Setting Up Various Facebook Pages – Know The Types!
By the summer of 2009, Facebook came with a few new profiles: personal pages, community pages, and public profiles. The three are distinct, and even within the public profiles, one has a number of choices about the kind of public profile one wishes to establish. There were some issues (surprise!) when the features were first added, but by now many of the kinks have been smoothed out. A little research before you start clicking can go a long way though, because if you start your page in a ‘wrong’ category, all you can do is delete that page and start over, an unpleasant prospect. But please read on and hopefully we can clarify some of the jargon.
Popularity: 1% | Category Community, Education: Technology, Marketing, Media Review, Nonprofit, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
The Keyword is “Social” – The Medium is Just the Means
From the study by Boyd and Ellison
We continue our week-long series on Facebook with a brief look at what ‘social media’ means. We make no claims of thoroughness in but one blog post. Indeed, some have taken entire academic semesters to explore the field. What we hope to present here are some common sense approaches to envisioning and contextualizing the social-media phenomenon of the last 4-5 years. In fact, a quick timeline will help put some perspective on the topic: The first widely accepted social-networking site was ‘SixDegrees.com,’ which was founded in 1998 and closed its site in 2000 during the Dot Com Bust. Though similar sites allowing the posting of personal profiles and the searching and liking of others via one’s profile percolated up in the intervening 2-3 years, it was only in 2003 that services like Last.FM, LinkedIn.com, and MySpace.com took off and the so-called ‘Social Media Revolution’ took off. Twitter was still three years away at that time! In other words, we are all new to this medium, and what sites will survive with which services is still an open question. (Time line taken from the scholarly study “Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship,” by Danah M. Boyd, School of Information,University of California-Berkeley; and Nicole B. Ellison, Department of Telecommunication, Information Studies, and Media at Michigan State University. Humans wrote on clay and stone for thousands of years before parchment replaced it for many centuries before paper replaced that some 700 years ago. Social media are still in the zygote stage, by comparison, which makes predicting their mature characteristics almost impossible.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Marketing, Media Review, News and Current Affairs, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
For The Week: Social Media Focus On Facebook
Are you one of the 500 million?
A purely alpha-betic writing established itself in the eastern Mediterranean about 3300 years ago, which marked a seminal shift away from ‘pre-history’ and towards documentation, institutional memory, and social media. We will not be tracing the evolution of writing from proto-Sinaic carvings or Phoenician tablets to Adobe’s Creative Suite 5, but we would like to look at the evolution (or what many might call a ‘revolution’) of the social-media behemoth that is Facebook. Though not the first social medium (Don’t forget Napster, especially in its pre/extra-legal days!), it has become the king of the hill with its profiles and searches and synergies with so many other networks (like Twitter). Facebook recently broke 500 million subscribers, and it brags that over 50% of those subscribers are on Facebook at any given time. Impressive numbers and a market teeming with customers, clients, donors, and ad-hoc NGOs.
But Facebook has had growing pains as well. Security and privacy concerns for its users, a plethora of competitors (admittedly, many bubble up and fall away at a speed surprising even in the age of the 24-hour news cycle), and even the possibility that the CEO of Facebook, Mark Zukerberg does not even own Facebook. All this week we shall be looking at the Facebook phenomenon, as well as offering some tips and caveats for those considering using the social network as part of their personal and/or professional lives. We begin our saga with the recent media frenzy concerning the Facebook biopic/movie, and the allegations of Facebook having been stolen and/or sold away by Zuckerberg.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Media Review, News and Current Affairs, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
As National Recipe Changes, So Should Marketing of Housing
The metaphor of the American melting pot has been around since the foundation of the republic, though the great breadth of peoples coming to the US did not really expand until the end of the nineteenth century. But along with the melting pot have come vociferous and sometimes violent resistance to immigrants – especially toward specific groups at specific times (the Irish in the mid-nineteenth century, the Italians in the early twentieth century, Mexicans today…). The fact of the matter is: the various groups who make up the population of the US have shifted and reshifted over the last couple of hundred years. They are mostly looking for a safe place to participate in the American experiment and raise their families. Therefore we ask if housing marketers and organizations are taking on board the population trends in their outreach.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Marketing, National/International, Nonprofit | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Don’t Forget The Nickels And Dimes of (Micro)Donations
These can add up to big support
We are all sensitive to the economic plight that faces our country and the world: the banking crash and bailout and the unemployment that has grown close to 10% and could linger for some time. The beating the economy has taken shows its bruises first-and-foremost on those bodies least equipped to handle it: the working poor, the ill, the disadvantaged, and the organizations trying to help them out. Donations, as we have often noted on the blog, have taken a real hit since late 2008 (even though the US remains the most generous nation on earth in this regard). Nonprofits and charities are often temped to seek out the biggest donors to help balance the books and keep the good work going. Though that strategy has many merits, we would encourage these groups to remember the microdonations that became part of the donor landscape about eighteen months ago and continues to make a positive impact for their recipients (and for the folks who can spare even a few dollars to their favorite causes).
Popularity: unranked | Category Grants and Funding, Marketing, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
BP/Haliburton/Transocean Blowout Recapped – What About The PR Blowout?
The explosion on 20 April killed eleven workers
BP’s third effort to cap the destroyed Deepwater Horizon well seems to have been successful, as pressure tests have not done further damage to the emergency mechanisms. As of posting (the afternoon of 16 July), the BP Global website stresses the cleanup of the Gulf without immediate mention of the successful capping done yesterday. Discussion of the cap is found via the link “Gulf of Mexico Response Homepage.” Such an improvement in the situation might deserve mention on each and every page of BP Global’s site, but this post is not going to question BP’s website design. Nevertheless, the successful capping of the well (touch wood), serves as a telling moment to skim some of the thoughts that have been shared about BP’s myriad PR blowouts since the disaster happened. Perhaps the best known of those is @BPGlobalPR as led by @BPTerry and Leroy Stick. We have often encouraged our readers to follow them through this disaster, at least to enjoy some black humor (and offer donations) through the crisis. But many in the communications and media arena have responded to the ways BP has tried to marshal the PR gaffes and crises it keeps finding itself in – the most recent of which are allegations that BP influenced the British Government to allow the only Lockerbie Bomber held in Britain to return to Libya in an effort to secure an off-shore drilling contract with Quadafi. What ‘lessons’ can be learned from these fiascoes?
