Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media

Some Thoughts on Livestreamed Interviews, Engagement, Book Winners, and Finger Puppets

Yesterday, I had an opportunity to be interviewed as part of a series of online interviews with nonprofit social media gurus about how to use social media.  The month long event was hosted by the Case Foundation and called "Gear Up for Giving."   The other gurus included respected colleagues and friends Holly Ross, Marnie Webb, Allison Fine, Katya Andresen, and Geoff Livingston.  (Sarah Koch from Causes will be the last session on Thursday)

I'd like to dissect the format and share a bit of the content.    I think this format could be easily be used by many nonprofits, even those who share policy research.  There were some terrific questions asked, and while I took a stab at the answers, hoping sharing the questions might inspire a few guest blog posts.

Format

The sessions used an hour long talk show format with Case Foundation's Kari Dunn Saratovsky as the host. The tool was a live streaming platform called Ustream.tv that lets anyone with an inexpensive web camera and internet connection to broadcast to the world.   Ustream provides a live streaming video window, an archive of the video, the ability for the audience to log into the chat room and ask questions and a social stream. 

Live streamed talk shows have been used quite artfully by social media experts over the years.  Chris Pirillo comes to mind.  I remember my colleague, Jonny Goldstein, launched his show in the fall of 2007 and gave a terrific talk about live streaming technology and web talk shows at Podcamp Boston in 2007.

Engaging the audience is a very important to the success of this genre.  This requires giving your audience plenty of opportunities to ask questions prior to and during the event.  For this series,  there was a guest post on the blog and a request for people to ask questions via Twitter, Facebook, or email. 

Kari came to my house a half hour before the interview went live.  She booted up her laptop, plugged into my Internet connection, and set up her Webcam.   She has a list of questions that had already come in via email and started with those questions.   During the hour, she asked questions, I answered. A simple conversation, except that we a couple of hundred of other people were following along in the chat room, Twitter, and Facebook. As new questions came in through the Ustream chatroom, Kari would select them as follow up questions.

While Kari was sitting next to me in my home office, her colleagues Kristin Ivie and Sokunthea Sa Chhabra were in the chat room engaging with the audience, watching the "social stream" (comments from Twitter and the chat) and forwarding questions to Kari to ask live via AIM.  After the interview an archived copy of the video was uploaded into Youtube and an after the interview blog post.

Ustream also has a feature that lets you put a marker in the video and tweet that section of the interview. (You'll see those below and the Case Foundation Twitter account is tweeting these tidbits today) 

I was a little nervous that an hour-long talking head interview might be boring.  I brought a couple of props to make it fun and more interactive, including my finger puppets.  I used them to answer some of the questions and to make a few points.

And the Winners Are

The Case Foundation was also raffling off a Flip Camera and $250 donation to a nonprofit.   I decided to give away copies of Chris Brogan and Julien Smith's Trust Agents, Shel Israel's Twitterville, and Nancy Smith, John Smith, and Etienne Wenger's Digital Habitats.    We asked folks to leave a comment on the blog post sharing why they wanted the book.  (I'm going to ask for follow up case studies ....)

The winners:

Ashley Messick from the Blood Centers
Vikki Baptiste from Mid Central Communication Action
Barbara Christensen from Conservation Northwest
Jessica Fillinger from Bridge New York

Some Highlights from the Interview

The first question that Kari was terrific.  What 3-5 questions should organization's be asking as they venture into social media?  I actually got a chance to respond in the comments of the blog right before the interview:

• Is your organization ready to be a learning organization? That is value "mistakes" as opportunities to learn and improve what you're doing?
• Does your leadership understand the potential value and is willing to invest in low risk experimentation?
• Can you articulate a clear set of "starter goals" that might incorporate learning?
• Can you shape and identify a beginner starter project (s) that doesn't take too much time?
• Are you ready to engage and build relationships with your stakeholders?

Here's a list of the questions that were asked and link to the spot in the video where I answer it.    If you have follow up questions or want to share your answers to these questions.  Leave me a comment! Better yet, if you'd like to write a guest post answering the question, leave a comment too.

