Again a small move, yet very impressive - ok, I might be getting too excited about those little case studies of mine, but trust me - there are not too many out there! It looks like after launching a new product on their Google Plus page now Cadbury UK are recruiting their new brand ambassadors via the same branded page too. 

You can find part of the announcement here:

Missed our announcement over the weekend? It's not too late to put yourself forward to be in our Tasters Circle today... Let us know why you should be in and we might just add you (you'll have to have added us to your Circles first) - if you think others might want in too feel free to share the post/love!

We're recruiting members to our brand new 'Tasters' Inner Circle - you'll be first to hear some of our latest news & get a chance to feedback on our chocolates and our page... you might even get a chance to hangout with us and try something completely new one day!

Why do I like it? First of all it's a nice move to grow the followership of your page organically. People need to add the page to their circles to be included in this engagement. Secondly the brand proves open to on-line ambassadors and still nicely remains in a little bit of control who the chosen voices will be. There is also mentioning (but not commitment!) of a hangout. And finally why not? Why not to engage with those who are already interested in the brand and their product and make them part of the product production process? Nice gesture and so far really well executed. 

That is a pretty transparent and direct way of engaging via Twitter to raise funds! I am really impressed. His tweets are genuine, he sends updates about his trainings but also retweets other fundraisers and talks to them too - which makes his account sound very natural and serious in its mission. Once I started looking around Stephen's other websites I have also stumbled across a blog and few fundraising sites proving that his bio is serious! Nice one! 

So how does it work? Well, first you will need to install the Wisestamp in your browser - trust me, it's worth it. Then once you start creating your email signature check out the apps for "causes" tab. 

Above you can see the editor, below app area itself:

Now, once you edit the app itself your email signature with host the banner of your favourite cause with social links, donaiton button, but also link to the wisestamp cause itself to allow your email contacts do the very same thing - support their cause in email signature with just few clicks. Here is how my signature looks like now:

Why am I so excited? Well, it's just a brillinat idea for nonprofit fundraising, for raising awareness around your cause and for positioning yourself as a cause-friendly individual. Perfect solution for all so again - WHY NOT?!;) 

 We are almost there - slowly starting to celebrate Social Media Week globally. There will be quite a few very interesting events in London next week and Barcamp Nonprofits is joining in too. On Friday at 4PM we will be hosting small panel discussion with Euan Semple, David Dixon, Rachel Beer and myself. We will each spend about 10 minutes presenting on social media adoption in nonprofit sector looking at collaboration in particular. 

Social Media is changing the way nonprofits operate. On-line collaboration provides fascinating alternative opportunities for fundraising, campaigning and volunteering but also recruitment, productivity, promotion and many other areas of nonprofit operations.
This panel session is designed to discuss current trends in social media adoption within nonprofit sector with special focus on on-line collaboration with donors, supporters, volunteers but also within the organisation itself.

This panel is open to all our barcamp attendees but we will have additional 20 attendees joining us for this mini-event just at 4PM. We will stream it live (soon to be announced here) and will engage with the audience so please bring your questions and points too! 

To find out more about our event go to our Social Media Week page, to learn more about global celebrations refer to the central SMW site or download the event app. To follow word of mouth from our panel please watch out for #SMWbarcampnfp tag or check out this dedicated microsite here. 

Isn't it great?! I feel the mixture of excitement, panic (are we ready?) and gratefulness for all the support I have received from my fellow co-organisers, sponsors and Voice team! Barcamp Nonprofits is in just one week and it looks like we are ready to provide our 100 attendees with space and tools to collaborate, network and brainstorm.

I would like to say big, big thank you to Euan Semple and David Dixon for support, Steve Bridger and Howard Lake for ideas and all the support as well. Big hug goes to Amy, Anna, Laila, Lesley, Nick and Krzysztof for helping me in ogranising of this event. I will also mention sponsors quite a few times on the way!;) 

So, what do you need to know before next Friday? Here it is: 

Plans for the day: 

We will be meeting with the organisers really early in the morning to finalise the goodie bags, plan for the day and to set up the venue. At 9.30 we will open the registration.