Popularity: unranked | Category Climate Change, Marketing, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Tweets, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
The Asia Foundation Discusses Major Fundraising Via Facebook
The social impact of Facebook is beyond doubt. Almost 57 million Americans used it as of March 2009, and that number has since doubled. Facebook itself claims that over half its members are engaged with their 100-plus friends at any given moment of the day. The largest growth is seen among women over forty, and women use Facebook in greater percentages in all age groups (a topic we shall explore soon). They also tend to give more often to charities. The juggernaut has changed our language and our understanding of social networking, and this blog has often discussed its impact and uses.
But when it comes to using Facebook to raise money, charities often see a disconnect between action on their site and income through their calls to donate – especially for smaller charities. How do the heavy hitters leverage their Facebook presence into charitable activity? Sometimes they work around their Facebook pages, rather than on them, as John Karr, digital-media director for the Asia Foundation in San Leandro, CA discusses in a guest blog post at The Chronicle of Philanthropy. The AF’s “Books For Asia” program recently raised $10,000 and send thousands of copies of The Tales of Peter Rabit to children in Mongolia studying English. How did Asia Foundation turn its Facebook presence into big bucks?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
President Obama’s New AIDS Initiative Posted On WhiteHouse.gov
Yesterday, President Barack Obama shifted emphasis from his predecessor on yet another issue, as he announced the administration’s launch of the “Natinal HIV/AIDS Community Discussions” to be hosted by the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP). “HIV remains an serious challenge to the American people and I am committed to developing an effective National HIV/AIDS Strategy,” said President Obama. “The National HIV/AIDS Community Discussions will provide an opportunity for members of the public to give their input on how we can best address this crucial issue. With the insights from communities across the country, we will have a strategy that is focused on the goals of reducing HIV incidence, getting people living with HIV/AIDS into care and improving health outcomes, and reducing HIV-related health disparities.”
The change of emphasis pertains to a stress on helping those who have the disease as well as educating those who participate in activities considered likely to spread the disease. The previous administration stressed abstinence, which certainly helps the spread of STDs, but also tended to sweep aside discussions of treatment or care for those who contracted them. Early reactions seem mostly cautiously optimistic.
Popularity: 1% | Category Grants and Funding, Healthcare, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Baltimore Continues To Revitalize Inner Harbor With Residential Park
The revitalization of Baltimore’s Inner Harbor began in fits and starts as early as the late 1950s by Mayor Thomas J. D’Alesandro, Jr. Though technically a ‘harbor,’ the specific area known as the Inner Harbor was always too shallow for ocean-bound vessels, oven those built in the early nineteenth century. The Inner Harbor thus served as a rump of warehouses and cheap housing for laborers who had to travel a couple of miles east to get to the docks holding the big cargo ships. Almost as soon as the last medium-sized ships stopped coming into the eastern/inner harbor in the late 1950s, work went into finding other uses for the space. The first round of improvements mostly consisted of tearing things down and creating open spaces that could be used when necessary, but hardly grounds (no pun intended) for economic vitality. Rebuilding came in the 1980s, with a focus on tourism and attractions (the National Aquarium, Harbor Place Hotels, a myriad of restaurants, and the Maryland Science Center. Most of this rebuilding was along the eastern rim of the shallow harbor, but housing took a bit longer to enjoy a similar renaissance.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Greening, Local/Maryland, News and Current Affairs, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Can An Animation Animate Donors To Help ‘Tarla’ Get An Education?
“A Girl Story is a unique donation-based film that brings to life the experience of many underprivileged girls in India. This particular story is told through the eyes of Tarla, a young girl who simply wants to go to school and receive an education. Our project’s goals are to raise awareness about the challenges that girls like Tarla face, and to drive donations for the nonprofit group Project Nanhi Kali.”
Not only is the effort unique, it has caused a bit of a stir among both the online non-profit and blogging communities, as well as among web/video designers. The idea is that as donations flow to the Nanhi Kali project to encourage education among poor girls of India, the video(s) change to relate the story of the composite character, Tarla. The question at hand is some form of “Will it work?”
Popularity: unranked | Category Education: General, Marketing, Nonprofit, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Americans Love Bargains, Unless The Bargains Involve Health Care
Few discussions inspire such vehemence as the discussion about health care in the US. We have been wrestling with what to do with it since the Great War, and we tend to talk big about changes every four years that we have national elections before we go back to (grudgingly?) accepting what we have. Such raving leftists as President Harry Truman called for a national insurance plan that would cover anyone who wished to join. Such level-headed and scientifically-minded groups as the American Medical Association denounced it as the thin wedge of Communism. The debate has see-sawed over the decades between a debate about lost productivity to illness and the individual’s responsibility to earn health care. Of course, it was hot campaign issue in 2008, with then Candidate Obama trying to move the debate away from a social-right to an economic necessity. Though health-care ‘reform’ was passed this past spring, opposition was vociferous and most Republicans are still planning to use that opposition as a catalyst for their fall campaigns.
Health care is about as personal-yet-public a topic as one can imagine. Health seems like one of those things we will sacrifice anything to retain, and putting mere dollars on our wellbeing seems tawdry. By the same token, the business of America is business. And health care is a business – to the tune of some 17% of GDP in 2009 (though the percentage probably reflects an overall reduction in GDP rather than a ballooning of health care expenditure). What do we pay? And what do we get for what we pay for?
