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On July 13^th, Gary Bivings, the President and founder of Bivings Group, appeared live on WS Radio  with host Karen Jagoda of the E Voter Institute.  This was Gary’s second turn as contributing editor on the Digital Politics radio show, and he discussed our firm’s engagement with social media and participation in DC Digital Capital Week 2010. The show’s theme centered on harnessing the mapping power of crowds to glean valuable data and spread information. Gary and Karen discussed how to best make sense of data points in a world where it becomes difficult to sort out important content from internet clutter and how visualization of data adds to our understanding of patterns and can reveal new solutions to old problems. Gary will be a regular contributor on the Digital Politics Internet radio show every other Tuesday. Listen live on Tuesday,July 27th at 3:00 pm EST.

DC Digital Capital Week lasted from June 11 to June 20^th, 2010, and Gary and Karen touched upon the use of Twitter and the aggregating power of TwitterSlurp to disseminate seminar and presentation information quickly and effectively. The ten-day social media conference had over 5,800 registered participants and Gary spoke about the positive outcomes it had for the Bivings Group.

This is Gary’s second appearance on the show, and below is an excerpt on a discussion about Twitter’s power to transmit information at a conference like DC Digital Capital Week.

Gary: When people are talking about content, or particular authors and what they are saying. If the [tweets] are useful facts, then they have a higher probability to being re-tweeted. But it’s really hard to say what really makes someone re-tweetable, and what doesn’t.

Karen: With only 140 characters, there is not that much space to be creative. There are ways to enhance your tweets. Essentially what you’re talking about is being relevant and being authentic. Making it so that someone would want to continue to continue the dialogue with you — to tell their friends about you.

Gary: I think that’s exactly right. If you have something to say that adds to the conversation or that adds to what you are looking for at the moment; Or says something that is witty, different, fits right there, and fits into what is going on at the moment[ – then people will listen.]

 

 Gary Bivings- Making Sense of the Twitter Stream: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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.

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.

With one of the only standing-room only attendance levels of the day, the "Is There Really An App For That? Non-Profits and Social Media" panel was highly anticipated to be one of the most informative and interesting discussions of the Advocacy 2.0 day. Moderator Brian Reich assured the crowd that they were in for an active discussion and a strong brainstorming session, and that he was setting out to make it "not just another boring panel". With some of the largest and most successful non-profits represented on the panel, attendees were anxious to hear advice from the masters, including Tammy Gordon from AARP, Wendy Harman from the Red Cross, and Allison McQuade of Global Giving.

Harman and Gordon agreed on one central point: the people that support your organization through social media should be treated as just that; people, and not "bottlecaps to be collected" as Harman said. Their input can be especially effective in times of crises: "Listen to what people expect organizations to do in crises" she noted, "and then make sure to meet those expectations." Tammy Gordon spoke extensively about the relationship between the organization and the supporter, noting that it is important to "establish social media guidelines: be transparent, responsible, non-partisan, trained and responsive" in your social media activity. When organizations wonder who to talk to and how, she tells them: "Talk to people you know. Talk to people you want to know. And talk to people you don’t know that are talking about what you are."  Alison McQuade told panel attendees that they shouldn’t try and think of their donors as only source of financial support. "Donors are great," she said. "But what do you do when your donors are tapped out?" This is exactly the situation in which she would tell an organization to take control of their donors through social media.  Your supporters are your greatest tool, she said, and there are "lots of other ways to engage them; everyone has different talents and it’s up to you to get it out of them."

Brian Reich did more than simply moderate the panel and actually offered some of the most compelling advice of the day. When it comes to content, he said "Anything can become  good content; your job is to take the content and place it in a context for your audience." He also had one of the most re-tweeted phrases of the day, which is oftentimes all too true: "The biggest challenge with organizations and social media is that they are run by people uncomfortable with social media" But, he added: "Often, there are people in the organization that can more than handle it." The panel itself was one of the most tweeted-about of the day, with people such as @riaglo tweeting:  "In panel led by @wharman, @floridagirlindc, @akmcquade, @brianreich- fast paced soc media coaching by the best practitioners."