• How do you balance cross generational voices within your organization, and who should own the soc media?
• What should orgs ask themselves before diving into soc media?
• We dove into social media without listening, how do we regroup?
• Does reverse mentoring actually work?
• Should we invite our entire mailing list to follow us on Twitter?
• How do we tie all our varying soc media outlets together?

• If people aren’t participating in the discussion on your org, are you not reaching your audience?
• Should nonprofits ask facebook users to join causes, join fan pages or both?
• Where can I find demographic data on different soc media venues?
• Why are nonprofits always playing catch up with soc media?
• Should we track our Twitter followers and Facebook friends to gather info for fundraising?
• Should soc media always drive people back to your website?
• What applications should you use for tracking links?
• How do we measure the effectiveness of our soc media efforts?
• How important is it for nonprofits to monitor their brand?
• How important is it to have policies and guidelines within your org for soc media?
• How should I manage the expectations of my company execs when it comes to soc media
• What are some suggestions for online fundraising strategies?
• How do you balance the time needed for approval with the need to answer your community in real time
• What is the future for social media in the nonprofit world?

Social Media Anger Management Tips from Carie Lewis, HSUS

Me and Carie Lewis, HSUS at Mashable Conference

At the Mashable Conference, I enjoyed hearing the latest update from Carie Lewis about her organization's experience in social media crisis mode and the recent controversy with Michael Vick. She was able to clearly demonstrate the value of listening and engaging. 

Carie has proposed a panel at SXSW called "Let the Haters Hate"  (and while you are voting for Carie's panel, consider casting votes for these nonprofit panels).   I caught up with her to get some tips on managing angry people.

Given that you are on the front lines, what do you when people say bad things about your issues?

I fight the urge to argue right back. As much as I want to when someone's bashing the organization I love, I refrain from being defensive because that will only fuel the fire.  Also, I try not to take criticism and mean words personally.

How do you know when to respond and when to brush it off?

I step back and assess the situation.  I look at 3 things.

1 - tone. What is the severity of the person's tone - are they totally negative, neutral, seem like they could be talked to?
2 - influence. How many followers, friends, subscribers do they have? If it's a blog, what's their technorati ranking? How many people are they really talking to?
3 - frequency. Is this a standalone argument / complaint or does there seem to be a trend brewing? Is it the usual suspects or does this person seem to be gathering a following? I look at number of retweets, comments, etc.

How do I leverage the people who are saying good things about my brand?

I have set up extensive monitoring tools for my  organization and brand.  I  respond to people who say positive things about our organization or retweet them often.  I put them into a group or spreadsheet so I can keep track of them. I engage with them often, even if its not about my organization. Then, when it comes time for me to call on them for help, they'll want to.

How can do you turn a negative experience into a positive one?

Again, have extensive monitoring tools in place. Most people who complain about you don't even know you're on twitter or reading their blog. When they do, write them and tell them who you are and ask if you can help. You'll probably be able to tell right away if you'll be able to make things better. Not everyone is; keep that in mind. But it doesn't hurt to try - many people are really happy to hear from someone. Find out the root of the problem. If you can't fix it personally, or right away, tell them you're working on it. Keep in constant communication until its been resolved. Stay positive and respectful - as hard as it may be!

Anger in Action from HSUS blog

What are your tips for managing angry or disgruntled people online?

Jon Husband, Guest Post: The New Realities of Engagement – Stories That Drive Action Planning and Implementation

Courtesy of Jon Husband, publisher of Wirearchy

(This post was based on a post developed by Rob Paterson three weeks ago, as we seek to design a pilot project in support of an important multi-constituent project Rob is helping to guide.  His post was aimed at not-for-profit public media; I have genericized it somewhat).

Outlined in the brief article below is a new way of using the Web and web services to gather peoples’ stories – anecdotes,  video clips, podcasts, blog posts and all sorts of other snippets – and help not-for-profit organizations move into action planning based on the “raw material” of what people are saying and talking about.

Their stories contain the issues that matter.  The system we have designed addresses how to capture, analyze and assess what matters.

.

“Leaders strive to change the way that other people think, feel and act”. 

Alan Deutschman – Walk the Walk

.

