It seems there may be a storm a brewing… or maybe (hopefully) a change in the nonprofit donation policy from Apple.
With Beth Kanter’srecentblogposts shining a light on Apple’ s policy barring solicitations of donations by nonprofits groups’ many nonprofit focused individuals as well as plain ol’ big heart-ed folks are getting behind a campaign asking Steve Jobs and Apple to change their ways. In fact, donation lovers to the tune of 6000+ (at time of post) have already signed a care2 petition asking Apple to ‘Support Our Great Nonprofits.â€
A Little Background
Jake Shapiro kicked the hornet’s nest a few months back with what Beth calls a ‘must-read editorial†outlining his position that Apple’s reasons for not allowing nonprofit donations aren’t reasons at all, but rather just excuses. Next, Beth threw down the gauntlet announcing when her contract is up she is switching to the more nonprofit friendly Android, where none of the in-App donation challenges apply (I, for one, am certainly in love with mine.) Finally, with the help of Sue Ann Reed from Care2, a petition was created and Beth is rallying the troops… ‘Send Steve Jobs A Message: Let Us Give Donations on the iPhone.â€
Well, if you are like most of the folks out there whose smartphone is becoming more and more a part of their lives and you would like yours to help you connect to the causes you care about… go sign the petition here >>
Then… we wait and observe. It will be interesting to see if a group of users can use the social media tools of today to make a company change their product and the way they do business. We keep saying in our social media trainings that marketing has changed to a two-way street… the power is now truly in the hands of the people. I am curious to see just how this one turns out?
UPDATE:We have a winner!! Congrats to Rebuilding Together San Francisco! We are beyond moved to learn about so many amazing nonprofits, thanks to all who participated – stay tuned for more upcoming NPO online marketing training!
In keeping with the feel good’ giving spirit of the season’ we want to help a non-profit with their web marketing efforts. We want to help an organization focused on doing good to do even more good by giving away 5 copies of ‘The Networked Non-Profit†as well as a half day ‘Social Media Book Camp†Training.
The Networked Nonprofit
Beth Kanter’s blog describes Networked Nonprofits as:
‘… simple and transparent organizations. They are easy for outsiders to get in and insiders to get out. They engage people to shape and share their work in order to raise awareness of social issues, organize communities to provide services or advocate for legislation. In the long run, they are helping to make the world a safer, fairer, healthier place to live.â€
Networked Nonprofits don’t work harder or longer than other organizations, they work differently… read the full post here >>
My Top 3 Take-Aways from the book are:
LOVE the very clear, direct way the book is written. Not full of fluff… it gets straight to the point and let’s nonprofits know what they need to be doing to be successful.
The examples make what can seem like an intangible topic very do-able.
My favorite thing about the book is it does not focus on the tools of today that may be gone tomorrow… it focuses on the fundamentals for how to use the social space to bring about change.
Wanna be a Networked Nonprofit… we wanna help!
How to Win
Enter to win by leaving a comment below and let us know:
What ‘Do Good†your Non-Profit is focused on.
What is one way you are using Social Media for your organization right now… not using Social Media right now? No problem. Let us know one way you see you could incorporate it in the coming year.
We will use a random integer generator to pick a winner on December 30th.
Training is available either here in the Schipul Office or in a webinar format.
Looking forward to reading what all kinds of Do-Good Stuff you guys are up to… so comment away and win!
We’ve seen it before. What looks like heckling in the comments section of a blog and snarky exchanges on Twitter can actually be signs of a deeper, more obnoxious reality – bullying and harassment.
Spawn by a series of teen suicides, cyberbullying has pushed its way into the national spotlight and conversation. The focus is generally on its effects on the youth, however this month’s Social Media Breakfast focused on examples of adults attacked online and asked us to take a look at what we can do to start a movement of “Online Civility.”
Guest speaker, Andrea Weckerle, founder and president of CiviliNation shared with the group how she found herself the target of online attacks and how those attacks effected her.
Gina Carroll, guest speaker and featured teen parenting blogger for Chron.com and Examiner.com, spoke on a common form of attacks seen online, mainly in the comments section of blogs and articles. She highlighted how anonymity is empowering for bullies and often the chosen persona for launching attacks.
