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Epic Change: an organization putting the power of storytelling and social media into the hands of the local communities they support

March 12, 2010 by

by Diana Norma Szokolyai, Associate Consultant, Knowledge Communities
[cross-posted from the Knowledge Communities blog]

A couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a webinar hosted by Darim Online on the strategic use of Facebook (FB) for non-profits. We were invited by Caren Levine, who is a part of our Kehilliyot Community of Practice. Darim Online specializes in internet strategies for Jewish organizations and their communities, and the webinar was part of the organizations Social Media Boot Camp. The host, technology maven Avi Kaplan (on twitter @meshugavi), provided valuable insights into using FBs tools. Besides laying out the great strategic use of FB groups, analytics, pages, and friend lists, Avi also talked about using FB for causes, something he knows a lot about from his deep work with the 3-year old nonprofit, Epic Change.

Intrigued by Epic Changes mission to amplify the voices and impact of grassroots change-makers and social entrepreneurs, we set up a web meeting with him the following week via WebEx . What we discovered was the organizations innovative use of technology and social media to create and spread change through the powerful combination of social media tools and age-old storytelling.

Epic Change has been focusing on a project in Arusha, Tanzaniathe support of the Shepherds Junior School. Co-founders of Epic Change, Sanjay Patel and Stacey Monk, an IT project manager and a management consultant respectively, created the nonprofit organization after a life-changing trip volunteering in Africa in 2007. The project supports the work of the schools founder, Mama Lucy Kamptoni, who they describe as a savvy and passionate local woman. Epic Change made initial loans to the school and then helped them find creative ways to pay back the loan, such as a school performance and selling hand-made crafts.

In addition, the organization has facilitated finding partners to raise money for the school, such as the May 2009 $10,000 grant from Ideablob, which funded the schools first technology lab. In October 2009, the fifth graders became the first #TwitterKids of Tanzania when they partnered with LacProject, part of a social media curriculum. The story of one of the local students whose life has been impacted can be found here. One particularly successful partnership was with Silicon Valley Tweet Up, where they raised over $2,000. You can read more about their success in getting this communitys story out there through blogging themselves, forming partnerships, and empowering the locals with the technology to give voice to their own perspective (and tweet their thanks) by visiting Epic Change’s news page.

We at Knowledge Communities were honored to talk with Epic Change and learn about their extraordinary work. This organization is a leading example in building community around an important cause and using the tools of storytelling and social media to raise funds to support grassroots change-makers that are in need of resources in order to continue their work. We are also thankful to our Kehilliyot Community of Practice and the sharing and generosity that members show towards one another, thereby allowing us all to gain more insight into good work and how it is getting done around the globe.

10 for 2010: #2 UNFRIENDING and UNFOLLOWING

January 13, 2010 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

Anyone remember the Burger King campaign last year — defriend (or unfriend) 10 people on Facebook and we’ll give you a burger? Regardless of what you think of the campaign or Whoppers, their ad agency jumped on the beginning of a trend that is really coming to fruition in 2010. The Oxford English Dictionary even named “unfriend” a 2009 word of the year (along with “tweetup”).

As Facebook and Twitter have become so mainstream, and friending so casual, our rolls of friends and followers have grown extensive. Maybe too extensive. Just at that time when we’re trying to manage our precious time and sort through reams of content to find the gems, it is our own “friends” weighing us down. Dunbar proposed that any individual could really only have 150 stable social relationships at any given time. Others propose that with tools such as Facebook we can manage higher numbers. In a recent update, Facebook set the number of people to show up in your news feed to 250 (which you can change). While it may be true that our maximum number is far over Dunbar’s 150, many people are starting to approach their limit and are pruning their social network gardens.

There are two things you should be thinking about:

How should I pare my friends and people I’m following to get the most bang for my social-media-hour-buck?
How are other people making decisions about paring their lists, and how should I position myself to stay on the friends list of those I care about? (note: you may not care about all of them)

How you answer these questions will depend on your business, your brand, your audience, your goals, and how you have been using these tools. People want value (which can be information, insight, humor, etc.). People also want to be talked with, not talked at.

