As you can imagine, it is hard to create a “How To” video for a social media platform that is continually upgrading and adding new features. I saw this style of video from a few different companies and really liked it.
We created “Martin(a)” as our main character, laid-out the functions we wanted to cover, wrote the story and then filmed it. I like the fact that the videos will remain timeless as we tweak different features on Justmeans. Check it out. I would be happy to receive some feedback.
(Warning to anyone who is making a video like this: Don’t let the simplicity fool you – these things take a lot of effort to make.)
For Individuals:
For Companies:
Feedback Wanted!
Thoughts?
As an individual – do you better understand how to use Justmeans?
As a company – do you better understand the tools that Justmeans offers?
The biggest mistake I see start-up charities and nonprofits make is over-kill on the planning stages of their organization.
I just came across this group called Carrot Mob UK. They survey local businesses asking:
“If we agree to promote your store to our ‘Shopping Mob’, what is the highest % of profits that you would put towards energy-efficient upgrades in your place of business?”
The store that agrees to the highest percentage gets the shopping mob for the afternoon. Check it out:
This is a very cool group that is not just sitting around in committee meetings. They are organizing and taking action.
I spent the morning surrounded by amazing UK based innovators at the 2008 Catalyst Awards. The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, congratulated people who are using social technology projects for the benefit of their communities.
Speaking at the event in central London, Gordon Brown said:
“Our thriving third sector continues to find innovative ways to tackle issues. We are creating a new generation of activists, campaigners and social entrepreneurs who are showing us just how the newest of technologies can help solve some of the oldest of challenges, building a more just society and better, stronger communities.”
The winners of the first UK Catalyst Awards are:
The Community Award – Savvychavvy – a social networking site for young gypsy travellers, giving them a voice and the opportunity to change the way their community is perceived
The David and Goliath Award – Liftshare – an online car-sharing system, enabling more efficient use of car journeys and cutting CO2 emissions and congestion
The Chalk & Cheese Award – FreqOUT! – a programme that combines wireless technology and emergent arts/education projects, and works to engage socially excluded young people
The Enterprise Award – Slivers of time – a web-based employment solution, allowing people to find bits of work which they can do in between unpredictable commitments in their life, such as childcare, starting a business or studying
The Revolutionary Award – Wheelies – the world’s first virtual disability nightclub. Based in SecondLife, it is connecting disabled users and providing a platform for them to discuss common issues
The Self-Help Award – School of everything – this innovative site matches up would-be learners and would-be teachers; unleashing unused skills in local neighbourhoods and allowing people, from young whizz kids to retired people, to pass on what they know to others
The Individual Hero Award – Helen Anderson of South Witham broadband – after a series of large internet suppliers refused to provide broadband in South Witham, Lincolnshire, Helen started a not-for-profit company to provide local individuals and businesses with broadband internet and WiFi. The volunteer-led project has been so successful that Helen has even shared her expertise with the Australian Government
The People’s Choice Award went to The Freeconomy Community, a skill, tool, space and land sharing website to build closer, stronger communities through the power of sharing
What’s Next?
The next phase of Catalyst, which uses the inspiration of today’s finalists to call for new ideas, will take place during Enterprise Week this November. JustMeans is planing to be involved in Enterprise Week by supporting unique social change organizations.
For media enquiries about the winners, contact: Amy MacLaren or Henry de Rougemont at amy/henry@colmangetty.co.uk on 020 7631 2666 or email
I think it is fair to say that 50% of conferences are a waste of time (come on…just admit it).
*The presentations are usually boring.
*It is hard to meet the right people in a crowd.
*And you have the same conversations – over and over and over again.
Not at MediaCampLondon 2008 – I found every person I met to be interested in pushing the future of social media forward. Good discussions, interesting people, lots of ‘new technology take aways’, and great networking in a small setting.
