go small or go home

These days marriage isn’t only about joining two hearts in holy (or other) matrimony. Apparently it’s also about joining two hearts to community.

Recently Alex and Kristin used their wedding as an opportunity to raise money for  charity: water, a non-profit working to bring clean drinking water to developing nations. Instead of cappuccino machines and monogrammed silverware, the couple asked that wedding guests donate $50 to fund an entire well to provide drinking water for 250 people.

Charity: water tracked the campaign on their website, presenting photos of the special day and announcing the final amount raised… to the tune of $6,440. The happy couple included a touching note on the campaign web page to add that personal touch. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and generosity! With your help, we really can make a difference in this world. We can’t wait to see all you in a few months! Love, Kristin and Alex. In addition, guests added comments next to the donated amount such as Filthy water cannot be washed -African Proverb Such a thoughtful gift!

Now switch to another marriage that recently happened using social media channels. For those who haven’t seen the current string of Old Spice commercials, all I can say is, you’re missing out on one of the best social media based ad campaigns in the past, er, year or more (at least). To date, there have been over 1o million views of the original ad. Needless to say, using the word ‘viral’ to describe what Old Spice accomplished is appropriate here.

Old Spice has ditched its stale image of  being a product people buy for their dads on Father’s Day to being, well, sexy as all get-out. Recently the revamped Old Spice guy played by  Isaiah Mustafa actually proposed to a girl for another guy on Twitter. When you see the video, you might better understand why she accepted.

Now check out the old Old Spice ad from 1971. Why else would women patiently wait for their men to return from sea…

I am wearing white pants today so that must mean summer is here in Vancouver. It actually arrived a little over two weeks ago and surprised us all. The abrupt temperature rise has got me wondering whether organizations use social networks as much when their thoughts turn to backyard barbecues and tall glasses of lemonade. I had assumed we would spend less time on Facebook, Twitter et al during summer months, yet judging from the consistency of posts among my networks (including mostly  social media and communications professionals, not-for-profits and a handful of savvy online superheros; celebrities and other), I’ve observed that their tweets or blogs aren’t less frequent it’s just that they are more mango salsa than brown bag lunch.

Take for instance this tweet by benlocker, a UK copywriting agency: “I’m overtweeting. Time for a book and a glass of wine.” Or this one by paulrouke, “I’m attending Manchester Digital Summer Barbecue….”

These days, more people in my professional networks are recommending books to read or sending tweets from the beach or poolside. Another thing I’ve noticed: More people are updating their LinkedIn profiles and changing their Facebook and Twitter profile pics.  It’s true that holidays or slow work days can be a good time to get caught up on all those social media chores that have been piling up.

Speaking of which… given that summer is the season of parties and celebrations, why not take the opportunity to show your not-for-profit’s lighter side. Let’s face it, all work and no play makes Jane or _____ (insert not-for-profit name) a dull girl/organization. Here are some ideas to get you started.

Summer in the social media

1) Organize a barbecue or baseball game to celebrate a momentous year of fundraising and serving your community.  Maybe things have been challenging and staff need a pick-me-up and something to show they are still valued. Take pictures of the event to post on your website or blog. Tweet about it during and after to show your partners and site visitors your organization’s amazing team spirit.

2) Do you have a summer intern who might like to ‘guest blog’ during the summer months? Could be a cool way to infuse the organization with some fresh ideas and new perspective.

3) Offer your Twitter followers or Facebook fans some free stuff.  A little while ago Ethical Bean was tweeting about certain locations its followers could go to on a Friday to take home a free bag of their Fair Trade coffee. Rustle up some in-kind donations from local businesses; use an online contest as an opportunity to share your organization’s story and the community you serve.

Friday afternoon antics

Two whole hours left till the weekend; it’s hot, the air conditioner is broken again or blowing colder than the legal limit. I know I’ll…

1) Visit Twitterer, type in summer or vacation and see what others are up to.

2) Join an online parade with my Twitter followers.

3) Sign up to be a friend of the cephalopod mollusk that predicted the 2010 FIFA World Cup winners. Btw, the oracle octopus has 170,000 Facebook friends. And you thought you were special.

Have a terrific summer!

