Americans have a propensity for incredible generosity following major disasters. Over the past week, this has been evident in the country's response to Japan's recent earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 21 percent of Americans say they have made a contribution to an organization working to provide relief in Japan.
Of note, the use of digital mechanisms for giving has seen a substantial rise in this most recent wave of charitable giving. Pew found that adults under 40 were just as likely to give money via digital technologies like websites, text messages or emails as they were to give via traditional means like mail or phone.
In contrast, Pew found that only 5 percent of the same age group donated money after the 2005 tsunami in Asia, and only 20 percent of them gave through digital technologies.
This is good news for organizations looking to increase their giving, and signals the opportunity to invest in technological platforms that make giving easy.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Integrated Campaigns
Advocacy efforts increasingly require a multi-faceted, integrated approach in order to achieve success -- whether legislative, cultural, or electoral. The importance of integrated campaigns in underscored in section 1 of Tech President's Year One of Organizing for America: The Permanent Field Campaign in a Digital Age.
This excerpt provides an overview of Organizing for America's effort to enact comprehensive health reform. It was critical for the health reform movement to utilize traditional tactics like lobbying and events, but it was also fundamental to build and activate social capital -- which was largely accomplished through digital tools. Without this integrated approach, health reform may have succumbed to the Tea Party backlash that was unleashed during the summer 2009 August recess.
Any campaign interested in integrating efforts -- both online and offline -- should read Ben Rigby's book, "Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web 2.0." The book details what an integrated campaign is, and also provides detailed guidance on how to do it.
This excerpt provides an overview of Organizing for America's effort to enact comprehensive health reform. It was critical for the health reform movement to utilize traditional tactics like lobbying and events, but it was also fundamental to build and activate social capital -- which was largely accomplished through digital tools. Without this integrated approach, health reform may have succumbed to the Tea Party backlash that was unleashed during the summer 2009 August recess.
Any campaign interested in integrating efforts -- both online and offline -- should read Ben Rigby's book, "Mobilizing Generation 2.0: A Practical Guide to Using Web 2.0." The book details what an integrated campaign is, and also provides detailed guidance on how to do it.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Live Chats with News Publications
The divide between editorial and advertising has long been staunchly guarded among media news rooms across the country. However, the line may be less clear for readers and users who interact with some media content.
Washington Post, for example, sometimes offers readers a 30 minute "Live Q&A" chat on an issue with a reporter or with an expert spokesperson of interest. These are classified as editorial content. However, organizations can also pay for Washington Post to host similar sessions with readers. These are classified as advertisements.
Perhaps the line has always been blurry for readers. After all, the paid live chat sessions are similar in nature to advertorials. But I've observed that the blurry paid content is increasingly moving online, where it can sometimes be harder for readers/users to tell the difference.
Washington Post, for example, sometimes offers readers a 30 minute "Live Q&A" chat on an issue with a reporter or with an expert spokesperson of interest. These are classified as editorial content. However, organizations can also pay for Washington Post to host similar sessions with readers. These are classified as advertisements.
Perhaps the line has always been blurry for readers. After all, the paid live chat sessions are similar in nature to advertorials. But I've observed that the blurry paid content is increasingly moving online, where it can sometimes be harder for readers/users to tell the difference.
Mobile Advocacy Strategies
This week's readings (Using Mobile Phones in Advocacy Campaigns and Trend to Watch in 2012: The Rise of Mobile) focused on the use of mobile technologies in advocacy campaigns. The key take aways:
1. Mobile technology has a few important benefits as an advocacy tool:
1. Mobile technology has a few important benefits as an advocacy tool:
- It is widespread
- It is easily accessible/relatively inexpensive for users
- It is easy to use
- It is fast
- It is increasingly nimble and can be used in a number of creative ways
- Text messaging
- Voice
- Mobile applications
- Mobile advertising
- Optimizing websites to be viewable and usable for mobile users
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Seeking Health Information from Peers - In Person and Online
Since last week's post, Pew Internet and American Life health expert Susannah Fox released a new report on America's habits in seeking health care, support and advice.
Not surprisingly, the report found that most Americans, especially those with rare diseases, turn to their peers for health support and advice. The advent of social media and online channels of communication has increased their networks of peer support -- and has helped Americans build online communities of individuals with similar issues or helpful information.
Online channels provide an outlet to easily find and connect with those with the same or similar conditions as well as health care professionals and disease experts. This connection can be an invaluable tool for patients with chronic or rare diseases.