One of the challenges is that when you’ve mixed company in your friend or follower list, there’s not one clear value proposition. For example, family wants pics of your kids, college friends want to know what you’re reading, business colleagues want professional insights, customers/clients/members want meaty information and connection. You cannot please all of the people all of the time.

Some people have dealt with this by creating multiple profiles — in some cases with hard lines (members of the congregation can befriend a staff person here but not there), and in some cases much softer lines (e.g. I tweet about Jewish social media and innovation at @darimonline, and I tweet personally about kids, chickens, music and other things at @lisacolton) where you’re welcome to friend or follow in both places, but at least you know what you’re getting (or as the writer, what you’re giving) with greater specificity.

I predict that the next waves of functionality and privacy updates from Facebook and Twitter will offer greater control over sorting these groups (they’ve already begun), targeting content to this group or that, and being able to hide or categorize friends and followers with greater ease to create customized feeds (how cool would it be to login to Facebook at work and see only updates from professional colleagues, and get home and login to see updates only from friends and family?).

In the meantime, put these on your to-do list:

Be educated about privacy and friend list categorization opportunities on Facebook. There’s more control there than you probably realize or use.
Set up friend lists, and each time you accept a new friend, add them to a list. When you use your settings you’ll be able to count on knowing who’s getting what info. See a tutorial here.
Be aware that the functionality, policies, and culture of these tools will continue to adapt and change, so adopt a nimble stance (modern “sea legs”) and keep educating yourself.
Think about how you can talk with your community, not just talk at them. Experts suggest a ratio of 1:12 (or even 1:20) — for every one self-promoting post (“come to our young adults event Tues evening…”) you should add value 12 times. What value can you offer? What questions can you ask to tap into your community? What conversations are happening related to your work and how can you participate? And don’t forget to LISTEN.
Discuss among staff how people are managing these issues. There may be creative ideas, and you may or may not want to have everyone on the same page and taking the same approach. Either way, staff should be aware of expectations as employees if they are engaging with members, prospects, board members or donors. You should consider drafting a social media policy or guidelines, or revisiting to existing policies. See info here from Wild Apricot and info here from Beth Kanter and sample policies here.

How are you identifying what your target audiences want to hear, learn and discuss? How are you thinking about what to post and/or tweet? Where are you adding value and growing your online community? How will you know if people and dropping out and why?

The Social Sermon: An Innovative Approach to Community Building, Engagement and Torah Study

November 21, 2009March 5, 2018 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

Social media, like other major communication revolutions before it (think: printing press) have radically changed the way we learn, connect and organize. The impact on culture and behavior is significant – we have new ways to connect with our communities, find meaning, express ourselves and engage. The new ease of organizing is fundamentally changing the role that organizations play for their constituents. This is great news for the Jewish community, if we are able to take advantage of it.

We invite you to try a new approach to Torah study, community building, and perhaps even sermon writing in your congregation, The Social Sermon, an idea comes from acknowledging three things:

1) That many people can’t get to the synagogue for a lunch or evening Torah study class, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t interested;
2) That people want the social experience of learning, not just passive reading or listening to a lecture, and that connection through learning enriches a local community; and
3) Social technologies can be a wonderful tool to enrich and augment Torah learning in local communities.

Imagine a Saturday morning sermon that’s the work of not only your rabbi, but you as well. Lets take it a step further: what if it weren’t just you and your rabbi, but also your fellow congregants, young and old, those new to the community and the stalwarts of your city? By the time your rabbi delivers his Shabbat remarks, he or she could be drawing inspiration from, or even representing the discussion of, hundreds of his congregants!

What does The Social Sermon look like? At the beginning of the week a Rabbi posts a question on his or her blog, or on Twitter with a particular hashtag (e.g. #CBSSS for Congregation Beth Shalom Social Sermon), or as a Facebook post on the congregation’s Page. The first post would describe a theme of the parasha, or link to some text, and at the end, pose a question.

