SocialButterfly's blog http://www.blogher.com/blog/28378/atom/feed 2008-08-10T10:56:36-05:00 Work Hard. There's no If's, And's, or But's About It. http://www.blogher.com/work-hard-theres-no-ifs-ands-or-buts-about-it 2008-10-30T10:16:14-05:00 2008-10-30T10:17:23-05:00 SocialButterfly I recently watched Gary Vaynerchuck, of Wine Library TV, deliver at the Web 2.0 Expo...on YouTube.
And, when you're feeling down, feeling like, you're giving up too much
of life, or that breaking into the social media mold is just 'too hard'
or you've gotten lost within this space. Watch this. It's a good kick
in the pants.

]]> I recently watched Gary Vaynerchuck, of Wine Library TV, deliver at the Web 2.0 Expo...on YouTube.
And, when you're feeling down, feeling like, you're giving up too much
of life, or that breaking into the social media mold is just 'too hard'
or you've gotten lost within this space. Watch this. It's a good kick
in the pants.

(Note: There is some foul language, but like I said, it's' a good kick in the pants.)

Gary V. presented about "Building Personal Brand Within the Social
Media Landscape." I often get this question through email, speaking
with others and students too. I agree with Gary in this video.

There are no shortcuts. -----> (There are smart cuts.)

There are no excuses. -----> (There's time management.)

There is no one else to do it. -----> (There's only yourself to motivate.)

And it's called: HARD WORK. Now get going. =)

(Thank you Mike Kujawski for sharing this item!)
Liked what you read? Feel free to share with others: Bookmark and Share

]]> What is Public Health? What is Poverty? http://www.blogher.com/what-public-health-what-poverty 2008-10-29T17:09:10-05:00 2008-10-29T17:09:10-05:00 SocialButterfly

In honor of today's Blog Action Day on poverty, here is a background on poverty and how social marketing can be applied, as I saw broken down by Philip Kotler himself at the World Social Marketing Conference.

]]>

In honor of today's Blog Action Day on poverty, here is a background on poverty and how social marketing can be applied, as I saw broken down by Philip Kotler himself at the World Social Marketing Conference.

Additionally, join over 40 of DC's influential changemakers at Buffalo Billiards at DC's 1st Changeblogger meetup. We will recognize and commemorate Blog Action Day, connect with Alex Steed's social change tour, mingle and share re: living and working for positive change.

What is poverty?

philipkotler1

In researching the answer to this question, I couldn't escape the
purpose behind a campaign by the Association of Public Health Schools
and the Pfizer Foundation recently created called "What is public health?"
This campaign works to better brand 'public health' to the public,
while also raising awareness, education and encouraging participation
in the public health conversation. Participants are asked to put red
"This is public health stickers" on items that they feel represent
public health. My challenge: What would this look like if the question: "What is poverty?" was asked?

Early Solutions to Poverty

Kotler listed 4 early solutions to poverty: alms programs,
workhouses for the poor, deficit financing and economic development.
With these solutions, four major strategies reveal themselves to reduce
poverty:

  • Economic Growth Strategy
  • Redistribution Strategy
  • Massive Foreign Aid
  • Population Control

As Kotler continued to outline, he stated the "Two Main Thrusts"
used to alleviate poverty are population control (from contraceptive
campaigns, to abortions, education of women, industrialization to
passing laws restricting the number of children) and improving the
support of povert-escaping behavior. This umbrellas micro finance and
empowerment, education and health programs.

The Goal

As part of the Millennium Goals, the World Bank and the United
Nations have 8 goals and 17 targets to alleviate poverty (Kotler). One
goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by:

  • Cutting in half the proportion of people whose income is less than a $1 a day.
  • Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Why Care?

poverty

Everyone hears we need to solve poverty, but my eyes were widened as
to WHY we need to solve hunger. And, this goes beyond the humanity of
reasons, but puts some more solid evidence to the issue. Kotler spoke
of these 6 reasons:

  1. Sympathy and compassion about wasted lives.
  2. Poverty drives some poor people into crime and terrorism.
  3. Poor are more prone to health problems and spreading of disease.
  4. Poor are more likely to follow demogogues.
  5. Poor nations can collapse into "failed states" that cannot pay their foreign debt.
  6. The poor are an untapped trillion dollar market opportunity.

Why Social Marketing?

