Chad Norman's Webby Things : Storytelling

Podcasting, Podcasting, Podcasting

Chad Norman — Wed, 13 May 2009 12:18:00 GMT

OK, I've been home long enough to say I'm recovered from the 2009 NTC, but I'll certainly never be the same. This event has the potential to change the life and org of every single attendee that shows up, and that's why it will continue to be the premier nonprofit tech event for years to come. Yes, I'm in love.

Last week on The Baudcast, I assembled an all-star cast of NTC troops to break down the event and share some lessons learned. Anna Richter, the Program Coordinator at NTEN, joined us and was able to share some amazing inside knowledge. Danielle Brigida (NWF) and David Neff (American Cancer Society) broke down a couple of their sessions, and Peter Campbell (Earth Justice) waved the IT flag high. Rounded out by the Blackbaud crew, the show was a fun way to look back at this event. Be sure to check it out (iTunes or direct).

It was podcasting that brought me to NTC in the first place. I had the honor of co-presenting a session with the Nonprofit Podfather himself, Corey Pudhorodsky of the 501c3Cast (his NTC event and session notes are here). The session was packed, with people sitting in the hall to learn more about this fascinating medium. Though it was an A-Z overview of how to get started, I think many people left with specific actionable items they could use to start a podcast. The excitement was definitely there, and I can't wait to see some of these show ideas come to fruition.

Below are the slides to Nonprofit Radio: How to Make Podcasts That Support Your Brand and Engage Supporters. If you have any questions about podcasting, just shoot me an email, DM me on Twitter, or leave a comment below.

Nonprofit Radio - Make Podcasts that Engage Supporters

View more presentations from Chad Norman.

Happy podcasting!

Lights. Camera. Help. Brings DoGooding to the Big Screen

Chad Norman — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:43:00 GMT

While in San Francisco last week at The Nonprofit Technology Conference, I ran into one of my favorite dogooders: David Neff. Never short on energy and enthusiasm, David was even more pumped than usual. And why not?...he was just about to launch a great new nonprofit!

Lights. Camera. Help. is the premiere film festival exclusively for nonprofit and grassroots organizations, and they officially opened their submission process last Friday. A film festival for nonprofits like this is the first of its kind in the nation, and will provide a valuable platform for organizations and grassroots movements to be recognized for their work.

Anything that promotes the use of video is OK in my book, as almost nothing can engage and go viral like a thought-provoking film. Nonprofits have been using services like YouTube and DoGooder.tv for a while now, so recognizing orgs for their hard work feels like a natural next step. If you've got a great feature, short film, PSA, or other video content, submit it for entrance into the festival by June 30.

Aaaaaaaannnnnnnnd, scene.

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!

8 Things I Learned from Episode 22 of The Baudcast

Chad Norman — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:27:00 GMT

One of my favorite things about producing The Baudcast (iTunes | direct) is that I get to learn directly from nonprofit industry experts, share with all of you, and then apply that knowledge at my own organization. Last week's show centered around storytelling, and specifically how to use the web as the vehicle - something we could all use a little help with.

Amy Sample Ward (Global Community Builder, NetSquared) and Danielle Brigida (Associate Operations Coordinator, National Wildlife Federation) just completed hosting sessions at TechSoup Global and NTEN's webinar series on Social Media and Storytelling, so I asked them to come on the show and share some of what they covered. They had some amazing insights, and I definitely took away some things I could do/use right away.