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Healthcare, News and Current Affairs, Opinion | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Charitable Giving In US Shrinks But Does Not Collapse In Face Of Recession & Oil Spill
Americans give over 1.5% of GDP to charitable organizations, according to International Comparisons of Charitable Giving by the ‘Charities Aid Foundation’ in England. Such generosity is almost double the next nation’s rate of giving: England with .73%. Such willingness to give to those less fortunate is a wonderful quality about America, and surely stems in part from the fact that ours is a nation that was built by peoples moving into new territories with unproven technologies and with religious motives to help neighbors in the grand experiment. Moreover, the incredible wealth generated by the US (the present economic crises notwithstanding) has given opportunity for many to give back – the incredible sums given by Bill Gates and Warren Buffet in recent months being only the most talked about. England’s coalition government, on the other hand, is trying to spur charitable donations from among the country’s richest to help offset the drastic cuts required in the government’s budget over the next few years.
Though Americans’ willingness to give, even during hard times, is one of the ways we have been able to keep working toward a ‘more perfect union,’ experts are warning that charitable donations will get knocked down severely as the Great Recession continues, and as the full economic and environmental costs of the BP/Haliburton/TransOcean disaster in the Gulf of Mexico are realized.
Popularity: unranked | Category Climate Change, Community, News and Current Affairs | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Constitutional Balance of Powers Helps Avoid Tyranny of Majority (and Minority)
The framers of the US Constitution wanted to establish a number of levels (the document assumes local governments and outlines the national government’s inability to interfere in the jurisdictional prerogatives of the states) and branches of government (Executive, Legislative, and Judicial). One of their ideals was to avoid the sort of monarchic or aristocratic amalgamations of legislator/judge that ruled in early modern England. The design was also meant to try to ensure that no individual institution within the government could unilaterally act. Such a system has launched a good number of debates and conflicts (oh, and a Civil War). And we are about to have another one that will have a significant influence on the specific issue of (illegal) immigration and on the general issue of which level of government is responsible for which kinds of policies. The US Justice Department is suing the State of Arizona over its recent law requiring the enforcement of federal immigration laws and the expedited deportation of any suspected illegals (SB 1070). The argument is that immigration is the purview of the national government. What is the background to this dispute and who will win?
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Happy Fourth of July! May You Have (Only) Monday Off
We wish you a joyous and safe Fourth of July weekend holiday, with plenty of family, friends, fireworks, and good eats!
And as a mark of (vaguely) good news to roll into the weekend, the unemployment rate fell in June from 9.7% to 9.5%. The fall is the result of a unique trade-off, as over 200,000 jobs were lost as those temporarily hired by the Census were released from their positions. But the private sector also added 83,000 to bring about the slight reduction in overall unemployment. Though good news, arguments over continuing unemployment benefits, in the midst of other budgetary concerns, might prove to be the debate of the next couple of election cycles: what IS ‘small government’?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Sad News From Two Nonprofit Groups
Nonprofits have felt the strain of the shrinking economy, as we are all aware. And usually such stresses are felt with a curtailment in giving and/or the trimming of services. Of course the ripple effect to those most needing the work of the given nonprofits and charities are perhaps the most troublesome results. Nevertheless, we have come across two sad news stories concerning charity groups who must deal with stresses of different magnitudes caused by different crises.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Twitter Continues To Set World Cup Records, And Now Sets Places
Twitter's World Cup Home Page
It should no revelation that we have been following the World Cup in South Africa here at MKCREATIVE. But we also have been following the ways social media have had an impact on the event – at least the sharing of news about the event – as an example of how the strategic use of social media could benefit your organization. Well, the global influence that is football (er, ‘soccer’) can now be seen in the use of Twitter as well. We reported about two weeks ago that the biggest blast of tweets came after the US vs. England match (tied 1-1), though was quickly followed and beaten by the Lakers’ 7th-game victory over the Celtics in the NBA championship. A conclusion to be drawn from these back-to-back record breakers was the intense Ameri-centric use of Twitter. But no more…
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Marketing, Software Review, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Possible New Role For Pollution Credits: Lowering Runoff Into The Chesapeake Bay
The idea for a carbon tax to create a carbon credit market seems politically a dead letter in the current economic crisis, but the idea that credits could be traded for those who are able to achieve stated limits on pollution still might have some influence. A micro-economy has been suggested for the Chesapeake Bay region, with pollutant run-off being the currency that might be traded. The Foundation Center gives us access to a report on how such an exchange might be developed, how it might improve conditions in the bay, and perhaps how it could be used successfully to deal with other pollutants.
Popularity: unranked | Category Climate Change, Greening, Local/Maryland, Politics, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Baltimore Finding Ways To Urban Renewal That Do Not Adversely Dislocate
In so many ways Baltimore spent much of the second half of the twentieth century as a city that snatched defeat from the jaws of victory: A vibrant industrial and trading city with a notable financial sector as well (in the decade after World War II), a city of some 2 million people who enjoyed the second most extensive trolley-car network in the US, a city with a pennant-winning baseball team (Yes, it was that long ago…). But by the late 1960s, the city was riven with racial violence, ‘white flight,’ and the secretly organized dismantling of much of its public transport for the sake of union jobs in a GM plant (now greatly reduced and outside the city). Needless, to say, the Orioles remain comfortably buried in the cellar of the AL East. Fortunately, he most recent efforts to revitalize the city, with the overwhelming input of Johns Hopkins University (disclaimer: the blogger is a graduate of said institution), are drawing support, ever-growing funds, and even praise — all of which deserve our attention.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Grants and Funding, Local/Maryland, News and Current Affairs, Politics, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Elizabeth Warren Still Fighting For Consumer Protection
Almost a year ago, Elizabeth Warren began a focused campaign to bring consumer protections to the discussion about financial and credit reform. She is Leo Gottlieb Professor of Law at Harvard University, and (yet?) chose to introduce her position on such protections via the following YouTube video:
That was a year ago. Where is she now and how is she reaching out with her ideas? More importantly, how goes the move to create such an agency?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Tweet This: USA! USA!
