Social Media and Online Advocacy
Filed under: Social Marketing on Friday, June 8th, 2007 by Nan DawkinsI had the pleasure of speaking at a dinner this week hosted by the Calvert Group, a socially responsible investment firm. The topic was how social media might be used for SRI investors. I was part of a lively panel of speakers, including Brian Reich (Cone Communications), Mike Ford (political strategist, Dean campaign), and Omar Wasow (Founder of the vertical social network, Black Planet).
Of the four of us, Omar and I were the social media cheerleaders. Brian warned the audience about too much focus on the “tactic du jour” (social media) and although I agree with him that there is almost always too much focus on tactics and not enough on strategy, I don’t see social media as a tactic.
Social media is the heart of the Internet today. Social Media isn’t a web site, it isn’t a group of tools. Very simply, it is what people DO online. People go online to collaborate, to share, to express/create, to connect — and the emergence of simple web publishing tools helps them to do that better and faster than ever before. The result is that the online audience doesn’t listen much anymore to “one to many” messages. They are too busy listening and talking with each other. “Staying out of” social media is like saying you are going to New York but plan to stay away from the crowds. It isn’t possible.
It was a long evening and we covered many topics, but one of many things that stuck out for me was Brian’s statement (and Mike’s grudging agreement) that online advocacy isn’t working anymore. Perhaps that is because email communications (which is a “one to many” communications tactic) is the extent of “online advocacy” for way too many organizations today? Brian and I agreed that your ability to stop someone from their busy life, get them to pay attention to what you want them to do, and drop what they are immersed in to do it for you, is getting increasingly harder – which is one of the reasons I am a social media cheerleader.
Social media isn’t about “mobilizing” or interrupting people at all. It is about listening to what niche groups of individuals (communities) are saying, understanding what they are already interested/involved in, and facilitating what they are already doing. Now THAT has potential for online advocacy. Mass marketing is certainly the easier path to take but the “one to many”, broadcast mentality just isn’t working so well online anymore – whether you are an advocacy organization or a .com.
I’ll be doing another social media workshop at SES Toronto on June 10th and I’m sure I’ll come back with my brain buzzing, so more on this topic next week.
