Group items tagged

How Twitter proves its value to political campaigns, journalists, and others required to respond in the moment to issues gathering momentum. Yet another example of how we become the product with our participation on Twitter being tracked by advertisers, campaigns, TV executives, etc.

article by Steve Daigneault, 2.15.2013 on what the Obama campaign staff learned from their fundraising and advocacy program in 2012. Excerpt: "Facebook app made a huge difference for their mobilization efforts. The app allowed the campaign to ask supporters to contact specific people on their friend list based on geography via Facebook. Toby and Marie estimated that millions of additional people were reached this way that weren't reachable via any other channel. Best performing appeals often had the highest unsubscribe rates. Turns out, evoking passion in supporters worked both ways, but ultimately the campaign decided the positive fundraising results were worth the increased unsubscribes. Even when considering retention, the conversion stats outweighed the downside of losing people."

Great slide program posted by Beth Kanter, May 28, 2014, on integrating social media campaigns using different case studies, poetry, and humor to share real-life learning opportunities and engage others around them.

Lorenzo Grandi is founder of Startupbootcamp Amerstam. He outlines what makes a successful crowdfunding campaign. Ask: what do you or can you offer? Who is your competition? What has worked well for them? Feature a video - more likely to get funded if you have one. Although this is geared toward business, it has a lot of good tips and links to other blogs and sites (including Kickstarter and their help area), and is easy to understand and practical.

great blog by Kanter on how Upwell uses social media for experimentation, failure, listening, measurement, 3.26.2013. Good graphics too.

Very good, practical article by Marco Albani and Kimberly Henderson, McKinsey & Company, July 2014 on companies and social groups joining forces to protect the environment. The seven tips to make such alliances successful work for all partnerships/odd couples IMO. 1. ID clear reasons to collaborate. "The effort needs to help each partner organization achieve something significant. Incentives such as 'we'll do this for good publicity' or 'we don't want to be left out' are not sufficient." -Nigel Twose, director of the Development Impact Department, International Finance Corporation, World Bank Group 2. Find a fairy godmother "It is important to have a core of totally committed, knowledgeable people who would die in a ditch for what the organization is trying to achieve." -Environmental NGO campaign head 3. Set simple, credible goals 4. Get professional help "It is very important to have an honest broker. The facilitator must be neutral and very structured and keep people moving along at a brutal pace. You need someone who can bring things to a close." -Darrel Webber, secretary general, Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) 5. Dedicate good people to the cause "If a company like ours believes something is strategic, then we resource it like it is strategic." -Neil Hawkins, corporate vice president of sustainability, Dow Chemical LOVE #5--HAVE SEEN "COLLABORATIONS" FAIL IN STATE GOVT. BECAUSE GOOD PEOPLE AND SENIOR LEADERSHIP WERE NOT BEHIND IT. 6. Be flexible in defining success "Partners think that collaboration will change the world. Then it doesn't, and they think that it failed. But often the collaboration changed something-the way some part of the system works and delivers outcomes. It is a matter of understanding the nature of change itself." -Simon Zadek, visiting fellow, Tsinghua School of Economics and Management, Beijing 7. Prepare to let go "I've been absent from the FSC since 1997.

POST (people, objectives, strategies, and tactics) method for using social media effectively, 3.27.13 by John Haydon at the Razoo Foundation. Has some merit.

Walmart's harm to its low-wage workers

Blog post by Smile Instead, November 2013, one of the website designers I am reaching out to consider working with us. I like the breakdown of choices--Per Project, Per Company, Per Campaign that they present for deciding when to redesign a website for its clarity and hope we have the same clarity on our website for our services. Will need to compare the two.