When it comes to non-profits and social media, the final question always remains: how can I use these applications and platforms to actually increase donations? How can I use these to make money? The answer, many have said lately, is to turn to mobile fundraising. DC Week 2010 covered this topic with a "Mobile Fundraising and Advocacy" panel. With Arlene Remick from textforbaby.org and Ken Eisner of OneEconomy , along with David Hoover , the director of Government Affairs for The Wireless Association , the topic of mobile fundraising and advocacy was covered from all sides.

Textforbaby.org is a prime example of how mobile phones can be used to transmit information to a very specific demographic with a specific purpose. In the case of Arlene Remick and textforbaby, that group is pregnant and new mothers and the information that is sent out is infant health alerts, specifically to low-income and non-online mothers. The key, she said, to effective mobile non-profit action is "quick response, which is essential, and communicating active and true information. People in the U.S sent  1 trillion text messages a year in 2008-this is an area of social activity that is continuing to be tapped for fundraising.   She mentioned that the work of David Hoover with the CTIA to connect textforbaby.org with all cell phone carriers was a massive step for them, and that connection with cell phone carriers would be necessary  to success for any mobile fundraising effort.

Ken Eisner was one of the founders of Boost Mobile and has had a hand in several mobile ventures over recent years.  Now, he is working to integrate wi-fi into low-income public housing and pursue broadband adoption into more American homes. He remarked that "With mobile fundraising, the cause has to be strong and topical, and the backing of carriers is essential."  The panel focused on a key building block of all social media action, the interaction between the content and the audience. Especially when it comes to mobile fundraising, Eisner noted, "Make sure that you’ve thought out how to stimulate the audience and not just make a campaign."

The Advocacy 2.0 day of Digital Capital Week started with a fascinating panel on how technology is impacting grassroots communications. The conversation centered around the use of social media and internet technology for political campaigns and non-profit organizations.

Mediator Brandon Macsata started the discussion with a key issue, stating "One of the biggest mistakes non-profits make with social media is that they don’t know how to prioritize."  He stressed the importance of using social media for advertising versus using social media for marketing. "With advertising, you give up credibility" he noted. "Marketing, you don’t control the message but you do get credibility with press." This control of the message was a main focus of the panel.  Clyde Ensslin from Marketing Through New Media remarked that "tone and feel are important to social media, and not just follower or friend count." He instead advised the retention of a focused narrative in your content-"You have to tell a story, and you have to connect to people" he said.

The other main discussion of the panel focused around the topic of the day, the changing nature of political advocacy. Rikki Amos , the Associate Director of Political Involvement for the Public Affairs Council added a voice directly involved with advocacy. She remarked that "social media is as much a mind set as it is a skill set", and that non-profits need to make sure their content producers (their members) are in the mindset.  Her advice to organizations-"identify key influentials, find out where they are, and promote their content".  Through this cycle, the organization’s content gets shared by influentials that receive distribution themselves from the organization.

Finally, Debra Ruh of TecAccess provided a key voice to the panel: a director of a non-profit, who is trying to tailor advocacy for her interests. "Rather than going after conversation leaders", she advised, "become a leader yourself. Create the conversation." When the conversation turned to whether or not to hire professional help, she was strongly in support of getting outside assistance. "This is the time" she noted.

Fittingly, Digital Capital week finished out it’s “Media 2.0″ day with a look into the not-so-distant future.   “The Future of Media”, a panel with representatives from CNN , AOL , the Washington Post and Washington Life Magazine, seemingly taken from the core of old guard media, made attendees curious to see what exactly the future holds in store for both upcoming social media platforms and on-the-cusp-of-change traditional media outlets.