Why should we measure story in a new way?  Because using story well is our great chance in public media to be the leaders of our time. To help Americans take back their power to control their lives and their communities. 

How do we do this? 

Deep change is all about a change in the collective story. It is a change in the way that people, think, feel and act.

 

• First of of all, there is the the appearance of a new and way-out idea that violates the status quo – such as say Local Food – the 100 mile diet. The idea itself is tested by the immune system of the wider community. Often a breakthrough is accelerated by a good book – for Food: The Omnivore’s Dilemma. For the Environment: An Inconvenient Truth. I This is how all new paradigm stories start. 
  

• Then comes isolated action. People take the ideas and start to do things with the idea – this phase is crucial in a new paradigm. Others have to see that the idea can work and that they too can be part of it. 

• Then comes collective action. With enough individual stories, the system “tips” and the Mainstream accept the Story. 

.
In these times of great upheaval, as it is becoming more and more clear that these tories we’ve used for the past century or so are less and less viable, we need new and compelling stories.  We have to get behind the trajectory of story described above, and use peoples’ stories to effect more and better change.

 

To do this we have to be able to measure story in a new way.

Summary: Followed by a more detailed explanation.        

Situation:  We are living in a time of a major shift in culture. The world is so connected, and hence now so complex, that our simple Industrial Institutions can no longer help people. (Katrina – Mortgage Crisis, Healthcare etc)  

.

As our Industrial Institutions fail to cope and to help people, we are seeing a new model for coping where people are connecting to each other to find networked and personal solutions to problems. 

.

This new model is the antithesis of the model that it may replace. Clear signs of what this new model are all over the place.

.

.

.

But for now, it is only the Innovators and the Early Adopters who accept it. We see the Local Food Movement, Slow Money, Local Resiliency all growing. But while these new stories are now visible they are not yet mainstream.

 

If the new story could be aggregated and given momentum, the shift will take place sooner. 

.

Mission: To do this a new ‘Way-Out” story of self help, of community power and of networks has to become accepted as THE story. 

This is a Paradigm Shift. The shift from Institution to Community is as big a change as the Copernican Shift. History reminds us that paradigm shifts of this nature are not accepted by simply telling the facts. Vis many in newspapers today!

.

To connect, we have to design an approach to story that can get through the natural resistance. Only a particular kind of story can do this. This style of story is the antithesis of how media tells stories today.

.

To help make the shift, we have to return to a personal POV. The story has to be designed to reach into the heart of people and has then got to motivate them to act.  

.

But the stories on their own are not powerful enough. A million stories about local food or Home schooling on YouTube or on blogs are still fringe. 

.

It is essential to put power behind the story. To get beyond the Innovators and Early Adopters to the Early Majority, these stories have to have an institutional sponsor (community-or-purpose-based or community-related) that the Early Majority can trust. 

.

Execution: To bridge the “Chasm” from Innovators and Early Adopters to Early Majority we have to create a critical mass of story from our stations. To do this we have to add our trust and our power to aggregate the right kind of stories. 

.

These stories have to obey the rules of those that can cross a Paradigm. We know what these rules are:

• There has to be an overarching context – why is the current system not working and why the new will work and have utility

• The story has to be told from a personal POV by someone I can personally relate to who uses an authentic voice

• The story has to lead me to help that I can use 

• The story has to have a trusted source 

• The story has to lead to taking action that is in my power 

.

  You can see that this is radically different from the traditional POV of Media today where:

• The assumed context is that the answers are in the hands of the institutions and not in the hands of people

• That the POV is from a “detached” observer who is above the situation and outside the story who speaks in an institutional voice

• The solution is always to get more money or resources for the institution in question or to apply power - none of which is in the power of the person

• The Source is owned by commercial or political interests who increasingly use spin 

• The person is left helpless and alienated - This feels like Tiananmen. They fight for democracy, we watch, they die, we change the channel. A Tweet this week on Iran and on the conventional news coverage there.

.

We have all been raised in the latter model and know no other. Some intuitively know and use the new model. But making the shift to using the new model as a default, demands constant assistance. 

.

