Saving Hawaii’s beaches and open space is a widely shared commitment – not just among those of us who live here but even more so perhaps for the millions of visitors to Hawaii! Everyone is invited, as even those of you who may never visit have likely experienced calm and inspiration from looking a Maui sunset or listening to the rhythm of the waves while watching an episode of Beachwalks.tv.

I am part of the social media team that is helping raise funds for the Hawaiian Islands Land Trust (HILT) on January 28, 2012 and their annual fundraiser. We are putting social media to a test. In the past, this has been a local event that targets local attendees who bid on deluxe local packages. All of that is the same this year, however HILT is adding several social media options. I am blogging here to enlist you, dear reader, in our activities and to create an additional central clearinghouse for all of the social media assets being created!

Online Donation Campaign: HILT has secured a matching donor. If we can raise $5000 in online donations by January 28th, the donor will match us with another $5000. I think we can, but alas, it is going to be up to all of us to get this done. Please donate here now.

Here Are The Main Activities

Live Auction Packages. We KNOW the live auction will be a hit – there is a track record on that! But what about the social web? Can we build the buzz as well as the commitment to make a dent in supporting the Hawaii Island Land Trust? View all auction packages here. They are also listed below for your convenience.

Share-the-Cause Love: No matter what, we appreciate your help in raising awareness of our ʻaina (that means land in Hawaiian). Please blog about it, tweet about it, and if you are here – treat it as your best friend!

Resources – Use As Often as You Like!

• Like HILT on Facebook and share your stories of Hawaii. Recommend them and help build their community.
• Follow the Hawaii Island Land Trust on Twitter @HiLandTrust. They have an emerging account – help them grow their follower base!
• Use our event Hashtag: #BBTB2012 (BuyBackTheBeach 2012) so we can include you in the conversation.
• Make a donation now and then do it again as often as you wish by January 28th. Let’s get “social media” an honorable seat at the “donors” table.
• Buy a ticket or a table and join us at the luau on January 28th.
• Tell your Hawaii and especially Maui friends about these packages and recommend they attend the luau in person.
• Help thank our many sponsors and donors; links below.
• Friend, Like and share HILT photos on Flickr.

Follow and Tweet These Peeps: Hosts and Donors

Follow and Tweet the Social Media Team

Use and Share our Shortlinks

Discover What Our Social Media Team is Blogging About

Lots more to come! Please bookmark this page so you can see all the updates!

Here is an UPDATED list of the Auction Packages & Videos!

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It is the last day of 2011 and I want to add an exclamation point of gratitude on each of my blogs – most of which suffer from neglect from me. It was my friend and Maui blogger Liza Pierce’s idea: let’s all write a blog post for January 1st! So, I’ve set this to post just one minute in to the new year. Happy New Year!

I am starting on this blog, as this is the easy one! (I have at least three more I am aiming for.) This past year, I was hired by the Lānaʻi Visitors Bureau (LVB) to run a social media marketing campaign for them, based on a very original concept created in discussion with Mr. Keliʻi Brown, who is the PR director for the Maui Visitors Bureau (MVB). For those of you outside of Hawaiʻi, Maui Nui, as we call it, or Maui County, encompasses not just the island of Maui but also the islands of Lānaʻi and Molokai. So the MVB provides support to the LVB.

Lānaʻi is was the least known of the Hawaiian Islands. There are only three hotels! So we wanted a program that would shine the best light on this beautiful place, something that would go deep and not just be about “one more trip to Hawaii.”

First, though, watch the video! It is a quick one minute. Then keep reading for more on this program.

New Media Artist-in-Residence Program from Roxanne Darling on Vimeo.

You can read more about the setup of the New Media Artist-in-Residence program here, but in short, it involved the hand selection of seven well-known bloggers who each spent a week on Lānaʻi and who also agreed to collaborate in supporting the other team members throughout a six month period in 2011. Of course there is more to all this than meets the eye, but for now, in this post, I have two goals.

