Archive for the 'socialmedia' Category

January #4Change Chat Topic: Campaigning

Published in events and socialmedia. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

The January #4Change Twitter Chat will focus on the use of Twitter and other social media tools in campaigning.

About the Topic

Campaigning can mean many different things and we want to keep the definition of the topic fairly open for this chat, in order to keep insights, resources and conversation in the Q/A format as open to valuable input as possible.  Here are some ways that campaigning can be framed for the purpose of this chat:

  • moving canvassing door to door to online networks
  • political action
  • local community building
  • tying communications, partners, and actions together via social media
  • social change projects or programs locally or globally

The way we examine the use of social media in campaigning can be further framed in some of these ways:

  1. change campaigns (internal vs external), also organization type variations
  2. social media change campaigns (specific nuances)
  3. change campaigns vs political campaigns (similarities vs differences)
  4. educational campaigns (organizational / institutional / internet) riffing off of last month’s topic
  5. building campaign coalitions & recruiting campaign champions

How to Participate

Share your ideas now:

You can share your ideas about the topic as well as any resources, case studies, examples, research etc. by leaving a comment on this blog post.  Or, you can tag your resources or posts using Delicious with the tag “4change” and we’ll pick it up for you.

Join the Twitter chat:

  1. If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).
  2. To follow the conversation (whether you are planning to contribute or not), use http://search.twitter.com or another application to search on Twitter for #4Change
  3. Jump in to the conversation by adding #4Change to your Twitter message
  4. Feeling brave? Check out TweetChat – it’s a great application that integrates with your Twitter account and makes chats more fun! You can turn it off after the chat.

Rules for #4Change Chat

  1. #4Change will be structured around a series of questions which all participants can respond to. Send your questions to @memeshift to have them considered.
  2. Introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join.
  3. Stay on topic!
  4. Be cool.

Details

  • Date: January, 14th 2010
  • When: 2 – 4 pm US Pacific Time, 5 – 7 pm US Eastern Time, 10pm – 12am London, UK (Late!)
  • Where: Twitter (search for #4Change)
  • Topic: Campaigning: How is social/new media affecting the the way we build and conduct campaigns? and more!

We’ll update this post with specific questions to be asked during the chat and will capture resources and conversations from the chat, too.  Send us your ideas!

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Published on January 3, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 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

5 Steps to a Successful Social Media Strategy

Published in socialmedia and strategy. 8 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I have a guest post up on John Haydon’s blog!  You can visit his blog to read the post and join the conversation there.  The post is republished below.

I’m always weary of posts that claim to pronounce the 10 Best Things You Can Ever Do, or 7 Steps to Success, or any other lofty achievement wrapped up in just a number of items.  But, that doesn’t stop me from doing it myself!  Though, in these 5 steps, you’ll see there is a lot more to do, think about, and work on – no quick tick-off on this list!

Social media, as many have said time and again, is only part of your campaigning, part of your fundraising, and part of your communications.  It isn’t something that lives in its own department, nor does it have staff that are separate from the rest of the organization.  Just as the content distributed and conversations participated in are integrated into many different aspects of your organization’s work, so should the knowledge, access and responsibility to participate be integrated across your staff.

With all that being said, let’s dive in!

These 5 Steps are intended to help you create a successful social media strategy, but as you will see, they focus on your organization’s overall strategy!

1. Goals & Objectives

Evaluate your goals and objectives, as an organization.  You will not be able to identify tools and engagement methods for your organization online without knowing the bigger picture and without knowing it in concrete goals that will let you build and work towards them.  Hildy Gottlieb’s Pollyanna Principles are a great place to start if you want to learn more about how you can evaluate and identify your organizational goals (and larger view) in a way to successfully design projects, programs and even partnerships for real impact.

For more resources on goals & objectives:

2. Capacity

Before sitting down to work on your social media strategy, evaluate what kind of capacity you already have in your network.  Things to consider include: staff knowledge and experience with different tools as well as other internal knowledge or previous work experience.  It’s also a good idea to evaluate the capacity (especially if you think collaboration or partnership is an opportunity) of related organizations.  Lastly, consider what other organizations, companies or campaigns in your sector have already done!

For more resources on capacity evaluation:

3. Strategy

Now it’s time to focus in on the meat of this post, the actual “social media strategy” part—apologies for making you wait this long! :)   But, there’s a catch: it’s another 5 steps!

