Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPTech

Originally posted on the 4Change blog, here.

The June #4Change chat topic focused on Challenges/Competitions for Social Change. Early on in that online chat, the request emerged for a compendium or other list of “all” the Challenges and Competitions focused on social benefit. Such an overview would let those interested in participating or facilitating a competition review the full landscape of options, characteristics of each, and so on.

So, to answer that call, the #4Change crew has started building the compendium and now it’s your turn to chip in! Here’s the link to see what we have so far.

Please contribute to the Competitions for Change Compendium!  Simply click here to add to the resource!

My newest post is now up on the Stanford Social Innovation Review.  You can read the post and participation in the conversation on the SSIR blog here!

The piece is reposted below:

Have we replicated our offline social dynamics and barriers online? I believe we have, and so does Danah Boyd.  As profiled in the New York Observer, Danah talked to the data uncovered in her four years of research on new media use in a presentation at the Personal Democracy Forum.  If we truly are reproducing our offline social divides online, then it’s further proof that the central part of your social media strategy needs to be focused on your audience.

“MySpace has become the ghetto of the digital landscape,” Ms. Boyd explained to the crowd. And many of us in these social environments, she said, “have gotten into the habit of crossing the street like we always do to avoid the riff-raff.” - NYO

You’ve probably heard of Facebook; you may even have set up a group or a fan page there for your organization.  But did you do that because you heard of Facebook in the news, or from a friend? Did you choose Facebook because you evaluated your existing community as well as the audience you wanted to bring into your community, and they were already using Facebook?  Did you consider MySpace? or Orkut? or Bebo? Maybe you’ve never heard of those platforms, but for some large demographics they are the hot spots online, not Facebook.

Let’s step back a minute and consider why a nonprofit or social benefit group wants to include social networking as part of a social media strategy.  Why would your organization want to have a presence on a social network?

• Go where the community already is!  Don’t expect the community to come to you, or even find you, online. Instead, go where they have already set up shop.
• Make your calls to action part of the routine!  Creating calls to action that match the community and can be accomplished, or promoted, in the same space will increase the overall participation you can garner.
• Join the community!  Don’t just come to the party and start asking questions or push calls to action; instead, actually join the community, answer questions, share links or information (even ones that aren’t related to your work but you may just know!), and be a genuine part of the ecosystem.

“The fact that digital migration is revealing the same social patterns as urban white flight should send warning signals to all of us,” she said. “It should scare the hell out of us.” - NYO

Choosing the platform or platforms to concentrate your efforts online is crucial.  You may hear about Facebook, but if your audience is on MySpace, it doesn’t matter how much time and energy you put in.  They won’t be there to find you.  When evaluating your community, some of the most influential items to consider regarding social networks include:

• Age: Facebook users can skew older than MySpace; many organizations in the UK have had great success joining the ecosystem on Bebo to extend the opportunity for teens to reach out for social services in a private way.
• Actions: What kinds of “actions” do you want your community members to be able to do? Each platform offer unique functionality and it may not match what your community members want to do with/for you.
• Data: Is your work reliant on certain data (whether for eligibility, age, etc.) that you will need validate, or at least advertise? Each platform displays profile information in different ways and you will need to check your settings and profile customization to ensure you are disclosing what you need, and offering opportunities to connect outside of the public messages.
• Goals: What are your goals for the inclusion of social networking in your social media strategy?  Be sure you don’t get caught up only on functionality that’s new and cool; remember why you’re there.

Danah’s research shines a bright light on an issue many activists and organizations have been concerned about ever since the media hype around Facebook VS MySpace rose as a loud voice in the conversation about social media use.  The issues our social service agencies and social benefit organizations are dealing with offline, in local communities, are showing up online.  It’s imperative that we recognize the social divides permeating online social networks and carefully consider how we craft our online strategies to truly reach and serve our communities.

What do you think? Has your organization had experience reaching your core constituents in an online social network? How did you identify the best place to concentrate your efforts?  What lessons have you learned?

You can download Danah’s dissertation here.

I’m preparing a talk for next week and thought I’d open up the proposal to all of you!  After all, I definitely believe that the community is far smarter than me - and really appreciate any and all ideas you have to share!