Social Media Breakfast organizer Kami Huysen (@kamichat) also shared her own stories of being the target of online harassment, before grouping bullying into four categories:
Stakeholder Dissatisfaction – customer/client takes to the web against a company
Mob Mentality/ group-think – razzing someone because everyone else did it
Determined Detractor – trolling the web picking fights
Disturbing Stalker – …in real life and online…creepy and potentially harmful
With the categories in mind, she asked the group to offer suggestions for dealing with bullies on the web as a starting point for establishing general guidelines for civil behavior online.
She said, “We can’t legislate this, so we have to have a movement.”
Some of the suggestions include posting and enforcing blog policies, taking online threats seriously, and eliminating anonymity on blog comments through verification systems. To see more suggestions, visit the FB page for the event, and also add your suggestions.
The holidays just did a sideways skid into my life and it could easily become overwhelming. Really? It is December? Instead, I find it easiest and the most fun to fall back on three words brought into my life this year. Simple. Living. Technology. These words aren’t new or unique, but when I was able to combine them, my life began to hum.
For your holidays and Friday Fun, let’s take a couple for a spin.
Simple
Holiday Shopping can be an awesome excuse to buy for yourself or friends and loved ones. If you can’t find the greatest gizmo or gadget this year, then click on over to Lehman’s for some classic toys for kids (and you can send me a Sock Monkey or twelve if you must!). You won’t need batteries for this list, there are some classic games and hand made toys. Lehman’s is really best known for their Simple Living products. Their natural goods and old style tools help remind of what life was like before microwaves. Yep … there was life before microwaves, I am sure it was sweaty hard work, with little in the way of leftovers, and not nearly romantic, but it was there. Not ready to go that retro yet, but it is fun to see some of the nostalgic products.
Living
Living well doesn’t necessarily mean better than your neighbor. This year has brought a wealth of good things to our Houston lives for better living and sharing. One of my favorite ways to live well in Houston is with good food. You can experience locally grown food at one of the many Urban Harvest Farmer’s Markets, including the Sunday edition at Discovery Green. If you live under a rock, or haven’t ventured out to one of the many markets, you are missing out. Put something good in your body, buy locally and live well!
This weekend also marks a recurring event in the Heights. Go visit the 1st Saturday Arts Market for ideas and unique gifts. Get it, 1st Saturday? You can probably figure out when these are going to happen. But, for sure this weekend you can visit from 11am – 6pm and fill a bag full of goodies.
Technology
Farmer’s Markets and stuffed toys not for you? No worries, we can always fall back on Technology to help with the Holidays. Deal sites and social media accounts help navigate the overwhelmingness of Holidays. There is a brand new crop of coupon sites offering discounts and memberships. Between @Grouponhouston and Houston on the Cheap, you can stay local see what deals are the latest and greatest. Love food much? Houston Entree from My Table offers foodie deals to help keep up your strength during the holidays. Need more deals? Don’t forget your old school Woot for consistently good deals and laughs along the way.
Holidays are a great time of the year, just remember to keep it Simple as you head into the first full weekend of December.
PR Day 2010 was an amazing day of teaching and learning centered on Promoting Relationships, Surviving Adversity.
Ed was one of the presenters and spoke on BYOB: Build Your Own Brand. The presentation explores how PR professionals adapt to the changing media landscape and promote their strengths using self marketing and branding.
Overall takeaways from PR Day 2010
Katie:
My favorite part of PR Day this year was getting to hear Andy Lark (@kiwilark), Marketer from Dell, speak on the Virtual Web.
He had great things to say around major business shifts that are shaping the way we do business today. From companies doing away with travel budgets (opting instead to publicly post everyone’s expenses to use social pressure to monitor spending) to the ongoing growth of social media conversations and customer services – we are in a great new era to do business with actual people.
Dell has used blogs to great effect – particularly after the Buzz Machine blog crisis (link: http://www.buzzmachine.com/archives/cat_dell.html 😉 that turned from crisis communication to company triumph. Of particular note, Dell’s user supported forums save on average $90 a ‘that solved my problem’ click – meaning happier customers, great community feeling and major savings for their business.
