I will be joining a good friend and colleague, Andre Blackman of Pulse + Signal, as a presenter on social media and sexual health at Sex::Tech in San Francisco February 26th and 27th.

For those of you who know me (well), you know that I am passionate about sexual health and education, equality and expression (yes, I just linked a picture of… well… just click on the link).  At any rate, I have drafted my initial (brief) abstract and thought I’d share it below (confined to <150 words was like big kid Twitter… but still challenging for a verbose gal like me).  I am also passionate about social technologies.  So when you combine the two — sex and technology — in a single conference… <<<mind blown>>>

DRAFT - ABSTRACT:

Working Title: How and Why Social Media Will Impact the Sex Education Policy Debate

Social media has shown that it is effective at helping cover and break news (cf. downed plane in the Hudson River), raise awareness and funds for charitable causes (cf. Twestival) and unite passionate voices, no matter their origins (cf. Iran Election).  In short: social media is helping people connect in seconds, not hours or days and build movements in hours, not weeks or months.  Transaction costs are lower.  Barriers to entry, nearly eliminated.  Social media, while still requiring expertise and investment, is an imperative tool that every advocate, activist and educator needs in their tool belt as they look to recruit supporters, engage the media and influence policy in 2010 and beyond.  In her presentation, Leslie will review award-winning “DIY recipes for success” and share her own case study from 2009, where she challenged The Heritage Foundation’s stance on sex education through a variety of social media tactics.

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I have plenty of caveats and nuances that I hope to shed light on in the deck I am building… so stay tuned! And, if you are in San Francisco the weekend of 2/26 - 2/27, consider checking it out.

Merry Christmas Eve.  To celebrate, my mom and I have been going over some of her family’s relics, while we sew and use the computer.  Here is one particularily special item she shared with me that I feel proud to be connected to in name and in blood…

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Who: My great-grandfather (grandfather of my mom, Mary Ellen Baskett)

When: Born October 10, 1893; died September 19, 1959

Where: Grangeville / Nezperce, Idaho

Married: Mamie Espya Stellmon, June 13, 1918 (she was born August 2, 1894 in Lapwai, Idaho and died July 27, 1976 in Cottonwood, Idaho)

Honored: Leslie was a music teacher at Nezperce High School.  The 1960 annual (Nezperce High School Warrior) was dedicated to him with this statement:

“Seldom, indeed, does one find in the life of a single person both diversity and superiority in services to mankind - in professional, civic, and religious fields.  And to such achievements an exemplary character - honest, just, moral, tolerant and understanding - and one has the essential ingredients of greatness.  Embodying all of those qualities, Leslie A. Baskett gave to Nezperce Public Schools two decades of the best years of his life in the outstanding instruction of music. The memory of Leslie Baskett will ever be enshrined in the hearts of those who knew him.  We the students of Nezperce High School, proudly and lovingly dedicate this book as our memorial to a distinguished teacher, a true friend and a dignified and great man.”

I’ve just returned from “Trends in Agriculture,” which was hosted by National Agri-Marketers Association in Kansas City, Missouri.  At TIA, I presented my a case study of how my family is using social media to tell the Bradshaw Vineyards story, engage with the winery who buys our grapes (King Estate | @KingEstate) and connect with pinot noir wine lovers everywhere.

Full presentation embedded below, 6 follow-up thoughts included after the jump.

It was an incredible experience, and here are 6 reasons why:

1 - FARMERS ARE ON THE CUTTING EDGE.  I was impressed, but not surprised to find out how many farmers are using digital technology to create efficiencies, consume and store commodity information and connect with consumers.  Mobile is leading the way, but social is not far behind.  This makes complete sense to me, knowing how my dad and mom always look for new tools to help him better operate our farm, ranch and vineyard operations over the years in Oregon and Wyoming.  I was especially impressed with my co-panelists Joe Grigsby (Director, Emerging Media at VML) and Joel Jaeger (who founded Commodity Update with his family, in addition to farming in Eastern Colorado and Belize), as well as Sara, Brad and Bryan from Paulsen Marketing (”the ag and rural lifestyle specialists”).  They interviewed me for their blog “On the Road” (video below).

