Using the Web for Social Change

by | Feb 8, 2006 | Blog, Social Media

Social marketers increasingly need to be web-savvy in order to take advantage of online opportunities to promote their issues. Part of my hope in writing this blog is to help people working in social marketing to utilize the Web 2.0 tools that harness the power of social networks to spur individual and social change – ideas like user-generated content, peer networking, and the development of online communities.

I have just learned of a project called NetSquared (tagline: “remixing the web for social change”), which works to provide nonprofits with the know-how to adopt new online technologies. It’s a great website to use to learn more about how the web can augment your social marketing programs or nonprofit outreach efforts.

Daniel Ben-Horin, president of CompuMentor, which created NetSquared, describes its mission:

We will catalyze the catalyzers. We will use the new tools and culture shift to engender conversations among the early adopters (who often don’t know of each other), between early and later adopters, between nonprofits and technology developers, between nonprofits and the growing army of technology helpers, and between all of the foregoing and the major technology companies (who have so much to gain from this dialogue in terms of marketing and realizing technology’s social potential).

If you are reading this blog, it’s likely that you are already pretty conversant with using the web. Many in the social marketing field, though, still think of the internet as only websites and e-mail. We need to move toward Social Marketing 2.0 so we can utilize the widest possible set of tools available to us. I will be putting together a workshop to teach social marketers how to use the latest technologies in their programs, so please let me know if you have any interest in this issue.

Also, NetSquared will be having a conference in May that will bring together nonprofits, technology people, philanthropists and others involved in the confluence between these groups.

Social Change 2.0

by | Jan 30, 2006 | Blog, Social Media

A new site has popped up called 8by1: Wishlist for Your World that is a Web 2.0 take on promoting social change (the name translates as “vertical infinity by anyone”). On this site, you can post your “wish for the world” that will make the world a better place. Besides just wishing, you can also provide action steps that people can take toward your goal, links for more information, and your own comments about the issue. Wishes that have been posted range from the predictable “world peace” to “more people with hybrid cars,” “affordable health care,” “keeping baseball in the Olympics” and “more nightspots in Vancouver.”

You can invite others to share your wish and even find others in your city that you can work with to make the wishes come true (okay, maybe not the people who wished for “Britney Spears to Dump K Fed”). The site is too new to know whether it will be an actual jumping-off point for any real change, but the idea has potential.

Another similar site, but geared toward the personal level, is 43 Things. On this site, people post the things they want most for themselves — things like “lose weight,” “get married,” “get organized,” “learn to tap dance” and “see the Northern Lights.” It’s a good place to see what kinds of things people value in their lives. For each goal that someone posts, they can provide updates on their progress and others can share their own success stories on how they made that change. For example, 639 people have said that they want to “give blood.” 98% of people who left comments said that it is “worth doing.” People talk about their own experiences, ask for advice about the donation process and receive answers from their peers. What a great place for an organization promoting blood donation to either advertise or become part of the conversation (with full disclosure of who they are, of course).