work is progressing in large part because of savvy use of social media (see our blog about chemicals and toxics).
We have a mix of staff who dived into social media long ago (see our business innovation blog and green business twitter feed), and others who have maybe sort of heard of Twitter. We wanted to give everyone a chance to get more familiar with the tools, and, more importantly, understand how social media is relevant to their goals.
What did we do?
We went all-out. EDF periodically brings our entire staff together for an in-person retreat. This year, the retreat theme was social media. We crafted a two-day challenge, mixing all-staff sessions with smaller group time. Here’s the overview:
• Everyone attended a 90-minute presentation by Eric Schwartzman on what social media is and why we should pay attention. He’s energetic and knows his stuff, so it was a good start.
• A few EDF staffers joined Eric on stage to share what they’ve done with social media. This was really important – hearing colleagues talk about their posts being read by EPA officials or members of international negotiating teams made the point in a way no consultant could.
Then the hands-on part started:
• We broke into teams of 40 to 70 people, based on the type of work we do. For example, everyone who works on ocean issues was on the same team. Each team received a challenge in their field that they had to meet through social media.
• Each of the six large teams divided again into tables of 10. At the small tables, we played an EDF version of the social media game developed by Beth Kanter and David Wilcox.
• After each table developed a strategy, the large teams picked one strategy each to develop a pitch around. They spent the next 24 hours refining the pitch.
And then the fun really started!
Each team pitched their idea to the full EDF staff. The pitches included costumes, music, video filmed on-site, mock-ups, and social media demos.
We all voted, and the winning team got budget money to fund their social media plan.
How did it go?
People were extremely engaged. Every EDF staffer had to do this. Our biggest worry was that people would find it irrelevant to their work and would check out. Breaking up into small tables worked – I saw table after table of people leaning in, standing up, gathered around flip charts. I didn’t see anyone checking their Blackberry, which was pretty amazing. And people from assistants to VPs poured energy into crafting the pitches, you can see from the scene at t-minus 3 hours and t-minus 30 minutes.
And that made the presentations really good. Teams took ownership of their ideas and were revved up to show them off. They threw themselves into writing scripts and filming, gathering costume pieces, and otherwise doing much more in 24 hours than I would have thought possible. Even the teams that spent the least time preparing gave polished overviews.
The “game show” conceit made it all more fun. Our host, Rachel “Seacrest”, and the judges did a great job of moving things along and lacing the presentations with some clever silliness. The audio-visual crew did a top-notch job juggling all the video, countdown clocks, slides, props and miking, adding to the sense that this social media stuff is really big-time.
We could have refined the structure of the two days. Even with the tailored materials, and a dry run, there were many things I’d do differently next time. If you’re considering running this game yourself, definitely check out what we learned!
Lots of great ideas. EDF staff came up with some really interesting ideas. Not every table had a social media plan ready to execute (”handing out flyers” wasn’t one of the social media tools we encouraged!) but several of them are already being executed.
Did it make a difference?
Three months later, what do we have to show for it? Or, in other words, should other organizations consider doing this? Here’s what we’re seeing.
An explosion of EDF bloggers. We have a new transportation blog, Way2Go, and new participants in our international climate talks blog. The contributors to our blog about Texas energy re-tooled how they write and edit posts to make it more flexible and inclusive. And two more new blogs are on the way.
But I’m most pleased that EDF staff are evaluating how blogging will help achieve their goals, not just blogging for the sake of it. One of the best conversations we’ve had is with a department that decided to put off blogging for now, since it made sense to invest in other tactics first. I love seeing our staff make smart, well-informed choices.
Not just the usual suspects. We’ve always had a small but energetic group experimenting with social media. We’re now seeing both interest and confidence about social media from people who were never part of that experimental vanguard. Lauren Guite, our online team’s outreach coordinator, says that not only are these “unusual suspects” truly interested, but she’s impressed with their understanding of why the tools are important.
Plans to re-run the game. Three different groups have come to me asking for help re-running the game to generate ideas for specific projects. I can’t think of a better indicator that people found it useful.
