Tag Archive for '4change'

Monthly Chats about Community Building: Are you with me?

Published in community and events. 22 Comments Tags: , , , , .

Last month, I moderated the June #4Change chat with the topic of “community building”. There were some excellent ideas and tips, and generally great conversation. The problem for me with the chat was twofold:

1. Twitter fail. It has become a regular occurrence for our monthly #4change chats to find Twitter not even working. This has meant some chats haven’t happened, some have stopped early or operated on a very slow conversation, and others (like last month’s chat) have moved off twitter and onto another platform all together. What this says to me is that the chats aren’t successful because of Twitter, but because of the people engaged.

2. One time. The #4change chats are once a month events that have taken place over the last year.  Each month there’s a new topic. We’ve covered some really interesting areas and engaged with a diverse network. We also have a great core of participants that contribute to every chat (you know who you are, rockstars!). The problem for me is that I’m far more invested and interested in certain topics than others (naturally) and I don’t have an outlet to discuss regularly in the same way. In the last chat, there was a lot of mention and enthusiasm for a monthly chat specifically on community building. And I’m here to say I’ll make it happen – if you’re with me!

Launching Monthly Community Builder Chats

Next Steps:

I can’t do this without you :) So, I’d love to hear from you about how we can design this together to be most successful, and then we can get started!

Please take just a few minutes to share your responses to the questions below in the comments.

I’m asking that you use the comments (instead of a survey or something) because I want responses to be public (if you want a response to be private for any reason, you can always email me) and provide opportunity for discussion and response.

  • Why do you want to participate in a chat about community building, community management, and community driven projects?
  • What kind of chat is most valuable to you: presenter w/ q/a, moderated chat but no “presenter,” open conversation space?
  • Is once a month good?
  • Where should these conversations take place? (Twitter despite the fails? CoverItLive? Other platforms?)
  • Anything else you want to add!

I’m really looking forward to your responses and hoping that we can launch the first monthly chat in August! Thanks for all your contributions and ideas in advance :)

Published on July 28, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 22 Comments

Great reads from around the web on July 19th

Published in roundup. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I come across so many great conversations, ideas, and resources all over the web every day. Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve found recently (as of July 19th). You can join the conversations in the comments, or click through to the original posts to find what others are saying.

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

  • Blood and Milk » Blog Archive » Ushahidi, Twitter, and the future of foreign aid – Alanna's post is a great example of the power of networks, social media, and open systems. As she notes, her example has luck but it is an example of a growing model of a changing world. What do you think?
  • Net2 Think Tank Round-up: Age Segmentation in Social Networking | NetSquared – "For this month's Net2 Think Tank, we asked you to share your thoughts and best practices for using social media with or for a particular age group. We are hoping to understand what tools or practices appeal to different age groups online and how organizations can best target their efforts to those audiences. This round-up is a summary of the responses we received from the community and it will hopefully serve to help you re-think the ways that you're targeting your limited audience." Add your thoughts or blog posts in the comments!
  • Marketing for Nonprofits: Want to Build Community Online? Become a Bridge Builder. – "Marketing online, in particular, is much more than putting up a static website to announce your gala or ask people to volunteer. It's about having a CONVERSATION with people who care about your work and can help you reach your goals. OK, you've heard this before. But the real question is, HOW do you become a community manager and/or how do you find the right person for the job? What is the skill set you should be looking for?"
  • Social Spaces – I'm really excited to see Social Spaces, a project fueled by a friend a colleague, take off! Social Spaces is project which studies positive community projects and aims to test if these types of projects can be stimulated elsewhere through spreading ideas and practices. It is currently focused on 5 main areas: Hand Made – Portraits of Emergent New Culture, Traveling Pantry, Community of Practice, Organizational Workshops, and Research. Check it out!
  • Don't focus on technology, focus on behavior — SocialFish – This presentation by Paul Adams, Senior User Experience Researcher at Google, reposted on the SocialFish blog, nails home a point I feel like I talk about it every day: it's not about the technology, it's about the people! Great slides.
Published on July 19, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

#4Change Chat Wrap-Up: Community Building

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

Last week, I had a fun time moderating the June #4Change Twitter Chat on Online Community Building. Thanks to all those who participated or followed along, and to those who will join the conversation now! This wrap up will highlight some of the insights and resources shared during the chat, but, if you’d rather, you can review the full transcript.

