Sometimes the best video comes from authentic voices, not fancy equipment.

Video is one of the fastest-growing attractions on the Web. It brings new viewers to your site and can engage potential donors in new ways. So how can non-profits make the most of this valuable medium? I was really struck by Avaaz.org’s use of video to demand action. The example is not a new one, but it teaches some evergreen lessons to non-profits everywhere. Namely:

1. Great video doesn’t require expensive equipment.
   Sometimes the most compelling videos are the ones shot with Web cams in someone’s basement. The message is what is important, not what is used to take the video. I think with non-profits this is especially relevant. Often if it looks like you’ve spent too much money on the production of the video, people will discount the cause as frivolous. When you have low-grade but very compelling video, you’re making the case that your effort is going toward the important stuff-not the administration and overhead.
2. The way you send out your videos to the world makes a big difference.
   The e-mail Avaaz.org sent to petition videos (below) is compelling because it is clear, it leads with a problem we can all understand, and it gives readers clear, and very doable, action steps. It is also short.
   Here’s the e-mail, thanks to Autoscopia:

The world food crisis is skyrocketing – steadily rising prices are squeezing billions and triggering food riots from Bangladesh to South Africa. Aid agencies say 100 million people are facing starvation.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/5.php?cl=94029425

In response, the United Nations is convening an emergency summit of world leaders in Rome this week. There is a real danger that rich country leaders will push half measures and band-aid solutions – we need a huge global outcry to demand rapid, massive, coordinated action.

The head of the UN, Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, will receive our petition at the summit at 9:30AM on Wednesday morning. This is a huge opportunity for our voice to reach our leaders directly, but we need half a million voices in the next 60 hours.

Click below to sign the petition, and then tell your friends and family: http://www.avaaz.org/en/world_food_crisis/5.php?cl=94029425

Too often non-profit organizations try to fit too much information in e-mails and press releases. It is much better to follow the model of Avaaz.org . Explain the problem clearly, and then give people a way to make a difference.

If your audience wants to learn more about what you do, they’ll figure it out on the rest of your Web site.

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Buzz often starts with a great story. When Americans heard about the tragic 7.0 magnitude earthquake in Haiti, there was a lot of buzz. And one group that did an excellent job of turning that buzz into bucks was Hope for Haiti. They used social networking sites to encourage chatter, they brought together major celebrities for a benefit concert, and they presented transparency on their Web site, by assuring potential donors that their 100% of their money will be spent on the relief effort.

In sum, they followed seven keys to inspiring word of mouth:

1. They had an excellent story–it was a tragic event of historic proportions. And everyone was talking about it, and how they wanted to help.
2. Their supporters could show their involvement in a visible way–by donating and then asking their friends to do the same.
3. They offered something new to talk about–more than 100 world-famous celebrities gathered for a star-studded benefit concert.
4. They let their supporters be creative by donating through any possible medium–text message, tweet, Facebook causes, and more. They asked for people’s involvement and organized volunteers interested in rolling up their sleeves and helping in Haiti.
5. Anyone could participate.
6. In return, donors were given thanks and could feel that they became part of an unprecedented donation drive.
7. They made it clear how to spread the word–every badge, button and highlight on the Web site leads visitors to either donate or encourage others to do so.

In all, the power of the buzz brought in $57 million in donations, which will be used to help a nation recover from a disaster that left more than 230,000 dead, 1 million homeless, 380,000 orphaned, and 63 million tones of rubble in its wake.

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Look out folks, it's on the rise.

Foursquare is what some in social media circles are calling the Twitter of 2010. It is a social media game that rewards you for logging your location at any point in the day.  Eating a burrito? Tell the world where and when! The more you do, the more “badges” you earn. If you are the person who has logged the most visits to a specific place on Foursquare, you will win the additional honor of becoming the “mayor” of that location. Smart locales are playing along and giving out freebies to their “mayors.” Taste D-Lite lets customers accrue extra points on their TastiRewards cards for Foursquare check-ins and tweets.

From January 2010 to February, Foursquare passed the 1 million mark on Twitter (you can opt to have all your posts on Foursquare automatically post on your Twitter stream as well). In that month’s time, the number of check-ins doubled–showing remarkable promise. It list of seed-money investors include some of the most innovative minds in social media, including Digg Founder Kevin Rose, who endorsed the site to the tune of $1.35 million.

