Social Media 101

For those of you who are still a bit confused....

Courtesy of vanished-omen.

STAND Now! Through the Social Media Microscope

The American Revolution had the Boston Tea Party and anti-colonist paraphernalia like Common Sense.  The Civil Rights Movement had influential "sit-ins," marches, and heroes like MLK and Rosa Parks.  The Vietnam War Protests had iconic student demonstrations and underground music and newspapers.  All today's activists need to be heard are the following: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and access to the rest of the internet.

The iconic "Flower Power" photograph of the '60s

The organization that I chose to monitor is called STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition.  Formerly known as Students Taking Action Now: Darfur, STAND is a student-based political organization founded in 2004 with the mission to advocate genocide prevention policy and legislation.  Initially meant to spread awareness of the devastating Darfur conflict in Western Sudan, STAND's rapid growth throughout the years has led them to advocate for political action to end all genocidal violence around the world.  To this day, STAND has established over 850 college chapters in 25 countries all over the world, raised over $650,000 in funds, and has been recognized by global organizations like the United Nations and Amnesty International.  The most amazing part of all this?  It was all done by college students not so different from you and I.

I chose this organization because I wanted to see how the face of activism has evolved with the use of the internet and social media networking.  In my opinion, part of the reason why STAND has become so successful in spreading their cause is because their founders, part of the web-2.0-savvy generation, knew exactly what was occurring with these changes and rode the wave of this technological revolution.  By utilizing the proper tools, they were able to hone the power of social media to complement traditional practices of political activism such as writing petitions, holding peaceful demonstrations, organizing conferences, and approaching influential leaders for help.

The way STAND operates is that they provide local university and high school chapters the tools needed to raise awareness against genocide: fundraising, media materials, lessons about lobbying, and background information about the ongoing conflicts.  Because their various chapters are located all over the world, most of these tools are accessible online through their website, Facebook page, and YouTube.  Although the different chapters hold their own demonstrations and events, STAND also holds nation-wide conferences and lobbying events to help unite their hundreds of thousands of members from all over the world.  For example, this April STAND will be holding their Third Pledge2Protect campaign, which is an opportunity for STAND members to donate funds, upload YouTube videos which would be presented to members of Congress, as well as visit the STAND headquarters in Washington, DC for a lobbying day and march on the Washington Mall.  As it has become the largest lobbying event in genocide prevention history, what is particularly remarkable about this event is how it defines 21st century activism--the ability to mobilize and advocate through a combination of traditional tactics and social media strategy.

Worcester's own Congressman McGovern speaking
in the Pledge2Protect Campaign in 2009

Like Clark University's chapter of STAND, most STAND schools have their own social media pages to help advertise their events, organize their ideas, and increase membership.  This is a unique take on the Groundswell phenomenon, where members of an organization use social media to act on their own without the need of top-down direction from leadership.  It allows the organization to continue growing and taking on new chapters all over the world without running short on manpower and resources to handle all of its members.  For instance, through Facebook Pages individual STAND chapters can tag photos, videos, and events to the main STAND Facebook page and let everyone know what each chapter is doing.

STAND's main Facebook Page

What I also found interesting was that through a simple monitoring of their social media presence, it is immediately obvious how passionate STAND's different chapters were about organizing their events and advocating their main cause.  For example, during the Southern Sudanese independence referendum in the end of January, which was a pivotal step to ending the civil conflict in Sudan, a Social Mention search of STAND within that month led to their positive to negative mentions ratio to grow almost 4 to 1.  An IceRocket search of the last week of January, which was when the results of the referendum came out, saw an extreme peak in blog posts mentioning STAND (see graph below).

