1. WWHD: What Would Harvey Do?
An introduction to social media using the
(hypothetical) case study of Harvey Milk
November 18, 2009

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3. Today’s Presenter
Mark Farmer
• Principal
• webness.biz

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5. WWHD: What Would Harvey Do?
An introduction to social media using the (hypothetical)
case study of Harvey Milk
− Mark Farmer
− webness.biz

6. How did we get here?
6

7. On today‟s menu
• A brief introduction to social media via one of the great, and recently
celebrated, social activists.
• What technologies would Harvey Milk avail himself of, if he were trying to
accomplish his goals today?
• Not a survey of what social media tools are being used by community
groups and non-profits.
• Not a biography of Harvey Milk, nor an analysis of his accomplishments.
• A fun intro to the world of
social media, with Harvey
Milk as an example, with
case studies and insights
to guide you in your
next steps.
7

8. A Brief History of Me
• 1995 – Started in communications
• 2001: Founded webness.biz
• 2003 – 2008: Webmaster / Creative Director,
Earth Day Canada
• 2008 – Present: Communications Specialist / Contractor,
The Association of Canadian Advertisers
• 2008 – Started webheresies.com
• 2008 – Present: Member,
The Society for New Communications Research
• 2009 – Present: Web development
Contractor at Summerhill
8

9. The Truth about Social Media
• Before getting into Harvey’s story, a few things to remember about social
media…
9

10. EPIC!!!
• No other discipline in the history of communication is so fraught with
platitudes, sloganeering, hyperbole or SHEER HYPE!
• However, social media isn’t quite the moving-heaven-and-earth event you
may have been lead to believe it is.
10

11. Not really quite that epic
• The important thing to remember at all times, is that the fundamental
nature and aspects of human communication haven’t changed with
social media.
• It’s still just someone talking to someone else.
• Do what you would if you were talking to an acquaintance.
• Don’t do anything you
wouldn’t do if you were
talking with an acquaintance.
• The Street Corner.
11

12. A kind of magic?
• With social media, as with all communication, you don’t get something for
nothing: Social media isn’t magic. It’s not going to solve your
communication ills or change any communications fundamentals.
12

13. Don‟t, don‟t… don‟t believe the hype (Part I)
• Too many people fall into the trap of believing that social media is a
shortcut to more bang for their communication buck.
• They put a couple of
wheels in motion, and then
wait for wonders to occur.
• Wonders fail to occur,
and then they blame
social media.
13

14. Would the real social media please stand up?
• Vegas, Baby.
• A compelling case.
• HERESY!
14

15. Great success!
• The really big social media success stories you read about happen
because someone tapped the natural enthusiasm an existing group of
people demonstrate for a particular brand.
• Not everyone has a strong brand.
• Not everyone has a
super-strong connection
with their audience.
• Social media can’t create
that kind of connection
out of nothing, but it can
help you build it out if
you’re willing to put in
the effort on your
communication
fundamentals.
15

16. Success Story #1: The Fiskateers
• Fiskars wanted to try something different.
• Hired Brains on Fire to help them.
• Combined social media with real live people.
• Created “The Fiskateers,” a group of user-evangelists who combined in-
store visits with an online community.
16

17. Success Story #1: The Fiskateers
• Credited with a tripling of in-store sales.
• What did they do right?
– Tapped into people‟s natural enthusiasm.
– Didn‟t limit themselves to the virtual world – married social media with face-to-face.
• Some of the most interesting and impactful success stories with social media
happen when the virtual & real worlds get together and have a party.
– Worked from an existing, strong brand.
– Fitted social media to an existing infrastructure and audience, not vice-versa.
• E-mail me for a link to the complete case study.
17

18. So, WWHD?
• Harvey’s #1 goal was to motivate and organize people.
What social media work best for those two things?
– Blogs
– E-mail
– Networking sites: Facebook / Ning / Etc.
– Meetup.com
– SMS
– Twitter
18

19. Lessons from the now
• Take a look at people that are doing similar things.
– Politicians.
– Non-profits.
– Paul Gillin, Mitch Joel, Joe Jaffee, etc.
– SNCR
– And my experience.
19

20. The good ol‟ not-so-good-ol‟ days
• Dan Nicoletta
– “…one thing about a lot of the political movement
of that time that people don't realize is that it was
the same 10 people doing everything... we
imagine that it was epic because it was epic
sociologically in terms of what was shifting, but it
was the same ten people doing everything... well
maybe 20 on a good day.”
– Social media changes all that.
– To borrow a term from the military, it‟s a
„Force multiplier‟ – it allows you to do things you
couldn‟t normally otherwise do, by enabling
others to help you do it.
20

