And an interesting debate: Should journalism offer calls to action?

This week I spent four days at Sustainatopia, the Caribbean-flavored conference in Miami that brought social entrepreneurs, VCs, artisans, celebrities, media activists and a fair number of Miami’s beautiful people together for a celebration of sustainability — and a call to arms over what needs to be done next to help the planet.

Above you’ll see a few of the photos from the Sustainability Honors program at Miami’s just-opened New World Center, but it will be another day before I can upload the entire set. I also conducted several interviews that I hope to share soon.

Meantime, here are a few outtakes from Sustainatopia’s Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise conference:

• I loved this Haitian aphorism that a speaker shared: “A little lamp can fill the whole house with light.”

• I’ll admit that it escaped my attention that Donna Karan — one of the key award winners — has been doing some wonderful things in Haiti with her Urban Zen Foundation, including a Hope, Health & Relief Haiti project captured by the photographer Marc Baptiste.

• Greatly admired the work and artistry of Barbara Guillaume (pictured at top), the woman behind A Million Hearts for Haiti, who enlisted local artists and designers to create wonderful little carved stone ornaments with elegant stylings. She and her teenage choir were the hit of the night.

• Enjoyed meeting Frank Sesno, the former CNN correspondent who now runs Planet Forward, and Tom Hudson of PBS’s Nightly Business Report. A number of the conference-goers and I questioned why public broadcasting and traditional media don’t do more to offer citizens a series of action items around issues that their newscasts cover — a set of options that lets viewers connect with organizations offering possible solutions rather than letting them feel frustrated and powerless.

“Under the very strict set of PBS rules, you’re not going to hear a call to action,” Hudson said flatly. “There’s a fundamental difference between an advocate message and a media message.”

But there’s a difference between advocacy and giving citizens the tools to participate in the democratic process. I sense that this is part of the ongoing cultural shift in values about the news media’s role and responsibilities. Young people in the room seemed to think it should be a natural outgrowth of a story to be able to connect with sources or forces at play, while Hudson and Sesno — who admitted they came of age during a different media era — largely averred, saying that journalists shouldn’t cross the line into anything that even resembles advocacy, even if that amounted to just offering a selection of vetted options for viewers to pursue on their own without the journalists taking sides. PBS’s News Hour and the Huffington Post offer a list of resources in a limited way, but few other news organizations do — and, yes, I consider it a shortcoming in the way modern journalism is conducted. The end of the story should not be the end of the story. If newsrooms don’t have the bandwidth to do this, use a deputized, crowdsourced pool of community advisers.

• On the other hand, Sesno — who was thoroughly engaging and forward-thinking throughout — heaped praise on the model being blazed by 350.org, the climate change advocacy organization. “It’s a great idea — access to technology and the ability to reach young people and engage them with a call to action. That’s a magical mix. It’s the model of democratic media in many ways.”

• More Sesno: “Studies show that the average American thinks 27% of the federal budget goes to foreign and humanitarian aid, when the true number is less than 1%. Of course, that kind of misinformation skews and distorts the debate in this country.”

• His take on changes in the mediasphere: “I’m utterly dispirited and totally excited by what’s happening in today’s media environment.” The tough part, he said, is getting an audience — because everybody can be his or her own newspaper and TV station. “Look at partnerships — it’s the only way this works.”

• Interesting tidbit from Tom Hudson: “‘Shareholder’ is a word that doesn’t exist in Mandarin [in China]. They interpret it as stakeholder, having a much broader meaning.”

• I wasn’t aware that Clean Skies Sunday, aka “The Energy Report,” is in fact an “infomercial funded by the natural gas industry,” as Sesno put it. “It troubles me that people don’t know what’s behind that program,” which airs Sunday mornings on ABC.

• Rick Allen, CEO of Snag Films, during the Media2Movements conference: “A significant part of the public will run if they see you coming at them with an issues message.” He held up Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me” as a superb example of a documentary that explored a serious subject with an engaging, lighthearted touch.

• I got to meet (briefly) tennis star Venus Williams, who attended the awards show but didn’t have a speaking slot.

Socialbrite is in Miami this week to take part in two conferences that are part of Sustainatopia: Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference and Media2Movements.

To mark the occasion, colleague Sloane Berrent and I are giving a social media for social good bootcamp this morning called Move the Needle! How to mobilize your supporters to take action. (See it on SlideShare.)

We hope the presentation will kick off a conversation about strategies, tactics and approaches that social enterprises and nonprofits should be using to activate supporters to make a real-world impact.

Obviously a blog post is not the same as being there for three hours, but here are some of the takeaways.