We had to cut staff last year, the economy remains rough, and the planet needs a lot of saving. When staff choose to engage in social media, they spend less time on something else. We’re seeing this play out in a cycle of enthusiasm and guilt. People get excited about something — tweeting, setting up Google Reader, signing up for Facebook. But other priorities get in the way, and it becomes just something else that’s still on their to-do list the next week. They feel bad when we check in with them and they haven’t gotten to it yet.
In the big picture, if people see results from social media, they’ll keep engaging, and if they don’t see results, they shouldn’t feel bad about stopping. But getting started requires a leap of faith that time spent trying social media is time well spent. And when there’s so much going on, it’s hard to make that leap.
The time we spent on this at the retreat definitely helped amp up the enthusiasm part of the cycle, pushing more people into making the leap of faith.
Kira Marchenseis the Online communications director at Environmental Defense Fund.
Congrats to Megha Bhagat, Winner of HP Laptop/Printer Bundle Contest that I ran on my blog last month. To enter the contest, readers had to share their "Theory of Change." Megha is a passionate human rights advocate in India and also lawyer. Her blog is here.
Here's her theory of change and social media:
Social
Media was at one point of time just about what we read or saw in news
or heard over the radio. Then came in social media as an effective
mechanism to be able to catalyse change.Maybe the attention its got is
relatively new but no denying that its become today such a strong
change maker.
I am a lawyer by profession and presently a student of human rights law
in my masters at India. Going back to my under graduation days i can
say social media helped me bring together people for a cause time and
again. Today i use it effectively with maybe another handful of lawyers
spread over the country who communicate via mails and help in their own
small ways . My theory for a change has some linkages to my law
specific profession:
1. How to get Communities like the litigating, practicing lawyers
effectively engaging on social media: It is still a fact that in India
the lawyers who are practicing,are working in firms have a very very
closed view on usage of social media tools. It is important to get them
initiated into usage of social media. This becomes important for pro
bono services. Some lawyers are ready to help people in distress in pro
bono cases and in India you need a strong network of such lawyers.
Getting the practitioners all across connected via social media tools
ensures that this network is able to deliver services for the masses
who donot have enough means for access to justice. Today i am a part of
a small group like this, but we are people who are in a younger age
bracket and have been using social media for sometime. The change is
needed in the whole fraternity where in the sensitivity and readiness
of lawyers to take up pro bono cases is encouraged by teaching them how
effective social media tools can be for conversing with other like
minded professionals etc.
2. Breaking the Myths about Social media: For a community like the
lawyers its important to introduce them to the new age social media and
what it has come to mean. It is important to make this community to
realize that their services can bring about a change in societal access
to justice delivery system and more importantly that social media is
now not a waste of time but an effective tool for sharing experiences
and getting motivated by work that others in their community do. Even
as social media experts/trainers engage with professionals from all
walks of community it is important that this community is also engaged
in breaking their myths, apprehensions etc.
3. Every individual is a change maker: My experience with social
media tools has been that conversations, discussions, arguements shared
on discussion boards, forums, groups has brought the unconventional
professionals to come ahead with ideas that can bring change. A lot of
times these discussions have brought ahead an individual who probably
would not engage in a certain type of case but is inspired and
motivated by following the discusisons and gives his input which
becomes an important idea for people like us who are into human rights
practicing. It is therefore pertinent to constantly realize that, to
bring together an effective change maker group of lawyers who are ready
to provide justice delivery services, every lawyer we train in social
media tools or even get introduces to such tools becomes an individual
who can have an amazing idea.
For me personally i can envisage a system where in we have trained
lawyers from all walks of practice in India, in effective communication
via social media and such engagement can bring about at least a start
of coming together of ideas, brain storming of changes needed and more
importantly networks of professionals who are readily available for
getting justice to the under served masses.
Megha Bhagat
Advocate
LLM student, NLSIU, Bangalore(Human Rights), India
meghabhagat@nls.ac.in
I'm knee deep in creating some new workshop curriculum. I like to use videos as part of the instruction to trigger discussion or something at the end as a group bonding mechanism. Something that has eluded me is how to directly embed the YouTube Video. I've always had an elegant solution - include a hyper link to the YouTube Page.