First I want to thank my clients at Maui Visitors Bureau and Lānaʻi Visitors Bureau for taking a chance with me on this innovative program! This is the second time I have worked for MVB and they are so willing to get out there and do what it takes to keep Maui Nui a top travel destination! Plus, they are willing to tolerate my at times demanding ways. Thank you so much, Terryl, Lynn, Keliʻi, Charity and all of the board members.

Second, I wanted to share the results – with you. Luckily, I had already prepared this video for our local Hawaii chapter of the Social Media Club’s year end party, which featured our social media accomplishments of 2011. The preso’s were played throughout the night on the big screen, so I made this without a sound track. I also want to thank my colleague and SMCHI president, Tara Coomans, who assisted me with the interpretation of the results and the ROI formulas.

We also received great coverage online. Be sure to read this summary over at Media Post and listen to my interview on the This Week in Travel.

Bottom line? Visitor spending was up nearly 28% on Lānaʻi, far more than on either Maui or Molokai.

Plus, I have been hired to run this program again for LVB in 2012! Lots more ideas are percolating of course, but for now, I share my gratitude for a wonderful year in 2011 – in so many respects, and am very excited about the big possibilities in 2012 – the year of the Dragon!

UPDATE: Please help me also thank the wonderful team of bloggers we had on this inaugural run! Visit their blogs and search for “lanai” to read all about their trips. Here they are, in order of their visit to Lānaʻi:
Shannon Hurst Lane of The Traveling Mamas
Chris Gray Faust of Chris Around the World
Matt Long of Landlopers
Gary Arndt of Everything Everywhere
Kara Williams of The Vacation Gals
Sheila Beal of Go Visit Hawaii
Melanie Waldman of Travels with Two

Aloha,

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First, mahalo to Apple for giving us such a stunning home page in honor of Steve’s passing from this world. I am bursting with feelings tonight as I write this post. Which could go in so many directions.

What I take from him and the way he lived his life is the feverish attachment to being who he was. He was a perfectionist, and not afraid of it. He was odd, and not afraid of it. He was brilliant, and not afraid if it. He was emotional, even tyrannical, and not afraid of it. Many will suggest that more companies should be perfectionistic, or cultivate oddness, or confuse brilliance with determination, or tolerate tyranny “because Steve did.”

I don’t. Because it is not about copying. It is about simply being the singular person he was without apologies. When any of us are that clear about our true essence, there are no discrepancies even though one man’s dedication to his true nature surely upset many others’ apple carts!

Dozens of companies and hundreds of products have tried to copy what Steve produced at Apple. None of them can begin to touch the genius of genuine Apple products. It seems easier to simply copy than to work for and support original thought. I know; I fall into it myself repeatedly. But I only experience true joy and divine inspiration when I bring forth me, as me, and no one else.

What I learned from Steve was that his childhood didn’t matter. That his gift (his choice) in this lifetime was to simply be Steve. He was the perfectionist who transformed our world with a simple statement that was not grammatically correct: Think Different. And much of this transformation took place in the schools and universities where language is taught! Ahh, the delicious irony of it all.

I got my first Macintosh in 1986 – it was a Mac 512K. I also nearly got a divorce, as my husband (at the time – we did eventually divorce!) was so irritated that I would stay up until 3 and 4 am writing a book on my new computer, teaching myself desktop publishing with Ready, Set, Go and setting up databases for the students in my aerobics workshops in FileMaker 2! Jump 20 years to the launch of our internet tv show, Beach Walks with Rox. Can you imagine? Having the tools in our hands to shoot a 760-episode series that has attracted millions of viewers around the world? It’s because of Steve, and the dedicated teams of people drawn to collaborate with him.

Our business would not have been possible without Apple computers. The things we have created for ourselves and our clients – they all flow from the genius that centers around the love affair between hardware and software, design and function. All nurtured by iPods and new apps, coming like a dozen red roses on random anniversaries. It sounds corny, and Steve was never that, but he did understand love and creativity more profoundly than any other businessman I can even imagine.

When he fought for each of those perfect products, he was fighting for me, and for you, and I will be forever grateful to him for the epic example of a divine being having a human experience, that he was.

As I was writing this, my MacBook Pro battery went to 0%. I took a screen shot for you – as it is not believable! The computer stayed alive while I went for my power cord and plugged it in. This is the power that we have to connect with something so much more than any one of us alone. Even if we are not aware of it, it is there, for us. (Click to see it full size.)