The future of the web for business and personal use alike remains in video, but also in the creation of social currency and geo-targeted campaigns. Tools like Foursquare wouldn’t be as powerful without the gaming mechanics and sense of play, businesses should keep this in mind.
JJ:
My top take-away from PRSA Houston’s PRDay 2010 was from Keynote Speaker Paul Taaffe. With the numerical data to back him up, Taaffe spoke to the unbalanced allocation of communication resources to local markets in comparison to the markets themselves going global. The fastest growing countries both in population and economy are not the US, Europe, China or Japan’ they are emerging countries like India and Indonesia.
Taaffe’s presentation had me thinking about Daniel Pink’s ‘A Whole New Mind†which speaks to;
‘The era of ‘left brain†dominance, and the Information Age that it engendered, are giving way to a new world in which ‘right brain†qualities-inventiveness, empathy, meaning-predominate.â€
Pink writes about a needed change in what Americans’ (both companies and citizens) focus on in terms of income. Pink makes the case for a shift to ‘right brained†creativity and design as the thing that will allow us to continue to be a global economic leader.
One of the points in Taaffe’s presentation is the idea that one of the greatest assets Americans can bring to this transition towards a global community is our ingrained and intuitive skill at communication. I appreciate Taaffe offering a tangible item PR Professionals can offer to companies both over-seas and here at home as global companies establish offices in the States.
Iris:
My big take away from PR Day was that while technology and business continue to change with incredible speed, there are a lot of fundamental principles that haven’t changed at all. It’s easy to think about new technology in a vacuum, but we have to remember that people are still at the core of our modern economy, and that human beings are the ones creating the technology we consume on a daily basis. While the world evolves around us, our basic desires stay the same. We still crave human connection. We still want to express our opinions and be understood by our peers. We still enjoy healthy competition. Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare may be relatively new, but the reasons we like them are thousands of years old.
Kelsey Reuger addressed this issue during his talk ‘Is There an App for That?†It might seem strange to bring up anthropology when discussing iPhone apps, but Kelsey made it clear that it doesn’t matter how beautiful your app is, or how fancy the technology is. If your app doesn’t address a fundamental human need, or solve a basic problem, no one will use it.
As a PR professional, it is important to keep up with the times, and be knowledgeable about the technology your target audience is using. That is a given. But if that is all you think about, and you lose sight of what makes us all tick, you, or your client’s shiny new product will go unused.
My Thoughts on PR Day
PR Day had a lot to offer and I had three favorite parts: the lunch keynote with Paul Taaffe of Hill & Knowlton; the media panel; and the breakfast keynote Q&A with Culture Map editor Shelby Hodge interviewing PaperCity Magazine co-founder Becca Cason Thrash.
Paul Taaffe was by far the most compelling of my three favorites. He painted a very clear picture of how the rise of influence in emerging economies relates to how our global community is expanding and what that means for PR professionals. What it means: we’ll be faced with advising clients who are informed, well connected, self-publishers.
The media panel featured community relations director of Channel 39 Yolanda Green as the moderator and Houston Business Journal assistant managing editor Greg Barr , CultureMap’s Shelby Hodge, 29-95 editor Syd Kearney, and KUHF-FM business reporter Ed Mayberry as the panelist. They shared the biggest challenges they face: relevancy, operating on multiple platforms and determining print versus online content. Right now the answer to getting the message out with a changing media landscape isn’t clear, and it’ll be interesting to look back in five years to see how it transforms.
Finally, Becca Cason Thrash pioneered the Houston PR scene without even knowing how to type. Fast forward to today and she’s still a relevant figure in the philanthropic community as a fundraiser and event planner. Funny and charismatic…though not entirely easy to relate to (short version: we don’t exist in the same tax bracket) she represents one of the main aspects of public relations that will not change: persistence above all else.
Listening to the panelists and keynotes reminded me that technology has changed the way we interact but won’t be a substitute for the the crux of public relations: understanding, developing and maintaining relationships.