I just discovered a way to embed the video directly in a slide. It isn't that hard to do and the above screencast will show you how. You need Powerpoint 2007 and a live Internet connection in order to make it work. This trick, along with being able to Tweet from Powerpoint is definitely going into my Trainer's Bag of Social Media Tricks.
The other day, Matt Sharp shared this link to a social media policy generator called the Social Media Policy Tool. It asks you 12 questions mostly having to do with control and then spits out the biolerplate for your policy. It reminded of the Postmodernism Thesis Generator could spit out a thesis for you in minutes.
Here's the social media policy I created for Beth's Blog. Obviously, this is a just a beginning, not an end. The language, of course, needs to be customized to your particular situation and the biolerplate included may not be relevant. The process around policy - that is the discussion, buy-in, and education - is so critical for effective use of social media. You could do your organization a disservice if you think that the written policy that results from this tool is your final product. And, also it doesn't give you the best practices and tactial tips.
Creating a social media policy or any other organizational policy requires three steps:
Establish the policy: Determine the policy and what you want to accomplish
Educate: Important to train or make employees aware of the implications
Enforce: Less about the top down control, but the fact that you need to consistently use the policy – shouldn’t sit in a drawer
The social media policy tool helps you with part of the of step 1.
I think it is also very useful to review other organization's policies. Altimeter Group has a good collection (although mostly corporate) on its wiki. I wrote a post almost a year ago with a summary of what should go in a nonprofit organization's policy as well as a roundup of nonprofit and government policies. So, it is a good idea that if you use a short-cut like the policy tool, that you review other policies and think specifically what is needed in your organization's policy. There is also an operational aspect of the policy - all the tips and best practices that should be incorporated.
Does your nonprofit have a social media policy? How did you create an effective one? How did you educate people? How do you operationalise it? Have some thoughts? Netsquared is running a thinktank on this topic and you contribute your ideas here.
Yesterday was the second day for a meeting with a community of practice of people interested in network effectiveness convened by Monitor Institute. I learned so much and quickly wanted to share a few insights.
I heard first hand from Eugene Eric Kim about strategic planning at Wikipedia. One of my favorite quotes: "At the end of the day, networks are piles of people.”
As he shared the story, I had some questions about weaving offline/online collaboration within networks. We most typically think of the offline/online as a sequence somewhat like this:
Small group meets face-to-face - builds trust
Uses online space to continue work inbetween face-to-face meetings
I started thinking about how a lot of the online collaboration was taking place on the social web is between people who had never met each other and after they work together may meet each other. In my own experience, I've connected and collaborated with people online who I had never met face-to-face and these have been pretty rich experiences. I've also worked in the other direction - starting with a known group meeting face-to-face and then incorporating online tools to deepen or further our work.
So, it raised some questions in my mind:
What is unique about online collaboration that begins online before a face-to-face meeting?
Can it be effective without ever meeting or do you need that face-to-face to build trust? Does that have to happen first?
How can you effectively weave offline/online work in a network? Is it different depending on the intention or structure of the network?
What are the nuances?
Eugene Eric Kim's answer: No difference between weaving networks face to face and weaving networks online. But space does matter, and affects how you interact with people. We can have the power to shape the space. You can build trusting relationships on line, not just face to face. What we need to catalyze networks is conversations.
I tweeted some of his points using the #networkf and there was an interesting discussion with people not in the room. Eugene Eric Kim pointed to the presentation above, plus this post further explaining online/offline collaboration differences.