That same week also commenced STAND's official "Tweet to the White House" week, where STAND users all over the world used hashtags and RT functions to President Obama, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, and Vice President Joe Biden's Facebook and Twitter pages to raise the Sudan question in the president's foreign policy agenda and hopefully include it in the latest State of the Union Address.  Although the Darfur issue was cut out of final draft, this only displayed the power Twitter has to not only allow students and ordinary people to address powerful officials, but to also get a response from them.  In @StandNOW's Twitter page, their tweets show an almost immediate reply from President Obama's account:

 

After monitoring STAND's social media presence, I believe that they are a great example of how social media is utilized in an organizational level and how the proper tools are used to empower a group's groundswell to help them achieve their goals.  Furthermore, when social media is applied to activism, it is extremely easy for an advocacy group like STAND to monitor how much they impact policy and how successfully they advocate their cause.  Although there is more they can do to increase membership, organize the social media pages of their existing chapters, and expand the reach of their social media presence, I find that the novel things that this organization has accomplished with social media shows the potential they have to really make a bottom-up political impact on a global level.  I believe this organization will continue to make headway in making activism and social media an indelible partnership.

To conclude, I wanted to show this video which shows how STAND members participated in a Tweet the White House Day (very much like the one described above) and gets President Obama to start talking about what his administration is planning to do with Sudan:

More to come!

A 140-Character Story to Warm Your Heart

A few days ago as I was browsing the news, a New York Times article caught my eye and as many things around me have been doing recently, reminded me about this class and the social media phenomenon that we have been trying to make sense of.  The short article, entitled "A Life on the Streets, Captured by Twitter" featured 44-year old Derrick Wiggins who is not only a native Brooklyn-ite and Giants fan, but has also been part of the homeless community for many years now.  It told the tale of how Derrick was given a pre-paid flipphone to tweet regularly about the challenges he overcomes on a day-to-day basis--many of these things we take for granted such as eating a hearty meal, taking a warm shower and sleeping with heat and thick blankets.  To this day, Derrick has garnered over 5,500 followers and still tries to respond to most of his followers who wish him a good luck and send their prayers day by day.

Derrick Wiggins, @awitness2011

Through Underheard in New York, a non-profit organization that focuses on homelessness awareness, Derrick and a few other select individuals (Danny, Albert, and Carlos) were provided pre-paid cellphones to regularly tweet from anywhere in the city about their life without a home.  The organization was founded a month ago by three graduate students interning at a NYC PR firm who have always wanted to do something to help the homeless community in their city, but had limited resources of their own to do so.  In spite of this, they honed the power of social media and decided to take this unorthodox approach at activism by helping homeless residents of the city gain a voice of their own.  Their mission: "...use their social media presence to create real interaction and make them a part of our global community."

Since reading the NYT article about a week ago, I have been following the UnderheardinNY website and checking to see how their Twitter stars are doing.   Lately, I've started to notice that I wasn't the only one in my circle of friends doing this--a friend of mine on Facebook recently posted a link to the site on his own profile, and some Tweeters on my network who I told about this also started following Danny (who, personally is my favorite) with me.  What a great example of how word of mouth really spreads like wildfire!  And that's not all--as the buzz about this organization continued to grow, so did the opportunities for these men: a few days ago I noticed they were starting to get invites to job interviews, people were tweeting to welcome them to their homes for a meal, and Derrick was even given a ticket to see the NY Giants from the money raised by his Facebook and Twitter followers.  However, the most incredible story happened a few days ago when Danny was finally reunited with his daughter and his two grandchildren for the first time after losing contact with them ELEVEN years ago.  (DISCLAIMER: Get ready to shed a tear or two...)

Celina blogged a few weeks ago about Spent, a great interactive website that also features homelessness awareness, and I believe this is another wonderful example of how social media can be used to greatly advocate a cause and tackle an entrenched societal problem.  Although critics argue that social media tools have made us lazy activists (or rather, slacktivists), I believe that allowing Danny, Derrick, Carlos and Albert to speak for themselves through  Twitter and thus rebuild their lives on their own is worth much more than giving them $1 on the street.  Don't you?  If you agree, I invite you all to spread this story and revel in the power 140 characters has in restoring someone's life and opening many windows of opportunities.

"It's a great moment," said Danny Morales when asked about meeting his daughter.  "I feel rejoiced.  I never thought it would be this way... It's so beautiful."

