Juliette Powell: Digital Media has changed the face of Humanitarian Aid

(This post was translated from French. The original interview was published in Voir on Jan 28, 2010 and written by journalist Elias Levy.)

Author of 33 Million People in the Room, a bestseller on the power of social networking, former TV interviewer/producer at MuchMusic & MusiquePlus, and recognized expert in interactive new media, the dual citizen (US, Canada) Juliette Powell is firmly convinced that social media is radically transforming the concept of “human solidarity”.

Social media is playing a very important role in humanitarian assistance to the stricken people of Haiti.

Juliette Powell: “Absolutely. We often under-estimate the impact of social media, yet we are now seeing their efficiency in managing the humanitarian catastrophe in Haiti. The NGOs in this devastated country have been empowered by digital media to help source and provide humanitarian aid and medical care to the Haitian people. The use of social media helps relief workers accomplish their difficult task faster: Oxfam benefits from using YouTube; Unicef from Twitter; the UNDP (United Nations Development) from Flickr; the International Red Cross from Apple who has made its iTunes service freely available.

Since telephone infrastructure has been destroyed by the earthquake, the only means of communication in Haiti is through the Internet. Social media can spread information clouds very rapidly which can help rescue survivors in care areas using photos of disaster areas taken from satellites to survey population flow.

The whole online community has galvanized to be at the service of Haiti’s millions: Google has made available its satellite images to help the victims of the earthquake while Missing Persons are listed and discussed on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace. These realities reminds us that now, humanitarian aid can not live without the digital and social networks that feed it. ”

Are many donations to Haiti are raised through social media?

“Yes. Last week’s figures speak for themselves: 21 million of 150 million dollars raised so far for Haiti have been collected through donations made through social media. Since this unspeakable tragedy has befallen the people of Haiti, a movement of unprecedented solidarity very tangibly expressed through social media, has emerged to demonstrate that in emergency situations digital and social media is faster and more effective than traditional media.”

How does social media also play a role in the democratization policy of certain countries?

“It is undeniable that social media also plays a major role today in the struggle for democracy waged by people under the yoke of dictatorship. For example, through the use of social media, Iranian youth - many opponents of the radical regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - came to remind the world that they are wish for democracy and that they strongly reject the traditional insular vision of Iran defended by the current Iranian president and his supporters. Pictures and  videos of the strikingly brutal repression by the Iranian police of political activists and citizen journalists opposing Ahmadinejad was transmitted via the Web by dissidents and shared worldwide via social media.”

Why are you visiting Montreal, the hometown where you grew up?

“The Studio XX and the National Film Board (NFB) have launched a special training project called, ‘First Person Digital‘ a program for women to explore new narrative avenues. This project aims to inspire future filmmakers. First Person Digital distinguishes itself by offering a cross-disciplinarian production methodology cross-pollinating aspiring filmmakers, designers and the digerati.”

33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking by Juliette Powell (Published by Financial Times Press, 2009, 200 pages)

In my most recent HuffingtonPost story, I wrote about Cirque du Soleil founder, Guy Laliberte’s upcoming social mission into space.

Thanks to several million dollars and a few friends in the right places, Laliberte has secured a much-envied spot on Expedition 21 to the International Space Station, scheduled to launch September 30^th, 2009. Beyond the financial capital necessary to purchase a seat and the grueling astronaut training involved, Laliberte plans to leverage the exposure to amplify his social and cultural capital and thus raise awareness around the global water crisis.

Laliberte is a great example of an entrepreneur who, over the past 25 years of building Cirque du Soleil into a privately held multinational, has surrounded himself with the right people (social capital) and has continually added value to his community (cultural capital) which resulted in enough financial capital to last most people (let’s be honest - most countries) several lifetimes.

So how does one get to a point where they can afford to both make their childhood dreams come true AND use that dream to make a difference in the world?

We often attribute it to the powerful or the lucky, the rich or the famous – the seemingly magical ability to persuade and influence other people to help us build our businesses and even to make our dreams come true.