21. Building Community
• The good ol’ days
21

22. Building Community
• The good new days
22

23. Building Community
• The even gooder new days?
23

24. Ningxample
• The League of Kickass Business People:
– http://theleagueofkickassbusinesspeople.ning.com/
24

25. Organizing
• Then
25

26. Organizing
• Now
26

27. Trippy? Trippi.
27

28. Connecting
• Then
28

29. Connecting
• Now
29

30. E-mail
• Still now, still works well. Completely unglamorous,
and completely useful.
• About 19 million people world-wide have Twitter
accounts.
• More than 10 times that number
have e-mail accounts.
• In the USA alone.
• E-mail lends itself to direct calls
for action because it’s direct:
one e-mail per person. It’s a
personal medium, not a
broadcast one.
30

31. Don‟t, don‟t… don‟t believe the hype (Part II)
• Lacks the ubiquity and versatility of e-mail.
– Constrained to a 140-character limit.
• Demographic reach: elderly, marginal communities, others.
• Does have its success stories:
– Virtual couponing.
– Sales & customer loyalty.
– Etc.
• Stopped growing a few months ago and has suffered a declining
userbase since September.
• Useful, but not the game-
changer it was promised to be.
– Interestingly enough,
Barrack Obama claims to
have never used it.
31

32. Twitter, circa 1975?
• Personal vs. public, broadcast vs. conversational.
• Can Twitter be used conversationally? Absolutely?
– Customer service mainly.
• Is it being used
conversationally in
most cases?
• In most cases, Twitter is
a communication
one-way street.
32

33. Catch the Wave?
• Will be interesting to see if Google Wave has any effect.
• It’s an attempt to merge existing social media (instant messaging, email,
wikis, etc.) into one conversation, or “wave”.
• Interesting idea, because there’s no real reason to ghettoize a
conversation just because part of it is taking place on email, part on
messenger, etc., etc.
• Google is the new Microsoft in so
far as it tends to own every space
it enters.
• However, early reviews are less-
than-enthusiastic, so wait a bit
before jumping on the bandwagon.
33

34. Damn you, Sockington
• Me: 77 followers.
• Sockington: 1,381,404 followers.
• Typical Mark Farmer tweet:
• “Google says it's good for
journalism - Forbes's CEO calls its
business model "parasitic." You
decide: http://bit.ly/JG1ma”
• Typical Sockington tweet:
• “doing some quick verification to see
if we're standards compliant over
here THE MAIN STANDARD IS
WHETHER EVERYTHING IS MADE OF
TUNA”
34

35. Staffing the phones
• Old days
35

36. Staffing the phones
• Recent old days
– SMS messaging.
– Dedicated short-code?
– Make SURE you have a white list.
36

37. Staffing the phones
• Now
– Mobile Twitter (Twitterific, etc.) & Facebook.
– Yes, I know I pooh-poohed Twitter slightly a few slides
ago. However, it makes slightly more sense on a mobile
device for these purposes.
– Less intrusive.
– Allows you to save SMS for important messages; more
impactful.
– Dedicated apps:
• Providing value or just a novel way of promoting
yourself?
• As of Nov 4, there are over 100,000 apps on the
iPhone store. How will yours stand out?
37

38. This is how we do it
vs.
38

39. Publishing
• Then
39

40. Now
• Now
40

41. Blogging
• Dan Nicoletta
– “I think the first campaign's literature is really clunky
and was done on some funky mimeograph machine,
for example, just because the guy across the street
had one and was willing to run stuff for the
campaign... and then later our own printing press
and silkscreen operation, etc., etc. to save money
we didn't have in the first place... “
41

42. Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA
42

43. Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA
ASK
43

44. Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA
44

45. Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA
45

46. Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA
46

47. Lessons from Harvey
• People have to be at least interested in an issue – and more likely excited
about an issue – before they’ll care and start listening to you.
• Find a champion (and it may be you).
• Walk the walk.
47

48. The killer “Be”s
• Be authentic
• Be succinct
• Be useful
• Be honest
48

49. Further reading
49

50. Further surfing
• Social media trends & analysis:
– twistimage.com/blog
– webworkerdaily.com
– sncr.org
• Technology news, including social media:
– cnet.com
• Examples of how to do it right:
– bluestatedigital.com
• Social activism:
– actonprinciples.org
– thedallasprinciples.org
50

51. Contact me
• E-mail: markfarmer@webness.biz
• Website: webness.biz
• Blog: webheresies.com
• Twitter: markus64
• Facebook: markus64
• Greendrinks: Grace O’Malley’s,
14 Duncan St., from 5:45 onwards
51

52. Thank you
• And thank you to Harvey Milk, for blazing a trail, and being an inspiration.
“If a bullet should enter my brain,
let that bullet destroy every closet door.”
52

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