Find the people in your organization that have the voice to tell your story. Staff, board members, field workers, volunteers, or even those who receive help from your organization are all great resources to speak on your behalf. Seek them out, give them the tools, and let them tell your story for you.
Let activists use social media to help lighten your work load. Letting others tell your story for you has a great side effect: More time for your staff to focus on fundraising, event planning, etc. If you get others to tell the story of your mission, you'll have more time to focus on it.
Create a supporter toolkit. If you want people to tell your story, but your Marketing team is a little nervous about brand control, give your supporters a storytelling toolkit. Include your key messages, logos, photos, links, etc. so that they can help you tell your story in a way that supports your brand.
Create a separate YouTube account for you blog. This is a great piece of advice if you are want to include shorter, edgier, and funnier videos on your blog, but don't want them to show up on your main YouTube channel. Great idea Danielle!
Be authentic. This is always good advice, for anyone! Tell your story in a natural voice, not something that has been vetted by the public relations team. Avoiding the Marketese will add authenticity to your content.
Don't forget to listen! Use Google Alerts, TweetScan, BackType, search.twitter.com, and other services to generate RSS feeds that track mentions of your organization. Forgetting that we have 2 ears and only 1 mouth will get you into as much trouble on the social web as it will in the real world.
Twitter can become the FIRST social media service you use. Amy suggested that if you aren't currently using social media at all, you might as well start with Twitter. Using the service will help you learn a lot about your own audience's use of the social web, and put you in a better position to develop an overall strategy around blogging, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media tools.
Using video and photos instead of words to tell you story. A picture really is worth a thousand words, so let the photos and videos fly! Using services like YouTube, Flickr, 12Seconds, UStream, TwitPic, and others will help you add visuals to your compelling stories, which will encourage visitors to engage with and share your content more easily.

Thanks to Amy, Danielle, Steve, and Melanie for being on the show last week - I hope you all had as much fun as I did. If you'd like to subscribe to The Baudcast, please visit the iTunes Music Store or Blackbaud.com.

5 Nonprofit Storytelling Lessons from a Master of Hip-Hop

Chad Norman — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 19:40:00 GMT

So much of social media and relationship marketing revolves around storytelling, and this is especially true for nonprofits. Using the internet and social media as a vehicle to tell stories is an approachable, inexpensive, and effective way to engage your audience (Check out NTEN's social media and storytelling web seminars series for the juicy details.)

Last week I was listening to some old school hip-hop - you know, Eric B and Rakim, Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, etc. These artists are all great examples of how media can be used for social change - as a vehicle for storytelling. At this phase in the evolution of hip-hop, artists were still explaining to listeners WHY they were picking up a microphone - meaning, they were trying to tell us about themselves...about their organization, and what they were trying to accomplish.

KRS1 was the brains behind Boogie Down Productions, and he was a master storyteller. He devoted a few songs on every album that told us about himself, his mission, and why he was speaking out. I think that's something all nonprofits can learn from. It's like selling yourself from the inside out. KRS1 would go on to become an expert at using music as a vehicle for social change (a whole other blog post), but early on it was all about telling his own story. And he did it well.

Here are 5 quotes from the Boogie Down Productions classic "My Philosophy" that provide lessons in storytelling that all nonprofits can benefit from:

"You're a philosopher? Yes, I think very deeply."
Do you know you stuff? Oh yeah you do - and your audience wants to learn from you. Go deep, be honest, and be passionate. Tell your story from the roots up. Nobody knows your mission better than you, so every time you write, blog, podcast, and speak, tell your story proudly and your philosophy will get across.

"You gotta have style, and learn to be original"
The best ideas may be stolen, but they're also the most common. Put yourself or your organization out there in a unique way that people can connect with. Be creative. Your story is yours, so give it a style and flair that reflects your culture and mission.

"I just produce, create, innovate on a higher level"
There is no substitute for hard work, high standards, and constant scheming. Join every social network, community, directory, and affinity group you can to tell your story. Be prolific, type furiously, be emotional - all when appropriate, of course. Content will always be king, so if your story is creative and innovative, it will be heard by the desired audience.

"It's not about a salary, it's all about reality"
A good story can connect with anyone, regardless of economic status. A well crafted, mission-focused message can impact an unemployed college graduate just as much as a Fortune 500 CEO. People are giving because of how they feel about reality, not their salary. The ask might be different when that time comes, but everyone loves a good story.

"This is just one style, out of many"
Despite Kurt Vonnegut being my favorite author, I still search for opposing styles from other writers. Tell a good story, but don't forget to bring in new voices. Storytelling is very personal, and multiple authors will bring multiple styles. This can help you reach a wider audience. Find the storytellers in your organization, whether they are members, staff, donors, or board members, and give them the platform to tell your story.

So, are you ready to channel your inner old-school hip-hop master and start storytelling? Be sure to check out the last two sessions of NTEN's social media and storytelling web seminars series, and then visit the We Are Media Project for details on how to make it happen. Now let's hear your philosophy!