Archive for the 'case studies' Category

Creating Social Change with Social Media

Published in case studies, socialchange and storytelling. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

nten

Over the last week, technology has played an unprecedented role in bringing aid to and saving lives in Haiti. Over $22 million has been raised by the American Red Cross via text message (about a fifth of total Haiti-related giving to the organization so far). And then there’s the role that Facebook and Twitter are playing.

Those social media tools, along with dozens of others, have been used to help family and friends locate one another, to direct food, clothing and medical support to specific locations, and to help direct rescue workers to individuals alive and trapped under rubble.

That’s social media for social good, and that’s exactly what NTEN and NetSquared want to highlight with Beth Kanter this spring at SXSWi.

Of course, we don’t just want to talk about Haiti — we want to highlight some amazing work from around the sector, while also building a nice little library of case studies we can all learn from. So, we invite you to share your social media for social good story. We’ll choose three to highlight in our session, and we’ll share all the stories we can on our sites and at We Are Media.

Submit your Social Media for Social Good story today!

Published on January 21, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

Beth’s Surprise Party: A Case Study in Crowdsourced Action

Published in case studies and fundraising. 12 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Yesterday was a very exciting day: we threw a surprise party for Beth Kanter online!  It was a bit of fun mixed with experiment, and I think it was really successful.  Here are some reflections about how we used crowdsourcing techniques for a very fast-moving campaign and lessons learned that may apply to your work.

Lesson #1: Design an action and invitation that’s doable and interesting – while focused on your goal.

Stacey Monk and I exchanged messages last week, brainstorming the idea of pulling bloggers together to support Beth’s birthday campaign.  We wanted it to be something fun and interesting, so people would want to join – a surprise party!  And we wanted it to be easy to do – write a blog post!

First, we created an open Google Doc where we put in the introduction language, so anyone that clicked through from someone’s blog or Twitter post would have context about what was happening (and included a numbered list up to 53, so people could easily see where to add their name and blog address).

Next, I sent out an invitation that included a simple explanation and invitation to join with easy steps for those interested.  When sending out an invitation, it’s important to remember that the language you use needs to be appropriate for those you’re inviting, as well as to their audience as they could easily repurpose the language or calls to action you use to more quickly and easily share/spread the campaign.  Here’s a copy of the initial email as an example:

Subject: Help wish Beth Kanter a happy 53rd!

Hi friends-

As you probably know, Monday is Beth Kanter’s birthday.  Stacey Monk and I didn’t want the day to go by too quietly so are hoping you’ll join us in making a big splash to celebrate!

Her birthday wish is to raise money for the Sharing Foundation using Causes and we think we could help her crush her goal of sending 53 Cambodian children to school by raising $530.  We’re trying to throw her an online surprise party by assembling a blogsquad of 53 bloggers to publish a post on Monday that shares how Beth has impacted your work and shares her birthday wish with your blog audience.  Of course, I hope you’ll make a gift to make her wish come true too ;)

We’re just hoping to make her birthday super happy by making her wish come true and reminding her just how much good she does.
If you’re interested, just:
1) Write your name and blog address on the signup form here: http://bit.ly/bethbdayblogs
2) Publish your post first thing Monday morning. Include a link back to her birthday wish post at http://bit.ly/beth53
3) Pass this invite on to anyone you think might want to join us.

And don’t forget to wish her a Happy Birthday Monday on Twitter too with the tweet she’s asked us to pass along: “Happy birthday #beth53! Let’s send 53 Cambodian kids to school: http://bit.ly/beth53”

Thank you so much for your help, support and participation!

Amy (& Stacey)

To recap: our audience included bloggers in the nonprofit technology and social impact sector; our goals were to help reach Beth’s $530 fundraising goal and recruit 53 “happy birthday” blog posts reflecting on Beth’s work.  The campaign was focused on the goal and created with the audience in mind (how they behave, what they are interested in, what they could do on short notice, and how they would want to participate).

Lesson #2: Encourage participants to share, invite others and promote their own participation.

Part of using blog posts in the campaign is the strategy that in order to participate, people are promoting!  We also created and provided shortened URLs for the two links we wanted everyone to use (the link to the Google Doc where people were registering their participation: http://bit.ly/bethbdayblogs and the link to Beth’s birthday wish blog post: http://bit.ly/beth53).  Using these shortened URLs and sharing them in the invitation via email and posts on Twitter meant that others were likely to use them and easily share the campaign.