Around 10AM we will open the event. We will explain how the day looks like and start planning the sessions. You will be offered small post-it's and pens to write down your topics, ideas for session and asked to place them on the schedule. We will place the schedule in a central location so you can refer to it during the day or make changes and additions if you wish to do so. 

At 10.30 we have a small G+ hangout with our friends from all around the world. Of course this is only initial plan, we will see how the day goes. It all depends on our attendees of course. For lunch we will be going out to come back for afternoon sessions, virtual chat on on-line privacy at 3ish and Social Media Week panel at 4PM. We are hoping to wrap it all up by 5.30PM and finish the day with a drink in one of the local pubs. 

How to prepare for the event? 

It really depends on what you want to get out of it yourself:

1. Bring your current projects and interests, start a discussion about those, run a session to share experiences with other barcampers.

2. Blog, tweet, take photos and record videos - the more you help us document the event, the better chance we have to follow this barcamp up with an even larger one next year! (yes, we are already planning the next one;)) 

3. Say thank you to our sponsors. For us, organisers, the event itself is going to be a great reward, but there were quite a few people on the way who trusted us entirely and we would love you to join us in mentioning them at least once on-line to say thanks. 

4. Be open to contribute to all aspects of the event - we might ask you to help us with snack or making coffee, we might need help with cleaning up, we might need you to moderate a session if one group of people is stuck with their discussion. You do not need to prepare for this, just come with an open mind and willingness to take active part in our event. 

Sounds simple but trust me - if you are used to conferences and have never been to a barcamp before it will be a new experience. I have talked to few attendees already and it looks like the idea of not having to prepare and move away from listening to active participation might be a new thing. If it is, let us know and we will guide you through the process. 

The main idea is trust and responsibility for your own attendance - Barcamp Nonprofits is yours and you will have to figure out on the day how to make the most of it. 

Practical Information:

1. We will only have wifi for our event bloggers due to the local network restrictions so please bring your own wifi, mifi, 3G on your mobile etc. Venue is fairly central and we have tested few major 3G providers - you should be ok to tweet and blog from your mobile devices and mifi connections. If for any reason you do not want to be featured in photos and other online materials you will need to tell us at the registration. 

2. Food - we are providing you with coffee, tea and snacks. We do not have a sponsor for lunch this time so the organisers will suggest few local venues and lunch time sessions where you can join them, have a chat and grab some food yourself. This is our first event in London and we hope that is we have enough word of mouth and recommendations we will be able to find a sponsor for lunch for you during our next event. We have heard the gossip that Prince's Charities are preparing a cake bake-off for us, so who knows maybe we will have an excuse to have sweets for lunch!

3. Dress code is casual, we want you to relax and feel comfortable. Barcamps were originally coding events running for few days, not conferences requiring a suit;) 

4. Representing your organisation - I have posted about it already, but I would like to remind all attendees (and I will do so on the day too) not to use this event as purely opportunity to drive more business or recruit free resources to your projects. Unlike conferences, social innovation camps or hacking events dedicated to specific solutions barcamp is a series of collaborative sessions around particular problems and topics, not a place for a pitch. If you want to promote your company or organisation you have the option to contribute to our goodie bags (100 of them;)). I am going to be very careful about this because I want to ensure good atmosphere at the event, so please respect that. This point will affect the way we run future events too. 

5. Suggesting your ideas - we are open to all suggestions. Do you want to run a workshop or a networking activity? One of our co-organisers had a great idea to engage attendees in games and team building exercises - which might be good for some of you, others might want to skip it. It's fine! Maybe you have done something similar in your organisation and would like to share it with us? Bring those ideas with you! 

6. Connect - we have created a Facebook Group , Twitter list, LinkedIn event and Layrd event for you. Connect with others through those spaces and through the event hashtag #barcampnfp. 

7 days to go! I cannot wait to see you all there!:)  Have a great weekend! 