Kotler, along with social marketing expert Nancy Lee, both are literally
writing the book answering this part of the poverty question. I
personally can't wait for the book to come out because I truly believe
that social marketing provides the right tools for us to solve global
issues such as poverty. In the presentation, Kotler identified a 6-part
framework as to how social marketing can be applied to the poverty
issue. However, in the book, a larger and more developed framework is
offered, as well as further context of the issue.

So, back to the challenge. How would you answer this question: What is poverty?

]]> The Blogger Neighborhood is Back with Some Perspective (from the Pipeline) http://www.blogher.com/blogger-neighborhood-back-some-perspective-pipeline 2008-09-15T20:33:44-05:00 2008-09-15T20:33:44-05:00 SocialButterfly After some delay, the blogger neighborhood is back. To kick it off, let's welcome Rosetta Thurman, author of Perspectives from the Pipepile.

I first began following Rosetta about a year ago. One scan through
her blog's homepage, and you will say, "She. is. impressive." That's
what I did. And so did Avi Kaplan,
a Harvard student who emailed me to nominate Rosetta for the Blogger

]]> After some delay, the blogger neighborhood is back. To kick it off, let's welcome Rosetta Thurman, author of Perspectives from the Pipepile.

I first began following Rosetta about a year ago. One scan through
her blog's homepage, and you will say, "She. is. impressive." That's
what I did. And so did Avi Kaplan,
a Harvard student who emailed me to nominate Rosetta for the Blogger
Neighborhood. If you have someone you want to nominate, contact me at socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.

Enjoy reading below and discover why Rosetta is definitely on her way.

******************

Blog Name: Perspectives From the Pipeline, observations on the nonprofit sector from the next generation

Blog Topics: nonprofits and leadership

About the Author: Rosetta Thurman is an emerging nonprofit
leader of color sharing career advice, management resources and fresh
ideas to inspire others to lead. Rosetta is a
writer/consultant/fundraiser and has been quoted in articles about the
nonprofit sector in the Washington Post, Nonprofit Quarterly, and the
Chronicle of Philanthropy. Rosetta is also an Adjunct Professor
teaching nonprofit management and leadership at Trinity University in
DC.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why?
Renaissance Boulevard. I think we are in a time of great opportunity
for young people to renew our responsibility to our communities. It's a
very rich time in our history where we have the chance to lend all of
our talent & skills to a movement, any movement that will create
change.

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor? Nikki Giovanni, my favorite poet. I think I would be inspired every day just by living next door to a literary genius.

What first prompted you to blog? I felt that my generation's
voice was being ignored in the nonprofit sector, as if our opinions
didn't matter in discussions about the future of this sector that we
will inherit. At first, I started Perspectives From the Pipeline as a
learning experience for me as a young nonprofit professional to
formulate my thoughts about the nonprofit sector.

As a member of the "next generation" of nonprofit leaders, I saw
many challenges for our sector as well as many new ideas for solving
them. Unfortunately, when people my age speak up, few people listen. I
write about nonprofit leadership and organizational issues to help
others think more critically about their careers & day to day work.
My goal is to bridge the gap between challenges and solutions within
the nonprofit sector, especially as they relate to the younger
workforce and nonprofit leaders of color.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why? OnMyWay. Because my favorite quote from poet Carl Sandburg illustrates how I live my life. "I'm an idealist. I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way."

What would you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift? A three-layer red velvet cake.

If you were planning the next block party, what entertainment would you plan? A big concert with Jill Scott and Kanye West. A Soul Train line. All-you-can-eat crabs. And a Taboo marathon.

What's your favorite blog post and why?

Of mine: because we don't talk enough about the values that brought us to nonprofit work, Real Talk: Why I Work in the Nonprofit Sector. And from Seth Godin, Because we all need inspiration to make the leap to greatness.

What's one lesson you've learned from blogging? I found that
blogging gave me a way to speak to the issues I care about and
influence others in the process. On the internet, you can have such a
huge reach, and impact on people who may not have given you a second
thought otherwise. I learned that people want to hear the truth, and
they will support social media and online community if it's real and
authentic.

Past Blogger Neighbors Include:

*************************

This continuous weekly series highlights different blogs and their
respective bloggers in the blogosphere neighborhood. Following the
great Mr. Rogers, who tells us to ‘Get to know your neighbor,’
this series introduces us to our blogger neighbors, making for a more
unified, collaborative voice for the social sector. Like to nominate
someone or be featured yourself? Contact me @ socialbutterfly4change@gmail.com.