Note on platform: During last week’s Twitter chat, not unlike previous chats, we dealt with some major issues around lag and load time.  What makes a Twitter chat different than a blog post, for example, is that the conversation is 1. real time, and 2. co-created.  A blog post has, like this, one person writing it and sharing it at the end for comments.  That’s not to say that conversation can’t be incredible – but even then it is probably still not real time. I’m a huge proponent of blogs (obviously) but didn’t want to give up on the chat when Twitter was misbehaving. So, I turned to CoverItLive as it was a tool I’d used before and knew I could launch quickly. I hope that in the future we don’t have to turn to a back up/alternative, but I’d love to hear your thoughts about the use of CoverItLive this time!

What’s the point in using “global” tools (social media) for local organizing?

From @amoration: I find we’re always both global & local, so many of us travel frequently that virtual organizing tools are essential even for “local” endeavors

From @cosechajusta: I think part of it is just getting a message out there in as many formats as possible, so you reach as broad an audience as possible. Plus, sending emails, mass texts, etc is much quicker than doorknocking or cold calling folks.

From @rootwork: Well, I think it’s about going where people/supporters/potential supporters are. And in each local place, people are on different types of social media, some of which are global in scope. But that doesn’t mean you appeal to everyone on the planet every time you post on Facebook — you target your use of social media.

From @winwinapps: The fact that social media is forming networks and connections allows local to have more global influence.  But for now local is still something I use a map and a tank of gas to determine the limits of.

Best Practices:

From @davidahood: Still strongly believe that there has to be an element of face to face/on the ground connection to any successful engagement and mobilisation of any community. At the very least the key central organisers need to have close ties to local organisers so that there is a robust and well understood vision and objectives.

From @neddotcom: one strategy: ease of participation, make it easy.

From @davidahood: agree with @neddotcom. People want to take action on things that they care about – whether it impacts them directly or not. Our “job” is to facilitate that action and make it easier for them to participate. Inspire, empower and facilitate to take action. Social media makes that much easier.

From @rootwork: Social media is inclined toward leadership development — it’s built around people posting, blogging, photographing, videoing, etc. — so it’s good to play to that advantage. Figure out how to bring enthusiastic social media participants into the “inner circle” of planning & organizing.

From @winwinapps: Make it fun. Make the goal easily quantifiable.

From @pelleaardema: I do believe you could draw an ‘engagement pyramid’ for social media too. Not everybody needs to stick with the easy actions, some volunteers may be interested to set up ‘their own’ soc med campaign for your cause

From @neddotom: recap 1. easy 2. fun 3. overall goal 4. action oriented 5. decentralized/open

Tools:

From @rootwork: Facebook has been pretty effective at creating a place for discussion/strategy between events or meetings. Like I mentioned earlier, we use Twitter for live updates from events, and that’s been very successful — lots of positive feedback that people can follow along even if they’re not there. It works really well for a) hearings (legislative or municipal) and b) rallies or direct action. We haven’t used it as much at social events because it’s less clear what to “report” on.

From @pelleaardema: we use twitter, facebook to share what’s happening in the online forums, post announcements, invitations, etc.

Metrics:

From @rootwork: We’re a pretty small organization, with a small staff and budget, so I admit to not doing as much measurement as we should because of lack of time and staff resources. Mostly we measure it in whether we get positive feedback from our supporters and whether they seem engaged (commenting on stuff on Facebook, Retweeting, etc.). However I just found this great how-to on integrating Google Analytics on a Facebook Page, and hope to do that soon. http://www.webdigi.co.uk/blog/2010/google-analytics-for-facebook-fan-pages/

From @pelleaardema: # followers, # retweets, # clickthroughs (bit.ly). also measuring the number of clickthroughs from these sources to the main site (via Google Analytics).