We also included the hashtag for Twitter that Beth promoted in her Birthday Wish blog post (#beth53 – review the Twitter stream for the hashtag), another way that people could find and share tweets about the surprise party easily.

To recap: we took advantage of popular techniques for sharing and networking conversations including URL shorteners and hashtags.

Lesson #3: Create compositions that allow for variations on a theme.

What was key to our approach was that we did not say where people had to post, or exactly what they had to say.  We even said that they could do something else entirely!  This meant more people were empowered to participate because they could make it their own.

Some people posted on their own blogs.  Some posted to community blogs like NetSquared.  Others posted on Facebook (using the Notes application).  Some tweeted.  And others came up with even more unique ways to get involved.  (See the Google Doc for links.)

To recap: we invited people to express themselves in the way they chose while still being part of reaching the goals.

Lesson #4: Create easy ways to track and follow the campaign.

Using the URL shorteners and hashtags made sharing tweets, blog posts and calls to action easy to post and share, but it also meant that everything was easy to follow!  We could follow the hashtag on Twitter using Twitter Search (http://search.twitter.com/) and could use the tracking built into Bit.ly to track clicks on the links (http://bit.ly/) (or try doing a search using Tweetmeme).

The Google Doc that served as an information and context piece for people sharing and finding the campaign also served as the sign-up sheet for participants, so people could add their own name and blog information to the campaign details without Stacey or I having to track them down.  The email invitation also turned into a reporting mechanism as people would reply-all to share their link with others participating.

To recap: the methods for sharing and promoting the campaign were also designed to create easy ways of measuring participation and impact.

Lesson #5:  Say thanks!

What I found most rewarding in this campaign was that saying “thanks!” was part of it from the start: people’s blog posts and twitter messages were all saying thanks to Beth for ways her work had impacted their own.  It had a deep gratitude through and through.

Because of the tools mentioned above (the hashtag and URLs and Google Doc), it was easy to reply on Twitter or elsewhere to thank people for their support and participation.  As people replied to the invitation email, I could also email them directly to thank them for participating and sharing in the celebration.  Stacey and I both sent thank you emails to the full list of participants towards the end of the day, too.

To recap: saying thanks is important – we all know that.  But finding ways to say it where people are participating (if they are tweeting your campaign, thank them publicly in Twitter, for example) will only further spread and promote the campaign.

It’s been a very fun experiment and a great way to spend a Monday!

A huge thanks to my friend and colleague Stacey Monk, the woman behind Epic Change, without whom this surprise party wouldn’t have happened!  And one last thanks to Beth, for giving us a reason to come together in celebration!

NOTE:  Beth was able to smash her goal of raising $530 by getting $4,540 donated to help buy school uniforms and send Cambodian children to school via the Sharing Foundation.  We also smashed our goal of recruiting 53 bloggers, with 66 signed up and many more participating in other ways.  Thanks!

Published on January 12, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 12 Comments

Making Giving Fun: Case Study from Oxfam

Published in case studies. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

It’s the time of year again when organizations, large and small, try to break out the holiday wishes, stories, and campaigns to get one last donation, one last gift and one last pledge in before the new year.  Oxfam is no different, but the way they are going about it is!  They’ve created a space online where visitors can better understand some of the areas served by Oxfam, learn about the conditions and the needs of people there, and learn about the impact their specific gifts can make.  Take a closer look below: Oxfam’s Unwrapped Virtual Village!

The Virtual Village

When you visit the Unwrapped Virtual Village, you are given three different villages to help:

oxfam1

Hovering your mouse over one of the villages in the circles gives you a dexcription of what issues face that village and how you can help.  Clicking on one transports you to the village where you can click on items throughout the area that can help the local village members.

oxfam2

Clicking on one of the dots lets you see what it is with more detail and to “get the item” for the village.  So far, the experience has been like that of an educational game: finding and helping but also learning the real world side of it all.  Once you click on “get the item” though, you are give the opportunity to move from playing a realistic or educational game to actually buying an item and supporting the village in real life.

You can now click to get the item for the village in the game, or you can buy the item as gift via Oxfam.  What I like most is that the educational side of the scenario doesn’t stop: you’re given a case study about how, in this example, solar panels are actually impacting the lives of others.

oxfam4

It is really important to me that organizations continue to educate their supporters about the work they are doing as well as how they as an organization as well as the supporters are helping and positively impacting the service areas.

