Disruption Tour --- Run To Survive

Is the social stream the new email?

Certainly with over 100 + consumer actively using social application platforms + the number of mobile users the next frontier is to move from Readers and MyHomepages to a unified social application platform that will pass along all of the consumers desired informational streams.

At Rsscheck we are agnostic where our consumers will want their Transactions RSS content and today we push the information to their Readers, MyHomepages, Social Media Platforms like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. Plus to all mobile users who have enabled mobile browsers. For more information check us out at RSSCheck.com.

MG Siegler | 

During the “Feed Me: Bite Size Info for a Hungry Internet” panel today at SXSW (moderated by VentureBeat’s own Eric Eldon) all the participants agreed that social streams of data are going to be an integral part of the web going forward. David Sacks, the chief executive of Yammer, went farther, calling these streams “email 2.0.” No one seemed to disagree.

With Facebook’s new redesign now fully in place and focusing on real-time updates in your feed, the concept of social activity streams is moving into the mainstream. And while Facebook previously helped bring the idea of the news feed itself to the mainstream, this next iteration which includes live updates, comments and “likes,” was pioneered by others. But everyone on the panel today, which included representatives from FriendFeed, Microsoft, Yammer and Facebook, seemed to agree that the future of this space was making this data accessible no matter which service you are using.

FriendFeed co-founder Paul Buchheit likened it to the old days of AOL (the dial up, closed system variety), when you could only send email to other AOL users. Eventually, he noted, AOL was forced to open up to these messages to the rest of the Internet. He believes that status updates will eventually become a federated medium as well. And perhaps it’s no accident that Buchheit started one of the services which is already helping to spread this social data around the web (it both pulls in and posts back to Twitter, for example) — when he was still at Google, he helped create Gmail. So maybe the social stream really is the next email.

A lot of these services even look a lot like email. The central focus is on a stream of messages, with the left hand side devoted to filters, which are more or less like folders, as Sacks pointed out. One company, Microsoft, is even using its email service, Hotmail, as the foundation for its social stream. Others, like Yahoo, are starting to do this as well.

During the question and answer session, David Karp, the co-founder of Tumblr, who was in the audience, asked why any of these services really matter — why not just use a standard like RSS to syndicate this data everywhere, he wondered? Dare Obasanjo of Microsoft pointed out that the reason people need services for the social stream is that while something like RSS may be fine for the tech savvy crowd, mothers or grandmothers would take one look at it and not understand what is going on. Seeing everything in a stream on Facebook though, and having a simple publishing tool that makes it clear how you insert pictures and other elements, is the key for the mainstream.

Ari Steinberg, an engineering manager at Facebook, more succinctly noted that while the concept of RSS is sound, the interface has failed. Each of the companies on this panel are attempting to put the right interface on this new movement.

But not everyone agreed on all points. Sacks made it clear that he felt that with Facebook now fully in the social stream arena, it stands a good chance of being the clear-cut winner in terms of users. That doesn’t bode well for other services out there, like FriendFeed. Sacks believes Yammer can excel however because it’s focused on streams for businesses, and he doesn’t believe that users want to mix personal streams with business ones. Of course, he didn’t bring up to possibility of a large business social network like LinkedIn getting into the space.

While these panelists were a solid core of the stream movement, there was one glaring absence: Twitter. One audience member noted as much, to which everyone laughed. (SXSW invited Twitter to participate in the panel, but it turned down the opportunity.)

Twitter, the current media darling of the lifestream movement, may have not been there, but it was on everyone’s mind. In my notes on the panel, I counted 13 different mentions of Twitter by the panelists. Steinberg downplayed Twitter’s importance a bit — notable because Facebook tried to buy Twitter in November of last year, and its new update emphasizes some similar functionality. Steinberg noted that Twitter was pretty simple, but Facebook offered a lot more functionality.

And, the way it handles relationships is very different. On Twitter anyone can follow anyone else (assuming they have an open stream). On Facebook, you need to confirm users are your friends — though, that is changing a bit with its new Pages.

Towards the end of the panel, the issue came up of people being wary of Facebook taking over the social streaming space because of its traditionally closed model when it come to data. Steinberg reiterated the more recent company line that its committed to allowing users to share data both inside and out of Facebook, but that user privacy remains a bit of a road block.

If the stream really is going to be the new email, that road block will need to be removed. Or, as Buchheit mentioned, Facebook may one day suffer the same fate as the old AOL.

Why are so many charities ineffective?

from the economist.com

SOCIAL entrepreneurship—the application of business principles and practises to solve social problems—is all the rage. The new sort of philanthropist who sees giving as a social investment wants to support social entrepreneurs in the same way that for-profit investors want to back ordinary (anti-social?) entrepreneurs. Judging by the number of courses in social entrepreneurship now taught at leading business schools, many an MBA student would rather work for a non-governmental organisation (NGO) than a traditional company.