I leave with no advice, only gratitude. I have no explanations, only awe.

With love and Aloha,

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We are graciously featured in several articles in today’s PBN as we call it locally. Social Media is really getting a lot of coverage these days and deservedly so. I want to thank them for all the interviews and quotes and I want to welcome YOU to our Bare Feet Blog! Lots of their content is for subscribers however you can get started with these:
Hiring Managers Buck Trends When it Comes to Klout, Pacific Business News, August 19, 2011
Businesses dive into social media then learn to swim, Pacific Business News, August 19, 2011
Yacht broker sails into social media waters, Pacific Business News, August 19, 2011

I’ve made a short video (less than 3 minutes), for you, to point out a few things not to be missed while you’re here and to give you as personal a welcome as possible. Please keep reading below the video for several links and shortcuts that I don’t think you’ll want to miss!

STEP ONE
Look around our site! There are over six years’ worth of howto articles, case studies, and testimonials for you to check out. Click the link to your right called “Explore Our Topics” to see the full list, or use the Search box, or click on any of the tag links in each article to find more of the same. You can also explore by year – just click on “Explore the Archives” to your right and see what we were doing back in 2005, 2006… Here are some of the hottest topics right now:
Social Media
Strategy
Howto

STEP TWO
Be sure to join our free email list here for KnowHow Cafe. The signup form is in the right sidebar of every page here on our website. You’ll be sent a link for a free eBook once you sign up; it is guaranteed to give you information you don’t have about classic social media case studies and the all-important tips for creating and managing your “profile” on various social networks. KnowHow Cafe is our educational division. We offer live classes in Honolulu and on Maui and will be launching our online learning community one of these days. Use coupon code “rox” if you like – but everyone gets the same free ebook! The codes simply help us find out how people learned about us.

STEP THREE
Please visit our Hawaii Chapter of the Social Media Club. SMC is a global nonprofit educational association dedicated to developing and sharing best practices in social media. Our Hawaii chapter started in 2008 (courtesy of yours truly) and we welcome you to attend our free events. The next one is in October. Be sure to join our free SMCHI email list to hear all about local events. While you are there, please meet the local Professional Members – they and their websites and Twitter links are all listed in the right column of the SMCHI website. Contact any of them for assistance in developing your social media skills and strategies!

Please do use the Share links immediately below and/or leave a comment about what topics you would like me to cover in our next series of KnowHow Cafe classes!

Aloha,

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Tomorrow I am working with an esteemed group of coral reef scientists here in Hawaii to illustrate various ways to use social media. I will be using a version of The Social Media Game, an interactive learning process originally developed by my darling colleague Beth Kantor a few years ago. I’ve updated it and added 12 more “tools” – and am still missing a lot of those available to us today. It just shows you how much app and platform development continues in the sphere of online social networks and mobile options.

The confusing part is also very good news: it is very arbitrary whether we call something a “social network” or an “online broadcast” etc – most of these tools listed below easily fall into many of these categories! I’ve stayed as true as I can to Beth’s original designations though have added 50% more options! And my savvy readers will recognize right away many more that I have not (yet!) included on this list. Feel free to add your suggestions in the comments so the net iteration will be even more thorough…if also more overwhelming for those who have not yet entered the social media space.

Note: I am rushing to get this live and will be updating it. Leave a comment so you can be automatically updated when changes occur! Second Note: In the PDFs below, I added even a few more tools!

Question from the workshop: How to find Twitter users in Hawaii? Check out WeFollow.com.