Telling stories of impact comes both from the organization as well as from those supported…and even comes from those who support you!

A Little Story

I have a very close friend who came to me with a “problem” a couple holiday seasons ago.  The problem was that her family was very excited about doing something for the holidays that was going to really impact people around the world who were struggling more than they were and that they were really excited about an opportunity they had heard about to buy a goat from Scotland that would be taken to a village or a family in Africa.  She was thrilled that her family was excited to be philanthropic and support others, but she felt like they had made their decision of how to help without investing any time or due diligence into who they were helping and if what they were doing was really something needed.

She challenged them to investigate other options, who they wanted to help, and what could really do the most for them with the amount they had to donate or invest.  It turned out that they did not end up purchasing a goat from Scotland.

This story isn’t to say that people should stop funding or supporting programs that deliver livestock to needy areas, not in the least!  The lesson here to be sure you are educated about the impact you want to make and how best to make it.

I think Oxfam’s Unwrapped Virtual Village is a fun way to get the whole family involved in investigating and learning about issues in other parts of the world and choosing the gifts that they care about and know will also make a good impact.

What do you think?

Published on December 3, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

GIft Economies at MPS09

Published in case studies and maps. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I’m capturing notes at the MyPublicServices event from PatientOpinion.  This session is lead by Paul Hodgkin from PatientOpinion .  Use the tag #MPS09 to follow conversations and highlights from others at the event.

What is it about the health community that’s different? It’s about death.  Why do we tell stories? Because it helps us deal with panic or impulses, it’s a gift.  The amazing thing about the web is what we can do with those impulses, stories, and gifts.

PatientOpinion was created as a gift economy.  Gift economies all have:

  • Gifts are always free – If you go to someone’s house for dinner, have a great time, and at the end of the evening you say, “wow, can I write you a check for $56 because I think is about what it was worth,” you’ve just breached the principle of the gift economy.
  • people are judged by how much they give, not how much they have
  • the gift always tarvels/what does around comes around

We don’t own the stories, we are stewards of the stories.  And that’s true with health, too.  Research shows that if you give stuff every day you are less likely to be depressed.

Why now?

  • the web creates visible real-time reputations
  • the web collapses distance and set up costs
  • information goods can be shared forever
  • networks offer increaing returns to scale

Are gift economies undermined by the thought that someone, somewhere is making money off it? Absolutely. Once people start getting paid for things at different parts of the cycle or so on, the gift economy falls apart.  For example, PatientOpinion’s community could operate very different if it was a for-profit company instead of a nonprofit organization.

Decreasing returns to scale, aka ‘one more heave’ and ‘lessons must be learnt’ – As the number of people involved in the system increases, the returns diminish.  Decreasing return systems are tightly coupled:

  • Prize consistency and coordination
  • averse to variation and risk
  • hierarchical, mechanistic
  • extrinsically motivated, enforced

When you move to the web, you have increasing returns to scale, but the number of people involved to affect the increasing returns are at a much larger scale (many more people, etc.).  Examples: YouTube, eBay, Wikipedia, Google.  Increasing return systems are:

  • digital
  • loosely coupled
  • intrinsically motivated
  • network, horizontal
  • variable, uncontrolled

Examples:

  • Wikipedia
  • MyObama
  • PledgeBank

Why not just turn up and eat the food? Digital gift economies turn free loaders into “audience.”

A gift economy for the public sector?

  • identify the thoughtfully passionate
  • provide easy, incremental steps to involvement
  • strength-based, internal motivation
  • use the platform to increase local impact
  • use the platform to drive local social movement
  • abstract the learning plus improvements and data
  • future users certify improvements are real
  • rate the providers
  • repeat x 1,000 groups per year
  • business model that supports the gifts

Feedback to presentation:

would want to involve staff and services in the offline local events to share their experiences, too.  but that coul emean imposing a structure.  – don’t know if that’s true necessarily, could be determined by the partners putting on and participating in the event what kind of structure and context the event has.

there a high degree of facilitation that’s involved; there’s a natural fear from the service side of fear from the outside, so there has to be real facilitation to get sustainable change and not just reaction.  the patientopinion platform has tools that anyone can use, ie you are going to go out and do something, you tell us what you want, we build it and you pay for it, then we give it to you and you can go do what you want.

seems like people who had a bad experience would be more inclined to get involved with this…is that bad? it’s more of coming from a place of “we all want to be better and do things as good as possible” so it negates just being negative.

if you have a one size fits all solution then it’s a danger, you need to try to get feedback combined with other inputs and so on. it’s important that if someone has a bad experience that they get supporter but also that your solution to that bad experience doesn’t make it worse for other people.

