SocialFish

Get Open Community on Audible

2013-06-15T17:29:28Z

Love audiobooks? Open Community is now on Audible!

We have FIVE DOWNLOAD CODES AVAILABLE - all you need to do is drop us a comment below. Just answer any of these questions:

How has the growth of online community changed the way you work today?
Is community management part of your job? In what way?
How has community management changed other business processes at your org (e.g. membership recruitment, marketing, advocacy etc)?
Does the leadership at your organization understand the impact of online community on the future of the org? Why or why not?

HINT: Maybe this book will help.

Open Community

A little book of big ideas for associations navigating the social web

Overview
Chapter Summary
Praise

Written for the complicated and quirky world of associations and membership organizations, Open Community is about how associations can—and why they should—build community online. (Not to be confused with building a successful private social network. That’s just one small part of a really big picture.)

The book is a collection of big ideas. The simple yet far-reaching concepts, framed by our own definition of Open Community, describe how to approach the inevitably long and complex process of building community online in such a way as to help your association succeed. The concepts in Open Community are actionable and applicable to any association, large or small.

“The book is fantastic and incredibly timely. It should be in the coat pocket, purse, backpack and/or shoulder bag of every board member and association management professional in the association community.

I was most impressed with [the authors'] ability to so eloquently challenge contemporary and often accepted notions of community while providing sound and reasonable approaches as to how organizations can maintain and expand their “citizens.” What we often see are open challenges to existing models without any real or grounded statements about why or how we should be changing or reexamining our existing infrastructure.” — Brian Riggs, Association Headquarters

The conversations around Open Community will continue all year on the SocialFishing blog. We hope you’ll read the book and share your stories of Open Community in action. See recent blog posts related to Open Community.

The book itself is organized around five overarching ideas, one per chapter.

Chapter 1: Open Community means collaborating with purpose.

The first chapter gives you a simple framework for figuring out how to define your Open Community strategy by starting with listening on the social web, identifying your stakeholders’ online behaviors and where they hang out, aligning individual business goals with organizational strategy, and measuring what matters to achieve success.

Chapter 2: Open Community means developing into a social organization.

The next chapter covers specific ideas for building internal organizational capacity to build and nurture Open Community, including how to prepare for the impact of social media on your internal processes, individual behaviors, and organizational culture.

Chapter 3: Open Community means embracing the ecosystem.

The third chapter describes the messy ecosystem of your Open Community: the relationship between the public social sites where your stakeholders are already hanging out and the homebase you want to attract them into, what to do about accidental spokespersons, and the importance of small groups.

Chapter 4: Open Community means empowering the periphery.

The fourth chapter discusses how to think about your people differently, in terms of the engagement lifecycle from newbie to champion, the rise of digital extroverts, the member as citizen, and how to find your champions.

Chapter 5: Open Community means participant-defined engagement.

You’ve built your online villages, you’ve opened the doors, now what? What are your members actually going to do once they get there? In the final chapter, we explain the concept of the social object and why that is crucial to the success of your Open Community. We’ll give you some simple tips for seeding and nurturing your community, too.

“If you’re an association leader, you’re already a social media genius. You just need this book to show you how to make it happen.”
Andy Sernovitz, founding CEO, Word of Mouth Marketing Association; author, Word of Mouth Marketing

“Community is much more than a buzz word in social media, it is the lifeblood of any organization. Maddie and Lindy offer an incredibly refreshing and approachable book to help you find and connect with the right people to extend your reach today and nurture online communities that work for you.”
Brian Solis, author of Engage, the complete guide for businesses to build, cultivate, and measure success in the social Web

“If your association has questions about the best and most effective ways to engage with stakeholders online, Lindy Dreyer and Maddie Grant have provided a clear and helpful guidebook to help you along the way.”
Lisa Junker, CAE, IOM, former editor-in-chief, Associations Now magazine

“For nonprofits and associations that want to build communities around their work, this book is a must-read for the guiding principles.”

Beth Kanter, author, The Networked Nonprofit, using social media to power social networks for change

“This book provides an invaluable analysis of the strategic, structural, and cultural issues associations using social media face. Leaders can read this book and come out on the other side ready to move, and not because someone ordered them and not because they are desperate to not miss the boat. Awesome.”
Jamie Notter, Consultant; author, We Have Always Done It That Way: 101 Things About Associations We Must Change, Humanize: How People-Centric Organizations Succeed in a Social World

How to use storytelling to fundraise online

2013-06-14T17:27:15Z

As the Internet continues to grow, it is becoming harder and harder for nonprofits, and especially associations, to fundraise online. The number of scam fundraisers on the Internet that aim to steal people’s money has grown tremendously, making it more difficult for those with a good cause to preserve credibility unless they’re already established as a big brand. Donators are wary of giving to causes ever since scandals have rocked the web.