From @neddotcom: WRT measurement, developed term CPA (with friend Andy Bourland (RIP) at first Interactive Advertising conference Monterey 1997. Cost per action. Action = money, sale, clickthrough, unique visitor, download, lead generation, email address, form fill out, questionnaire, etc. Working with Seth Godin at Yoyodyne, we defined measurement as 1) email participants then 2) continued/ongoing engagement

From @davidahood: We tend to track email opening and click through rates, what percentage of people take action from click through and growth in numbers of fans/followers/members. Personally still have a lot to learn about analytics and starting to use more – mostly google. But not everything is measureable…. ;)   mostly talking about level/quality of engagement via social media and feedback. will tend to summarise and record most common responses and also a few key ones that might be unexpected for assessment at end of a campaign or activity. if you couldn’t tell already, I’m big on conversation. ;) So I value the interaction I have with people which isn’t always measureable but is undoubtedly invaluable in terms of engagement – expected or otherwise. The most engaged people will sometimes come up with the most amazing and creative ways to take action or influence. A great campaign is one in which people are so engaged it just takes a life of its own. That’s why its important to be clear on vision, objectives and values.

Roles:

From @amyrsward: think in organizing and community building there are always some roles, even if they vary from group to group in how they operate: guides/navigators, campaigners, day-to-day folks, content creators, share-ers etc

From @jonasthanatos: Can communicate effectively.. is persuasive, convincing, has charisma. I think all roles in community organizing have a bit of “willing to try to change the world” in them. :)

From @pelleaardema: thinking out loud: content creators/organizers, a positive spirit (definitely needed), guide/leader…. and i guess some positive criticism can help as well. Usually generates a lot of energy

From @davidahood: I’d say you need someone who knows the issue inside and out (campaigner), someone who is a media and communications specialist, someone great with web, social media and other technology and someone to organise events and coordinate volunteers and engage directly with members of the community one on one (community organiser?). also helps to have someone who can focus on fundraising. of course, in smaller organisations, this may have to be only two or three people

Successful and Unsuccessful Examples:

From @davidahood: Greenpeace internationally had great success recently with the Nestle campaign getting Nestle to end deforestation in Indonesia for palm oil. The campaign was active online and on the ground in over 22 countries – all with a focus on Nestle’s head office in Switzerland. Social media used to engage local supporters to act globally.

From @pelleaardema: Looking at the local communities I know: a lot of NABUUR communities use twitter to reach out, keep their supporters updated. HAve a look at @arrowwebhosp for example: a slum hospital in Nairobi

From @pelleaardema: we’ve tried to set up a twitter chat to answer concrete questions from local communities in a short timespan. That was not particularly successful. A lot of effort to get pple into the chat, then a lot of confusion, hard to manage the discussion and no concrete outcomes

From @rootwork: We tried to do some end-of-year fundraising through Facebook and Twitter. I think we got $20 :) But we didn’t plan it out very well, so I think it was more a failure of thinking through an effective strategy than an inability for those tools to enable such a thing.

From @pelleaardema: some NABUUR volunteers recently tried to fundraise for 400 malaria nets, via Twitter and betterplace.org. I think the lack of background on blog etc lead to them raising about 1/3 of the budget. Support info is very important. and good timing indeed

From @rootwork: The Media Mobilizing Project has done a lot here in Philly connecting community organizing to social media and especially video — community media trainings, organizing people to interview each other, etc. http://mediamobilizing.org/ VozMob is another great example of this, organizing immigrant communities in Los Angeles, using mobile phones, photos and video http://vozmob.net/en/about

From @neddotcom: Thomas Kriese as community manager of the now closed Omidyar.net was a great example of quite, decentralized leadership style helping guide a community to make real things happen in the world. Dozens and dozens of community lead projects happened around the world during the networks 3 years.

From @davidahood: San Francisco Zoo has done a wonderful job and engaging and supporting their community. http://www.sfzoo.org/openrosters/view_homepage.asp?orgkey=1859 It all started with one guy at the zoo (his name escapes me) who wanted to connect more meaningfully to all the people coming to see the animals. People now share videos and pics and are great ambassadors/advocates for the zoo and it’s program.