We have to make the implicit knowledge of how to do this explicit so that the knowledge can spread more quickly.        

The tool that we are working on provides this support.

• It presents to the programmer an ideal checklist/template that enables those in production to design an offering that has the best chance of breaking through the natural resistance

•  It enables the people reacting to the offering to learn how to “see” in this new way too 

• It enables an prganization to see the landscape of how their constituency is reacting – they can see shifts in support and resistance by mindset, by place and through time. They can make adjustments and react appropriately. The organization can track holistic progress 

• More than looking at any one story, it shows how the collective story is progressing. The Tipping Point comes from the collective.

• It enables organization to show their constituents that the organization is engaged – the organization measures its impact based upon the content of stories.

.

In short, the beta tool (described in more detail below) shapes the DNA of the right kind of story. This enables us to design how to use story effectively, and helps the broader work to be powerfully engaging. It enables us to test how well we are doing individually as an organization and as a system.

.

It offers us a “Map” of how each story affects people and communities. It shows movement in beliefs and acceptance. True change.

.

.

.

.

It maps out our plans, our design, our work, the response, our redesign, our work, the response and the overall progress to crossing the Chasm   

Demonstrating the capabilities

• The beta tool is ready for testing so that we can see how the inputs work and how the outputs work

• Identify Early Adopter organizations and use a sample of employees and volunteers contribute and  test a variety of stories. This will demonstrate to such Early Adopter organizations.  These organizations will get back the analytic output plus a discussion about what it all means. These organizations will have seen how the beta works 

• Resolve further unknowns and any issues with the design team – determine with the design team the pricing and terms for a wider use. Collectively come up with a strategy for adoptionl

More Details        

This system, known as StoryGarden, is currently involved in several pilot projects with not-for-profit organization in Canada and the USA.  Interest is spreading rapidly, especially as all sorts of not-for-profit organizations and various communities are coming to realize that their future is likely to be more and more different from their past, or what they expected as “normal”.

Taken as a whole, they represent the emergence of networked society that is intensely connected locally. The New America(or any other country) may be the Old America (or any other country) Redux:

An America that is a network of networked and resilient communities.

As more and more stories like this are promoted properly there will be a Tipping Point. Americans will start to take back decisions about what is important for them – Healthcare, Education, Employment, Credit, Food – into their own hands.

.

.

.

So how does this work?

Much of what we know now is the new model, but our knowledge is Implicit. We don’t even know what we know so it is hard to spread.

We also don’t know how to show funders the real progress that we are make.  Without being able to tell our own story well we will not get the financial support we need.

Each story enters a Sense Making System (a web service and software provided by Cognitive Edge, a global network of practitioners dedicated to helping create meaning and sense in complex situations).

.

.

Then what it means is extracted.  ”Filtering” is done through respondents answering a short set of quetions specifically designed to turn the respondents’ interpretations into data that is organized and stored in a database.

.

.

.

The data created by the filtering is then examined and analyzed through various modules of the Cognitive Edge sense-making system.  A wide range of perspectives can be used to make sense of the story.

.

.

.

The story can then be plotted collectively and dynamically – we can see who, where and progress.

.

.

.

We can see the larger regional or national view.

.

.

        

.

We can see our progress to the Tipping Point!

.

 

Whose Tool is this and Where does it come from?

 

StoryGarden is a web-based system for gathering and analyzing qualitative information about values and attitudes held by a community of people. Contributors are asked to submit anecdotes to a website, then answer a short set of questions that indicate the significance of the anecdotes to help identify emergent themes and sort them into meaningful collections.

 

This process is particularly valuable for the development of action plans. 

 

 

Collaboration Among Leading Initiatives 

The StoryGarden system stems from a collaboration of designers of software processes and analysts from social development organizations who are interested in community wellness.

 

 

Cognitive Edge Sensemaker Suite (TM)

 

CE Sensemaker provides the underlying theory, rigorous methodology and computer-based tools for the gathering and analysis of anecdotes and survey questions.