As a nonprofit or association, what can you do to ensure your establishment comes across as credible and truthful? Storytelling – as unlikely as it may seem – comes in handy if you do it correctly. Let’s take a look as the best methods to use storytelling to fundraise. The story can be the story of your cause and how it started, or any story you deem relevant.

1. Appeal to Emotions

While its great to throw in some statistics and numbers about your organization, donors want more heart and feel. Grab their attention by appealing to their lives and their emotions and then maybe throw in some facts if they get more interested.

Have you ever thought about why some videos for charitable causes really pack a punch? For example, the SPCA created a heart wrenching video that brought some viewers to tears and they felt like they had no choice but to pick up the phone to donate. That is their story, and yours can be just as good.

2. Don’t Overload

While it might be great to shove a bunch of information about your brand into the story, try to stick to the essentials. Paint a small picture (figuratively) that your audience will be able to take with them and remember you by.

12 Palm’s Recovery Centers have shown that this is a great way to gain new clients. They briefly go over the facts and statistics of success rates with their patients to catch their attention. Then, when the client commits, more information is given out. Their information pyramid makes all of the “medical” jargon much more retainable.

3. Be More Than Good

If you’re a nonprofit or association, chances are you’re doing good things for society. That much is obvious. Unfortunately, that is not enough when it comes to fundraising for your cause. If it were, there would be no need to fundraise! What you can do to help this is find that good backstory, something that is unique to your brand or to its founders. This will pique emotion in the potential donor and give them a bigger reason to donate.

Havahart is a business whose story is humanely removing animals from your home. This is short and sweet and gets their point across. People know them for this, and are more likely to go to them when they are looking for services that support humane animal trapping versus death to the unknowing critters.

As a nonprofit or association, you will need to fundraise and draw in support from as many as you can. Storytelling is a great way to do this. If you follow these tips you are bound to increase your success rate in gaining funds and garnering support for your cause.

If you know of any good tactics that would benefit others, let us know in the comments below.

How MomsRising and charity: water have used Storify & Quora for success

2013-06-17T17:39:40Z

With so many social media tools capturing the attention of nonprofit organizations, how should nonprofits decide which tools are the best investment of their time and personnel? Some tools, like Facebook and Twitter, are are a given – but in the case of new social media platforms that continue to emerge and evolve, which tools should community managers and marketing staff focus on? We took a look at two organizations using two of these lesser known platforms to (successfully) advance their missions: Storify and Quora. Here’s how.

MomsRising Expands Twitter Efforts With Storify Implementation

With more than a million members across the country, MomsRising began using Storify in November 2011 as a curation tool, collecting its Twitter hashtags: #WellnessWed and #FoodFri. Storify is much like other blog platforms like WordPress, but has an added emphasis on curation. Allowing the organization to follow Twitter chats, Facebook conversations, and even Flickr then curate them into Storify posts is a huge opportunity to engage users while boosting real estate in the social media sphere.

If social media strategy is something your nonprofit has less time to focus on, Storify optimizes time spent on various channels – like Twitter. The bigger perk is that most of the content is user-generated. Essentially, a nonprofit’s team can spend its time creating an informational post based on conversation that’s already happening. Aggregating those conversations, placing them in a single post, and publishing on Storify takes mere minutes.

In summary, the benefits associated with Storify are 1) “extending the shelf life of social media content” and, 2) “encouraging viral sharing.”

Quora Allows Charity: Water to Boost Credibility, Transparency & Engagement

Quora is a social media tool that acts as a platform for users to ask and answer questions; other readers can upvote and downvote those answers based on accuracy – or suggest edits. One nonprofit, charity: water, who provides purified water to developing nations, is one of the only large nonprofit organizations to build a significant presence on Quora.

Charity: water’s CEO, Scott Harrison, and director of digital, Paull Young, answer questions that users tag with the charity: water Quora “topic.” Because transparency is pertinent is to an organization’s advancement, this allows charity: water’s staff to build their reputation while informing users who have questions or suggestions. Online transparency, in part due to regular Quora conversation, has allowed charity: water to really earn the trust of its audience.