Although we don’t always realize it, all of us – from managers to journalists, entrepreneurs to activists – regularly use unacknowledged skills to build social and cultural capital. We’re just not always aware of it. Networking skills can be used to influence and sway people in all areas of our lives and we can often see the repercussions of our actions, after the fact. The more aware of how exactly we influence others and why, the better we can shape the nature of that influence. The transparent world of online social networking only adds a new layer of depth to the capabilities and possibilities of building up and maintaining relationships in an interconnected world.

There is much to be garnered in learning by example and with that in mind, this blog sets out to find stories of people and companies successfully using social networking for business. The idea is to share commonalities from which we can deduce the basis of social networking success in the ever increasingly networked public sphere.

Key among these is the:

• simultaneous use of online and offline networking skill sets
• ongoing interaction within your community
• willingness to co-create with that community
• sound understanding of how to create meaningful social currency
• passionate dedication to authentic communication.

It goes without saying, basic networking skills like personalized attention and follow up, when combined with social networking technology, can increase your reach exponentially.

To find out how you can use your social and cultural capital (and your social networking skills) to help with Laliberte’s upcoming space mission around the global water crisis, visit onedrop.org.

Juliette Powell is an entrepreneur, digital media consultant and author of 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009), a book about social networking for business, inspired by Guy Laliberte. Powell is also co-founder of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of media, business, advertising and technology. You can connect with her on Twitter and Facebook.

Obama did it. Filmmakers are doing it and now you can do it too. ‘Crowdfunding’, a spin on ‘crowdsourcing’, is the latest funding opportunity at a time when our funding institutions are failing. With the success of crowdfunding campaigns like wikipedia.com and threadless.com, the financing of projects and people by large crowds is on the rise and a new tool to fund even the smallest of projects is now available to the general public.

In the best of times, there is always a sense that there are great ideas out there with little or no chance of funding from traditional channels. According to web-preneur Perry Chen, “the biggest trend we’ve seen so far: even during this economy, people are generous.  One reason why: people are getting big responses from their networks as people leverage their Flickr groups and other niche communities to spread the word about their projects‘. Also, small amounts are key.

“We need to move away from looking for big checks and learn to embrace small amounts.  I love people who pledge $1 or $5 to a project. Why shouldn’t we be able to become a patron each other for the price of a cup of coffee?“

Enter KickStartr.com a free online platform that uses ‘crowdfunding’ to seed small projects with big communities. Although still in beta, the funding platform launched 2 weeks ago is for everyone from artists to entrepreneurs to students. Contrary to online investment mechanism’s Kickstarter’s site says that: “People who use KickStartr to fund their projects (”project creators”) keep 100% ownership and control”.

Crowdfunding yourself to success (image:stevegarfield.com)

How does one crowdfund that project you’ve been forever putting on the back burner? To find that out, I turned to KickStartr.com founder, Perry Chen.

What is the key to crowdsourcing for money or ‘crowdfunding’?
A focused project. I think we want to rally around things with specific goals. Making people feel like they are a part of something.  This starts with a compelling story — why I should support you — and then a determination to spread the word.

There is a great concept coined “Empowered Interactivity” by marketer and author Mark Hughes. Paraphrasing: Create a mechanism where people have an observable impact, and it becomes their brand, their 15 minutes of fame, their outcome.

If you already have a large social network, will it help you get funded more quickly? No question. Each person you know is an amplifier to each person they know. We all have a social network, and the key to crowdfunding is sculpting your project and presentation so that it amplifies past that first degree of your network. If it’s compelling, people will forward it.

What if you don’t have lots of online presence before using KickStartr, how do you raise awareness and get funded? It might not be the sexiest thing, but email is still extremely powerful. Send a rallying cry to friends and family, encouraging them to forward along.  Reach out to relevant blogs and organizations.  Become a marketer.

You can also go small.  One of our first projects (and we are only starting our 2nd week) was a programmer named Dan Phiffer who raised $99 to build a Wikipedia iPhone application. The funds will go to pay the Apple’s iPhone application fee. He was fully funded in a few days.

What can people do to make their idea stand out overall?
Video! It’s not required to fund a project, but we strongly encouraged it. Doesn’t need to be Kubrick, some of the best video are just people talking about their projects.  Their passion comes across, we can connect.

