Choices

I was doing an interview with a writer for the NonProfit Times the other day about how my organization uses social networking to build awareness and further the reach of our campaigns. He asked me what criteria we use for posting content via Twitter and Facebook.

Criteria? I asked.

He continued on to ask if we had a set method of evaluating what to push out through social networks, and what's our approval process - who makes the final decision.

Funny, it never occurred to me to have a set of criteria or decide by committee. I had that sudden panic; "Oh god! Should we get one?" For a minute I ruminated that it is what you are supposed to do, but that feels so, well...formal to me - the antithesis of social community spirit.

But it hit me: when I decide to post content to my personal pages, I tend to post things that blow me away, piss me off, or make me green with envy at their cleverness. I don't have a criteria and I definitely don't consult a committee.

So when I am posting things to my organization's pages, I go with my gut - and so do my co-workers who also post to our pages. It has to be a story that makes me feel something. Sadness, relief, joy, anger. And it has to presented in a way that makes me want to read it.

This is where so many nonprofits and retailers fail miserably. Just providing the title of an article with a link doesn't really do it for me. You have to sell it. Tell me why I should read your post in 140 characters or less. Remind me that you are a human being posting this content and not some RSS robot.

"Was having a hectic day...but this story reminded me why I work here" makes me intrigued. "Read this story this morning and I can't stop thinking about this girl" is another one I would read.

Yes, yes, there are limits and exceptions to everything. Don't overshare, of course. They don't need to know that you "definitely didn't need that last glass of red wine last night." Don't air your nonprofit's dirty laundry. Don't say super-controversial things unless they are part of your mission shtick, like PETA or HRC. There is a line - I just can't tell you where the hell it is. You need to figure that one out on your own.

Be genuine. Be real. You aren't just posting content for a faceless, nameless mass. They are people - so are you - and in most cases, so are those that your mission serves. Keep that in mind and write like that.

This Revolution Will Not Be Televised...or on TiVo, apparently.

If you haven't seen this yet...it's worth the 4:22 minutes (although the music is a little high-drama):

Best Friends...for like, Ever?

I find it so incredibly fascinating that those who have come of age in the dawn of social media will never lose touch with...anyone...that they've ever met. Pretty much anyway. Oh sure, you might unfriend someone in a fit of irrational slash and burn, or maybe jump ship on your MySpace to hang with other Facebook social climbers, but really - you are at most two clicks away from finding them again. It makes "six degrees of separation" seem almost precious, doesn't it?

So what does that look like ten years from now?

Well, for starters, will people even bother going to their twenty-year reunion? I just went to mine and I can honestly say Facebook is the only reason I went. I had just reconnected with some long lost friends - including my BFF - that I am ashamed to say I lost 20 years with because of a stupid falling out over a stupid boy that neither of us can remember his last name. It is one of those things that I know we would have gotten past, but BAM! we graduated, I left home, I think she moved and we just...lost touch with each other. I tried to explain this to some of my husband's students (he's a university prof.) and they just could not compute this. A time before e-mail, a time before Facebook, a time before putting cell phone numbers in your phone - hell, even the old bag-style, plug-in-the-cig-lighter "car phones" still wouldn't be invented for at least five more years from when we graduated.

But I digress. Which, I should warn you - I do a lot. Deal with it.

What was I rambling on about? Oh yeah...so right now, I'll bet if someone studies % of attendance for 20-year reunions it would be peaking right now. But will kids who have always had access to their entire graduating class care about seeing them in person?

But here's the really sad part. I think it is safe to say that all of us pre-social network folks harbor a deep-seated fantasy that everyone we ever dated is secretly pining for us, the one that got away. I like to think that those I dated and parted ways with, amicably or not, knows deep down that I truly was the best thing that ever happened to them and that they blew it. And that knowledge has haunted them to the extent that they have lost all drive to succeed or to Ever Love Again. Mind you, it's not that I would ever want them back - I think we all just want to feel like we mattered...that we had an effect...made a lasting impression. These are the little stories we construct for ourselves.

But for all my young friends...the proof that your ex moved on is everywhere. Even if you unfriend him, he may still pop up when he comments on a mutual friend's wall. And when she changes her profile picture to that "really cute" pic of the two of them together (OMG!) it's just rubbing your nose in it, isn't it?

Well, hello there!

So I had been kicking around the idea for some time to start a blog to discuss all of the things I get asked all the time, about social media, online fundraising and marketing, but I was stuck on what the hell to call this thing. Then John Hughes died (RIP), and after killing an hour by trading favorite Hughes' movie lines with friends on Facebook and Twitter, it hit me.

Because so often I get caught up talking about all this techie-porn stuff and I have to remind myself that at the end of the day...I am talking about Facebook. And people really want to hear more. Kinda funny.

But I get asked to speak about this subject all the time, and I have a bad habit of scribbling ideas down on the back of papers, leave myself voicemail messages, etc. and I can never find what I am looking for when it is time to prepare a new presentation (yes, I am aware of cool tools like Evernote and Voicenotes...I just can't seem to get it together.)

So even if no one ever reads these words, at least I will have one place to organize my random thoughts...about the meaning of life. Or more accurately, Facebook.

So there.