In short, organizations should consider using Quora to build their transparency. And with that, comes reputability. Quora gives an arena for a nonprofit’s staff or board to “talk shop.” This allows the organization to connect with its audience, breaking down its mission and answer questions in areas that may still be murky. Quora also gives the opportunity for a nonprofit’s staff and board to understand what donors (either current or prospective) want to know, while demonstrating expertise in a field.

Do you know an organization who’s used these tools successfully to advance their missions? If so, what successes have they achieved by doing so?

What other emerging social media tools should organizations consider implementing? Feel free to leave your comments below.

—————–

The original case studies about MomsRising and charity: water’s implementation of Storify and Quora were written by Stephanie Kapera, a contributor to Software Advice – a consulting firm helping nonprofits select constituent relationship management software.

—————–

(photo credit)

A Little Privacy, Please! Your Rights and Social Media Policies

2013-06-14T15:52:36Z

This post is reprinted by permission from Console and Hollawell Attorneys and originally appeared on their blog here. Thank you for the submission!

Got something related to B2B, association or nonprofit social media you think would interest SocialFish readers? Send it our way! We’ll consider reporting it here.

—————–

Your privacy is important to us.

How many times have you heard this spiel? “Your privacy is important to us. Read our privacy policy.”

If your privacy was really important, would the websites that you visit every day, the ones that you use to share stories with family and connect with long-distance friends, need to continuously revise a contract to tell you so? If social media websites really did respect your privacy, would policies be so littered with jargon that the entire document reads like fine print?

One of the social media privacy (or “data use”) policies to capture the most heated attention is Facebook’s.

“A privacy policy is a disclosure document, whose purpose is to inform (and therefore protect) consumers,” Businessweek advised business owners. Yet all too often, there’s nothing informative about these unintelligible documents – and that may be the point.

Why the FTC Didn’t ‘Like’ Facebook’s Privacy Policy

“Confused by Facebook’s new privacy policy? You’re supposed to be,” read the title of Digital Trends’ blog post on the subject. It’s not just a subjective opinion, either. The social media site’s 2009 revisions to the privacy policy received such heated attention that the United States Federal Trade Commission (FTC) filed official complaints against the social media giant for what The New York Times referred to as “deceptive practices.” The specific policies that have come under fire include the automatic public display of personal information such as users’ names, location, gender, and (certain) photographs, as well as social media activity such as “liked” pages and friends lists. Users were not able to opt out of the publication of this private personal information.

More updates in May 2010 resolved some of these issues by allowing users some additional control over their privacy settings, but a settlement between Facebook and the FTC wasn’t officially settled until August 2012. The punishment for misleading users “by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public,” as the FTC stated, did not include any fines or force it to admit wrongdoing. Instead, the government agency was proactive, focusing on what Facebook can do in the future to protect users’ privacy.

While this particular firestorm has finally been extinguished, it wasn’t the site’s first privacy policy update to inspire backlash, and it probably won’t be the last. “Ever since Facebook was founded in 2004, Mark Zuckerberg, its chief executive, has pushed its users to share more information about themselves,” The New York Times wrote in 2010. “Time and again, users have pushed back, complaining that some new feature or setting on the site violated their privacy.”

Knowing that user complaints and federal sanctions follow privacy setting changes, you might expect any social media site to learn from past mistakes. Facebook’s administrators and staff might count themselves lucky that they escaped the financial penalties that the FTC hit Google with over its last privacy policy debacle.

Facebook was lucky in comparison to Google, which had to pay a $22,500,000 fine to settle FTC complaints that it inappropriately collected data from user searches conducted through Apple’s Safari browser, CNET News reported. Photo Credit: Flickr.

If the business of Facebook was directly related to customer use – if, for example, users had to pay to maintain and use their accounts on the website – you may be right. But Facebook isn’t selling the website to users; instead, it’s selling users like you to advertisers. “The company thrives on allowing advertisers to target their potential customers with pinpoint accuracy, and that takes highly personal data,” reported Web Pro News. So, unless users’ anger reaches a point where there is a true boycott of the site to the point that it becomes an ineffective medium for advertising – unlikely, given how frequently many of us use the site without even thinking about it – Facebook isn’t exactly answering to us.

