When you begin questioning how your organization can use social media to engage your constituents, this simple graph below is a good place to start. Better yet, go out and buy The Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.
In an earlier post I wrote about the Groundswell book and how well it documented how organizations are learning to initiate conversations with their constituents. This graph (below) can be used to think about your constituents (clients, donors, volunteers, funders, members etc.) and how they are using social media on the web.
This is a powerful video that chronicles the story of how we produce and consume commodities. It’s a simple video about very complex environmental, social and economic issues.It’s made by Annie Leonard and the Tides Foundation and Funders Workgroup for Sustainable Production and Consumption.
School children all over the world are getting exposed to the film by their teachers who are fed up with the poor documentation and teaching tools for environmental studies. The New York Times has written an in depth article on the video. Here’s a brief quote “The video is a cheerful but brutal assessment of how much Americans waste, and it has its detractors. But it has been embraced by teachers eager to supplement textbooks that lag behind scientific findings on climate change and pollution.”
One of my goals is to create effective videos using social media tools to illustrate, advocate and educate people about complex subjects. I am particularly interested in how social media might help disseminate important community based research. This film has set the bar high. I can see how a compelling story, told with passion and clear messages can go a long way to getting the message out.
The video I included is the full version a from YouTube. It’s a must see film… a good one for passing on to your family and friends.
I’m involved with the Harm Reduction Coalition of York Region. I became involved when I was a Program Manager with Street Kids International and managed the Streetjibe – addressing youth poverty in York Region program. I’m staying involved as an independent business representative that cares deeply about the kind of community I live in.
Harm reduction is a big word covering a lot of ground. For me it’s about seeing and being with the person, not the harm. It’s also about fostering a compassionate, caring, inclusive community were we don’t lock up people or stigmatize people for their struggles as a human being. Read more…
Add your organization, service and basic contact information to our collaboration map. It’s easy as pie. This online collaboration map was created at our last Streetjibe workshop of 2008. On the panel to the right, you can add the URL of your agency. This map will give you quick contact information and point you in the right direction for many youth services. If you want to add a new category please email me and I will forward you the password.
From this example, you can you see how your organization, network or business might use this free mapping tool from Mindmeister. You can drag the map with your mouse. Click here to take you to a larger map on Mindmeister.
If your organization is interested in learning how best to harness the power and reach of web 2.0 engagement tools, you have a conference to attend.It’s the Social Tech Training 2009 conference hosted at the MaRS Centre in downtown Toronto. The conference is the second one hosted by Web of Change organization and a group of partner organizations including Communicipia and Social Innovation Generation @MaRS.
You can learn more about this major event by visiting the registration page. Please note that this conference is a feature event during Net Change, a week long event embracing social tech training and social change makers. Dates for this event are: June 10 – 12, 2009. Read more…
A social non profit is attuned, responsive and adaptive to the complex factors affecting its constituents and communities. In a social non profit there is an alignment between staff, services, governance systems and online communications. Social non profits value learning and innovation and believe in working smarter by using social tech tools to enhance communication, collaboration and learning amongst staff, volunteers, partners and service users. These organizations believe that strategic use of social media empowers staff, improves services and strengthens governance practices.
Recent and Current Projects
Faith Community
• Social Learning & Collaboration
• Return to Rural – Alberta;
• Film Development Council of York Region;
• Delisle Youth Services - Toronto;
• York Region Alliance to End Homelessness;
• York-Durham Association of Museums & Archives ;
• Streetjibe – York Region Youth Poverty Program, Street Kids International.
Contact
brent@socialmediatools.ca
Social Web Partners
I'm very pleased to have a number of very capable and talented consultants as friends and partners that work with me from time to time.
Alain Hurtubise (iAutomate.ca) designs and developments web 2. 0 platforms. Alain has over 20 years experience in web design and enterprise systems programming with large corporations. Alain's passion is paying it forward through his work with me in the non profit sector.
Peter Levesque's company, Knowledge Mobilization Works (based in Ottawa) is dedicated to building the capacity of people to create value through knowledge mobilization.
Mark Holmgren (Mark Holmgren Consulting - Edmonton AB) contributes his extensive organizational change expertise along with an array of social media integration expertise.
Social Media – a definition
Social media are works of user-created video, audio, text or multimedia that are published and shared in a social environment, such as a blog, podcast, forum, wiki or video hosting site. More broadly, social media refers to any online technology that lets people publish, converse and share content online. (via Socialbrite)
Social Learning – a definition
Social learning is participating with others to make sense out of new ideas. What's new about this is how powerful social media works together with social learning.
Marcia Conner, Tony Bingham: The New Social Learning, A Guide to Transform Organizations Through Social Media.
What’s the Social Technographics Profile of Your Constituents
Flickr/brentmack
Linkedin/brentmackinnon
Twitter/brentmack
YouTube/brent44mack
Del.icio.us/brentmack
GMail/brentmack
Recent Comments