go small or go home

Coming to the end of a year makes me yearn for lists. Not just Christmas lists, 2010 to-do lists, and New Year’s resolutions (a bit early for that…), but lists of things we saw from not-for-profits over the past year that made us think, wow. Over the next month or so we’ll be bringing you our top five lists in a few categories related to social media.

Whether you’re wearing toe socks or those comfy hand-knitted slipper socks with the leather soles that you buy at the season’s craft fairs (or your boyfriend’s or girlfriend’s woolen lumberjack socks), these lists will be sure to knock your socks off. So, here goes…our  first list of video picks.

These days with a little will and collaborative effort it’s relatively easy for not-for-profits to produce and post their own videos. Tech is cheap and amateur videographers abound. The difficulty is in creating something that cuts to the essence of what your organization does and in a way that is slightly edgy, but not annoyingly so. Short (not insubstantial) and visually arresting…no three-ring-circuses. The other challenge of course is getting people to download it, another ball of wax altogether.

Go Small has come up with a killer list of five videos we simply LOVE. Please note we almost never use caps! Or exclamation marks.

Peace it Together

Amnesty International

Oxfam

H2oil

charity: water

Tell us your favs.

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.