Hype, hype, and more hype: To many, the whole Web 2.0 revolution feels like one big bandwagon with little relationship to real-world concerns. And let’s face it: A Twitter account and a Facebook page will not change the world all by themselves. But let’s talk about what’s at the heart of the social web, and where its potential for real change lies. Web 2.0 has been around for a while now, and we’ve learned some important lessons about what works. In this presentation, I share five effective strategies for facilitating social change movements online, and encourage you to identify your own top priorities for using the social web to further your organizational mission.
3. We’re going to look at:
• What does “Web 2.0” mean, anyway?
• How does the Social Web work?
• 5 effective strategies for facilitating social
change movements online
• DIY self-assessment exercise
Sunday, October 17, 2010
6. No wonder we’re overwhelmed.
Let’s talk about the strategies behind the tools.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
7. Face your fears
• Loss of control
• One more to-do
• Unknown & unpredictable
• Transparency
• More noise, less signal
• Flash in the pan trend
Sunday, October 17, 2010
8. Drilling Down:
What fuels the web?
Code • Graphics • Widgets
Storytelling • Conversation • Sharing
Function • Meaning • Delight • Evolution • Humans!
Sunday, October 17, 2010
10. Chances are, you need
more humans on your
side & working for you.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
11. Web 1.0 ➞ Web 2.0
How Did We Get Here?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
12. The Way We Were
• Old way = One-way
• Traditional media & communications were all
about broadcasting, top-down, “experts.”
Photo courtesy of ralphbijker on Flickr
Sunday, October 17, 2010
13. Web 1.0 vs Web 2.0
COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA SOCIAL MEDIA
Space defined by Media Owner Space defined by Consumer
Brand in control Consumer in control
One way / Delivering a message Two way / Being a part of a conversation
Repeating the message Adapting the message/ beta
Focused on the brand Focused on the consumer / Adding value
Entertaining Influencing, involving
Company created content User created content / Co-creation
Source: Neil Perkin, “What’s Next in Media: How Social Media Changes the Rules for Good” http://neilperkin.typepad.com
Sunday, October 17, 2010
14. The Social Web = Cross-Influence
Top-Down
Media (online & offline) “Consumers”
Employees Influencers
Conversation Talk
Government Donors
Academics Members
Bottom-up
Adapted from: Monte Lutz, “The Social Pulpit: Barack Obama’s Social Media Toolkit” http://edelman.com
Sunday, October 17, 2010
15. In 10 words or less…
• Web 1.0 is about publishing.
• Web 2.0 is about participation.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
16. How does the social web work?
Open/Interactive
Technology
Platforms
People
Sunday, October 17, 2010
17. Technology minute:
Let’s turn it over to
Professor Wesch.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
18. The Machine is Us(ing us)
Source: Michael Wesch, Anthropology Program at Kansas State University
Sunday, October 17, 2010
19. Key Takeaways
• Links are currency
• Separating form & content
• Sharing, reusing, remixing
• Collective wisdom
• This is a human phenomenon
Hat tips: Beth Kanter, Alexandra Samuel & Rob Cottingham.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
20. Humans online:
How do we build trust?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
21. The Ladder of Engagement
Source: Monte Lutz, “The Social Pulpit: Barack Obama’s Social Media Toolkit” http://edelman.com
Sunday, October 17, 2010
22. The Ladder of Engagement
• What are the actions you want your
community members to take?
• How do offline actions map to online ones?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
24. 1. Listen & Participate
“The desire to be part of a group that shares,
cooperates, or acts in concert is a basic human
instinct.”
- Clay Shirky
Sunday, October 17, 2010
25. 1. Listen & Participate
• Listen to
• influencers
• your “audience” / community
• others in your sector
• Research & data collection
Sunday, October 17, 2010
26. 1. Listen & Participate
• Collaborate with allies
• Build coalitions
• Comment on blogs & articles
• Join the conversation where it’s already
happening
Sunday, October 17, 2010
28. 1. Listen & Participate
• Find the insiders who care - “grasstops” /
“community champions.” (We will talk more
about these people shortly.)
• The long tail of public policy
Sunday, October 17, 2010
29. 1. Listen & Participate
1 9 90
Every community has super-users – high authority, highly active
Know who they are
Source: Neil Perkin, “What’s Next in Media: How Social Media Changes the Rules for Good” http://neilperkin.typepad.com
Sunday, October 17, 2010
30. 2. Storytelling
“The truth about stories is, that’s all we are.”
- Thomas King
Sunday, October 17, 2010
31. 2. Storytelling
• What are the stories that influence change?
Look for stories with…
• Emotional impact
• Personality
• A vision of a better world
• Successes, statistics, momentum
• Especially online, we crave connection.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
33. 2. Storytelling
• How & in what form are they best told?
