Social Media Club DC kicked off the 2011-2012 year with an event at the Washington Hilton – “Really Cool (Social Media) Case Studies” which brought in three admirable social media professionals who have done big things with social media resources.
Grassroots Activism Through Social Media
We first heard from Jesse Rauch – creator of Friends of Screen on the Green (@SOTCinDC) – a true case of grassroots activism using the power of the internet to save a local summertime gem. In case you’ve never been, Screen on the Green is a program in the summer months that shows movies on the National Mall to an audience of ~10,000 people every Monday in the months of July and August. For those of you who love cheap entertainment and haven’t checked it out – you should and then you’ll understand how what started as a “Save Screen on the Green” facebook page in May 2009 saved this program.
Through their Facebook page coupled with a letter writing campaign to the executives at Comcast, HBO and the Trust for the National Mall saved Screen on the Green in 2009, in 2010, Screen on the Green was again threatened. In early 2010 when HBO “couldn’t commit” to supporting Screen on the Green, a cause was reborn. Voted by the Washington City Paper as “the best thing to come from a Facebook protest” they took their cause back to twitter and Facebook to communicate to HBO how much Screen on the Green was beloved by Washingtonians and then some using typical internet wit. HBO heard the Facebook comments and the tweets – often leaving the HBO twitter page so that it was all tweets about Screen on the Green – and Screen on the Green was again saved. Once Screen on the Green was saved however, they wanted to do more so they used it to build community and awareness for other relevant issues – like awareness of the National Parks Service and the Trust for the National Mall.
Rauch stated the biggest lessons from his experience with “Save Screen on the Green” (now Friends of Screen on the Green) have been - the democratization of communication is a powerful tool - this comes from a strong motivated constituency. None of this, he stated would have been possible if the tools they used hadn’t allowed them to collect and use data efficiently, after all, getting buy in from a massive corporation like HBO couldn’t have been easy without data to back up their cause. Finally, and we all know this, that the use of social media is cricical.
Using Social Media to Build Brand Awareness – a Case of Dual Profiles!
“How many of you all have ever shopped at a Goodwill store?” Many hands raised around the room.
“How many of you all know what Goodwill’s mission is?” Not so many – if any at all – hands raised.
Goodwill is not just a thrift store. Who knew! Their mission is actually workforce development with a goal of raising money through their thrift stores to grow programs to get people back to work. A very, very noble mission in this troubled economy.
Unfortunately, the struggle Goodwill has had in the past is that people see it as simply grungy thrift shops where poor people shop. Not always the case. Their goal by taking on style and fashion through social media, has been two fold – to increase shopper base and to change the branding of Goodwill without destroying their mission. It’s tough to dual brand but Goodwill has done an incredible job. They created “DC Goodwill Fashionista” a blog dedicated to the finds in Goodwill stores. For instance – finding an $800 vintage Chanel bag and spending only $13? Finds like that take a little bit of digging but they’re around.
Through the blog they have set up the only Vintage Fashion week which sold out in a day as well as a virtual vintage fashion show which has raised $250,000+ through ebay sales. However, they would not have been nearly as successful if traditional media hadn’t bought into what they were doing. After all with the popularity of trunk show inspired sites like Rue La La and Gilt, there’s been a shift away from the Sex and the City era of fashion where spending hundreds of dollars on Louboutin’s is trendy. Now, bragging through social networks how little you spend on something is the in thing. Brendan Hurley, Senior VP of Marketing and Communications for Goodwill of Greater DC (@Good_Willy) emphasized that numbers are everything, like the fact that since starting the blog, they have seen an increase in profit. Treating the blog like another product and ensuring that the blog is not just a promotion tool but also a content provider is key. After all, they used this blog to integrate their audiences, not eliminate them. While running dual profiles online for a company is no easy feat, nor is getting buy in from the company side. Social media is risky but having clear goals and using metrics and analytics to show the value of social media is worth the fight. At some point, as stated you throw spaghetti against the wall and wait to see what sticks as was mentioned at one point in the night!
#NASATweetup: The Evolution
There are lots of people in this world who love science and think planes, trains and airplanes are the coolest things ever. The people that win for super fans may in fact, after hearing about NASA Tweetup, be NASA fans. Through starting the NASA tweetup program, NASA has brought thousands of people into an all access pass to this amazing agency. You see, people apply through a lottery to get chosen. Each tweetup, and they’ve 27 so far anywhere from watching a shuttle launch to meeting government officials at the Newseum here in DC, invites 100-200 people for short interactions with staff who were described by Jason Townsend as “super passionate about their jobs.” There’s nothing more inspiring than hearing people who love their jobs talk about what they do who are also super interactive.
Each event involves roughly two-three months of heavy planning and if there’s one thing that NASA does right cause you know, sending people to the moon and back – is logistics, a major feat when you’re bringing people from all around the world to see what it is your agency does.
Why did they start this? Because through the tweet ups, they’ve turned fans and followers into advocates/evangelists/creators and collaborators. But most importantly, they’ve created a community. Through the #NASAtweetup, there is now the NASAtweetup wiki which has since evolved into the Space Tweep Society – a society dedicated to those passionate about NASA and it’s mission. It serves as another venue to share info and per the National Air and Space Act of 1958 the mission of NASA is to share as much information as possible. While the government can’t own community, #NASAtweetup has proven that it can inspire and rally crowds into a community which for those of us passionate about the internet know that that’s what these types of programs are all about. Finding like minded people who are passionate about what you are passionate about and sharing conversations and experiences.
All in all, the night was a great learning experience with a lot of great take aways for the attendees to use as social media advocates (personally and professionally!). We hope that those of you who attended enjoyed yourselves and we look forward to seeing everyone at our next panel on the third Wednesday of October! (Save the date: October 19th – and subscribe to our RSS to be notified when details are posted!)
Check out our speakers from this month on twitter:
@SOTGinDC
@Good_Willy
@NASA
As well as our fantastic moderator, Joe Gizzi, from New Media Strategies. (Thanks, Joe!)
And a huge, HUGE thanks to the gorgeous Washington Hilton, who swooped in to donate one of their meeting rooms as our venue. If only all of our hosts had that patio bar:
Finally, you can check out the slide show presentations for more information about the presenters and what they’ve done, as well as the Flickr slide show of the event. Thanks all for a great night of social learning!
