Outtakes from Mashable’s Social Good Summit

Target audience: Nonprofits, NGOs, cause organizations, social enterprises, businesses, brands, foundations, educators, social media managers

Guest post by Jereme Bivins
Social Media Manager, The Foundation Center
There was no shortage of optimism, technology, and inspiring panelists and speakers at the Social Good Summit sponsored by Mashable, the UN Foundation, Ericsson and the 92nd Street Y last week. Topics ranged from the future of media, with media mogul Ted Turner, to a thoughtful conversation on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the introduction of Skype for Education.

But no conference sponsored by Mashable would be complete without an analysis of the state of social media and the future of the online space for the social sector. Among the many lessons learned at the summit, some mantras echoed more resolute than others, particularly the increased emphasis governments, NGOs, nonprofits and individual activists are placing on social strategies to advance their missions.

According to Alec J. Ross, the Senior Advisor for Innovation to Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, social media has fueled the “devolution of power from hierarchies to citizens,” a point underscored by the ongoing Arab Spring. With access to mobile phones and social media, governments and citizens are more closely connected. Where once a government official would entertain an audience only with his country’s affluent elites, now wealth is no longer a prerequisite to power.

Although there are many celebrities on Facebook and Twitter with armies of followers, there are also far more individuals and organizations with active networks of retweeters, bloggers and fast-growing social spheres of influence. This is immensely important for nonprofit organizations; no longer is wealth and celebrity needed to achieve meaningful social change. Instead, change can be achieved quickly and on a shoestring budget by using social media to build relationships, engage with decision-makers and organize compatriots.

Further evidence of this can be taken from the LIVESTRONG Foundation’s founder, Lance Armstrong, and CEO Doug Ulman. In discussing the immense success of the ‘LIVESTRONG’ bracelets, Ulman noted that part of their success was in destigmatizing cancer as an illness and empowering survivors to tell their story.

Now, as the foundation embraces the social Web, Ulman believes that social media is an even more powerful platform for advocacy and storytelling and will build exponentially on the impact the foundation has already made. Moreover, direct appeals, mass mailings and phone banking can be costly to organizations operating on a tight budget. Ulman argues that using Twitter and Facebook to cultivate relationships with supporters can reduce these costs (taking staff time into consideration, of course).

Creative use of the social Web will be a key to success

Additionally, the ubiquity of mobile phones and the social Web has also inspired an increasing number of world leaders and dignitaries to employ Facebook and Twitter to listen to their constituencies, connect with the younger generation and advance public-interest causes. In one panel, both Dr. Ida Betty Odinga, wife of the prime minister of Kenya, and the first lady of South Africa, Madame Tobeka Stacie Zuma, enthusiastically heralded social media as a preeminent communications tool, particularly on championing health-related issues in their countries. At the close of the discussion, the women composed their first tweets as audience members refreshed their screens in quiet anticipation.

Having decision-makers and other influential folks on the social Web gives nonprofits a tremendous outlet for direct communication and online organization. So the bottom line of the summit isn’t that social media is a big deal. Rather, it’s that social media is growing – fast – and organizations taking creative approaches to implementation, and advancing innovative solutions in the field will enjoy continued success.

The time to plan for 2012 has come. How will you be using social media for social good?

Image above by Gary He/Insider Images for UN Foundation on Flickr

The post How social media is advancing social change appeared first on Socialbrite.

All about the Summer of Social Good from JD Lasica on Vimeo.

Did you know that this is the first Global Geek Week (Aug. 2-8)? It’s a way to promote the use of social media for the social good — which also happens to be identical to the mission of Socialbrite.org.

On Twitter, go to the hashtag #geeks4good to see conversations around the topic. The new GlobalGeekWeek site showcases “an entire week dedicated to all that is Geek & giving back!” One cool feature: a Twittervision interactive map that tracks posts about geeks4good from around the world (new version of Flash required, I think).

I caught up with Shira Lazar, the TV/Web personality/journalist and founder of the Society for Geek Advancement, in LA to talk about Global Geek Week and how it fits into the Summer of Social Good (also at sosg.org), which runs through Aug. 28. (And here’s Adam Hirsch of Mashable’s post on Global Geek Week.) Shira has been working with Mashable in raising awareness about charitable causes and how social media can be used for the social good.

“We’re encouraging the geek community around the globe to come together for social good,” she says.

Specifically, you can donate $20 (or more or less) to four worthy charities: Oxfam America to fight hunger, WWF to protect the environment, the Humane Society to protect animals and Livestrong to fight cancer.

And don’t forget about the weeklong YouTube video competition. Just talk about what you’re doing to support a social cause (or how you’d like to help) by submitting your geek-inspired video to the Global Geek Week YouTube Group by midnight PT Thursday. The winner will get two round-trip tickets to anywhere Virgin America flies, with free wi-fi. The judges — Guy Kawasaki, Shira Lazar, Hank Green of Vlogbrothers, Marina Orlova of TooHotForWords, puzzle champion Wei-Hwa Huang and Lisa Donovan aka LisaNova — will pick and announce the winners at noon Friday.

The Summer of Social Good culminates in a conference sponsored by Mashable in New York on Aug. 28 (tickets on sale now). Shira suggests if you have a large number of followers, you should be thinking about contributing to the greater good.

Shira also talks about some of the other causes she’s involved with or supporting, including Live Earth, International Literacy Day on Sept. 8, with a Tweetup in LA on Sept. 3, and Twestival Local taking place in cities around the world on Sept. 10-13, 2009. (By the way, you can catch Shira on the Travel Channel’s Confessions of a Travel Writer, a new series airing next Monday night (Aug. 10) at 9 pm EDT / 6 pm PDT.)

Some of the other organizations supporting Global Geek Week and the Summer of Social Good include GlobalGiving, TreeHugger, Sprout, Federated Media, Facebook, Kompolt, Social Media Club and Social Media for Social Change.

Watch or embed video on Vimeo to spread the word!
Download video from Archive.org

By the way, if you haven’t seen the Society for Geek Advancement’s introductory video on what a geek is, check it out, it’s fabulous (and not just because most of the participants are friends or personal acquaintances):

The post All about Geeks for Good appeared first on Socialbrite.