Here are the files I used to create the game cards and the situation cards. Please download, print, and use when creating your next Social Media Strategy. Mahalo nui to Tara Coomans for dropping in and assisting us in the game strategy session today.
social-media-tools-2011-07 (PDF)
situation-cards-2011-07 (PDF)
overview-time-commitment (PDF)

Listening

Yelp/Trip Advisor
Customer-generated reviews of products and services. You can interact with them directly.
Have you claimed your business? How will you deal with negative reviews?
www.yelp.com
www.tripadvisor.com

Google Alerts
Set up automated reminders for any mention of your org name or your product/service keywords.
How often should you get reports? Who will review & act?
www.google.com/alerts

Social Network

Facebook
Set up an organization page on an existing popular social network to connect with others.
What will you name your page and what will you feature there?
www.facebook.com

Ning
Create your own niche online social network with ready to use blogs, RSS feeds, forums and more.
Do you have a community on the ground to support an online community? Or would you be better served to set up a community inside another social network?
www.ning.com

LinkedIn
Use for recruiting, research on potential contractors, ask/answer questions, create org profile.
When will you set up your profile? How can you ask for referrals? What about your staff?
www.linkedin.com

Communication

Twitter
Web and mobile updates. Hash tag conversations. Share links.
Is your target audience familiar with using this tool? How’s your understanding of social media etiquette?
www.twitter.com

Mobile Texting
Instantly text message your audience about urgent updates to their cellphones.
How will you collect and manage cellphone numbers?
www.group2call.com

Skype
Free or low cost calls over the internet with ability to record and conference.
Will you create audio or video interviews using Skype? Will you connect with others at low cost?
www.skype.com

Collaboration

Google+
Just now opened to the public, you can chat in private circles, video chat on the fly, and coming soon you can live stream video from within Google+.
Can you make time to learn a new system to save time and extend your communication abilities?
plus.google.com

Exploration
Allow your staff to explore and learn more about the social web.
Where will you start? What do you want to know to move forward?
Google.com
www.mashable.com
Training Programs (Sign up for ours! www.knowhowcafe.com)

Wiki
A wiki provides groups with collaborative publishing and work- space. Great for group editing documents or projects.
Confident about collaborating? Who will be the wrangler?
www.wikispaces.com

Social Bookmarks
Help organize your own presence on the web by tagging your own pages or pages related to your mission.
Willing to make an effort to tag and share so others can find you?
www.stmbleupon.com
www.delicious.com

Private Groups
Facebook & LinkedIn allow you to create private groups. Manage invitees; they discuss and share.
Where do you and your staff spend more time?
www.facebook.com
www.linkedin.com

Hashtags
Create custom tags for your org & events or concepts. Prepend with a # sign, aka a “hash” mark.
Have you created your main tag? Are you checking for duplicates?
www.hashtracking.com

Tweetup
Host an event organized on Twitter. Raise money, share info, meet face-to-face (IRL).
Does your venue tell the story? Are you more influential in person?
www.twtvite.com

Media Content

Flickr
Create or archive photos online to share with others. You can also share find photos of other’s you can use under a creative commons license.
Will you create your own or use others? Create a group too!
www.flickr.com

YouTube
Create or archive videos online to share with others. You can also share other’s videos.
What can you post? How will you share your channel with others?
www.youtube.com

uStream
Create a live (and recorded!) video stream of key events.
What stories make sense in real time? Who can monitor the chat?
www.uStream.tv

Use QR Codes
Embed the custom graphic into your flyers or printed material. Lets users w smart phones jump directly to a webpage or get SMS.
Do you have a specific info page?
www.qurify.com

SlideShare
Share powerpoints and PDFs that can be embedded on other sites.
Do you have compelling presentations and/or data to share?
www.slideshare.net

Online Broadcast

News & RSS Feeds
Capture other people’s content using their RSS Feeds and aggregate (display) them on your website.
How will you choose your feeds? Do you have a feed?
www.feed.informer.com
www.feedburner.com

Project Blog
Organization uses blog to support projects and events. Can have many authors
How will people know about blog? Will you add share links?
www.wordpress.com

Personal Blog
Individual in organization writes personal perspective on a topic related to your org’s mission.
How will people know about the blog? What links will it include? How often will you post?
www.wordpress.com
Or a custom WordPress blog via standalone hosting:
www.greengeeks.com (our Bare Feet affiliate link)
www.hostgator.com (our Bare Feet affiliate link)

Mobile Apps

FourSquare/Gowalla
Geo-location app, users check-in at your place, share with friends.
How can you support your regular fans/customers? Who will monitor this social network?
www.foursquare.com
www.gowalla.com

Tout
15-second videos straight from your phone to Facebook, Twitter, Email.
Do you have basic video skills to make yours engaging?
www.tout.com

Facebook Places
Facebook creates geographical places that allow people to “check in” when they are there.
Do you already have a place? Are your fans checking in? Are you responding?
www.facebook.com

Event Tools

Aloha,

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If you are in a hurry, watch the one-minute video!