From @pelleaardema: A very small, local initiative: 3 community projects in Uganda, trying to conquer malaria http://twitter.com/TweetANet

Follow #4Change on Twitter or check out the #4Change blog to join the monthly conversations.

Published on June 17, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 2 Comments

#4Change Chat – Live Chat

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Tonight’s June #4Change chat was put to a challenge by Twitter itself not working and keeping up, so we moved over to a CoverItLive chat.  You can review the archive here: June #4Change Chat – Community Organizing

Thanks to all those who participated! I’ll be posting a wrap up of key points and case studies this weekend.

Published on June 10, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 5 Comments

June #4Change Chat: Local Community Organizing

Published in community and events. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

This post is reposted from the #4Change blog.

I love community organizing. It’s true! It’s something that I am energized by, passionate about, and take so much pleasure in helping others do well, too. I’ve had experience organizing communities offline in local communities, and organizing community online – but the kind of organizing that inspires me the most is combining online and offline. Social media tools work because they are powered by people, and people are social. And when we get connected, and can connect our networks with other networks, we get even more social and have huge potential to make great things happen.  My work with NetSquared and with Social by Social has helped shape so many of my beliefs about community organizing and has offered the opportunity to meet so many others doing it well.

Lots of organizations, campaigns, and even individuals are now using social media tools to organize online and offline – bringing local communities together in new and powerful ways.

This month’s #4Change chat takes on the topic of using social media tools for community organizing – and I hope you’ll join us!

Details:

Date: June 10th
Time: 2 pm PST, 5 pm EST, 10 pm UK
Location: Twitter! #4Change
Topic: Community Organizing

June #4Change Chat Questions:

To keep the two-hour chat on topic, I’ll be helping guide conversation by using some of the questions below to drive us to share ideas, examples and resources. If you want to take a peak at where we may go in the conversation, review the questions below.

  1. What kind of communities do you currently work with and what kinds of social media tools do they use?
  2. What’s the point in using “global” tools (social media) for local organizing?
  3. What strategies are important to keep in mind when using social media in local organizing?
  4. What tools have you or your communities found useful for growing or organizing, hosting or distributing?
  5. What tools have been most unsuccessful?
  6. What are the online community organizing best practices from your experience?
  7. What roles are important in online community organizing?
  8. What are your favorite examples or case studies where this is really working?
  9. What metrics are valuable in measuring success of social media tools for organizing?

You can also suggest questions or topic areas to be included by leaving a comment on this post!

How to Participate

  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.

Conversations and Presentations

For some recent thoughts and best practices on community building, check out:

New to #4Change? Learn More:

To learn more about #4Change monthly twitter chat go to the #4Change Blog, read about #4Change and search twitter for #4Change. To participate just join in twitter conversation from anywhere in the world.

Published on June 3, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 3 Comments

March #4change topic: How Social Media Can Enhance Events

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

This is cross-posted from the #4Change blog here.

From the newest member of the #4Change team, ChristinasWorld: In the wake of South by Southwest in Austin, and in anticipation of some exciting social media and social change gatherings coming up on the 2010 events calendar, we thought it could be useful to explore How Social Media Can Enhance Events as the topic for the March #4change chat.

I’m excited! Not only is this a topic that I personally want to learn more about, but it’s going to be my first time as part of the #4change collective to co-host a chat, together with Tom Dawkins (@tomjd). #Gratitude in advance for your patience, as I find the right groove!
Some pre-chat food for thought:

My new Mac’s thesaurus offers several alternative terms we could use instead of enhance:

enhance (verb) increase, add to, intensify, heighten, magnify, amplify, inflate, strengthen, build up, supplement, augment, boost, raise, lift, elevate, exalt; improve, enrich, complement.

Most of us would probably agree that social media indeed can enhance offline events, but does it always? For whom? The thesaurus also tells me the antonym to enhance is diminish. Can social media also diminish offline events?

There are so many tools we can use to try and enhance offline events. What we hope to explore in Thursday’s chat is how.

