WWHD: What Would Harvey Do? An introduction to social media using the (hypothetical) case study of...

November 18, 2009

WWHD: What Would Harvey Do?

An introduction to social media using the (hypothetical) case study of Harvey Milk

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Mark Farmer

• Principal

• webness.biz

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WWHD: What Would Harvey Do?

An introduction to social media using the (hypothetical)

case study of Harvey Milk

− Mark Farmer

− webness.biz

6

How did we get here?

7

On today‟s menu

• A brief introduction to social media via one of the great, and recently

celebrated, social activists.

• What technologies would Harvey Milk avail himself of, if he were trying to

accomplish his goals today?

• Not a survey of what social media tools are being used by community

groups and non-profits.

• Not a biography of Harvey Milk, nor an analysis of his accomplishments.

• A fun intro to the world of

social media, with Harvey

Milk as an example, with

case studies and insights

to guide you in your

next steps.

8

A Brief History of Me

• 1995 – Started in communications

• 2001: Founded webness.biz

• 2003 – 2008: Webmaster / Creative Director,

Earth Day Canada

• 2008 – Present: Communications Specialist / Contractor,

The Association of Canadian Advertisers

• 2008 – Started webheresies.com

• 2009 – Present: Web development

Contractor at Summerhill

• 2008 – Present: Member,

The Society for New Communications Research

9

The Truth about Social Media

• Before getting into Harvey’s story, a few things to remember about social

media…

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EPIC!!!

• No other discipline in the history of communication is so fraught with

platitudes, sloganeering, hyperbole or SHEER HYPE!

• However, social media isn’t quite the moving-heaven-and-earth event you

may have been lead to believe it is.

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Not really quite that epic

• The important thing to remember at all times, is that the fundamental

nature and aspects of human communication haven’t changed with

social media.

• It’s still just someone talking to someone else.

• Do what you would if you were talking to an acquaintance.

• Don’t do anything you

wouldn’t do if you were

talking with an acquaintance.

• The Street Corner.

12

A kind of magic?

• With social media, as with all communication, you don’t get something for

nothing: Social media isn’t magic. It’s not going to solve your

communication ills or change any communications fundamentals.

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Don‟t, don‟t… don‟t believe the hype (Part I)

• Too many people fall into the trap of believing that social media is a

shortcut to more bang for their communication buck.

• They put a couple of

wheels in motion, and then

wait for wonders to occur.

• Wonders fail to occur,

and then they blame

social media.

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Would the real social media please stand up?

• Vegas, Baby.

• A compelling case.

• HERESY!

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Great success!

• The really big social media success stories you read about happen

because someone tapped the natural enthusiasm an existing group of

people demonstrate for a particular brand.

• Not everyone has a strong brand.

• Not everyone has a

super-strong connection

with their audience.

• Social media can’t create

that kind of connection

out of nothing, but it can

help you build it out if

you’re willing to put in

the effort on your

communication

fundamentals.

16

Success Story #1: The Fiskateers

• Fiskars wanted to try something different.

• Hired Brains on Fire to help them.

• Combined social media with real live people.

• Created “The Fiskateers,” a group of user-evangelists who combined in-

store visits with an online community.

17

Success Story #1: The Fiskateers

• Credited with a tripling of in-store sales.

• What did they do right?

– Tapped into people‟s natural enthusiasm.

– Didn‟t limit themselves to the virtual world – married social media with face-to-face.

• Some of the most interesting and impactful success stories with social media

happen when the virtual & real worlds get together and have a party.

– Worked from an existing, strong brand.

– Fitted social media to an existing infrastructure and audience, not vice-versa.

• E-mail me for a link to the complete case study.

18

So, WWHD?

• Harvey’s #1 goal was to motivate and organize people.

What social media work best for those two things?

– Blogs

– E-mail

– Networking sites: Facebook / Ning / Etc.

– Meetup.com

– SMS

– Twitter

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Lessons from the now

• Take a look at people that are doing similar things.

– Politicians.

– Non-profits.

– Paul Gillin, Mitch Joel, Joe Jaffee, etc.

– SNCR

– And my experience.

20

The good ol‟ not-so-good-ol‟ days

• Dan Nicoletta

– “…one thing about a lot of the political movement

of that time that people don't realize is that it was

the same 10 people doing everything... we

imagine that it was epic because it was epic

sociologically in terms of what was shifting, but it

was the same ten people doing everything... well

maybe 20 on a good day.”

– Social media changes all that.

– To borrow a term from the military, it‟s a

„Force multiplier‟ – it allows you to do things you

couldn‟t normally otherwise do, by enabling

others to help you do it.

