Many thanks to the fine folks at Studio XX and the National Film Board for collaborating to deliver a top-notch series of speakers as part of their First Person Digital program. I was fortunate to have captured two of the sessions and felt compelled to post about the last one in the series which featured a virtual presentation by Free Range Studio’s Executive Producer Erica Priggen on the topic of “Creating Content For Change”.

Free Range Studios, are an award-winning creative agency that builds campaigns for social change, many which I’m sure you’re quite familar with such as The Meatrix series and The Story of Stuff. I can’t emphasize enough how they are living my dream of encouraging social change and action via creative efforts. Do check out the “Resources” section on their website for valuable information related to online promotion for social change.

I get chills. Chills from excitement. Excitement at seeing a group be able to elicit positive actions in society.

Erica gave a spirited presentation which hinged on the power of storytelling to encourage social change. She recounted that “We don’t see the world, we see stories. This is our filter.”

I think my main takeaway from the session was that rather than use the traditional fear-based method of screaming “The Sky is Falling and we’re all $%$%-ed” so take action on issue XYZ, she suggested taking a more humorous approach featuring archetypes such as the hero, villain, nemesis and so on. Erica recommended that it’s worth “showing the world you want to see.” It’s much easier to identify with what is presented to us than statistics and hornblowing. She made the point that “it’s hard to motivate people to take action on what they can’t directly perceive.”

Erica noted that it’s important to evaluate the moving issues and values to get people excited about and examine what meaningful action you are seeking to encourage. At the end of each story, consider what the catalyst for action is. This is the core of edutainment and the narrowcast model that the internet presents us with in that we are all co-creators.

Mention was made to how to make stories viral and Erica took the group through the DIY process around storytelling and the manner in which they spread the word about the successful “The Story of Stuff” campaign. I’d say it’s successful in that it’s become a movement for change, rather than just another viral campaign that slipped into obscurity.

It’s heartening to be able to hear the stories of those who are leading the charge and as Free Range Studio’s tagline asserts “Creativity with a Conscience.” These are the stories often overlooked in our society but they are essential to our very survival.

Whoa. I got a bit heavy on you there. Here’s some levity, with a message.

I personally hate the execution of this feature and am thankful to use TweetDeck rather than the web-based version of Twitter. Removing the ability to make a comment on the item being retweeted is the most limiting aspect of this enhancement considering context is key when posting anything online.

Design print by newbeautiful on etsy.com

I’ve been giving some thought to how we connect with each other in the online space and after a recent offline exchange saw how easy it is to be a digital citizen who puts on the airs of knowledge in the space by being one of those folks who perpetually retweets the findings, thoughts and beliefs of other people but in person, demonstrates that they rely on the thoughts of others to prop up their identity.

I’m not trying to be a downer here. I’m not looking to call anyone out. I’m just hoping to spark a discussion or gather some thoughts from others who may have experienced this too.

The thinking behind this post might get back to my previous post on Identity Camp and how we self promote and connect online. It also might go back to my participation in communities during my “formative years” and how fearful I was of being stuck with the tag of ‘poser’. It was the ultimate diss for a skaterat to hear that word.

Authenticity is the currency of the web. It’s how we share, connect and express ourselves. Take a look at your digital presence and evaluate where you’re at.

Do you have a website? Is it listed in your Twitter bio? Do you still track analytics on your personal site or has this gone by the wayside?

Are you commenting on other people’s blogs? Are you as active as you once were or are you now spending all your time with the blue bird of Twitter?

Are you still blogging and displaying thought leadership or are you spending your time MilliVanilli-ing it up and retweeting everything that sounds remotely interesting as a link? (-50 points if you don’t bother to open the link before retweeting it and folks see that it’s obvious you didn’t read it in the first place).

One of my favourite bloggers is Gwen Bell. Sure her tweets are engaging, but it’s her blog that really gives me food for thought. Much more than 140 characters could ever lead me to. Same is true with Julian Smith and Chris Brogan. What these folks are doing is contributing to the ecosystem and bringing new perspectives and ideas to the table.

Sharing is caring.

Chris Brogan

The book lays out advice for those both novice and pro as to how they can cultivate genuine relationships that matter without being a jerk and without focusing on an immediate return. We’ve all encountered those people in our lives that were more interested in out rolodexes or referrals than in making a true connection with us. There’s a reason why these folks stand out and it’s because things just don’t work this way anymore.

I remember an exchange with someone who had this slant to their personality and noticed the reaction in the room that this person received when they thrust out their paper flyer promoting their seminar to the room. No introduction. No “Hi. How are you?” Just a silent exchange promoting their seminar ON HOW TO DEVELOP BUSINESS SKILLS!!! Oh the irony.

Back to the book. There’s something for everyone within the pages of “Trust Agents” – a bit of game theory, discussions of businesses that either get it or those who display old views of how to interact with their customers, lots of social psychology and mention of many web 2.0 tools and many references to community. The recommendations that the authors make are solid and really cut through the plethora of messages guaranteeing huge numbers of followers on Twitter.