#4Change March Chat Questions:

  1. What’s the potential benefit of using social media to cover events? For whom?
  2. What makes a good events coverage strategy?
  3. Are there examples of specific events that really did the social media piece well?
  4. Which Social Media tools are best suited for covering live events?
  5. How does online reporting affect the experience of participants at an event.
  6. Is it possible to imagine online participants actually engaging in offline events remotely through social media, or will there always be a disconnect?
  7. How can the continuation of conversations held at live events best be continued online? Is it realistic or unrealistic to expect that they will?

Join the Twitter chat:

If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).

  • 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
  • Jump in to the conversation by adding #4Change to your Twitter message
  • 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.
  • Please introduce yourself in 1 tweet at the start or when you join in

Details

Date: March, 18th 2010
When: 2 – 4 pm US Pacific Time, 5 – 7 pm US Eastern Time, 9 pm – 11 pm London, UK (Late!)
Where: Twitter (search for #4Change)
Topic: How Social Media Can Enhance Events

Published on March 16, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

Great reads from around the web on January 25th

Published in roundup. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , .

I come across so many great conversations, ideas, and resources all over the web every day. Here are some of the most interesting things I’ve found recently (as of January 25th). You can join the conversations in the comments, or click through to the original posts to find what others are saying.

To follow more of the things I find online, you can follow @amysampleward on Twitter (which is just a blog and resource feed), or find me on Delicious (for all kinds of bookmarks).

  • TakingITGlobal and Nabuur Launch New Action Guide on Online Volunteering | NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoupGlobal.org – "TakingITGlobal (TIG), an organization that operates the world’s most popular online community for young leaders, and Nabuur, an online volunteering platform that links Neighbours (online volunteers) with Villages (local communities) in Africa, Asia and Latin America, announced today the release of a new Action Guide on Online Volunteering available for download on the TIG website." Check it out!
  • Chase Community Giving Contest Ends With Yet More Controversy – Beth's Blog: How Nonprofit Organizations Can Use Social Media to Power Social Networks for Change – Beth Kanter has an excellent post chronicling and compiling many posts and resources, as well as commentary and criticism surrounding the Chase Community Giving contest that just finished. "This contest was the culmination of a two-part "vote for me" cause marketing strategy that started in November and has been rife with controversy. In some ways, it comes as no surprise that the race to the finish line ended with more allegations of dubious behavior by contest participants and those watching them compete. It's left some nonprofit professionals wondering whether these types of contests are a good idea." I strongly agree with Hildy Gottleib's comment at the end of the post and urge you to read both the post and the discussion in the comments.
  • Online Fundraiser's Checklist – "FREE DOWNLOAD: The Online Fundraiser's Checklist. How Do You Ensure Fundraising Success This Year? Take advantage of Network for Good's handy new eGuide, The Online Fundraiser's Checklist, to ensure you don't miss a thing."
  • 3 Powerful Social Good Trends in 2010 – Ben Rattray, the founder and CEO of Change.org, has a great piece on Mashable showcasing the three trends he sees coming in 2010 for the social change sector. "2009 saw a proliferation of online charity events, competitions, and “friendraisers” that spilled across Twitter (Twitter) and Facebook (Facebook) and filled email inboxes everywhere with more requests for money than any Nigerian prince could ever hope to make. And while it’s hard to argue that this is a bad thing — anytime someone gives money to feed the hungry instead of buying another digital potato seed in Farmville, global karma rises, if even just by a little — this focus on using the web as an ever-more elaborate means of getting people to fork over cash misses the much bigger opportunities just over the horizon."
  • Try These Dynamic Digital Storytelling Platforms | Community Organizer 2.0 – "Nonprofit organizations can tell the best stories. Stories about the impact that a nonprofit has on people’s lives can engage, recruit and solidify donors and members. As ImpactMax writes so beautifully, tying individual stories to overall contextual problems and societal issues can really change policies. Anecdotely, I see a lot of blogs and Flickr photo streams, some YouTube and Vimeo use. Why limit yourself? There are so many other tools and platforms that are exciting, innovative, incredibly engaging, and beautiful. Here are my top digital storytelling platforms and tools for your nonprofit to try out in 2010."
Published on January 25, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 5 Comments