2 - FIRM HANDSHAKES, BIG HEARTS, PRODUCTIVITY.  It was nice to be with a group of people who were unequivocally genuine, hard working and solid.3 - CONNECTING WITH THE SUCCESSFUL FARMING CREW.  New Media Strategies is owned by Meredith Publishing.  So is Successful Farming.  It was like meeting a sibling you didn’t know you had years after the fact and realizing you have so much in common.  Curt Blades is the one who made the initial connection after seeing NMS in my bio on the NAMA website; he then introduced me to John Walter (Executive Editor of Successful Farming), Scott Mortimer (Publisher of Successful Farming), Tom Davis (VP / Group Publisher for Meredith) and Janelle Buxton. Was really impressed to learn they were leveraging Ning to build a community for young farmers: Farmers for the Future.4 - MEETING “AG WIRED” CHUCK ZIMMERMAN IRL. He does a great job with blogging, video, photo (Flickr + TwitPic) on his site www.AgWired.com | @AgriBlogger (and also publishes www.DomesticFuel.com, www.WorldDairyDiary.com, www.PrecisionPays.com and www.AgNewsWire.com). We were able to get a podcast interview in; he also did some great tweeting and TwitPic’ing of / for me during my presentation (see below).

5 - STEVE MERCER ROCKS. So a big and special thanks to Trends in Agriculture Chair, Steve Mercer (who serves in a full time capacity as the Director of Communications at U.S. Wheat Associates | @USWheatAssoc out in Washington, DC); Steve first introduced me to NAMA back in May / June 2009, when Alex Redmond and I spoke to the DC Ag Communicators.

6 - FARMING IS IN MY BLOOD, GROUNDS ME AS MY ROOTS.  As I share in slides 3 & 4 of my presentation, I have had farming in my blood for at least 5 generations (and likely / obviously well before that the more I think about it).  To be able to continue this tradition in a modern context, blending the land and the technology in such a fruitful way, is truly the most meaningful thing I could imagine doing with my time.

This afternoon I was on a panel with the talented Danielle Brigida of the National Wildlife Federation and the illustrious Dan Riehl of RiehlWorldView at Direct Marketing Association of Washington’s “Social Media Day.”  My presentation is embedded below as a downloadable SlideShare PowerPoint. Four take-aways I cobbled together from the panel and from those in the audience below the jump.

1) Blogger engagement is all about relationships.  Nothing terribly profound or new about this statement, but a reiteration of the basic principles of what it means to have a contact that you first connect with in a meaningful way (e.g., shared interest, friends in real life, lend a helping hand) and then, down the road, potentially ask for a favor (for a blogger, this can range from a full story, to a link, a mention, or embedded content).  Danielle made the point that her job is building relationships, which often ranges meeting bloggers for coffee, talking with them on listservs and even helping them promote their content through her StumbleUpon and Twitter accounts (she has over 9,000 Twitter followers at the writing of this blog post –which tells me she has done a few things very well, to say the least).

2) Be direct, be relevant, be brief.  Dan Riehl, the highly-credentialed blogger on the panel, shared some great best practices for communicating with bloggers.  In particular, he highlighted by his own lived experience: Bloggers are often engaged in a number of other stories and, possibly, a full-time job or side consulting work.  For this reason, Dan recommended keeping the subject of the email personal and catchy. And, before you even send the email, make sure you have done your research — get to know the blogger, their content, interests… and connect your pitch with it. PR 101, I know.  Still surprised that folks don’t take the time.  So that’s why I am paraphrasing Dan’s words of wisdom.

3)  Consider your assets. Especially in the world of DC, issues can be complicated and / or obscure.  And, brands can have a hard time being relevant, even when they might want to be (ahem, orange juice… and the elections?!)  But don’t be discouraged.  This is where you get creative.  Whether it is building a site that does something interesting with user generated content (such as the NMS / JESS3 collab for Tropicana during the 2008 Elections — 1 year and 1 day ago today), or creating a reciprocal link-love program of ‘hey, you link to us… we’ll link to you’ (like the C-SPAN Convention and Debate Hubs — as well as the way Danielle runs things over at National Wildlife Federation’s blog).

4) Twitter placement is the new blog hit.  Okay, maybe not.  But it is a statement that I have said out loud a few times based on the awesome work the NMS team has done engaging high-profile Twitterers around causes (such as John Mayer’s tweet about the Special Olympics’ “Spread the Word to End the Word” campaign and Ann Curry’s tweet about Save the Children’s World Pneumonia Day involvement) or around cool technological feats (such as Twitter CEO and co-founder Ev Williams’ tweet about Tropicana’s “An Orange America” campaign).  These tweets can not only draw in additional eyes, but most importantly, likely to catalyze further tweets and actions (petition-signing, donating, etc.) — John Mayer’s tweet alone was retweeted a few hundred times, Ev’s a few dozen.  Views, click-thrus and actions could all be traced back to their involvement.  How else would you be able to get in touch with these people — perhaps know someone who knows someone who knows their publicist?  Maybe.  Or, get busy tweeting (not in a spammy way, but in a targeted and engaged way).

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Big thanks to friend and former NMS co-worker Melanie Phung, her company Red Engine Digital (where she is the Director of SEO), the Direct Marketing Association of Washington and a big shout-out to fellow NMSer, Sam Huxley, who rocked the morning panel on metrics.