Landon Donvan sends the US to the next round of the World Cup
For the first time since 1930 the US national soccer/football team won its World Cup qualifying group with a dramatic, last-minute, 1-0 win over Algeria. Soccer skeptics might immediately assume yet another yawning 1-0 match. But if those skeptics are also baseball fans, they might assume a great pitchers’ duel. In this instance, we had a great goalkeepers’ duel as Tim Howard of the US and Faouzi Chaouchi of Algeria were both kept busy with shots against the posts and breakaways. Indeed, it was as exciting and flowing match as could be hoped for. And as we predicted, social media kept the excitement flowing to ever widening audiences.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Lest We Forget: Oil And @BPGlobalPR Still Gushing (And That’s Not The Worst)
“You can’t make up anything anymore. The world itself is a satire.
All you’re doing is recording it.”
Art Buchwald
Follow this link to one of BP’s Live Feeds of Gulf Oil Geyser
We are now 60 days – two full months – into this ecological disaster. Few even mention the eleven platform workers killed when the Deepwater Horizon first blew apart on 20-21 April. BP and TransOcean and Haliburton have danced through the Kibuki Theater of Congressional Hearings, blaming each other for the blowout and yet spinning post-facto admissions that they struggled to keep up with the others’ incompetence. The evidence of indifference to safety concerns on behalf of BP’s management continues to leak into the press. And through it all, @bpTerry continues to work hard to broaden the outreach and impact of @BPGlobalPR:
@bpTerry highlights some of the positives
But who is this guy, and what do his efforts portend for social media and brand allegiance/control?
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Foursquare: Yet Another Social Network, Yet Another Fundraising Tool
The means to communicate quickly online and establish networks of like-minded folks come thick and fast these days: MySpace superseded by Facebook (still king), challenged by Twitter, who has had to contend with Google Buzz!, Socialvibe, Zooppa, and a myriad of others that (mostly) cater to fairly specific communities. We have reported about how a North Carolina charity established a ‘Twitter Table’ to help broaden the outreach of its annual fundraising luncheon. Now a comparatively new social network is causing a bit more stir among the e-connected, and it too is the subject of an online discussion next week about how to use it as a resource for fundraising.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Perspectives: Bernell Grier, CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City
Bernell Grier, CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of NYC
The board of directors of the Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City recently appointed interim chief executive officer Bernell Grier as the CEO of the organization. Ms. Grier has built up an impressive resume as a banker having over her career serving as EVP, Retail Community Banking; SVP Middle Marketing Lending; Community Development Director; and credit program co-manager – all before moving full time to NHS of NYC. As COO, Bernell helped steer the NHS offices in New York City’s five boroughs through the rough waters of the collapsing housing market, and has continued to work to expand NHS’s base of donors and projects. We had the pleasure of talking with her on a bright June morning in midtown Manhattan before her full docket of business got under way.
Bernell’s career trajectory is a wonderful example of how preparation and consideration can meet serendipity, as she has moved between the corporate and nonprofit worlds with ease, a smile, and a strong sense of calling to community. Her first job as a teenager living in Harlem, New York, was as a Community Outreach Coordinator with “Neighborhood Board No. One.” She began with a plan to teach mathematics in the very public school system that gave her the good start she enjoyed, so she went to City College of New York for teacher accreditation in education and math. The need for a summer job took her to Chase Bank Manhattan, where her people-skills were already evident enough that she was offered a spot in management training. One is tempted here to say “And the rest is history.” But ‘the rest’ is where it gets interesting.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Community, Grants and Funding, Nonprofit, Revitalization, interview | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
NeighborWorks Week Draws To Successful Close
The NeighborWorks Week (June 5-12) that just finished (and that we promoted a couple of weeks ago) focused on educating homeowners to the danger signs of mortgage-assistance scams and predatory loan practices. According to the NeighborWorks website, “NeighborWorks America and local NeighborWorks organizations held more than 320 community revitalization and 150 loan modification scam awareness events nationwide.” Not surprisingly, one of the bigger shows of force was in New York City, where the issue was put up in lights. Literally.
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Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Twitter Tables To Turn Up Fundraising Fun
Charity events, galas, and $X000-a-plate dinners have been traditional ways to raise funds, even in these difficult times. And yet, social media have captured the imaginations of many a fundraising group and we have often reported on ways social media, philanthropy, and community involvement are tweaking the traditional ways to do things. Well, The Chronicle of Philanthropy is reporting on how Thompson Child and Family Focus, a charity in Charlotte, N.C., has found a way to combine all of the above.
Popularity: unranked | Category Grants and Funding, Marketing, Nonprofit, Tweets | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Harvard Study Argues for Jobs, Then Houses – Which Is The Cart?
Can unemployed afford one of these?
The financial crisis that began in earnest in 2007 and came to a head in 2008 has driven up unemployment to the highest point it has been since the Great Depression. Even with this statistic, though, we might want to appreciate how much has changed and how different the scale is (admittedly, cold comfort for the unemployed): For much of the 1930s unemployment was above 15%, and at its worst unemployment was north of 20%. The worst unemployment figures for the ‘Great Recession’ just got past 10% in the winter months of 2009. No one makes light of even 7% unemployment, and as we have recently commented upon, the recent uptick in employment this past spring is not likely to last the next month.
