The Power of Social Media

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The Power of Social Media
Canadian Social Forum - Calgary, May 2009
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Overview Social Media

• What is Social Media
• A new way of communicating
• The sharing of media films, photos, music
  ideas
• Social refers to people to people
  activities
• Its all about conversations

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• Social media are also sometimes referred to as
  Web 2.0.
• Theyre social and interactive, allowing people
  to share ideas, opinions, and insights rather
  than just communicating one-way.
• Social media include things such as blogs, wikis,
  discussion boards, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and
  the newest addition Twitter.

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• More than ever before people have the tools to
  create/record, share and manipulate media
• Were using social media sites at a rate of
• 77 Internet users read blogs
• 100,000,000 users log onto Facebook at least once
  a day
• 100,000,000 - number of YouTube videos viewed per
  day
• Aprox 10 million tweets per day on Twitter, 20
  million accounts as of February 2009
• People want to be socialwe have always drawn
  strength from each other. New technologies and
  near ubiquitous Internet access now make it
  easier than ever to connect.

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Web 2.0

• A second generation of the web where
  interactivity is key
• An easy and accessible means of communicating
  with one another
• A whole world of social-networking sites,
  services, and tools that make sharing easy

Social Media emerged from and thrives in the Web
2.0 environment
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Creative Commons

• On CitizenShift, Creative Commons is a way
  people can post their material, and keep as much
  or as little control around their work as they
  like.
• This offers a huge advantage over sites like
  YouTube and Facebook, whos end user agreements
  take ownership over all the content that is
  posted.
• A short film about using Creative Commons
• http//citizen.nfb.ca/building-past

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Some Tools of Social Media

• The embed link - a fundamental aspect to social
  media
• RSS feeds the oil that lubricates the Web 2.0
  experience.
• Mash-ups - recreating culture, democratizing the
  web
• Tweets follow the trends, get information live,
  as it happens

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Context and ExamplesWhy social media is
important for community projects and social
action initiatives

• Social Media helps organizations to
• communicate more effectively and efficiently
• let people know about you or your cause and to
  actively participate.
• help people (which is probably why you exist as
  an organization)

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Some examples of successful campaigns on
CitizenShift

• CitizenShift encourages and supports community
• based initiatives and makes people more aware of
• the issues.
• Benefits to posting your media on CitizenShift
• Visibility, access and interaction with people
  interested in your work
• Contextualized with other, related multimedia
  content
• Free outreach on your behalf
• Feedback on who is accessing your work
• You control the content and terms of use

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• Picture This A photovoice project
• Mothers of Children with FASD
• 1 video, over 18,000 reads, global network using
  this piece as their showcase to raise awareness
  of the issue and offer a community of support for
  people touched by FASD.
• http//citizen.nfb.ca/picture-this

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• Burundi Film Centre dossier
• http//citizen.nfb.ca/burundi-film-center
• Started as a blog, then became a dossier with
  films, photos articles
• Then became a screening, CitizenShift hosted two
  screenings, in Toronto Montreal
• Then became a success BFC project invited to
  festivals embeds and links back to the dossier
  used as an example for the project.

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Focus and Turning Points Giving a Voice to Youth

• http//citizen.nfb.ca/focus-and-turning-points-giv
  ing-voice-youth
• http//citizen.nfb.ca/bounce-back

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OutreachCommunications, support and cross
channel promotion

• The importance of Outreach - its all about
  making connections
• Doesnt just happen by itself
• You have to be your communities first and most
  active contributor
• Have a dedicated person(s) working exclusively on
  social media outreach marketing

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Outreach Social Marketing

• Some popular platforms
• Enable photo sharing (and spread your message) by
  creating a Flickr account.
• Build stronger communities and engage your
  champions through a Facebook group
• Start using twitter, its not quantity but
  quality that counts make the posts interesting
  and pertinent
• Follow Technorati and Google Alerts to see who is
  talking about your group or cause, and then, jump
  into the conversation

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• Before you jump into social media activity, set
  out a plan with clear points of measurement along
  the way
• Ask yourself
• what do we need to achieve?
• Which audiences are important for this?
• where are those audiences online which platforms
  are they using?
• do those platforms tools fit with the kind of
  content we have or can create?
• can we sustain what we start?

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Most Importantly

• Outreach with social media is not like
  traditional marketing it requires a new way of
  thinking. A more opened approach must be
  adopted.
• Listen, be accessible, be self-aware, reach out
• It is about building relationships, the
  fundamental difference between broadcasting and
  conversing.
• Traditional one-way marketing is shouting, social
  media is about conversations.

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Credits

• For a full list of reference URLs used in this
  presentation, please see
• http//delicious.com/reisa101/csf_socialmedia
• Join us on CitizenShift, and jump into the
  conversation.
• http//citizen.nfb.ca
• For more info citizen_at_nfb.ca
• Reisa Levine
• CitizenShift Producer
• reisa101_at_gmail.com