Bookmark and Share

]]> Your Facebook Professionalism Policy: Balancing Your Relationships On and Off the Clock http://www.blogher.com/your-facebook-professionalism-policy-balancing-your-relationships-and-clock 2008-08-19T21:13:16-05:00 2008-08-19T21:13:16-05:00 SocialButterfly For many Gen-Yers and young professionals, Facebook started out as a social
network. Then, high-schoolers were allowed in. Now, understandably,
more and more people are joining that range in age - and in
relationship to you. Point in case:

]]> For many Gen-Yers and young professionals, Facebook started out as a social
network. Then, high-schoolers were allowed in. Now, understandably,
more and more people are joining that range in age - and in
relationship to you. Point in case:

  • My friend recently helped her mom create a Facebook account.
  • Another commented that all her co-workers want her to become a Facebook friend.
  • According to Quantcast, in July 208, 46% of Facebook users are 18-34.
  • in July 2007, ComScore reported a 181% growth of users ages 25-34, and a 98% growth in users 35+.

Thus, with Facebook going from social status ---> professional network, it begs the question, what are the new the rules of thumb for one's Facebook account? So I asked followers on Twitter. The results:

  1. All or nothing. One of the most popular answers was to go all access
    with everyone. This route shows to your co-workers and professional
    network that you own who you are. Nothing to hide. Some also responded
    that this helps increase the office culture and camaraderie.
  2. Oil and water don't mix. It gets murky. Best to keep
    Facebook separate. One person commented that you can come to know too
    much about someone and that can distract from business.
  3. Go Half and Half. Others answered saying they prefer to keep
    professional work colleagues and co-workers at bay by using the
    'limited profile' feature on Facebook. Or, setting privacy settings so
    only certain friends or groups can see certain applications, photos or
    the wall.
  4. Work It. Lee Aase, on his blog, Social Media University,
    suggest a shortcut. While waiting for Facebook to devise a way to
    better differentiate relationships with a system more sophisticated
    than the limited profile graph, Aase suggest creating a group for your
    professional contacts and name it "FirstName LastName Professional
    Contacts." Aase explains further on his blog. Or, use Facebook's friend lists to differentiate Aase also suggests.

No matter what you prefer, it's best to adopt a strategy early,
be wise, cautious and careful. Even those that believed in full access
agreed that in the past year, they've tweaked their their own personal
guidelines. i.e. Adopting the self-policy that one must meet someone in
their professional network in person before they cozy up on Facebook.

For me, currently, I adopt a mix between the full access and the limited profile. This is largely for one reasons:

  • I want you to get to know me. I have nothing to hide. But,
    I'd prefer someone get to know me in person, before just reading my
    profile and making assumptions or place me into some category or
    description of who they think I might be. It's one thing to know someone in the office, but it's another to befriend a person.

Some other guidelines friends mentioned through my Twitter survey. Don't post:

  • Inappropriate pictures (nudity, over-drinking, kissing, dancing, etc.)
  • Clean up those pictures from college frat days
  • Represent who you are, but be keen to what information sparks controversy
  • Don't use foul language
  • Review your privacy settings
  • Understand what happens to your profile when you add an application
  • When you 'become a fan' or join a group, understand some may not
    get your inner circle's inside jokes or may think you are endorsing
    certain ideas/services/products
  • If you wouldn't show it to your mom, you probably don't want your boss to see.
  • Don't make your profiles busy or hard to read if you want to use it for networking.

What's your Facebook Professionalism Policy? or, what do you think of mine?

photo credit: Flickr, Amit Gupta (from Newsweek article)

]]> Join the Pledge for a Humanitarian Lion at Cannes http://www.blogher.com/join-pledge-humanitarian-lion-cannes 2008-08-18T20:38:37-05:00 2008-08-18T20:38:37-05:00 SocialButterfly Awhile
back, I wrote about a video that surfaced on YouTbue that was sending a
message to Cannes to create a Humanitarian Lion at Cannes. The video
has always been featured on my Events page. Now, I am excited to report that the video has turned into an official campaign.

]]> Awhile
back, I wrote about a video that surfaced on YouTbue that was sending a
message to Cannes to create a Humanitarian Lion at Cannes. The video
has always been featured on my Events page. Now, I am excited to report that the video has turned into an official campaign.