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Building Community

• The good ol’ days

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Building Community

• The good new days

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Building Community

• The even gooder new days?

24

Ningxample

• The League of Kickass Business People:

– http://theleagueofkickassbusinesspeople.ning.com/

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Organizing

• Then

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Organizing

• Now

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Trippy? Trippi.

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Connecting

• Then

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Connecting

• Now

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E-mail

• Still now, still works well. Completely unglamorous,

and completely useful.

• About 19 million people world-wide have Twitter

accounts.

• More than 10 times that number

have e-mail accounts.

• In the USA alone.

• E-mail lends itself to direct calls

for action because it’s direct:

one e-mail per person. It’s a

personal medium, not a

broadcast one.

31

Don‟t, don‟t… don‟t believe the hype (Part II)

• Lacks the ubiquity and versatility of e-mail.

– Constrained to a 140-character limit.

• Demographic reach: elderly, marginal communities, others.

• Does have its success stories:

– Virtual couponing.

– Sales & customer loyalty.

– Etc.

• Stopped growing a few months ago and has suffered a declining

userbase since September.

• Useful, but not the game-

changer it was promised to be.

– Interestingly enough,

Barrack Obama claims to

have never used it.

32

Twitter, circa 1975?

• Personal vs. public, broadcast vs. conversational.

• Can Twitter be used conversationally? Absolutely?

– Customer service mainly.

• Is it being used

conversationally in

most cases?

• In most cases, Twitter is

a communication

one-way street.

33

Catch the Wave?

• Will be interesting to see if Google Wave has any effect.

• It’s an attempt to merge existing social media (instant messaging, email,

wikis, etc.) into one conversation, or “wave”.

• Interesting idea, because there’s no real reason to ghettoize a

conversation just because part of it is taking place on email, part on

messenger, etc., etc.

• Google is the new Microsoft in so

far as it tends to own every space

it enters.

• However, early reviews are less-

than-enthusiastic, so wait a bit

before jumping on the bandwagon.

34

Damn you, Sockington

• Me: 77 followers.

• Sockington: 1,381,404 followers.

• Typical Mark Farmer tweet:

• “Google says it's good for

journalism - Forbes's CEO calls its

business model "parasitic." You

decide: http://bit.ly/JG1ma”

• Typical Sockington tweet:

• “doing some quick verification to see if we're standards compliant over here THE MAIN STANDARD IS WHETHER EVERYTHING IS MADE OF TUNA”

35

Staffing the phones

• Old days

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Staffing the phones

• Recent old days

– SMS messaging.

– Dedicated short-code?

– Make SURE you have a white list.

37

Staffing the phones

• Now

– Mobile Twitter (Twitterific, etc.) & Facebook.

– Yes, I know I pooh-poohed Twitter slightly a few slides

ago. However, it makes slightly more sense on a mobile

device for these purposes.

– Less intrusive.

– Allows you to save SMS for important messages; more

impactful.

– Dedicated apps:

• Providing value or just a novel way of promoting

yourself?

• As of Nov 4, there are over 100,000 apps on the

iPhone store. How will yours stand out?

38

This is how we do it

vs.

39

Publishing

• Then

40

• Now

Now

41

Blogging

• Dan Nicoletta

– “I think the first campaign's literature is really clunky

and was done on some funky mimeograph machine,

for example, just because the guy across the street

had one and was willing to run stuff for the

campaign... and then later our own printing press

and silkscreen operation, etc., etc. to save money

we didn't have in the first place... “

42

Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA

43

Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA

ASK

44

Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA

45

Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA

46

Success Story #2 – Blogging at the ACA

47

Lessons from Harvey

• People have to be at least interested in an issue – and more likely excited

about an issue – before they’ll care and start listening to you.

• Find a champion (and it may be you).

• Walk the walk.

48

The killer “Be”s

• Be authentic

• Be succinct

• Be useful

• Be honest

49

Further reading

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Further surfing

• Social media trends & analysis:

– twistimage.com/blog

– webworkerdaily.com

– sncr.org

• Technology news, including social media:

– cnet.com

• Examples of how to do it right:

– bluestatedigital.com

• Social activism:

– actonprinciples.org

– thedallasprinciples.org

51

Contact me

• E-mail: markfarmer@webness.biz

• Website: webness.biz

• Blog: webheresies.com

• Twitter: markus64

• Facebook: markus64

• Greendrinks: Grace O’Malley’s,

14 Duncan St., from 5:45 onwards

52

Thank you

• And thank you to Harvey Milk, for blazing a trail, and being an inspiration.

“If a bullet should enter my brain,let that bullet destroy every closet door.”

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