Two super-stars of the day: 1) James Whatley – promoting SpinVox
He did a demo showing how you to call a phone number, leave a message, and have the message automatically converted into text and uploaded directly into your blog.
2) Nicholas Butler – Social Networker and Opinioneer
This guy was cracking me up with his funny one-liners and impressing me with his solid approach to helping companies with their ‘social media audit’. Nicholas wanted to interview me and learn about the JustMeans expansion to London. After agreeing to the interview, he whipped out a camera and the discussion went right to his blog via a wireless connection – pretty cool. Check it out: Interview – JustMeans Expands to London
Example 1: Me Kevin Long – Deaf Education in Developing Countries
Problem:
Fifteen years ago, I went to Kenya to volunteer teach at a school for deaf children. At my deaf school, there were 250 deaf kids and 11 hearing teachers. The hearing teachers were trained to teach, but had no idea how to sign or communicate with the deaf kids. With limited tools, the hearing teachers would write on a chalk board and point… Can you imagine how difficult it would have been to learn from this method of teaching when you were a kid?
Action:
I founded Global Deaf Connection in order to support deaf people in developing countries in their pursuit to become teachers. I fundraised money for tutors, Kenyan sign language interpreters, and college scholarships – so deaf Kenyans could have access to higher education and become teachers at the deaf schools in Kenya.
Blockers:
The Kenyan government and some academics in the deaf community were upset. “We have to build more consensus”, “you have not completed all the paper-work”, “you are hearing and don’t understand”, etc, etc.
My reaction to these blockers:
Improve what I could and ignore everything else. I just kept thinking, “these deaf kids need deaf teachers now.”
Results:
There are now over 40 deaf Kenyan teachers mentoring, inspiring, and teaching thousands of deaf children in the deaf schools across Kenya. This is an historical number of deaf teachers for a country like Kenya – a real model for effective deaf education across the world.
Example 2: Martin Smith – Helping People Create Change Through Their Workplace
Problem:
Millions of people everyday go to a job they hate at a company that is not creating positive change in the world.
Action:
Martin Smith travelled the US and raised $400,000 to build and launch JustMeans – an international social media platform that rallies both companies and individuals around social responsibility. This included flying all over the world (i.e. to London to recruit me, to India to recruit the tech team, etc). His dream was an on-line platform that helped companies move regular customers/stakeholders into becoming real advocates for better business.
Blockers:
“But it is impossible to break into the social media space.”
“But you have to make your site perfect before it can go live.”
“It’s impossible to create an international platform right from the start.”
Etc, etc,etc.
Martin’s reaction to the blockers:
bullshit
Results:
In only two years, Justmeans has developed best in class technology that is helping a wide range of both for-profits and non-profits use our online tools to attract and ignite advocates for better business.
At National Deaf Children’s Society, I helped them test Facebook ads vs Google Adwords.
The stats in this post are from Ross Pullar from NDCS who is heading up the NDCS Digital Avengers
The Challenge
To see which advertising medium would produce the most number of inquiries for their half marathon event.
How it was tested
We promoted The Royal Parks Half marathon sign-up through both Facebook ads vs Google Adwords
The adverts for Google and Facebook were as follows:
Google
Facebook
With both adverts the user went to the same landing page.
From there the user was able to inquire about the event and have relevant information sent to them.
Hit Results:
Overall Facebook beat Google for inquiries. We found that the advert with the cartoon face on it had a greater response rate with over 370 people clicking on the cartoon in comparison to 5 with the sensible Google advert
My Advise:
*The crazier the better!
*Boring ads get less hits.
*Use progressive text and a crazy picture.
*Do a test period with different pictures and the same text.
*Do a test period with the same pictures but with different text.
“Hey, raise your hand if you think Twitter has had enough time to solve their load problems?”
The last three times I tried to log in to Twitter, it has been down.
I just signed up for FriendFeed and I love it. I was connected to my friends and grabbed on to a few people that they were following. I also played around with doing a post in Friendfeed through Facebook and Flickr – very easy. There are endless application that you can link to in Friendfeed. If you are up to it, their API is open for new and improved apps.
