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Change Agents: Feeding the Conversation: How to Build a Community Around Your Cause featuring Nancy Watzman, Katherine Mancuso, Maggie Dammit and Denise Tanton
Nancy Watzman: Katherine Mancuso, what is it about the Gimpgirl site that makes women comfortable to come there and talk about their disabilities?
Katherine Mancuso : It’s a private community we’re not entirely blocked out from the world, but there are barriers.
Nancy: Any examples or experiences working with these kinds of online communities
Erica: I’ve created a non-judgmental safe space for women who have had abortions.
Joanna : I’m a child obesity doctor – online weight loss program for kids. I get a ton of hits on my blog. Nobody ever comments, they read it, open it. I try asking questions. That’s been a real struggle for me.
Katherine: We’re basically a community of women with disabilities driven by women with disabilities – people seem to comment less on our blog posts. People who are less familiar with blogging don’t feel Forum or something that encourages short engagements. We don’t but we’ve seen people do giveaways. You could try giveaways for most insightful comment.
Maggie of ViolenceUnsilenced: I post two stories a week – people write their personal stories and I publish them. People write something and they are kind of speechless, so just saying thank you can mean the world to them. I also moderate all comments so it’s a safe space.
Katherine: Why do you moderate the comments? (Open to the room)
Maggie: In my case, it’s not a forum, it’s not a topic up for discussion. This is just a safe space to share your story and get support. Period. I think you set the tone. I try to seem safe
Gina Carroll of ThinkActParent.com. I’ve been blogging by myself for years without anybody saying anything. I have one reader who likes to email me his comments and finally I said to him, would you put this on my site? And he agreed and it did start a conversation. So maybe staging a conversation, or commenting yourself can start. The great thing on Facebook is that Like button.
Danielle – Sold Celebrity Baby Blog to People magazine. If you ask a question, people will respond.
Barbara Feldman – When I post a poll or a survey, I’ll say “please post a comment about why.”
Katherine – We try to welcome every commenter by name.
Nancy – Sunlight Foundation – We premiered Sunlight Live – a video live feed that we had of the Summit people could make comments as they were speaking. We had enormous
Denise Tanton – Blogher.com I am trying to fill in for the beloved Erin Kotecki Vest. We tried to get everyone from congress to talk to women about health care. We set up these phone calls and women came. Women are passionate about all kinds of topics and if you give them the opportunity to be heard, they will take it. If you have a blog and people aren’t responding, maybe they feel that you are saying it all.
Maggie: If people care aboput you, they’ll care about your cause. I was out in Central Park running around with a tutu on this morning. It’s not that I didn’t know what MD was, it’s that people care about Catherine, they care about Tanner.
Katherine: Because we set a tone in our community of helping each other, learning together, women get set up with various online services. We now have women saying “don’t thank me, it’s just the gimpgirl way.”
Elena of Dirt and Noise: Not a community. I’ve gotten a lot of people involved, coming to participate because they know me and my personal connection. I’ve written some really difficult things about what I’ve gone through with my son and services taken away. When people see that, they are compelled to comment and help.
Jill Miller Zimon: I’m now starting a blog specifically for my constituents. Also have my mayor, fellow city council members Do you have any insight toward that kind of community, or how comments in an environment that’s more political might differ?
Nancy: There are a lot of politicians that are jumping on the Internet bandwagon and the challenge is to be genuine.
Jill: Can the expectations of the constituents might have higher expectations. They may write something and then feel “well I told her that,” not realizing how many stakeholders I have to listen to.
Nancy: I think you say that. You make it