As comments and responses start to be posted, the Rabbi then facilitates an ongoing conversation through the week — responding regularly with insight, text, links, answers to questions, and more questions to guide the discussion.

By the end of the week, several things will have happened:

New people are engaged in Torah study. Likely a portion of the online participants are a demographic that doesn’t often come to mid-day or evenig adult education classes. (On-site classes – adult and youth – can also participate);
Participants will have formed new relationships through the online discussion, perhaps following each other on Twitter, friending each other on Facebook, etc. which leads to ambient awareness, thus strengthening your community;
The Rabbi will have a better understand of what aspects of the parasha resonate with the community, and be able to design a Shabbat sermon that is the most relevant for the congregation, and will have ideas, quotes, context to make the sermon even more rich; and
More people may show up for Shabbat services, feeling more educated, connected and like they have some ownership over the sermon that week.

And for those that missed the service, they could read it the next day when the rabbi posts the sermon back on the blog or web site, with a link on Twitter and/or Facebook.

Interested? Use the SocialSermon tag on this blog to find posts about the Social Sermon, and for case studies and guest posts from Rabbis and educators who are doing it. Follow #socialsermon on Twitter for updates, links to these blog posts, and to connect with others who are doing it. Join us on Facebook to be connected others who are doing Social Sermons and get important news.

Feel free to adapt the concept — a confirmation class could do this throughout the week between class meetings, a youth group could do it with their adviser or a parent facilitator. Please report back and let us know how it’s going, and what you’re doing. Please let us know if we can help you at any stage – leave a comment here, or any other space mentioned above.

Want more “hand holding”? Darim offers hourly consulting, and we are working with interested Social Sermoners to find funding from a donor or Federation small grants program to work with a group of Rabbis in your local community. Holler if you’d like more information.

Ready, Set…. Social Sermon!

A Rose is Not Just as Sweet in the Information Age: Choosing a Facebook Page Name

October 13, 2009March 5, 2018 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

(This is the second of five posts on creating a Fan Page for your Jewish Organization. The first part can be found here. Subsequent posts will cover your Page’s picture, what information to include, what content to create and which applications to use.)

Unlike Abraham, Moses and Madonna, our organizations cannot simply go by just a one-word name. With all of the information on the Internet, it is helpful to be more exact.

In the organized Jewish community in particular, in which names often include similar terms, such as United, Jewish, American, Israel, Friends and Community, it is easy for organizations to be confused with one another.

For example, check out this search for “Temple Sinai” on Facebook:

Between Fan Pages, People and Groups, Temple Sinai yields more than 200 results! Imagine a member or prospect looking for you on Facebookthey are not going to sort through 500 possibilities hunting for the right one, so plan your name so they can find you with ease. Take a look at the results for groups with Temple Sinai in the name:

Try “Jewish, Boston.” Again, there are more than 200 results.

“American, Jewish” yields more than 2,000 results!

Because so many people and institutions are on Facebook, it is so sticky and thus so useful. But you have to be strategic to be successful in this crowded space. Choosing the right name is a critical first step.

Tips for Choosing a Name

Keep it Simple, Sorta

A name should be specific, but it should also be simple. When picking the name for your Page, make sure to balance the simple (Temple Sinai) with the specific (Temple Sinai of Brookline).

Acronyms and the ABCs of Jewish Organizations

Sometimes when you are working at your organization, things seem really obvious, like going by your acronym. Do people know you by your acronym or by your full name? Consider how people might search for you. Perhaps using your full name, followed by your acronym after a dash or in parentheses. This way the organization can be found by name and by acronym.

For example:

The Jewish National Fund, popularly known as JNF, goes by “Jewish National Fund” on its Page.
BBYO goes only by its acronym on its Page. Notice that regional affiliates of BBYO each have a more specific name; for instance, Boulder BBYO.
AIPAC goes by both its acronym and its full name, “AIPAC – The American Israel Public Affairs Committee,” on its Page.