*Keep up to date on what's going on in UnderheardInNY through their Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube pages.*

Energizing the Groundswell -> Better Online Shopping Experience

Whether you're a Adult Lego fanatic, a confused pre-teen girl, or just a penny pinching college student like me, I guarantee you this: there is a place for you in the internet.  I'm sure even the most anti-mainstream, non-conformist, couch-surfing of hipsters can find a place where they love to post their musings to a online community of followers (even though they probably won't admit it).  In other words (or rather, Li and Bernoff's words), the Groundswell has swelled enough to reach anyone, anywhere, at any time--and it's only continuing to grow.

Although this is great news from a marketing perspective, Chapters 7 through 10 of Groundswell show why many approach this phenomenon with cautious optimism--and righteously so.  On the bright side, the opinion of customers, which would often fall between the cracks of company bureaucracy, can now be directly read and interpreted according to what they have to say on your website's comment board.  Furthermore, if your customers like what you're doing, they will easily--rather, willingly--do the marketing for you, which is arguably one of the most persuasive channels of communication out there.  By executing traditional PR and marketing techniques via social media, you can easily help your Groundswell help you, and Li and Bernoff argue that all you need to do is this: 1) Give your customers what they want or something that can help them, 2) Create a community to get energized about your product, and 3) Innovate with the help of your consumer base.  It really is that easy!

However (and here is where the cautious optimism comes in), many refuse to accept is that their Groundswell community is no longer an idle consumer base, but rather an integral part of their sales, marketing, development and innovation initiatives.  And on top of that, some are terrified about the possibility that a simple viral video or a forum on a blog can destroy their company's reputation--after all, when it's online, it's there forever (do you remember the Domino's prank and how much it damaged Domino's credibility?  See below).  But see, crises happen all the time, and damage control (yes, even in the internet) is possible.  And, as Li and Bernoff reiterate many times in the book, there is no point fighting it--we just have to embrace this fact, and instead try to get a handle the uncontrollable viral power Groundswell contains.  It will be interesting to see if the book contains a chapter on what to do when the Groundswell starts to turn against you and your company.

While reading the book, I was reminded of a store that I frequently visit which has really embraced social media to create a symbiotic relationship with its customers.  As risque as this store's history has been, it seems as though those behind the American Apparel website have been living religiously by the Groundswell manual and have thus garnered an extremely positive reputation with their online customers.  From their blog, Twitter, Facebook, ebay pages, and even live-chat options, the American Apparel site contains multiple web 2.0 platforms where they can interact with their customers, listen to their feedback, and even give promotional discounts and giveaways.  Furthermore, through the use of social media they also make shopping online, which can usually be hit-or-miss, a very easy and interactive experience.

Not too long ago, I was looking to purchase the cotton spandex jersey leotard from AA (see above), but was a bit on the fence about it.  How would I wear it?  Is it worth the pricetag?  What was its functionality?  What was the best color to choose?  What size should I even get?  I knew the wisest move was to go to the store to try it on, but since the nearest store was all the way in Boston, I figured I'd first check the website to see if they had anything more to say about it.  What a pleasant surprise!  There were over 400 ratings for this item from all over the world, and people were saying everything they could about it.

Some really helpful comments sounded like this:

* Jen, USA - This is a very comfy piece. I got this as a bonus when I ordered a bunch of stuff. Its a medium but I wish it was a small. Im a 32a so the top was loose but the rest of it fit like a dream. I wonder if the small would be too tight on the bottom. I'm 5 feet and 100lbs but i am pear shaped. I pair this with the interlock high waist skirts and it looks great.

* Natalie, UK - Ari, because you're petite its best for you to buy an xs, because you're small in length as well as in width. Your likely to find that the small will be slightly too big -definitely in the shoulders and bottom half of the leotard (the crotch and bum area) as there is a considerable change in these two areas when going a size up or down in most of AA's clothing. xxx

 * Whitney, Australia - I am 5 foot 3 & 115lbs: I got it in a size Small in Black. I do ballet every week - it's a beautiful leotard & if you want, you can wear it under some nice jeans and go out. I totally recommend it!!

AA didn't stop there.  They even have picture gallery below the item description, where people who have purchased the item can submit a picture of how they incorporate it in an outfit.  This is actually the first time I have ever seen anything like this feature, and have actually visited the AA website several times after purchasing an item to get some outfit ideas.

After spending over an hour browsing their website, I ended up buying the leotard, and loved it so much I also gave it five stars, a positive comment, and on top of that, told all my friends about this easy online shopping experience.  It is now clear to me that AA followed the laws of Groundswell perfectly: they were able to give customers what they need to know, build a community and energize them through ratings and comments, and innovate itself through creative outfit ideas and submitted photos from users.  For a store that has such unique and eclectic designs like American Apparel, it just seems apt that they would also be as creative with their marketing techniques--but I still really enjoy reading Groundswell and finding Li and Bernoff's helpful guidelines being used in many of the successful social media players out there.

Wins All Around for Social Media

This week was definitely not for the social media faint of heart.

It all began with Kenneth Cole's untimely tweet.  On February 3, in a careless move, designer Kenneth Cole tied his Twitter update to the ongoing Egyptian revolution as a plug for his spring collection:

The 140-character tweet immediately went viral, leading thousands of tweeters to criticize Cole's  insensitivity and force him to withdraw his statement.  Caving from the pressure, he profusely apologized on his Facebook page the very next day.  As a designer who has had a history of tactless print ads such as post-9/11 "God Dress America" and "On Sept. 12th, families returned to the dining room table. TODAY IS NOT A DRESS REHEARSAL" (I'm not even kidding), this was an unprecedented moment as it was the first public apology from Mr. Cole himself.  Was it the change of medium (from print to Twitter) that allowed Cole's audience to show him the error of his ways?  Who knows.

Next was Groupon's Superbowl commercial, which featured the Tibetan liberation movement to highlight all the deals Groupon has on Himalayan restaurants all over the country.  The gist of the ad was this: Sure, thousands of Tibetans continue to be violently oppressed because of their religious beliefs and cultural traditions, but at least you can get their amazing fish curry for $15 instead of $30 through Groupon!  If you haven't seen it yet (first of all, which rock have you been hiding under?), here it is:

Although meant to satirize a PSA and direct viewers to Groupon's website where they can donate to Tibet's cause, the commercial backfired terribly.  A social media firestorm erupted, where thousands of Tweeters and Facebookers used Groupon's message board to call for a boycott of its product and services.  Talk about social media irony.

Even then, Groupon's CEO Andrew Mason failed to apologize, instead defending his commercial and saying that the ad was meant as a nod to “the often trivial nature of stuff on Groupon when juxtaposed against bigger world issues.”  I guess Mr. Mason didn't get the memo: if you have to explain the joke, it's not really that funny.

The social media backlash has continued to grow, proving that Mason's point was moot and in spite of intent, the commercial was just made in bad taste.  People want an apology.  And when they don't get it, this is what happens:

This week has proven that because of social media, the line between what is effective and what is ethical in marketing is once again blurred.  Have we become too hyper-sensetized, as Mason said, to have a sense of humor?  Are we trying too hard to be politically correct to get a simple joke?  All I know is that when you fail to monitor your social media responses and then blatantly deny what people are saying, that's when you know you are taking two steps forward and one step back.  What we have seen this week is the power of social media to unite individuals who refuse to be manipulated by executives that trivialize and poke fun at legitimate causes for the purpose of their own profit.  What is even sadder is at this very minute, people in Egypt and all over the world are sacrificing their lives to attain the same fundamental freedoms that people like those in Kenneth Cole and Groupon irresponsibly exploit.

From Kenneth Cole's untimely tweet, Groupon's marketing mishap in the Superbowl to Egypt's Youth Revolution, the same message has reverberated across borders and timezones many times this week: Whether you like it or not Mr. Cole/Andrew Mason/Hosni Mubarak, the public is here to stay.

Yay social media! 

PS. Continue to stream live updates of what's going on in Egypt here.