And Facebook is far from the only social media site to face privacy policy concerns. “Facebook takes the heat on privacy issues in part because with more than 400 million active users worldwide, it’s the 300 pound gorilla of social networking. What happens on Facebook matters to a majority of on-line Americans,” reported Infomedia. In reality, “Facebook and other social media sites share your personal information with various third parties who have a vested interest in who you’re socializing with, what you’re buying, what you’re reading, and basically where you’re hanging out on the web.” In essence, we’re assuming that all of our trusted social media sites have confusing or deceptive privacy policies – Facebook is just a scapegoat. Consider the headline-stealing ire that Instagram inspired last year when users learned that a part of the photo-sharing site’s updated privacy policy could be construed as authorization for businesses to steal and use site users’ photographs as advertisements without asking permission or paying for the work.

They Can’t Do That! – Or Can They?

When the new Instagram privacy policy updates angered users worldwide, they weren’t overreacting. They were instead making the kind of necessary clamor to dissuade the social media company from overstepping their boundaries – for a little while, anyway.

As many as 100,000,000 people use Instagram each month, the site reported. Photo Credit: Flickr.

But just as social media sites are ever-evolving, so are their privacy policies. “Write Instagram to inform them you won’t be accepting their newly updated Terms of Service,” urged NaturalExposures.com – “the newly revised version that still gives them the right to do whatever they want with YOUR photographs. Even if you don’t care to make money from your pictures, do you want your private collection of images available for ads like Viagra, alcoholic products or cigarette promotions?”

If it seems far-fetched, it’s not. Who can forget the outlandishly offensive ad (seen here on The Huffington Post) that Belvedere Vodka plastered across social media sites in March 2012? In April 2012, the woman whose photograph was used without permission in the distasteful advertisement filed a claim against the alcohol company, a different Huffington Post article reported. It turns out that the company had inappropriately stolen the image from a video (completely unrelated to rape) that had been posted on YouTube. While Belvedere could be facing a lawsuit for their actions, the type of privacy policy language that Instagram users are fearing could potentially make actions like this perfectly legal in the future.

The Confusion Factor

Just how confusing are social media privacy policies? You might be surprised. In 2012, Siegel+Gale tested participants on comprehension of documents perceived as complicated. Compared to government notices (average comprehension score of 70 percent), bank credit card agreements (68 percent), and bank reward-program rules (51 percent), far fewer participants understood Facebook and Google privacy policies (39 percent and 36 percent comprehension scores, respectively). That means that significantly less than half of respondents understood their privacy rights and settings on Facebook, and barely over one-third fully comprehended Google’s use of personal data. That’s because they’re not put in laymen’s terms, and in many cases, they are so convoluted that even if you understand the words and theoretical concepts, it’s impossible to understand the practical implications as they relate to your personal use of social media. “While privacy policies can help users understand what personal information is being collected, they often need ‘college-level reading skills’ to understand them,” reported CIO, an IT publication and site.

What makes privacy policies so convoluted? For one thing, they can be repetitive. In just the first page of its two-page privacy policy, this Website’s name appears more than two dozen times. No wonder the text of privacy policies tends to be incomprehensible. Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

(The Illusion of) Progress

Another reason privacy policies are so mysterious to many users is the ever-changing nature of both the documents and the website features. “As Facebook added new features and its privacy controls grew increasingly complicated, those controls became effectively unusable for many people,” reported The New York Times. For many users, that’s exactly the ongoing problem. There are too many options to customize, and their distinctions can be so slight that it’s hard to know what you are agreeing to.

While dialog boxes like this one make privacy settings seem easy to apply, it’s not always that simple to find or adjust settings – especially when policies and default settings keep changing. Photo Credit:Flickr.

“Critics charge the constantly changing privacy policies are intentionally confusing – that the sheer hassle of opting out of information sharing keeps users blissfully ignorant and vulnerable,” reported Infomedia. When we discover what we consider to be an invasion of privacy, though, we feel more betrayed than blissful. “Facebook seems to tweak its privacy policies more than most people change their profile photos,” reported NBC News. “Keeping track of it all is quite a chore — especially for consumers who are not well-versed in making their way through the labyrinth of legalese in such policies.”

It’s this ‘legalese’ that seems to be an issue. “Policies are commonly long, textual explanations of data practices, most frequently written by lawyers to protect companies against legal action,” reported ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems in 2011. “It has been established through numerous studies that people do not read privacy policies and make mistaken assumptions based upon seeing that a site has a link to a privacy policy.”

As an attorney myself, I obviously appreciate the importance of legal documents being thorough and precise. But it seems to me that this utter lack of understanding of the basic tools we use every day for communication is a red flag. There needs to be some level of protection for the consumers as well as the business, and that means that your informedconsent to share data matters. Your privacy really is important – and it’s time corporations start acting like it.