Actually, it's one of the first tools putting me in the very uneasy situation of having to be on the service for work reasons but not really wanting to use it. Recently I was asked by Howard Lake to explain why I am so against Klout so I will try to explain it in this post. 

First of all let me point out that Klout's popularity seems to be growing in various areas of the world (I do not have starts I just judge it from the sentiment of on-line conversations around it that I can see) and we are yet to see how it's going to develop here, in the UK and in other European countries. I am expressing my personal opinion here and I hope this will become obvious by the time I finish this post.

Klout story started back in 2009 and I think it's worth re-reading this post written by Brian Solis about it's early days and Early ways of measuring the Twitter influence. The idea of measuring Twitter influence was really appealing to many social media marketers, SEO specialist and Twitter users in general and it looked like the Klout algorithm really needed explaining. Most of us created Klout accounts to try it out and probably just left it there, maybe checked out few lists or assigned each other topics. Increasingly Klout score started being used in measurement of Twitter user's influence or in research of our own web shadow (we would occasionally check our own Klout score to see if we are doing this Twitter thing right...according to Klout, of course).

In October 2011 Klout decided to change the way they calculate their scores which resulted in a bit of a backlash in form of @OccupyKlout movement. Many of our UK based bloggers noticed it but really - I am not sure if we were really so bothered about it. In a way I think at that point we have realised that it is just a number given to a very subjective, almost abstract concept. There is a good analysis of this change in terms of its effect on a data sample over here. October was a big month for Klout - we were suddenly able to add other social networks to our Klout profile and increase our influence - so later if you look at tips on how to achieve higher Klout score you will see this as one of major points. 

Also in October 2011 Klout suffered hugely on their own on-line reputation after few rather influential users realised that once their Facebook and other social networks are added Klout automatically creates Klout profiles for all added contacts - which also included kids under 13! That was the point (if you check this article's updates you will see the dates of exact changes) when Klout finally allowed their users to delete their accounts. 

Increasingly Klout has moved from mainly on-line reputation tool to a network rewarding its users with perks - actual discounts and promotional offers. Today some of my Twitter contacts use Klout simply because of that very reason. 

So where are we with Klout today? Klout's blog is full of tips and lists of top users in various industries or around particular events. It also features industry specialists who tend to like the service. We see a huge trend in on-line users to boost their Klout numbers and receive tips on how to do so. We also read demystifying articles like this one. 

I have asked my friends to tell me what they think but honestly - not too many of them responded:

So what do I think? I do not like Klout as a company - there are companies out there doing this "entire social thing" much better than Klout does. I do not like their branding - no, I am sorry:

I disagree - not everyone has or should have a Klout score. And I do not like what I have seen from Klout so far. Occasionally I might see the value in some of the Twitter users collections, lists - but only if they are used as a start of a much more insightful research into the Twittersphere. I am not convinced that incentivizing users to take part in the service by rewarding their activities (instead of providing valuable experience) is a good thing.

But the main reason for me disliking the service is the very fact that it is popular and introduces the idea of measurable influence, lists of Twitter elite etc. I am sorry - and I am saying it as a blogger AND a social media marketer - but:

1. Amount of social interactions and connected social media channels does not equal actual influence,

2. Stats never ever represent the value of actual service user in terms of personal competence, trust and influence,  

3. Size of our networks does not equal influence, 

4. And finally - conversations are much more complex and their amount does not mean we are actually influencing others opinions. 

Someone else said it better than I do:

I also think that brands, organisations and individuals striving to create lists of "top users" of any service on-line might potentially harm otherwise perfectly well functioning, self-regulating networks. But that is probably a topic for another post. 

I am really impressed with this project! It popped up in my Facebook stream today as a shared visual, this one here:

Image by "The Mayor"

Later, as it happens with today's Facebook stream, it came back again! So even though I planned to write about something else I decided to look into it. If you go to the Facebook fan page you will see that it is managed really well! I was intrigued to see how directly people are encouraged to share the visuals on...Pinterest! Brilliant!