Some cite the brilliance of Foursquare in the fact that real-life social interactions become a virtual game. The person who wins the game is the person who is best able to show the world that he/she has the most interesting life.

So why do I think it’s such a bad idea?

Don't people realize the power they are giving to others when they reveal their whereabouts & spending decisions?

Because so far, the only benefit I can see in Foursquare for the common man–the Joe-the-Plumber, if you will–is that it’s entertaining.

Who really wins in Foursquare? Marketers, big businesses, anyone hoping to use your personal information to make  buck…oh yea, and the FBI. And trust me, there are bucks to be made in this. I hate to be a fear-monger here. I swear, I’m not one of these “all change is bad” people. I am a quick adapter. Half my family has me to thank for their Facebook pages. But I also believe that information is power. And by making public every location where we spend money, we are giving incredibly powerful information away for free.

Twitter, which some would argue does the same thing (see cartoon on left), you have the option to generate meaningful conversations (albeit short ones), show off expertise, track breaking news, donate to a cause, and much more. You can also remain anonymous if you need to (on Foursquare, you can’t be a “mayor” unless you’ve posted a profile photo). No one ever needs to know your location in order to tweet.

Time for the Twitter vs. Foursquare Face-Off

Looking at this from a different angle, let’s take John Bell‘s five key questions to determine the viability of a new technology as a “groundswell” threat.

• Does it enable people to connect in new ways? – Yes, both Twitter and Foursquare present creative connection tools for people around the world.
• Is it effortless for people to use and signup? Yep. and Yep.
• Does it generate enough content to sustain itself? You bet.
• Is it an open platform? Of course.
• Does it shift power from institutions to people? This is the key question. In Twitter, the answer is an unequivocal YES. During the Iran elections, voices resonated worldwide because Twitter gave them a mobile platform. With Foursquare, I would argue that the institutions are the ones who still hold the power. Users feed information that otherwise would have been painstakingly cataloged by expensive marketing research firms and sold to big businesses in order to improve their bottom line. At most, you could argue that it shifts power from big institutions to smaller institutions. Those mom-and-pops shops who can’t afford market research can log into Foursquare and see what kinds of people are coming regularly, and try to capitalize on them.

My question is: Do the benefits outweigh the negatives? With Foursquare, they do not.

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What do you think about the longtime debate of how society is impacted by the Internet? Are we all doomed to bowl alone?

Craigslist and outdoor markets both form communities, but in very different ways. Many would argue that a physical community will always be stronger than a virtual one, but even the biggest fear-mongers for the evils of technology admit to a certain cohesion that forms online.

Robert Putnam is famous for arguing that technology is eroding society. In a review of Craigslist, however, he opens up the definition of community to something that can be meaningful–even when when entirely virtual. The paper ends with a quote from Craig Newmark:

People started telling me that they felt connected in some kind of community

sense. I used to be doctrinaire about definitions and I didn’t feel it was

a community site, but I eventually said, if people feel connected, it must be

a community.

So how does your definition of community change when all the interaction is online?

I had a recent experience that made me think of community in a new way. I was eating breakfast with my sister, her family, my husband and my in-laws at a popular outdoor market in my neighborhood when my husband got a call on his cell phone. “Do you have a white dog with black spots?” Our stomachs flipped as we ran over to the place where we had tied our dog. She had snapped the metal clasp on her leash and attacked another dog in this very busy outdoor farmer’s market. One woman had broken up the fight and had blood on her hand. Completely oblivious, our dog was lying on her back, wagging her tail as two policemen and a crowd of people surrounded her.

As I spoke with the policemen and the woman who had broken up the fight, different people from the market came up to me, incredibly upset at my dog and wishing horrible things on her. Other people put their arms around me and responded to the people who were yelling. All of these people were complete strangers. But they were also members of my neighborhood “community.”

In all, everything worked out ok. No dog or person was hurt, the policemen moved on and so did we.

But it left me with a tangible sense of this word “community” that we hear so much about. When people care so much about their neighborhood that they will yell at a stranger for violating the peace, that makes a community. When others strangers will comfort each other and speak for someone they think is getting the short end of the stick that does feel like community.