Let Your Fans Know What You Are Doing

Even with a specific name, you will want to make sure your name reflects who your Page is for. If your Page is a hub for all your members, then a simple name followed by the community name might be perfect. But if your Page is for a specific aspect of your organization, like the social action division or the young leadership committee, you may want to incorporate that into the name as well.

Examples of Pages with specific names:

Broadcasting Your Name in Big, Shining Light

Bonus! Facebook now allows you to have a distinct URL for your Page. For example, www.facebook.com/darimonline will take you directly to Darims Page. After you have your Page set up, you can register your direct address under the settings. Direct URLs for Pages, however, is limited to Pages with at least 100 fans. When you create your page, you cannot transfer ownership, and you can only post as the PAGE, not as YOU personally. Read more here at Tech for Luddites.
What did you decide to name your Page? Leave us a comment with a link to your Page as an example for the JewPoint0 community.

Recent Facebook Demographic Data Shows Fast Growth in 45

October 2, 2009March 5, 2018 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

Check out this table recently published by insidefacebook.com: (found through Scott Monty’s blog)

“Overall, nearly 50% of Facebook users in the US today are over 35, and nearly one-fifth of all US Facebook users are over 45. Most of Americas biggest brand advertisers are working with Facebook now, and its clear that theyre reaching users across the age spectrum.”

While the total number of users still shows that 18-44 is the greatest population on Facebook, these growth rates clearly show that we’re past the point of making any age-generalizations about users.

It’s important to remember that people allocate their time based on received value. Whether 55-65 year old users are connecting with old friends, getting updates on their grandkids, or using it for work, clearly they are finding real value, and we can expect their style of participation to expand as they discover new features, applications and utility there.

As Clay Shirky says, “these social tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring.” With these growth rates, the technology is getting boring (meaning it’s not complex, frustrating, or an obstacle) quickly, and we can expect to see even more interesting social uses of Facebook for these demographics very soon.

Any observations about how the 45-65 demographic is participating on Facebook in your world? How are you using Facebook to reach this segment of your community?

Navigating the Personal/Professional Line Online

January 22, 2009 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

The New York Times’ assistant managing editor, Craig Whitney, is responsible for overseeing the paper’s journalistic standards. As Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools have changed the face of communications, he recently issued policies for New York Times reporters governing their personal use of social networks. As Patrico Robles writes on econsultancy.com:

“Employees have more influence on the image of the companies they work for than ever before. And with social media and online PR being so important these days, that trend is likely to continue.”

Whitney from the Times believes that these services “can be remarkably useful reporting tools“, but clearly also recognizes their potential impact on how the public views the quality or impartiality of the professional reporting.

I am often asked how these concerns apply to Jewish organizations. One Rabbi told me, for example, that he is often “befriended” by teens in his congregation on Facebook. Thank G-d! Our teens want to be Facebook friends with the Rabbi? Wonderful. But, he told me, he has a personal and professional obligation to take action if he sees inappropriate things on that teen’s Facebook profile, for example, a photo of a 16 year old with a beer bottle in his hand.

This particular Rabbi has developed an informal but consistent policy, which goes something like this: I would love to be your Facebook friend, but I have a responsibility to say something if I see inapprorpiate things you’re doing. Thus, I’ll leave it up to you if you want to give me full access to your profile, limited access, or withdraw your invitation. He reports many give limited access, and some withdraw their invite, but the conversation itself builds stronger relationships, gives an opportunity to talk about ethics and responsibility, and also gives him the chance to extend an invitation for the teens to talk to him privately about more serious things.

Another congregation I’m working with is investing energy in developing their Facebook Page. The staff person who manages the page wanted to provide transparency — including some personal information to make her “real” and not “institutional”, but didn’t want to have to edit her personal life on Facebook because of the professional transparency. Thus, she created a separate profile for her synagogue role, and manages all her synagogue relationships with the casualness of Facebook, but without impinging on her personal life.