• Videos/Podcasts
• Photos
• Blog posts
• Interactive tools
• Consider multiple/combined media
Sunday, October 17, 2010
34. 2. Storytelling
Source: The New York Times, “Geography of a Recession” http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/03/03/us/20090303_LEONHARDT.html
Sunday, October 17, 2010
36. 2. Storytelling
• Users want to remix, so make it easy for them
to share.
• Bookmark, tweet, post to Facebook,
Slideshare, etc.
• Creative Commons licenses vs copyright
• Platform independent (mobile, RSS, etc.) -
think “small pieces, loosely joined”
Sunday, October 17, 2010
37. 3. Knowledge Sharing
“One part anarchy, one part aristocracy, one
part democracy, one part monarchy”
– Jimmy Wales on the Wikipedia Community
“In the past you were what you owned.
Now you are what you share.”
– Charles Leadbeater
Sunday, October 17, 2010
38. 3. Knowledge Sharing
• Sharing stuff of value to others leads to
authority, recognition, attribution
• What you can share that will create maximum
value for your community members?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
40. 3. Knowledge Sharing
• Media advocacy: Connect with journalists,
bloggers, engaged citizens
• "The media" isn't unified anymore; citizen
journalism is on the rise, and as the tools of
the news become ubiquitous, getting your
message out is a more complex matter.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
42. 3. Knowledge Sharing
• Blogger outreach: Find the online influencers
and connect with them.
• Cultivate these connections the way you
would traditional media contacts (but less
formal)
Sunday, October 17, 2010
43. 3. Knowledge Sharing
Participatory culture:
“The architecture of the internet...is such that users
pursuing their own ‘selfish’ interests [refining open
source software; downloading music; voting for content
they like on social bookmarking sites] build collective
value as an automatic byproduct.”
– Tim O’Reilly, What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns &
Business Models for the Next Generation of Software,
Sept 30, 2005
Sunday, October 17, 2010
45. 3. Knowledge Sharing
• Web 2.0 takes social capital to a whole new
level & blows the power & potential scale of
personal & organizational networks wide
open.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
46. 3. Knowledge Sharing
• The Wisdom of Crowds…
• creates & polices Wikipedia
(crowdsourcing)
• decides what sites become popular
• determines which stories, videos, etc. go
viral
Sunday, October 17, 2010
47. 4. Fundraising &
Revenue Generation
“Communities already exist. Instead [of
building your own online community], think
about how you can help that [existing]
community do what it wants to do.”
- Mark Zuckerberg
Sunday, October 17, 2010
48. 4. Fundraising & Revenue Generation
• Fundraising (and sales, too) has always been
about building relationships.
• Web 2.0 is all about relationships, too.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
49. 4. Fundraising & Revenue Generation
• Kiva.org:
• $11 million out in loans, from over 113,000
people
• that’s an average loan of under $100
• Mobile giving raised over $35 million for
Haiti earthquake relief
(Source: Huffington Post:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/02/35-million-given-to-haiti_n_446872.html)
Sunday, October 17, 2010
50. 4. Fundraising & Revenue Generation
• Lessons from Obama:
• 3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million
donations online, adding up to more than
$500 million.
• Of those 6.5 million donations, 6 million
were in increments of $100 or less; the
average online donation was $80.
• The average donor gave more than once.
(Source: The Washington Post:
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2008/11/20/obama_raised_half_a_billion_on.html)
Sunday, October 17, 2010
51. 4. Fundraising & Revenue Generation
• So…the amounts may be small, but if you can
hit critical mass, the number of donations can
multiply the effect significantly.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
52. 5. Community Building
& Social Networking
• Social networking isn’t just about Facebook,
MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning, etc… some groups
are creating their own online communities.
• It also includes lobbying & online activism.
• MoveOn/Avaaz
• Human Rights Campaign
• Greenpeace: Green My Apple
Sunday, October 17, 2010
54. 5. Community Building
& Social Networking
• Advocacy tools
• Community blogging
• User profiles & connections
• Contests
• Mobile
Sunday, October 17, 2010
58. 5. Community Building
& Social Networking
• Creating an online community takes major
resources – and critical mass.
• Participating in existing communities must
come first.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
59. 5. Community Building
& Social Networking
• It all boils down to providing maximum value
to your community members.
• How can you make it worth their while to
create YAFP (Yet Another [umm…] Profile)?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
60. Let’s recap those 5 strategies.
1. Listen & Participate
2. Share Stories
3. Knowledge Sharing
4. Fundraising & Revenue Generation
5. Community Building & Social Networking
Hat tips: Beth Kanter, Alexandra Samuel & Rob Cottingham.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
61. Take a phased, iterative approach.
Source: Monte Lutz, “The Social Pulpit: Barack Obama’s Social Media Toolkit” http://edelman.com
Sunday, October 17, 2010
62. Don’t ignore the basics.
Your web strategy cocktail should include:
• One part web presence
• One part one-way (e.g. email, advertising)
• One part social
(Adjust quantities to taste.)
Sunday, October 17, 2010
63. But also…
• Risk making mistakes & learn from them
• Iterate, measure, refine - and try again
Sunday, October 17, 2010
64. The tools must
support the mission.
• Not everyone needs every tool.
• Where are your community members?
(The data might surprise you.)
• Select the tools that support your mission.
Sunday, October 17, 2010
65. When we come back…
• Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly: What stage are you at?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
66. Crawl, Walk, Run, Fly:
What stage are you at?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
68. Remember “crawl, walk, run”?
• What are the outcomes you want to achieve?
• How successful are the tools you’re using
now? (And what metrics are you using?)
• Do you have the basics covered?
Sunday, October 17, 2010
69. Please keep in touch.
www.raisedeyebrow.com
@laurenbacon
@raisedeyebrow
lauren@raisedeyebrow.com
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Hinweis der Redaktion
You might think I just threw that last one in there. But my clients & colleague know that I’m a bit ornery when it comes to jumping on techie bandwagons. I was late to the Twitter party. I never check my FB mail. I have priorities and many of them are offline.
Here’s what a lot of people think when they hear the phrase “Web 2.0” or “Social Media”.
It’s easy to drown in a sea of available technological tools.
Start by understanding what the Social Web is good for – then select the right tools to serve your mission.
Beyond the sheer overwhelm of the techie stuff, there are real concerns about how to fit social media strategy into your overall mission.
Too often, we get mired in the surface-level stuff. But what *really* fuels the web?
This isn’t just about your website, or your Facebook page, or your Twitter account.
What -> How -> WHY: Let’s try to stay focused on the WHY first and the how & what later. Widgets without purpose are just annoying.
There are 161,000 nonprofits & charities in Canada.
That’s 1 for every 200 citizens.
A solid social media strategy will help you identify and develop ambassadors who will help spread your message, raise funds, and keep your work and mission relevant and alive.
We all love the idea of having people hang on our every word - but that’s not very realistic. Fact is, most people like being part of the conversation. One-way communication is still important (TED talks! Movies!), but it has its limitations.
Right now, I’m speaking to you in a Web 1.0 kind of way.
We all love the idea of having people hang on our every word - but that’s not very realistic. Fact is, most people like being part of the conversation. One-way communication is still important (TED talks! Movies!), but it has its limitations.
Right now, I’m speaking to you in a Web 1.0 kind of way.
Similarly, nonprofits and other organizations have tended to think about their communications as one-way, and as branded (even if they didn’t call it that). We want to “own the space” – but that’s not always the way it works, either. Constituents may be more passionate about a cause than about your org. And they may want you to change your ways to respond to their interests & needs. More & more, need to make value for them.
Ideally you want a mix of talk & conversation, top-down & bottom-up approaches.
There are different ways people can connect & influence one another, on- and offline. Consider all of your “audiences” (community niches) and the connections between them.
Now, I’m not suggesting that publishing should disappear. There’s definitely still room for experts, research, and one-way communication. We’re just opening the doors to two-way conversation when it’s appropriate and on mission. This isn’t conversation for conversation’s sake, but rather
Technology: Coding languages & protocols, software & hardware
People - the user rules: We create our own content & organize it
Open, interactive platforms: Designed for interaction, contribution, customization
Technology is a critical element, so I’m going to give up four and a half minutes to a short video, because it illuminates how technology fits into all of this.
“Do what you do best, and link to the rest.” - Jeff Jarvis
The technology has evolved to a stage where it is so easy to use that you can focus on creating the content and connecting with your community.
We don’t generally get married on the first date. And we don’t often give money to an organization the first time we ever hear of them. The social web is about relationships - so how to we use it to build genuine trust and engagement?
These are in a pretty specific order.
Twitter is an amazing tool for listening & participating in converstaion.
Frances Bula, former Vancouver Sun journalist, now freelances & writes her own blog. Journalists like Bula now rely heavily on online connections.
Wikipedia is just one example of the Wiki phenomenon. Here’s another.
“Who you know” is still the deciding factor in a lot of situations. The Social Web helps you build, track & leverage a bigger network than you could reasonably cultivate in “real life,” b/c the transaction cost is lower & even loose ties can prove strong in certain circumstances.
A lot of the time, we’re back to talking about finding the key influencers in your network.
Co-branding w/allied orgs? (MEC, CPAWS)
Feedback (see upper right corner)
Connect w/existing communities (see FB badge)
Clear statement of purpose
I’m going to talk about each of these 5 strategies. These are in a pretty specific order.
It’s important that you build on a strong foundation.
Here’s one way to phase your online strategy. We’re going to come back to this as a DIY self-assessment exercise, and you’ll get a better chance to look at it then.
Expanding your audience might not be central to your mission. Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. Really focus on the work that’s core to your mission and start there.