  1. Identify the audience or community you want to engage.
    This includes thinking about who you are already communicating with and how, as well as what groups you want to start communicating with who you currently aren’t including.  Who you want to talk to, listen to, and create a community with is the foundation for everything else you do with social media tools because it is what ultimately decides the success or failure of your other decisions—if you base your timing, tools, and process around those you want to be a part of your work, then you’ll be a lot more successful than if you pick tools you like when it’s convenient for you without considering the community you want to use them.
  2. Identify the resources currently available within your organization. Resources include staff knowledge and comfort with different tools, experience levels of staff working with supports, volunteers, and the public, staff with time available, staff with appropriate job duties to include social media, available budget for training or workshops, etc.  Often, we forget that because the actual application/software/tool may be free, really using it is not.  What we put into our social media engagement is what we get out of it, like everything else in life.  If you only have an hour a week to post to a blog, then it is unreasonable to expect a lively conversation and community emerging from it, at least not very quickly.  By evaluating what resources you already have on hand in the organization, you are much more prepared to fully examine your options.  And remember, sometimes you assumptions about social media use and your staff can be way off!  There is something out there for all of us, and more and more people around the world are engaging online, so don’t assume that it’s only your college intern who knows how to use these tools!
  3. Identify what success will look like. This is really helpful in order to evaluate the appropriate tools for your work.  If you want to create a space for volunteers and potential volunteers to share their knowledge and experiences with each other you are going to need very different tools than if you want to create a space for volunteers and potential volunteers to share that information with you.  It’s also important to remember that social media is a changing space, with tools and applications, even functionality, evolving every day.  So, your definition of success has to be flexible to the changing times and the changing needs of your audience.
  4. Identify what technologies are most appropriate. Now that you know who you want to communicate with, who and what you have to work with in your organization, and where you want to go with the relationships, you can identify some tools to start exploring.  There are lots of blogs, directories, and lists available online to help you get started picking tools that match your goals.  One great way to help guide you in the process of identifying and selecting the most appropriate technologies is to ask your community!  What are they using now?  How would they like to engage with your organization?  Explain what success looks like to you and ask how they would go about getting there!
  5. Identify what measures of success can be used. You know who and what, and you identified where you want to go, but before you dive in you also need to establish how you can measure and monitor activity from day 1 onward.  This includes things you are probably looking at already like the number of visitors to your website and subscribers of your emails; but, it also includes metrics based on the funcationality of the tools you choose and how you identified success.  If you are using a forum, then measuring the number of replies to post (or, if your forum allows voting, then the positive feedback on posts) could be appropriate, as well as the ratio of people signed up vs posting vs replying, etc.  It’s incredibly important for the success of your work to evaluate how things are going throughout.  If something isn’t working to the degree you had hoped, it’s okay!  Identify that issue, and correct it with either an alteration to the current tool or set up, or by shifting the group to a different, more appropriate tool.  Just be sure to openly communicate your evaluations, ask for feedback (”Do you see what we see?”), and explain any changes well ahead of time.

For more on building your social media strategy:

4. Feedback

Be sure that you create mechanisms for feedback and input throughout your process and throughout whatever you “build” or use (whether it’s a social networking space, a website, a blog or anything else).  You need to provide opportunities for your community, as well as your staff and any others participating on the “administrative” end of the operations to share ideas.  The best way to approach this is to create feedback opportunities that are “evergreen” or always available, like a contact form or address, a public forum, or commenting; and opportunities that are “seasonal” or based specifically on an event, idea, opportunity, etc. (like a blog post about possible functionality that could be added to the site, asking for feedback and ideas or even voting on the options).  Remember, though, that there is no point to asking for feedback and letting your community suggest their ideas if you aren’t going to listen.  More often than not, the community knows what it wants much more than you do, so listening is key!

For more on feedback and listening:

5. Evaluate

Just as part of the social media strategy process in step 3 above calls for evaluation, so does the overall process.  Evaluation in this step is focused on the higher level:  how have your networks grown or changed? are there new opportunities for partnerships or collaborations? are there new opportunities for empowering your community either in different roles within the social media/online space or in other areas of your organization?  do you have stories of volunteers, staff, community members, or those you serve that could be sharing their stories in new or different ways to highlight your impact? And more!

For more on evaluation:

Then…repeat!

