Haiti

OK, this is somewhat off topic except that it isn’t.  My friend Kathy’s organization is doing very important work in Haiti and one of their people on the ground in Haiti wrote a great note in Facebook about the reality of the large organizations and how they aren’t getting aid to people, instead favoring paperwork far too much of the time.  I decided to tweet this note out to many people on twitter who seem to be really following the stream there on the topic.  Many people I tweeted don’t have Facebook (my learning for today, not everyone on twitter is also on Facebook… everyone has their own desires for communication) so I need a way to post this note elsewhere to share it.  So here it is.  Yes folks, this is what Social Networking is about. 

Hello tout moun,

It has been an interesting experience sitting here in Port-Au-Prince being part of a coalition of 25 non-profit organizations coming together to coordinate the dispensation of food, water, and medical supplies. It hasn’t been easy because of the extreme difficulty of passing through the myriad loops that the large NGO’s require before anything will be given out. There is a 100 question form that they are passing out to communities to fill out bring back in order to receive aid. This alone can take them a week or so. The questions they ask are very difficult to answer and explaining location in Port-Au-Prince, is nearly impossible. Often Haitians use directions like, next to the large tree around the corner from so and so market. The UN wants GPS coordinates because many streets are not marked here and navigating the city has proven to be difficult.

After the one riot that took place in the worst part of the city, they are only sending out non-food items at first to see if the communities can function without a disaster taking place. I understand their concern for safety, but it seems to be quite a long process to go through before any nutritional needs are met. It has been nearly three weeks now and communities all over the place are living on minimal amounts of food if any. The Haitian government has been completely bypassed in all of this. The president has thrown his hands up in the air because he is not being included or informed about anything that is happening involving this process of bringing aid relief to the people.
Boats full of goods are being redirected to pass through the Dominican Republic (DR) which is a very lengthy process as well. We actually have a boat waiting in the DR which hasn’t received any clearance by the port of Jacmel to debark.

When did it occur that our society got so disorganized. Where paperwork and numbers are given priority over bringing actual aid to the people. Smaller organizations have given up all over the place trying to deal with the larger NGO’s and the UN because there still has been any sign of the goods being distributed. They have warehouses full of boxes and can’t organize their dispensation to the country. The small organizations have given up and are buying local food to distribute and/or taking trips to the DR and driving truck loads of good back to the communities they are working in.

I understand that indeed this is quite a difficult project, but how could it be so disorganized? I hope that there will be a reflective inquiry into what made this all such a mess, so in the future aid relief will arrive and actually be given out to the people in timely manner and avoid the watching the population deminish everyday while groups run around like a chicken with its head cut off staring at piles of papers and computer screens, forgetting that behind the numbers are real people in dire need.
This has been a huge disaster, not only with the earthquake, but with the response. I only can hope that we get it together before more and more Haitians perish because the loads of aid aren’t quite ready because they haven’t been given the go by those in charge. If this doesn’t reflect the depth of our Orwellian times, and not wake us up from this great mess we have gotten ourselves into, I am not sure what will.

The Haitian people are unfortunatley used to living with very limited resources including food and water and have a high tolerance for suffering. If this was to happen in the US there would have been no tolerance for such suffeering. With great hope and determination we will overcome this all and Haiti will revive itself.

Thank you,
Ryan McCrory

More on that funny thing called conversation…

There will probably be a lot on this conversation topic here.  It’s probably one of the most important things to remember when you dive in to the social media world.  Far too often we just want to jump in and get things perfect.  We want the most pretty, perfect blog.  We want all the best tweets (not to mention the best looking page).  We want to have people donate to us like their lives depend on it.  But we forget that its SOCIAL networking and SOCIALl media, not just marketing.  And that means good social skills.

I originally started this blog because I have read a ton about social media and wanted a way to share the great articles I’ve found with my coworkers.  I work for Community Voice Mail and at our yearly conferences I’ve talked a bit about Seattle Free School and what nonprofits can do, marketing wise, without any money.  A fitting and timely topic these days for everyone, especially nonprofits who are feeling the pinch from both business and private donations.  There were a number of choices to get the word to my friends in the federation.  I can post on Facebook as many of my coworkers are friends there.  I could email to get to anyone I’m not yet connected with on Facebook.  But like so many, far too often I delete emails that I’d like to read because I just don’t have time right now and I don’t want it hanging over my head in that gigantic to do list called an inbox.  By blogging people including myself can come back to articles and ideas at some time in the future should they want to.  So I hope this winds up being useful to you… it will be useful to me if nothing else!

