Yesterday, I attended — and live tweeted (#baruchnp) — an interesting panel discussion at Baruch College here in New York, “Social Media and Technology: What Nonprofits Need To Know.” The panel featured some great nonprofit social media heavy-hitters:
- Allison Fine, Speaker and Author of Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age
- Andrew Rasiej, Founder of Personal Democracy Forum
- Deanna Zandt, Media Technologist, Consultant, and Author of the forthcoming book: Share This! How You Will Change the World with Social Networking
There were lots of good gems shared and discussed. While most of it was not particularly new for those of us who have been following, studying, working in social media for nonprofits, it all bears repeating. This is still such a new field.
(L to R) Kyra Gaunt (@kyraocity) speaking, with Allison Fine (@afine), Andrew Rasiej (@rasiej) and Deanna Zandt (@randomdeanna). Oh, and that woman typing away on the right in the audience is me (@farra)--tweeting it up.
Here are a few takeaways I wanted to share with you, oh loyal fans of the Duck Call Blog:
1. You are an adult now — it’s okay to talk to strangers. Panel moderator Dr. Kyra Gaunt set the stage by reminding us to forget what we learned as kids. Social media — and in particular Twitter — is great for talking to strangers. You can learn new ideas and share resources with people around the world.
2. Take the walls down and embrace a ’social culture’. Allison reminded attendees that social media tools are just that. If you want to create change, your organization needs to shift how it thinks about social media–from a mindset of fear and control to one of listening and sharing. Several times she said we need to ‘tear down the walls’ and allow the lines to blur between what happens internally and externally. Having a social culture is about opening up and sharing; letting go of the content and giving more credit than you take.
3. The Internet is not an ATM. Success is about building relationships–not building numbers. For those people and orgs particularly interesting in raising money via social media, Deanna shared a helpful way to think about this: Just like you can’t walk into a bar, say how awesome you are and then ask someone for money… you can’t expect people to give you money, hand over fist, via Facebook and other social media sites. You have to build relationships and follow the tried and true practices of fundraising — the same ones that have been around since before the web — share your story, interest the potential donor by giving them something to do other than donating (cultivation), share more about your work and invite them to see your programs in action (stewardship), and then ask them to join you/invest/donate (solicitation).
4. Being everywhere is nice, being relevant is best. Andrew spoke about the huge access the Internet offers — citing stats from how the presidential candidates used social media in the 2008 election. Where radio, TV, and print are economies of scarcity, he said the Internet is an economy of abundance. Deanna asked a great question in response, “How do we move from abundance to being relevant? How do we make info relevant and interesting in people’s lives?” I think this is one of the most important questions to ask and consider right now.
5. Logos don’t talk, people do. Another hot question at this seminar and others on nonprofits + social media is about walking the line between your professional and personal brand, especially if you are the one tweeting, blogging, status-updating, commenting, texting, etc. for your organization. Allison made a great point in response to this topic and reiterated her earlier comments about taking down the walls and letting it blend. People want to talk to other people. “Social media is not a spectator sport—it’s a contact sport.” If you are not sure if social media is for you, start small and experiment.
Next seminar from Baruch College will focus on ‘going mobile’ on November 12, 2009. To watch footage from this event or find out more about the next one, check the Center for Nonprofit Strategy and Management.
Did you attend? What I’d miss? Comment away…
Tags: conferences, facebook, nptech, social media, social networking, Twitter
These takeaways I missed and these were probably the most valuable to recall. Thanks for this. When you get to see all this stuff after, it makes learning and remembering much easier. This is a case for why I should use Twitter in the classroom now. If we all hashtagged our lectures and let studnts do their thing…what a wonderful world this would be (think Steely Dan).
BY the way, on the topic of privacy that Deanna was sharing about (@randomdeanna), I failed to mention that my Facebook page it private because of the fear among academics about sharing too much information before you get tenure. Read it on Chronicle for Higher Ed and decided to make my FB but not my Twitter private. Really should have mentioned it but I simply forgot (probably self-preservation at work unconsciously).
Great write up, Farra, thanks so much for coming and sharing this terrific summary with your readers!
Allison
This is great, Farra. Thanks for the summary!
One of my favorite conversations that arose during and after the panel was the sharing of “aha” moments. As Micah Sifry @mlsif tweeted:
#aha is the light bulb going off in your head as you understand the power of connectivity, open, social web to make things better.
Andrew talked about teaching his father to send mass emails (and then his father, who never would have publicly endorsed a candidate or waved a sign at a rally, sent links to Obama videos to all of his friends); Allison talked about the connection between Blackberry access among women in Kuwait, and within a few years the increased representation of women in the Kuwaiti legislature; and I believe this is when Deanna talked about “unlocking” all of her online profiles after sitting in on a Women Who Tech teleconference and realizing women have been silencing themselves online out of fear. And Kyra shared a lot of wisdom throughout the night from her background in anthropology and ethnomusicology – I think her examples probably inspired a few aha moments right then and there!
You can search Twitter for #aha and see how many other folks shared their moments. Sweet stories.
Kyra — Glad you find this recap valuable. Your comments yesterday and then again here on the blog about social media in the classroom/on the college campus are fascinating to me. I’m generally of the opinion that social media is good, but certainly admit that it can be distracting and potentially TMI (too much information). It will be interesting to see how your use of social media evolves in building relationships with students as well as that of the larger institution.
Allison — Thanks again for speaking yesterday. Can’t wait til your new book comes out.
Julia — Great catch. There was quite a healthy discussion on twitter at/after the event about people’s #aha moments when it comes to social media (although I can’t help but thing of this video whenever I hear that). For me, not sure if I could pick one moment, but I certainly was amazed when I raised close to $2,000 for http://www.avp.org via Causes Birthday Wish on Facebook a few months ago. It was a great way to move out of the 18-34 demographic
Great notes from a wonderful seminar. Having been to several NY Tech Meetups and to the 2009 PDF, it was an added treat to be in the room with the philanthropic community discussing these issues.
Something that Allison brought up at the end I thought was worth mentioning — that social media isn\’t a measurement tool, it\’s a relationship tool. The culture of institutional funders is (mistakenly, IMHO) skewed toward a pseudo-\"scientific\" method of outcome measurement. We\’re fortunate to be here at the beginning of the development of social media for just that reason — we can play with it without having to account for all the unknown factors that we may be called upon to account for a little further down the road. That will be a loss. But for now — let\’s keep playing!
Good job everyone!
Thanks,
Nancy
Nice summary, Farra. I found the perspective of fundraising particularly valuable. Great question: how do you move from abundance to relevance?
Tom
Nancy — Good to tweet you yesterday. Thanks for the additional comment. Your point on measurement/ROI is definitely worth including in this recap. I do not know if youve read KD Paine blog–but she has got some great stuff to say about social media measurement. http://www.kdpaine.blogs.com/
Rarra — Great, will investigate — keep up the great work!
Farra — sorry for the typo, oops!
Nancy and Tom,
Glad you found this useful. Keep the info and ideas alive!
Thanks, Farra