12 steps to mobilize your supporters to take action

1. First, listen and observe
2. Set clear goals & define metrics
3. Define a clear theme
4. Frame it with a personal story
5. Create lightweight media, such as a photo slide show
6. Create a simple (but clear) call to action
7. Create a conversation hub for participants
8. Generate an Attention Wave by using social love handles, from Facebook to widgets
9. Find your champions! Turn influencers into evangelists
10. Use immediacy & urgency — headlines & deadlines
11. Consider a mobile component
12. Create real-world events

We’ve updated the bootcamp with recent advocacy campaigns, a few exercises and the latest cutting-edge social tools. We’re expecting a small gathering but it should be fun!

You may already know about the Nonprofit Facebook Guy, a resource I created a few months back to help shorten the Facebook learning curve for nonprofits.

Following are the top 13 tutorials from the Nonprofit Facebook Guy that I think are especially useful for nonprofits, foundations and NGOs:

1. Create a Custom iFrame Tab for your Facebook Page with WordPress (video)

 

2. Four Ways To Deal With The Death Of Static FBML

 

3. How to toggle between a Facebook Profile and a Facebook Page (video)
 
4. A Visual Map Of Facebook Pages, Profiles, Places And Groups – All In One Slide

 

5. How to display “Featured” Page’s on your Facebook Page

 

6. How to post as a Profile or Page without going insane (video)

 

7. Facebook now lets you tag friends and Pages in comments

 

8. How to engage a subset of your Facebook Page fans

 

9. How to use your Facebook Page’s photostrip to sell your cause

 

10. Two ways to import email contacts into your Facebook Page

 

11. Three Awesome Facebook Search Engines

 

12. How to change the name of your custom Facebook Page tab

 

13. How to measure Facebook Page fan growth with Insights (video)

If you have an idea for a blog post you’d like to see, please leave your idea on the Nonprofit Facebook Guy’s Facebook Page.

This article originally appeared at JohnHaydon.com.

Strategies to drive citizen engagement and social innovation

I‘ll be one of the speakers at Media2Movements, a gathering in Miami on Wednesday that will focus on the escalating changes in the mediasphere.

Put on by Ashoka and underwritten by the Knight Foundation, Media2Movements will bring together a number of new media luminaries, including old friends Kara Andrade, Karen Worcman of Brazil’s Museum of the Person, Brian Conle of Small World News and Emily Jacobi of Digital Democracy. From the program:

We are at a catalytic moment: Rapid technological change and entrepreneurial innovation have brought us closer than ever to full information citizenship. Egypt, Libya, even Wisconsin testify to the growing capacity of media to catalyze movement; change happens when people know what’s going on and can tell others.

But those same forces also threaten the public good by corroding the historical values of the information realm. In an everyone-a-content-creator-world, who can tell which information is trustworthy? It’s easy to author and distribute news and commentary – and equally easy to monitor and censor that content. Amid these tensions, the risk is that, rather than engaging, people simply disconnect – and movements lose their mass.

The challenge: Can we imagine a new, self-correcting information marketplace – an ecosystem for news and knowledge that effectively responds to, or even anticipates, whatever change happens? That ensures sustainable full information citizenship?

Looks to be an exciting, invigorating event. Hope you can join us.

Sustainatopia and the Social Venture Capital conference

In addition to Media2Movements on Wednesday, I’ll also be speaking at Sustainatopia twice on Monday:

• I’ll be co-hosting the power-packed Move the Needle bootcamp Monday at 9 am with Sloane Berrent.

• I’ll be moderating the Media Trends & Marketing Movements panel Monday at 1:15 pm with Clint O’Brien of Care2, Tamara Staus of Stanford’s Social Innovation Review, Sloane Berrent and Nick Aster of Triple Pundit.

Continue reading »

Habitat for Humanity image.

Events guide for nonprofits & social change organizations

Here’s a roundup of conferences and events scheduled in the nonprofit and social change sectors for the coming month. It’s a busy month — for instance, my colleague Sloane Berrent and I will be giving a power-packed social change bootcamp in Miami on Monday.

For the full year, see our Calendar of 2011 social change conferences. If you’re interested in social media, tech and marketing conferences, see this month’s calendar on our sister site, Socialmedia.biz.

If you know of other events, please share by adding the info in the comments below.

