World Bum

I was recently asked to join the planning committee for the 2010 American Marketing Association’s Nonprofit Marketing Conference. In the capacity of a Social Media Guru. Yikes.

My worry was two fold: a) I’m utterly unclear on what a Social Media Guru is; b) I am afraid that my role will be to perpetuate last year’s conversation, which was all about social media tactics, mostly related to tweeting and Facebook Causes fund raising. It was b) that compelled me to say “yes” to this gig. Being on the committee doesn’t give me exposure or podium time, but it allows me to influence the content, broaden the view of social media, even help with recruiting the speakers who will be addressing a few hundred nonprofit marketing folks. And to me, the marketing folks are the leaders of movements, though some of them may not be thinking about it in quite such terms. So, I reluctantly figured that this would be a chance to do my part and help re-frame the social media conversation into one about leadership, strategy and impact.

The three points that I will drive at are:

1. It’s not about technology; it’s about people and relationships. It’s easy to forget when you are dealing with a keyboard and online tools every day, that the driving force behind anyone’s organization is made up of individual people. The strength of the relationships you have with each of them will determine the potency of their commitment and the size of the impact you can create together with them.
2. It’s not about talking at your supporters; it’s about having a conversation with and leading an interconnected movement of people. A happy movement has a leader who has at least these two characteristics: belief and the ability to speak, listen and encourage conversation. The time of traditional, one way communications is over. (therefore, using modern technologies with old strategies is not an option) The time of the king leader is also over. It used to be that you were given or hired into authority, but that’s no longer. Today, you have to earn your place as a leader every day. Today, anyone within an organization can be a leader. This is the age of leverage and connectedness.
3. It’s not all about the net; it’s about an integrated approach to empowering and encouraging your people. Social media has its roots in technologies as much as it does in the innate need of people to connect with other people. Therefore, I would like to shift the focus away from the internet experience and bring it to all things that allow people to connect with each other. This includes on the ground events, face to face interactions, mobile engagement and content generation, etc.

If you happen to read this and know great, relevant speaker, or if  you are one yourself, please leave me a comment. I’m especially interested in giving the podium to movement leaders, community organizers and experts on mobile technologies or engagement. And if you happen to work at United Way (any local United Way) and wish to attend, I can probably get you a discount.

Happy New Year!