Jimmy Kimmel has named Wednesday, November 17, 2010 National Unfriend Day
NUD is a day where all Facebook users have the freedom to delete or “unfriend” people from their Facebook profiles that are not really their friends. We here at Schipul applaud Mr. Kimmel’s cause, and are here to help you get the most out of NUD this Wednesday.
For the purposes of this post, we’re going to use Dunbar’s Number, or 150, as a target for the number of friends you’ll have after participating in NUD. Although, we’ll let you go as high as 230 if you so wish. I will run through my own criteria for NUD, and give you an idea of how I will be dropping people from my own Facebook profile.
At the writing of this post, I have 408 friends on my Facebook profile. I have tried many times to keep this number below 300, but it would appear I have been remiss in my Facebook friend gardening. Before we go any further, It is important for you to be comfortable with the idea that you can and should regularly delete people from your Facebook profile.
We’re going to start out with a couple of groups of people that are sure to be easy targets for you to unfriend.
Networking No-No’s
We all add people when we’re networking whether it be professionally or socially. Oftentimes, nothing comes from that initial meeting, and these people sit on our profiles. You’ll see them pop up on your profile from time to time, and you really have no idea who they are. It is entirely okay to delete them. If you run into them again, and they mention it, simply tell them you were weeding out your friends list recently, and cut them. You can always add them back. If they get snippy about the whole thing, ask yourself if this kind of person you want on your Facebook profile anyway. Think about it.
If you do not can’t remember where or when you met them, UNFRIEND THEM!
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
Our next group to unfriend is pretty easy. These are the folks you’ve hidden from your Newsfeed. You may have done this when they went overboard with their political opinions during election season, you may have hidden them because they were going overboard with offensive, annoying or TMI updates. In any case, you’ve removed them from your Facebook kingdom, and you need to finish the job by deleting them altogether.
To find this group, scroll to the bottom of your Newsfeed, and click on Edit Options :
Next, if you’ve hidden people, they will appear like so in the box below.
If you don’t see them,UNFRIEND THEM!
High School/College Friends
I don’t know about you, but I am not all that close with a lot of my high school friends. It’s not that I don’t like them, but I just don’t really keep in touch with many of them. However, this is one of the scariest group of people for Facebook users, old and new, to deal with. “I joined Facebook, and all these people from high school started adding me!” “We weren’t friends in high school, but now they want to be my Facebook friend.”
This needs to stop, and I’m telling you it’s okay to say NO. Ignore the requests when they come in, and go through and delete anyone from your school days you don’t want on your profile. You don’t owe these people anything. If anything, I would highly recommend creating a friends group of your high school friends, so you can keep track of and/or limit their access. Facebook can be a great tool for staying updated on your old school friends, but it’s not the sole reason for using Facebook, nor does it make a good reason to be friends with someone.
You’re not in high school anymore, UNFRIEND THEM!
That covers the basic groups of people where you’re likely to find a good number of NUD candidates. I must stress to you that unfriending anyone is perfectly normal, justified and healthy. People can always be added back later, and you can always claim it was an accident. If someone continues to push you, I shouldn’t have to convince you why that isn’t someone you want on your Facebook to begin with.
To close, I’m going to give you the simple criteria I generally use when weeding out my Facebook friends. If the answer is no to any of these questions, they get the boot.
Do I talk to or see this person regularly?
Do I share special memories with this person?
Does this person frequently comment on my posts?
Do I frequently comment on this person’s posts?
Do I have a professional need to stay connected to this person?
Do I have a social need to stay connected with to person?
Is this person married to or dating a friend I am keeping?
Does this person’s posts provide me with news and information that is important to me?
Does this person have less than 1,000 friends?
Facebook is an incredibly powerful tool for you to manage and communicate with the important people in your life, but it quickly loses its effectiveness if you have too many friends. And there is no special badge you win for having the most friends within your social circle.
I’ll return on Wednesday with the final tally of my Facebook pruning. If you tweet, we encourage you to share your National Unfriend Day number with the hashtag #NUD.
Spread the word of this great day when you’ll take back your Facebook profile! The time to unfriend is NOW!