Go Small has been really busy — NOT writing blog posts evidently (sigh). Some work we’re doing with an NGO new to social media makes me think it’s time for a recap on websites that connect not-for-profits to some great social media tools they can use to further their cause. Oh, and of course, connect them to others who, just like them, might be trying these ‘things’ for the first time. There are a number of sites out there on the topic, though not all of them are user-friendly or particularly useful.

Our top drawer list

There’s a site I recently learned about called Socialbrite — Social tools for social change. Offering the very best in knowledge sharing among not-for-profits, NGOs, educators or media makers, Socialbrite was featured in Mashable’s 4 Social Good Trends of 2009. Examples of their posts are helping Haitians via mobile, crowdsourcing & social media and using social media to help combat climate change.

An initiative of Tech Soup, NetSquared helps organizations leverage the power of social media. They have Net Tuesday in different parts of the U.S. and other countries where people can meet to hear talks, discuss  topics, and collaborate on socially minded projects.

NTEN helps not-for-profits use the current technology to help communities fulfill their missions.

Beth’s Blog is well worth the visit. She has been helping not-for-profits with social media for over a decade and just launched a new site that is prettier (in my humble opinion) and as good or better than the last one.

NGO video to go

I would also like to mention some sites that illustrate how organizations can produce top-notch videos on a shoestring. More and more not-for-profits are posting videos and getting into the habit of drawing on their own in-house resources for video production. Luckily the technology makes it much easier for newbies to take this on. Even so it’s  good to know the basics.

CharityDocs showcases local charities so potential funders can see their work and possibly offer their support. Visit this site for some terrific ideas for your own organization’s video.

CitizenTube has a terrific piece on making videos called Secrets to Nonprofit Video Success. Located on YouTube, this video blog showcases what NGOs and others are doing to have an impact visually and around the world.

In the same realm, here’s a video of a presentation presented by NetSquared on one of their Net Tuesdays. It’s called How Non-profits Can Create Video Campaigns for Social Networks.

Up until two years ago I was sceptical about not-for-profits using Facebook to connect members, stakeholders and other fans. After all, Facebook has been known first and foremost as a site for friends, family and old high school boyfriends/girlfriends (shudder) to connect and share their latest news. What juice could not-for-profits possibly squeeze from this infamously chummy social networking site? A place where you ignore people you don’t want to “befriend” and poke people you do.

It’s an old story. A not-for-profit sets up a Facebook page, populates it with photos, video, and stuff about what it’s up to and what it’s about. Let’s say 100 people become fans of the organization, and then. And then. What there’s more? Yes, there’s more! For starters, your organization could import blog posts, notes, tweets, or post photos and videos of your events. You could try adding applications to enhance your visitors’ experiences, add pages (e.g. causes, events) set up events and have fans RSVP, create groups to connect fans with similar interests….

When I visit charity Facebook pages that aren’t updated, and where there are no conversation threads that makes me want to shout “Ya, sign me up!” then I actually feel kind of sad. It’s like visiting an old-fashioned dance hall (like the ones I imagine might be in Havana with colourful walls, high ceilings and colonial archways, rows of chairs along the sides) and seeing that it has been abandoned. What’s more, there hasn’t been a pair of fancy dance shoes tangoing across its floor in several months.

On Facebook’s not-for-profit page it says “there are over 30,000 non-profits using Facebook Pages” and that “more than $5M has been raised since 2006 benefiting over 150,000 different causes.” Given those stats I think it’s worthwhile for charities to not only invest a little time in creating Facebook pages for their causes, but to also build in some time in their three and five-year plans to growing those pages in terms of members, conversations, applications, virtual events.

Here’s a list of not-for-profits we think are doing a great job ‘Facebooking.’

Doctors Without Borders

Global Disaster Relief

UNICEF

Charity: Water

WITNESS

Even with great ideas and time, it’s no easy feat for not-for-profits to create a community of like-minded people on Facebook and attract others to maybe come along for the ride. In the words of one UNICEF fan, “there are 45 million people each day around the world playing Farmville [a real-time farm simulation game] yet there are only 150,000 UNICEF Facebook fans.”

The gist of it being, all that time wasted on a virtual farm that doesn’t feed anybody….

Starting this post, I can hear sirens, cow bells, jubilant cheers and howls, and a group singing O Canada like happy drunken soldiers (or athletes)… and it’s only 9:30 am on Sunday morning. I should add that it IS the last day of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics here in Vancouver and a mere few hours till the big hockey game between the US and Canada.