Along those same lines, offering benefits or rewards that have charm or value is a huge boost.  If you just put your hand out, it’s not that interesting.  Everyone can offer something in return.

One great example is a project by Earl Scioneaux, a musician from New Orleans, who is offering prospective backers some home-cooked gumbo and music theory lessons. His rewards really connect us to his project and make us feel like patrons.

What are some of the projects currently being funded?
They cover all the bases: group of New Yorkers self-publishing a book where everyone gets a page, a photographer exploring Iceland, a writer funding travel for a regional cookbook, a NYTimes crossword puzzle creator funding the release of Brooklyn-themed puzzles.

The day after we launched, two projects were already completely funded. That really blew us away. Five projects have been funded in the first week.  Five more are quite close.  The smallest funded was $35, and another is already close to it’s $3,000 goal. Several new projects are attempting to raise $10,000. I think projects will mostly be started by: people with particular ideas that have been burning in their hearts for awhile; those people that have ideas falling out of their heads; and people in creative industries that no longer want to wait to be tapped on the head. Then the second group are the audiences and networks of those folks. We think, eventually, that’s almost everyone.

KickStartr was a back of a napkin idea, and everyone has those. What if you could easily aggregate enthusiasm with resources? What project would you like to kickstart?

Juliette Powell is an entrepreneur, media consultant and author of 33 Million People in the Room (Financial Times Press, 2009), a book about social networking for business. Powell is co-founder of the Gathering Think Tank Inc., an innovation forum at the intersection of media, business, advertising and technology. You can connect with her on Twitter and facebook.

While my last post was about media literacy, this one is more focused on digital literacy and how it affects your career. Many of us are aware there exists a digital divide: some people have access to digital technology while others don’t, particularly in extremely poor rural areas and in developing countries. What we rarely hear about is the digital divide happening right here, in our homes, neighborhoods and in our companies.

Digital literacy is the difference between knowing how to consume digital media (like searching for information on the internet) and knowing how to communicate, produce and distribute a message using digital media (like starting a blog or producing and uploading a useful video to youtube). While the divide between those who are digitally literate and those who aren’t is generally thought of as a demographic issue, I tend to think of it as a psychographic barrier as well. In other words, the ability to use digital technology isn’t determined solely on where and when you were born, it is also determined by a person’s affinity to technology in general and to digital media in particular.

For those of you who want to tap into the current zeitgeist around the digital literacy required these days to build a career using social networking, here’s an interview with personal branding coach to the millennial generation, Dan Schawbel, who shares insights and tips from his new best-selling book: Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success. (Kaplan Publishing, April 2009).

While 33 million People in the Room details how entrepreneurs and companies can build social and cultural capital using social networking, Me 2.0 takes a different tact to communicate a similar message, what is the main hypothesis behind your book?

The main hypothesis behind Me 2.0 is that everyone needs to “command their career.”  Tom Peters, the inventor of personal branding, always stated that we have to be the chief marketer for the brand called us.  He was all about Me Inc. and how we had to think of ourselves as companies and use the same strategies to stand out.

Being the commander of your career means that you’re accountable for your successes and failures.  You have to take ownership and full responsibility for your career.

Although, you might seek advice from teachers and managers, you know who you are, what you’re capable of and have to make the decisions.  You need to be in the drivers seat and that’s the only way you’re going to succeed.  The four steps I’ve outlined in Me 2.0 (discover, create, communicate, maintain) are aligned to this main idea.

What are some of the new ideas and tips that emerge from your book that people can apply immediately?

• Reserve your name on the leading social networks, while purchasing your domain name and being an active contributor to your own blog.
• Get endorsements as much as you can from your managers, teachers, etc.
• Always think about how you can use what you’ve accomplished in the past to get your next opportunity in the future.
• Understand that the number of Twitter followers, Facebook friends and LinkedIn contacts is a marketing list that you can tap at anytime.  They are internet assets!
• Have a clear branding strategy before you engage online and offline.
• Focus on relationships instead of making money.  The personal equity will get you further than paper currency.