You know that not everything you read on Facebook is true – but shouldn’t you be able to understand and trust the site’s privacy policies? Photo Credit: Flickr.

Busy Lives and Dismissive Site Attitudes

The complexity of privacy policies is just the start of the problem. It’s compounded by hectic, constantly on-the-go schedules, and it’s no secret that many Websites (social media and otherwise) tend to understate the importance of knowing the corporation’s privacy policy – and the extent of your rights. Like “I have read and agree to the Terms of Use,” the phrase “I have read and understand the privacy policy” has become one of the most popular lies on the Internet.

When was the last time you actually clicked on a link and tried to read a privacy policy? Let’s be honest, at this point even the clearest privacy policy can’t help us if we never see it. As we move increasingly into the age of the smartphone, we are signing up for apps and accounts, and even making purchases, without ever being near a real computer. That means our screens are smaller, our keyboards are virtual, and our attention is likely elsewhere. The chances that we are actually reading privacy policies and terms of use? Slim, and continually shrinking.

Companies make privacy seem like such a minor concern – look how it appears at the very bottom of the sign-up sheet. And while you can tap the link to read the privacy policy, the app creators certainly aren’t encouraging you to do so. Photo Credit: Flickr.

The option to create new accounts on new websites just by logging in with your Facebook account may seem time-saving. You don’t have to type out your name, email address, gender, and any number of other contact information. It’s simple and convenient – perhaps dangerously so.

“What did you just agree to? Did you mean to reveal information as vital as your date of birth and e-mail address?” wrote The New York Times. “Most of us face such decisions daily. We are hurried and distracted and don’t pay close attention to what we are doing. Often, we turn over our data in exchange for a deal we can’t refuse.” Whether that deal is a discount for an online retailer, a new app for your phone, or the latest addicting Facebook game, you didn’t get it for free. “You pay for your place on Facebook with personal information – as much or as little as you choose to provide,” reported Infomedia. “As Facebook and other social media networks continue to extend their reach, you need to be aware of who’s sharing what with whom.”

As we spend more time in the virtual world, it becomes clear that concerns over privacy won’t be going away anytime soon. Sites will likely continue asking users to surrender more and more personal information in order to use their services. And based on past experiences, we’ll comply. Despite the controversy surrounding Facebook’s decision to enact new, controversial privacy policies, “modifications to the Facebook interface and default settings led to a significant increase in the public disclosure of personal information,” Phys.org reported.

What Responsibilities Do Sites Have Regarding Customer Privacy?

While we may like to think that we can trust these social media sites, we can’t be sure that these companies – because that’s what they are – will always have our best interests at heart. When it comes to privacy concerns, there are some gray areas. “The purpose of Facebook is to connect and be social with others,” argued Web Pro News. “Expecting such a platform to accommodate secrets or systematically attempt to protect users’ privacy is foolish.”

Foolish? No. Unrealistically optimistic? Maybe.

Just because we are moving into a digital age doesn’t mean that our privacy is less worthy of being protected. Photo Credit: Flickr.

Consequences from the FTC can help persuade social media sites to be more transparent about their use of our private information. So can user feedback. Some organizations, such as colleges, and even states have broached the subject of establishing their own privacy policy regulations – but even if these regulations eventually make it into law, how will they be enforced so that all sites on the ever-changing Internet comply?

Until these questions are answered, if they ever are, the best way to protect your privacy is to be proactive. Take the time to read privacy policies when you come across them. If you have questions, reach out to customer service. Check your privacy settings regularly. Most importantly, remember that everything you post on the Internet could find its way to a public place, and once content appears online, it can never really disappear (keep in mind that the Belvedere Vodka ad was deleted within hours – but it can still be found with relative ease). Content posted on the Internet is malleable. It can be found by anyone (employers, acquaintances, insurance companies) and be taken out of context, distorted, and totally altered. Are you okay with that?

You shouldn’t have to be policing the privacy regulations, but you also shouldn’t fall prey to the inappropriate use of your personal information and content because unscrupulous companies took advantage of your trust. Keeping yourself informed is the best way to help make sure that these sites respect you and your privacy.

—————-

(photo credit)

[SLIDES] How to Identify Influencers the Right Way

2013-06-10T03:30:59Z

Nice deck on Social Influence by Danny Brown, co-author of Influence Marketing, the book I pointed to a few days ago.

“Today, influence is determined by how high a social score you have. But that dilutes what true influence is, and places the attention on the wrong people.