Fascinating interview with Vivek Wadhwa on "Innovating Women", August 20, 2014, published by Wharton School of Business. He has written a book. Believe this could be a Lean-In topic or book that we read and discuss? Also a great example of crowd sourcing to get the support he needed to do the research from women--research and $. "I decided to do more research and interview hundreds of women, and I have a research paper, which will be released soon, on women and innovation. At the same time, I wanted to express opinion, and in academic papers, you can't do that. What I decided to do was to write a book. The first thing that occurred to me was, who is a guy to tell women how to solve their problems? So, that was the dilemma. Also, I had to spend a lot of money on research. I wanted to fund it, and I spoke to my wife about it. She said, "Vivek, get women to help you." It was such an obvious answer. So, I decided to crowd-fund the book and then crowd-create it; I essentially did an Indiegogo campaign in which I raised money. Instead of the $40,000 I needed, I raised $96,000. All the money from this is going to a fund to educate and empower women, so it was great to get that kind of support. I wanted 30 or 40 women to help me with the research and writing. I ended up getting more than 500 women. It was an outpouring of support from women who were thrilled that I was stepping into this debate and that I would be researching and writing more about it."

From Nonprofit Tech for Good blog, 1/11/14 Interesting to see how this list meshes with the list from 2015 from the business and not for profit side. Top of the list is mobilizing online communications and fundraising campaigns. Although not free and costly to small not for profits, social media and responsive designs for websites, blogs, and e-newsletters will become common. Flat design - making sure everything is optimal for mobile is crucial. Donate buttons on social media sites. Google Wallet will be integrated into Google+ pages. Already on YouTube Channels that participate in YouTube's nonprofit program. Live reporting on social media of org events, maturation of mobile fundraising apps, and increased employment opportunities in new media jobs in the nonprofit sector are the other 2014 trends.

excellent explanation by Tom Vander Ark on why parent-managed learner profiles are becoming more important all the time for young people.  Is the corollary true for adults owning their learning in portable, digital carry-alongs for sharing with potential employers, etc.  

"Of the array of skills that comprise leadership, the ability to craft and communicate strategic vision is simultaneously the most valuable and least well-practiced. The value part is obvious; leaders adept at inspiring their teams achieve high-impact business results faster, more easily, and more compassionately. But, why do so many leaders struggle with building shared vision? In this article, I'll outline three root causes and suggest ways to address them based on best practices from TED Talks."

Personalized Learning Blog Love the responsibility vs accountability pyramid and the description of how they define the process of personalized learning system (PLS) vs. a PLP.

newsletter by Seth Kahan--this provides a Template for Creating a Grand Challenge--"noble goal that provides value to society at large, capitalizing on your organization's unique assets." Cites American Geophysical Union's Thriving Earth Exchange, a platform for making a positive impact on the planet and society by bringing together three groups. Like this page because it has the steps for thinking big, acting on a vision with magnetic qualities, and is practical in its execution.

Seth Kahan on CEO peer groups--way to control risk-taking with small group of co-learners 3. CEO Peer Groups form in DC & Chicago - Chicago has One Opening I have been leading CEO Peer Groups since 2009. They are an opportunity to take a year long journey together with 3-4 other CEOs under my facilitation. These special groups are made up of 4-5 leaders who work together to develop leadership performance, improve their results, and dive deep into both strategy and tactics. It is a safe place to expose vulnerabilities and get powerful assistance for the most challenging situations. Ultimately it is about raising the bar on your leadership performance through a community of peers."

Very nice article by Tom Vander Ark for Huffington Post, 9/4/2015 on how we can tackle professional learning goals for ourselves. via Jane Hart

From Virpi--great visual and explanation of low-ego leadership that social networks can be started with.

Adam Rogers, Science, Wired, 8.6.15, writes about how the Google tanking algorithm of positive and negative stories on the candidates could affect major elections 25% of the timer. This is the tyranny of the algorithm. They tested the impact in mock voter labs before elections in Australia and India where the impact of feeding positive stories about a candidate first shaped voters decisions between 24 and 72 percent of the time with certain voter groups. Voters in towns in the US that watch a local a Fox channel vote more conservatively because of recency and placement issues. While the numbers in real live do not add up to the impact achieved in the test research, when elections are decided by 1 or 2 percentage points, it's enough to turn the tide in favor of a candidate.