If you have a minute or two, I’ll give you some more info. Shane and I are founding members of the Social Media Club, a nonprofit educational organization celebrating its fifth year in existence. It was started by Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells in San Francisco, with the motto of “If you get it, share it.”

Unlike so many other professional associations, that aim to keep much of their professional intelligence inside the circle of practitioners, SMC always envisioned a very open tent where everyone was welcome to come and share, learn, and improve on the practice of social media. To date, there are over 90 chapters worldwide, from Boston to Bahrain, from Honolulu to Utrecht. You will find tremendous diversity throughout our member ranks yet we all share a love of social media and its ability to help us communicate and create community unlike anything ever before.

The funny thing here is that I have been doing video for over 5 years at our Beachwalks.tv show, have taught countless seminars and conference presentations on how to use video, and yet! It has taken me until today to sit down and make a simple video for our local Hawaii chapter! I started the chapter back in 2008 at the time of Podcamp Hawaii in hopes that it would give us a connection to the larger world of social media peeps and to have a framework to grow awareness here at home. Indeed it has, as we are now one of the top 15 chapters in the world based on professional members. You can see all of our local members in the sidebar of the SMCHI website.

Tomorrow we have our quarterly event, with the topic “How To Buy Social Media Services.” I guess the time has come as we have nearly 100 people pre-registered! Note we have only used social media platforms to promote this event, as the local traditional business press won’t return our emails. It goes to show how we can become the media and support each other directly.

I always say, it is never too late to get started, and today, I am taking my own advice! And congratulating our official Social Media Club community of over 100,000 members worldwide! I hope you will join us soon and be sure to get on our email list now.

Aloha,

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Increasingly, as a digital native, citizen of the internet, geek girl – call me what you wish – I find myself more and more discerning about how, when, and with whom I use the phone.

It is simply another trending practice that all marketers would be wise to note: Interruption of any kind is increasingly irritating and unnecessary in today’s world of technology and community. Consider this yet another free tip from your early adopter, Rox.

Clive Thompson in Wired.com captures the sentiment perfectly:

Consider: If I suddenly decide I want to dial you up, I have no way of knowing whether you’re busy, and you have no idea why I’m calling…. Plus, voice calls are emotionally high-bandwidth, which is why it’s so weirdly exhausting to be interrupted by one. (We apparently find voicemail even more excruciating: Studies show that more than a fifth of all voice messages are never listened to.)

The bold emphasis is mine. FYI our insider club of precious clients have phone access to me 24/7; you folks are listed in my Caller ID. Yet even with you/them I don’t always answer immediately. Because I have more than one client, I often choose not to drop my work on Client A to answer a call from Client B. I will listen to the voice mail as soon as I “come up for air” and will respond accordingly.

So let me explain “come up for air.”

In these busy times, I am ever more committed to using my time efficiently, as the various social web communities would otherwise tug at me literally 24/7. I not only would be severely lacking in sleep and recreation, I would not be getting anything done! Meaning – completed, finished, to-do item checked done.

To be interrupted throughout the day by ringing phones with a whole different set of (sometimes random) questions causes me to have to be yanked out of “the zone” which I consider a dis-service to my clients (my efficiency for them just crashed) and it is certainly taxing on my energy. And trust me – you all want me happy not cranky, right?

Why I Generally Prefer DIgital Communication

• It can be sent and consumed at mutually convenient, self-directed time frames.
• It can be sent and consumed using mutually convenient, self-directed devices/platforms.
• It provides a written record; that saves so many brain cells from trying to remember things!
• That written record lowers error rates and confusion over deliverables. Yes, it takes my billable time to write up the notes – but you are so well-served by my laying things out so clearly for you to consider over time.
• It can slow down the process, allowing answers to appear without anyone being interrupted. Feelings of urgency are not always accurate.