Campaigning #4Change Recap

Published in events and socialchange. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
Starting off 2010, the monthly #4change Twitter chat focused on the topic of campaigning with social media.  There were quite a few participants and some really great conversation.  I’ve tried to pull out some of the relevant tweets from the Twitter stream to help follow the flow of the conversation in case you missed it.
This is more of a transcript than a recap, more of what I hope can be a refresher or stimulator for follow up blogs than simply the whole story itself.  Please leave a comment or use the #4change hashtag to tweet  your post if you do write something of your own!
Question 1: How do we define campaigning in the context of social media?
amysampleward: does growing a Facebook Fan page numbers count? does growing an email list count? what about calls to action that aren’t online?
rootwork: In terms of #s, the easiest things to measure (FB fans, Twitter followers, web hits) seem least useful in online organizing
rootwork: I strongly believe list building w/ petitions etc. that are NOT actually effective for the movement is abusive of one’s supporters
annanten: @rootwork list building is just a strategy to engage more folks in your campaign
ChristinasWorld: I think campaigning has to do w/achieving a particular end – not building a fb fan page, but using that page to achieve x, y or z
engagejoe: Hmm…What about ‘using webby tools 2 organize ppl for impact on an array of issues, w/the goal of creating real world change?’
annanten: @rootwork list building is just a strategy to engage more folks in your campaign
rootwork: @annanten To me the goal should be change, not growing one’s base. 200 engaged members are better than 20,000 petition-signers
SethHorwitz: Seth from Philly here @rootwork altho building lists is not signif per se, NE1 of those low barrier entrants may bcome an advocate
realize_ink: Q1. A campaign (in my definition) is anything that mobilizes action
annanten: social media is here to help you empower your followers with a story to create powerful activists for your cause
lozz: @amysampleward Campaigning is obsolete – social media disrupts “start-end” mentality – constantly adapting efforts now
paddaniels: @realize_ink SM changing the way we see campaigning as not only r small acts of giving visible but so is the collective outcome
ChristinasWorld: building a network of awareness is different from campaigning: 1) campaigning is about mobilizing action toward specific objectives 
ChristinasWorld: 2) Network building is about communicating, telling stories, & building trust over time
realize_ink: @ChristinasWorld I agree completely! Good campaigns move away from awareness 2 spur action
annanten: @engagejoe online campaigning = (relationship building + storytelling) * shared cause ^ common goal
SethHorwitz: @ChristinasWorld: agree w/ distinction betw. network building (awareness, trust) and campaigning (action). Both important.
Question #2: what are some of the best examples you’ve seen? Why are they great?
@elliotharmon Here’s a good example from just today of the wrong way to use social media http://bit.ly/88sR45
creativegreeniu: The 350 campaign is one of the best uses of social media I’ve experienced and it worked on a worldwide basis.
creativegreeniu: and why the 350 campaign worked is because it effectively reached a diverse demographic & moved them to action on a complex goal
ChristinasWorld: @kanter‘s recent campaign 4 Sharing Found. was amazing – what made it great was existing network ready to take action when called
5MillionPeople: GetUp in Oz do it well. Many of their online campaigns are short and sharp.
cian: Big up to @350‘s work. So successful at creating real world actions. do they in themselves create behavioral change too
realize_ink: @creativegreeniu I’d add to that, it succeeded b/c it moved ppl toward a *specific* goal
5MillionPeople: @realize_ink: Agreed. Works best when people can see that action leads to affect. Specific goals help focus.
neddotcom: Another campaign worth mentioning http://twestival.com/
rootwork: I remember a campaign from some time ago about getting more women on tech panels, but can’t find specific blogs abt it.
annanten: @realize_ink @rootwork indeed – it was @WomenWhoTech who lead that – http://bit.ly/y2twf
rootwork: I think the Jena Six was an early (though not the first) success of social media campaigns http://bit.ly/5hKmih
rootwork: The Powershift youth climate change conf in 2007 was also largely organized via social media http://bit.ly/8MyWtH
