New Media Academic Summit: NGOs -- Advancing Issues

Dan Morrison, 1Well.org

Doug Ulman, Lance Armstrong Foundation

Kira Marchenese, Environmental Defense Fund

Dan: peer-to-peer giving and lending platform -- they identify projects and partners in high-need communities around the world (sanitation facilities, childcare, etc.) that are small but have a huge impact on the community, such as $1000 for a water pump. "Social venture capitalists" -- people who mobilize their networks for a cause. Not trying to figure out how 1Well can use social media tools, but building a platform for others to use to start a conversation, drive to action. Give up control of the message and allow people to talk about you.

**Sees resumes that emphasize communication, branding, etc.; would love to see students who are trained in fostering dialogue

Kira: EDF is viewed as centrist and academic in approach, but not a field organization like Greenpeace or other NGOs. Social media not always a good fit -- for example, sometimes can't be transparent, as when they choose not to publicize members of Congress who are considering voting for a bill they're trying to build support for. Nonetheless they are committed to social media. For example, they've had modest success in membership because they have a consistent presence on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Their e-mail list is a more cost-effective way to communicate with and mobilize members, however, so this is still in an experimental phase. Another example: use social media to interact with reporters, corrected a mistake one made, etc. 

**Asked what students should know: People need training in what tools to use for what purposes (for example, proposing a Twitter campaign that's not personality based = not understanding Twitter)

Doug: everything has changed in the nonprofit field in the last 10 years. Example: a big database is obsolete -- they don't have a paper newsletter, don't use direct mail anymore. Two years ago a staff member suggested they should have a full-time digital person; he was a skeptic but they've found there's a core group of dedicated people that can be activated through social media (in other words, the number of people is less significant than how they use the tools). A staffer created a Twitter tutorial for their followers to explain how they can use Twitter to help promote the cause, and followed up with a conference call where people could call in to ask questions. Social media has allowed Lance Armstrong Foundation to be incredibly transparent. A donor gave $25,000 and asked that the foundation allow people to choose; so they did a Twitpoll that listed programs, and 16,000 people voted for which program to support.

**What students should know: There must be a personal and passionate approach; it's not about us (the organization) but about empowering people

Comments

[Denise]

Thanks for posting this Karen. Sounds like a great session! I'm glad to see that the EDF person said SM doesn't fit for everyone.

Reading through your text, looks like the ** text may have been cut off. True? I'm particularly interested in the response that Kira gave to the question about what students should know.

I hated to miss the sessions today, but got to the hotel last night to find a very sick child. I'll spare you the details, but we left a huge tip for the cleaning people :-(.

[Karen Russell]

Hmmm, something strange happened to the formatting there. Thanks for telling me.

It was very informative -- sorry you had to miss it. Hope your child is better!

[kira marchenese]

Hi, I'm happy to talk more about what I said students should learn more of!

To give a slightly more full version of the answer I gave last week -- when looking at traditional media, people are more likely to have a sense of, "That would make a great TV story!" or "Really, the best way to convey that is through and op-ed."

I'm not yet seeing the same sophistication in choosing social media channels. In the example mentioned here, an agency proposed a starting a Twitter account around an ad campaign where the star wouldn't actually tweet, it was only lasting a few weeks, and they didn't have a sense of what there was to tweet! However, there was some good video that accompanied the campaign, so we decided to focus on promoting that instead.

[Karen Russell]

Kira, thanks for expanding. I was running out of steam by the time the Q&A got going. :-P

One thing I spoke about the next day during the teaching session was that students seem to pick up on that pretty quickly when given a hands-on assignment. For example, some of my students did a podcast and then, when listening to it with the class, realized that their conversation was too long for that format. I think practice like that is more effective than me (or another instructor) telling them what to do.