If you have not signed on yet to Friendfeed – I suggest checking it out.
Pitching a one year social media proposal to a management team that is still in the learning stages of Web 2.0 requires you to walk a fine line between teaching and telling. I think the four most important factors in writing and pitching a successful proposal are as follows:
1) If your customer does not understand it, they will not buy it.
Time and time again I see technically skilled super stars scare potential clients away because they are too busy flexing their nerd muscles and pumping up their techEGO’s during a pitch. Start from a place of understanding and build as you go.
2) ROI, ROI, ROI
The classic consultant swoops in, listens to staff tell them what is needed, does it while taking credit, and disappears in to the night leaving behind a big fat report stating – “How Big and Great it Will be Someday!” -Don’t be a classic consultant.
If you are committing to a year, have the courage to give solid 12-month ROI projections and stick by them. You can under-promise and over deliver but set real, tangible objectives.
3) Save your opinions for your blog
When the questions start flying at you from the number crunchers – be ready to answer them with facts and examples. I think Jeremiah Owyang’s post “COO and CFO” does a good job of listing the questions you need to be ready to answer.
4) Split your proposal in two
The executive summary and summarized recommendations should be first. The executive summary needs to be understandable and digestible. The summarized recommendations should have solid ROI goals. The second part of your proposal should contain a world of detail. The second half is where your clients should be able to find detailed information about each topic that was covered in the executive summary. Also, try to answer the hard questions in advance. It shows you are prepared and know what you are doing.
(Example Table of Contents)
Summary
Executive Summary………………………………………..2 pages
Summarized Recommendations and Projected Budget…3 pages
Detailed Examples and Recommendations
Social Media, Groups,Widgets and Calendars……………8 pages
Blogging………………………………………………………5 pages
Measuring Success…………………………………………2 pages
Appendix…………………………………………………….10 pages
I have been having conversations with different JustMeans clients about their social media profile pages. I keep telling people that the first thing people think about when creating their social media page is, “What information should I cut and paste from my website.” – HUGE MISTAKE
Social Media is not “A Website”. It should be created as more of an interactive call to action. Social Media is for engaging your stakeholders, not just for telling them information.
That said, I just noticed that Linda from Stand for Children update her company profile page and it looks great! Right away on their profile it asks you a question (engaging), tells to you join the network (call to action), and then shares with you the opportunities with the organization (selling). -AWESOME
“Ha,ha, we are just not going to pay money for a website”
…that was the line I received yesterday. A potential customer told me that he discussed it with staff and they all agreed there is no way they are going to “pay money for a website.” This from an organization with a 5 million+ budget that spends plenty of money on job postings and PR. It also runs a couple conferences with pricey entrance fees where again, money must be getting spent to promote and grow these annual events.
My first couple of thoughts were, “Why is this guy talking to me like I don’t have a good product.” “Why do so many other businesses and nonprofits see the value in membership at JustMeans.” Then it hit me – this guy does not understand the difference between a website and a social media platform.
A Website
The term website implies to a static collection of pages. Click on this button and read this. Go to this page and read this. I think non-interactive websites are becoming a thing of the past.
A Platform
The term platform is a dynamic framework where applications are run. JustMeans is a platform because we run applications (all of the elements of a profile are becoming applications with dhtml) and we will allow 3rd party applications to be installed. Features like gmaps are also considered applications.
The possibilities on a platform vs a website are not even comparable. If someone is not familiar with social media platforms, it might just look like a glorified website. But when you mix the power of flexible applications with the “7 degrees of separation” factor of social networking, then you have something that is far superior to – “just a website”.
I spent the morning surrounded by amazing UK based innovators at the 2008 Catalyst Awards. The Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, congratulated people who are using social technology projects for the benefit of their communities. 
Adventures with Justmeans 