Personally, I’ve recently split my personal and professional lives on Twitter, for many reasons. I’ve established @DarimOnline for my professional self (other Darim staff also contribute), where we share tips and news and links. I encourage people I know professionally to follow this both for the content and to see how an organization can use Twitter to further its work. Many people I know professionally also follow me @LisaColton on Twitter, which I welcome, and think is useful to see how people use it on a personal level. However, they know to expect updates about my social life, children and commentary on my lunch, among other things!

What issues have arisen for you in managing the line between your personal and professional lives online? What are you comfortable with, and not comfortable with? What policies or strategies have you developed (informally or formally) to navigate this new territory?

Facebook Causes Adds Birthday Feature

January 9, 2009March 5, 2018 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

Causes is a Facebook application that allows organizations to establish a “Cause” and receive support from people who “join the cause” and donate to it. Network for Good, a reputable online credit card donation processing service processes the transactions. Many organizations have raised significant funds (hundreds or thousands of dollars) towards general operating expenses and/or specific campaigns.

In addition to offering a very simple online donations offering, Causes taps into the viral power of social networking on Facebook. When a user joins the cause, it is posted in the news feed of their friends, inviting others to become familiar with the cause and also support it. With vast connections on Facebook (see image to the right), your message can spread quickly, and far.

Causes has recently added a new feature for birthdays. Users can pick a favorite cause, and use the application to set their Facebook status on their birthday, and perhaps the days leading up to it, encouraging friends to make a donation in lieu of cards or other gifts. Personally, I have made $10-$25 donations many times for friends’ birthdays, even when I may have not spent the time or money to send them a gift!

And hint: my birthday is next week! I’ve recently joined the board of CAJE, and welcome any donations to support their important work in providing professional development for Jewish educators. Or, if you prefer, you’re always welcome to support Darim (also a non profit organization)! Come check out Facebook Causes!

Learn more about Facebook Causes and it’s Birthday feature on Beth Kanter’s blog.

Telling Stories to Hear Stories

December 11, 2008 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

Social media is all about two way conversation, simply put. Exchanges between real people, building real relationships, and finding common ground, shared interests and, in many cases, collaborating to take action together.

Oftentimes as we manage Facebook groups or blog posts or even in surveys we ask people to share their stories. “Tell us about an experience when…?” Shawn and Mark at Anecdote develop courses on storytelling, and digital storytelling. Their discovery is that you have to tell stories to hear stories. That by modeling the style, length and risks taken in talking about your own life, you given permission and frameworks for others to do the same. We take cues from our peers about what’s appropriate. And especially in online settings, many people are still discovering/learning/evolving their comfort zones and the cultures of various online forums. From their blog:

Here’s an example. When I see my teenage daughter after school I would often ask how her day went, whether anything interesting happened at school, and the standard response is often monosyllabic: yep, nup. In fact the more questions I’d ask the shorter the answers. So I changed tack and rather than ask questions I simply recounted something that happened in my day. I would launch into something like, “I met a bearded lady today. This morning I drove down to Fitzroy to run an anecdote circle for …” and immediately my daughter would respond with an encounter from her day. A conversation starts and it’s delightful.

So next time you seek to hear other people’s stories, consider how you invite them to do so. Finishing a blog post with a question or invitation is a great way to encourage comments. And also consider sharing some of yourself. Blogging is a lot about developing a community — commenting on your friends’ and co-workers’ blog posts to tell you story is a great way of establishing a norm and permission for others to tell theirs.

What approaches have you found most successful or useful for inspiring dialog in your groups and blogs?

[Thanks to Naava Frank of Knowledge Communities and Kehilliyot for turning me on to this concept.]

How “Ambient Awareness” Can Strengthen Your Community

September 9, 2008 by

Lisa Colton Leave a comment

“Why should we do things online when we all live in the same place, and meet up at the synagogue (or JCC or havurah or Hillel, etc.) in person? Online can never replace the face-to-face experience!”

