mobile & youth engagement

Mobile &Youth EngagementLisa Foote & Curt Prins

Unsummit | 26 June 2010

Biographies

Lisa Foote, President | MixMobi• Innovation enthusiast• Corporate refugee, VP at CapitalOne

Curt Prins, Executive Director | District 202• 16 Years in Technology Marketing & Nonprofits• D202 empowers LGBTA youth ages 13-21• D202 earned a 2010 Dot.Org Award for

leveraging technology to engage youth.

Mobile & Youth EngagementLisa Foote & Curt Prins | Unsummit 2010

What we’re covering1) Research on youth & mobile phones2) Talk toys & tools3) Take a peak at our first campaign4) Review @#$%! moment how we adapted5) Results from the changes6) Open discussion7) Questions?


Research• Youth’s lives are integrated with technology• Over 78% have mobile phones (Pew Research)• Guess the average teen SMS volume/month?• They send/receive 2,272 (NYT-AT&T)• Over 73% use Social Media (Pew)• Compared to 40% adults ages 30+


Mobile Toys & Tools

• First experimented “Toy”: FrontlineSMS– Built for NGO’s in developing world

– Hardware based & remarkably slow

• Moved to SaaS Platform: MobileCause– Initially for text2give—Raised $15K

– Added SMS Broadcasting Tools—built a list of 2K

• Mobile Web Platform: MixMobi– Integrated for education

– Later use for fundraising


First campaign

• Goals for the effort:– Youth email and SMS list building

– Introduction to greater LGBT community

– “Guinea pigging” youth for an adult version in Fall

• Tools:– MobileCause for broadcast & list building

– MixMobi for education & enrichment


First campaign


70’s Sitcom Tune:


“Who can turn the world on with her smile?”

Text “MARYTYLERMOORE” to 27138

Text “MARYRICHARDS” to 27138

First @#$%! campaign

• Faults were not technically based• 13-21 year-olds not mobile—transportation-wise• Our locations were in a circular path around

Minneapolis/St. Paul• 13-21 year-olds need greater incentives to act• Keep it simple and brief


Remedy

• Focus only on the area within Twin Cities—Loring Park during Pride Weekend

• 7 Locations with easier hints• Beefed up prize money• Invited general community

to participate—sans prizes• Added other organizations to

introduce youth to them


Results

• Over 250 participated—20% were adults• 86% of the participants were new to D202• Strengthened relationships

with key partners• Raised over $500 (unsolicited)• Recruited 20 new volunteers


Open discussion

• How to implement do you best mobile in your organization

• Understanding your audience• What’s a fad?• What’s here to stay?• How do you integrate mobile into other efforts?


Questions?

Thank you!

mobile & youth engagement

Technology

youth mobile phones

youth email

biographies lisa foote

capitalone curt prins

mobile toys tools

lgbta youth ages

mobile web platform

mobile phones pew research