The smart money has been to argue that the bursting of the housing bubble brought about unemployment, and thus a rise the housing market will stimulate job growth and lead toward economic upswing. But a recent study from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies strengthens the arguments of those who say the collapse of the housing market might have pulled us down, but it can not pull us up. Who could buy a new home, thus stimulate the market in question, if they are unemployed from the millions of jobs lost in other sectors of the economy?
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Community, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Soccer’s World Cup Kicks Off Today & Social Media Already Winning
What with oil slicks growing and aid ships being forcibly boarded and sanctions being levied and nuclear-weapons threats being kicked across ‘demilitarized’ zones, it is important to remember that human beings do indeed have the capacity to share a positive competitive experience. And thus begins the World Cup in South Africa!
The ideal of the tournament was first raised in 1914 (oh, the irony), but FIFA, the world association of national soccer/football associations, concentrated its efforts on the Olympics until the mid-1920s, when the body pressed ahead with a tournament open to professionals. The first World Cup was held in 1930 in Uruguay, who went on to win it by defeating Argentina 4-2. ‘Only’ 13 teams joined that first tournament, but with over 93,000 fans pouring into the stadium for the Final, it was clearly a huge success. The World Cup has been held every four years (with the exception of the 1940s) ever since, and it has grown with each successive tournament. It is the single most-watched event on the globe, and unlike the ‘World’ Series, or ‘World’ Champions of the NFL, the winners of the World Cup can honestly claim the title.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, National/International, Tweets | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Charitable Giving Suffers Along With Economy In 2009
GivingUSA Tracks Where/How Much Americans Give
We suspect that our audience already has anecdotal evidence of today’s topic, but the annual report from the GivingUSA Foundation demonstrates that charitable donations are down by 3.6% in 2009 from 2008. “The Chronicle of Philanthropy” has an excellent summary by Holly Hall, who points to the fact that the slide in donations in 2009 actually follows a fall of 2.8% in 2008. On the same day The Chronicle has another story that points out how New York State is making cutbacks to programs to slow the spread of HIV/AIDS. So the Great Recession has certainly eaten into individuals’ abilities to give and states’ abilities to offer services and protections to their constituents. And yet, some silver lining can be seen among these recessionary clouds!
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Grants and Funding, Nonprofit | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Jobs Report Suggests Slight Or Slighter Growth Depending on Source
The release of the government’s jobs report this past week was cause for about as much speculation as Apple Inc.’s World Wide Developers’ Conference is this week. And just as people pretty much knew about Apple’s fourth-generation iPhone weeks ago, so people were pretty sure what the jobs report would look like before it was made official. The jobs report needed contextualization within the economic disasters we have endured for the last three years. We will leave contextualization of Apple’s WWDC and new iPhone for another post.
Job Losses and Gains Since Jan. 2010
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Banking & Finance, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Social Media: Introductions and Perseverance Can Bring (Little) Victories
Social media create a counter-intuitive tension. On the one hand, we use social media to create relationships with family, friends, clients, and like-minded peoples of our hobby/political party/aesthetic choices/etc. Relationships take time and are sometimes built on what, at the moment, feels like a rushed introduction or awkward interaction. On the other hand, modern media encourages us to think of news – indeed, of all information – as being reinvented every twenty-four hours. So when I get a ‘Friend’ request or retweet a great article I feel somewhat dislodged from the very information I am trying to disseminate. If one has that sense of disconnect, it might be worth remembering the differences in scale that might exist between one’s social-media persona and one’s self. Then let time work its magic through that scale, even if the social relationships seem few.
Popularity: 1% | Category Community, Education: Technology, Marketing, Nonprofit, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
@BPGlobalPR: Public Relations Is About Public, Not Brand
NASA Satelite Image of BP Oil Leak (27 May)
It is a fool’s prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.
Neil Gaiman
No doubt you have been following the BP/TransAmerica/Haliburton oil leak as it continues unabated in the Gulf. We have often heard the term ‘oil spill’ in the media, but this is NOT an oil spill. It is a leak (at best). Spills come from a finite and visible container and involve a finite amount of materials escaping that container (the drunken crash of the Exxon Valdez was a spill). The preventable disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is a leak: the oil, methane, and unrefined gas will continue to leak for an indeterminable time and at what remains an indeterminable rate. And in the 44 days since its explosion, we easily forget that eleven rig workers were killed in the initial explosion, despite foremen’s warnings of a dangerous buildup of volatile methane in the pipes.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Five More Ways (of 10) To Make Make Your Blog Work Best For Your Organization
The Social Signal group of Vancouver, CA
As promised, we continue today with the second half of a great compendium drawn up by Jon Cottingham at Socialbright.com. He has been teaching us about how to make a company’s blog a pleasurable experience for the audience (and for the writers!) and how to make such a blog a productive marketing tool. Indeed, to refresh memories from yesterday’s entry, the first point raised was to put the ‘Investment’ in ROI. Today we turn to the back five on our way to the clubhouse and some well-deserved drinks.
6. Firefighting – Crisis communications
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Education: Technology, Marketing, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Perspectives: Linda Cronin-Gross, President of LCG Communications
Linda Cronin-Gross, President of LCG Communications
We have been reaching out to some of the influential people in the nonprofit/mission-based/greening/housing (etc.!) communities to hear about the work their organizations are involved with and how these individuals got involved in that work. Their insights and experiences can inspire us all as we continue our work in our chosen areas.
The series of interviews continues with Linda Cronin-Gross, founder and president of LCG Communications (Brooklyn, NY). She has been in the worlds of politics and public relations since the late 1970s, and she founded LCG Communications ten years ago in an effort to educate nonprofits on the benefits of strategic communications for progressive, issues-driven organizations and campaigns as well as for small businesses. She is a member of the National Writers Union as well. Linda Gross’s success has not been linear or without challenges (like walking a straight line through the lobby of the Rockefeller Center with a teary-eyed political candidate). Yet her perseverance and good humor have been critical to the success she and her firm have enjoyed over the last decade. So how did she grow from music teacher to adviser and communications specialist to greening groups and progressive organizations throughout New York?