Learn more at http://patientopinion.org.uk

Published on November 26, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Social Media Staff Guides: Another Example

Published in case studies and socialmedia. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Timo Luege recently shared the new social media staff guidelines created at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).  Creating staff guidelines specific to online or social media use in organizations has been a hot topic for the last year or so and many organizations rely on examples of what other organizations or companies have created as a starting place for making their own.  The “nptech” (or nonprofit technology) community is one of the best networks when it comes to sharing ideas and case studies, so here’s another example to add to the lot!

>> Review the IFRC Social Media Staff Guides here.

Why create social media staff guidelines?

For starters, creating explicit guidelines for social media use will ensure that everyone in the organization is aware of what is and isn’t “okay” and feel more secure in their activities knowing what they are responsible for, etc.  It also creates an opportunity for people to be encouraged to use social media if they aren’t already!  Here’s how Timo explains this:

For the first time the IFRC is encouraging staff who are not professional communicators to actively and publicly talk about the organization and their work. The guidelines create clarity and reduce the risk of arbitrary repercussions – it’s definitely harder to shut someone up now than it was before.  On the other hand the guidelines also make clear what is unacceptable from an organizational point of view and that you might have to answer for what you write online.

Highlights from IFRC Social Media Staff Guides

What I like best about the IFRC Guidelines is that they start with best practices!  Things to remember about using social media, especially on behalf of an organization, to make the experience positive for the users (in and out of the org) as well as for the organizaiton’s image.  Some of the best practices I like best include:

  • Be passionate
  • Use a disclaimer
  • Add value
  • Be the first to admit a mistake
  • Protect your own privacy
  • Spread the word and connect with your colleagues

Lastly, the IFRC Guides also include an appendix of all the organization’s profiles and online spaces!  A great way to be sure everyone can find, promote, and access the organization in various places online.

If you’re looking for an example of social media guidelines for your organization, the IFRC Social Media Staff Guides are a great resource and example.  You can download them here (PDF at bottom of page).

What do you think?

Has your organization created social media guidelines or terms of use? What was the hardest part of creating them?  What was easiest?  How have they been put to use?

Published on November 25, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 5 Comments

GreenPeace: An Example in Connecting with your Supporters

Published in case studies. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the issues highlighted by Causes leaving MySpace and ideablob suddenly shutting down.  One of the biggest issues that has come out of the blog posts and the conversations in the comments is the idea of data.  To review the other blog posts about these topics, visit the Causes post, ideablob post or the guest post for Tactical Philanthropy.

This evening, Joe Solomon pointed out a great example that touches on data, social media, 3rd party platforms, and being proactive with getting your supporters connected directly with your organization – all things we’ve touched on in the conversations about Causes and ideablob!  That example? Greenpeace International on facebook.

FGgreenpeace

When visiting the Greenpeace International facebook page, visitors see the Take Action tab as default, instead of the typical facebook wall or information pages.  Why I think this is a great example of leveraging the tools within a 3rd party site:

  • Data: GP is letting supporters connect with the organization directly by giving their email address straight to the GP database, not the facebook database.  If anything were to happen to the facebook fan application, or facebook all together, GP would still be able to communicate with supporters.
  • Action: It’s not just about getting email addresses, but also cutting straight to chase: take action!  This strategy ensures that users (whether they are already “fans” or not) are given opportunities to take action as soon as they visit the page.
  • Community: Remember that using social media platforms is all about going where your community already is and making supporting your work part of the process they already have online.  That doesn’t mean that because a user first found you on facebook (maybe through another friend’s actions, etc.) does not also mean that they only want to connect with you in that same platform.  Some users may only want to be a “fan” of your work on facebook, others may want to be on your email list or become a major supporter, fundraiser, or activist on your behalf.  This is an example in providing options, and not assuming a 3rd party platform connection is all that’s wanted.

Thanks, Greenpeace, for being a great example and a leader!

Published on November 16, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

New on SSIR: #4Change Examines Social Media for the Climate Change Movement

Published in case studies and issues. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , .

My latest post is up on the Stanford Social Innovation Review opinion blog.  For those that follow the #4Change twitter-based chats, this is a post recapping and highlighting our latest conversation on social media application in the Climate Change movement.  There are lots of great pieces below that I think can apply to all sectors and I’m eager to hear your thoughts!

Read the post below or visit the Stanford Social Innovation Review blog to comment.

Continue reading ‘New on SSIR: #4Change Examines Social Media for the Climate Change Movement’

Published on October 14, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 1 Comment

September #4Change Chat Topic: Change Failure

Published in case studies and events. 0 Comments Tags: , .

Originally posted by Zero Strategist on the 4Change blog.

My experience since I started working in the social media field is that the failures are where you learn the most as a community manager, a social media manger, a change manger, a professional and as a person.

Twitter Fail Whale

Yet, organizations tend to have a low tolerance for failure even though it is failure that often leads to innovations and improvements in products, services or processes. Leaders often blame change managers or teams who do not control the source or circumstances which cause the “failure.” Having a low tolerance for small failures can actually lead to more catastrophic failures.

Though many orgs flaunt their “lessons learned” they are not all written down, distributed, or accessible depending on the enterprise architecture. Too often, these lessons end up on individuals’ computers, shared drives or locked away in portals and are not shared in order to prevent repeated mistakes. Most organizations lack the enterprise 2.0 tools that they need to help their workers become more efficient at their jobs.  This lack of tools can prevent individuals from learning from their previous missteps and reaching full productive work potential. There is also general lack of integrated risk management systems in business for employees to submit risks to the organization for tracking, sourcing and mitigation. The workers on the front lines of the change are often the first to see signs of trouble yet, in most org structures, they have the least interaction with upper management.

I think that the previous blog post by Tom is a great lead into this month’s discussion and #4CHANGE chat topic.  The 4Change Team thinks that this topic is a really important. :)

#4 Change September Chat Topic: Change Failure / Change #Fails

#4Change Chat Questions on Change Failure:

  1. What is the value of failure?
  2. What roles do change failures play in furthering larger change campaigns in organization?
  3. What constitutes change failure / success inside and outside of your organization?
  4. As a change/community manager, how do you handle separation / transition issues with the community and the organization?
  5. How do failures in society, business and government affect change in non-profits?

new_twitter_fail

Here are some background definitions to stir your thoughts about this months topic.

Failure (definitions from Visual Thesaurus):

  • an act that fails
  • an event that does not accomplish it’s intended purpose
  • lack of success
  • a person with a record of failing, someone who loses consistently
  • an unexpected omission
  • inability to discharge all your debts as they come due
  • loss of ability to function normally
  • condition in which there is a disturbance of normal functioning
  • a mistake resulting from neglect
  • your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you)
  • an event that happens
  • an act that does not achieve it’s intended goal

Success:

  • an event that accomplishes it’s intended purpose
  • an attainment that is successful
  • a state of prosperity or fame
  • a person with a record of successes
  • the condition of prospering; having good fortune
  • the act of achieving an aim
  • an event that happens

Change:

  • an event that occurs when something passes from one stat or phase to another
  • a relational difference between states; especially between states before and after some event
  • the action of changing something
  • the result of alteration or modification
  • a thing that is different phenomenon that follows and is caused by some previous phenomenon
  • something done (usually as apposed to something said)

Please feel free to leave question and comments on this subject and if you have open case studies or links to resources on the topic. Visit the 4Change blog to join the conversation!

Published on September 9, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

UniversalGiving: Impact, with a little help from friends (SocialActions)

Published in case studies and socialchange. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , .

“First, we’re strictly nonprofit.”  That’s how UniversalGiving begins when describing it’s work.  But, what it should really say is, “we may be non-profit, but we are not non-impact.”  Or at least something like that!  Why? UniversalGiving is making great impact on communities around the world, both in the work, funds or volunteer efforts contributed to individuals and groups via their platform, but also in effectively and passionately empowering donors and volunteers to contribute.  Additionally, UniversalGiving is a member of Social Actions, ensuring that their opportunities to make a difference are heard and seen in even more places around the Web.

What is UniversalGiving?

“UniversalGiving™ is an award-winning marketplace which allows people to volunteer and donate to top performing projects in more than 70 countries around the world.”

It’s a marketplace, really, of opportunities to take actions for social benefit in various topics you may be after—want to donate money and leave it at that? would you rather connect with a group or individual in need half way around the world? maybe you want to join forces for a longer-term project for real impact. People simply choose a country of interest (such as China or Thailand) and an area of interest (such as education or the environment) and find a list of vetted opportunities to which they can donate money or give their time.