Given that our Go Small blog focuses on not-for-profits (social profits as I like to call them) that use social media in creative and dynamic ways, I would like to write about two not-for-profits that caught my eye during the past two weeks.

I often tell clients that social media is nothing without dynamic stuff happening at the community/street level. Just as I wouldn’t tell a not-for-profit to set up a Facebook fan page unless they had a real (and really interesting) event, rally or launch to share with supporters, I also wouldn’t tell a person to communicate their message using social media exclusively.

This can be true in more ways than one.

To give an example, quite often I find out about cool and interesting social media campaigns by picking up a flyer in a local cafe or by talking to the person next to me in the grocery store line-up. The moral of the story… using traditional and online media together can help strengthen your message, and, ultimately your reach.

While attending one of the live tapings for the Colbert Report (pronounced “rapport”) which Stephen Colbert aptly named Vancouverage of the 2010 Quadrennial Cold Weather Athletic Competition (mocking the fact that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has a strangling grip on their brand), I saw, ambling towards me, a life-sized polar bear made from recycled materials and inhabited by two people. It was accompanied by two humans in fuzzy polar bear suits sporting banners saying “Col-bear Nation.” Get it?

The Arctic bears seemed out-of-place. Not only because they weren’t in their natural habitat, but because it was eerily warm outside for a February day, the sky, a bright summer blue. Yes, it felt more like the Summer Olympics.

The group was out garnering fans for the Dogwood Initiative’s latest project SaveWinter. And what a perfect time to launch this winter-centric campaign. After all, the Winter Olympics was on, the city was battling record low temperatures, partly due to El Nino and, let’s face it, partly because of erratic weather due to climate change. The snow for the Cypress Mountain Olympic ski competitions was brought in by helicopter from hundreds of miles away. It was the warmest Olympics in history. Enough said.

SaveWinter passed out stickers urging Canadians to go to their site and sign a petition to not only save the polar bears, but to save winter. A quintessentially Canadian experience linked to hockey games on frozen ponds, ice castles, and famous Canadian ski slopes. That day, the group took hundreds of pictures for people with the polar bear, some of which made it to their SaveWinter Blog. While others I’m sure were posted by Colbert fans on Twitter, Facebook et al.

Before I end this post, I must mention Right to Play, a Canada-based, humanitarian organization that focuses on the importance of sport and play to enhance a child’s development in some of the most disadvantaged areas. During the Winter Olympics, although banned by the IOC from being in the Olympic Village (where the athletes were), they used the international event to recruit athletes to their cause. This was done mostly through media events and by interviewing star Canadian athletes such as Clara Hughes and Paul Rozen for RTPtv, their Right to Play TV channel. Filming from CBC’s downtown studio location, Right to Play invited athletes, supporters and the public to interact and share their excitement and interest for becoming involved in their cause.

Canada just won gold in hockey. Time to pull out the scotch and join the party!

The buzz at my home lately has been about the latest addition to our family: The iPhone. I suppose you could say we are late bloomers. While many of our friends and colleagues were already texting, tweeting, blogging, podcasting and posting photos on Flickr from their iPhones, we were standing on the sidelines giving the newest, cool gadget the come-hither look. Yet, as soon as Apple released the first iPhone in the summer of 2007, we knew it was only a matter of time. Over two years as it turns out.

A funny story. While purchasing his iPhone, my fiancé was debating about whether to get the 16 or the 32 Gigabytes phone. The difference was $100. Even the guy at the store said 16 would be more than enough to do what he needed to do, yet he wasn’t convinced. Our conversation went something like this:

Me: Why would you want to get 32 Gigabytes when 16 is enough?

Him: Well, because… because it exists!

Giga comes from the Greek γίγας, meaning ‘giant’. A Gigabyte is about 1,000 Megabytes and has about a thousand times the capacity of a floppy disk. It is a word that has kept its original meaning while taking on an aura of holiness in the tech world as if bigger is always better.

It was during the iPhone purchase that I began calling them  ‘gigafarts’ instead because I thought all this talk of BIG was over the top and that Gigabytes needed to be taken down a couple notches. Let’s face it, if they were called gigafarts, then would we really think they were so special? Would we still want 32 rather than 16 of them?  I suspect not. I do understand the idea of wanting more space simply because it’s available. Having said that, I wouldn’t drive a minivan without a gaggle of kids nor would I live in a mansion all by myself. That leads me to my next point.