Yet even as its popularity soars, sober observers of social entrepreneurship are starting to ask if it lives up to the hype. Where is the social-entrepreneurial equivalent of a for-profit start-up like Google or Microsoft or any other large global business? Where is the evidence of massive social change?

Working for Jimmy the evangelist

Yes, Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel-Prize-winning founder of the Grameen Bank, which provides small loans to millions of poor people in developing countries, has proved that a social entrepreneur can build a big, multinational organisation (though even he has not greatly reduced poverty). But where are the others? Is Mr Yunus more exception than rule?

Jim Collins, who wrote the bestselling business-books “Built to Last” and “Good to Great”, has long argued that there are great organisations in the non-profit sector, just as there are in the for-profit world—although in both sectors, the vast majority of organisations fail, by some margin, to achieve greatness.

“Inspired and inspiring” is how Mr Collins describes “Forces for Good”, a new book about exceptional NGOs. The authors, Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant, identify six common practices of what they call “high impact non-profits”.

The phrase is telling: many of today’s newly wealthy are becoming philanthropists and are desperate to give their money to organisations that they believe will have a significant impact—yet many of them soon become disappointed by the quality of the NGOs they find.

More for Good Than for Profit: Report Says US Charities Now Leading Corporations in Social Media Adoption

mashable.com

University of Massachusetts researchers Nora Barnes, Ph.D. and Eric Mattson have released preliminary results of a survey of the largest US charities regarding their adoption of new social media like blogging, podcasting and wikis. The researchers concluded, based on similar research their Center for Marketing Research has done with Fortune 500 corporations, that the charitable sector is exhibiting more substantial adoption of social media than its corporate counterparts.

This directly contradicts the widely held belief that the charitable sector is tech-conservative, risk averse and focused only on using proven methods to raise money.

The study focused exclusively on big players, the Fortune 500 and the Forbes 200 top charities. Small businesses and nonprofits are another matter all together. When big organizations with strong brands adopt a technology in a visible way, though, it can't help but lend that tool-set some credibility.

It's interesting to see that video is the most widely used social media on the list. In as much as charity work is dependent on communicating emotionally with potential donors, this shouldn't be a surprise.

Corporate America can hang its head today for being surpassed in innovation, risk taking and communication with constituents. In theory the corporate world is where the action is supposed to be, and the charitable sector is in charge of making sure that life is tolerable for the most marginal among us, right? I think we could all benefit from more blogging, though, whether it's directly lucrative or not. Thanks to Nedra Weinreich in LA and Beth Kanter in Massachusetts for unearthing the study. Just look at those nonprofit bloggers go! We were very fortunate to have a guest post from Beth about the challenges of nonprofit social media adoption here on ReadWriteWeb in September.

ElloMobile: An MVNO That Donates ALL Its Profits to Charity

blognation.com

You won’t read stories like this every day. With every telecom operator fighting hard over bits and pieces of a booming market, there are hundreds of companies who don’t have their own radio spectrum frequency allocation but are still hoping to get a piece of the action by operating as an MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator). Some are commercially successful (e.g. Virgin Mobile UK), others not so much. But there’s one I’m definitely rooting for big time.

ElloMobile, a Belgian MVNO operating on the BASE network, sells pretty standard mobile plans, with prepaid cards, subscriptions and special packages for MMS and GPRS data plans. Prices are comparable to the 3 largest operators in Belgium, and sometimes even lower because the company conducts its business entirely over the web.

But here’s the juicy part: ElloMobile donates all its profits to charity. All of it. When the company launched in June 2006, it communicated 100% transparently, publishing a transcript of its business model and statutes. Anyone can publicly consult ElloMobile’s balance sheets at any given time (see below or download the PDF), and they’re not afraid to let you in on forecasts. If the company succeeds in convincing 100 000 Belgians to use their services by 2009, they would book 8,1 million euro in net profits.

ElloMobile users even get to choose which charity they would like to support: they can help save the rainforests, help street children in South America or donate to provide Palestinian refugees a proper education (you can find a complete list of projects here). Each of the projects is screened in advance by an independent jury of experts from the King Baudouin Foundation.

ElloMobile was brought to life by 3 founding partners of LUON, one of Belgium’s leading interactive marketing agencies: Serge Van de Zande, Onno Hesselink and Luc Robyns.

