Can’t keep the secret any longer. Its probably clear to those who know me anyway. Increasingly he has been all but screaming it out from the rooftops.
Charlie Sheen is my father.
Most of you know that my company helps non profits and social enterprises develop effective communication strategies. We also help with the implementation of those strategies. So I was pretty excited when the organizers of Cultivate 2011 reached out and asked me to be a part of their very unique conference.
Rather than just getting experts to talk up front, they are bringing in a panel after each short talk to discuss implementation and contextualization. This is really a passion of mine and I am excited to help lead those discussions. Many friends and folks I really respect will be either speaking or a part of various panels including Charles Lee and Mark Horvath.
The line up appears to be geared towards the faith based sector but it is being marketed heavily towards the general non profit market as well. Regardless of which camp you fit into, if you are looking to better communicate, market, fund raise, etc I am quite certain that this will be a rewarding experience.
If you will be there, please let me know so we can be sure to grab a cup of coffee or some tequila.
Related events
Check out this amazing video on the value of social media for your organization. I first saw it on Michael Hyatt’s site.
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Below is a presentation I gave at the Unleashing Beauty Conference in Irvine, Ca this last week. I have embedded my slide show and put my notes, expanded and with links to various websites and webapps mentioned through out. If your organization would like to talk about a more personalized solution lets set up a time to talk.
Unleashing Beauty Online: the power of social media for social justice
1. Welcome
A. Who Am I?
a. freelance marketer and social web developer for the last year and a half
b. in process of launching intersection creative strategies
c. site lead for laundry love santa ana
d. husband, father of 2 kids under 3
B. What we are not discussing
a. philosophical or theological implications of social media
b. philosophical or theological implications of social justice
c. politics
C. Presuppositions I am starting with
a. Social Justice is a good
b. Social Media is ok (moral, legal, ethical, permissible, etc.) for churches, NPO’s and NGO’s to use
c. Social Media is a powerful tool for influence
d. You are here to learn HOW to use social media for social justice (ie: not to debate these other items)
2. Format
A. Not So Great Examples
B. Great Examples
C. Practical Steps
D. The Vision
E. Q&A
3. Not so great examples
A. Motrin
B. Social Media Gurus
C. Ning communities (w/ some exceptions)
4. Great examples
a. Mark Horvath
b. Invisible People
c. Road Trip
d. Impact
B. Twestival
a. a quick mention
b. a simple website
c. a few well placed mentions
d. press, npo’s and gov’t notice
5. Practical
A. The Right Platforms
a. Website/Blog
b. Facebook
c. Twitter
d. Other
B. The Right Tools
1. Ping.FM
a. Status updates to 30+ sites
2. Posterous
a. blogs, pics, links to 10+ sites
3. TubeMogul
a. video to 40+ video sharing sites
4. Twitterfeed
a. posting of rss feeds through twitter or ping.fm
5. TweetDeck
a. multiple saved twitter searches
b. keep track of conversations on twitter, facebook, even myspace
c. multi account posting and listening
d. columns for keeping track of friends, family, best donors, etc
6. Other
a. niche sites, geographic specific sites, etc
C. The Right Content
1. relevant
a. to your topic
b. to your demographic
c. to YOU
2. funny
a. funny spreads fast
b. funny gets people talking
c. funny keeps people coming back even when the big picture is bleak (ie sex trafficking, gang violence, etc)
3. personal
4. unique
a. not found elsewhere
5. shared
a. point people towards orgs, links, articles that are interesting or useful in your space.
6. universal
a. low cost of entry. if you want to get people to rally around something, make sure it is something they can rally around. don’t ask them to agree to a set of theological or philosophical propositions to join your movement. Don’t make it cost too much. 6. Vision
A. Worldwide Scope
B. Little Regulation
C. Little Cost of Entry
D. Viral Potential
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- Image via CrunchBase
I recently added Facebook Connect to this site. I have heard many arguments for and against this move so I thought I would take a few minutes to discuss my thought process.
First the negatives: Facebook has made it very clear that they own the data that sits on their servers. This is a HUGE negative for a lot of people.
Beyond that it also encourages people to pick up conversations off of your site. For ad driven or ecommerce sites this means, in some folks eyes (though not mine), less revenue for site owners.
The positives: Facebook is growing like a weed. Its at around 200 million users world wide and one of its fastest growing segments is women in their 30′s and 40′s, who are the primary decision makers in almost ALL household purchasing decisions.