So even though you’ll hear me say, “I get waaay too much email!” don’t confuse that with “I would SO much rather get a descriptive email with a handy subject than a phone call almost any day!”

Understanding the phone preference

What’s more polite, phone or digital?

The telephone, in other words, doesn’t provide any information about status, so we are constantly interrupting one another. The other tools at our disposal are more polite. Instant messaging lets us detect whether our friends are busy without our bugging them, and texting lets us ping one another asynchronously. (Plus, we can spend more time thinking about what we want to say.) For all the hue and cry about becoming an “always on” society, we’re actually moving away from the demand that everyone be available immediately.

Let’s treat the phone as a really valuable business tool and make appointments for phone calls! We can leverage our powerful connections together IRL to their maximum by using the best tool for the job. Want to talk to me? Just send a quick email with your general topic and list some times you are available. I’ll get back to you. Keep ringing me up and not leaving any details in your voicemail while I am immersed in delivering services to someone else? It could take days to get a response.

Photo Credit: Mute by woodlywonderworks on Flickr.

Aloha,

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I am launching web cam conversations with you this week. It’s the one form of video I have not done very much though the idea of it appeals to me a lot.

It’s short, just under 6 minutes, and here’s what you’ll find inside:
Rox makes a confession
Shout out to NYTimes.com
Opinion: Pre-roll ads are rude
Edison Research on Podcast Ads
Next Level Hawaii Conference in April 2010
(Links after the jump!)

Rox makes a confession
I conduct a lot of trainings on how to use internet video fro business, and the one form I advocate but don’t use very often is the web cam reporting. So today I launch what I hope will be regular personal messages from me to you.

Shout out to NYTimes.com
They recently added a TimesCast video feature to the home page.

Opinion: Pre-roll ads are rude
Yes, people think they are effective because “they get viewed” but I don’t like being held hostage for what I really bothered to come to your page to see, and, I am betting that people are not really watching, even though their computer forces them to play it. I think advertisers would be better served to run ads at the end. At least for high value, internet savvy consumers like me.

Edison Research on Podcast Ads
One of these days I will get around to interviewing Tom Webster, the man behind this research. There are so many compelling things to discuss!

Next Level Hawaii Conference in April 2010
This is a social media conference coming up soon at the end of April, being organized by Kelly Mitchell, aka @HawaiiRealty on Twitter. It’s being held right here in Hawaii and I am speaking along with Chris Pirillo, Geoff Livingston, Micah Baldwin, Aaron Brazell, and Jesse Stay. It’s going to be intimate (one single track!), focused, and is being paired with extensive opportunities to network and have quality conversations with the speakers. I hope you’ll join us.

Aloha,

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About a year ago I founded the Hawaii Chapter of the Social Media Club. It is part of a international nonprofit organization of social media practitioners and exists to develop and share best practices and ethics on the social web. One of the first goals we had was to get the word out in the community about our organization. My fellow volunteer and Program Chair Tess Staadecker came up with the idea to hold a contest and offer six months’ support to local nonprofit. We would walk them through the stages of setting up the social web assets.

About the Contest
It was a great idea! We had 15 applicants and over 1000 votes. The winner was a small nonprofit based in Hana, Maui, supported by Rick and Kirsten Rutiz to teach the high school youth about construction. They then build housing, gardens, arts centers, and wheelchair ramps in the community. Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke did not have a blog, or a Twitter account, or know anything about Facebook or RSS, but they did tap into their network of friends, who used word-of-mouth marketing to tell a wider circle of friends, and take them to the winning position in the contest.

But First! A Word for Our Sponsors!
We were very grateful to have the support of a few sponsors in this effort as well – as we didn’t plan on the winner coming from a neighbor island, though we did open the contest to all Hawaii nonprofits! Hawaiian Airlines, Bare Feet Studios (yours truly), and the Prince Kuhio Hilton Waikiki provided transportation and lodging for Rick and Kirsten over the six month support period. We also implemented a lot of technology – and on two occasions beamed in Rick and/or Kirsten live via video chat. We are ever grateful to the ING Direct Cafe for hosting our monthly meetings free of charge, enabling us to do the same for you.

