social media

This weekend, I will be co-presenting a full-day workshop with colleagues Mark Marosits and Monica Strachan. Our team has presented extensively on public health, emergency preparedness, behavior change and social media, but this special all-day Learning Intensive presented in association with the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting will explore new case studies and recommended best practices for using technology to advance program objectives.

This presentation comes on the heels of a successful speaking engagement at the Colorado Nonprofit Association’s Fall Meeting, where Mark and I presented on “Social Media and Online Collaboration: Sharing Resources, Gaining Strength”. There are countless “Social Media 101″ sessions available for interested parties, and we sought to focus on a possible application for social media (collaboration) rather than the specific tools themselves. This different approach was well-received by attendees who already felt fairly comfortable with the tools and were looking for “the next step”.

The Learning Institute will capitalize on the strengths of the three presenters: Mark, as a senior marketing strategist, Monica as a public health professional interested in measurable outcomes, and my background in the social media/technology space. I am looking forward to the depth of the presentation and am confident attendees will get what they hope from the session.

Tagged as: apha, canpo, presentations, social media, training

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This morning I woke up to drive in rush hour traffic, almost not even aware of what day it was, when I saw a flag at half mast. As I looked at my phone to see the time, I realized it was Friday, September 11.

Quickly, my mind turned to that day, eight years ago. I was at my college, waiting for the doors to open outside of the Journalism lecture hall. As usual, there were televisions broadcasting news everywhere in the Journalism building, and I barely paid attention to them as I was usually catching up on last minute reading before class.

As the doors opened, and I entered class, there was the giant screen, with the image of the second plane crashing into the Twin Towers.

It was dead silent and I was in complete shock.

Like me, many Americans remember exactly where they were that day, what they were wearing, who they were with – and social media is giving all of us a chance to share our memories, accounts of lost loved ones and experiences that happened eight years ago today.

On Twitter (), numerous hashtags are being used to remember 9/11. I encourage all of us to remember, share and join together in remembering those who lost their lives, and those (like many of us who were young) that lost a big part of their innocence that day. Here are some of the most popular hastags of the day:

#whereiwas is being used to share accounts of where tweeters were when the attacks occured

#remember911 is a tag for sharing memories, opinions, sentiments and general feelings

#neverforget is being used to remember those who lost their lives on that fateful day.

Tagged as: 9/11, rememberance, social media, twitter

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An Israel university student is using the popular social networking service, Twitter, to help people Tweet God.

Alon Nir, a resident of Tel Aviv, takes the prayers which are sent via direct link on Nir’s Twitter site, prints them out and drives to Jerusalem to put them into the crevices of the Western Wall. The Western Wall is a Jewish holy site that faithful believe provides a direct line to the Almighty.

Nir promises to deliver the prayers — each no longer than a tweet’s maximum 140 characters — on a regular basis.

Tagged as: Digital Activism, social marketing, social media, social networks, twitter

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Do Good
This awesome ipod/iphone app unites millions of users to do one random act of kindness a day.

The application is appropriately called “DoGood”. Each day the application displays the same “DoGood” to every user on a particular day. Once you’ve completed the DoGood, simply press done.

Social Media Integration
Facebook and Twitter integration allows you to easily tell your friends about each day’s DoGood. You can leave a story on each DoGood, or read the stories of others.

Tracking Social Change
DoGood collects statistics from the group anonymously, and presents them on a graphical dashboard allowing you to easily track each day’s activity. Moreover, you can view past DoGoods and their respective stories.

Join the movement:
http://mobil33t.com/dogood

Tagged as: behavior change, cause, cause creative, Digital Activism, Facebook, healthy people, Healthy Places, public health, social marketing, social media, social networks, twitter

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Are you a photographer, or just interested in photography? Are you an activist, or someone who likes to be aware of global situations that are often ignored by mainstream media? If so, I recommend you visit Socialdocumentary.net, a website featuring documentary photography from around the world. The site showcases beautiful, engaging, shocking and sometimes heartbreaking images exploring global human condition.
Nearly anyone is able to submit photos – professional and amateur photographers, journalists, NGOs and anyone with a story to tell are encouraged to showcase their photographs and share them with the world.
According to the site, the goal of this website is “to make our lives richer and more informed about issues affecting us and our world today. Powerful photographs can also lead to meaningful change in the lives of ordinary people. SocialDocumentary.net provides tools for photographer to inform viewers how to take action—either by supporting NGOs doing work on the issues, or by engaging in direct political action.”
I encourage you to take a look at this touching and educational website and if you can, submit. I hope it motivates us all to take a closer look at our surroundings, our communities and our world, and share what we find with others in order to educate, and inspire each other to make our world a better place to live.

Tagged as: activism, blogging, Digital Activism, documentary, global awareness, photography, Social Documentary, social media

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On June 19th, Tonya Peters and I will be presenting at the Social Marketing in Public Health conference in Florida. We will be combining our areas of expertise (behavior change, social media) to discuss How Social Networking Sites Impact Behavior.