What companies/ individuals are best representing the strategy and tactics described in ‘Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success’?
When it comes to personal branding, Donald Trump, Oprah, and Madonna are three of the top ones that people have heard of.  Celebrity internet brands examples are Kevin Rose, Pete Cashmore, Rohit Bhargava and Jeremiah Owyang.   Companies that have strong brands through social media are Zappos, Comcast, EMC (I work there), and Ford.

*What specific tips do you have to effectively leverage each of the social tools: video on the net, blog, twitter, facebook, other?

• Blogs are more important than all the social networks combined because they are hubs of information  and are something you can control.
• Decide weather you’re better at doing video or writing.  Invest more of your energy in the one you do the best and promote that over time.
• Don’t be afraid of using these tools.  Instead, figure out which ones work the best for you.
• Learn about your audience before updating your status messages on social networks.  You don’t want to send the wrong signals to employers or friends.

‘Me 2.0′ is directed at gen Y, yet more and more evidence supports the idea that the ability to use social tools effectively to build career success isn’t directly correlated to demographics but rather with psychographics (head space) as well as affinity and access to technology. With that in mind, what can the ‘every person’ learn by picking up your book?
Every person can learn a little bit more about themselves from reading this book.  It’s also a source of inspiration and contains a proven set of tools that will work for anyone.  You don’t just learn about what’s available, you get to put it into practice.  A lot of research went into writing Me 2.0 and I think everyone will be challenged and see the potential of social media for personal brand building.

Dan’s book is in stores now and we’d love to get your comments on it, as well as any more tips you might have for building your personal brand using social networking. Time to share with the rest of the class..

Juliette

It is mind boggling to think about how many millions of people in the world, let alone in America, still consider whatever is said in the news to be the ‘truth’. Whose ‘truth’? While a healthy skepticism remains about digital news sources, traditional broadcast is still, in many cases, still getting a free pass.

Last week’s post Colbert Shrugged: Ayn Rand Institute Responds to ‘Rand Illusion’ prompted such a strong reaction from fans of both Rand and Colbert that 136 comments later, truths of all shapes emerged from the heated discussion. One topic that came up time and again was the importance of media literacy.

Part 2 of my interview with Onkar Ghate, senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute looks at the way Ayn Rand’s classic 1957 work ‘Atlas Shrugged’ has been mediatized in recent months to communicate political messages.

How have the political left and right used Rand’s characters, stories and philosophy in the media of late to reinforce their positions within a larger audience?

I don’t think liberals or democrats are making use of Rand; rather, they are attacking her and Atlas Shrugged. (I suspect that Stephen Colbert is a liberal.)

Conservatives are making use of Atlas Shrugged, but only in a limited political sense. They rarely mention the fact that Atlas Shrugged is about a moral revolution and not a political one. One major reason they fail to mention this aspect of Atlas Shrugged is that the morality of rational self-interest stands opposed to religious ethics, which demands that an individual subordinate himself to something that is supposedly higher than himself. Explicitly or implicitly, most conservatives support a religious approach to morality. And of course religious ethics is the source of the slogan that we are our brother’s keeper.

On Rand’s view, therefore, conservatives are not actually opponents of socialism but its enablers, because they, like the liberals, advocate the opposite of a morality of rational self-interest: they advocate selflessness and altruism.

How much of what we’re seeing in the media’s recent references to Atlas Shrugged is actually reflective of Rand’s philosophy of Selfishness?

It is true that Atlas Shrugged depicts an America in which the government, through various “emergency” measures, seizes control of the economy. But what most commentators miss is that politics is not the focus of Atlas Shrugged. Its focus is on morality and philosophy. The story of Atlas Shrugged is about productive individuals learning fully to value their own lives and happiness, and coming to understand that this requires uncompromising devotion to their own minds and to what is in fact morally right. They must learn that to fully live their own lives and achieve happiness, they need a new morality of rational self-interest.

As one aspect of this issue, Atlas Shrugged in effect argues that only such a morality can in fact explain, justify and defend why an individual has the moral right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Contrary to the Declaration of Independence, Rand does not regard these rights as self-evident.

Notice that the rights Jefferson lists all sanction self-interest: my moral right to my life, my moral right to my freedom to think and act, my moral right to pursue my happiness. If selfishness is evil, then these rights are wrong, morally wrong.

And so in a society that regards the pursuit of self-interest as evil, like the society depicted in Atlas Shrugged and like today’s society, these rights will be tossed aside as wrong. If we are our brother’s keeper, as Obama declares (echoing the conventional wisdom)–if your moral duty is to serve your neighbor and anyone else who is in need, then you don’t have the moral right to pursue your own life and happiness.

As in the case of any controversial figure, there is no substitute for going to the source. To discover what Rand maintained, read her works. To understand the meaning and importance of Atlas Shrugged, pick up the novel.

Ayn Rand’s work was introduced to this author when I began my first job in journalism as an eager teen. Over a decade later, Rand’s books remain constant reminders of the powerful influence media has in shaping perceptions of who we are as individuals and as a society.

In the last week, I must have received several hundred messages via facebook and twitter suggesting I look at The Colbert Report’s ‘The Word’ segment called ‘Rand Illusion’. And so I did, again and again, torn between a giggle and a sigh.

Call me old school but my first reaction to all of these Atlas Shrugged references in the media of late was to wonder if these pundits have actually read and understood the book. I suspect they have, but probably figure that, of the millions who have read it, few would actually bother to argue in a public forum. Having personally read the book several times- four to be exact - this last couple weeks have shown me that I do care enough to help set the record straight on Rand’s story and philosophy.

Why? Because even though I’ve read Rand’s books multiple times, given the myriad of news articles and television references to Atlas Shrugged lately, I genuinely began to wonder if perhaps I was the one who had completely misinterpreted her work. Since Rand herself can no longer address the way her work is being interpreted, I found someone who could.

Interview with Onkar Ghate, senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute (part 1)

by Juliette Powell

What do you think of last week’s Colbert Report and his ‘Rand Illusion’ segment where Colbert asserts that Atlas Shrugged is a ‘Conservative Bible’ and ‘is being used by Conservatives to spur a movement . . .  a calculated work slowdown? What do you think Colbert wanted to accomplish and what did he accomplish?
Stephen Colbert’s television show of course parodies (allegedly) right-wing television hosts like Bill O’Reilly. In the process it ridicules Republicans, conservatives, O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, and so on.

The segment on Atlas Shrugged was an attempt to ridicule Rand’s novel. I found the segment distasteful. Many people of course disagree with the ideas contained in Atlas Shrugged. Rand knew that the novel challenged moral ideas entrenched in Western thought for over 2000 years.

To disagree with the ideas and theme of the novel is different from what the Colbert segment did. It treated the novel as though it were not a significant work of literature—the segment suggested that if you’ve read to the end of the book “the world does owe you.”

This is ludicrous. In purely literary terms, Atlas Shrugged is a great novel. The segment then went on to misrepresent the content of the story. For instance, to claim that Atlas Shrugged “can be used to justify anything” is absurd. Perhaps more than any other novel, Atlas Shrugged presents a firm and detailed view of what is morally right and morally wrong. Rand said (accurately) that the theme of the novel is “the role of the mind in man’s existence—and, as corollary, the demonstration of a new moral philosophy: the morality of rational self-interest.” One may of course disagree with the moral philosophy contained in the novel, but to suggest that the book is so vague as to be capable of justifying anything is disingenuous.
Or to take another example, the Colbert segment said that the hero of Atlas Shrugged, John Galt, tells the poor of America: “You have nothing to offer us. We do not need you.” But if you read the actual novel, you will discover that Galt has called on strike the men of the mind (rich and poor alike) and that these words of his are in fact addressed not to the poor. They are addressed to those who advocate or accept a philosophy that damns the individual’s happiness, mind and life. Here is the passage from the novel, in context (John Galt is speaking on the radio):
“Do not cry that it is our duty to serve you. We do not recognize such duty. Do not cry that you need us. We do not consider need a claim. Do not cry that you own us. You don’t. Do not beg us to return. We are on strike, we, the men of the mind.
“We are on strike against self-immolation. We are on strike against the creed of unearned rewards and unrewarded duties. We are on strike against the dogma that the pursuit of one’s happiness is evil. We are on strike against the doctrine that life is guilt.
“There is a difference between our strike and all those you’ve practiced for centuries: our strike consists, not of making demands, but of granting them. We are evil, according to your morality. We have chosen not to harm you any longer. We are useless, according to your economics. We have chosen not to exploit you any longer. We are dangerous and to be shackled, according to your politics. We have chosen not to endanger you, nor to wear the shackles any longer. We are only an illusion, according to your philosophy. We have chosen not to blind you any longer and have left you free to face reality—the reality you wanted, the world as you see it now, a world without mind.
“We have granted you everything you demanded of us, we who had always been the givers, but have only now understood it. We have no demands to present to you, no terms to bargain about, no compromise to reach. You have nothing to offer us. We do not need you.” (Atlas Shrugged, Part III, Chapter VII)
So what did Colbert want to accomplish? As I said, he wanted to ridicule Atlas Shrugged. Did he succeed? No, because the segment simply ignored to novel’s literary virtues and misrepresented its content.

Is Colbert, and the media in general, taking a cheap shot, going for the easy laugh using Rand’s philosophy of selfishness or are they using humor and irony to open a much needed public debate?

The Colbert segment was a cheap shot, so, no, I don’t think he was trying to open a debate. If anything, by attacking a straw man, he was trying to close debate.

But I don’t think the media in general has been taking cheap shots at Rand or Atlas Shrugged during the present financial crisis. There have been many more accurate stories, such as the one in The Economist (which the Colbert segment mentioned), a news story which reported the dramatic increase in the sales of Atlas Shrugged and suggested a connection between this fact and the financial crisis.

What we are witnessing I think is the fact that precisely because Atlas Shrugged is a radical book—it presents a new view of morality, a morality of rational self-interest—it creates passionate admirers and passionate detractors. And as has been the case since the novel’s publication in 1957..

… detractors almost always misrepresent the book’s ideas because they are unable or unwilling to mount an argument against what Rand actually says. The Colbert segment was a small example of this.

Ayn Rand fans, let’s hear from you. What do you think of the Ayn Rand Institute’s response to Colbert’s ‘Rand Illusion’ segment so far? I’ll try to connect with the folks at Colbert for their comments and hope to have that, along with Part 2 of my interview with Onkar Ghate, senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute shortly. Keep checking in here for Part 2 in the next few hours and days where we discuss the political implications of the mediatization of Atlas Shrugged.

~> j*

I admit it. Some of my best insights have been inspired by the most random encounters. Take my meeting with entrepreneur Richard Estevez, for example. Here’s a guy introduced to me at RDV, an exclusive lounge in the heart of NY’s meatpacking district. Not exactly the type of place one expects to find intellectual intercourse. Well, to his credit, Richard didn’t try to pick me up. Instead, he opted for a far more captivating and formidable approach. He let me in on his diabolical plan to raise one million dollars, and in this economic climate no less! Strangely, his plan seemed oh so familiar. Here was a guy consciously leveraging his social and cultural capital to generate financial capital (money), a premise I describe in my newly published book ’33 Million People in The Room’.

So, if you want to know how my hypothesis works, download free excerpts of my book. And if you want to know how it all works in the real (small) world, here’s a Q&A with Richard Estevez, serial entrepreneur and networker extraordinaire.

What is your diabolical plan?

(With Pinky in Mouth – Like Dr. Evil).  One Milllll-ion Dollars.  Yes our goal is to raise $1,000,000 in funding for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in just one night at the “Chocolat au Vin” event in NY on May 28th. The tickets range from $750 to $5,000.  However, there is an ‘friends and family’ promotion at $500 per ticket or $1,000 for both, if purchased before April 1.

I like the idea an April’s Fools rebate yet given the economic climate, how realistic is your goal?
People are not going on vacation and they are not going out as much yet they still need to have fun and enjoy life.  Why not give people the chance to enjoy a wonderful evening of chocolate, music and dancing all for a great cause and a tax deduction to boot?

You’ve done a lot of favors for a lot of people through the years. Is it payback time?
As the Godfather once said, “Someday, and that day may never come, I’ll call upon you to do a service for me.” Well that day has come and starting next week we are going to start to reach out to our committee and have them reach out to a vast social network.  We intend to have our 33 million people quickly assembled in a virtual room J.

What is your social networking strategy?
My amazing co-chair, Molly Birkenes showed me the power of social networking. In one short week, Molly reached out to hundreds of contacts - from Russell Simons to Cuba Gooding to Emmy Award winners and SNL alumni - all using the power of social networking. Before I knew it, we had an all-star committee of 60 people (and growing) of some of the world’s most socially connected individuals who are reaching out to their extended networks on our behalf.

Why would anyone put their relationships on the line to raise funds these days?
People want to be inspired, especially in these economic times. I think our economy will be reactivated through community programs around a central purpose like making this world a better place. When you give back to your community, your reward is ultimately much more fulfilling.

“Chocolat au Vin” on May 28th in NY at the gorgeous ‘Capital’ event space and sponsored by Napa Valley Vintners, Godiva, Artisanal and Ferrari.  The event is to raise funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. http://www.stjude.org/wineandchocoalte to find out more, and tell them Richard Estevez sent you!

So, are you in a position to spend $500 per ticket on a charity event these days? If you had the kind of network Richard does, what would you do with the power to leverage it?

~ > j*

Taking cues straight from the President, this headline caught my eye: “Obama To Appoint Panel For Auto Recovery“. The story, in which writer Steven R. Hurst’s reports that the Obama administration “is establishing a presidential task force to direct the restructuring of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC” is a great reminder of a basic life lesson:

You don’t have to be the leader of the free world to appoint an effective task force to reinvent yourself.

With record job losses and a flailing economy, how can a mere mortal survive these fickle tempests and reinvent himself? Chances are, if the car companies can’t go it alone, you probably can’t either, and you don’t have to. Just follow these easy steps:

33 Million People book party and SMW Executive Committee Members: Stella Deville, Toby Daniels & yours truly

1. Convene Your Own Advisory Board

“We are all stupid” wrote Mark Twain, “just on different subjects.” So with that little nugget of wisdom to get you started, begin by asking yourself who the top 10 influencers in your life are and list them. Next reach out to each one individually in their medium of choice. Using easy networking tools like facebook, twitter, linkedin etc. can save time and energy as you rally your troops. Whatever the means used, ask each person on your list to be on your personal advisory board then schedule a meeting.

Take notes because the network knows what you don’t know.

Social Media Week NY (SMW) is a great example of this process in action. The idea, born of a group of friends in the digital media space went from concept to implementation in just 3 weeks, under the leadership of one man, Toby Daniels. Daniels, 32, had just left a high profile job at MintDigital, an online digital platform and was looking to reinvent himself as a digital strategist.

Reinventing your career path at a time when most are fighting to save theirs might seem incredibly naive but where others remain paralyzed by the fear of change and uncertainty, Daniels began to connect the dots of his life and sow the seeds of opportunity. His first step was to convene an executive committee which consisted of academics like Jeremy Kagan- Strategy Consultant and Professor, Internet Marketing, Columbia Business School, as well as a bevy of forward thinking digital entrepreneurs like NUE: Agency’s Jesse Kirshbaum, Mashable’s Adam Hirsch and Tumblr’s David Karp. (In full disclosure, Daniels even asked me to join his executive committee to celebrate the community behind “33 Million People in the Room“, a book about leveraging social media to build social and cultural capital.)

2. Create a Vision and a Strategy Together

Remember that your preliminary advisory board meeting will set the tone for all other proceedings and needs to be more than just a meet and greet. It is the moment when you state your case about what you hope to accomplish and how each invited person fits into your vision. Share your goal and ask your advisory board to help you come up with a strategy complete with actionable items and time lines. Follow up online with a synopsis of your plan. Solicit invaluable feedback and implement tactical suggestions. If you don’t know how, ask. That is what your personal advisory board is there for.

Getting back to the Social Media Week example, Daniels created a mission statement that we could all buy-in to: “SMW aims to create an open and inclusive environment offering a series of free events, including workshops and panel discussions, and a platform for individuals, group and companies to organize their own activities.” Next, he suggested that our events would get far more press as part of a self-organized Social Media Week strategy than if we individually held stand alone events. Finally, he enlisted Tumblr to build the SMW website. With all of the week’s events listed in one place, a unified vision for SMW and how it might benefit the social media community, Daniels’ idea had became far more concrete.

