Social Technology Projects Praised by Prime Minister

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

MediaCampLondon 2008

If you missed MediaCampLondon 2008 then you missed out.

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

Ignore the Blockers – 3 Examples

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.

Example 3
Solar Bug Electric Car Building Super Star

Do you think he has a chance or are you a “blocker”?

Google adwords vs Facebook Ads – a little test

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.

What will you find???
Crazier is better.

Spice Girls vs JustMeans

I finished a work week at JustMeans, plop down in font of the TV, and this below video from a group called, “The Spice Girls” came on. I was frozen. My mouth dropped open and I could not bring myself to change the channel. The thought that kept running through my mind during this video was,

“HOW STUPID ARE WE????”

I just spent two days talking to socially responsible companies and organizations about how they can better focus their messaging via social media to attract new supporters. I was having discussions about things like ‘fully recycled supply chains’, ‘moving at-risk youth from poverty to college’, ’empowering cross-sector institutions for sustainable family change’, etc, etc. That was when I saw this video (below) and realized that a bigger problem than just focusing a message is beating the competition. The world is filled with absolute crap that is just screaming to take the attention of the masses. I gave two minutes and forty five seconds of my life to the Spice Girls…ouch.

Take the Spice Girls Challenge:
1) While watching this video – think about all the things that are important to you, what you want to do to make this world a better place, and how you are going to do that.
2) Then realize that the Spice Girls and their, “tell me what you want what you really really want to be friends with my friend so your friends brothers’ friends neighbor sister…. can be my lover” video is getting 10 times more attention than what you are doing – again…ouch.

“Look at the competition”

Social Media is not a Billboard

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

Check it out Stand for Children – their profile will do well.

Website vs Platform – Is there a difference?

“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”.

Social Media Spending Up when Economy is Down?

I thought this was an interesting chart from Foresters regarding marketing spend during a down economy.

I have to wonder though… it is a strategic decision by companies or is it just because it is less expensive and sexy?

One reason I think social media spending is going up (no matter what) is because companies are just now realizing exactly how far behind the times they are in regards leveraging these new channels of media.

Anyone else have thoughts on why?

Quit First, Ask Questions Later

When I was in my early 20’s I turned a corner in my professional career. I was working for a non-profit organization as an Aquatics Director (aka glorified lifeguard), managing (baby-sitting) around 50 part-time staff, and monitoring (making miracles happen..) a $150,000 budget. A job I thought could make a difference in the world, wasn’t making much of a dent at all. What about the greater good? Must help the community! Must give and give!

After working 14 days in a row, I remember thinking how much I hated my job. Not only was I underpaid and overworked, but I also realized this non-profit organization did a horrible job at treating their employees well. Ahhh….I was tricked by a non-profit organization! I remember looking at myself in the reflection of the pool and thinking, “How did I get here?”

I hated my job and no longer believed in the organization. I was only earning money. I decided it was time to give my notice and it was one of the best things I ever did. From that day forward, I would only take part-time work that would allow me to study so I could quickly complete my college degree in International Management. After I finished my degree, I started a small retail business which proved to be a powerful, foundational learning experience. I then founded Global Deaf Connection, an organization to support Deaf people in developing countries. I later travelled the world through a consulting fellowship with Bertelsmann, moved to the UK where I started a business development consultancy, and now I am living my dream as COO of JustMeans. JustMeans is a social media platform that rallies both companies and individuals around social responsibility. I help socially responsible companies promote their good work and encourage individuals to work for a company that is creating positive change in the world. I love my job so much that I actually have to force myself to take time off. Such a great feeling.

My advice:
If you hate your job and do not believe in the company your work for, don’t sit around waiting for something to change. Become proactive: put in your notice, dive into a full-time search, and as a result, you may end up working for an organization you believe in. Monday mornings can become a whole new reality.

LinkedIn and Facebook vs JustMeans

Is it wrong for the Chief Operating Officer of JustMeans to admit he uses LinkedIn and Facebook?
No – because each of these platforms fulfil their own purpose.

Facebook

I have to admit, when I am sending out my funny holiday pictures, I jump right on to my Facebook account and blast away. I find Facebook to be a good place to keep up with my friends and family. I receive their news feeds, get invited to parties, and keep up-dated on everyone’s most recent pictures. I even like playing around with the childish things you can do like “throwing a snow-ball” at your friend’s profile or sending a graphic of a birthday cake or a soda-pop to a buddy. Facebook does have its place in my heart as a more “social” form of email.

LinkedIn

I dove in to LinkedIn a little while back and was amazed at all the old connections I made. It is a great place to connect with business professionals from previous jobs. In just two days I was able to connect with 86 people that I have known or worked with in the past. When it is time to re-connect with your professional contacts from the past, LinkedIn is worthy place to start.

JustMeans

Unlike LinkedIn or Facebook, JustMeans has a focus around companies and individuals interested in social responsibility. JustMeans is much more of a niche market for two main reasons:

1) JustMeans is focused around both company and individual profiles. On Facebook you can link your profile to another individual profile to become “friends” – on JustMeans an individual can link to a company profile and become a “stakeholder”. This is a good way for individuals and companies which are interested in social responsibility to interact on a professional platform.
2) On JustMeans, individuals are introduced to new users interested in the same areas of social responsibility. This puts much more of a focus on people developing new connections instead of just connecting with social or professional contacts that they already know.

Max Gladwell’s blog,‘Social Media and Green Living’, does a good job in explaining the above two points about JustMeans.