As with most everything else, it’s all a cycle.  You will always be revisiting your goals, your community needs, the options for tools and how to evaluate your work.  Continuing to keep the cyclical process moving, though, means that you will ensure that you give your organization all the opportunities to possible to improve it’s work and further it’s impact.  This is one self-perpetuating cycle that’s good for you! :)

What do you think? What lessons have you learned from designing social media strategies in your organization? What did I miss?  Looking forward to your conversation!

Published on August 18, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 8 Comments

Women Who Tech Telesummit: Tools Galore Panel

Published in socialmedia. 2 Comments

Also posted on the Frogloop blog for nonprofits here.

Women Who Tech brings together talented and renowned women breaking new ground in technology who use their tech savvy skills to transform the world and inspire change. We provide a supportive network for the vibrant and thriving community of women in technology professions by giving women an open platform to share their talents, experiences, and insights. On May 12, 2009 the second annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit (held via phone and web) brought together hundreds of women from across the US and abroad in the non-profit, political and business world for an incredible lineup of thought provoking panels featuring technology change makers such as Joan Blades of MoveOn and Moms Rising, Allison Fine of Personal Democracy Forum, Lynne D Johnson of Fast Company, Charlene Li, Holly Ross of NTEN, Rashmi Sinha of SlideShare, Lisa Stone of BlogHer and more.

I had the great honor of moderating the panel Tools Galore in Online Communications:

From Google Earth to Wiki’s and Twitter this panel will give you the nuts and bolts of the latest tools organizations can utilize to ramp up their next online campaign. Panelists: Natalie Foster, DNC; Rebecca Moore, Google Earth Outreach; Laura Quinn, Idealware. Moderator: Amy Sample Ward, NetSquared

The sessions are short (only 50 minutes!) but pack in a tremendous amount of information.  Here’s a run through of the Tools Galore session.  See the slide deck below and notes from the panelists:

WomenWhoTech: Tools Galore

Websites, Email & Constituent Management from Laura Quinn:

Your website is you, online.

For many people who find you online, your website is the organization.  Does it say what you really want it to about your organization?  Your website should tell people who you and what you do.  It’s also a good idea to use a content management system to manage your website’s content and updates, like Wordpress, Joomla, and Squarespace.  There are quite a few options for doing this, some open source and free others not.  Idealware.org has reviews of many of these tools as well.

Email is a critical channel.

Use email to reach out to your constituents to let them know what you’re up to or to ask them to take action.  New tools get talked about a lot, but don’t get caught up in new sexy tools and forget about the power of email.  With email newsletters and emails as part of your campaigns you can move your supporters up the ladder of engagement to take more actions and help you more and more.

The details of your emails are critical.  Things to consider and target include:

  • sender line: who is your email “from”
  • subject line: what are you saying before the email is even opened?
  • opening: do you make your email seem personal, use your database to insert members’ names
  • design: is it clean? does it rely on graphics/images?
  • spam filters: are you using spam-like words in any of your content?
  • take action: are your calls to action clear and immediately stand out
  • footer: is there an option for opting out or unsubscribing?

There are quite a few tools for creating, sending and managing your enewsletters and email campaigns.  Two tools include:

Vertical Response:

  • 10,000 emails per month free for 501c3s
  • After 10,000 emails, prices are reasonable.
  • Reliable and sophisticated, though complex in areas
  • Strong in deliverability and integration

Network for Good:

  • $29.95/month for up to 20,000 emails, and $2/thousand after
  • Great template options, including custom designs for $199
  • Reliable and sophisticated, though complex in areas
  • Sustainable product and solid support from a nonprofit specialist

Don’t forget your Constituent Database.

Think carefully about your constituents when setting up your database or management tool.  Consider the groups you will want to track or by which you will want to arrange members: donors, activists, organizers, stakeholders, partners, volunteers, supporters, and so on.  Depending on your goals and your work, you may want to use a constituent management tool that is really good at tracking actions and activists, but not as good at other things.  Or, you may need to get one that can work for many kinds of groups.  Everything revolves around the audience.

Social Networks & Twitter from Natalie Foster:

Two Principles:

1.  Firstly, know what you want to get out of your campaign or communications online.  What is your real output?  2.  Prioritize your ROI around the biggest impact, whether that’s raising funds, engaging people, or something else.  Email still gets a good response – if it will best help you reach your desired output, don’t feel obligated to short change your capacity there to try to use social networking or something else.