My grandmother struggled with Parkinson's Disease for more than 25 years, and one of her greatest resources was her community of peers who were fighting against the same illness. She eventually became the president of the support group, which was a constant source of information, guidance and support to help her maintain the highest quality of life possible. Today, I wonder what her support group would look like. It might take an online form via facebook or another social network -- at least as a way to track members and reach new people.
While some express concern that seeking health information or advice online can steer patients toward self-diagnosis or poor health outcomes, I would contend that the increased information sharing and networking provides, on balance, substantial health benefits to those who seek out health information and support online.
Not surprisingly, the report found that most Americans, especially those with rare diseases, turn to their peers for health support and advice. The advent of social media and online channels of communication has increased their networks of peer support -- and has helped Americans build online communities of individuals with similar issues or helpful information.
Online channels provide an outlet to easily find and connect with those with the same or similar conditions as well as health care professionals and disease experts. This connection can be an invaluable tool for patients with chronic or rare diseases.
My grandmother struggled with Parkinson's Disease for more than 25 years, and one of her greatest resources was her community of peers who were fighting against the same illness. She eventually became the president of the support group, which was a constant source of information, guidance and support to help her maintain the highest quality of life possible. Today, I wonder what her support group would look like. It might take an online form via facebook or another social network -- at least as a way to track members and reach new people.
While some express concern that seeking health information or advice online can steer patients toward self-diagnosis or poor health outcomes, I would contend that the increased information sharing and networking provides, on balance, substantial health benefits to those who seek out health information and support online.
How to Maximize and Measure Social Advocacy
In this week's readings (Measuring the Impact of Your Social Media Program, and Rules of Social Media Engagement), our professor, Alan Rosenblatt, explained some key ways to maximize and then measure the influence of a campaign that uses social media for advocacy purposes -- what Dr. Rosenblatt calls "social advocacy." These are summarized below.
Reach
A social advocacy campaign should focus on reaching as many people as possible -- or maximizing impressions. How many people did you get your message in front of? Not everyone in your audience will read or engage with your message, but knowing how many people were exposed to it is still an important measure to understand. The more people you reach, the more likely you are to drive up the number of people who engage with your social advocacy program.
Helpful tools for measuring reach include hashtags, and tracking followers or fans.
Engagement
The number of people who engage with your campaign will always be smaller than the number of people you reach -- but engagement is usually the whole goal of social advocacy. For instance, a social advocacy program may aim to engage supporters in re-tweeting the message, posting it on their facebook wall, or sending a message to a policymaker.
Tools to measure engagement include tracing retweets, followers, mentions, comments, etc. Interesting tip: data from a facebook page can be downloaded into excel for easier analysis. I never knew that!
Driving Web Traffic Home
While visits to your website are not as central to social advocacy as engagement, they can still be an important way to get your message out. You can drive traffic to your website by linking to it in social advocacy efforts. On Twitter, it's important to keep the URL short using tools like bit.ly in order to use most of your 140 maximum characters for the message.
For links to the resources, tools and services available to measure some of this difficult-to-find information, like how often you are retweeted, check out these articles. They will be very helpful to anyone trying to maximize and measure their social advocacy impact.
Reach
A social advocacy campaign should focus on reaching as many people as possible -- or maximizing impressions. How many people did you get your message in front of? Not everyone in your audience will read or engage with your message, but knowing how many people were exposed to it is still an important measure to understand. The more people you reach, the more likely you are to drive up the number of people who engage with your social advocacy program.
Helpful tools for measuring reach include hashtags, and tracking followers or fans.
Engagement
The number of people who engage with your campaign will always be smaller than the number of people you reach -- but engagement is usually the whole goal of social advocacy. For instance, a social advocacy program may aim to engage supporters in re-tweeting the message, posting it on their facebook wall, or sending a message to a policymaker.
Tools to measure engagement include tracing retweets, followers, mentions, comments, etc. Interesting tip: data from a facebook page can be downloaded into excel for easier analysis. I never knew that!
Driving Web Traffic Home
While visits to your website are not as central to social advocacy as engagement, they can still be an important way to get your message out. You can drive traffic to your website by linking to it in social advocacy efforts. On Twitter, it's important to keep the URL short using tools like bit.ly in order to use most of your 140 maximum characters for the message.
For links to the resources, tools and services available to measure some of this difficult-to-find information, like how often you are retweeted, check out these articles. They will be very helpful to anyone trying to maximize and measure their social advocacy impact.
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