10 Questions: Jack Dorsey on Square, Twitter on 9/11 & Social Media ‘Experts’ Without Souls

 
Last Friday I was fortunate to spend 30 minutes talking with Jack Dorsey, who in addition to co-founding Twitter recently launched a product & service called Square. As an electronic device, Square is a mobile credit card reader that plugs into the audio port of compatible smart phones and laptops. As a service, Square is a downloadable application that verifies sellers and provides buyers a measure of security about the transaction itself. From small businesses to political campaigns, the potential applications for Square are virtually unlimited.

A few highlights and then the interview after the jump. Also strongly recommended: Friday Coffee with Square on Ustream

1. Why we were better off without Twitter on September 11th 2001: “One thing I was really inspired by after 9/11, especially in NYC is how people gathered and really sought each other out face to face…. My concern with relying on the technology would be that it would potentially abstract some of that humanness, and make it a little bit easier not to go out in the streets and not to go out meet your neighbors and really support each other.”

2. What Wired.com Got Wrong: No PayPal v. Square Deathmatch: “We want to be completely payment network agnostic, so if you're really comfortable using PayPal and you want to pay (or receive) with it… but you still want the Square front end experience, that is something we would be interested in implementing and maintaining."
   
   
3. Top Politicos on Twitter: Barham Salih,  Cory Booker,  Mike Bloomberg,  Francis Slay.

4. Why ‘Social Media Experts’ using Auto-Follow Services Have No Souls: While Jack was more diplomatic in his phrasing, if you're doing something against the "fundamental spirit of the technology,” for me, that is red flag. That is not to say paid advertising of an organizations account is a bad idea, but the whole idea of paying for followers / friends is somewhat repugnant: “I think any sort of automation or any sort of aspect like that really takes away from the spirit of the technology which is to really share what you think, what your experiencing, what is happening around you. I think there is a lot of people in the social media space that are trying to consult against that, and I am fully supportive or that.”

5. Advice for Entrepreneurs: Communicate, Build Something People Need:  In response to a question about production delays and software issues, Jack said his biggest challenge since starting Square has been: “Communicating in the right way what is actually out there today, what works and what still needs some work” In regards to supply problems with Square, I asked Jack if he had considered domestic supplies  “The only reason we picked China is because we could not find anyone in the U.S. to do it…”

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Fundraising 2.0: Choosing The Right Site

Social media may dominate the conversation when it comes to Web 2.0, but there is untapped potential seen by corporations and organizations, who are left asking: how can I use this to raise funds? There are several websites now aiming to combine the powerful networking capability of social media and the fundraising capabilities of independent web sites. These sites enable individuals and organizations to reach their donors directly at little or no cost, giving them an alternative to mailed-in donations of years past. Through online fundraising sites, individuals have the power to not only support their favorite causes, but to spread the word about them virally.

One of the first major players in online fundraising, Globalgiving.com has led the charge in online giving since 2004, gathering “$18 million in funding to more than 1,000 grassroots projects in over 90 countries”. Organizations can post projects to the site such as “Nurture 15 at-risk children for a year” or “Make college an option for 70 Congolese students”. Globalgiving, founded by former World Bank executives, takes a 15% share of every donation to cover the costs of finding projects and credit card processing. They also provide a giving channel for large corporations such as Nike, Ford and HP.

Offering a more personal version of giving online, and with a similarly long track record in online fundraising sector is stayclassy.org. With a simple premise, “What do you care about?”, the site is a platform for groups and individuals to create events and campaigns, manage donor relationships, raise funds, create publicity through social media and track fundraising results. Founded in 2006, stayclassy.org was one of the first personal online fundraising options and had 20,000 members by 2009.

One of the newest online fundraising options is Crowdrise, led and supported by celebrities such as Edward Norton and Will Ferrell, oddly enough. It works like this: you sign up on the site, and start a project. It could be anything, from a personal cause fundraiser, to an event, or a volunteer opportunity. You then use other social media sites like facebook or twitter to gather donations or volunteers, and then spread your cause through your page on Crowdrise to gather supporters that can either donate to your cause or use their own networks to spread the word The site is focused around making philanthropy cool, with the tagline: “If you don’t give back, no one will like you” and a points system that rewards project leaders with gifts like Northface Jackets and Apple laptops.

Sites such as these are only one way the Internet is fundamentally changing personal giving. Stay updated on how other forms of social media are shifing the definition of philanthropy and the nature of fundraising with the Bivings Report’s “Fundraising 2.0” series.