The trust that comes with using social networks (engaging people you know, who engage the people they know, and so on) is what creates the power of using social networking tools.

Facebook General Growth data:

  • More than 200 million active users
  • The fastest growing demographic is those 35 years old and older
  • More than 3.5 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
  • More than 20 million users update their statuses at least once each day
  • More than 4 million users become fans of Pages each day

A couple of examples:

  • GreenPeace didn’t have everything they needed to conduct an email campaign so they set up a Myspace profile.  They were active and dedicated to making it work and raised 90,000+ friends.  They were able to use the platform for organizing offline events, finding and collaborating with volunteer organizers, and more.
  • Natalie has found that many more people are online and available to take action or respond in the evening – sending a message or call to action via Facebook in the evening can garner far more responses

Twitter still has a small user base compared to all those who are generally “online” – compared to those with email, for example.  But, if you have a good percentage of your constinuents who are early adopters and tech savvy, it’s a great place to be.  And it’s something to monitor regardless as it is growing more and more.

Twitter data:

  • An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 new accounts are registered each day.
  • Only 5 percent of all Twitter users have more than 250 followers.
  • Only 0.8 percent have more than 1,000

A couple of examples:

  • Recently, Rep. Butterfield was speaking from the floor about the proposed energy bill on the hill.  Representatives from Energy Action Coalition were present at the hearing and were using Twitter to send updates from the White House in real time to those on the outside following along.  This was a great way for EAC to create a meaningful channel into the discussions and to maintain transparency.
  • The White House opened up their Twitter account during the peak of the Swine Flu hysteria.  They accepted questions via Twitter and then had an expert reply via the White House blog.  A great example of using Twitter for real information exchange and for conversation.

Helpful resources on Twitter:

Google Earth Outreach from Rebecca Moore:

Google’s mapping tools may seem like an obscure tool to use in your work but these aren’t traditional maps: the new generation of mapping technology is fully interactive, enables storytelling, and more.  (Did you know you can embed an audio file in Google Earth?)  You can embed Google Earth into your website to present information to your community that really helps tell the story of your work and your issue.

Google’s Mapping tools include:

  • Google Earth
  • Google Maps & MyMaps
  • Google Sketchup
  • Google Earth API (plugin)
  • Google Maps API

Examples:

  • Neighborhoods Against Irresponsible Logging (NAIL):  When planners distributed a confusing and hard-to-understand map, many people in Rebecca’s local community didn’t “get” what kind of logging plan was really in store.  She re-mapped the data in Google Earth and shared the new map with community members, local politicians, and presented it at the community meeeting to a much different response.  Al Gore signed the petition, other politicians wanted to see it, and more.  The new map galvanized the community because they were able to really understand the impact of the plan.  With the information and story this new map was able to convey, they were able to stop the logging plans.  Read the full case study here.
  • Appalachain Voices:  With ILoveMountains.org, Appalachain Voices created an always-available tour for politicians, activists, and interested citizens to fly over areas of the Appalachain area of the USA devestated by coal mining.  Raising awareness and providing local communities a venue for sharing their story. You can read the full case study here. Impact of the campaign: 13,000+ people from every U.S. state and 30+ countries signed their online petition to stop the dumping of mountaintop mining waste into waterways;  More than 150 congressional co-sponsors from the U.S. House of Representatives;  EPA just halted all new permits and ordered a review of the practice.

How Google Earth & Maps can help Non-Profits:

  • Show what is at stake – don’t just tell people
  • Raise awareness for your cause and projects
  • Reach a broader audience:  More than 500M Google Earth users today; Drive people to your site; Gain members, volunteers, donors, media coverage
  • Plan and visualize your projects and results: Where are we getting (or giving) donations? Organize projects, such as a volunteer beach cleanup activity.
  • Educate, inform and move people emotionally – inspire action
  • Influence decision-makers; impact public policy

To get started and to review more case studies, visit:  http://earth.google.com/outreach

Questions & Answers:

What do you think about the idea of organizations only using social media tools as an online presence instead of a traditional website?

Laura: Your website acts as a home base; where you can tell people who you are, what you do, and so on.  If you are able to accomplish that and create a homebase elsewhere, then consider it.  This isn’t about using social media so websites aren’t important; consider what your goal is online and how your website and other social media support that.