Because I’m thinking the most about my nonprofit friends the first article I’ll post is an excellent one by Josh Catone posted on Mashable (a great resource that you might want to bookmark.  Now.  http://mashable.com/)

The article takes you through the 5 main points of Social Media for nonprofits.  Engage your followers, consuming information as well as broadcasting it.  In other words repost things, share information from other nonprofits, be a part of the, yes you guessed it, conversation!  But wait you say, that sounds like a ton of work!  And a ton of time.  The first clarification I’d like to make here is that you don’t need to be everywhere.  You don’t need to be on every social media site ever invented.  I suspect that your head would explode if you even tried.  So pick the ones you like or ideally, love and make those the ones you really dive into.  As Josh states “pare down your social media presence to only the essential sites”.  More on how to figure that out in a later post.

OK, so we know we need to talk, converse back and forth to matter to our followers but that means regularly checking on whatever form of social media you’ve picked.  ”Inactivity only hurts your brand and turns users away”.  You can’t grow a community if you only respond once every couple of weeks.  No one will follow your blog if you only post every once in a while.  Remember, people are looking to you for information on whatever subject you’re talking about.  If they aren’t getting it from you they will go somewhere else.  So if you’re not going to use it then DON’T use it.  Keep the profile if you want, just don’t ever post there.  Because I just can’t pass up the chance to quote my favorite movie guru “Do or do not, there is no try”.  You don’t have to do it perfectly, but you do have to actually do it, you have to post regularly and respond regularly.

The beauty of this is that you’re not in college.  Your posts don’t need to be dry and sterile.  And frankly those of us following you would prefer that they weren’t, we’ve gotten enough of textbook writing long ago.  We want to hear what you, the human has to say.  ”You’re a real person, so you should tweet, post and email like one.  Always interact with your followers on social networks as you.”  You have passion.  You have energy.  You believe in your cause.  Your organization or business is just a thing.  It can’t have those emotions so use what you have and make us love what you do by sharing your drive with us.  There is nothing motivational about a dry, informational post.  But you, you can make us really truly care.

I’ve posted this article first because I think it really covers the basic requirements for getting involved in social media, in a way that is very accessible.  There are lots more great articles coming, and of course if you have one let me know… I can never read enough!

Read “5 Essential Tips for Promoting Your Charity Using Social Media” by Josh Catone here.

Conver-what?

Most of us get what it takes to have a good conversation in our daily interactions face to face or on the phone.  But what does it mean to have conversations when using social marketing?  It’s easy enough to think about and easy enough to do if you just frame it in terms of your in person interactions.

So imagine just for a second that you were meeting someone for the first time.  You like the person enough to spend the time with them and in general you’re excited to hear what they have to say.  So you meet for coffee somewhere.

Maybe you shake hands and exchange business cards and then the “conversation” begins.  Your “friend” begins talking about something they’re doing, “yesterday I went to” blah blah.  You find it pretty interesting and know enough about communication to nod your head, put out verbal cues that you’re listening and at some point you try to relate to them through a story of your own, showing that you do know what they are talking about and that you’re interested in having a real conversation.

They don’t seem to notice that you said anything.  They’re quiet for a while and then go on talking about that same subject.  Hmm.  OK, well maybe what you said just wasn’t interesting or maybe they were thinking about something else.  The conversation continues and again you try to relate and again you’re completely ignored.  What the…?  You’re a big enough fan of this person to keep going and eventually you start talking about something that you find very interesting and that you suspect this other person will see as important too.

Apparently they don’t.  They don’t comment on it, they don’t talk about it and yet again they just start talking about themselves.  This goes on.

And now you’re probably thinking, “yeah, this goes on but not for long”.  Why?  Because it’s RUDE.  Not listening to others, not responding when someone reaches out to you in conversation, just being totally self-absorbed isn’t a way to make friends.  It’s a way to annoy people.

And yet how often do we do just that in our social media venues?  How often do we just post about us, our organization, our business?  Do we watch to see when people respond and make sure we’ve responded to them?  Thanking them for reposting?  Continuing the conversation if they comment or post a question?

It’s too easy to see social marketing as a one way information dump for you and your organization or business.  But that won’t gain you any friends and eventually, unless you are just so important people can’t ignore you, people will stop caring about what you’re saying.

If you’re not reposting important things on Facebook or Twitter or sharing information with your network and instead only talking about yourself you’re not being a good conversationalist.  If you’re ignoring the conversation you started you’re not being a good conversationalist.  But more importantly you’re not networking.  This doesn’t mean reposting everything… then you’re just that needy weird friend.  But when you find something interesting SHARE IT!

The very idea of social networking and marketing is that we’re all spreading the word about things we find important, including those things other people have brought to us.  So make that happen.  Those articles you found interesting on Facebook, share them!  When someone makes a post on Twitter about you or about something you find interesting, respond!

If you don’t or feel like you don’t have the time then get out because frankly we want to talk, not just listen.

(there are lots of articles that inspired this post not just one so the reviews of great writings will start tomorrow… and yes, please do respond to this if you’d like.  I do want to start a conversation!)