Ultimately, this book is a reality check and could also be used as a vaccine preventing you from becoming a social media snake oil salesperson.

I’ll let this reading from “Marketing Masterpiece Theatre” give you a sample of what is between the covers of “Trust Agents” albeit in a very dramatic “Oh the Humanity” kind of way!

In this post, Powazek advocates that for online crowds to be wise, they need the following elements: simplicity, clear interfaces, aggregation, participation, selfishness (yes, selfishness!), scores, leaderboards,  explicit vs. implicit feedback and savvy voting systems.

It’s well worth investigating this post in detail as it does take Surowiecki’s initial thesis and offers up suggestions on how to empower the energy of community with tools to allow it to become effective and truly – wise.

Photo of some wise people at a Montreal Tech Entrepreneur’s Breakfast by Montreal Tech Watch

I do give a damm about my reputation Joan. During a meeting today, I was hooting on about the power of community and positive connections made thorugh social media and it kept getting back to reputation. How are you regarded within your community? Are you seen as someone who plays fair, who values real exchange or are you a pusher or taker – someone who just pushes their messages to others without any thought to the utility or purpose involved?

Consider your reputation. Ask others what their perceptions of you are. Sometimes the answers may be shocking – but are most beneficial. Examine your voice. Do you sound like a know-it-all or are you truly engaging and kind? SEO is important but I also believe in taking a Self Examination Overview (SEO for those concerned with their reputation).

Check to see:

• How many comments you leave and receive in the blogosphere?
• How often you mention the words ‘sharing’, ‘community’, ‘help’ in your daily vernacular.
• How much you listen rather than speak.
• How often do you smile or giggle?

If you’re not laughing or smiling often enough, then you are either taking yourself too seriously or have too much of an emphasis on the “I” in ‘social’.  Kind of anti-social isn’t it?

I carefully examine how many times in my memory I’ve asked the question ‘Why are you saying what you are saying?”

There is the obvious times we make this statement such as during an argument with a loved one (or those not so loved!) but how often are we asking this question of ourselves online? How many of us are pausing to reflect on what we are putting out into the digital realm?

What are you saying? Why are you saying it? Is your life passion in what you are writing about or are you looking for ego-satisfaction, money, validation, job security, more clients? All of this is OK, we’re human…  but it’s important to be transparent to others with who you are and what you are seeking to gain.

Many of us are proclaiming to be ‘social media experts’, ‘thought leaders’ or ‘subject matter specialists but the truth is that now more than ever we are all experts, leaders and experts. The playing field is level and it couldn’t be more exciting than this.

Why am I saying this? Because it’s easy to get caught up in wanting to be a social media rockstar with a zillion ‘friends’ on Twitter, Facebook et al. It’s easy to feel that we don’t measure up in that our blog posts are boring, dumb or navel-gazing chatter.

I’ve been there…

The advice I give to myself is to not to get caught up in it all. Life is way to short and my epitaph isn’t going to be a digital feed of my past Twits/Facebook statuses or a recap of the number of friends I had on the various social networks. This isn’t the legacy we leave behind to our friends and family.

The concept of tribes is close to my heart as I am a member of many (meetups, groups and gatherings of pug moms, allergic people, punk rock aficionados and girl geeks to name check but a few) . As a member of these groups, I think it’s just in my nature to advocate for collectively working together and helping one another.

(What can I say? I was the kid who shared my 64 pack of crayons in kindergarten.)

In his latest work, Seth Godin examines the concept that great leaders focus more so on the tribe and not solely on the self-motivated ego goals that result from actions they take. He asks us to reflect on ‘How much ego is involved with being a great leader?”- a question which I think should be asked by many who participate in the often navel gazing world of social media. It’s so easy to think that the sheer number of Twitter followers/ blog posts / Facebook friends all matter but in essence what truly matters is the footprint we leave, the number of people we impact, whether we enjoy the work that we do and if the digital traces we leave are positive ones.

This is why I’m not surprised that Seth mentions Buddhist nun Pema Chodron in ‘Tribes’. I’ve been appreciating her work for many years and found comfort in her audiobooks and writings as well. (Looks like from this interview with Seth, he has been a longtime “Pema-fan” too!)

“We work on ourselves in order to help others, but also we help others in order to work on ourselves.” – Pema Chodron

This to me, this quote exemplifies what tribes are all about.

The Wall St Journal had posted July 16th on the topic of why they believe most online communities fail and they are so correct in saying “The problem: Businesses are focusing on the value an online community can provide to themselves, not the community”

There was bit of confusion in numbers from this article, but regardless it is clear that there is value of investing in a Community Manager for any online community- not purely with the mindset of securing business objectives, but for technology evangelism and community support.

It’s really about people, relationships and sharing knowledge. I think the hard question is what metrics to use in tracking these kinds of results.

Lots of great content in here which I haven’t had a chance to fully sift through yet.

JCMC Vol 13 Issue 1