He argues the point that trusting, meaningful relationships are possible online. Online collaboration can be just as effective as face-to-face. I'm thinking it is another one of the contextual elements you have to look at - and perhaps a matter of sequencing. Eugene's main points are:
Artifacts are critical for effective collaboration. We use them all the time in face-to-face collaboration, and they usually work the same way face-to-face as they do online. For example, the best online brainstorming tools apply the same principles as the best face-to-face brainstorming processes using a whiteboard or Post-Its. Online collaboration is unique in that every interaction results in an artifact. That doesn’t make it inherently better, as the default artifact isn’t necessarily the best. But, this property leads to the second point, which is that…
Online enables scale. Because you’re working in a medium that is inherently replicable and shareable and where geographical limitations do not apply, you can potentially reach a much larger audience. The key word is potential. Actually attaining scale online is a huge challenge, and how you frame that goal is critical. Size, for example, may not be as important as diversity.
Face-to-face buys you attention. You cannot guarantee people’s presence (in the metaphysical sense) online, and that makes it hard to tackle certain types of problems. Getting that level of focused attention is possible, but the cost of doing it online is higher. This is the most important point, and understanding the nuances of it determines whether or not your collaborative strategy will be effective
Enter your nonprofit's video created in 2009
in the 4th Annual DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards. Awards will go to
organizations of all sizes, including a special award for Best
Innovation in Video.
And if you win? Your nonprofit video will be featured on the YouTube
homepage, receive a grant from the Case Foundation, get great prizes
from Flip Video and the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), and have
your work showcased at a screening in Washington DC.
March 19 is the deadline. A panel of judgets (including me) will select finalists to
compete in a public vote. Winners will be announced on April 10 at the Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) in Atlanta.
One of the most enjoyable activities as visiting scholar at the Packard Foundation is being able to participate in think tanks on a topic. Most of the ones that I have attended have been convened by Monitor Institute as part of their network practice.
Both today and tomorrow, I've been participating in a convening with funders and others to discuss networks. If you want to follow along, we're using the #networkf tag on Twitter. What's nice to see is that everyone is much more comfortable with live tweeting, being more transparent. The guidelines are no live tweeting of confidential information!
In fact, one of the presenters mentioned how she had discovered the tag from the last meeting and was able to follow along. I find this useful to be able to connect with subject matter experts outside the room to ask questions or bounce ideas. And even though the responses are 140 characters, it can stimulate your thinking.
The focus of the day was on the life cycles of networks and Theory of Change Archetypes for Networks. As I was taking notes, I was thinking about the whole question of how and where selection of social media and online collaboration and communications fits - and the bigger picture. Much higher than the balcony, up about 10,000 feet where you can put messy social media tools and network behavior into neat boxes.
Sanjeev Khagram, iScale, took us through a draft white paper on Network Life Cycle. The paper will be published later next month, but it stimulated an incredible conversation. For me, it helped me think more clearly about relating network life cycle to the network's selection of online collaboration and communications - both those for private conversations and those for more open conversations.
It made me think of Nancy White, Etienne Wenger, and John Smith's work with online communities of practice. As Sanjeev was presenting, I wondered if the communities of practice orientation might work for a network?
I asked Nancy White on Twitter and her answer got me doodling on Powerpoint (see above).
We also had a presentation and discussion on catalyzing networks from Claire Reineit The big aha moment for me was the use of social networking analysis as an evaluation tool to look at relationships and collaboration over time.
Steve Downs from Robert Wood Johnson shared some reflections on a foundation-wide effort to become a web 2.0 Philanthropy and working in a network mindset. It generated an insightful discussion about crowdsourcing for innovation and social change, organizational culture issues, and more.
On Saturday, I was delighted to have an opportunity to attend and speak at the SexTech 2010 Conference. If you are wondering what Sextech is, it explores research, policy, education, implementation, and evaluation of public health programs that use new technologies to enhance sexual health of young people. The conference participants are a mix of people from nonprofits, schools, policy centers, researchers, universities, government, and young people. I had heard about the conference last year and really wanted to attend.
I participated in a morning keynote with Marc Blinder, Bobby Jones, and Ryan Wilson. Geoff Livingston, my business partner at Zoetica, moderated the session which was called "Social Media Rockstars: Widgets, Apps, Contests, and More. Marc kicked off the presentations sharing some thoughts about best practices for social media infused campaigns, I talked about effective social media for nonprofits, Bobby Jones gave a fantastic presentation talking about generations and young people, and Ryan Wilson shared some thoughts about prize Philanthropy.