Abstract

Influence. Persuade. Convince. Countless words have been written about the art of deliberately and directly influencing people to change their behavior, but what are we overlooking that can help us get our job done? Social networks are not new to those seeking to mobilize resources and impact change but in an evolving era of online interaction, social networking sites also have significant implications for social marketers and how they can inadvertently impact the way people act.

Learner objectives

At the conclusion of this session, the learner will be able to:

1. Describe how social networking sites serve as a tool for social marketers and can enhance social marketing campaigns.
2. Understand how behaviors are influenced by social norms within a social networking site.
3. Identify and leverage the right social networking site elements to help meet behavior change and programmatic objectives.

Significance and Implications for Social Marketing

Social networking by its very nature segments audiences into groups with similar preferences and interests. Social marketers can leverage these networks to position and promote their message, engage dialogue and model behavior change in both implicit and explicit means. Trust and reputation are strong influencers in an individual’s decision-making process and are key factors in reducing the perceived or real costs to a specific behavior. By participating in a social networking site, individuals may find themselves unwittingly modifying their behavior to both model and adhere to the societal norms established within their social circle.

We are limited to a half-hour time slot, which will obviously not be sufficient to share all our insights on this topic. We will continue to elaborate on this topic on this blog as time goes on.

Tagged as: behavior change, conference, social marketing, social media, speaking

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Katie Reider was a singer/songwriter from Cincinnati, Ohio. She passed away from a rare tumor in July, 2008, leaving her partner and their two sons struggling with medical bills and broken hearts.

This past weekend, thousands of former fans across the country pulled together to show their support in what is being called “The World’s Largest Tweet-Up.”

According to Tweets raise money for Reider family from Cincinnati.com:

The online effort, called The World’s Largest Tweet-Up, generated $1 per tweet from a local donor who wishes to remain anonymous. On Monday, that donation was upped to $3 per tweet.

The money goes into a fund for her family.

The Tweet-Up campaign has been extended to the end of Tuesday , said Raymond Buse III, one of the organizers. The goal is to raise $5,000 for the family, he said.

Social media makes it easy to promote a message or offer support for a cause. It takes only a matter of moments to tweet, and yet the gesture can be significant. In this case, not only is there the opportunity for more people to learn about Katie and her music, but also to help her family through the donations coming in. Lower the barriers for people to help promote or support you, and you will be amazed at the results.

If you wish to know more about Katie Reider and her life, you can also visit 500Kin265.org, a website established in May, 2008 to help share Katie’s story and music even after the tumor robbed her of her singing voice. If you tweet, please take a moment to visit http://tweetup.spotlets.com and tweet your support for Katie and her family.

Tagged as: awareness, Digital Activism, fundraising, social media, twitter

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In Online Spin, Joe Marchese offered some good and pretty straughtforward advice about what kind of advertising gets results in online social media.

Marchese advises that social media advertising should include:

Interaction — meaning REAL interaction, not just a link to a landing page. Something that really involves the audience.
Customization — let “them” (the audience) put their stamp on your brand;
Socialization —Marchese states: “Advertising can start conversations, not always between the brand and a consumer, but between two consumers… People want to have a reason to talk to each other; … if your advertising creative induces two people to start a dialogue … users will love you for it.”

I think Marchese is right, and has simplified a formula that works for all online media and has been being used for social marketing campaigns all around the world. Because what we all work to do is create behavior change through inspired conversations, engaging messages and allowing people to put their touch on your message by using the information we give them to make a change in their lives or others.

So, as a unique form of marketing, advertising and communications, would our advice to social media advertisers be different? What can we teach the advertising world?

Tagged as: advertising, best practices, cause creative, social marketing, social media

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I love what ASAE & The Center have to say about Associations, “Groups of people who find strength in numbers while sharing common interests in industries, professions, charities, hobbies, or philanthropic action … Associations (or Organizations, Coalitions, Alliances, Networks, etc.) are founded upon the principles of democracy, volunteerism, and common interest that are the heart of the American experience.” Social Marketers are demonstrating that heart right now – rallying to add credibility to a discipline that can dramatically accelerate creating healthy people and healthy places. 

As a public health professional working in government, I decided I wanted to “do public health more efficiently” and launched into the world of Social Marketing over 6 years ago.  What I found was a group of smart, passionate and creative people that can make change happen.  Recently, Craig Lefebvre sent a message to the Social Marketing List Serve, The Future of Social Marketing: A Call for Collective Engagement for the Creation of a Global Organization, requesting petition signatures to support a plan of action that will help advance the discipline of Social Marketing.  I encourage each person that cares about positive social change – to sign up to support the effort.  I am very excited about what the future of Social Marketing has in store for all of us!

Tagged as: democracy, healthy people, Healthy Places, peer groups, social marketing, social media, volunteerism

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