 

The processes being used by StoryGarden are based on methods and processes conceived by Dave Snowdenm co-founding director of the IBM Center for Organizational Complexity.  The processes and tools have been furthered developed by Snowden and colleagues in his Singapore-based company Cognitive Edge, which is providing software and consulting services to StoryGarden.

 

 

Social Development Organizations

 

International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)

 

IISD is an internationally recognized not-for-profit policy research institute dedicated to implementation of effective policies by governments and business that are simultaneously beneficial to the human and social well-being and to the global economy and environment.

 

Other Organizations and Individuals

 

StoryGarden is in discussion with a number of other organizations interested in the development and well-being of communities.  StoryGarden is receiving valuable input from:

 

Community Well-Being Index (CWI) – a pan-Canadian initiative led by Roy Romanow focused on the measurement and assessment of community development and sustainability.

 

Several United Way organizations in Canada

 

Several professors (computational linguistics, human-computer interaction) at Simon Fraser University, UBC and British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT)

 

 

Development Team

 

Deepak Sahasrabudhe, Project lead 

 

• well-experienced in developing complex projects involving creative anmd technical personnel and processes, including 22 broadcast TV series, several advanced web sites, books, videos and multi-media learning systems
• 4 TV series have been presented on PBS through APT 
• honoured with over 60 international awards for various TV programs he has produced
• knowledgeable about semantic computing processes
• certified Cognitive Edge practitioner
• founder or co-founder of 5 successful media business initiatives

 

 

Jon Husband – Consultant, social networking, software design, learning and development theory and practice practitioner focused on the impacts of social media and computing on knowledge-based organizations and large-scale organizational and societal change

 

• authored “Making Knowledge Work – the arrival of Web 2.0″, published by ARK Group (UK)
• created the concept of “wirearchy”, and writes for several professional blogs about Web 2.0 / Enterprise 2.0
• an active speaker in Canada and internationally about the Web’s impact on the structure and dynamics of organizations and their changing role(s) in society.
• Senior Principal in the Hay Group’s London (UK) office in the ’90’s, now an independent consultant located in Vancouver, BC
• certified Cognitive Edge practitioner

This post was originally published at Wirearchy

Debra Askanase, Guest Post: Using Flickr Creatively

Courtesy of Debra Askanase, publisher of Community Organizer 2.0

There is so much more to photosharing than uploading images from the latest event!

Yes, everyone likes to see themselves online, but Flickr is so much more than uploading images from the latest event. Flickr combines the power of visual storytelling with the very nature of a social network - engagement and conversation. Three arts organizations (Houston Ballet, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art and Luce Foundation Center for American Art) are innovating ways to use  Flickr creatively, and in the process offering backstage passes to the organization, amplifying programming, and engaging stakeholders in real decision-making.

1. The Houston Ballet: Giving Fans a “Backstage Pass”

The Houston Ballet uses Flickr to offer a “backstage pass“  to all of its fans.  In particular, the ballet company offers its enthusiasts (and all Flickr browsers) visual insights into the organization’s activities and administration.

One of the more fanciful and wonderful Flickr photostreams comes from the Houston Ballet’s “Tour of Houston Ballet’s Warehouse.” What person doesn’t want to walk through the warehouse of the a famous production company?  Here is one of the photos:

This boat hangs from the ceiling of the Houston Ballet's warehouse

As described on the  Houston Ballet’s Flickr Photostream, “this is a photo tour of our warehouse in Houston’s 5th ward. We hope you enjoy this behind-the-scenes look at our productions’ ‘home away from home’ when they’re not in use at Wortham Theater Center.”

The Ballet also has another great “behind the scenes” photo shoot - making head casts for a scene in one of their ballet. Here is a screen shot of the  Flickr photostream for the “Marie” head casts:

What does this do? It offers Houston Ballet fans added value for subscribing to the Ballet’s photostream. It makes them feel special, too. How often does one get to look into the closet of a major ballet theater, or learn how they put their sets together? The Ballet has made their photostream an unique web destination for exclusive “backstage” information.