Apps can ruin your life! There are so many and one can waste time trying them out. I will not download the Zombie Pizza app because I am not into playing games on my phone, but I might download an app like Seafood Guide that teaches me what fish are endangered due to overfishing. By the way, this is one of many iPhone apps that are enabling not-for-profits to reach out to the public using social media.

GoPlanit.com’s Pet Earth game has players imagine the Earth as a virtual pet to take care of. A portion of the game’s retail price and ad revenue goes to planting trees. People Against a Violent Environment has three apps to bring awareness to different forms of violence. Domestic Violence Awareness, Sexual Assault Awareness, and Child Abuse Awareness apps help raise funds for these causes and increase social awareness.

As more not-for-profits become familiar with social media and begin to see what it can do for them, more apps will come available. So instead of playing Zombie Pizza on the busride home from work we might be donating to a local charity or planting a tree.

As I write this, world leaders are in the final stages of negotiations for a deal that will either reduce carbon emissions to a level that is safe for humanity, or they won’t.

Here at Go Small we write about how not-for-profits are using social media to get their message out, draw attention to issues that are important to them and those they serve, and even attempt to “save the planet” on a good day.

Well, in case anybody still wondered whether social media had the right stuff to connect people, disseminate knowledge, make stuff happen,  COP15 UN Climate Change Conference Copenhagen 2009 should answer that question with a resounding YES.

Leading up to the climate change talks, NGOs like tck,tck,tck and 350.0rg mobilized hundreds of thousands of people worldwide through social media using Flickr, Facebook and YouTube to make it a cinch for them to listen, think and act. Tck, tck, tck’s website asked visitors to Watch Live what was happening and Add Your Voice. Viewers watched justin.tv for updates and texted observations, engaging in a dialogue with others. YouTube and CNN teamed up to host a live climate change debate whereby people asked leaders and activists questions.

The direct call to action from 350.org caused students, teachers, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents to come together in Copenhagen, Bangladesh, New Guinea, Ireland, New Zealand, Thailand, Australia and elsewhere to show their support for reducing emissions by 35o parts per million, thought by many scientists to be the safe upper limit for CO2 in our atmosphere. They did this by capturing the symbolic number “350″ in painting, carving, candlelight, landscape design, or in various human configurations. These photos were then posted to the 350.org website, Flickr and ended up on countless blogs and Facebook pages.

Halfway into the two-week conference, 100,000 people gathered in the streets of Copenhagen for a candlelight march — reportedly the largest climate protest to date. I know it happened because I saw it on Flickr and YouTube. This observation leads me to believe that, contrary to popular opinion, the revolution WILL be televised.

350.org asked people worldwide to partake in a one-day fast yesterday in support of all those who are suffering and will suffer from lack of food as a result of warmer temperatures and a disruptive climate. The following story is from Mohammed Yahia who fasted.

I just had a little daughter and right now she’s 55 days old. I want her to grow up in a world where she doesn’t have to fight for her very existence. I want her to be able to grow up and live a happy, fruitful life like I did. And I want to see her grandchildren, and make sure they have a good fulfilling life too.That is why I’m fasting today.

During the writing of this post I’ve been listening to justin.tv and periodically checking updates on 350.org. It now appears that the talks have resulted in failure. At least, 350.org is reporting that the wishy washy deal would lead to 770 ppm and not 350 ppm as they hoped.

OK, so in the words of Thom Yorke, Radiohead’s lead singer, maybe the deal is just “bullocks.” Even so, this exercise has lead to something fundamental and social media is at the heart of it.

On the tck,tck, tck website Jason Mogus’ explains that “civil society has…come together like never before.” In his post titled Climate Shame but we’re Not Done Yet he goes on to say, “Tonight and over the weekend we speak with one voice in response to this climate shame with a mass “home page take-over” of dozens of major websites around the world.”

We shall see what happens next….and where and when the next revolution will be televised.

Go Small recently came across the work of an artist who uses both traditional and online media to weave narratives using an endangered species as the main character, in this case, the humble bumblebee. The artist, aptly called “Bumblebee,” uses abandoned newspaper stands and telephone booths in the real world to represent pages of a story called “The Story of How Things Came to Bee.”