I was really excited to finally meet Ryan Turner who I have known virtually since 1995, but had never met face-to-face.
I also had the opportunity to finally meet Andre Blackman who I met online while researching a talk on nonprofits, social media, and health care. Andre has a deep knowledge of this space and pointed me to many great examples.
Andrew Blackman was co-presenting with Leslie Ann Bradshaw, JESS3, in a session called "New Media Strategies for Engagement. Their presentations rocked and I've included them below.
A couple of reflections. It is always fun to do a panel when the majority of the audience is Gen Y and Gen X - and they are using tools like live streaming and Twitter. The back channel during the panel was fabulous. And, I knew this audience pretty well from having worked with organizations and networks that focus on sexual and reproductive health.
I've been trying to internalize some of the tips and techniques that I have been learning from reading Cliff Atkinson's book on the back channel and teaching trainers. One technique is to plan what you're going to say as a series of Tweets. In order to do this, I decided not to use slides and so I could engage more with people in the room.
The other thing I've been practicing lately is not scripting out word for word what I am going to say, but be a little bit more improvisatory. I read about how Larry David, creator of the show Curb Your Enthusiasm, creates the show. The scripts aren't scripts, but outlines. The actors improvise their lines. I think this is a more engaging way to speak, although to do it well it takes practice and you have to really listen to the audience and adjust. Having a lively back channel helps you do that.
Last night, one of my colleagues at Packard Foundation, Jeff Jackson, left this post on my wall. I did a little Twitter coaching and connected him with others who might help. This morning, while we were on the phone, Jeff had some good news about Carlos and Erika, but his godson is still missing.
Located the family I lived with in Chile. They were on a bus to Stgo during the night when the quake hit. Located best friends Carlos/Erika in Talca near the epicenter. They lost their Cultural Center. Still missing godson's family who were on vacation in the south near epicenter.
RT @JeffVallarta #Chile, help me find godson Amaro $ family: Eric Rojas e Ingrid Sepulveda, Melepilla, 601-5063, 8-568-5570, 9-423-1180
I can't imagine how helpless Jeff must feel, but he has been using social media and social network tools, along with phone calls to search. Here's what he has tried a combination of networking with NGOs, disaster organizations, friends, and strangers participating in different Facebook groups or Twitter hashtags.
(1) Watching the social stream from a TV station in Chile live streaming (2) Contacting the family's friends on Facebook through their accounts (3) Keyword searches on Twitter using the various hashtags including #chile, #buscapersonas (lost persons) (4) The Google People Finder
(5) Networking with NGOs working on the ground in Chile (6) Relying information back and forth to people who are calling numbers in Chile and as far as way as Canada or Spain (7) Networking with social media bloggers, twitter users in Chile who have been helping him spread the message. (8) Using information from Crisis Commons and Ushahidi (9) Networking with professional colleagues online by leaving messages on their FB or Twitter.
Jeff says the narrowcasting strategies have worked best, "Best luck so far is to blast your most active networks via their FB sites and strangers offer to use their phones to find loved ones. Human Rights Museum and Villa Gramaldi have been my best networks as they've been well-organized for about 30 years. Also, I've been calling people removed a bit geographically (including Spain and Canada), keeping multiple windows open at a time and checking regularly all (found news is coming in via calls, FB and email)
Not just related NGOs, I targetted mature networks I've been part of for 25+ years (mostly human rights) and tapped their fan pages and strangers took on the cause with their phones (land lines working better than cell phones still).
I'm sure there's more he's doing and when this crisis is resolved, I'm sure Jeff will have some great advice for families that find themselves in the position of searching for loved ones when disaster strikes.
If you have any additional advice, or if you want to help beyond retweeting his message, please leave a comment.