2. MassMOCA: Adding Dimensions to Current Programming

The Mass Museum of Contemporary Art (MassMOCA) uses Flickr to  crowdsource a set of images for the Flickr Finds section of its  blog. MassMOCA asks readers to upload photos of a specific topical nature to the MassMOCA Flickr site. They post a roundup of the best photos on their monthly Flickr Finds blog post. The photos usually relate to one of the concurrent exhibits. It’s a great way to create excitement around a current exhibit or an organization.

Here is a screenshot of a Flickr MassMOCA group message:

The blog post Flickr Finds: Tree Logic features selected photos from uploaded Flickr images of the “upside down trees” outdoor sculpture exhibit. Here is an excerpt from the blog post:

What does this do? It adds another dimension to exhibitions and creates enthusiasm on the Flickr and blogging platforms. It also extends the life of exhibitions and creatively engages fans. Lastly, it offers added publicity for MassMOCA: every photo uploaded to the MassMOCA Flickr group also appears on the photographer’s photostream and is indexed and tagged on Flickr as MassMOCA!

3. The Luce Foundation Center for American Art: Using Flickr for Crowdsourcing Decisions

The Luce Foundation Center for American Art is “an open study/storage facility displaying about thirty-three hundred objects from the collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Here, our visitors can see works that would otherwise not be on view due to space restraints in our main galleries.” The Luce Foundation Center occupies 20,400 square feet of the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum’s collection.  According to the Smithsonian’s blog Eye Level, the Smithsonian American Art Museum lends work out, often for 12 months to other institutions, leaving gaps in the display units. They write:  “for this reason, we decided to open up this process and ask our online communities for help. Using Flickr, we can share a photo of a case (in the Luce Foundation Center) that needs a replacement artwork, provide information about all of the other works in the case, and challenge people to search our collections in order to find an appropriate substitution.

What a wonderful way to engage stakeholders in the decision-making process and offer them a “backstage pass” to the  art collection!

Here is an example of one of their photos from the Fickr  photostream for Fill the Gap campaign:

Case 34B from Fill the Gap photostream

This is a screen shot of a part of the the comment stream related to this particular case (Case 34B):

In the end, a piece was selected by the Foundation from among the ideas submitted for Case 34B:

Case 34B - Gap Filled!

What does this do? It creates an interaction between static works of art and the fans who love the art. It makes everyone a “citizen curator,” and a stakeholder in the outcome of the Fill the Gap replacement selection. It creates enthusiasm and publicity for the collection of art. Most importantly, it utilizes the crowdsourcing aspect of social media to engage fans, create deeper connections between them and the organization, and…select art for exhibition.

Think about using Flickr to offer “backstage passes,” crowdsource ideas, extend the life of your programming, or engage stakeholders in real organizational decisions. What are you waiting for?

 

Debra Askanase is a former community organizer and executive director, and the founder and lead consultant at Community Organizer 2.0, a social media strategy firm for non-profit organizations and businesses.

This post was originally published on Community Organizer 2.0

Scott Henderson, Guest Post -- Rethinking Your Database: From Sacred Collection to Engaged Community

Courtesy of Scott Henderson, publisher of Rally the Cause

#1 Thing You Need To Know from This Post:
The single most important asset of any non-profit organization is its relationships with its volunteers, donors, and other stakeholders. If you treat these relationships like sacred data collections instead of an engaged community, you are at risk of becoming irrelevant.

A More Detailed Exploration:
I spend a good portion of my time traveling across the country to attend conferences and meet with clients and prospective clients. Even in this digital era, the custom of exchanging printed business cards is alive and well. As you can see from the photo to the right, I have quite the collection.

But don’t confuse that collection of cards for a robust network of strong relationships. Getting the card is just like adding a new person to your organization’s database. If you do nothing to build the relationship, that business card becomes an artifact proving very little other than that you once had contact with the person.

The Historical Role of the Database
Common wisdom says that you can measure an organization by the number of people who are in its database. Historically, a central staff maintained this database and treated it like a sacred collection of artifacts. In an era when information didn’t flow so easily and it was very difficult to connect with people you’d never met, protecting that collection of records at all costs was a self-evident truth. After all, these records had taken a great deal of work to assemble and represented the lifeblood of your organization.

