18/02/2010

@stevebridger

#freshnetworks

Putting your people at the heart of your social media strategy

@stevebridger

I help charities unlearn stuff and trust more of their own

people to build relationships online that support collaboration,

transparency, advocacy & philanthropy

@stevebridger

This is the brief story of a fictional* not-for-profit in a time of accelerating turbulence

* any resemblance to your own organisation is purely coincidental

Our story begins as the boundaries of traditional charities were under assault by new patterns of communication and association...

from the 19th century

Until now our charity had control

events

print

email

website

aged 54.5

the BRAND

closed

...in the 20th century, donors remained donors

...and everyone knew their place in the hierarchy

@stevebridger

But it was becoming more difficult to reach people with a message that was not carried by their own networks

me

your website

family

plotting

@stevebridger

They had seen the water buffalo movie and participated in flashmobs. It had registered that the web did not like ‘middlemen’ that much, and that they were standing in the middle

beneficiary donorcharity

enabled by tech

@stevebridger

The web of ‘flow’ and ‘instant’ campaigns

The web of ‘pages’ and top-down campaigns

They decided to reach out to people in a way that wasn’t just marketing

@stevebridger

me

your website

family

plotting

They began to catch people ‘in motion’ - when they were ‘goal orientated’

50% more ‘user-generated’ events in 2009

compared to 2008

my cause

http://www.flickr.com/photos/paulgi/280789933/

They grew bigger ears and listened to what communities were saying and doing

@stevebridger

Then some people realised that all the new stuff* was also disruptive and transformative inside the

organisation

* let’s call it ‘social media’

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not

understanding it”Upton Sinclair

@stevebridger

but some key people also resisted...

and even wanted to lock everything

down & increase brand control

@stevebridger

Leaders were persuaded that it was still all about relationships and they saw mass participation as an

opportunity to create value, rather than a threat to their own existence

...and if you ban Twitter or Facebook

you shut off the ability to make new

connections

http://www.flickr.com/photos/edublogger/715455592/

and that they wanted to sustain these

conversations

@stevebridger

...by thickening the texture of these relationships over time through letting go

texture

They heard about Zappos.com (among others) distributing trust

@stevebridger

...and how even accountants can tweet

@stevebridger

only 29% of companies have a social media policy

Still the legal people had mixed feelings about this...

...so they adopted some

guidelines

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jkonig/385851325/

@stevebridger

...but by treating social media as just another channel, they created a

bottleneck as communication funnelled via a handful of staff

welcome to

the real time

web

beware unrequited love

@stevebridger

They had made social media just another silo

@stevebridger

trust the hiring

decision

“...eventually every member of staff [would] need to have some level of responding power and be empowered to use social media to communicate and build relationships

with the people around them”@willmcinnes

...so they became convinced that...who wanted to

v

NB: Reward staff for

being social

open

they recruited or grew staff into new

roles like community managers

adapted from a David Armano graphic | darmano.typepad.com

BRAND

brand as facilitator

influencers

friends

marketers’ roles changed from

broadcasters to aggregators

walls you can step

over

They showered praise on their advocates and amplified their voicesAnd finally...

“The project is not about creating a charity; it is about enabling & empowering a community to change a situation”

Thank you for listening

@stevebridger

“we build too many walls and not enough bridges” Isaac Newton