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Grassroots marketing
Online advocacy NOT used for "good"
Your name:
Jayne Cravens
Your email address:
jc@coyotecommunications.com
Your question:
I really enjoyed the several organizations that provided information on their own grassroots efforts to get-the-word out about their good work, about how they created very positive online "buzz" about a particular issue, or how they countered an opposing political effort through grassroots online organizing, etc. It was great stuff. But I kept thinking of how these efforts are not always used for "good", and I brought up how it's been through various efforts, including online activism, that the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has been so severely maligned, particularly regarding its work in China. I've found myself convincing family members back in Kentucky, and friends back in Texas, that, no, what they read in that church bulletin or heard on some local radio program or read on some online discussion group about UNFPA was, in fact, NOT true. How does an organization effectively counter malicious, seemingly-grassroots online efforts to discredit its excellent work?
(I've written to UNFPA directly and encouraged them to respond as well, FYI)
Net2Con: Distributed Grassroots Marketing
I'm Sarah Pullman and I'm blogging live from the session on distributed grassroots marketing. The speakers are Elisa Camahort, Tara Hunt, Chris Messina, and it's being moderated by Marnie Webb. I'm definitely not catching everything and it won't all be totally correct but I hope you'll forgive me and find it useful anyway. :)
Elisa Camahort of BlogHer Conference
Speaks about how they made the website badge for BlogHer, and people totally took them and ran with them. Made up all kinds of spin-offs.
online evangelists are online volunteers
Your name:
Jayne Cravens
Your email address:
jc@coyotecommunications.com
Your question:
Online evangelists are online volunteers, and sometimes, people who are so very passionate about getting the word out about an organization aren't the best people to represent such -- they may post inaccurate information about an organization and its activities, engage in hostile debates with others online, portray themselves as representing the organization rather than just a big fan, etc., and all of this can actually end up giving the organization some very negative buzz.
I'll be interested to hear how these speakers suggest these pitfalls can be avoided, how you can keep an eye on what these spontaneous online volunteers are saying and help guide them without taking away the spontaneous, viral feel of such buzz marketing campaigns.
In the Choir Loft
Your name:
Bob Robertson-Boyd
Your email address:
bob.robertsonboyd@gmail.com
Your question:
I believe word-of-mouth marketing is powerful, but I think the effectiveness of online viral campaigns are limited because they seldom break out of the choir loft.
How can we sustain and extend our communication goals beyond the choir and even the congregation?
Ears Open. Mouth Closed
What am I bringing to the conference? Open ears. Open mind. Closed mouth. Okay. I won't keep my mouth closed for the whole time, but I intend to do a lot more active listening than monologuing. I'll do the monologue here:
What else will I bring? Some book knowledge of the Millennial generation and a little experience in marketing to them in a higher education setting.
My experience? I have a little volunteer experience. Some experience in building and maintaining online communities. Some experience enabling citizen journalism (circa 1997). Some exeperience in the .Gov world; some in the .Edu world. I have ZERO experience in real programming, but I've been living and working online since 1993.