And when you’re finished unfriending, let Biz Markie bring it home.
UPDATE: As promised, I am back to reveal the number of people I unfriended on this glorious day of unfriendingness.
Today I unfriended 41 people on Facebook. I am actually pleased to know that I have about a 90% legitimate friend quotient on Facebook. I did learn a few things after writing this post, and having conversations on this topic.
1. People are sensitive. While I feel they are sometimes TOO sensitive, you must expect some push back from people. In my case, I’d say there were probably about 5-10 people that I could possibly expect some kind of negative reaction and/or situation to arise down the road. So be it, life goes one, it’s not personal, it’s just Facebook.
2. Friends on Facebook do not equal friends in real life. The most shocking thing to me was how many of my friends seemed to fear that I was going to unfriend them. These were people that I wouldn’t EVER dream of unfriending, yet they made comments suggesting they were worried. This tells me we put too much and too little value on these online connections. Or, more importantly, we cannot rely solely on social media to maintain our closest relationships. It greatly bothers me that I would be connected to someone I don’t know or care about at the expense of my cherished relationships.
3. Unfriending feels good. Sure it might get messy, but tell me of a time you’ve cleaned something where you didn’t come out with a little dirt on you. Life goes on, it washes off, but you’re standing in the middle of a clean room that you know you’ve worked hard to look this way. Now, if only we could keep it clean ALL THE TIME.
I hope you take some time today to edit your Friends list on Facebook. In the end, I am certain there are a good number of people who you can delete for any number of valid reasons. Remember, if you don’t know or trust everyone on your friends list, they may leave you and your friends open to harm through scams and viruses.
In a way, unfriending people is a favor to your remaining friends. Think about it.
I got an email in my in-box last week from Schipul’s own Ms. Katie Laird with a quick note letting me know the up-coming NetSquared Houston Meet-Up might be of interest to me… let’s just say, long story short… HappyKatie knows me well indeed.
For those who have not heard of NetSquared before:
NetSquared is focused on the intersection of technology and social impact. We create opportunities for all those involved in creating change to connect: whether you are a nonprofit or a foundation, a designer or a developer, a changemaker or an entrepreneur.
The Houston NetSquared Meetup is focused on ‘Social changemakers and technological forerunners coming together at Net Tuesday events to mix, swap stories and ideas, build new relationships, and reinforce the online NetSquared community.â€
Ryan (Ryan Marsh, president of the Layla Grace Foundation) speaks geek and can talk to the more technical challenges facing online non-profit organizations from a technology and a human perspective.
Having spent a lot of time over the last 15 years involved with Non-Profits, I can say the way they function has changed substantially over the last 3-5 years with society’s rapid adoption of new technology and the introduction of Social Media into the mix. In order for a NPO to stay viable, I believe they have to passionately embrace technology and the social-sphere in order to overcome challenges, meet goals, and, most importantly in today’s economy, do more with a LOT less.
The Layla Grace Foundation was founded by Ryan and Shanna Marsh in April 2010 in honor of their daughter Layla Grace Marsh who gained her eternal wings on March 9, 2010. You can learn more about the foundation at their site: http://laylagrace.org/ . With more than 16 thousand Facebook Fans, I was keen to hear what a very successful and VERY young Non-Profit had to say about the technology choices they had made.
Ryan did a wonderful job of balancing the very tender topic of childhood cancer with talking about the tech tools the Layla Grace Foundation has used to serve their mission:
“The Layla Grace Children’s Cancer Research Foundation is a non-profit organization focused on the discovery of new treatment options for children with high-risk cancer. We empower parents with the tools to become effective advocates for their children and raise public consciousness about our cause.”
In fact, Ryan offered up such a phenomenal top 10 list for Non-Profit Technology choices’ I was taking notes like a mad woman in order to be able to share them here. What I really like about this list is that it came from someone who has a history in the Tech Industry and has also tested, evaluated, tried and failed fast with a lot of the technology options out there today. This is a tried and true list of options that have floated to the top of the list for a functioning Non-Profit Organization and it can save other organization out there a lot of time and money.