One major deviation from the group of traditional media strongholds was Jim Bankoff, founder and CEO of Sbnation.com , a new site focusing on local blog coverage of sports. Now the fastest growing online sports network, SB Nation has exploded onto the scene and is changing the way many people think about obtaining online sports coverage. He argued that sites such as SB Nation, which bring coverage closer to the local consumer, are a sign that “In 5-10 years, we won’t even think about the Internet, because everyone will have it and it will be everywhere.” Bankoff was also by far the best received panelist, with Twitterslurp reflecting it clearly, including tweets such as “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Pay close attention to @Bankoff and what’s happening at SB Nation.” (@bydanielvictor )

The other panelists had interesting perspectives as well, and offered differing views as to how the future of media will turn out. Martin Durkin of AOL spoke about the changing definition of the “citizen journalist” when it comes to user-generated content. He told the DC Week panel that “soon there will be a professional-ization of the citizen journalist model” but that “The question is: are some of these enterprises able to make the citizen journalism model work in an environment where they’re already lurching for the buyout?” His answer: “I don’t think so.” Similar views came from Meredith Artley , managing director of CNN.com, who, when asked if content was still “king”, replied that “the story always comes first, so content is king. But the conversation that is more interesting is what is going on with that content after we publish it?” She also agreed that within 5 years, the internet will be the foremost example of ubiquity. Moderator Michael Clements , Executive Editor of Washington Life magazine made an interesting point as well, mentioning that the information age “does not turn us into media companies” as some people think, but in fact “turn is into media networks” which he argues are far more influential.  Vijay Ravindran , VP of Digital Media at the Washington Post, remarked on the coming re-monetization of media. “For every person who chooses not to buy the print magazine and instead goes online,” he said, “your organization will make less money.” Because of this recent change to the model, we are “in the grand experimental stage of paid access to media” and that the switch from free access to paid will be a major turning point in the future of media.

One sign of the future of media? The advent of the so-called “tweckle”, a portmanteau of “tweet” and  “heckle” and a phenomenon which made itself known during the third panel of the day. With tweets entering the Twitterslurp such as “Funny. Attending The Future of Media session (w/AOL, CNN, Wash Post) and not hearing a word about the future. What a shame” (@Karpantschof ) and “If #dcwfom panelists are in charge of the future of media and advertising, RUN don’t walk to your broker and SELL your stock!” (@darthcheeta )  Although the future of media is a compelling issue, all it seemed to provoke amongst DCWeek 2010 panel attendants was frustration.

One of the most anticipated talks of Media 2.0 day was ‘The State of Now” with self-described ‘technology anthropologist” and entrepreneur Jeff Pulver. He certainly did not let the crowd down, with Tweets coming into Twitterslurp saying “Awesome session with Jeff Pulver about the real time internet. Listen. Connect. Share. Engage (@mizdiva)” and “We can follow rules, we can write rules, but the greatest impact is when we break rules. inspired by Jeff Pulver” (@milouness)

His talk centered on the differentiation between “old” media and “new” media-the fact that neither of those can really be said to exist in the age of social media and instant information, and that there is only “now” media. Rather than an “archival” internet, where people enter queries to find old information, the internet is transforming into a “real-time” internet that is changing and shifting along with its users. Those users, incidentally, are the heart and soul of this new way of looking at the internet. “People are discovering that their voices matter” Pulver said. “Individual voices are starting to be listened to.”

Those individual voices also now have more responsibility than ever before. Pulver shot down the idea of number of Facebook friends or twitter followers equating to influence, stating that “Your number of followers matters because it brings you attention, but what you do with that attention is what really matters” Pulver used internet phenomenon Susan Boyle as an example, citing her 8 days as a trending topic on twitter, 100 million YouTube views and appearance on Oprah as evidence of the power of the Internet.

Most important to realize, he said, is that everyone is now a brand. If you are on social media platforms, you are a brand, and the best thing you can do to use that influence-which he described as “like living in a comic book where everyone wakes up one day and has a super power”-is to support causes you really believe in. 

Pulver took the opportunity of Digital Capital Week to announce his newest venture which will do exactly that-connect people with the causes they believe in. JustCoz.org is a new platform launched by Pulver that allows users to use their social networking powers for good, spreading the word about their favorite causes by “donating a tweet” of publicity. This enables normal everyday people to use Pulver’s keys to true communication, and “Listen. Connect. Share. Engage.”