Does this type of community form online?

How do you define community? What communities do you feel most strongly connected to?

Much of what I have observed online is like-minded individuals forming online communities. The backlash for those who express alternate opinions is often biting. People can be very harsh online.

Additionally, it’s much easier to skip out of an online community, than a real one.

That said, Craigslist truly does form a community of diverse individuals after a common goal. Without Craigslist, my house would be sparsely furnished. And I would never have met as many people in my neighborhood without it.

So what do you think? Can the word community be used in the same way for the organization online and your physical neighborhood?

What does “community” mean to you?

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Perhaps one of the reasons I like social media so much is because it seems to go against the very foundation of traditional marketing practices. Reading Forrester Research’s “Groundswell” you almost feel like you’re reading a self-help book for how to be a good friend rather than a book on how to launch a successful social media strategy. Succeeding at social media is all about being authentic, patient, flexible, a good listener, humble, and collaborative (I’m not making this up–that list is lifted straight from the conclusion of the book).

An illustration of my Mad Men avatar making a presentation on how to adapt traditional marketing to social media.

Contrast this with AMC’s portrayal of traditional advertising through their hit series Mad Men and you’ll understand why social media has old-school marketers in a tizzy. Don Draper is the king of advertising at the New York marketing powerhouse at the “Sterling Cooper Advertising Agency.” He knows best and confidently convinces clients of the right strategy, dazzles execs with daring designs, and woos women with his debonaire style and poise.

Don Draper wouldn’t last a minute in today’s social media market. For one, his credibility would be shot as soon as a blogger revealed his dirty little secret that he is able to hide from his clients, colleagues, friends, and even his wife. In the world of social media, often your efforts to hide something make a story blow up as a bigger scandal than if you had let the information go public yourself. Take Digg Founder Kevin Rose’s decision to remove a link to a blog detailing the copyrighted processing key code to HD-DVDs. The community fought back. In a matter of days the code was posted on more than 3,000 sites. The fact that Kevin had removed the link became the news. Kevin gave up, and blogged about his decision. The next day, there were 605 news stories about the incident.

Don would also have to learn that before you can be successful in the world of social technology (what Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff call “the groundswell”), you have to be willing to fail big and keep your plan flexible. It’s important to focus on the relationships and the conversation you are provoking in your community more than on the shiny new tools you are using. You can’t get enamored with new technology without first finding a way that it fits into your overall strategy and meets a specific need of your community.

Why do I get the feeling that Joan would have understood the groundswell better than her male colleagues?

Li and Bernoff recommend working to understand your audience before doing anything to engage them. It is is essential to understand how your targeted audience participate in the groundswell – are they creating content, commenting on existing content, reading content only, or disconnected completely (and note that according to Forrester’s latest research, 18 percent of U.S. internet users want nothing to do with social media). They recommend starting with a POST Method — considering the people you hope to reach, your objectives and how you will measure them, your end-game strategy and then finally, when all other factors have been well determined: the technology.

Also unlike the self-absorbed branding practices of Mad Men’s heyday, the groundswell will see through bullhorn brand broadcasting in an instant. Social marketing has to be more subtle and integrated into a product the people find value in. This explains an increase in product placement on sites, TV shows, movies etc. The groundswell is savvy to the in-your-face marketing that brings Don Draper his glory. If the people sense you are out to sell something, they will go elsewhere. Sites like beinggirl.com do this seamlessly–they sell Tampax and Always in a non-obtrusive manner while providing American pre-teens a space to have real conversations and just be themselves.

Finally, Don would need to understand that part of being successful in the groundswell is not just asking for people’s opinions because you want them to see yours. You have to put the community’s contributions to good use. Bell Canada does this well with their community tool ID-ah! The community allows employees to suggest improvements, then vote for their favorites. The top-voted ideas are then implemented–showing employees that the online community is more than just a place to vent.

So Don, if you or any of your contemporaries are out there, remember that social media marketing is nothing like advertising forty years ago. Today it’s all about provoking great conversation, showing the community you are what you say you are, and truly listening to what others have to say. If you do that, the groundswell will reward you.

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