By focusing on the customer and identifying who truly influencers their decisions at key times in the purchase life cycle, we can target better and gather lead generation, increase customer acquisition, and provide real ROI for influence marketing campaigns.”

Influence and Focusing on the Customer from Danny Brown

—————

(photo credit)

————–

This post contains a really good slide deck. Go on, you know you want to click through to see it.

[SLIDES] Social business is how we will deal with disruption.

2013-06-10T03:33:42Z

Love this deck from my friend Hessie Jones at ARC. Check it out.

“A fundamental shift in business communications is taking place. Technology is changing rapidly, real-time discussions are having more impact on business and the global economy is moving toward greater efficiency and austerity. In this environment, it is critical to maximize effective communication and build a sustainable approach to customer retention.

Lean startups appreciate that social media is inherently inexpensive. But it is also key to recognize that it takes time and much effort―part of the “sweat equity” that many businesses require.

This presentation provides guidance in developing and implementing a social media and customer relationship management (CRM) business strategy: Building a presence, maintaining a reputation and creating a sustainable business for the long term.”

MaRS Discovery District: Social Business: an Evolution in Developing Sustainability from hessiej.com

————–
(photo credit)

Lessons from Facebook’s Hate Speech Controversy

2013-06-10T03:32:16Z

A great summary of the recent Facebook controversy, this post by Ernie Smith originally appeared on Associations Now and is reposted here with permission.

————————————–

After a boycott by women’s groups over offensive content, Facebook responded with a full action plan to address their concerns. Both the campaign’s structure and the company’s response are instructive.

When Facebook faced an outcry from several groups over its handling of hate speech—against women in particular—it was an uncomfortable situation all around. But in the end, the advocacy campaign had the intended effect.

What your association can take away from the controversy to apply when your own flare-ups arise:

The situation: In recent years, Facebook has been challenged with how to handle censorship and hate speech: The company has been criticized for overzealously blocking content in some cases but being lax in others. Facebook has worked on creating policies to deal with these issues, but implementation has been inconsistent and often based on surges in user reaction. In recent days, the issue flared up again, with women’s groups noting that a number of Facebook pages that contained sexist content and depiction of violence against women stayed online despite numerous complaints.

The backlash: The criticism of Facebook gained steam after the advocacy group Women, Action & the Media (WAM) wrote an open letter to the social network. “It appears that Facebook considers violence against women to be less offensive than nonviolent images of women’s bodies, and that the only acceptable representation of women’s nudity are those in which women appear as sex objects or the victims of abuse,” the letter argued. “Your common practice of allowing this content by appending a [humor] disclaimer to said content literally treats violence targeting women as a joke.” The letter, signed by numerous advocacy groups and nonprofits, asked Facebook users to contact advertisers regarding content deemed offensive to women. On a separate page, WAM posted graphic examples of content allowed to remain on Facebook despite its clearly offensive nature. More than a dozen advertisers removed their ads from the service as a result of the boycott,the Los Angeles Times reported.

The response: On Tuesday, Facebook agreed to modify its standards. “In recent days, it has become clear that our systems to identify and remove hate speech have failed to work as effectively as we would like, particularly around issues of gender-based hate,” Marne Levine, the company’s vice president of global public policy, wrote in a blog post. “In some cases, content is not being removed as quickly as we want. In other cases, content that should be removed has not been or has been evaluated using outdated criteria.” The company vowed to update guidelines, improve training processes, increase accountability, and work more formally with groups that have direct experience with dealing with hate speech, such as the Anti-Defamation League. The site is also adding new degrees of accountability for users who post crude content, requiring them to use their real identities if they want the post to stay online.

The lessons: They’re two-sided: how to wage a successful advocacy campaign (as WAM did) and how to respond to criticism in a constructive way (as Facebook did). By drawing attention to the company, WAM convinced Facebook to react in a way that promised long-term change. And when Facebook offered a solution, it was more than a promise. It was a structured approach, allowing for outside input and checks from groups that have experience dealing with such issues. “This was a targeted, strategic, and ultimately apparently quite effective campaign to try to force a powerful company to do more than it has been doing. That is something we haven’t seen much of yet,” Susan Benesch, founder and director of the Dangerous Speech Project, told the L.A. Times.

Has your organization ever taken part in a boycott, or had to respond to one? If so, what did you learn? Let us know your take in the comments.

————————

Ernie Smith is the social media journalist for Associations Now and a former newspaper guy. Follow him on Twitter here.