Natalie: It’s really about numbers as well.  There are many people on Facebook; but far more people have the internet and are not on Facebook than those who are.

Rebecca:  It can be generational as well, with some groups not necessarily wanting to or visiting your organization’s website and others not wanting to or visiting your other spaces online.  It really depends on the audience you are trying to engage.

We are all after real world changes, so how do we measure our use of these tools on real world impact?

Laura: What are your goals?  Link to things that can be measured.  Web metrics, talking to people, emails (who opens, clicks, etc.).  Don’t measure things for the sake of measurement.  There are myriad things that “could” be measured.  Focus what you measure on things that translate into real world impact.

Natalie:  This is the question that I think the whole session is about.  Tools are just tactics, just like phone-banking or canvassing.  What are the tools that get you there – the number of friends you have on Facebook doesn’t mean you’ve won the campaign.  If you start with a theory of change, you can then design tactics around it.

Rebecca: Need to be careful with sexy tools; we can forget what we’re really using them for, what the actual goals are.  Think about what your trying to accomplish, then what kind of work, maintenance, and so forth will be required.  In the Google Earth case studies, the projects all had real world impact but they remained focused on that, and not on just using everything that maps can do.

Why is Joomla listed twice? Is it considered more complex or simple?

Laura: Joomla can work for both a simple site and a complex one.

Can you talk about difference between keeping in touch, vs. call to action. What about idea that e-newsletter is “dead”? Mixed opinions all over the place.

Laura: the difference between those are relatively straightforward – keeping in touch is about passing on your good work, keeping people invovled with what you’re doing, while a call to action specifically asks them to do something.  I don’t know people other than that psuedo-Obama-staff guy who would say that e-News is dead.  Though that guy had an interesting point about possibly breaking enews down into shorter bits, and less of “newsletter” format.  but I would argue strongly that updates are critical.

I see on the slides different services, is there one comprehensive program where we can manage everything?

Laura: that’s a really hard question to answer – it really depends on your needs.  vendors will say they do everything, but the more they try to do, often, the less powerful they are in any one area.  and more expensive.  something like Salesforce is very configurable, so it can be a good option to track lots of types of constituents – but it will take considerable time and expertise to setup.

What is difference between a blog, social media tools, and websites?

Laura:  Social media is a big umbrella term that includes blogs, social networks, other online methods by which people pass your message online from person to person.  A blog tends to be specifically personal posts, in date order. A website could include some of these things, but tends to be more of a “home base” for your organization, including basics like your mission and programs.

Learn more:

Published on May 14, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

Join us for the social collaboration game at SHINE

Published in events and socialmedia. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

My colleague, friend, and collaborator David Wilcox just posted about the social collaboration game we are going to be putting on at SHINE derived partly from the social media game and from our work on the Social by Social project.  Here’s what David said:

If you want to find out how social technology can be used collaboratively to solve neighbourhood problems, do join me and colleagues for a lively session on May 16 in London at the SHINE unconference for social entrepreneurs. You’ll find

“If you want to do it quickly, do it alone. If you want to do it well, do it together.” – African proverb.
Join the Social Collaboration Game on day two of SHINE. Everyone’s talking about the advantages of collaboration, open-source working and social technology to drive through social change. But how do you make it work in practice? Based on real life problems that SHINE participants are facing, get ready for a two hour game where you’ll have to crunch problems, make quick decisions and find ways to work together to get the job done. You will be doing that within the framework of an imagined but realistic neighbourhood where people are trying to tackle problems innovatively as recession bites. There’ll be competing interests to balance, barriers to getting what you need from partnerships,…

There will be some similarity to the neighbourhood game I ran recently in Holland – but with far more chance to form alliances and work out innovative ways to find projects. A bit like social media game meets Social Innovation Camp, in miniature.

We have some top talent to design and run the session: my usefulgames co-designer Drew Mackie is coming down from Edinburgh, and Andy Gibson and Amy Sample Ward will bringing their expertise on similar events and the use of social technology for social benefit. We’ve recently been working on a Social by Social handbook for NESTA on that subject – details here. I hope we’ll be able to evolve the game so that it can be run over half a day or a day, using content from the Social by Social handbook. There might even be a version in a box, like the non-tech Regeneration Game Drew and I developed a few years back.