I’ve been watching volunteer opportunities related to technology and am so excited to jump in!

What is the Impact?

For those of you that like the number overviews, here are a few numbers to consider:

  • more than $ 1.5 million has passed through www.universalgiving.org
  • nearly 10,000 people have volunteered
  • more than 70 countries served

UniversalGiving + Social Actions

As readers of this blog probably know, I’m really excited about the work Social Actions is doing to help connect the sources of actions and opportunities across the web to push them further.  Social Actions is “an open source database of actions people can take on any issue. The actions in our database are aggregated from across the social web and include everything from volunteer opportunities to micro credit loans.”

UniversalGiving has partnered with Social Actions to ensure that the volunteer and giving opportunities they vet and promote on their platform can be found by even more people, in more places online.  I think these partnerships are so exciting because I know how many people are willing, interested, and ready to contribute to social impact projects, whether big or small, near or far—but they just don’t know how to find the ones that match their interestes or skills.  This partnership means, then, that there is a higher chance interested people can find opportunities from UniversalGiving without having to know them!

By collaborating with Social Actions, UniversalGiving also gets to benefit from things like the Change the Web Challenge that saw many new applications for the Social Actions feeds – meaning new applications that could put Social Actions data (whether a general feed of information, or specific search criteria, or one specific action) in public places online like Facebook, blogs, and more.  Again, more people can now find UniversalGiving opportunities without even trying! :)

With the impact of that partnership in mind, I want to share two of the responses UniversalGiving has received from participants:

“Universal Giving is an instrumental partner to Sports Gift and our mission to provide sports to impoverished children.  Universal Giving helps us reach people across the country to tell them about volunteer opportunities, our community service programs and other charitable giving opportunities. Universal Giving has made a direct and significant impact on our ability to provide the gift of sports to thousands of children living in poverty around the world!” – Keven Baxter of Sports Gift

“Because we’re a relatively small NGO with a fairly specialized focus, it’s been great to be a part of UniversalGiving and gain the additional exposure to potential donors that we may have never otherwise reached.  Also, UniversalGiving’s ability to process a high volume of contributions from an intensive online donation drive, something beyond the capacity of my organization, allowed us to benefit from an MTV Networks employee giving campaign, even though it came about on very short notice.  UniversalGiving also provided MTV with the donation data they requested, quickly and efficiently, which secured a substantial corporate match for us.  UniversalGiving proved to be a great advocate for my organization.” – Michael Hayes of Solar Cookers International

Clearly, UniversalGiving is doing a good job making positive impact around the world.  I’m very excited to see them partner with Social Actions to make this impact reach even further and involve more people.  What I’m most excited about, though, is watching UniversalGiving’s work grow!

Connect & Learn more

You can follow UniversalGiving or Social Actions on Twitter, follow stories on their blogs (UG blog or SA blog) or visit their websites to learn more:

Published on August 28, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 6 Comments

The Future Today: Empowering youth via social media

Published in case studies and presentation. 1 Comment Tags: , , , , , , , .

Recently, Bebo hosted an all-day event for members of the No to Knives and Crime Coalition, as well as others working in the sector of positive youth engagement in London and beyond.  I want to share my slides and notes here for those who attended as well as for all those out there who didn’t :)

My presentation concentrated on a few case studies where certain technologies were the appropriate tools for engagement and aided work to connect, empower, and educate youth communities.

Youth Empowerment with Social Media

There are really just so many great examples for this topic.  If you are looking for more examples about social media and communications technologies applied to youth empowerment, here are some additional links/groups to check out:

After the case studies, I focused in on two aspects of the strategy building that are most important:

The Audience – if you do your research (even if you are “sure” you already know), you can identify your audience, those you already talk to and those you don’t. You can figure out how best to communicate, and how (both the medium and the words).  You can see more about this in the slides above.

The Goals – yes, we all want to, in this case, fight knife crime; but that’s not our goal.  Take the time to identify your goals focused on living in and inviting youth to co-create a community without knife crime.  There is more about goals in the slides above.

If you would like to view the presentation above with the speaker notes included, click here.

What do you think? Has your organization tackled issues in the youth community and used new technologies to support your work? Share your story – we’d love to hear it!

Published on July 20, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 1 Comment