Local Charities Doing Good – With Social Media

Posted on March 4, 2010 by Scott Gould

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4aIj0rp5rM

If you can’t see the video click here. You can watch the video on YouTube here.

I was taking a break on Dartmoor this week when I started seing lots of collection boxes for Devon Air Ambulance Trust (DAAT) in practically every shop, hotel or restaurant that I went to. The woman at this shop told me that everyone in the town (Chagford in this instance) had at the very least a family member who had been directly helped by DAAT.

So I flipped out my camera and started rolling. It was a moment of synchronicity – let me tell you why:

We had Heléna Holt on the first panel at Like Minds last week, who is the CEO of Devon Air Ambulance Trust, and I know the campaigning that she and many others do through Social Media to not only get funds but to also increase awareness. Having Heléna on the panel was another local person who we had in the diverse mix of people speaking. I hear people talk about ‘local’ in Social Media, but few do it.

The local goodness doesn’t stop there. In fact this whole thing is a local affair – because it’s our local partners Optix Solutions who developed Devon Air Ambulance’s website and Social Media campaign. In fact having ‘local partners’ is something that just isn’t really being done by conferences that have a global voice. Anyway, moving on…

Heléna sat on the panel that Jonathan Akwue from Digital Public had keynoted on minutes before – the very keynote where Jon boldly said that “Social Media saves lives.” The Guardian were there and concured with Jon, and thus ran the first of two articles on Like Minds, titled ‘Like Minds: Social Media can save lives‘. You can see the interview with Jon and how they reduced teenage pregnancies using Social Media here and then the keynote here.

And there’s one more thing: before Like Minds, not too many people knew about Jon – something he blogged about quite openly here. But his opening keynote has been praised over and over. We knew that he had something to give, even if he didn’t shout about it.

There are plenty of examples of local charities doing good with Social Media. But more often than not they are behind the scenes rather than jumping to get attention. Take our like minded endeavours for example – I never knew any of them were functioning at such a level.

Let me hear from you – what local charities do you know of using Social Media to do good that we should be promoting?

Are you build Community or Connections?

Posted on February 28, 2010 by Scott Gould

So I’m sat here at the Like Minds Summit reflecting over the last few days at Like Minds where we’ve played host to over 300 people, and I don’t know where to start.

First off, I’m not one to chest beat and bang my own drum (as much as Chris was telling me I should), so I’d rather you watched this incredible video put together by the always excellent Documentally.

I guess that main thing I want to say to everyone is what I’ve been saying for a little while now about Connections Over Community. Community support is great – but it only gets you so far. If you really want to do something, and achieve something, then you need to begin building connections out of that community,

The takeaway from Like Minds, then, is to go and pick up the phone, or send an email or a tweet, and get some face-to-face time with the connections you’ve made. There’s too much much talk and not enough action these days – so often because we’re so busy building our own communities rather than developing connections that enable to us to really be helpful.

Surely all the talk of ‘social’ needs to come around into this?

“Our Specials” to “You’re Special”

Posted on February 25, 2010 by Scott Gould

If you’re in a Catch 22 situation, and thinking of doing the hard sell, don’t.

Selling has been replaced by serving.

If you can give the best service, then you’ll get the best sales.

Rather than talking about “Our Specials”, start talking about “You’re Special”.

Does this mean I’m saying you should soft sell? No – it means I’m saying we should serve hard.

Serve each other rather than sell yourself.

(P.S. Don’t mean to be so Seth Godin-esque, but sometimes, you can’t help it

Times are Changing, Teams are Changing

Posted on February 19, 2010 by Scott Gould

I was at Exeter University on Wednesday listening to Professor John Bessant describe the difference between how innovation used to be, and how it is now. In the TV-industrial complex days, teams worked behind closed doors in order to hide their innovations. The rule was that a company had to have the smartest people working for it.

Today, it’s the other around. We have what I discovered is called open innovation. It means that a company no longer thinks they have the smartest people working for them. It means that today, a team comprises of the people who can make the project happen, no matter where they are or who they do or don’t work for.

This is how teams work in People-to-People. Finally we’ve realised that sometimes the best person to have in your team works for a competitor – but that’s ok. Sometimes, the smartest person is the customer. Other times, the smartest person to get onboard is across the world and you talk digitally.

B2B, B2C, buyer, supplier, consumer, boss, employee, competitor – all these phrases begin to fade in a People-to-People environment.

Why? Because those terms are tied into the old model that values processes over people. They are about process and paper work, not about people. But today we’re free from what I call factory thinking. Today we recognise that processes are commoditised, knowledge is cheap – but talented people who fit into a team and make things happen are a rare find.

Here’s the rub, though: to have a team that makes things happen, you need to motivate with more non-financial influence that you do financial impact. Because making ideas happen (and not letting those ideas just become unrealised ideals) requires the kind of blood, sweat and tears that wages don’t buy.

Influence is what gets customers to join your team. Influence is what gets people to work, not for money, but for self-actualisation. Influence is what builds a team out of vision.

My Question For You

How are you using influence to build teams?

Photo with thanks to claytonjayscott.com

No More Big Events?

Posted on February 18, 2010 by Scott Gould

Yesterday Seth Godin rocked the boat with another post that many people disagree with: No More Big Events.

This short post said that big events don’t work because they aren’t as good as “frequent cheap communication”. Scott McKain wrote a long response on why he disagreed which is worth a read.

I don’t disagree with Seth. Why, in an age of such connectedness, do we still try to fill rooms? Continue reading →

What The World Needs Now

Posted on February 17, 2010 by Scott Gould

This on the BBC is interesting. It’s a short clip of delegates at TED saying what they think ‘what the world needs now’ in 18 seconds. They all hinge on action. But my favourite is from Arianna Hugginton who said beautifully that ‘we need greater simplicity.’

I’m trying really hard to get a mission statement together for Like Minds. I’ve tried ‘challenging thinking to change our actions’ which is too long – and ‘challenging thinking’ which is too vague. I tried ‘open source thinking’ which means we should be free (which we aren’t), and I’m tried ‘making ideas accessible’ which hinges too much on the ideas and not the delivery of those ideas.

Like I say, an idea that goes nowhere is just an ideal, and Arianna as well as others in that video echoed that we need less people complaining and bulldozing, and more people collaborating and building. That’s also the theme of this incredible talk by Jamie Olivier, who won this year’s TED Prize for his campaign to teach every child about food. Continue reading →

Creating A People-To-People Conference

Posted on February 16, 2010 by Scott Gould

One of the greatest challenges that we face is to deliver on our ideas. On Saturday I asked the question on Twitter, “When it comes to ideas, what’s important? Making them accessible? Uniting people to ideas? Making ideas happen? Having lots, or a few?” The resounding response was “making ideas happens”.

The challenge that the Like Minds team faced this year was to make the idea of ‘people-to-people‘ happen, rather than letting those ideas become ideals that are never actualised. Continue reading →

Flatness, Equality, Social Media and Communism

Posted on February 10, 2010 by Scott Gould

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ashKB16gyvc

Last Friday we had some great discussion on the idea of a “Flat Social Media Earth“. In the above video, I’m just bringing a few more thoughts to the table, but first, I just want to recap what was said in the comments:

Jeroen Hoekman said, quite radically, that,

“it is impossible for social media to be flat. Unequality is intrinsic to Social media. People have so many “friends” or “followers”, because they want to feel popular, feel like a celebrity. Make people equal and you might kill social media.” Continue reading →