The Beekeeper Group recently partnered with Microsoft’s new digital magazine on civic innovation, Publicyte, to host the launch of the new book “The Fifth Estate” , a guide on how to create and sustain a successful media campaign.
The event featured author Geoff Livingston, followed by a panel of expert practitioners, sharing their experiences with using new media tools to advocate for their issues online and to not only initiate, but also sustain a fruitful dialogue with the online community.
Here are a few of the key takeaways that our audience shared after the event:
With the release of the latest passenger produced video slamming an airline – this time Delta – for poor customer service (see the video below of U.S. soldiers returning from Afganistan forced to pay $200 out-of-pocket per person in extra bag costs), it made me recall a recent observation from my business partner, Mike Panetta:
“Airlines must learn that passengers now have their own production, editing and distribution studios built into their mobile phones. With these tools, a documentary style video could be filmed, edited and distributed in the time of a single flight – While it may not have the ‘high’ production values of a 1970s airline disaster movie, the potential ramifications should give airline execs heartburn”.
This recent video is only just one example in a long line of passengers turning to YouTube to vent their frustrations at the airlines. Another of our favorites is the “United Breaks Guitars” videos filmed by a band who watched in horror as their guitars were thrown around the tarmac by United baggage handlers. Check it out:
In light of the disappearance of honey bees around the world, Haagen-Dazs asks us to consider a world without honeybees. In a microsite that touts “Haagen-Dasz Loves Honey Bees,” the bee-loved ice cream maker teaches us the importance of these insects’ roles in pollenating fresh produce.
Naturally, those here at Beekeeper Group couldn’t agree more. This crisis could not only be detrimental to the honey bee population, but it could also severely impact buzz-ness! So, here’s a video from helpthehoneybees.com, we thought would inspire you – if not to take action, to at least dance.
“Innovation needs to come from how we plan to use and apply these new technologies,” said panelist Corvida Raven at the Media Future Now presentation of What the Kids Are Doing, hosted at the AT&T Innovation Studio in Washington, DC. Moderated by the always enthusiastic Shireen Mitchell, the discussion covered the ways in which young adults are using social media technology to propel themselves forward socially and economically, and was quite interesting as you may imagine. The panelists were Founder and Editor of SheGeeks.net, Corvida Raven, at 23 years of age, and Founder/ CEO of Teens in Tech Labs, Daniel Brusilovsky, who is still in his teens. Following are a few points that struck me the most from the conversation.
• Daniel described his personal experiences as having the absence of tech integration in the grade school classroom.
• There has been a scarcity of real, true innovation in the American tech market because of this missing emphasis on tech in the classroom during grade school (middle and high school) years.
• Teenagers are an underutilized, under-supported group who may have the answers and ideas to solve these tech troubles.
• The techies of today are teenagers, and a lot of the true innovation taking place is coming from them, and not necessarily engineers.
• Both panelists cited the new Face Time feature, which is essentially mobile Skype video chat on your cell phone, as the future of quick communications. Not sure how well this would work in 5th period Algebra, haha.
In a separate conversation with Corvida following the discussion, she brought up an awesome point to me regarding the significance of texting as well as digital media in general. She pointed out that, “Nothing will ever replace written word/ text, and the digital world is just an extension, or digital replica, of what’s real and it simply allows us to save time. The digital space is essential to cataloging the history that we’re making right now because it provides limitless space.” This pretty much summed up the sentiment of the whole discussion. We have limitless space in this digital age. Virtual reality is the true final frontier, and it will never be fully discovered because the youth will constantly be innovaTEEN.
NPR featured a great story yesterday about the “Shopping Haul” YouTube video trend: NPR Story Here.
The ‘shopping haul’ video below that was featured in the story has over 1 million views:
Shopping haulers use video to feature their recently purchased shopping items, usually to share discounts and ideas with their blog readers or YouTube Channel viewers. This NPR story focused on one hauler’s shopping trip to Old Navy and another’s recent new dress purchase. Of course our favorite quote was in the lead-in to Elaine Notarantonio, a professor of Marketing at Bryant University School of Business who “says there’s no doubt hauling can help companies generate buzz”. But I digress.
So, what does all this have to do with advocacy? Let’s take the shopping element out of the mix, and what we have here are consumers (AKA constituents in our world), sharing stories about an action they just took. It is simple, inexpensive and extremely powerful. Instead of revealing discounts about clothes, what if a constituent talked about how easy it was to send a letter to Congress, what they wrote in it, why the issue mattered to them, and what actions their friends can take to help the cause.
We spend so much time encouraging people to take an advocacy action, but we rarely ask people to express their sense of accomplishment or fulfillment after doing so. It doesn’t even have to be a video, why not instead of just a standard ’thank you’ confirmation page include a question asking people ‘how did taking action make you feel’, or ‘what would you say to others who are considering supporting this cause’. Their responses could be included on your action web site, shared on your social media pages, or used as constituent quotes for a range of offline media opportunities.
In some cases, it may be appropriate to provide recognition (such as featuring the constituent on your website) or offer a benefit to people who take the extra time to share these kind of thoughts. However, please be wary of offering anything that could be seen as a cash-value incentive or inducement (this will dilute the value of the response and may impact your organization’s reputation – a point raised in the NPR story).
Last week, at the Politics Online Conference 2010, a panel of industry experts assessed some of the top online tools and platforms in terms of their effectiveness for politics and advocacy. The panel also delivered thoughts on the future viability of these platforms by rating them either as a ”FAIL – At Risk” (meaning the platform was potentially at risk), or “<3″ – [A.K.A the heart emoticon] (meaning the platform was likely to succeed or continue to succeed). As soon as we get the video of the panel we will post the discussion segments. But, in the meantime, here is a list of some of the tools and platforms and the overall rating from the panel:
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