This person/people know that they are engaging with audiences and content that is percent for this recently really popular sharing site (or shall we call it social network already?). The main page itself is focused on simplicity of visual messages and really social approach. It TELLS you what to do with the content and provides you with all the needed tools - blog badges, Facebook sharing ideas, ideas to use the visuals off-line. 

I was convinced that there must be a charity behind the entire website and campaign, however I was yet to discover that the project was initiated by one person! Here is the background information:

It started with a series of posters and a small website for my Masters of Fine Art project. I showed my work to a leading breast cancer oncologist and she loved it. I thought perhaps I was on to something after all and I should pursue it more. But teaching at university and being a creative director took over and Worldwide Breast Cancer (Then known as “Lemonland.org”) was pushed into the background for a couple years.

Then I did something drastic. I left my job and moved to England to work on Worldwide Breast Cancer full-time as a doctoral design student. For five years I researched how to make breast cancer education better, how to use images to their full potential, how to connect people online and improve information exchange, and how the message can become global to reach everyone regardless of language or education and now I’m a “Doctor of Communication Design.” But this is just the start.

It’s my goal to someday see that Worldwide Breast Cancer becomes something that helps people through the whole journey, whether it be screening or treatment, or how to lend support to those effected.

Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant! I cannot see how this idea would not spread and honestly - it's one to learn from for all the NGO's out there. Watch it as it might turn into something really powerful. In the meantime it's a great study of how extremely complicated and crucial messages can be presented in easily digestible way and how we can share it if we have the tools and suggestions just in front of our eyes. 

Did I say it's brilliant?;) 

Yet, I am genuinely upset about the current narrative surrounding Africa and fundraising activities run in African region. The notion of guilt in all major charity campaigns in the UK in support of African counties does not work for me - and as this recent study shows that I am not the only one. When it comes to my personal choices in supporting charities I based them on a complex set of variables (personal experiences, current social media competence and skills of charity's team, transparency and engagement in actual work in the field, understanding of how my money actually helps people at the end of this really complicated process). I have to honestly admit that most of the time I donate to causes where stories are told from many angles, in multiple directions and at the end of the day are relevant to me. Just as much as I have become more aware consumer of commercial brands I expect charities and fundraisers to tell me - why should I donate to the work THEY, and not someone else does in the region.

My son, every time I mention Africa, states: "Yes, place where all children are poor and have no food". What kind of definition of a continent is that? I am doing my best to educate him on the origins of coffee, music I love to listen to, thousand of years of history of Egypt and way people used an ordinary plant to make paper...I am trying to talk about amazing animals and nature of African countries...I sometimes even mention Ushahidi when talking about iPad apps (something that he can relate too;)). Now this is what I can do. I can raise him in touch with my fellow GVers from the region too - I can teach him to think outside of the box. 

But is this going to make me feel better? I am not sure. I have recently attended a great blogger event run by ActionAid UK in London dedicated to child sponsorship. I had the opportunity to listen to their celebrity chatting about the need for support and the poor state of many African countries and just after that to a British couple who had a chance to visit the child they sponsor. It was not so much the celebrity appeal that worked for me - I was actually a little bit put of by the notion of sadness, guilt and almost expected responsibility (but it is my personal problem with the notion of celebrities). What really grabbed my attention was the visible process of connection between the people who support a child and the supported community. I liked the pictures from the village. I like the stories of bravery of kids walking miles to and from school and a teacher dedicating her time to educate many in a small school. I was taken by the reality on pictures and in personal experiences. I was also impressed by the commitment of charity workers themselves. I needed to look at the process of charitable support through many channels. 

I think Richard is right in mentioning inspiration and need for shift towards genuine, long-term relationships in today's UK fundraising sector. And of course you will see me rambling a lot about the potential of social media to share those messages and build those relationships. But the bottom line is - we need more stories from African region and we need to change the way we talk and think about the region. I like the idea of Sea Africa Differently campaign and I hope it will not be lost in endless, more traditional narratives of UK fundraising sector because it is exactly the charities that have the power to shape the view of Africa in the UK. 