Tickets for two days at SHINE are a bargain, at £30 plus VAT, for individuals and startups, and £100 plus VAT for larger organisations.  Sign up here. That includes a party on Friday night.

Published on May 4, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

The 45 Social by Social Propositions

Published in resources, socialmedia and strategy. 25 Comments Tags: , , , .

Over the last few months, I’ve been collaborating with Andy Gibson and David Wilcox, and Clive Holtham and Nigel Courtney from Cass Business School, on a book about using new technologies for social benefit projects.  It’s going to be called Social by Social: a practical guide to using new technologies to deliver social impact and it should be published and distributed by NESTA next month.  I’ll be sure to post links to the book, online version, and so forth when it’s out!

The book is full of interviews, case studies, how-tos and more.  At the core of the book is a set of fundamental principles to follow to help make a social technology project successful. Below, you can find the 45 Social by Social Propositions.  We are sharing them with you now so we can hopefully get your feedback before publication.  Really looking forward to this conversation!  Let us know what you think by leaving comments below.

The 45 Social by Social Propositions

A set of principles and guidelines which we believe underpin the most successful ‘social by social’ projects.

  1. People want control. If you give them tools for taking more control of their lives, they will pay you back in attention, support and even hard cash.
  2. Empowerment is unconditional. Telling people what they can and can’t do with your platform is like an electricity company restricting what its power can be used for.
  3. People make technology work. Think about mindset, language and skills before you think about tools, features and screen designs.
  4. Know your limits. Technology can solve information problems, organise communities and publish behaviours, but they can’t deliver food or care for the sick.
  5. You can’t learn to fly by watching the pilot. If you want to understand new technologies, start using them. Dive in.
  6. Start at the top. Get the boss blogging or talking on YouTube.
  7. Don’t jump for the tool. Be clear on who your target audience are and what you will do for them. Choosing technology is the last thing you should do.
  8. Start small. It’s always better to build too little than too much. Beware of specifying costly systems until you are absolutely familiar with the tools and know how people would use them.
  9. Planning ahead is hard. Find cheap, easy ways to try your ideas out with real people in real situations before committing lots of resources.
  10. Expect the unexpected. Be prepared to develop tactically, evolving as you go, and learn to maximise possibilities.
  11. Give up on the illusion of control. In a networked world, organisations can no longer control what people think or say about their products and services. If you’re worried, get involved.
  12. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. The more you open things up, the less risk there is of damage to your reputation. And restricting access can severely reduce usage and innovation.
  13. Keep it messy. Design to support conversations, relationships, stories – not to organise documents. If everything’s neat and tidy, it’s because no-one’s there.
  14. In user-centred design, everyone is right. Evolve any tools and systems with the people who will use them, and respect their complaints. Bring them in and let them help you.
  15. Never assume, always ask. You can’t know what your community wants from you without asking and they are waiting for you to ask. Be specific, define the issue, problem or idea, and let the answers pour in. but be transparent about your next moves and highlight the answers that informed your next steps.
  16. Design for real people. Tailor your offering to the real skills and characteristics of your users, not how you’d like them to be.
  17. Keep it simple. Every time you add a feature to your toolset, you make the existing features harder to use.
  18. Don’t centralise, aggregate. Do you really need data centralisation? Well do you? Use lots of different, disconnected tools and then pull the content together into a central location.
  19. Be a pirate. Don’t make things yourself; make use of what others have already shared.
  20. Empty rooms are easier to redecorate. Be fast and loose with evolving your platform in the early stages, but be cautious of changing things once people start using them.
  21. Build it and they may well not come. Build relationships and they probably will.
  22. The world is a noisy place. Getting people’s attention means offering them something valuable.
  23. Go where people are. Experienced users have plenty of existing places already, and newcomers are difficult to recruit. Go to see them and say hello.
  24. Learn to listen before you start talking. Good conversations require good listeners more than good talkers. Learn how to say things that people want to hear.
  25. Be consistent. Whatever you say in public, remember you are talking to everyone, all the time, so stay true to your principles.
  26. You can’t force people to volunteer. Contributing content and spreading the word are voluntary activities, so learn how to create good invitations and actionable opportunities.
  27. Respect how people choose to communicate. Some will write, others take pictures or make movies. Most people will just listen and view, and maybe comment.
  28. Enthusiasts are more important than experts. Attitude beats ability when tools are cheap and easy.
  29. Be realistic about who will create content. It’s about the same proportion as put their hands up at question time.
  30. Put your energy where their energy is. Support the early adopters rather than chasing the sceptics, and they will become your evangelists.
  31. All energy is good energy. If people are taking the time to criticise you, they are engaged. Don’t waste that.
  32. Throw a good party. Make it fun and sociable as well as worthwhile to get more commitment.
  33. Be a good host. Make people comfortable and then get out of the way.
  34. Don’t forget the tables and chairs. If you want people to communicate or collaborate online, bring them together face-to-face too.
  35. Keep your powder dry. Set aside as much money for design, copy and user testing, and for marketing and community engagement, as you do for software and hardware.
  36. A marathon, not a sprint. Launching the service is just the beginning; the hard work starts once you have something for people to engage with.
  37. Content is king. Providing great content, whether it’s resources, information, connections or conversations, means new users will find you and others will stick with you. Give people the means to share this content too, freely and openly.
  38. Eat your own dogfood. If you aren’t using your own services, why would anyone else? And you can’t influence the community if you aren’t in it.
  39. Your users own the platform. If they feel own it, they will trust it, help sustain it, and find ways to use and improve the tools; if they aren’t interested, no amount of pushing will help.
  40. Let people solve their own problems. As the amount of work grows, so does the number of workers.
  41. Someone has to pay. Although many online tools are free, everything has costs of time if not money. If possible, make sure the money comes from the core purpose of the project.
  42. Don’t confuse money with value. Look at the other assets you have in your community, like skills, volunteers and goodwill, and put them to use in sustaining it.
  43. No-one knows anything. The only thing worth watching is what your users are actually doing.
  44. Failure is useful. If you want to know what works, look at what didn’t. Fail often, fail usefully.
  45. Say thank you in public. People don’t need to have something hand-written on headed paper to feel recognized. Use your tools to acknowledge the people who helped make them in a visible way.

