SocialButterfly

Four Phases of Online Social Change

Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 | Changeblogging: NP, activism, social change +, Social Media | 3 Comments

You may agree or disagree with me on this, so I encourage your thoughts as I’m transcribing some of my own observations into the online social change field. These observations boil down to four “phases” of online social change that I think reflect our maturity into using social media tools to meet our organization’s aims:

1. Awareness Building
2. Fundraising
3. Contests and Competitions for Change
4. Advocacy

In the beginning, I feel many tools were leveraged as awareness-building mechanisms. From the initial launch of Causes to recruiting fans, followers and friends, many tools were initially set out to further awareness-building of an organization.

Then, I felt like the tools and our use of them matured as we discovered ways to leverage the tools into dollars–from Twestival to Tweetsgiving to Goodsearch. Even Causes adapted and identified birthdays as a way to increase micro-donations. You could say that online fundraising in and of itself has seen a phased formation and continues to evolve. See Beth’s Kanter’s recent post: 5 Social Media Fundraising Trends for 2009.

Then, enter the behemouths–contests and competitions like “America’s Giving Challenge,” hosted by the Case Foundation entered in the next rendition. You could say this ties into a more advanced type of fundraising, but I felt like it deserved to be on its own. As, I don’t yet think this area has been “tapped out” and neither do organizations according to Andre Blackman who interviewed the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who uses contests and competitions to further public health innovation.

However, where I feel we are still in our infancy is with online advocacy for social change. It’s starting to creep up–just look at LiveEarth’s 2009 campaign “Love, the Climate” where people were encouraged to write love letters to office holders who worked to prevent climate change or the “Be a Voice for Darfur” movement which utilized activist and blogger toolkits to further realize the campaign’s objectives. Even act.ly provided a way for people to create and spread petitions with a call to action via Twitter.

Like I said, I think advocacy is where we have the most potential to further expand. I could be biased based on my government and citizen engagement day-job type of work–but I think there’s more ways we can get involved, as citizens, in decision making and peace keeping in our local, state and Federal governments–even internationally. What about you? Where do you think we have the most room to grow and what do you predict as being phase 5? Perhaps, partnerships and collaborations might be a phase five as we see how online and social media open up new doors of opportunity across organization firewalls. Or, another phase 5 might be storytelling–as more of these functions become interwoven and organizations get better at telling their story.

What do you think?

flickr credit: flatfield

Tags: advocacy, America's Giving Challenge, awareness, awareness-building, Be a Voice for Darfur, causes, change, competition, contest, contest for change, fundraising, good, Goodsearch, innovation, Live Earth, maturirty, online media, opportunity, phases, Public Health, social, social change, social good, Social Media, Tweetsgiving, Twestival

Why Advocacy Is an Important Social Marketing Tool

Sunday, November 1st, 2009 | Public Health, Social Marketing | No Comments

Concerned about obesity? Either personally or within your community? You are not alone. One way to combat obesity is by promoting and advocating for more fruit and veggie consumption.

Your mother may have always told you to eat your fruit and veggies. If so–consider yourself fortunate. According to new data from the CDC in the first ever State Indicator Report on Fruits and Veggies, more us need to dish up.

The CDC report provides information for each state on how many fruits and veggies people are eating and importantly, it highlights three key areas within communities and schools that can be improved to increase access, availability and affordability of fruits and veggies. According to the report, it shows that no state is meeting the national goals that were outlined in Healthy People 2010 (as an fyi, you can now comment on the Healthy People 2020 objectives to help frame our nation’s health priorities).

Fruits and veggies are essential to healthy living, preventing obesity and protecting us from chronic diseases and certain cancer–yet simply put, the CDC report found that many of us can’t eat the recommend amounts because we can’t fruits and veggies may not be easily accessible, available or affordable. What I like about this report, is that is not only states the problem–but offers ways to overcome it. And many of them, tap into the social marketing tool of advocacy.

1. Did you know that only 8 states have a state-level policy for healthier food retail improvements? Is your state one of these? If not, advocate for policy to address this concern.
2. Did you know that only 1 in 5 middle and high schools offer fruits and non-fried veggies in vending machines, school stores or snack bars? And did you know that only 21 states have a state-level policy to increase fruit and vegetable access in schools? Check to see if this is your state, and if not, advocate that policy addresses this concern.
3. Have you ever heard of a food policy council? According to the CDC, a food policy council is a “multi-stakeholder organization to improve food environments.” And guess what–only 20 states have a state-level food policy council and only 59 local food policy councils exist across the nation. I can’t vouch for their effectiveness, but it seems like a great way to start a conversation about the issue and presents another opportunity to advocate and organize.

For further inspiration to fuel ways to advocate for healthier behaviors in your community, check out CDC’s State Indicator Report on Fruits and Veggies as it provides fruit and vegetable consumption–as well as policy and environmental support–within each state. As an added resource, the CDC has also put together this report outlining recommended community strategies to address obesity.

At the CDC conference in August, we were reminded about the power and ability to leverage advocacy to meet social marketing objectives…looks like we have quite the opportunity here. Feel free to share what you and/or your community is doing to address this epidemic. We can continue spreading awareness about the obesity epidemic, or we can choose to do something about it.

flickr credit: mightmightmatz

Tags: access, accessibility, advocacy, affordability, cdc, community health, fruits, fruits and vegetables, fruits and veggies, health, healthy people, Healthy People 2010, nation's health, obesity, Social Marketing, State Indicator Report on Fruits and Veggies, vegetables, veggies

Plastic. If anything inspires to reduce your use, it’s this.

Monday, June 9th, 2008 | Blog Talk, Case Studies and New Orgs/Campaigns, Green Marketing, Interesting Articles | 1 Comment

Fellow Twitter follower Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang) who works at Forrester Research shared this motivating video series with me titled: The Toxic Garbage Island.

Long time considered ‘urban myth,’ this series seeks out the truth about the supposed ‘Garbage Island’ the size of Texas floating in the middle of the Pacific north of Hawaii between California and Japan.

Videographers, along with University of Missouri researcher (go Tigers!) Dr. Frederick Vom Saal, took a 3-week trip to the Garbage Island and produced a 12-video series to create awareness and provide a visual for everyone back at home. (warning: some video coverage uses minor extreme language….course, the issue is pretty extreme in itself.) Share any reactions you might have in the comments. I was personally stunned, and motivated to cut down. For the more official website with the video series, blog and pictures, click here. (having troubles embedding video…lo siento!) Trust me tho, it’s worth it!

I once talked with a teacher who said every year she took her class on a field trip to a landfill…she said it was more for the life lesson than curriculum planning. I hope my future kids, whenever I do hopefully have them, has a teacher like that someday. =)

photo credit: tuff-titmouse

Tags: advocacy, chemicals, dirty ocean, dump, environment, garbage, garbage island, landfill, litter, ocean, plastic, polluted, pollution, rotten, toxic, toxic garbage island, unhealthy, VBS, waste