Social Media 201: Blogging and Social Networking for Social Change

DiA/NOI Western Organizers Summit

Seattle, 17 November 2008

Leif Utne

VP Community Development

Zanby

What is Social Media?

It’s not a fad.

1. 394 million people watch video clips online2. 346 million read blogs3. 321 million Read personal blogs4. 307 million visit a friends social network page5. 303 million SHARE a video clip6. 272 million manage a profile on a social network7. 248 million upload photos8. 216 million Download a video podcast9. 215 million download a podcast10. 184 million started a blog11. 183 million uploaded a video 12. 160 million subscribed to an RSS Feed 13. Blog Reading has risen 66% on a global scale in a year 14. 60.3 million americans have read a blog 15. 36% of consumers will think more positively about companies with blogs 16. 32% of consumers trust bloggers opinions on products and services 17. Social Networking has an estimated 272 million users (Myspace, Facebook, etc)18. 43% of online consumers belong to a social network 19. 74% of social networking users message friends daily 20. Video Uploading growth is 31% to 82% global reach seen in all markets Source: McCann Universal

What is Social Media?

Tools that let us interact and engage ...

...family, friends, colleagues, supporters, critics. It’s relationship-building on steroids.

Listen

Be open and authentic Not a billboard or an ATM

It takes commitment

Think like a movement

You don’t need to be everywhere Building relationships takes commitment

Test, test, test

Keys to Effective Use of Social Media

Story Time

Case Study #1: PowerVote

Goal: Build a youth climate voting bloc so big it can’t be ignored.

Strategy: combined online/field

Field: 200 organizers across US gathering names on PowerVote Pledge cards

Online: gather online pledges, spread message, ID leaders, engage and strengthen community by reflecting members back to themselves

Field organizer training in August with Wellstone Action included instruction on social media: Blogs, YouTube, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter

“ Every man a rifleman.”

Results - 350,000 names on PowerVote Pledge in 10 weeks - Facebook app released in early October 11,000 installs 9,500 “active users” 43,000 shares web traffic from Facebook roughly doubled - Al Gore webcast (Oct. 29) 190 viewing parties 5 largest named by Gore during cast top 2 organizers flew to Nashville to sit in-studio with Gore Contributed to highest youth voter turnout in history

Challenges - Original goal of 1 million names unrealistic Groups with lists that size took much longer to build, and had major star power (ONE/Bono, WE/Gore) - Long lag (up to 3 wks) in processing pledge cards b/c all had to be checked against Catalist (boxes of pledge cards still arriving in mail) - Some social networks got very little response (Xianz, BlackPlanet, Flickr), so focused on Facebook

Case Study #2: The UpTake Goal: 100 video citizen journalists in streets of St. Paul covering RNC

Distributed + promoted content via social web

Case Study #2: The UpTake

Results: - 60+ video citizen journalists in streets of St. Paul covering RNC

- produced 160+ videos just that week, which received approx. 1 million views

- major media coverage for innovative use of cell phones to broadcast live video

Listen

Be open and authentic Not a billboard or an ATM

It takes commitment

Think like a movement

You don’t need to be everywhere Building relationships takes commitment

Test, test, test

Keys to Effective Use of Social Media

Resources

Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations by Clay Shirky http://www.shirky.com

We Are Media: Your Social Media Toolkit http://wearemedia.org

Beth Kanter: How nonprofits can use social media for social change http://beth.typepad.com

JD Lasica http://www.socialmedia.biz

Ivan Boothe http://rootwork.org

Thank You

Leif Utne VP Community Development Zanby Enterprise social media platform http://www.zanby.com [email_address] http://leifutne.wordpress.com twitter: @foglio