These propositions are a starting point for a new conversation about using technology to improve the world we live in. So, would you sign up to them? We may be wrong. And that’s fine. Let us know your thoughts, share them with other people you think may be interested, and we’ll be putting them out more widely for discussion, additions and edits once we’ve figured out the right format. You can also add your links, articles and comments on the School of Everything Scrapbook for Social by Social too.

And stay tuned for announcements on the book launch, I’ll keep you posted here.

socialforsocialUpdate: Rob Allen offered this great visualization of the 45 Propositions.  I think it is a terrific way of noting the most important aspects of these guidelines.  Notice that “People” is huge; when working with social technologies to connect with and engage your supporters, members, donors and volunteers you have to remember: the tools, the messages, the actions are all based on the people.

Thanks, Rob!

Published on April 7, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 25 Comments

Twitter for Nonprofits: Presentation for the 140-Character Mission event

Published in case studies, events and socialmedia. 4 Comments Tags: , , .

This Wednesday, MIT and Tie-Boston are hosting The 140-Character Mission: Social Media & Entrepreneurship event.  I was going to be presenting live via video but the time difference is just too much.  Instead, I’m going to be presenting by proxy: the wonderful and talented John Haydon will be walking you through my slides.

About the event:

Already Twitter, Facebook, and the rest are revolutionizing the business and marketing of social impact.  Every day, it seems, another grassroots effort testifies to these platforms and their ability to spread a message to thousands, even millions.  Followers become funders, messages become movements, and social networks beget social change.  (They can even help elect a new president.)

On Wednesday, April 8th, we are convening a panel of experts and high-impact entrepreneurs at MIT to ask, How does the speed and reach of social media alter the formulas for successful social impact?  What happens when marketing evolves from broadcast to conversation, fundraising changes from large donors to e-microdonations, or collaboration moves from sweaty basements to vast social networks?
You can be part of the conversation!
Here are my slides:
I’ll post more notes about the case studies and tools as well after the event.
Twitter.Org: Twitter for Nonprofit Organizations

Published on April 6, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 4 Comments

Join me at the “140 Character Mission” event

Published in events and socialmedia. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

iE Boston Marketing and TiE Boston Social Entrepreneurs present:

The 140-Character Mission: How Social Media Revolutionizes Social Entrepreneurship

Date: Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Location: MIT room 3-270 (click for map)
77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139
Time: Networking and dinner begins at 6:00pm
Register: to save your spot

The question is: Are the two disciplines of “Social Media” and “Social Entrepreneurship” friends on Facebook?