I hear this often, and spend a lot of my time explaining that an online experience is a complement, not a replacement, to face-to-face experiences. In our rapidly evolving world, two things are happening simultaneously which I believe are critical for the Jewish communal world to understand.

The reality is, Jews are using these online tools to shape an increasing amount of their day-to-day experiences. If the Jewish community does not offer the same convenience for initial and ongoing engagement that our members take for granted in other aspects of their lives, they may never walk through our doors to experience the power, importance, and value of the face-to-face experience our community can offer. We simply cannot afford to not be in the game. Furthermore, we need to learn how to use these tools as effective gateways – one of many points of access – for engaging and connecting people in a community.
Culturally, our use of new technologies is evolving into more social experiences. Human needs, emotions, patterns of socializing, innate cues, etc. are essential to the universal human experience. Recent trends in technology the “web 2.0” phenomenon (aka social media) can be summarized as making the web more social and people-centered: friendly, casual, accessible, democratic. And not only are the technologies evolving, but the ways in which we use them are changing as well.

Clive Thompson recently wrote an article in the New York Times, “Brave New World of Digital Intimacy,” about the evolution and success of Facebook and other social tools like Twitter. Thompson discusses the birth of the Facebook newsfeed,

a single page that like a social gazette from the 18th century delivered a long list of up-to-the-minute gossip about their friends, around the clock, all in one place. ‘A stream of everything thats going on in their lives,’ as [Facebook founder, Mark] Zuckerberg put it.

While users were initially uncomfortable with details of their private lives being broadcast, they quickly learned the value of it, and adapted accordingly. Thompson provides a larger context for these types of short-hand communications:

Social scientists have a name for this sort of incessant online contact. They call it ambient awareness. It is, they say, very much like being physically near someone and picking up on his mood through the little things he does body language, sighs, stray comments out of the corner of your eye.

Though each Facebook status update or Twitter post (“tweet”) may seem insignificant, Thompson suggests that “taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends and family members lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting.”

In an age where people are very busy, with both parents in a family working, it is hard to squeeze in time for engagement with the Jewish community. Often it is not that we don’t want to, it’s just that it is not always convenient enough to rise to the top of the priority list. This is critical for the Jewish community to understand. Developing online relationships is not about watering down or distilling. It’s about widening the doorways and strengthening ties.

“[T]he ultimate effect of the new awareness,” Thompson writes, is that “[i]t brings back the dynamics of small-town life.” What more do we want in our local Jewish communities? It is not enough to see a person in the single context of a study group or a synagogue service. Rather, we need to recognize the whole person, and be seen as a whole person, in order to form the tight bonds of community we crave. Facebook, Twitter and other technologies are tools that can be used in support of this.

Through these tools I keep up with friends from Pardes and Livnot U’lehibanot who are all over the world, youth group and camp friends from the congregation where I grew up, Rabbis I admire, and friends who I will see at next week’s tot Shabbat. And when I see them, we’ll pick up the conversation as though it had been hours since we last spoke, not weeks.

Curious? Sign up for Facebook and search for 10 friends from various areas of your past and present lives. Get a taste of Twitter – if you need someone to follow, I’m lisacolton (be warned: this is my personal life, not strictly professional, but I invite you nonetheless – you’ll be more ambiently aware of me!). And be sure to read Clive Thompson’s article in the New York Times article for more.

Postcript – Social Media in Action
This blog post was written on a Friday afternoon based on an article in the New York Times that was already available online but which was not accessible in print until delivery of the Sunday magazine section. The sequence of events that led to this blog post were as follows: the New York Times publishes the article online, budtheteacher “tweets” about it on Twitter, Caren Levine, Director of Darim’s Learning Networks, sees the tweet, reads the online article , and updates her Facebook status referencing the article, with a nod to bud’s tweet. I notice Caren’s status update, and as I know her recommendations are always home runs, I read the article, gears turn, and I compose this blog post, which you’re now reading. The information is valuable, but it’s made possible through the connection of the people.

Welcome to Web 2.0.