Popularity: 1% | Category Community, Greening, Nonprofit, Politics, interview | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Neighborworks America Starts Summer Holidays With Educating Struggling Homeowners
Who doesn't need the cash nowadays?
We have all seen them. Many of the advertisements are made in Microsoft word, printed on a $99 color printer, and tacked onto telephone poles throughout struggling neighborhoods. Many of us know them as the scams – at least ‘too-good-to-be-true’ – deals that they are. But our confidence is likely bolstered by our relatively stable economic status. But for tens of thousands of Americans whose economic status has been undermined by corporate malfeasance and the bailouts requested by many of those same corporations, the temptation might be too great if it means cash to pay a medical bill that had been covered by the work-place insurance lost with the job a few months back. And even if the victim is savvy enough to steer clear of papers stapled to poles, home-loan and buy-for-cash scammers have tapped into a myriad of legitimate media to cull for the desperate.
In their ongoing effort to educate homeowners, “NeighborWorks America” (the umbrella organization of Neighborworks offices in all fifty states) is focusing on this particular black market, and we want to help spread the word.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Kicking A (Housing) Market While It’s Down
We are not a glum group at MKCREATIVE by any means. We just believe ‘forewarned is forearmed.’ Yesterday we discussed the local (read: Baltimore-Washington region) housing market, which did not enjoy a notable bubble and (thus?) has not suffered a violent bust. Nevertheless, the region is seeing a striking deflation in home values as foreclosures bite into more and more families. Anecdotal and personal evidence has seen not a few houses go from lived-in to empty to for sale in a few months, victims of foreclosure. In this region’s case, the problems stem not so much from over leveraged home loans made to people told/believing the market would never again shrink but from the fact that the Recession and unemployment (or worse, the terrible and larger problem of underemployment) continue to erode people’s savings and thus their abilities to keep up with their mortgages. Two years into The Great Recession has left many at the end of their abilities to pay, so their homes join the growing list of foreclosures (as reported yesterday, 35% of the homes for sale through April are foreclosed, compared to 22% from last year in Baltimore alone). A short-sold home gives no relief to the home owner from creditors, of course, as creditors get to buy back the house on the cheap and hold it until the market improves so they can sell it again.
Ah, but when will that happen?
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Community, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
‘Resilient Baltimore’ Probably Needs Resilient Housing Market
Up in Baltimore City from 22% to 35%
Economists, reporters, politicians, and bloggers have all proclaimed and/or wondered if The Great Recession is over. Our blog has followed some of these statistics and claims at the national level, but today we want to look specifically at the situation in Baltimore and its housing market.
Many (weak) signs suggest bottoms have been found in a number of markets, and perhaps its human nature for us to seek out and accept the good news. As we have previously reported, the mid-Atlantic did not enjoy a stunning housing bubble, and thus did not endure a painful popping of that bubble. According to CNN Money, “In the Maryland and Virginia suburbs around Washington, the restrictions on building are among the most onerous in the entire nation. As a result, only a trickle of new housing is coming on the market, despite the good economy and strong job growth in the Washington area.” So-far-so-good…
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Community, Local/Maryland, Politics, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Panera Restaurants Want to Give Back; Follows The Music Industry (But Where?)
Pay What You Can, In Some Places
Bruce Horovitz of USA Today Newspaper has reported on the conversion of a Panera/St. Louis Bread Company Café (the original name of the store that became the Panera franchise) to a pay-what-you-can enterprise:
A sign at the entrance says: “Take what you need, leave your fair share.” Customers who can’t pay are asked to donate their time. The cafe opened Sunday and will operate seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.
While the store does have cashiers, they don’t collect money. They simply hand each customer a receipt that says what their food would cost at a conventional Panera. The receipt directs customers with cash to donation boxes (there are five in the store). Cashiers do accept credit cards.
The founder of the Panera chain, Ron Shaich (who just stepped down as the company’s CEO) hopes to create a non-profit ‘Panera Foundation’ with such cafés in each of its markets across the country. From Mr. Horovitz’s interview: “It’s a fascinating psychological question,” says Shaich, who says he’s dreamed of doing something like this for years. “There’s no pressure on anyone to leave anything. But if no one left anything, we wouldn’t be open long.” So Shaich is trying his hometown first, then taking what he learns throughout the franchise. Though some are betting against the plan.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Marketing, News and Current Affairs, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
You Tube Is Five Years Old And Reaching To Nonprofits
Numerous media outlets, including the subject of this posting, celebrated the Fifth Birthday of the YouTube website. The first 17-second video shot by Yakov Lapitsky at the San Diego Zoo has become an on-line phenomenon again. In the online world, though, history repeats itself first as miracle, then as retro-quaint. YouTube’s meteoric rise has been challenged by such subgenre sites as Vimeo and Hulu, but that rise continues: YouTube boasts some 2 billion separate views per day. Nowadays, the site hosts everything from snippets of movies and concert videos (excerpts that often circulate in-and-out of view, and in-and-out of the grew legal status of online copyright infringement), to corporate commercials, to the repository of news and commentary disputing those commercials.
The Last Shall Be First
YouTube, now owned by Google, might be one of the more perfect repositories of anarchic democracy on the web. So where is the video site hoping to go over the next five years? In a twist of irony, the leadership at YouTube/Google would like to expand the lengths of its offerings, allowing more serious and extended presentations.