Update: Jeff located his godson! Here's the message he left for me on my Facebook profile:
Just FOUND Amaro and family! Thanks Beth. I stalked their four FB
accounts, commented "Help me find Amaro" on all of their friends/family
comments of the past two weeks, and within a couple hours had three
confirmations from strangers in their networks that they are all OK,
just totally disconnected on their rural farm without internet,
electricity, water, roads, cells, phones, etc. But SAFE! Thanks so much.
Lessons learned when searching for loved ones, even in outback Chile:
1) Tap in to friends in common, friends in their social network, and the willingness of nearby or distant strangers. 2) Post "Lost" messages everywhere and frequently. 3) Avoid wasting time on fast-paced Twitter feeds, unless you know how to narrow searches with hashtags (#) quickly. 4)
Quickly go to their FB page and comment on the comments of all their
friends from the past couple weeks asking if they've made contact. 5) Be brief and use key words. 6) Keep multiple windows open on the computer including local news feeds, emergency sites, Google People Search, etc. 7) Stay focused on the good chances all is all right, just disconnected. 8) Thank those who helped and inform folks the LOST is FOUND.
Lessons learned to prepare to be found:
1) Make sure a few people know where you are at all times. 2) Have a primary contact that family and close friends know - not a local contact. 3) Have a contact list that your primary contact can access and contact. 4) Post own name on Google People Search as FOUND. 5) Have someone at home to answer the phone and/or leave a message on the door. 6) Before all of the above, escape to safe place and help others; put shoes on first (avoid glass, wires and water).
Social Media was at one point of time just about what we read or saw in news or heard over the radio. Then came in social media as an effective mechanism to be able to catalyse change.Maybe the attention its got is relatively new but no denying that its become today such a strong change maker.
I am a lawyer by profession and presently a student of human rights law in my masters at India. Going back to my under graduation days i can say social media helped me bring together people for a cause time and again. Today i use it effectively with maybe another handful of lawyers spread over the country who communicate via mails and help in their own small ways . My theory for a change has some linkages to my law specific profession:
1. How to get Communities like the litigating, practicing lawyers effectively engaging on social media: It is still a fact that in India the lawyers who are practicing,are working in firms have a very very closed view on usage of social media tools. It is important to get them initiated into usage of social media. This becomes important for pro bono services. Some lawyers are ready to help people in distress in pro bono cases and in India you need a strong network of such lawyers. Getting the practitioners all across connected via social media tools ensures that this network is able to deliver services for the masses who donot have enough means for access to justice. Today i am a part of a small group like this, but we are people who are in a younger age bracket and have been using social media for sometime. The change is needed in the whole fraternity where in the sensitivity and readiness of lawyers to take up pro bono cases is encouraged by teaching them how effective social media tools can be for conversing with other like minded professionals etc.
2. Breaking the Myths about Social media: For a community like the lawyers its important to introduce them to the new age social media and what it has come to mean. It is important to make this community to realize that their services can bring about a change in societal access to justice delivery system and more importantly that social media is now not a waste of time but an effective tool for sharing experiences and getting motivated by work that others in their community do. Even as social media experts/trainers engage with professionals from all walks of community it is important that this community is also engaged in breaking their myths, apprehensions etc.
3. Every individual is a change maker: My experience with social media tools has been that conversations, discussions, arguements shared on discussion boards, forums, groups has brought the unconventional professionals to come ahead with ideas that can bring change. A lot of times these discussions have brought ahead an individual who probably would not engage in a certain type of case but is inspired and motivated by following the discusisons and gives his input which becomes an important idea for people like us who are into human rights practicing. It is therefore pertinent to constantly realize that, to bring together an effective change maker group of lawyers who are ready to provide justice delivery services, every lawyer we train in social media tools or even get introduces to such tools becomes an individual who can have an amazing idea.
For me personally i can envisage a system where in we have trained lawyers from all walks of practice in India, in effective communication via social media and such engagement can bring about at least a start of coming together of ideas, brain storming of changes needed and more importantly networks of professionals who are readily available for getting justice to the under served masses.
Megha Bhagat
Advocate
LLM student, NLSIU, Bangalore(Human Rights), India
meghabhagat@nls.ac.in