The Fundamental Shift Happening
Then something funny happened. The Internet made it much easier for individuals to connect with each other. With 1 billion owning personal computers, 1.5 billion having Internet access, almost 4 billion owning mobile phones, and easy-to-use software tools to connect and communicate using these devices, your expectations of the world around you have changed.

You expect to have much greater intimacy and immediacy with those people and organizations you care about. And, you’re not alone. Your donors, volunteers, and potential key stakeholders have the same growing expectations. Now, we can all search for long-lost friends as well as new and interesting people. It just takes a Google search or looking around on Facebook or Twitter to make them magically appear in front of you.

With the advent of opt-in communications, you now have access to a meta-database that includes much more robust information about your stakeholders, which they are freely sharing with you across many different online platforms…if you are on these sites and actively listening.

Accepting the Reality of Self-Organized Swarms
Perhaps the most revolutionary aspect of this Interconnected Age is how easy it has become for a small group of people to reach out thru their existing network of relationships to create awareness for a cause, layout the vision for leading this cause, and then assemble a mass of champions to achieve their goals.

No longer are these people waiting for non-profit organizations to reach out to them with your glossy annual report and well-crafted annual appeal letter. They are seeing the need and organizing their own armies. These self-organized swarms are a reality and will become even more prevalent.

“Mr. or Mrs. Non-Profiteer, Tear Down This Wall!”
The time has come to tear down the mental walls that you and your leadership team have constructed around the relationships most important to you. I’m NOT saying that you put your database out on the web naked as a jay bird for all to see. What I am saying is:

Stop treating your database as a sacred collection of data controlled by you and begin to see it for what it has always been: a dynamic record of the engaged community who want to help you achieve your mission.

You can’t just measure that community based on database records. You need to also consider the interaction you have with the people who have joined your Facebook Fan page, subscribe to your Flickr account, watch your YouTube channel, follow your Twitter stream, and choose to invite you into their lives from their online platform of choice.

This is critical for your organization to stay relevant, because it is this mosaic of relationships that you can use to mobilize people to rally around your cause. If you’re not doing it, someone else will.

A Sneak Peak of the Pledge to End Hunger Campaign Case Study
This spring when we launched the Pledge to End Hunger campaign (www.pledgetoendhunger.com) to coincide with the South By Southwest Interactive Festival, one of our main goals was to better understand how social media can be used to help non-profit organizations and cause marketing campaigns. [For a campaign summary, I recommend this post on Beth Kanter’s Blog.)

While we’re in the process of finalizing the campaign case study to share with you and the rest of the world, I do have some interesting data to share with you now regarding this topic of databases. One key thing we were seeking to determine was which would generate more traffic to the campaign website: existing email databases or Twitter followers.

Cultivated vs. Non-Cultivated Emails
Between the for-profit and non-profit organizations leading the Pledge to End Hunger, we had seven existing email address databases. Five of the seven databases had been cultivated thru ongoing email correspondences and had a demonstrated affinity for one of the organizations leading the campaign. The other two databases were a collection of people who had participated in eBay charity auctions and had little to no affinity to the organization keeping the database.

We consider the first five to be cultivated databases and the other two non-cultivated. All together, these databases totaled 132,831 names, with 57,831 from cultivated databases and 75,000 from non-cultivated databases.

Email Databases vs. Meta-Databases
To compare the results of these email databases, we put them against the Twitter audience of the fifty people who stepped forward as #HungerPledge champions. These were individuals from different geographic areas representing many different industry verticals who were willing to promote the campaign thru Twitter and blogs (if they published one). Collectively, they had contact with almost 208,000 people thru Twitter alone.

In the first seven days of the campaign, we used email and Twitter equally, so let’s compare the three in that period of time. So which database prevailed: cultivated emails, non-cultivated emails, or Twitter?

- 57,831 cultivated email addresses generated 2,204 visitors at a 3.8% conversion rate.

- 75,000 non-cultivated email addresses generated 19 visitors at a .03% conversion rate.

- 207,426 Twitter followers generated 4,154 visitors at a 2.0% conversion rate.