Absolutely, we say. The common adjective is no accident. Already Twitter, Facebook, and the rest are revolutionizing the business and marketing of social impact.  Every day, it seems, another grassroots effort testifies to these platforms and their ability to spread a message to thousands, even millions.  Followers become funders, messages become movements, and social networks beget social change.  (They can even help elect a new president.)

On Wednesday, April 8th, we are convening a panel of experts and high-impact entrepreneurs at MIT to ask, How does the speed and reach of social media alter the formulas for successful social impact?  What happens when marketing evolves from broadcast to conversation, fundraising changes from large donors to e-microdonations, or collaboration moves from sweaty basements to vast social networks?

Please register and join us as we learn and engage about the use and misuse of Twitter, Facebook, and the rest.

Panelists include  (bio’s also available):

Register now.

P.S. If you’re already on Twitter, follow the conversation and share your thoughts on social entrepreneurship with the hash tag #tiese.  Or go right now to twitter.com and tweet this:
“Check out this great panel on social media and social entrepreneurship: http://bit.ly/April8 — It’s 4/8 at MIT in Cambridge, MA. #tiese”

Published on March 23, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Vote for the Female Social Media Guru UK Awards 2009

Published in issues and socialmedia. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Jamie Burke is hosting the Female Social Media Guru UK Awards as an opportunity to “challenge the current under-representation of females on event panels by offering a high profile platform for women.” I’m very honored to be among some rock stars on the ballot – you can check it out and vote here!

I just returned from the South By South West Interactive conference in Austin, TX, where I attended a panel that asked if Women on the Web had more opportunities than in a more traditional work environment.  My notes, unfortnately, were eaten by that same Web (in publishing them they were erased by a bad wifi connection), but the major take-aways for me were additional questions, like:

  • What are the differences (or are there any, etc.) between women and other non-privileged groups on the Web?
  • How do those differences impact opportunities and voices online?
  • How do opportunities, successes, connections and authority online translate into offline opportunities and successes?
  • What cultural shifts need to take place offline in order to provide non-privileged groups earlier access, interest, and opportunity in technology-related fields?

I’d love to hear some of your thoughts about those questions or others!

You can vote for the Female Social Media Guru UK Awards here!

Published on March 19, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Change Climate Change: A New Approach to Grant Applications?

Published in case studies, challenge, socialchange and socialmedia. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

As you can read below, Green Mountain Coffee and JustMeans have partnered up for the Change Climate Change contest.  It’s an interesting combination of social media-based contest, submissions of ideas comments and voted on by readers, and traditional grantmaking, requiring all submission to also fill out a grant proposal for their requested funding.

I’m quite interested to see how this combination works out, especially as it relates to the number of submissions, participation of non-submitted parties (others who comment or vote for an idea but haven’t submitted one themselves), and the influence of the public voting over the final grant awards.

Do you have a guess at how it will play out?  I’d love to hear it!


Change Climage Change: Grant Proposals Open

(Originally posted on the NetSquared blog.)

Green Mountain Coffee will provide four grants for $200,000 each (payable over 5 years) to support the work of reducing climate change.  To participate in this contest, you need to submit your idea on JustMeans and fill out the full grant proposal from Green Mountain Coffee.

Learn more and get started now!

Contest Details:

Climate change is not a problem that can be solved by a single entity – be it government, business, civil society, or individuals. We believe that long term solutions will come from the combined efforts of all of the above.  While government will play an important role, we need not wait for government direction to take steps to understand, reduce, and mitigate our share of GHG emissions.

One grant will be made in each of the four categories of: Threats to Coffee-Growing Communities, Transportation-Related Emissions, Building Political Will, and Empowering Individual Action.  Submissions close March 21st.

Key Dates:

  • February 16th: Call for idea submissions and full proposals.
  • February 16th – March 21st: Public comments on ideas.
  • March 21st: Deadlines to submit grant applications – 12:00 AM EST
  • March 28th: Finalists announced and reposted on JustMeans.com.
  • March 28th – April 3rd: Public comments on ideas.
  • April 3rd: The public challenge ends and the final judging begins.
  • April 22nd: Winners announced on Earth Day

Next Steps:

The Changing Climate Change contest requires submitters to post ideas to JustMeans as well as submit a complete grant proposal.

Published on February 20, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments