Chad Norman's Webby Things : LIfestreaming

Things I Liked from SXSW Interactive

Chad Norman — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 18:58:00 GMT

If you're reading this, there's a good chance that you're a social media hipster doofus internet geek just like me. If that's the case, go ahead and make your plans for next year's SXSW Interactive Festival, because it's the one event you simply cannot afford to miss.

I realize that I may have lost some geek cred by not live blogging the entire event, but that was never part of my plan. I wanted to focus on building relationships with my fellow nonprofit geeks, actually pay attention to some sessions in an effort to learn a thing or two, and keep my Twitter feed updated with nuggets I could use later. After a day in the office, here are some things I liked:

The Social Media Nonprofit ROI Poetry Slam
Nonprofit Social Media rawk star Beth Kanter moderated the Social Media Nonprofit ROI Poetry Slam, which brought together experts from around the sector. The four participants included Danielle Brigida from the National Wildlife Federation, David Neff from the American Cancer Society, Carie Lewis from the Humane Society of the US, and Wendy Harman from The American Red Cross - we couldn't have been in better hands. Each person used a poem to tell the story of how social media was used at their nonprofit, and what the results were. The format was a creative way tell stories, but the best info came of of the insightful questions from the judges and audience. Things like: Charity Water did well with the Twestival because they were willing to let go of control, the Humane Society made $650,000 from a $5,000 Facebook app, and you have to know what to do with executive sponsorship once you get it (view all my tweets from this session). We all learned a lot, but everyone recognized that the disconnect between social media and donations is still large, but getting smaller every day. Be sure to check out Beth's reflections on the session, which includes slides, pics, links, and videos.

The Beacon Lounge
People kept telling me that out of the 11,000 attendees at the event, 1,000 were from nonprofits. I was a little shocked at first, but after a few days I realized this presence was real. Michael Cervino and Beaconfire hosted The Beacon Lounge, a place where SXSW attendees could chill out, do some good, and help nonprofits. Organizations like Operation Smile, OptInNow.org, and The Capital Foodbank of Texas got a lot of attention from this techie crowd, and we (Blackbaud) were pleased to help out Feeding America by sponsoring lunch on Monday. The lounge also became a rally point for all of us NPTech geeks who often needed a place to read email, get a drink, or just meet some new people. It was a great vibe, and really helped bring awareness to the nonprofit movement at this massive event. I'm excited that Beaconfire will be back next year for more of the same!

Gary Vaynerchuk
OK, I'm not going to beat around the bush - I love Gary Vaynerchuk. I would walk 1000 miles over lava-covered glass shards just to hear him speak. I watch his video blog at WineLibrary.TV, even though I hate wine. I send his short presentation from Web 2.0 Expo NY to friends at least once a month. None of that prepared me for the mind-bending, though-provoking talk he gave at SXSW. Already dubbed this year's unofficial keynote, his presentation blew the room away. Gary put his honesty, energy, and intelligence out there for everyone, which is what he is all about: being yourself and doing what you love. Some of my favorite quotes from the session include: 1) "If you live for the weekends and vacations, your $hlt is broken." 2) "Content is king, but marketing is queen - and the queen rules the house." 3) "I think about legacy over currency every second I breathe." 4) "Delegate everything, except what you love." There's a bunch of great quotes here (someone needs to make "v-shirts" with these quotes on them!), but do yourself a favor and watch/listen to the whole presentation. Get inspired, plan, act, repeat. Watch out for Gary at next year's SXSW, and in the mean time you can follow him on Twitter.

Delivering Happiness
Tony Hsieh's opening remarks about Zappos' success and company culture is something every HR and Customer Service leader should listen to. Zappos takes a very common sense approach towards dealing with both employees and customers: deliver happiness. Zappos is willing to take a 25% hit on revenue just to provide an amazing customer service experience (24-hour service, free shipping, special treatment, etc.) They believe that every customer service dollar should be looked at as a marketing expense. When more and more companies are scaling back phone support in lieu of online self-help, Zappos has grown to $1 billion in revenue by taking the opposite approach. And the same goes for their employees, who are offered $2000 during training to walk away - not to get rid of the bad apples, but to make the good apples more engaged because they "turned down the money". Half of the interview is about culture fit, with questions like, "On a scale of 1 to 10, how weird are you?" Tony advised that companies often hire based on talent rather than fit, which is fine once in a while...but over time it poisons the whole staff, creating a dysfunctional, poor-performing company.

Other sessions really stood out to me, like Tara Hunt's "Making Wuffie". Be on the look out for her upcoming book...it's going to be good. I also went to a great online community panel and learned things like, "Your community will not grow into the vision you had for it...you have to grow and adapt with it." The rest of the time I spent stumbling into texting walkers, networking at events, searching for food on 6th street, and learning from my friends. It was great being in a bubble-world with others like me, and I'm already looking forward to 2010.

All the rest of my photos are up on Flickr. But if you don't feel like clicking though the photostream, check out the video made from them on animoto.com . See you at next year's SXSW!

Socially Tricking-out The Charleston Green Fair

Chad Norman — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 13:01:00 GMT

Last Sunday, I spent six straight hours manning the Go Green Charleston booth at the first annual Charleston Green Fair. I really had a blast chatting it up with everyone that stopped by, and loved spreading the knowledge with our "Is it Recyclable" tabletop game. It was an amazing event!

I also spread a little social web love around immediately prior to, during, and after the event in an effort to increase the engagement of the Go Green audience. Not only did our core audience get a richer experience, so did the city as a whole. Times are tough, and money is tight for all nonprofits, so using existing tools and devices has never been more important. Here are a few webby things I did to engage my audience during the Charleston Green Fair:

Used the @GreenCharleston Twitter feed and Go Green Charleston Facebook page to remind our supporters about the event. We received a few immediate responses about attendance, and a couple general questions...cool!
Sent a last minute message out via the @GreenCharleston Twitter feed and Go Green Charleston Facebook page offering a reusable shopping bag to the first 3 people who mention the offer at our booth. All three bags were given away - 1 from Twitter, 2 from Facebook.
Posted real-time event photos via TwitPic on the @GreenCharleston Twitter feed. Each image got a similar amount of views and comments, so it would seem our remote audience was consistent throughout the event.
Chatted with friends and supporters via my personal Twitter account, and was able to arrange a few on-site meet-ups. I also received some interesting comments and encouragement from everyone during the long, but fun, day. Thanks!

I guess the message here is that there are a lot of little things you can do with your existing communication channels that can increase the engagement of your audience, without decreasing the funds you in your bank account. As always: set goals, experiment, track, analyze, and repeat.

4 Webby Things on My Mind

Chad Norman — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 12:44:00 GMT

Here are four webby things I wanted to share with you all this morning.

Episode #12 of The Baudcast is hot of the griddle, and ready for consumption at Blackbaud.com or the iTunes Music Store. This was a fun episode to tape, so a big thanks goes out to Garrett Keating and Micheal Sola for taking the time to chat with us. The conversation wandered through topics like Blackbaud NetCommunity 5.5, efficiency through integration, multi-channel messaging, BBNC API, BBNC Idea Bank, social networking, Blackbaud Delivers, NetWits Live @Portland, Socialthing, VoteTheBay.org, and more. The Baudcast, Episode #12

Alternative search engine Cuil.com has officially launched today. You gotta love anytime someone re-imagines the search space (like Mahalo.com), as it's hard to think we'll have a better option than Google. Will Cuil be that better option? It's hard to say, but with ex-Google employees at the helm and an index that is allegedly bigger than Google's (121+ billion pages), they're off to a good start. And while my blog is not at the #1 spot for my name as it is in Google, Cuil is pulling up all kinds of other stuff...specifically my social networking profiles. Also, my LinkedIn page is #1 (just in case you needed another reason why you shouldn't neglect your LinkedIn profile). Cuil.com

I've been really excited to get an invite to 12seconds.tv, the new video-based microblogging/updating service. Since the videos are not streamed live (like with Kyte, Qik, or Stickam), it feels like a short attention span version of Seesmic. But with 3G iPhones proliferating across the world, this is great way to embrace the swelling real-time social web. And hey, moving pictures are worth 10,000 words - for, you know, when those 140 characters at Twitter just aren't enough! www.12seconds.tv

I love Twitter, you love Twitter - we all love Twitter. Well, now there's identi.ca, an open microblogging service using an API that jives with Twitter. This is big, because now the massive Twitter developer pool can work its magic on identi.ca with very little additional work (this works fine for Twhirl). And since identi.ca is hooked in with OpenID, this could get interesting. www.identi.ca

That's all for now. Please enjoy these webby things, and have a webby week!

8 Webby Things That Are Now Sticking to Me

Chad Norman — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:25:00 GMT

Startup costs are at an all time low, ideas are everywhere, and there are millions of content-creating users out there ready to help out. It's never been a better time to be a webby guy who's into webby things. These are good times. These are the salad days.

New services, tools, and sites bubble out of the ether each week, and it's awe-inspiring to watch startups of all shapes and sizes roll down the front pages of blogs like ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch. It's safe to say that a lot of us are finding daily use for tools like Twitter and Facebook, even though they were mere distractions a year ago. While these may be the big box sites, I've noticed the adoption rate of smaller services is picking up - at least for me.

I signup for more sites than I know I'll ever use long-term, so the exodus often occurs as the new car smell fades. I just like to see the feature sets, check out the design, and get inspired. That said, lately some of them have been sticking, and I find myself using them on a regular basis. Here are 8 webby things that are living large in my world...what are you using?

Summize
If you want to know if people are talking about your organization, company, product, boyfriend, or favorite band/show/book/game, then this is the tool for you. Summize performs real-time searches of Twitter, and should have more streams coming soon. I initially used TweetScan, but Summize has a better advanced search and is just prettier looking. www.summize.com

Flock
Relatively new to me, Flock is pulling me in and I'm using it almost daily. It's basically a pre-customized version of Firefox geared towards the social media power user. The built in sidebar manages major social sites (cool!), a media stream bar pulls in content, integrated blogging and search is handy, plus it has all the Firefox goodness. And that's nothing - 2.0 is in beta! www.flock.com

SocialThing!
This is basically a social aggregator, but I love its look and feel. Seeing all your friends in one place is really useful, and Socialthing is especially handy if you are following a lot of Flickr/YouTube/Digg/del.icio.us junkies. And while FriendFeed may have threaded discussion and rooms, my friends don't need to join Socialthing for me to follow them. This type of tool could be useful to organizations following large groups, especially if they add the ability to tag and filter. www.socialthing.com
Plurk
This site could be called a Twitter-clone, but the similarities stop there. They have implemented this amazing horizontal scrolling timeline for updates, and it simply looks gorgeous (though, I've heard that when you're following lots of people, it gets crowded). Similar to FriendFeed, threaded discussions are attached to each update - this is great, and is one of the reasons early adopters are finding the platform handy for distributed online meetings. www.plurk.com

FriendFeed
Currently the darling of the early adopter set, FriendFeed is growing by leaps and bounds because of its nimble feature set. It feels effortless to use, and makes it easy to "like" updates, join threaded discussions, and form ad-hoc groups. The "Rooms" feature is something that both Twitter, SocialThing, and Plurk (they are using "cliques") desperately need. Beth Kanter did an experiment for NPTech folks that gave us a reason to play with the features - and now we're all hooked. Twitter, you're on notice! www.friendfeed.com

Twhirl
This was one of the first Adobe AIR apps that actually stuck for me, and I use this desktop Twitter client every day. Very functional, great options, and easy to deal with - I've had no problem turning other people onto this tool. www.twhirl.org

Alert Thingy
Basically like Twhirl, but for FriendFeed. You can do most of your FF business within this sidebar desktop app. www.alertthingy.com

Snurl, TinyURL, is.gd, etc
OK, when you want to post a big, long, nasty URL into a microblogging service, you've got a problem. That's why so many short URL generator sites have popped up, and why I continue to use them. I used Snurl for a long time, but lately I've been using is.gd, as the average URLs are a few characters shorter. www.snurl.com, www.tinyurl.com, and www.is.gd.

So, what webby things are getting sticky for you?

Twitter Makes Relationships Work — Right Now

Chad Norman — Tue, 20 May 2008 17:32:00 GMT

I'm really not obsessed with Twitter...well, no more than you are at least. OK, maybe a little more. Either way, I just wrote this article for Fundraising Well and The NonProfit Times, and thought it should end up here on Webby Things. Enjoy!

Twitter Makes Relationships Work — Right Now

Social networking connects us like never before. We find each other, exchange information, and develop expanding networks as easily as we send email. This helps individuals, nonprofits, businesses, and governmental agencies form new kinds of relationships. That’s great, but now what? How do we put these relationships to work?

Sometimes participation in social networks can feel passive, because everyone is focused content. Friend requests, photo galleries, comments, application installations — it's exhausting! It’s like we’re spending all of our time creating and consuming each other’s content, instead of actually doing something.

What Is Twitter™?
Twitter™ is the social network that asks, "What are you doing?" and was designed “for staying in touch with and keeping up with friends no matter where you are or what you’re doing.” It’s sometimes called a micro-blogging service, because posts are limited to 140 characters or less. You can also look at it as social networking based on text messages, much like Digg™ is based on news or LinkedIn™ is based on resumes.

The relationship model is simple: You can follow people, and people can follow you. When you “tweet” something, your followers receive the message in their feed and on their phones. It sounds simple, but what separates Twitter™ from the social noise is its ease of use and mobile reach. The introduction of real-time, everywhere connectivity into a social network has produced meaningful results — results well past the original vision of keeping up with your friends while on the go.

Let’s assume someone on your staff has used Twitter™ to build a large following of interested people (how to do that is another article altogether!); what happens next? How can you make these Twitter™ relationships work?

Your Followers Are Actually Listening
Reaching out to constituents is a necessary part of fundraising, and many traditional methods require a serious investment. Direct mail, phone calls, email, blogging, and public relations can all take a long time to actually reach your audience. With an established following on Twitter™, you can reach out to them in just seconds. But you’ve got to have something to say…

You could use Twitter™ to broadcast outgoing marketing by posting links to event registrations, online donation forms, or volunteer opportunities. This is a more traditional way to make the relationship work, and many organizations are doing it. But you may want to try a more subtle approach by posting about those same things, but with a more personal vibe. Tweet that you are touring the venue for this year’s gala, stuffing bags for volunteer day, or heading to a board meeting. It may sound crazy, but your followers will care about this stuff. In fact, knowing these things will make them feel closer to you. This could come into play during your next campaign, as it’s always harder to say “no” to a friend.

Followers on Twitter™ can also help you spread your story, which can bring a welcome set of new eyeballs to your mission. Danielle Brigida is a social media expert who detailed her development of a successful social media strategy for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). By leveraging relationships in various social networks, including Twitter™, Danielle’s followers regularly help NWF content land on the front page of the social news website digg.com. When this happens, a post on the NWF Wildlife Promise blog might see traffic increase from around 150 pages views to around 29,000 page views. For organizations like NWF, where online visitors often turn into online donors, investing in a social media channel like Twitter™ can clearly pay off.

You Should Listen Too
If Twitter's™ emergence as a broadcast tool is the predictable success story of the platform, then its power as a receiver is the big surprise. When you reciprocate relationships by following your own followers, you let your most avid supporters know they have a chance to reach out to you — and that you’ll listen.

A frequently used tactic on Twitter™ is to ping your followers for some information. You could reach out for ideas for your gala theme, find a volunteer in a nearby neighborhood, or get one last anecdote before a board meeting. Instant feedback by like is difficult to get with traditional tools, but Twitter™ can make it happen as you’re rolling on the tarmac or waiting in line at a store. A community that’s always connected is always there when you need it.