I think we need to look at many other alternative narratives. We need to look at innovation! Here, in the UK, we have used developed in Kenya software Ushahidi to map our Tube strikes. That is just one of many examples of great ideas originated in Africa. Probably the most powerful, almost symbolic now is the story of William Kamkwamba:

Back in 2009 there was a very good, inspiring TED talk, which I urge you to listen to as well:

And finally something closer to my current location, TED talk presented in Oxford, which hopefully supports the main points in this post and will make you realise that we ARE responsible for how we look at reality and fiction and how we live our lives based on those stories:

I am really, really sorry for treating you with the same visual of Sainsbury's customer service letter you have probably seen already all over your Facebook stream, but there is one side of this entire viral that is rather relevant to what I do when working with brands and individuals. But let's start with the story itself. On the 18th of January Parker Lim posted following update on Facebook: 

As you can see it was received with great response both in likes, as well as in shares (stats above are from tonight) despite of the fact that story itself dates back from June 2011. It was pretty difficult to not to notice this new wave of the "giraffe bread" story on Facebook, specially if you are friends with UK's leading social media marketers - you might have seen me complaining about the new Facebook algorithm already. I had to try really hard and ignore this message popping up in so many streams of my friends, once again feeling like I am lacking air. I must admit that I have shared it myself! I have always wondered what this type of bread has to do with tigers, so I used it as my mental note for my son next time he asks;) Tonight however my RSS reader has flagged up an interesting blog post written by Lolly on her personal research around the viral - really worth a read! I see that press picked it up and mummy bloggers start to talk about it too, so we can expect more conversations around it. So we can say that at least UK web is "buzzing". 

Why is it relevant to me? Well, first thing I do when I see a new viral related to a brand is to go to their official social spaces and check what the brand representatives are doing. From what I can see Sainsbury's official Facebook fan page (probably most relevant social channel for this particular viral) is full of reactions from fans but has no official response to the viral whatsoever since quite a long time - if you consider the volume of conversations on their site. If you do scroll down and check updates posted by fans to this page you will find at least 5 mentionings of "tiger bread" visual with very positive feedback towards the brand itself.

But not a single reaction from the page administrators? Why? Do they not think it's relevant to respond to positive feedback? As a Facebook user I feel that it's not polite - I would expect at least a thank you! And some kind of engagement idea to build on this increasingly conversational topic! I have also found one update which is used to potentially initiate negative discussions and really, really should be addressed immediately (in private channels+ followed up by statement on the fan page asap!). 

Despite of increasing amount of on-line reactions to this visual showcasing great PR story for Sainsbury's their on-line representatives do not use it as an opportunity and seem to be unaware of potential brand crisis in the making! I start to think they might not be aware of it! Only if I bother to look around the web a bit more do I spot that there seems to be a reaction on the level of actual stores - at least in my area. I have found two posts mentioning that tiger bread has been renamed to giraffe bread - on a Facebook fan page created back in June 2011 to promote this great customer service reaction and on a forum. There is also a new fan page on Facebook  advocating renaming of the product pretty seriously and even though really young already now picking up press reactions. 

I am sad to see this great opportunity (so far) waisted by social media team of Sainsbury's. With few Twitter accounts and really robust Facebook fan page I would expect them to be more responsive and pro-active. I see that last official update was made on Friday but social media channels do not adhere to working hours! You need to engage - first of all listen, then just shortly after response and start conversing. You need to foresee potential issues - it's a strong viral and if you do not make the most of it now it might actually turn against you! So respond and curate those conversations because one of your great employees has initiated great story and the social web has just brought it back to life in front of our eyes but you guys are not there. We should have learned about the renamed bread from your official Facebook page, from your official update.

I know that adapting social media for large organisations can be a challenge and that we are learning. I am sure many of us will use this particular situation as one of those case studies too. I just hope that in this case the brand will react, evaluate and improve. As soon as possible.