Indiana and the Friedman Foundation’s Generator Forum
I am excited and honored to be joining co-panelist Dave Witzel, of Forum One Communications among other pursuits, and moderator Kivi Leroux Miller, of EcoScribe Communications, at the Friedman Foundation’s “Generator Forum” this Thursday. The Generator Forum is asking its panelists and attendees: “How Do We Use Social Media to Generate Advocates and Build Communities?” and, of myself and Dave Witzel, we will specifically apply this question to “The Organization & Social Media Levers.”
Below, I have included a preview of my presentation for those of you not able to make the trip to Indianapolis. Knowing that the audience is primarily comprised of non-profits and given the state of the economy, I am hoping to share some “budget saving” tips. And, as a small-town-gal and social scientist at heart, I will also look the importance of engaging online communities in meaningful, sustained ways.
Look to use open source, free and social technologies. Citing what C-SPAN was able to accomplish at the conventions and debates with their “hubs” (DNC08 Hub, RNC08 Hub and Debate Hub), I will share what the joint efforts of C-SPAN, New Media Strategies and j3 were able to accomplish in leveraging WordPress, Twitter’s API (”application programming interface”), YouTube, Qik and Skype. Not only was this cost effective and efficient, it also allowed C-SPAN to participate in the vibrant 2.0 world that has been built using community-based solutions.
Serve the community - look to build resources, platforms and outlets that the community needs and wants. These can be physical (like a website, visualization), access-based (like making something embeddable), or more verbal (like a conversational Twitter account). I would imagine that most non-profits could teach the for-profit world a thing or two about this concept, so I may stand back and be humbled by this.
But, for what it’s worth, I will say that it is an often-overlooked tenant when most organizations come online to build a site and/or engage in a conversation. My approach when interacting on the web — as myself and/or on behalf of a client — is to build reciprocity, recognition and community into each project. And, as a Chicago grad, I also have a keen eye to incentives — answering the “what’s in it for me?” question. As you might imagine, this often overlaps with the R-R-C approach, but just in case, I make sure I can answer it before I ask anyone to give me their time or a link.
In addition to the C-SPAN projects listed above, two more that I have worked on while at NMS that I would proudly put forth would be Tropicana’s Twitterverse visualization, AnOrangeAmerica.com(also a NMS/j3 collaboration), and Intel’s InspiredByEducation.com site (lead by Kara Gaffney and Samantha Saephan of Burson Marsteller, in conjunction with folks from Intel such as Gail Dundas and Ken Kaplan).
Be inclusive, not just exclusive. In PR, one often strives to “give the exclusive” (to a prestigious media outlet or a famed tech blogger) — similarly, in news, one strives to “get the exclusive” (an interview or news scoop). And while launching C-SPAN’s Convention Hubs through TechCrunch and Mashable and Debate Hubs through ZDNetand Ars Technica was certainly effective, what sustained the success of these projects was the manual linking to blog posts, reaching out to a variety of bloggers over Twitter, email, phone and IM… and even reading blog and Twitter posts on air (shout-outs to Rob Bluey, ThePete, Cyndi Samuels and Bill Bitner!) By engaging a variety of folks, you also ensure a diverse conversation and a broader base of support to build, promote and share your content and/or message.
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That just about wraps it up for now. Look for my tweets @leslieann44! Also, fellow DC community member and friend, Peter Corbett, will be presenting on “Storytelling, Messaging, & Video Sharing” along with Reason Foundation’s Lisa Snell.
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As an aside, the Friedman Foundation was founded in 1996 “upon the ideals and theories of Nobel Laureate economist Milton Friedman and economist Rose D. Friedman.” The esteemed Milton Friedman, who many of these readers may recognize by name, is also known as one of the forefathers of the renowned University of Chicago School of Economics. While a Chicago student, I had the privilege of hearing him on campus and being saved by his secretary during the winter of my junior year. It was a jogging-on-ice-at-night-in-Hyde-Park accident. Long story.
I love digging around YouTube and finding gem clips like this one of Milton, decades ago.
Author’s notes:
Originally posted on my WordPress blog, On Deck: Indiana and the Friedman Foundation’s Generator Forum [December 10, 2008]
Apologies re: the font issues in the above linked SlideShare deck. Should have uploaded it as a PDF back in the day :/