Just over 8 months ago, I had the opportunity to work with a great client (ACC) and a few thousand folks (a millions if you count our YouTube views) online and through social media for World Water Day 2009.

I am proud to share that I have been working on another equally important, even more under-reported issue with Save the Children, New Media Strategies and JESS3: Pneumonia.  Specifically, World Pneumonia Day 2009 and Save the Children’s ongoing efforts to help fight this preventable and treatable disease.

We have helped concept, design and develop Mission: Pneumonia (huge thanks to the JESS3 team, including Jesse, Shawn, Travis and Jim) that includes 7 levels and dozens of questions, success stories and opportunities to take action against pneumonia worldwide (including donating to help the effort, as well as petitioning Congress).  We made sure that the game was connected to Twitter, as well as Facebook, so there are maximum sharing opportunities.  Additionally, the game was developed with a playful element to it, while still respecting the gravity and serious nature of the issue.

In working on this project, I have learned an amazing amount about pneumonia, including the fact that pneumonia is the leading cause of child deaths worldwide; a figure that can be understood by this illustration:

IMAGINE A JUMBO JET FULL OF CHILDREN CRASHING EVERY 2 HOURS, EVERY DAY, EVERY WEEK, EVERY YEAR… and that is how many children die from pneumonia each year.  So what should you know? What can you do?

From Save the Children, they share:

Things you need to know
1. Pneumonia kills more children under five years of age worldwide than any other illness (more than 2 million deaths per year)
2. More than 155 million episodes of pneumonia occur every year in children under five years of age worldwide placing a huge burden on families and the health system.
3. Pneumonia prevention and control is a priority and is essential in achieving the fourth MDG.
4. Pneumonia can be prevented by immunization, improvement of nutrition, control of indoor air pollution and prevention of HIV infection
5. Pneumonia can be diagnosed clinically using simple signs like fast breathing and lower chest indrawing.
6. Simple antibiotics can treat pneumonia.
7. Three essential steps can reduce death from pneumonia, recognize a child is sick, seek appropriate care and treat with appropriate antibiotics.

Things you need to do
1. Ensure all children are immunized against measles, whooping cough, heamophilus and pneumococcus.
2. Ensure all children diagnosed with pneumonia are treated promptly with effective antibiotics
3. Ensure trained health workers can diagnose and treat pneumonia with antibiotics in the community.
4. Implement appropriate case management at health facility level for severe pneumonia.
5. Promote exclusive breast feeding.
6. Prevent mother to child transmission of HIV and implement pneumonia prophylaxis in high HIV prevalent areas.
7. Promote strategies to reduce indoor air pollution.
8. Promote Zinc supplementation

Who else has been buzzing about World Pneumonia Day, Save the Children and their awesomely social-media-friendly game Mission: Pneumonia? A sample includes…

• Currently on the front page of Air America Media
• Also prominently featured on the front page of Change.org and in their Global Health section
• Great write-up by the awesome folks who cover the ‘Social Economy’ over at Bub.blicio.us
• Huffington Post is featuring it on their Impact Channel
• Tons of tweet love using @SaveTheChildren and #WPD (join in!)
• Official Save the Children “World Pneumonia Day” Press Release

I also want to personally thank Erin Hofteig, my partner in crime at New Media Strategies, who has been an amazing leader and doer on this project.

It’s been a busy week in DC for women in politics.

• Leslie Sanchez’s official book launch party for You’ve Come a Long Way, Maybe (which I have mentioned being proud to help work on) was held on Wednesday night (great coverage by K Street Kate, Bold Lifestyle and Politico’s CLICK).
• The National Foundation for Women Legislators held their 2009 Women’s Congressional Broadband Summit on Wednesday and Thursday (where Leslie Sanchez was appropriately a featured speaker discussing her new book)
• And, as a continuation of their summit, NFWL also held their Joint Leadership Meeting where I was able to share some thoughts on how elected women (and those working to become elected) can utilize social media.  My presentation is embedded below.

This morning, I had the pleasure of leading an important discussion with the Florida Academy of Family Physicians (FAFP) about the opportunities that social media presents for (1) telling their story as an organization, (2) recruiting younger doctors into the practice family medicine and (3) growing their membership.

FAFP is “Florida’s medical specialty association composed of more than 4,000 family medicine physicians, resident physicians and medical students from across the state,” and convened in Jacksonville, Florida for a day-long plenary session focused on developing their long-range strategy to ensure the best primary care delivery possible to all Floridians and to continue to grow the number of medical students going into the field of family medicine.

The group was as energetic as it was optimistic; engaged as it was compassionate.  Aside from the family “Bradshaw Pinot Noir” harvest 2 weeks ago, this is one of the most meaningful things I have done in recent months.

Full presentation below: