Poptech Innovators

social mediawhat works?

ethan zuckermanoctober 19, 2008

pop!tech

1950s-60s - age of local organizations

robert putnam - “bowling alone”

rise of the mailing list organization

photo by extraface

“2.2 million people around the world...”

danger that social media is just today’s mailing listcan you listen to 3.2 million people?

Is online action enough?

older organizations tend to assume the internet is just another mailing list

web-generation organizations tend to assume that activism is just web organizing

mosaic by stabillo boss

Hao WuBlogger, Filmmaker

Detained February 22, 2006

freehaowu.org

don’t speak - point.

what works?

internal external

photo by Jerry Luk

what’s your organizational medium?email vs. phone vs. chat vs. skype vs...

who’s your least flexible user?

realtime communication

asynchronous communication

document sharing

scheduling

realtime communication

asynchronous communication

document sharing

scheduling

presence

face to face

DIY vs. KISS

why?

PR is cheaper than marketing

Online presence is PRyou control

Winning via Google

link economy

comments

freshness

your usersare lower techthan you are.

digital storytelling

10 hours work, 500 downloads? - be ruthless on ROI

mosaic by stabillo boss

not possible to try them all

be ruthless about ROI

metrics

the “first blank to useblank” trap

figure out why you’re using a tool before you use it

online to coordinate offline work

expertise of the organizers with the tools

getting trapped in the platform

don’t speak, point

internet and external

PR is cheaper than marketing

win at google

choose

be ruthless about ROI

“new” can equal “no one uses it”