Popularity: unranked | Category Marketing, Nonprofit, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Roundup Of And Registration For Upcoming East-Coast Nonprofit Workshops
For today’s posting, we wanted to inform our readers about a few workshops, seminars, and opportunities that are coming up over the next few weeks in New York and Washington DC. As our regular readers know, we occasionally pool some of the registration information, links, and tweets for such events both to help spread the word and to encourage our constituents to participate.
The first two are in NYC and are being sponsored by the Foundation Center, from whose materials the MKCREATIVE blog has often culled. A Proposal Writing Seminar will be held there on Wednesday 2 June from 8:30am. Topics include:
• Cover letter, executive summary; your message to the grantmaker
• Statement of need; choosing data to support your case
• Comprehensive project descriptions; your proof of project planning
• Organizational overview, conclusion, appendices
• Researching the funder to position your proposal
• The grantmaker’s proposal review process
Information and registration can be done online here.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Conference/Congress, Grants and Funding, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
NeighborWorks Video Outlines
Home-Inspection Process
The housing market continues to prove to be a tough bubble to burst, though the Recession is technically over. Nevertheless, many are stepping into the housing market and the good folks at NeighborWorks have posted the video you see above on their blog and at YouTube. Home inspection is not necessarily a make-or-break moment in the decision process. One might freely choose to purchase a house with a notably low rating, for example. But the point of inspection is to help ensure all parties are aware of hidden – and not-so-hidden – damage or obsolescence in a house. The video shows you some of the concerns a professional home inspector will be looking for when she or his is brought to the property.
The inspectors within the video stress the need for a systematic look from the outside in and from the basement to attic. Some of the stuff is obvious (damaged concrete steps? torn siding? moldy baseboards in bathroom? …), but the tougher question might be the timing of what is found. For example, is the damaged stucco on the back porch from thirty years of family life or from a series of repairs that suggest an untreated deeper problem?
Another point that requires due diligence is the utility infrastructure of the house. Our computers and coffee machines and space heaters have changed faster than the utility boxes in our homes. When reviewing a house for purchase, be sure its fuse box, heating and air-conditioning units, water heater, etc., are new enough to handle the expected work load. If they are within a reasonable time frame, can the owner (or, nowadays, the bank’s realtor) provide maintenance histories? Be sure you are keeping one as well!
Purchasing a home is fraught with familial and budgetary stresses, but the rewards can be great. Inspections are meant to mitigate stress and to flush out unforeseen costs or hazards. If you are in the market, watch the video, bookmark the Neighborworks website, and arm yourself with as much information as you can.
Popularity: unranked | Category Affordable Housing, Nonprofit | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
iPad Indeed Inspires Nonprofit Community
Just before Apple’s iPad first launched in early April, the MKCREATIVE blog presented a two-part discussion of how the device specifically and the advent of a truly functioning tablet market/community generally should be taken seriously by the nonprofit community. The iPad’s convenience as a communications tool, we argued, meant that nonprofits and mission-based companies could, and should, take steps to ramp up their social-media presence in an effort to reach out to early adapters. And the simplicity and robustness of Apple design (both hardware and software), we believed, guaranteed that early adapters would be able to convince even those not quite sure they were ready to make the jump to a touch-screen/in-the-purse-or-bookbag experience. Well, just 28 days and, oh, one million iPads later, folks across the aforementioned community are making use of the opportunities the technology presents.
Popularity: unranked | Category Apple, Nonprofit, Software Review, iDevice | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Social Media Strategies And Pitfalls: Motives And Metrics
One of the services we try to provide on this blog is to connect our readers to great communicators with expertise on their topics. Today’s communicators have been developing strategies to make social media work for them and their clients. Jay Baer has been been a PR consultant, brand developer, public speaker, and entrepreneur in his own right. His blog at ConvinceAndConvert.com includes a seven-step program to get involved with social media (Hint: fairly late in the development of a brand!) in order to expand clientele. He, like many others and even us on this blog, points out the value of metrics to get a picture of your brand’s audience and how to reach it. Shabbir Imber Safdar and Shayna Englin at Network for Good have recently posted some of their rather surprising findings based on the metrics they accrued at UNICEF USA over the last year.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Marketing, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Deadline Approaching To Register For IRS’s New Tax-Exempt Status
On 17 May many smaller charities might find themselves in post-tax-exempt status as the IRS reconfigures its guidelines and filing expectations for these groups. According to Grant Williams at ‘The Chronicle of Philanthropy,’ “Nobody really knows for sure how many organizations will target=”_blank” lose their tax exemptions, but several research groups estimate that more than 300,000 organizations listed on the Internal Revenue Service’s rolls ultimately could be affected.”
Popularity: unranked | Category National/International, News and Current Affairs, Nonprofit, Politics | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
(Some) Social Media Grow, As Might
Specialization Among Them
Use of social media over the last three years
We have had many entries on this blog about the use, best practices, and (occasional) abuse of social media. We have done so with the effort to inform our audience about user trends, technology developments, and the marketing impact social media have had. The Neilsen ratings organization ‘NeilsenWire.com’ has recently posted a three-year survey of how some of the major social-media sites (Read: Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and ClassmatesOnline). As can be seen by the chart to the right, use of Facebook continues to expand at a phenomenal rate, as does Twitter (from a smaller starting base). But so too are a couple of notable reversals, LinkedIn and ClassmatesOnline. The reasons for their shrinkage might not be related, except for the logical possibility that they are losing ‘face time’ to Facebook. For example, Classmates.com offers a great opportunity to catch up with lost high school friends. But once the contact has been made, statistics suggest that both parties have Facebook accounts, or one encourages the other to join, and thus the continuing conversation (if there is one) takes place there.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Nonprofit, Site Administration, Sustainability, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Consumer Protection Agency Drifts
From Public Discourse
The media (with good reason) have concentrated recently on the tragic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the pseudo-grilling Goldman Sachs got by Congresspeople desperate to look tough to their constituents, and the British election that has resulted in a hung Parliament. Discussion of the formation of a Consumer Protection Agency has drifted off the radar, which we believe is unfortunate. Indeed, yesterday’s plunge-and-slight-recovery on Wall Street surely argues for the need of such an agency because so much of our economy runs on our faith in trades done in traders’ computers on our behalf. The notion of such an agency is hardly foreign to our economy. Every state has has one form or another of a CPA ready to hear appeals and offer services. But will the states lead the way to the federal level, as California did for car emissions?