We support the Humanitarian Lion

Join us in sending a message to advertisers and clients everywhere:
we want to elevate the good and generate a shift in the way we do
business and increase our reputation as an industry. I just signed the
pledge today, at did the folks over at Osocio.

The Cannes are a worldwide event, so this movement can be a worldwide effort.

]]> New Blogger Neighbor Inspires Girls Everywhere at New Moon Media http://www.blogher.com/new-blogger-neighbor-inspires-girls-everywhere-new-moon-media 2008-08-10T10:53:56-05:00 2008-08-10T10:56:36-05:00 SocialButterfly I first ran across New Moon Media
when I was researching social networks and sites for teens/tweens, and
I was blown away by their concept. Not only it is smart and savvy, but
it was and is developed by teen and tween girls themselves (along with
some adult guidance).

]]> I first ran across New Moon Media
when I was researching social networks and sites for teens/tweens, and
I was blown away by their concept. Not only it is smart and savvy, but
it was and is developed by teen and tween girls themselves (along with
some adult guidance).

New Moon Media looks to empower girls making by being led and developed by the girls themselves. Originally a magazine written by and for girls ages 8-12 years old, the girls have expanded into multiple blogs, a MySpace page, e-newsletters, widgets, and NewMoonGirls - an online community for girls ages 8-12 which luanches Sept. 1, 2008. Also in the works is New Moon's user-experience, Orb28, aimed at girls 13-15+. The video below explains:

Enjoy, =)

******************

Blog Name: New Moon Girls / Girl Media Maven / orb28

Blog Topics: New Moon Girl Media blogs about issues important
to girls and to adults who care about girls. Our girl blogs feature
girl-created content on topics such as Health, Technology, Politics
& Current Events, Friends & Relationships, and Powerful Women,
while Girl Media Maven focuses on topics relevant to parenting as well as girls’ challenges and breakthroughs today.

About the Author: New Moon girls range in age from 8 to 15+
and hail from all over the globe! Adult staff who help coordinate and
moderate the girl blogs are highly experienced in girls’/women’s
issues, journalism, media, and the internet. Nancy Gruver, who hosts Girl Media Maven, is the founder and CEO of New Moon Girl Media.

If you could live on any street, what would that street be named and why?

The street
would be called Voices Lane. New Moon Girl Media would love to live on
this street because our company began with founder Nancy Gruver’s
dream to give girls a platform to speak out and maintain their sense of
self throughout adolescence, and today, the goal of the company is
still to bring girls’ voices to the world in significant ways.

Who would be your dream real-life neighbor? Confident, happy girls who go after their dreams!

If you were in charge of the planning the neighborhood's block party, what entertainment would you plan?

We would plan
a variety act showcasing what makes girls unique, special, and capable.
This event, which could include girls’ poetry and story readings,
music, theatre, dance, and athletic performances, artwork displays,
video screenings, and more, would empower girls to speak out in public
and feel proud of themselves just who and how they are.

What latest news bites would you share with your neighbors if they asked you how you were doing?

New Moon Girl Media is celebrating the 16th year publishing our ad-free, by-girls for-girls magazine; now, to reach more and more girls, we are additionally launching NewMoonGirls.com,
an ad-free, safe, girl-only online community for girls ages 8-12 on
September 1st. We are very excited about this new community and hope
you will help us spread the word! You can keep updated on the latest at
New Moon Girl Media and share with friends on Facebook, MySpace, and
YouTube, and even embed New Moon’s new blog widgets into your blogs and
personal sites. We’d love for you to have New Moon news delivered right
to your inbox by signing up for our e-newsletters, and you’re also
invited to join the New Moon Girls Street Team, where girls and adults
spread the love for New Moon!

What first prompted you to blog?

For years,
New Moon Girl Media has been a leader in publishing real girls’ voices
in print; as more and more people connect, learn, and have fun online,
New Moon Girl Media’s blogs are a great way to explore and come
together around girls’ issues, bringing even more girls’ voices to even
more of the world.

If you customized your own license plate, what would it say and why?

Our license
plate would say “Go Girls!” because girls need more empowering and
positive messages around them reflecting what it means to be a girl or
woman.

What would you gift to a new neighbor as the perfect welcoming gift?

A subscription to New Moon Girls magazine and membership to NewMoonGirls.com!

What's your favorite blog post and why? Anything written by a girl!

What's one lesson you've learned from blogging? Despite it’s
many dark corners and pitfalls, the positive opportunities presented by
the internet for connection and social change are very inspiring.

]]>