3. Aggregate Your Networks and Spread The Word

People are generally willing to be of assistance when they have a clear idea of what might be required of them to do so. Delegate one specific task for each person in the group to deliver by a defined date, based on their individual resources. As we saw with the SMW example, you can’t know everything so get the most impact in terms of your time, influence and dollars by joining networks. These can be small networks of a few friends working together, or can even be the basis for new startups.

What started with Daniels’ idea, an Executive Committee and a clearly communicated vision of what could be accomplished if we pooled our resources, grew within a matter of weeks into dozens of original and free community events supported by partnerships with NY based companies like Razorfish, Fleishman Hillard, Deep Focus, For Your Imagination and Brooklyn based Drop.io. These in turn attracted higher profile alliances with media outlets such as the New York Times and Wired Magazine hosting Social Media Week events in their offices.

Adapt or Fail

In building his own personal brand through the birth of Social Media Week NY, Daniels understood a fundamental truth in life as in business: In order to survive within a social context, we must adapt or fail.

Daniel’s story could easily have been summarized as follows: He came, he lost and if novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald is to be believed, the story ends there. “There are no second acts in American lives.” In Fitzgerald’s era, if something went wrong in a person’s chosen career, there was no second chance to start it over again. These days, second acts can and do happen. After all, just ask Britney Spears, the US auto industry and Toby Daniels. (Special thanks to Marie-Chantale Turgeon for the ‘Reinvent Yourself Often” image.)

(excerpt from my new book 33 Million People in the Room, Financial Times Press)

A recently published article in the Harvard Business Review discusses the social and emotional intelligence wielded by effective leaders. Unsurprisingly, they discovered that the best leaders are the ones who exhibit not only influence and inspiration, but also empathy, attunement, and a genuine desire to help develop others. In conjunction with the Hay Group, the article presented a battery of questions aimed at assessing, “Are You a Socially Intelligent Leader?”

Many of the questions listed proved to be a far cry from typical leadership surveys:

-    Are you sensitive to others’ needs?
-    Are you attuned to others’ moods?
-    Do you provide feedback that people find helpful for their professional    development?
-    Do you understand social networks and know their unspoken norms?

While traditional understanding of leadership structures stressed the need for power and stern guidance, new measures of leadership are increasingly reliant on empathy and understanding. The unspoken message is clear: be real and be compassionate. To be a truly effective leader, you need to have a team that supports you and is willing to work hard not only on your behalf, but on their own as well.

The same principles apply online. From Obama to microcelebrities like Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales or WineLibrarytv founder, Gary Vaynerchuk, each are the equivalent of socially intelligent organizational leaders. They are tuned in to their participatory audience and keep the channels of feedback wide open, demonstrating their compassion and sincerity. Their community trusts them and understands that even if they do make mistakes, they will own up to them through their honest feedback and reactions. That trust translates to loyalty, and it is that loyalty that builds a dedicated community.

Calling all Leaders:

Speaking of community, with all of the talk around the economic stimulus package, what are your thoughts on your top 5 tips for bailing yourself out of tough times, before you ever have to.

With President-elect Obama’s inauguration just a few days away, more and more young American’s like my friend Lindsey (who didn’t get involved in the campaign during the election), are responding to Obama’s social media enabled call to action and inspiring their friends to do the same. Yet millions of us are still left asking: “What’s next after January 20th?” Lindsey’s answer came in the form of an emailed invitation to take her seat at the table; it was sent by change.gov ‘in an effort to bring our ideas and voices directly to the President’. 

And just like that, Lindsey began to organize ‘idea forums’ and link up with others who are doing the same because, as she puts it:

“If they’re crazy enough to give me the tools for change, I’m crazy enough to run with them! We begins with me.”

 

 

If you are wondering what’s next and have ideas to contribute for the Obama administration, give it a try here, and let us know what happens.. And if you aren’t interested in politics but want to better understand how Obama used social networking platforms in his campaign and how you can use them to give your own ideas some momentum, check out my site at juliettepowell.com for some free downloads to get you started.

Yes you can!

~> j*