elliotharmon: Great example of organizing people online: Sean Tevis campaign. http://bit.ly/5VSjxh
rootwork: @tomjd @bensaint My Society @mysociety is incredibly awesome. Produce great tools for effective UK campaigns
Question #3: What are elements in these examples that are integral to the campaign’s success?
realize_ink: Q3: specific ask.
rootwork: Key element for success, to me, is allowing ppl to speak in own voice, e.g. http://jointheimpact.com was abt ppl, not an org
rootwork: Creating a sustainable org #4change is good, but not at the expense of cultivating leadership among activists IMO
rootwork: Great repository of online campaigns #4change can be found at @DigiActive – lots to analyze: http://bit.ly/4BbKWG
creativegreeniu: Direct contact from national 350 organizers incredibly effective in motivating me. I used that tactic locally 2 move others to act.
creativegreeniu: first step is recognizing value & necessity of it and specifically asking campaigners to do it.
zerostrategist: Q3: I think Access 2 the net, uncensored information, being unmonitored or not fearing reprisals for being an active are important
engagejoe: ‘An element that’s integral 2 a campaign’s success?’ Agree w/@rootwork‘s highlights: truly valuing & empowering supporters is key.
zerostrategist: Google / China comes to mind! Thank god for SMS, proxy servers & smart mobs right?
ChristinasWorld: key to good campaign is offering meaningful action for supporters to take; having a network who is ready to take action helps alot
realize_ink: Q3: empowerment & ownership
realize_ink: @amysampleward Giving ppl the opportunity 2 make it their own. Like @350 encouraged ppl’s cr8ivity 2 bring change but hd 1 ask
ChristinasWorld: @amysampleward sharing thru soc med can help maintain an action network – don’t just talk to supporters when u need something
5MillionPeople: @amysampleward: A big part of it is surely about making sure your network feel their actions are having an effect.
ChristinasWorld: Building an effective network #4change who is ready 2 take action requires consistency – sharing stories, building trust in an ongoing way
rootwork: Be honest w/ppl about how a given action gets the movement closer to change. Like a lg version of mission line-of-sight
neddotcom: Cluetrain may be 10 years old, but was 20 years ahead of its time, very related to social media today http://cluetrain.com/
ehon: Online campaigning – the power offer to stakeholders needs to be designed and executed properly & strategically.
Question #4: What are the most difficult aspects of managing/running a campaign?
engagejoe:  another best-practice for online campaigning? making it about the cause, not the org(s) that’s coordinating it.
rootwork Giving up control.
ehon: @engagejoe @rootwork valuing & empowering is obvious. Most campaigns lack long-term strategic plan to keep momentum flowing.
SocialBttrfly: @amysampleward For me, one of the more frustrating items, not nec. difficult, is overcoming the campaign mentality.
SocialBttrfly: Along lines of what @ehon was saying. Needs a strategic plan. Most campaigns address short term and focus on one P, promotion.
realize_ink: Q4: in some instances, seeing campaign as a tactic, not the entire strategy.
realize_ink: camp strat brings u closer 2 achieving org strat. camp success = met org objective. org success = worked out of a job.
ChristinasWorld: Q4 I think keeping up campaign momentum can be tiring for campaign champions. I hate that feeling of bugging people
zerostrategist: @ChristinasWorld It IS tiring, mastering the art of the “light touch / soft ask” is not easy to keep that campaign momentum going
zerostrategist: @ChristinasWorld I found that when you run a great social media campaign, other champions and supporters can help keep that going
SocialBttrfly I personally like the term “initiative” vs. “campaign.” “Initiative” tends to get people motivated and is action-focused.
neddotcom: Is your campaign for good push or pull? America’s Giving Challenge = push vs. Kiva peer-to-peer microfinance = pull
neddotcom: Pull can be more effective because people are coming directly to you, hopefully in great numbers and ready to do something
SocialBttrfly: I can expand in a post. In ways, it’s semantics. But the word campaign, to me, says push rather than a fueling a movement.
ehon: Challenge w online campaign – lots of sympathisers not enough activists. Inspiration doesn’t transform to action.
rootwork: .@ehon That’s why “awareness-building” is such a limited goal. I’ll take “action-building” or “change-building”!