Conference	Date	Place
April
Clinton Global Initiative University	April 1-3	San Diego
Building on President Clinton’s lifetime in public service, the Clinton Global Initiative reflects his belief that governments need collaboration from the private sector, non-governmental organizations and global leaders to confront the world’s most pressing problems.
Data 2.0	April 4	San Francisco
Data 2.0 is a full-day conference that spotlights how greater accessibility to data will impact business, technology and society. Organized by midVentures, the conference will take an interdisciplinary approach to government data, financial data, social data and the startups that take advantage of such data.
Social Venture Capital/Social Enterprise Conference	April 4-6	Miami
Socialbrite’s JD Lasica & Sloane Berrent will be presenting the Move the Needle Bootcamp to kick off the conference. This is the largest impact investing and sustainability conference on the East Coast of U.S. and Latin America. 1,000+ attendees and 300+ speakers from around the world. Tracks include Philanthrocapitalism, Financing Impact, Empowering Women Through Investment, Defining Green Prosperity and Building Social Entrepreneurs.
Sustainable Haiti	April 4-6	Miami
Sustainable Haiti Conference represents the most comprehensive economic development conference of all time for Haiti.
Social Enterprise World Forum	April 5-7	Johannesburg
This international forum advocates for increased social impact through social enterprise. Join more than 700 social entrepreneurs in South Africa to learn, grow, be inspired, make new connections from around the globe and become part of this expanding movement.
Social Venture Network	April 7-10	Stevenson, Wash.
Social Venture Network connects, supports and inspires business leaders and social entrepreneurs in expanding practices that build a just and sustainable economy. The next conference, the Fall Invitational, will be held on Oct. 27-30 in Philadelphia.
Power of Global Networks	April 7-9	Brooklyn, NY
The conference will focus on how women’s funds turn the conventional model of philanthropy upside down, radically changing the way individuals, corporations, foundations and governments invest in women and girls, and how women’s funds, and the network at large, is an effective vehicle, for shared leadership and collective action, allowing us to increase our impact and build a movement for social change.
National Conference for Media Reform	April 8-10	Boston
This is the biggest conference devoted to media, technology and democracy. You’ll be able to explore the future of journalism and public media, consider how technology is changing the world, look at the policies and politics shaping our media, and discuss strategies to build the movement for better media.
2nd World Non-Profit and Social Marketing	April 11-12	Dublin, Ireland
The 2nd World conference will bring together those interested in applying strategic communications, marketing and behavior change methodology to solve key social challenges.
Digital Leap	April 12	Toronto
The Digital Leap conference is about communication in a digital world, particularly the combination of technology, strategy and creative in a digital age.
ONN Unconference	April 12-13	Toronto
This unconference offers lively opportunities to connect directly with peers who share your commitment and your challenges. Through hands-on problem solving sessions, topics built on delegate input, roundtable groups of common interests, an evening reception and practical follow-up, the ONN meeting offers plenty of opportunity to share challenges and successes, build strategic relationships and problem solve for your organization and your sector.
Global Philanthropy Forum	April 13-15	Redwood City, Calif.
The Global Philanthropy Forum Conference is intended for individuals who have made a significant commitment to philanthropy, and executives from private, public and corporate foundations. Participation in the conference is by invitation only, and invitations are not transferable.
NCTech4Good	April 15	Chapel Hill, NC
The NCTech4Good Conference is an annual day-long event that offers information and networking for staff, consultants and volunteers for all North Carolina nonprofits and similar organizations.
Humber Initiative on Philanthropy Conference	April 15	Toronto
This conference will bring together experienced industry leaders, up and coming Humber grads and innovative Humber students for a day of education on fundraising. The agenda includes educational lectures, interactive presentation sessions and networking assemblies. All profits from this conference will be donated to the Humber scholarship fund in order to support future generations of fundraisers.
Earth Day Build-A-Thon	April 16-19	Oakland, Calif.
The Earth Day Build-A-Thon is Habitat for Humanity East Bay’s annual celebration of green building. The Build-A-Thon is not only the biggest building event of the year, it is also their biggest fundraising event. Participants raise pledges, as they would for a walk-a-thon, to help raise the funds needed to purchase the building materials for the homes.
Global Engagement Summit	April 20-24	Evanston, Ill.
The Global Engagement Summit is a five-day training conference for students committed to global change. Delegates come together to understand the opportunities for their engagement, to hone the skills and mindsets that will enable them to better plan and participate in change-based projects, and to connect with like-minded peers from around the world.
Transparency Camp	Apr 30-May 1	Washington, DC
This unconference will convene a trans-partisan tribe of open government advocates — government reps, technologists, journalists, developers, NGOs, wonks, activists — to share knowledge on how to use new technologies to make our government transparent, accountable and accessible to the public.