Conclusions from This Data
1. All Databases Are Not Created Equal - Organizations who cultivate their relationships with those in their email databases can mobilize a higher percentage of their known stakeholders when compared to individuals who mobilized their general Twitter audiences and even more than non-cultivated email databases.

2. You Don’t Need an Email Database – Social media makes it easier to tap into people’s existing relationships. Using fifty individuals, we amassed a larger audience and generated more site visitors than the seven existing email databases.

I’m sure there are many more great conclusions to be made here, so let me know what you think. Plus, here’s your chance to add to my broader thoughts about databases or (even better) challenge my notions.

Find me on Twitter: @scottyhendo

This article was originally posted on Rally the Cause at http://rallythecause.com/2009/07/05/rethinking-your-database-from-sacred-collection-to-engaged-community/ by Scott Henderson:

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

Guest Post by Alexandra Samuel: Engagement planning worksheets to engage your users and move them to action

Submitted by Alexandra Samuel, CEO of Social Signal

How can you use the web to engage your members, supporters or the public, and move them towards a specific action?

That's a common question from nonprofits who are diving into social media. Whether you're looking for your online visitors to contribute photos, forward your issue alerts, make a donation, or contact policy-makers, social media can be a powerful way of engaging your audience and driving them towards action.

But it's often hard for nonprofits to figure out how they can engage people effectively online. It's hard enough to get visitors to your site or social media presence, let alone drive them effectively towards action. In our session at NetSquared today, we used Social Actions as a case study in engaging online community participation, and shared two strategy tools that can help you make your nonprofit site more engaging. Today, we're releasing those tools to the nonprofit community under a Creative Commons attribution/noncommercial license.

1. User profiles
"Nonprofits", "seniors" or "businesses" don't visit your web site, log into your online community or post photos; individual people do. Sarah, the communications director of that nonprofit across town, logs into your web site. Kim, a grandmother living in Oregon, posts photos of the pothole in front of her house. Luisa, who owns a small deli, leaves a comment on your blog post. When you're trying to reach or engage an audience, you need to think in terms of the individual users who will be using your site, and look at your online presence from their perspective.

Our user profile worksheet helps you get to know your target users. Download the worksheet, and complete at least one worksheet for each type of user you want to engage in your site. We find that getting inside the head of a typical user can help you identify the best ways of bringing them to your social media presence, and the content, tools or relationships you can offer to get them engaged.

2. Engagement planning worksheet
Engagement is a process, not a destination. It's helpful to think of a ladder of engagement that begins with your target audience finding your organization or site, and then moves them to a higher level of interest until they are ready to act.

Our engagement planning worksheet helps you identify the steps that move your target audience from casual site visit to active participation. Complete a worksheet for each of the users you've profiled in the user profile worksheets. Each "rung" on the ladder should specify 1-3 content features, tools or activities that will appeal to the user you're targeting.

Together, the user profile exercise and engagement planning worksheet help you see your social media presence from your users' perspective. By offering the content, tools or relationships that your audience members care about, you can move them towards the actions and results you need.

Need help? Let us help you find your engagement opportunities.

The Social Signal team can help you identify the social media approach or features that will engage your users and move them up the ladder of engagement. Complete a user profile worksheet and an engagement planning worksheet for up to three different user types, and send them to us for review. We will:

• review your web site or social media presence to assess your online message and focus
• analyze your worksheets to understand your audiences and target actions
• schedule a call or video meeting to review your engagement planning worksheets and discuss the steps you have envisioned for moving your users to action
• deliver a memo summarizing the 3-5 social media promotions, tools or content features that will be most effective at moving your target audiences from interest to action

For NetSquared community members only, our engagement opportunity finder package is $500 when you book online (value: $1,000). Contact us to schedule a call to review your completed worksheets.

This article was originally posted on Social Signal at http://socialsignal.com/blog/alexandra-samuel/engagement-planning-worksheets-engage-your-users-and-move-them-action by Alexandra Samuel:

Alexandra is the CEO of Social Signal, a social media agency that helps organizations use the social web to engage their members and customers in meaningful conversations.

Beth NB that you'll want to leave out the bottom part of the post -- the "need help" part -- and either re-upload or link to the downloads of the attached PDFs in that post.