So what did we accomplish?
Our primary goal was to get Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke excited about sharing their stories with the world, so the world can support them in their mission. to this end, we all were incredibly successful. Our roadmap, was one that any nonprofit can follow along. We provided over 60 hours of free consultation and training, much of it open to the public at our meetings and in follow-up emails. Here is what all was created:

• A new identity, perfectly suited for use on numerous social networks, and including a new web address, “hanabuild” which is easier and shorter than their full Hawaiian name and is being used for digital branding.


• A new web site using WordPress, the best-in-class blog software, including an auto-generated RSS feed – so you can subscribe to their site! Their version one web site was nice but they could not edit it themselves, the navigation was limited, and it was not as friendly to the search engines as their new site. Their URL went from www.hanabuildingprogram.com to www.hanabuild.org. It is shorter and we made sure that nick name was available as a UIRL as well as on all the main social networks before we started this entire process.


• A Twitter account: @hanabuild. They are learning how to use hashtags, to communicate with others directly and indirectly, how to follow conversations, and how to search for related topics. We also hooked up their Twitter and Facebook accounts so the content cross-posts to both social networks.


• A Facebook page. They learned that people are on many different social networks, and so it makes sense to have a presence where your fans are. Rick’s daughter actually got this started, and we trained them in how to use Facebook.


• A Flickr account. Photos are such an important part of telling a story, and this building program has loads of them! By learning to post their pictures on Flickr, find friends, tag the photos, and join groups, their photos can have much more impact than if they were just on the web site. We also added a Flickr badge on the main web site, to make sure any new photos on Flickr are cross-posted to the web site.


• A Skype account for live video chat. Kirsten actually jumped into this during the contest! We had asked all of the entries to attend our May meeting and give a brief presentation about their nonprofit. Kirsten could not arrange to fly over on short notice, but she was willing to learn how to set up her computer for video chat! We have since done a few training sessions via video.


• Videos posted to blip.tv and a YouTube channel is in process. I like to say if a photo is worth 1000 words, then a video is priceless. Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke has been lucky to have some video support and we have posted those videos to YouTube and Blip.tv. We have also trained them in how to create their own movies, and hope the teenagers in the building program will soon be helping out with all of these social assets.


• Added a PayPal Donate Button. With the increase in traffic coming from the various social networks, we wanted to be sure supporters could easily contribute to the nonprofit. We have a Donate button on every page.

This truly is just the beginning though – now the folks at Ma Ka Hana Ka ʻIke aka HanaBuild can continue using the tools to tell their stories. Key to this is scheduling time each week to attend to the various conversations and communities to which they now belong as well as adding new photos, new blog posts, and new videos. I invite you to connect with them and help us support their ongoing accomplishments to the community of Hana!

Aloha,

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Even though we have these amazing, 24/7 ubiquitous connections taking place on the social web, IRL (in real life) conferences are still booming. I think that many of us still long for those face to face connections, even more so now that our networks have blown way past the indications of Dunbar’s number. He he.

This is an opinion piece about things I see happening in the social media space, in short Twitter-sized sound bytes. I am imposing that limit on myself as I am short on time today.

With #podcamphawaii & #socialmediaclub we have open tents, everybody’s welcome. (My preference) Attendance is great. Experiences are powerful. Learning is all over the map.

Other events, when “who is welcome” is changing weekly, when “must request an invite” is the rule? Not so cool. (Especially when no reply is then sent.) Ticket sales are s-l-o-w. Is there a connection?

If you want a private event, by all means have at it. You better have a killer list though and enough personal energy to draw in attendees. The Lobby understands this.

I don’t recommend teasing the public to try to get your buzz on when signups to your private event are not happening. Just open it up and the people will come!

When people are vying for attention and excluding peers, IMO that is so #highschool and #oldschool. We’re due for a major shift in thinking in this arena IMO.

Perfectly reasonable people disagree. That is the good news. When it’s your event, you can do what you want.

I hope these points help you figure out which strategy is more fun and less stress for planning your next event!

Aloha,

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