Next week I will be speaking at and event Bebo is facilitating for members of Number 10 Downing St, local Councils, civic departments (police, etc.), social agencies and nonprofits, and so on focused on creating an integrated No to Knives campaign.  This campaign is targeting youth at-risk of knife crime in the UK and plans to have a large portion of the messaging and calls to action embedded within social media tools/platforms used by local youth.

There are a few other speakers who will be presenting their ideas or personal case studies for this kind of campaigning.

I will be speaking last: tying together the previous speeches, and highlighting key case studies that show how young people have been empowered to shape the future they are a part of.

If you have case studies, either from the organization you are a part of or that you have come across outside of your organization’s work, please do share them! I have a growing list already but am looking to cover some unique and compelling stories for this integral speaking opportunity to influence a major campaign.

Please note: I will credit any and all contributions, of course.  I will also share my speech and slides next week after the event.

Thanks in advance for your ideas and contributions!

YouTube is set to publicly launch the “Call-To-Action Overlay” feature.  This will allow users to place calls to action (messages and links) on top of videos.  This is huge news as it means a revolutionary shift in the video platform with the largest global audience.  The Call-To-Action Overlay means users will be prompting viewers to click away from YouTube (not exactly the action a platform like YouTube is after).

It won’t be everything nonprofits are looking for though.  There are two major qualifications for use:

• You can only place customized overlays on a video that you’ve entered into YouTube’s CPC Promoted Videos program.
• You have to be a paying YouTube advertiser, but do not have to pay extra for the Overlays.

You can include calls to action and links in the description of your videos, but moving those options literally on top of the video can mean a lot for getting results.  According to TechCrunch,

The feature has been in testing with select partners and non-profits for some time, and the results have been extremely positive. Last March, the organization charity:water managed to raise $10,000 in a single day by including an overlay on one of its videos. A handful of politicians have also been trying it out, using it to entice voters to sign their petitions. It’s worked well enough that politicians who haven’t had access to the feature are clamoring for it.

I’m really excited to see what happens tomorrow - but also interested in groups like Call2Action that are already focused on the combination of actionable opportunities and compelling video.

The annual Tagline Awards are back from Nancy Schwartz and the Getting Attention blog.  Your nonprofit or foundation could be one of this year’s Getting Attention Nonprofit Tagline Award winners!  Enter today.

About the Tagline Awards

A strong tagline does double-duty — working to extend your organization’s name and mission, while delivering a focused, memorable and repeatable message to your base. It’s one of your most effective marketing tools, but the 2008 GettingAttention.org survey showed that 72% of nonprofit organizations don’t have a tagline or rate theirs as performing poorly.

I’m trying to change that with this annual award program, highlighting the best in nonprofit taglines.

For more information, visit this FAQ.

How to Enter

To enter, simply submit this entry form - it will only take a few minutes.

All entrants will receive a free copy of the fully-updated 2009 Nonprofit Tagline Report in late 2009. It’s the only complete guide to building your organizations’s brand in 8 words or less — filled with how-tos, don’t-dos and models.

Deadline to enter your organization in the contest is July 31st!

2008 Winners

View the list of winners of the 2008 Nonprofit Tagline Awards (selected by nearly 4,000 voters in the field).

This past Saturday, I participated in an experiment: Tweetcamp! The combination of a Tweetup and a BarCamp.  (Those links are to definitions!)  What this created was a chance for people who use Twitter to come together offline to create community. There is no agenda to the conference as it is co-created by the participants throughout the day.  It is for the community, by the community, all thanks originally to Twitter.

This month’s Net2 Think Tank asks: How do real-world (offline) events fit into social media conversations and campaigns?

I think that my reflections about Tweetcamp are an excellent fit to answer this question!  And I hope they help you think about the way your organization uses opportunities online and offline to create community.

What worked?

Cross-section of participants: It was great to turn up to an event and have every person I talked to have a different line a work, a different reason for using social media tools, and a unique goal for what they wanted to get out of the day.  One way to accomplish this is to ensure you have a diverse set of organizers - you will tap into networks that do, eventually, overlap, but the influencers you target will push a great diversity of participants towards the event.

Space: This is both online and offline.  If you are targeting your online network, you need to have an online space for interested participants to sign up, learn more, and connect with each other. Tweetup used a blog to keep people updated, a Facebook group to gather interested participants, and a Twitter account for communications.  All three outlets linked to each other so people never hit a “dead-end.”  Offline, the space at Gumtree.com’s office in Richmond was terrific for people to gather as a full group, in small groups, and everything in between. Finding an offline space that really creates the right environment for such a loose-flowing day is crucial to not “losing” people to the outskirts.

Food: It’s true.  Your participants will get hungry with all that connecting and talking and excitement.  The Tweetup organizers did a tremendous job of finding sponsors to supply or cover the cost of enough good food to keep all the bellies full.  And in a very tasty way!

What didn’t work?

Timing: It is always the hardest thing to plan out, especially when you are doing something entirely new.  The organizers decided to meld a bit of facilitation with complete open space organizing.  The start of the day had participants in small groups (just puddles of chairs) and asked a question for the small groups to then answer to themselves.  There was some paper to capture notes and then a group representative reported back to the full room.  After every group had a chance to share, people moved about the room to form new groups.  A new question was asked and again the small groups answered internally, then shared to the larger room.  This happened three times and was intended to start conversations with many people so that once the room broke for open space conversations, people had an idea of who they might talk to, what kinds of things others had come to talk about, and so on.  It did accomplish this goal, though often times would feel too slow - groups finishing ahead of time and then moving on to talk about other things that could have been better in open space created groups where people could self select to participate, etc.

What’s next?

This is the part I’m most interested to discuss with those who attended and the organizers who created the event.  Here are some of my ideas:

1. How is Tweetcamp going to move the community? Moving from an online network of Twitter users to an offline community was a big step! It meant people had a chance to be real life friends with their online friends, collaborate in real time about new ideas, and more.  So, what will the ripple effects of this be and how can the Tweetcamp organizers faciliate it?  (Or, if it had been an event organized by a nonprofit organization as a chance for those who found the organization online to come together offline to learn more, get involved, and so on, how can the organization move those particpants and network members up the ladder of engagement as part of the community?)
2. How is Tweetcamp going to empower dissemination? Barcamps and Tweetups happen all around the world.  I think the event struck a great balance between the two and would love to see it replicated in other cities or by other groups.  Documentation is always the key to dissemination and replication; encouraging participants to share their thoughts and stories, but also the organizers sharing the discussions they had that helped create the event and their planning strategies will all help Tweetcamps sprout elsewhere.
3. How will the network maintain the community? Those of us that came together offline on Saturday had seen each other before online, maybe followed on Twitter, or had seen a name here or there.  But for the most part, we had never actually met in the “real world.”  Now that we have, how will we keep it going?  Is there a role for Tweetcamp organizers in assisting in this process? Perhaps by maintaining conversations or other exchanges on the Facebook group and Twitter so users can find each other again.  I know I already have a few coffee dates with people from Tweetcamp and am looking forward to contributing to the community as I can!

What do you think?

Did you attend the London Tweetcamp - what did you think?  If you didn’t, how do you think your organization could move it’s online network to an offline community?  What do you think that network would want in order to participate?

Nonprofit tech experts team up to help others master ‘social tools for social change’

Eight leading experts in social media and nonprofit technology have joined forces to create Socialbrite.org, a hub that showcases social tools for social change. The site, which serves as a learning and sharing center for nonprofits and social change organizations, debuted today at http://www.socialbrite.org/.

The Socialbrite team is made up of strategists with deep experience in offering social media consulting services, training workshops, conversational marketing, fundraising and outreach campaigns.

“We’re here to help nonprofits master the social Web to bring about meaningful social change,” said J.D. Lasica, a consultant and author of four books about emerging technologies. “There’s nothing else like this on the Web for nonprofits, social change organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and educators. Socialbrite’s mission is to shine a light on the best practices, social tools and strategies that will benefit each of these important constituencies.”

Beth Kanter, Amy Sample Ward, Katrin Verclas and John Haydon are among the familiar names in the nonprofit tech sector who are part of the effort.

Socialbrite.org is launching with a rich set of resources:

• A directory of Web 2.0 Productivity Tools in dozens of categories that can help organizations get a handle on the social Web.
• A Social Media Glossary that offers a deep, friendly introduction to dozens of social media terms in plain English.
• A first-of-its-kind Twitter widget that tracks tweets about nonprofits or social causes in real time.
• A Free Photos Directory, Free Video Directory and Free Music Directory that offers nonprofits, cause organizations and Web publishers a guide to hundreds of online resources for adding legal, high-quality content to their own Web sites, blogs, podcasts, newsletters, printed materials or online presentations.
• A Causes widget that points to charitable actions and donations on other sites such as GlobalGiving and Facebook Causes.
• Scores of additional articles, guides and tutorials to help newcomers and veterans alike get better acquainted with this fast-moving space.

Socialbrite draws on a team of experts whose practical, easy-to-grasp advice will help organizations find social media success. The strategists – located in New York, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles and London – are:

• Beth Kanter, a longtime trainer and advisor to the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) and other organizations. Her upcoming book “The Networked Nonprofit” will provide a social media roadmap for nonprofits.
• J.D. Lasica, a social media pioneer who co-founded Ourmedia.org, the first video hosting and sharing site. He advises both Fortune 500 corporations and nonprofits in social media strategies.
• Katrin Verclas, co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org and past executive director of NTEN.
• John Haydon, a consultant who advises small nonprofits, small businesses and social entrepreneurs on social marketing strategies.
• Amy Sample Ward, a strategist who supports and educates clients in the nonprofit and social change sectors.
• Ken Banks, who is using mobile technology to foster positive social and environmental change in the developing world, particularly in Africa.
• Sloane Berrent, a cause-based marketing consultant who works with nonprofits and social cause organizations. She is currently a Kiva fellow serving a three-month tour in a rural section of the Philippines.
• Carla A. Schlemminger, a strategic marketing communications professional who integrates best practices in branding, PR and social media.

The Socialbrite site features dozens of videos, screencasts and slide presentations. All materials created for the site are released under Creative Commons licenses so that other sites and blogs can freely reuse the content.

“Collaboration is the key to success, in everything really,” said Amy Sample Ward, an Oregonian now living in London who heads up London Net Tuesday and collaborates with others to create local opportunities to share and learn. “I see Socialbrite as a great chance for us as strategists to collaborate while helping nonprofits keep pace with this fast-changing landscape.”

Socialbrite.org is built in WordPress, the popular open source blogging platform. Socialbrite’s lead developer, Esteban Panzeri, just finished work on a Creative Commons plug-in that lets bloggers assign different licenses to different blog posts, which he is releasing to the WordPress community.

The Socialbrite team members make their living through paid services to client organizations. Services include conducting in-depth workshops, working with senior staff to develop a social media strategy, and crafting campaigns to reach contributors and supporters through Twitter, Facebook and digital storytelling, among other modern approaches.

Visit the Socialbrite.org Media Center for tweets, information and more about the launch to help spread the word about this collaborative resource!

• Follow us on Twitter: @socialbrite
• Subscribe to our blog updates: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/socialbrite
• For business and speaking inquiries: newbiz@socialbrite.org
• To contact a member of the Socialbrite team: team@socialbrite.org

These are some links I wanted to share from June 29th. Find me on Delicious for more!

• New SMS Services in Uganda from Grameen, Google & MTN | WhiteAfrican - Interested in new technologies, esepcially mobile tech and the health sector? Check out this great wrap up of the new applications and services launched by Grameen Foundation’s AppLab, developed in Uganda, using Google SMS Search and in partnership with MTN Uganda as the mobile operator. Thanks, White African!
• YouTube - All I Need is 2 Minutes: Tips for Wired Magazine - Are you looking for ways to diversify your next event? Want to be sure there are women represented on the panels of the next technology-related conference or event? Check out these great tips!
• Women’s eNews - Report: Women’s Philanthropy Outpaces the Pack - "Charitable giving by funds focused on girls and women rose faster between 2004 and 2006 than overall foundation support, finds a study released this week by the Foundation Center and the Women's Funding Network."
• Digital Britain report - "The Digital Britain Final Report is one of the central policy commitments in the Government’s Building Britain’s Future plan and draft legislative programme." This version of the report allows readers to comment and converse about issues in the report that matter most to you; and is only one of various ways created for people to connect and talk about the Digital Britain work. Learn more at http://digitalbritainforum.org.uk
• Competition or Collaboration? — Social Edge - Peter Deitz has a great piece on the Social Edge blog and has started a rich conversations in the topics. "This morning I googled the phrase “collaboration is a good thing,” and found 2,650 results. Then I googled “competition is a good thing,” and came up with 80,700 results." Join in!