Consumers Would Partner with Brands for Social Change, Environment

I'll always have Tara. 85 percent of consumers worldwide are willing to change the brands they buy or their consumption habits to make tomorrow a better place. And over half (55 percent) would help a brand "promote" a product if a good cause were behind it, according to a nine-country survey of consumers, reports sister site MarketingCharts. Also, 88 percent of consumers said it is their duty to contribute to a better society and environment. Among all respondents, "helping others and contributing to the community" was cited as the second-most important source of personal contentment, after "spending time with family and friends." The study was released by Edelman in concert with its launch of goodpurpose, a consultancy dedicated to helping brands explore putting social action closer to the center of their brand proposition. "We see a new phenomenon emerging called 'Mutual Social Responsibility,' where consumers and the brands they interact with every day take a mutual interest in and a mutual responsibility for being good citizens," said Mitch Markson, president of Edelman's Global Consumer Brands practice and founder of goodpurpose. "Worldwide, only 39 percent of consumers are aware of any brands that actively support good causes through their products or services. With 56 percent of consumers more likely to recommend a brand that supports a good cause than one that does not, it's clear that if brands align themselves with a good purpose that consumers care about, they will strike a meaningful chord," Markson added. The following are among the highlights of the findings: Consumers care about social action In eight of nine countries surveyed, more than 50 percent (and up to 70 percent) of consumers say they are more involved in social causes than they were two years ago. 56 percent of consumers are involved in supporting a good cause. On average, consumers are involved, either directly or through a member of their families, in more than two social or environmental causes. Areas of greatest concern among consumers include "protecting the environment" (92 percent); "enabling everyone to live a healthy life" (90 percent); "reducing poverty" (89 percent); "equal opportunity to education" (89 percent); "fighting HIV/AIDS" (83 percent); "building understanding/respect for other cultures" (82 percent); "helping to raise people's self-esteem" (77 percent); and "supporting the creative arts" (69 percent). Word of mouth is the most credible source of information about brands that support good causes. 61 percent of consumers say "a person like myself" is the most credible source of seeking information about brands that support a good cause. Consumers are ready to engage with brands in "Mutual Social Responsibility" 70 percent of consumers say they would be prepared to pay more for a brand that supports a good cause they believe in More than seven in 10 (73 percent) would be prepared to pay more for environmentally friendly products.

Change.org Launches “Ning” For Non Profits

 techcrunch.com

Change.org uses social networking to help social causes. The site already has it’s own network for linking volunteers to causes and voters to politicians. Now they’ve also launched a new Ning-like DIY white-label social network for non-profits. For the launch, they’ve already partnered with 50 non-profits, like CARE, Greenpeace, and Amnesty International. Any other non-profit can launch their own network as well, as long as you have a government approved tax ID number. You can sign up for one here.

Like Ning, non-profit pages are part of their overall network and can be redesigned with a variety of modules. Any member of Change.org can become a member of these networks. They have modules for all an organization’s main needs: events, fund raising, forums, blogs, members, and posting photos/video. I really like how Change.org is evolving overall. The site is about connecting people passionate about a particular cause and not engaging in a shouting match or symbolic gestures of online support.

Other useful services for non-profit work include Wild Apricot, Idealist.org, Tree Nation, and Kevin Bacon’s Six Degrees.

Nonprofits Outpace Businesses on Social Media

Posted: 15 Nov 2007 11:15 AM CST

Charities are often more savvy than businesses when it comes to using social media – especially blogging. The Center for Marketing Research looked at the top 200 largest US charities as defined by Forbes Magazine. They found that seventy-five percent of the charities are using some form of social media.

Social media specifically refers to blogging, podcasting, using message boards, social networking, video blogging and wikis. 46% of the charities report that social media is a key part of the organizations fund raising efforts (though they do not measure success by numbers - they seem to use the tools more for branding purposes).

Social media is an effective way to increase awareness of their missions and helps them connect with their constituencies. The research did not trace how this affected donations because the organizations mainly used it to build community and foster their online presence.

The findings came from the University of Massachusetts–Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. They conducted a nationwide telephone survey of nonprofits named by Forbes Magazine to their list of the 200 largest US charities for 2006 under the direction of researchers Eric Mattson and Nora Ganim Barnes. Seventy-six of the charities gave detailed interviews.

The charities are especially outpacing businesses when it comes to podcasting and though less utilize video, the ones who are use it heavily. They are also blogging. Charities blog at a higher rate than businesses on the Fortune and Inc. 500 lists, with more than a third of the organizations. Compare that to just 8% of Fortune 500 businesses and 19% of businesses on the Inc. 500 list.

I did a little research myself and found that the number one charity (measured by revenue) is the Mayo Clinic which maintains two blogs—including a blog on stress. Maybe some of usought to add that to our list of RSS feeds ;).

The United Way has three blogs as well as blogs at regional offices I didn’t find blogs for the Salvation Army, American Red Cross, Catholic Charities, or Habitat for Humanity (however they do link to blogs written by others associated with their organization). The ones I looked at didn’t seem to be utilizing social bookmarking or advanced functionality on their blogs.

