social media
what works?
ethan zuckerman
october 19, 2008
pop!tech

1950s-60s - age of local organizations
robert putnam - “bowling alone”
rise of the mailing list organization

photo by extraface

“2.2 million people around the world...”

danger that social media is just today’s mailing list
can you listen to 3.2 million people?

Is online action enough?

older organizations tend to assume the internet is just
another mailing list
web-generation organizations tend to assume that activism
is just web organizing

mosaic by stabillo boss

Hao Wu
Blogger, Filmmaker
Detained February 22, 2006

freehaowu.org

don’t speak - point.

what works?
internal
external

photo by Jerry Luk

what’s your organizational medium?
email vs. phone vs. chat vs. skype vs...
who’s your least flexible user?

realtime communication
asynchronous communication
document sharing
scheduling

realtime communication
asynchronous communication
document sharing
scheduling
presence
face to face

DIY vs. KISS

why?

PR is cheaper than marketing
Online presence is PR
you control
Winning via Google

link economy
comments
freshness

your users
are lower tech
than you are.

digital storytelling

10 hours work, 500 downloads? - be ruthless on ROI

not possible to try them all
be ruthless about ROI
metrics
mosaic by stabillo boss

the “first blank to use
blank” trap

figure out why you’re using a tool before you use it

online to coordinate offline
work
expertise of the organizers
with the tools
getting trapped in the
platform

don’t speak, point
internet and external
PR is cheaper than marketing
win at google
choose
be ruthless about ROI
“new” can equal “no one uses it”