The narrative is captured in pictures and words on Bumblebee’s Flickr site and the pictures contain notes (if you scroll over the bees). These notes can’t be seen on the street, however, there is a map that shows the locations of the newspaper stands so the online viewer can step outside (providing they live in the city!)  and travel to each spot to see these scenes for herself.

Looking at an almost obsolete industry from the perspective of an endangered species gives the viewer a deepened sense of vulnerability, the passing of time, the ephemeral nature of technology, and of the preciousness of life.

A wonderful way to work with both traditional and online media to create a complete and compelling storybook of ideas and impressions.

The ‘newspaper stand’ is soon becoming a forgotten way to communicate with the public. With more online news subscriptions being made, newspaper companies are leaving these structures abandoned. -Bumblebee

In a previous blog post we wrote about Go Small’s participation in Resilient People + Climate Change. The conference looked at ways to strengthen psycho-social resilience among communities and organizations in the face of rising global temperatures.

Here are some quotes by panelists that were tweeted during the two days:

Culture is a collective narrative across neighborhoods.-Mike Littrell, Cultural Mythologist, Conference Co-Convener

We need to return to historic documents, myths and legends to learn about survival and building our resilience. Survival must incorporate tools not only for the body, but for the mind and spirit as well.-Carl M. Hild, Associate Professor, Public Health Administration, Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, AK

We can learn resilience from the Squamish Nation, who have lived & survived great trauma. We can become witnesses by listening, observing, learning from the land and returning to community to share our stories.-Nancy Bleck, Photographer and Instructor, Emily Carr University of Art and Design, Vancouver, BC

We must learn to reconnect with the world and the environment, and women will take the lead on doing this.-Carl M. Hild, Associate Professor, Public Health Administration, Alaska Pacific University, Anchorage, AK

Let’s talk about creating a new emergent, hybrid, global culture, telling new tribal stories.-Glenn Albrecht, Professor of Sustainability, Murdoch University, Perth, Australia

What are the characteristics of a resilient individual? Making connections and building deeper levels of trust amongst networks and friends.-Sanjay Khanna, Climate Change Writer and Conference Co-Convener

Besides presenting some powerful ideas for how we can continue to live together on the planet into the future, the conference made me question how to further deepen interactions and strengthen networks both online and in real time.

Essentially social media isn’t about learning the technical aspects of Web 2.0, it’s about finding ways to connect and explore what’s important to us. Stuff that makes us tick, laugh, think, learn, understand each other, grow…. That is why I use the word “malleability” in the title of this blog post because it’s true new media can be hammered into many different shapes without breaking!

Yet often we are so caught up in the “how to” that we forget why we showed up in the first place. These observations spurred us to create a list of questions that in the coming days and months we hope to explore.

What are your chief reasons for using social media?

What wisdom do you find through online connections?

What do you really want to know that you don’t already know?

Social media is like teen sex. Everyone wants to do it. No one actually knows how. When finally done, there is surprise it’s not better. –Avinash Kaushik, Google’s analytics evangelist

Not sure I agree with this statement, but it made me laugh when I read it and it’s a good starting point for this blog post. I suppose it’s true that social media is like teen sex in the sense that the more practice a person has at something, generally speaking, the less effort and more fun that person has. I could extend the metaphor by saying social media can make neophytes into bumbling idiots, lose confidence in our ability to perform, but I think you get the point.

Let me put it this way, you wouldn’t expect to play tennis a few times and suddenly become as good as Serena Williams. When you first start playing most of your time is taken running after the ball that you didn’t hit, trying to get it over the net and cursing each time you don’t. The same goes for social media. When you put the time in and put the time in and put in the time… eventually you begin to see some results.

This is a lesson that many not-for-profits are learning as they integrate social media into what they do. Although it is often an uphill battle for organizations that are strapped for resources, I constantly marvel at how so many have risen to the challenge presented by these new technologies to come out stronger, more savvy and creatively charged.

As technologies keep changing, not-for-profits must learn new stuff  just to keep up. Organizations often have a hard time adapting to constant change and as a result sometimes give up trying.

Remember that social media is an imperfect beast so try not to strive for perfection. Better yet, think of the infamous Nike slogan “Just do it” and you’re more than halfway there.