———————–

(photo credit)

[SLIDES] What Old School Hip Hop Teaches Us About Content Marketing

2013-06-14T17:06:59Z

Bryan Kelly and I presented this session at ASAE’s Marketing, Membership and Communication Conference last week and the feedback we got was phenomenal. Yay! So as promised, here are the slides and rundown for you.

What Old School Hip Hop Teaches us About Content Marketing from Aptify

WIIFM? Content creation is a grind. Gain an inspirational perspective from this unlikely source to make content creation more fun, authentic, creative and effective.

LISTEN – Obama talks hip hop. We used about the first and the last minute or so of this video, which encompass a lot of the themes we’re talking about.

The Origins of Old School Hip Hop – the story: Bronx, late 1970s. DJ Kool Herc creates what we now know as the “break”… This new form of music takes the best part of multiple songs and strings them together in Merry-go-round fashion. People love it and the dance parties supported by this new musical form quickly spread throughout the other boroughs of NYC. Hip hop culture develops 4 elements: DJ’ing, Breaking (Dancing), MC’ing (rapping), Graffiti.

In the spirit of these 4 elements, we’ve pulled 4 lessons from hip hop that apply to content marketing: Innovation, Remixing, Authenticity, Storytelling

1. Innovation: Think Different

How this has been used in hip hop: using two turntables that extended the breaks on a record – led to sampling and looping
RESOURCE: Deviant’s Advantage by Matthews & Wacker
Example: Center for Disease Control’s Zombie Apocalypse – picks up on a cultural theme (zombies) to create really effective messaging around being prepared for a pandemic. All kinds of collateral.
Tactical breakdown 1. Research relevant pop cultural references 2. What will make people stop in their tracks and pay attention? 3. Appropriately connect your content’s message 4. Don’t try too hard, but do have fun!

Exercise – in small groups, come up with a fun campaign idea for a member-get-a-member campaign. What cultural references might you borrow from? Any internet memes? Something in the news recently? Come up with an idea that is relevant to your organization, but something that will surprise people. It can be fun, or serious.

2. Remixing: Steal Like An Artist

LISTEN: – LL COOL J samples. We showed how one record is a compilation of many sounds lifted from many other records and the end result is something completely new.

Really awesome breakdown of the basic elements of an LL Cool J song. It’s like how I create stories. #mmccon LK18

— Ernie Smith (@ErnieSmithAN) June 4, 2013

How this has been used in hip hop: blending one or more sources that created something new – vinyl records and crates of records for source material
Remixing is not stealing: quote from Remix by Lessig about Walt Disney’s Steamboat Willie and silent film Steamboat Bill, Jr.
RESOURCE: Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon
RESOURCE: Remix by Lawrence Lessig
Example: Expendables movie poster turned into Expendables Body Count poster by Term Life Insurance – but they did this wrong, were slapped with a cease and desist. Pay homage – don’t plagiarize.
Tactical breakdown: 1. Keep a swipe file filled with ideas you encounter 2. Regularly go to that well 3. Uncover what could fit with your content goal, relevant to you not just random 4. Don’t just copy/paste, explore your creativity!

Exercise: We’d like you to think like a curator. Like a DJ, but working with images, and text, and stories, and information instead of samples and sounds. How do you collect interesting things that might be useful in your content marketing? How do you curate content? Do we have any bloggers in the room? Are you a marketing person who keeps a swipe file? Anybody use Pinterest boards to collect images? Bryan collects good article headlines in Evernote. Maddie collects links related to themes in her Humanize book on Scoopit and Tumblr.

#mmccon lk18 ok the swipe file idea made me think of Don Draper. Is there a Mad Men hip hop mash up opportunity here? — Stanton Barrett (@StantonJBarrett) June 4, 2013

3. Authenticity: Be Real

How this has been used in hip hop: crafting messages that represented truths about ghetto life – resonated with urban youth across the US

RESOURCE: Authenticity by Gilmore & Pine

Example: Dove’s campaign for Real Beauty – play short 1-3 minute viral video

Tactical breakdown: 1. Immerse yourself in your audience’s world 2. Completely understand their struggles 3. Speak and write in their language 4. Show vulnerability and imperfection 5. Or cheat and do like Dove – record your audience talking about their struggle, in their language, being vulnerable

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpaOjMXyJGk Exercise: Let’s just spend a couple minutes thinking about the real experiences of the people in your community. What do they care about? What do they struggle with? How could your content be more real, more emotional? We’ll just take a couple minutes. Write down some thoughts if you like. No need to share with anyone. 4. Storytelling: A Powerful Narrative

How this has been used in hip hop: writing lyrics that pulled the listener along from one line to the next, making them want to play the music over and over. Personal history, growing up in the projects, thug life – all powerful personal story themes.