Thats a lot of eyes.
It encourages people to keep talking about your content, to share your content with their friends, many of whom may have never heard about or seen your site otherwise. Not all will click through to your site, but some will.
Armed with this information, I decided to implement Facebook Connect. Have you? Why or why not? Feel free to plug your site if you have it. I would love to see how you integrated it.
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First and foremost I would like to apologize for being fairly absent around here lately. Between the site build, some client work, a conference and two rambunctious little boys I have been neglecting my writing, and that is bad, as I tell my clients all the time. I don’t have a good excuse, just exhausted and busy.
I was asked some advice on Twitter recently regarding a fairly specific situation. The person was not able to bring me on as a consultant at the time, but since talking to her I have been thinking about the scenario quite a bit. So, I thought I would share some insights into what I would do if I were in her situation. With her permission, some of our email correspondence is below. Think about a big dream you have and see what insight you can glean from her experience.
…For obvious reasons, [my small town] doesn’t allow for many bands to tour [in] the area. I am…a fan and devoted show goer when it comes to music…I’m willing to go to nearly any lengths to be present at shows, [though] i find that the general population of [people] my age don’t share the same drive that i do.
However, in recent months, there has been minor shifts to the music scene in my area. Most notably a sometimes venue, that’s all ages and cheap for the bands that are coming through, run by the university’s student body located on campus here in [town]. I was overjoyed at this development. But it seems that others were not as overjoyed as I.
Attendance is poor at best. I don’t want this place to go down in flames. I am not a student at the university so i can’t join the group. I’ve only briefly spoken with the guys who run the group, and i was kinda told to piss off. [This] isn’t a town that i have roots in, so I’m running into social road blocks. And since I’m kinda going at this on my own, i don’t know where to start.
Though i have been thinking of starting my own mini promoter job. But i don’t know how to go about that either…
So here is what I would do, if I was in that situation.
1. I would start a local music blog. Talk about all the local bands, venues, live music at the local bar, really try to be the authoritative source on music in my region. I would probably put a little cash into making sure it is awesome.
2. I would leverage social networks both online and in real life, to get to know everyone who is involved in putting on live music events in my area. The bands, the promoters, the venue owners and booking agents, all the players. I would use those connections to get more content for my blog and to plan more events. Interviews, insider tips, etc. Also, by helping get the word out on a massive scale about their shows, I doubt I would run into any more attitude from the University kids.
3. I would use Twitter Search, Facebook Events, Networks and Ads, Myspace Events, Locations, and Ads, as well as other tools (Backtype alerts, Google alerts, etc.) to find and connect with people in the area, who attend the schools, who already go to the shows, who like the bands, who like similar bands, who are in bands, etc and let them know about my blog.
4. As I continued to become the authority on the local music scene, I would then evaluate whether it was time to launch a full scale concert promotions and production company. If I was successful at the first three steps here, it would be a walk in the part to turn the connections and authority I had already gained into a thriving small business.
So there you have it. That is how I would go about starting a brand new concert promotions business in a small town with no support.
How would you start a new business in your space today? What tools would you use? What connections could you leverage? What is stopping you?
Twitter, Facebook, Blogs: Oh My!!!
by admin on May 23, 2009 · 4 comments
As I play with things on my site occasionally I actually do have a purpose and goal. It may seem random, but I am trying out new things to see what works best for small businesses, non profits and other organizations who I write this site to help as well as those who I advise in a consulting role.
With that I unveil my brand new commenting system. What follows are a few thoughts as to why I am making this switch.
This site had Backtype Connect implemented to pull in Diggs, FriendFeed comments, and any Tweets containing links to a given post. It worked very well, and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a quick and easy social media integration to your comments section.
That being said, when it came time to add Facebook Connect and Twitter OAuth, I have to add TWO MORE plugins. By swapping out WordPress‘ default comment system with Disqus I was able to get Comments, Social Media Comments, Facebook Connect, Twitter OAuth all in one relatively simple plugin.
The transfer process is in the works and we will see how smoothly the previous comments transition over, but for now it looks like I may just be a Disqus man.
So what does this mean for you and your organization? Well, it seems like Disqus could be a good way to go if you want to encourage social interaction around your content off site. If your primary goal is to drive traffic to your site only, Backtype Connect may be the way to go. It really boils down to your objectives for your site. It seems like both work incredibly well at intregating social media and your site.