The Age of Fundraising 2.0 Begins

Non-profits and political advocacy groups, while some of the most people-powered and well-supported organizations around, are not necessarily known for being early adopters of web-based tools. Although they are based in interaction with people and causes, the true driving force of organizations such as these always has been and always will be their ability to fundraise. So now that the internet has fully changed the way everyday people communicate, interact and represent themselves, how can it change the way organizations raise funds for causes people actually care about? New media advocates say social media should be a two-way street: content from the organization itself, and input from their users. Now, however, a third avenue of use for social media is opening: Connection between non-profit groups, the people supporting them, and the donations providing their bread and butter. In this space in upcoming weeks, the Bivings Report will offer a comprehensive look at how social media and the changing online landscape can impact the fundraising process. With installments focused on the use of different social media platforms, online fundraising web-sites and what your organization’s use of these could be, we here at the Bivings Report hope to offer an in-depth look at how the next step in the internet can give your organization a leg up when it comes to raising money. 

DC Week: Social Media ROI, OMG, WTF

Wednesday at DC Week featured three related, but distinct interpretations of measuring ROI when it comes to Social Media. First up was “Social Media ROI” as presented by Carie Lewis from the Humane Society, Danielle Brigida of the National Wildlife Federation and moderated by Allyson Kapin of the Rad Campaign.

As Carrie put it in a Tweet to Jordan, “@jordanv i’m thinking our #dcweek panel titles should have been switched!” This is correct. Although there was some good general strategic advice, this panel did not delve too deeply into ROI. (Carrie also deserves credit for replying to answering questions from the audience during her panel.) Overall, if you were looking for a basic strategic outline of how to manage social media for your organization, the Humane Society has a great model form which to start as well as several solid takeaways to do right now:

         Strategy                                                                              Takeaways

Second up was “Getting Strategic With Social Media” presented by Jordan Viator of Convio, Wendy Harman of the Red Cross and Jaime-Alexis Fowler of Pathfinder. If you are looking for an excellent outline of what to measure, Jordan’s presentation is highly recommended. However what was not included in her presentation, is for me what is the essence of ROI in social media is- What does it all mean? My point here is not that Jordan left anything out, but that each organization needs to assign their own custom values to the metrics outlined bellow. If your a locally focused non-profit, it is probably unrealistic to expect a lot of growth in your Twitter following or maybe even Facebook fans. In these cases, perhaps creating a custom Ning network to concentrate your supporters and focus their advocacy makes sense. Not every organization needs thousands of fans, followers or supporters to be successful.

The keynotes, by Cammie Croft, Senior Advisor and New Media Director at the Department of Energy and Charlene Li, Founder of Altimeter Group, co-author of the acclaimed book "Groundswell" and author of the new book "Open Leadership” both addressed ROI in social media from two different but complementary perspectives. One surprising fact mentioned by Cammie was that a major hurdle to embracing social media was first obtaining an exemption from the Paperwork Reduction Act, which prior to being amended by OMB, had the unintended consequence of  discouraging agencies from using social media due to the act’s requirement that agencies normally have to obtain a control number from OMB on all forms that solicit information from the public and impose a paperwork burden. The progress of Open Government initiatives across government agencies is available on the White House’s website.

Addressing the topic of what ROI in Social Media means was Charlene Li, whose open source research at the Altimeter Group is a must read for anyone doing social media. What struck me the most, and generated a significant amount of Twitter traffic was her comment that the most important aspect of social media, namely the strength and quality of relationships may be impossible to calculate, because it is potentially infinite. For instance, can you put a number on the public’s faith in government? Can you measure the ROI of a handshake or the time spent attending a conference like Digital Capital Week? While some aspect of ROI in these cases may be quantifiable, the total value is essentially infinite, and therefore unquantifiable. Charlene’s discussion on these points begins around the 25 minute mark. Alexander Howard, the Government 2.0 Washington Correspondent of O’Reilly Media has an excellent article highlighting the best panels on technological innovation in D.C.

“A Slice of Digital Capital Week 2010”

This is an excellent, perhaps even epic video recap of the action at Social Media and Gov 2.0 Day at Digital Capital Week. Featuring appearances by your truly as well as fellow Bivings Group staffer Eric Lewis who also graces the thumbnail bellow. Thanks to Corrie Davidson from Captico for including us as well as for her excellent coverage on Twitter.