Mashable's (Social) Media Summit 2010: Lessons for Nonprofits
Wednesday June 9, 2010
Yesterday, I tuned in to the live feed of Mashable's Media Summit 2010. I meant to just sample the meeting and move on, but found myself captivated for the entire day. Mashable's organizers lined up an impressive group of speakers who addressed how "new media" are impacting various aspects of our culture, from sports to government.
Here are some of the presentations that I thought had the most applicability to the nonprofit world:
Here are some of the presentations that I thought had the most applicability to the nonprofit world:
- Ricky Van Veen, founder of CollegeHumor.com, is not only a representative of the younger generation and what it is interested in, but is also an expert on how to produce videos that actually draw an audience. Van Veen organized his remarks around the 10 Myths of Branded Video:
- Myth #1 People will watch my branded content
- Myth #2 People will be patient
- Myth #3 People will find my content.
- Myth #4 The Internet is a level playing field.
- Myth #5 We have no idea why things go viral.
- Myth #6 Experience leads documentation
- Myth #7 Let's build our own community and tools.
- Myth #8 Let's keep things professional.
- Myth #9 Traditional media is irrelevant to the web.
- Myth #10 People will create good content for me.
- Taking Action for Social Good featured Wendy Harman of the Red Cross and Dan Rollman of URDB (Universal Record Database). Harman, naturally, spoke to the deep involvement with social media that the Red Cross has come to represent. It isn't just the big disasters that they use the magic of social media on such as the Haiti earthquake, but they are finding ways of using it for the small, localized problems as well.
Harman and Rollman teamed up to break a record by having everyone in the room text a $10 donation to the Red Cross. Some background here: URDB is the brainchild of Dan Rollman who worshiped the Guinness Book of World Records as a child. As an adult he set up a website that would keep world records and encourage new ones. If you have a chance, be sure to visit URDB.org to see the fun things they are doing. A partnership with nonprofit organizations is a new initiative, and Rollman hopes it leads to many world records being set in the name of charitable causes. - Chris Bruzzo of Starbucks provided the stories behind several initiatives for social good...including their get out the vote campaign in early November 2008, the holiday campaign that had people all over the world singing "All You Need Is Love," to a recent campaign to get people to use refillable mugs rather than paper cups. Bruzzo also shared how the company has built its Twitter and Facebook communities. Bruzzo emphasized that a company/organization needs to be authentic in its social media. "Don't outsource your voice," Bruzzo says.
- Edward Norton (yes, the actor) of Crowdrise detailed the creation of this brand new site that hopes to convert grassroots activism into grassroots fundraising and vice versa. Crowdrise provides a template for individuals and organizations to build a dynamic fundraising campaign. Norton says that "Social media is about personal narrative." People are proud of what they are doing and that is what Crowdrise hopes to harness. On Crowdrise it is easy to set up a personal page that features your projects, to share those enthusiasms, and to bring in more supporters and donors to your causes. The site encourages a sense of humor and fun too. Norton said that fundraising and activism can be fun, not just dry and utilitarian. Alec Ross (Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Senior Advisor for Innovation) spoke to how social media affects foreign policy. He used the story of the young woman murdered a year ago in Iran to show how social media, citizen journalism, and the world's attention has worked to "devolve" authority from politicians to ordinary people. Ross's team at the State Department works to figure out how to harness the power of social media to support diplomatic goals. Ross said that government needs to stay just as current as its citizens.
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