Interview: Social Media and Social Entrepreneurs

by Amy Sample Ward on November 24, 2009

This past weekend I had the opportunity to be in Rotterdam, Netherlands, for the European Summit.  There I met Petra Kroon in person, someone I follow online in the nonprofit technology space.  It’s always great to meet offline with folks you’ve already had conversations with online.  Petra wanted to a short interview before the event was over and she asked some interesting questions, like:

  • What’s so powerful in social media for social entrepreneurs
  • What is advice for entrepreneurs in 2010
  • What will the world look like in 25 years

Be sure to catch Petra’s blog (in Dutch, so use a translation tool like Google Translate) or follow her on Twitter.

Why social innovation benefits from social media from sociaal ondernemen on Vimeo.

What do you think?

What are your answers to Petra’s questions?  I’d love to hear what you would have said!

Tagged as: interview, social entrepreneurs, socialmedia, video

  • http://internet4change.com Christina Jordan

    Amy, I love your optimism. While it’s clear to me that social media has the potential to enhance the impact that social entrepreneurs and nonprofits make in the world, it feels to me like we’re not quite there yet. My sense is that the use of social media in our sector to date has been primarily dominated by organizational survival and/or opportunity chasing – pushing organizational agendas rather than using social media to inform and improve upon approaches to creating sustainable change. Working within our organizational “silos” can often fragment support to the cause-related objectives that organizations share. I so look forward to witnessing the shift in trends toward more sharing and collaboration on filling in more of the gaps. We need more voices like yours reminding changemakers that the higher value of these tools lies in working together to discover better solutions, and mobilizing them. Thanks for all you do ~ so very sad I didn’t hear about #ESGT until it was over!

    • http://www.amysampleward.org Amy Sample Ward

      Thanks so much, Christina – happy to have your voice in this!

      I think you are spot on that most organizations have so far been using social media as a stop-gap and not a strategic element. I know that change usually happens slowly/gradually, but believe we are already seeing a move towards openness and collaboration. From platforms like Zanby to movements like 350ppm, even in places like the NetSquared Community where projects who participate in a competition end up working together instead of against each other! I think we are about to see even more, both on the side of the technology tools we use and on the organizations and leaders who help move us.

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