Popularity: unranked | Category Book Review, National/International, News and Current Affairs, Opinion, Politics, Sustainability | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Younger Donors And Social Media Savvy
Sure, we all know that the young seem hard-wired to ‘get’ new technologies (oh, but their time will come!). We know they text as often as talk with their phones. We know they seem impatient if not downright sloppy with their casual conversations. But do we know that the average twenty-something donates about $340 a year to philanthropic causes (Admission: I did not give that much)? That 57%+ twenty-somethings have volunteered on a charity project in the last year? (Disclosure: I can take some comfort for belonging to that statistic)? That 37% of them joined their charity’s social network in the last MONTH (Alright, such social networking was not an option when I was twenty-something)? These statistics are from the Chronicle of Philanthropy‘s summation of recent reports sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, Edge Research and Sea Change Strategies, and by Johnson Grossnickel Associates. Is your organization ready to reach out to them? Are your people ready to be reached BY them?
Popularity: unranked | Category Education: Technology, Nonprofit, Tweets, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Baltimore’s ‘Parks And People’ Plans Organizing Efforts for Block Projects
We wanted to remind you of an informative and important meeting sponsored by Baltimore‘s Parks and People Foundation this May 13th. We tweeted the event a day or so ago, but it is worth a posting here as well. The Parks and People Foundation has been hosting a series of meetings and workshops entitled ‘Community Greens Workshop Series’ meant to get folks engaged at the local and neighborhood level to restore and upkeep green areas and small parks. The meeting on the thirteenth concerns the efforts needed to make such engagement practical and profitable for the community. It is being held at Monroe Street United Methodist Church
400 S. Monroe St., Baltimore City .
Want to do more in your neighborhood but don’t know where to begin? Learn tips for organizing your block project, generating volunteers, and building leadership. Come with questions! Please RSVP to Sarah at 410-448-5662 x128
The keynote speaker is Ellen Burke, Partner at City Life Historic Properties, LLC. She is also Vice President for the Baltimore Community Developers Association and honored as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women in business and philanthropic concerns. She will be discussing some of the tools of communication and community organizing.
She will be joined by Kate Herrod, Director of Community Greens, who will be discussing the value of such projects as alley gating and greening. Baltimore City has a hidden treasure of small green spaces and urban micro-parks (my term). These tend to be off the city administration’s radar (especially during a recession), but are a life-affirming quality in their neighborhoods. Ms. Herrod will offer advice on keeping them green and the community engaged in their upkeep.
Once inspired by what you learn at the workshop, or if you are already inspired but can not make it on the 13th, be sure to check out their Calendar of Events and follow the Foundation on Twitter. MKCREATIVE already follows their good works, and we hope to see you at one of their May meetings.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Education: General, Greening, Local/Maryland, Revitalization | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Prepare And Refine Your Organization’s ‘Elevator Pitch’
You've got me for 40 seconds...
Economic news runs hot-and-cold. Social media keep us informed with beeps and dings we start to hear in our sleep. Those in need are, unfortunately, growing as the Great Recession has hit different economic sectors differently. Donors still want to give, although perhaps not with the open-ended resources they believed they had. And everyone’s time seems limited. Which is why when you have a chance to pitch your philanthropic organization‘s opportunity or plan to donors, you need to be quick, concise, and clear. Which is why the great ‘Elevator Pitch’ never goes out of style (at least until we build personal pneumatic tubes to whisk us around our business spaces). The good folks at “The Chronicle of Philanthropy” have collected a series of such pitches for us to see what works, what does not, and what we need to do with ours.
Popularity: unranked | Category Community, Education: General, Marketing, Nonprofit | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
End-of-Week/Quarter Economic News:
Glass Half Full Or…?
Don’t call us stupid. We know it’s the economy. It is of central importance to our political, philanthropic, aesthetic, and working decisions. So for the end of this week MKCREATIVE tapped into the bright minds at The Atlantic Magazine as some of its economists commented on the recent numbers released for Q1 2010. The numbers beg for the rhetorical question of whether the glass is half full or half empty, for some of the numbers are wonderful, though, as Derek Thompson also points out, we are still dragging a ‘heavy anchor,’ namely, the housing sector.
Popularity: unranked | Category Banking & Finance, Community, News and Current Affairs, Opinion | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D
Roundup Of Some Social Media Developments
(Part 1 of 2)
Facebook has gotten most of the press lately, and the MKCREATIVE blog discussed some of that buzz earlier this week. Facebook’s staff seek to build and weave together the new ‘Social Graphs’ of one’s “Friends” with the use of the already nearly-ubiquitous “Like” button. But another site is under development by Chris Hugues (one of the founding developers of Facebook) that seems to have similar ambitions within the world of mission-based businesses and philanthropy groups. That site is Jumo.com, a name meant to convey ‘working together.’ Though not the first site to try to bring together these constituencies, the knowhow of Mr. Hugues and his colleagues in the area of social networking might give Jumo a big jump once it is presented some time this fall. One can register an email online to get updates (and, of course, to register one’s ‘Like’ of the site) as they progress.
How has social networking fared as a qualitative and quantitative part of the philanthropic and mission-based communities?
Popularity: unranked | Category Media Review, Nonprofit, Technology, Web and Print | | View Comments
Written by: Christopher Gardner, Ph. D