So, without further ado, here is the Non-Profit Top 10 Tech Tools Recommended by the Layla Grace Foundation:
Gathers and stores audience information from everywhere
Want to know who you are talking to? Check them out in Flowtown.
My biggest take-away from the evening was not actually one of the items on Ryan’s list. It was a suggestion for what Ryan referred to as essential reading for any organization looking to raise funds online (who is not?!)… I will be ordering and consuming Jakob Nielsen’s ‘Donation Usability: Increasing Online Giving to Non-Profits and Charitiesâ€
For any Non-Profit out there looking to hone their technology skills or wade through the over-whelming options… the above list is great way to getcha started.
Looking for more helpful tech tips and tricks to help your Non-Profit succeed? Well, come on and join us at Net Tuesday!
I tried to defect from Facebook, but they kept pulling me back. Now that I’ve seen The Social Network, and two incredibly cool new additions to the site, Facebook Groups and Data Portability, I don’t think I’ll ever leave.
Facebook Groups
Data Portability
What it all means
Facebook Groups
With the new Groups design, users can customize their online experience on the public site with private group options. Anyone on Facebook can create a group. Then they have the option to make the group “Open,” “Closed” or “Secret.” The great thing about this feature is your privacy settings are maintained and only friends can add you to a group.
Other great things about the new Groups feature is the ability to create Group Docs that can be edited and viewed by all group members, as well as the Group Chat function that allows users in the same group to have an open discussion, (individual or private chats are still restricted to Friends so group members who are not friends are only able to chat within the public group chat).
Some not so great things about the new Groups design: it opens up the possibility of cyberbullying, which flies in the face of efforts like the It Gets Better Project, a series of video messages created to encourage GLBT individuals in crisis.
With the ability to create exclusive and secret groups, it’s hard to exercise control over targeted acts of meanness. We’ll see what happens though.
The Facebook Help Center provides details about the new Groups design including how to create and join a group, or leave and delete one.
Data Portability
Raise your hand if “data portability” translates to I can get it on my phone.
Yeah. My hand is up, too. But that’s not what it means.
Data portability means a copy of your carefully crafted Friends list, Groups, Wall Posts and Photo Albums can be accessed outside of Facebook.
According to AllFacebook.com, the feature creates a mini website on your own computer that allows you to click through, view and access all your profile data, messages, pictures, and more.
What It All Means
Overall, the new Groups design and data portability means Facebook is still growing and changing. (To quote the movie, “It’s like fashion. It’s never finished.”)
More specifically, it means users will have more control over what we can do with the information we share on the site and with whom we share it within the walls of the site.
The design was a fun one, incorporating their updated branding and using new template designs to differentiate between the bi-annual events different Houston locations. Be sure to stop by the Bayou City Art Festival site to say hi, connect with the crew on Twitter (@houstonartfest) and head over to downtown Houston on October 9th – 10th for a fantastic event!
Additionally, Facebook made changes to its photo albums, including photo browsing on a single page that let’s users view thumbnails of all photos in an album on just one page. Also, they’ve added a new tagging feature akin to Picasa’s face recognition tagging. Now when users upload a photo of a friend, they’re prompted with a question,” Who’s face is this?”
Before, photo viewing wasn’t entirely cumbersome, but the feature is a pleasant addition that makes photo viewing that much better. Considering photos are a large portion of traffic on Facebook, any improvements to this area of the site are welcome.
Flexibility in Updating Privacy Settings
And with Facebook’s ever enduring privacy battles, the makers of the social networking site have made it easier for users to access and change their privacy settings from any device. Prior to this, users would need to be logged into the site online to make changes to their privacy settings. Considering you can do much of anything from a mobile device, it’d be handy to be able to change or update the important stuff from a mobile device as well.
Now, instead of waiting until their home, a Facebook user can disable the feature of Facebook places that lets friends “tag” their location as well…which definitely decreases the likelihood of someone being in two places at once.
Noticed any cool/disturbing/noteworthy updates to facebook? Feel free to share ’em in the comments!
Holiday Shopping can be an awesome excuse to buy for 