But what about just getting to know your constituents better? After a big alumni event, spending an hour following links to Flickr™ photos and YouTube™ videos might give you a clearer picture of how things really went from an attendee perspective. If you have a large scale media or viral campaign, you can use a tool like TweetScan to monitor the chatter. Because the Twitter™ platform is mobile and provides constant access, it’s becoming the place to go for instant reaction. If you can develop a large enough following, this can work for you.

In the end, Twitter™ is a place where relationships can get things done quickly. As with any foray into social networking, a well thought out strategy and clear goals are important first steps. But once you decide to integrate real-time social networking into your communication plan, your Twitter™ relationships will be ready for duty.

Want to see what it’s all about? Sign-up and follow me!

Google Friend Connect - The Last Social Migration?

Chad Norman — Tue, 13 May 2008 03:52:00 GMT

My brain has been buzzing ever since I read the big Google Friend Connect press release yesterday. Social networks form natural silos or walled gardens, and even FriendFeed may not be able to break them down (despite an AMAZING feature set - I've loving you FriendFeed). This is a big challenge, and Google's Friend Connect has arrived to take it on.

Friend Connect uses the open API access of existing social networks (Facebook, Orkut, Plaxo, hi5) and social standrards (OpenID, OpenSocial,oAuth) to bring social networking to any website. By adding some relatively simple code, your visitors can soon be bonding over their love for what you do - and who doesn't want that? Sure this thing looks a little unfinished (Where is the support for EVERY social network - come on, you're Google - get it done! And the widget better be highly customizable, because the demo didn't exactly look fetching.), but the idea is simple: connect the dots.

I've been really fascinated with all the lifestreaming/social aggregator sites like FriendFeed, Socialthing!, and Profilactic. The ability to have a real-time view of people's lives is powerful. But putting all the rich audience knowledge aside, even FriendFeed is not immune to social network whiplash (the sudden migration of users form one social network to the next). Friend Connect could make network migrations irrelevant, while also giving smaller sites an inexpensive way to leverage broaders social networks. With a strategy like this, we may not have to wait for friends to join us on the next "It Social Network"... they'll already be there.

I can't wait to see where this goes...how about you?

Geek Note:
As I'm writing this, I'm sitting through the presentation at Google Campfire One live from Robert Scoble's Quk account. Not only am I hearing all of this two hours before it will be publicly available, but it's a beautiful example the Twitter > Qik broadcast schema. Just a few clicks and I'm watching live coverage of an invite-only event from the perspective of an industry insider. Several jets flew over the outside gathering, leading to inevitable jokes about Microsoft spy planes...you can't make this stuff up. I mean, this would never have happened one year ago. Is this an exciting time for technology or what?!?

The Twitterverse is Alive at the Conference for Nonprofits

Chad Norman — Thu, 01 May 2008 14:47:00 GMT

Blackbaud's Conference for Nonprofits in Montreal is off to a brilliant start this morning, and Twitter updates are allowing attendees to share the experience with their followers. The era of microblogging (Twitter), lifestreaming (Socialthing! and FriendFeed), and mobile broadcasting (Qik) is changing the way we we communicate with each other, and events are certainly prime venues to play with this technology.

I've already seen a few tweets from people I'm following, and I'm dropping some myself. Twitter user micahwittman sent in this update from Marc Van Baar's session on Mail Merging: "Spoiler: Raisers Edge 8 to have Total Giving and other aggregate fields for mail merge!" Shortly after, I picked up a tweet from marcapitman, who said: " tweeting from the Blackbaud conference in Montreal. About to learn about building an online village! (This is my first "in session" tweet!)"

What can I say, I'm loving this! This influx of real-time tools is encouraging lifestreaming and self-broadcasting, and their impact is only just beginning to become evident. One thing is for sure - things will never been them same...for you, me, nonprofits, corporations, and even government agencies.

OK, back to the Twittterverse...