Today, 12for12k is holding a 24-hour video tweetathon to help raise funds for this month’s charity and end the first six months of operations in style!

Some of the events include:

• Using Tinychat to broadcast multiple live streams, chats, interviews and guest panels.
• Special comedy skits including Soul Possum and a New York comedy troupe.
• Special event by the Looking Glass girls.
• Awesome business webinar by Amanda Hite and her cool Talent Revolution team.
• Special musical performances by some interesting guests (under discussion).
• Giveaways, call-ins, co-host duties from Aronado and more.

These are just some of the ideas and confirmed events already in place—watch for more updates soon!

The event itself will kick off at 10.00am on Monday June 29 Eastern timezone. Details of the video stream, as well as other special events taking place, will be released as confirmed. To make sure you get the latest updates, you can always follow 12for12k on Twitter or the 12for12k hashtag. Additionally, join the 12for12k Facebook group for updates as they happen.

Join the fun on Monday or Tuesday and help 12for12K end the June charity and the first six months of 12for12k in style, and lead off into the second half of our challenge.

—-

The 12for12k Challenge is the combination of social media and fund-raising that aims to change the lives of millions worldwide.  Its aim is to raise a minimum of $144,000 for 12 charities over the course of 2009, with a new charity being supported every month. All proceeds raised go directly to the chosen charities.

Matthew Taylor has a post up discussing an update on the internal conversations at the RSA  around the organization’s branding.

According to the RSA website:

For over 250 years the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA) has been a cradle of enlightenment thinking and a force for social progress.  Our approach is multi-disciplinary, politically independent and combines cutting edge research and policy development with practical action.

And, as he explains,

Back to the RSA. Yesterday, we had an all staff session on branding. Over the last year we have been trying increasingly to align the RSA’s activities around a core mission. We have not yet found the pithiest way to express this mission but in essence it is ‘developing citizens for tomorrow’, in other words the RSA is about understanding and advancing human capability so that people can thrive in the future.

Matthew then shares additional branding ideas and opens the floor for discussion.  Quite a few comments concentrate on the process of creating the new branding, stressing the involvement of the RSA Fellows.

I am not a member of the RSA.  I tried to add to the conversation on Matthew’s blog but the post never appeared, whether it didn’t get through the submission queue or moderation or what have you.  So, I’m writing this post instead!

I was invited to become an RSA Fellow and was very honored at the invitation, especially after such a short time here and hopefully only the very start of the impact I’d like to make and change I’d like to support.  I have also been incredibly pleased and honored at the invitation and subsequent participation at a few RSA events.  I am not, however, at least for the time being, planning to accept the RSA Fellowship invitation, and this is why:

Branding.

The RSA, like many other organizations, suffers because of a lack of the most powerful aspect of its branding.  I do not plan to accept the Fellowship invitation because I have not, whether online or in person, from the invtation materials or conversations I’ve had with others, gained a clear understanding of what being a Fellow even means.  Furthermore, and most importantly to me, I have not been shown how a Fellowship will help me in my work at changing my community and the world.

Yes, slogans and colors, font and everything else are all important parts of the branding.  It’s true. But the RSA is missing the most important part, at least in bringing me on board: proving to me that being a Fellow will help ME and not just that my membership will help THEM.

As folks mention in the comments on Matthew’s piece, I don’t need to build my resume (for better or worse, I’m fine with it as it is).  But I am completely open to any and all, whether organization or individual, ready to help me make our local communities and the global community as great as possible.

So, RSA, “do you get it?”

(Just for clarification, I am hoping to get those answers and hoping the branding advances to answer them not just to me but to everyone, so that we can all start really collaborating for change!  I mean it, RSA, I’m with you when you’re ready.)