RESOURCE: What’s Your Story by Matthews & Wacker

Example: Association Forum’s 2012 Holiday Showcase campaign – showed real people and why they wanted to come to the conference.

Tactical breakdown: 1. Explore how your story is relevant to members 2. Be sure to spotlight member stories 3. Cut the fluff, remember authenticity 4. Speak/write about real member challenges, desires, interests, emotions

Exercise: choose one or more types of media from the list (blog post, video, podcast, microsite, email newsletter, case study, ebook, etc etc). Your assignment is a membership drive campaign that involves member stories. You’ve got the authenticity part, right? So now you want to think about how to bring those stories to life. How to make them visually engaging, interactive, shareable, anything OTHER than a bunch of talking heads.

Authenticity resonates and tells a story. Immerse yourself in Your audiences world. What r their struggles and challenges #mmccon lk18 — Elizabeth Kistler (@lize36) June 4, 2013

We designed this session to try and model some of the things we talked about. We were in costume; we had props; we used audio and video clips; we incorporated different kinds of discussions.

This boom box, @maddiegrant, & myself will share lessons from Old School Hip Hop. 3:30pm, RM 150B #mmccon twitter.com/BryanKellyNow/…

— Bryan Paul Kelly (@BryanKellyNow) June 4, 2013

I know a lot of people loved it; we’re going to try and present this again at a few other conferences, most notably 14NTC next year. Thank you so much to those of you who were in attendance!

WORD to THAT! Thx @bryankellynow! RT@lize36 The music in this session rocks! Reason enough to be here #justsayin #hiphop #mmccon #LK18

— Paige Barfield (@webpaiged) June 4, 2013

———————

(photo credit)

———————-

This post contains a very cool slide deck. Click through if you can’t see it; you won’t be disappointed.

[Cool Infographic Friday] Periodic Table of Google Analytics

2013-06-07T11:04:38Z

Just because how cool is this???? Check out the interactive version on the Jeffalytics site here. Tip o’ the hat to Adam Singer for the find.

Courtesy of: Depth of Knowledge by Jeffalytics

BREAKING: Internet Media Labs Buys Tweetchat – Will Live On as SmartStream

2013-06-07T11:04:04Z

Remember this? Tweetchat, beloved app of every association for following their own conference hashtags and Twitter chats, confirmed that due to Twitter’s API changes the service would shut down on June 11.

Well, Internet Media Labs to the rescue!!

TweetChat.com has a new owner: Internet Media Labs.

Since the day an ominous message appeared across the top of TweetChat.com — “Twitter is changing the way services like @TweetChat deliver data to users. In the very near future, TweetChat will most likely be unable to continue to provide our service.” — IML has been in talks with Brooks Bennett, the creator of the beloved platform, to acquire it and make sure the site lives on.

Make no mistake — Brooks didn’t set out to sell the site. It was a labor of love, but the continuous changes to Twitter’s API meant continuous platform updates. And the sunsetting of the existing Twitter API meant the site as it is now would cease to work on June 11.

“There have always been requests to take the concept to the next level, and I am excited for the role OneQube’s SmartStream will play in filling this gap,” said Brooks, who agreed to sell the site to Internet Media Labs with the understanding that the application would be shut down and community migrated to oneQube #SmartStream. Brooks also is joining Internet Media Labs’ advisory board.

Now I have been playing with OneQube Smartstream for a while, and it’s pretty awesome (despite its confusing double name and occasional bugginess – but it’s brand new, so let’s give them some time to work things out). Either way this news is very, very welcome and I have high hopes!

As Brooks noted, the tools for real-time social discussions are growing up.

“The hashtag has gone mainstream,” he said. “Most commercials during primetime not only reference a brand’s social accounts, but they reference a hashtag for people to use to discuss their products. Brands don’t own the message anymore, they are part of crafting it, but the community at large has a big part to play.”

TweetChat – A New Purpose

Now TweetChat has passed the torch on to SmartStream, and we are humbled and pleased to carry it on. TweetChat will shut down as a chat platform June 10, as planned, but will relaunch June 11 as a content hub for everything about Twitter Chats and hashtags.

BIG SIGH OF RELIEF.

——————

(photo credit)