zerostrategist: @ehon Might be right about that challenge, but I have seen the reverse too. Where everyone wants to lead but no one wants 2 follow
Question #5: What are the best ways for would-be campaigners to identify possible collaborators/partners?
engagejoe:  w/online campaigning, seems a (natural?) challenge 2 coordinate w/other movement builders working on same issue
rootwork: With social media, it seems easy (maybe too easy!) to find the natural leaders & activists and bring them into the “inner circle”
rootwork: But I think that leadership cultivation is key. Someone always Tweeting out yr action alerts? See if they want to help plan them!
ChristinasWorld: Q5  thinking of @kanter & #tweetsgiving, seems clear that existing networks built over time produce strong natural collaborators
ChristinasWorld: btw – meant @kanter‘s recent b-day campaign & #tweetsgiving from @epicchange as 2 examples where collaborators identify themselves
engagejoe:  w/@christinasworld that building on & seeking connections from yr ntworks makes for a gr8 starting place 2 find potential partners
Question #6 – something people always ask me:  how do you measure impact of campaigns (esp w/ social media)?
ChristinasWorld: Measuring impact of #4change soc med campaigns: count unique actions/donors/RTs/shares/posts… but most important, was objective achieved?
zerostrategist: Q6 Most SM people say that it’s the number of “social actions” taken during campaign period, but I think it is much more then that #4change
zerostrategist: Q6: The fact is many things are just just not measurable even with the best tools so pay, attention to tangibles & intangibles!
zerostrategist: Q6: Do the best u can to setup automated systems to capture metrics, look at the numbers, but don’t obsess over them or the ROI
Steveistall: @zerostrategist Agreed! It’s much more important to measure outcomes (especially behaviour change) than to measure outputs
engagejoe:  w/@zerostrategist that “How do you measure impact?” will never be as easy as counting clicks, challenges & solutions too complex.
engagejoe:  few measurement of success: Did you build relationships? Is the mvmnt bigger, stronger? Are we closer 2 our goals?
zerostrategist: @ChristinasWorld Like how can you measure the depth of a “social action” or an interaction with a human (virtual or physical)?
sdmediareform: Measure campaigns by if it is helping advance community exposure. Ask around…
engagejoe:  social media also offers a gr8 opportunity 2 discover, seek out, & highlight the stories which may show the success of a campaign
—–
Future chats:
The idea was suggested during the chat last night that next month we discuss the issue of “Cause Fatique.”  I think there are lots of stories to tell, questions to ask, and examples to share on this topic and hope you’ll join us!
You can stay on top of the #4change topic by following the hashtag on Twitter or following the blog at:
Published on January 15, 2010 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments

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

December #4Change Chat: Education

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This Thursday is the December #4Change Chat!

Education and it’s discontents are being changed by new ways of learning – much of it by new ways of creating, sharing and validating information and knowledge online. Tools and methods are being customized, adapted and remixed for various educational contexts. Classrooms are no longer bound by geography. But there are still barriers, still challenges – some of which we may not be able to predict. How can we attend to these?

This chat will cover the changing role(s) of teachers, institutions and learners – and how they are affected and transformed by new/social media.

Details

  • Date: December, 10th 2009
  • When: 2 – 4 pm US Pacific Time, 5 – 7 pm US Eastern Time, 10pm – 12am London, UK (Late!)
  • Where: Twitter (search for #4Change)
  • Topic: Education: How is social/new media affecting the future of education?

Check out some of the questions we’ll be discussing and resources about the topic here.

Join the Conversation!
If you want to contribute to the conversation, you’ll need to have a twitter account (it’s free).

  • 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
  • Jump in to the conversation by adding #4Change to your Twitter message
  • 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.
Published on December 9, 2009 by Amy Sample Ward. 0 Comments