See the full report in part three of the three-part series: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studies/cmrblogstudy4.pdf

Midwestern Cities for Popular Volunteering

“Communities with high levels of citizen engagement will come closer to solving some of the key challenges facing our society today,” say the report’s authors, who also point to studies that link volunteering with increased life-expectancy rates and other health benefits.

The volunteer rates and rankings are based on an average of data culled from surveys in 2004, 2005, and 2006. Among the study’s findings:

• Of the 10 metropolitan areas with the highest volunteer rates, 6 are clustered in the central section of the country: Minneapolis-St. Paul; Austin, Tex.; Omaha; Kansas City, Mo.; Milwaukee; and Tulsa, Okla."

For the full story, go to:
http://philanthropy.com/news/updates/2643/midwestern-cities-are-popular-for-volunteering-new-study-shows

The report, Volunteering in America: 2007 City Trends and Rankings, is available free.

Swapping student debt for charity work

1. 

Non-profit / Social cause

Debt-burdened students are matched with companies who will
sponsor them to do charity work, paying off chunks of their debt as
predefined milestones are met.

Swapping student debt for charity work

Resignation or Possibility?

Robert Middleton - Action Plan Marketing
Products and Programs for Attracting More Clients
http://www.actionplan.com

What primary point of view informs your approach, attitude or
mindset about your business?

You might say there are two primary points of view.

One is resignation and the other is possibility. These points of
view color every thought you think, every conversation you have,
every action you take.

This week I read a book by someone who takes the possibility
point of view. Let me briefly tell you his story.

John Wood, a senior Microsoft employee, was taking a trekking
vacation in the Himalayas in Nepal in 1998. During his travels he
came upon a school of 450 students in a remote mountain village.

The headmaster showed John the school library. And the library
contained no books (except for about 20 backpacker castoffs that
they kept locked up in a small cabinet!)

As he left the school and the village, the headmaster uttered a
few words that proved prophetic: "Perhaps, sir, you will someday
come back with books."

Something awakened in John.

He could not get the picture of a school without books out of his
head. And when he returned from his trek, he sent an email to all
his friends asking them to donate books and money so that he
could return next year with books.

And return he did. The response to his email was overwhelming
and thousands of books were donated, which were shipped to
Nepal and then delivered personally by John and his father to the
school 18,000 ft. high in the Himalayas.

But that was just the beginning.

John left Microsoft; formed a non-profit organization, "Room to
Read," and since its inception in 2000 has accomplished the
following results in eight developing countries:

     - Constructed 287 schools

     - Established over 3,870 libraries

     - Published 146 new local language children's titles
       representing over 1.3 million books

     - Donated over 1.4 million English language children's books

     - Funded 3,448 long-term girls' scholarships

     - Established 136 computer and language labs

The whole blow-by-blow story is in John's inspiring book, "Leaving
Microsoft to Change the World." It's a must read if you want to
understand what it is to operate from a point of view of possibility
instead of resignation.

Just think. How many people visited that school in Nepal while
they were trekking? Yet none of them took action. They saw the
situation, they probably felt bad about it and said to themselves,
"Oh, well, that's the way it is here, I hope somebody does
something someday."

That's the resignation point of view.

Ask yourself honestly: Are you coming from resignation or
possibility? Just apply this simple question to the matter of
marketing your business.

Do you:

     Find it hard to fit marketing into your schedule?

     Avoid networking, writing and speaking?

     Think small about what your business can achieve?

     Start a marketing plan and then abandon it?

     Complain that business is slow and the economy is to blame?

I'm sure you can come up with a whole lot more!

What would it be like to come from the point of view of possibility
as John Wood did? Can you imagine what would happen in your
business if possibility was the dominant force?

What if you:

     Made marketing a habit that you mastered?

     Gained new marketing and sales skills every month?

     Set very large goals and achieved them consistently?

     Created and followed through with bold marketing plans?

     Produced great results no matter the state of the economy?

Heck, what if you did so well with your business that you could
donate thousands of dollars to good causes?

Thanks to John's inspiration, I'm now donating 5% of my total
sales (not profits) to Room to Read. Every time you purchase an
Audio Program, an InfoGuru Manual or a Web Site ToolKit, a few
dollars will go to help students in developing countries.

Also, since my wife, Saroj, happens to be from Nepal, I'm
organizing a fundraiser for the local Nepali community to raise
$100,000 or more for Room to Read in the next year. You can
learn more about Room to Read's work in Nepal at this page:

http://www.roomtoread.org/countries/nepal.html

The More Clients Bottom Line: Resignation or Possibility? It's your
choice. It's not something you need to struggle with. Got a good
idea? Go with it. Want to make a difference? Follow through.
Want to change the world? Start today!