Navigating New Media

Debra EschmeyerKellogg Food & Society Policy FellowNational Farm to School NetworkCenter for Food & Justice, Urban & Environmental Policy Institute, Occidental College

Social Media

What is social media?

How to use it

Tools

Questions

Interesting Facts

1 in 4 online Americans read blogs

Wikipedia is the 8th most popular site on the web and the masses determine what is on it!

25% of Americans visit a social networking site daily

Obama Campaign In Numbers

13 million plus e-mail list 5 million supporters on social

networking sites MyBarackObama.com

2 million profiles 400,000 blog posts 35,000 volunteer groups 70,000 people raised $30 million

Time Spent Surfing the Internet

Purpose of Social Media

To create community and conversation

Save money! Get info out without print expense

NOT a replacement of traditional relationships or organizing; a reinforcement

Strategy Before Tools

REMINDER: Relationships make a community

50% of social media efforts fail because they don’t have a strategy

4 Steps to Successful Social Media

1. Community Needs What is in it for them? Listen and react to members

2. Objectives How do you measure success? Goals?

3. Ongoing Community Management Fresh, relevant, vibrant information Schedule of content updates Sources of information Who’s responsible?

4 Steps to Successful Social Media

4. Tools and Rollout Select the technology and

infrastructure Which social applications are the best

suited to support your community goals?

Strategy first, then social application!

Publication tools with blogs (Typepad, Blogger…), wikis (Wikipedia, Wikia, Wetpaint…) and citizen journalism portals (Digg, Newsvine…)

Sharing tools for videos (YouTube…), pictures (FlickR…), links (del.icio.us, Ma.gnolia…), music (Last.fm, iLike…), slideshows (Slideshare), products reviews (Crowdstorm, Stylehive…) or products feedbacks (Feedback 2.0, GetSatisfaction…)

Discussions tools like forums (PHPbb, vBulletin, Phorum…), video forums (Seesmic), instant messaging (Yahoo! Messenger, Windows Live Messenger, Meebo…) and VoIP (Skype, Google Talk…)

Social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, Hi5, Orkut…), niche social networks (LinkedIn, Boompa…) and tools for creating social networks (Ning)

Micropublication tools (Twitter, Pownce, Jaiku, Plurk, Adocu…) and alike (twitxr, tweetpeek)

Social aggregation tools like lifestream (FriendFeed, Socializr, Socialthing!, lifestrea.ms, Profilactic…)

Tools

Publication Tools

Blogger: and tools like it are like personalized printing presses and anyone can read what you produce

Pbwiki: and other collaboration tools are like working at your kitchen table with colleagues anywhere in the world

Twitter: is like a megaphone to people who choose to hear you

Twitter

Sharing Tools

YouTube: is like watching TV on demand on your computer or phone…broadcast yourself!

Flickr: is like a view finder of everyone’s pictures

Meetup:is an announcement board in a virtual town square

Slideshare: is an online PowerPoint party

Basecamp: is project management software

YouTube Contest

YouTube Group

Basecamp http://www.basecamphq.com/

Social Networks

Facebook: an online social networking website that connects its members through networks

Myspace: is like your friend who always has new music on her iTunes (is like Facebook without restraint)

Ning: is an online service to create, customize, and share a social network.

Facebook

200 million users

Popularity growing most quickly among women older than 55, according to a site called Inside Facebook

1.5 million female users older than 55 on the site,-- roughly a 550% increase over six months ago. By comparison, membership among people younger than 25 grew by less than 20% over the same period

Facebook campaigns Eat the View Case Study

Ning

My Favorites that SAVE time!

Google Alerts: email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic

Google Docs: free web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation tools that allow for multiple users to create, share and jointly edit documents online with other Gmail users.

RSS: is like using the other 90% of your brain to keep track of news/info and putting these things in an ‘on demand’ format; Netflix v. Blockbuster (news comes to you)

Reminders:

Don’t use tools for the sake of the technology, use them for your community.

Realistically estimate your resources: staff time

Bells & whistles are cool, but expertise will make you and your community successful

Community management and execution of strategy makes a social application successful

Useful Online Resources:

Video explanations of technology in plain English: www.commoncraft.com

Helpful explanation of social media: http://socialmediaclassroom.com/community/wiki/welcome-participatory-media-literacy

Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media: A place to capture and share ideas, experiment with and exchange links and resources about the adoption challenges, strategy, and ROI of nonprofits and social media. http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/

Useful Books:

Cultivating the Web: High Tech Tools for the Sustainable Food Movement

Groundswell: winning in a world transformed by social technologies by Charlene Li

Bit Literacy: productivity in the age of information and e-mail overload by Mark Hurst

Here Comes Everybody: the power of organizing without organizations by Clay Shirky

Greater Good: how good marketing makes for better democracy by John Quelch and Katherine Jocz

Questions?Contact me via: Daily updated website: www.farmtoschool.org

Twitter for farm to school: http://twitter.com/FarmtoSchool and One Tray: http://twitter.com/OneTray; personal: http://twitter.com/groundtruthing

Tumblr: manage list of blog hits: http://farmtoschool.tumblr.com

Listserv: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nationalfarmtocafeteria

Facebook Group: www.new.facebook.com/groups.php?ref=sb#/group.php?gid=35582164973

Flickr Photo Group: http://www.flickr.com/photos/uepi/sets/72157594341746884/

YouTube Group: http://www.youtube.com/user/FarmToSchool

Ning social networking site (for Network): http://farmtoschool.ning.com/