During the campaign, Obama relied on technology to supplement his traditional media outreach.  He used the web to make the case directly to voters why is he was the best choice for President.  Whether you agree with his policies, the approach was a successful one.  As president, I had hoped that he would continue this approach while governing. However after the election,  some of the outreach efforts slowed down.  As some bloggers have pointed out, there had not been any action on his twitter page in 10 days.  When I saw his first weekly address yesterday, I was delighted.  I’m glad to see that he will continue his approach of talking to directly to the people.

Technorati Tags: Obama, Politics, Web 2.0

Sometime last week, Lindy Dreyer of SocialFish  wrote a very interesting post about what should be in your association social media plan.  I agree with everything Lindy wrote in her post.  However,  I felt that one item was missing from her social media plan.  I believe that before jumping on the social media bandwagon, an organization should first determine that there would be some benefit in doing so.  I inquired about this missing item to Lindy via comment.  My inquiry inspired a subsequent post from her.

First, I am flattered that my comment would inspired Lindy to follow up blog post.   I’m blushing… can you tell?   In her follow up post, Lindy makes the argument that every organization should invest in social media.  She argues that they may not necessarily want to break the bank on social media outreach but every organization should at least invest some time into social media.

While I’m flattered about inspiring a blog post, I remain skeptical that every organization should invest in social media.  I contend that while an organization may not foresee all the benefits of jumping on the social media bandwagon, the organization should at least insure that there is something tangible to be gained by investing their time into social media.  For example, National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) is an organization focused on serving local health officials. At this point their membership consists of the vast majority, if not all, of the local health officials around the country.  Their funding comes from the CDC and their programs are geared towards their current membership. To continue to be successful, an organization like NACCHO has to continue serving its members  by answering to identified needs/wishes.  If their membership has not identified social media as need or has not identified problems that could be solved using social media, it would be a waste of time and resources for the organization to invest in social media.

On the other hand, an organization like Be The Change, Inc.  whose core mission is “building a broad-based, web-fueled, citizens’ movement that will campaign for better public policies, promote active citizenship and citizen democracy” has no choice but to jump on social media band wagon.  To be successful on the web, the BTC has to follow current trends and eventually become one of the leaders when it comes to social media outreach.

To re-iterate my point, Lindy is right that your organization should have a social media plan and if you don’t have one, hire her to help you come up with one (Lindy, I want 10% referral fee…joking).  However before you that, your organization should first establish that it fits within its mission and it stands to gain something by jump on the bandwagon.  Once you jump on, it’s really hard to get off.

Technorati Tags: Lindy Dryer, Social Media, SocialFish, Web 2.0

I missed Mid-week reads last week. I’m sure I had a good reason but it’s currently escaping me.  Please accept my apoloiges.  Since I missed last week,  I will include a bonus article for your reading pleasure.  I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I did.

Seriously…drop what you are doing and watch this… - I’m not a fan of this type of title for blog posts.  Usually, it’s a stupid video of somone doing something moronic that they will regret having posted online in five years.   While i think that this title is a bit over the top, I think the video of Gary Vaynerchuck that Saul of Freshbooks shares in this post is worth watching.

After the Election, Will Obama’s Online Army Target Congress? – This is an “old” but good one.  In this post, Colin Delany of E-politics.com discusses the possibility of Obama unleashing his online supporters on the hill to apply pressure on congress as needed to get legislation through were he to be elected president.  Very interesting read.

Finance Industry Giving Visualized -  In the wake of the current financial crisis, we’ve been wondering how the financial industry became such  “laissez faire” industry.  Well,  the good folks at the Sunlight foundation built a tool that shows campaign donations from the financial sector since the early 90’s.   Needless to say the findings dont boathe well for our elected officials who claim to be independent.

Twitter, Facebook, Charitable Campaigning – In this post, Jeff Trexter warns online community managers of 501(c)3 organizations about the hidden risks of Web 2.o technologies when it comes to online activism.  If you blog, tweet or manage your organization’s Facebook/MySpace page, this is a must read.

Five Ways to Use Social Media to Reach People Who Don’t Use Social Media – Have friends/colleagues that think social media is worthless?  Marshall Kirkpatrick of ReadWriteWeb suggests five ways to rope them in.   If you’re already a web person, the suggestion are very easy to implement. I’m thinking of setting up Yahoo Pipes myself.

***Bonus***   The Playboys of Tech – The title is self-explanatory.  Who says geeks don’t know how to party?

If you are reading any interesting blogs, please don’t hesitate to share them with me via comment or email at blog at makembe dot com.  A more extensive list of shared reading items can be found on my Google reader shared page.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Good Reads, Web 2.0

Neat video. Glad to see the expansion from the usual politically active entertainers.

My take on it is – If I can’t vote (b/c I’m a permanent resident), why should you?

On the serious. Don’t forget to register to vote.  Use Google maps to figure our you voting place (it will include links where you register to vote in your locality.  If you’re going to be out of town, use GovoteAbsentee.org.

Tags: Election 2008, Obama, McCain, Google, Vote08

Technorati Tags: election 2008, Vote

Some interesting blogs post that I think everyone should read. 

Mashable’s posts about T-Mobile Google phone -  Google’s G1 Isn’t Pretty, But Is Impressively Disruptive and Now I’ve Finally Seen It, I Still Dig the ‘gPhone’.  I’m pretty sure I’m getting this phone when it comes out. Please share any reviews with me.

What color is your nonprofit’s blog ? – In this blog post, Beth Kanter takes Nina Simon’s categorization of different type of museums blogs and applies it to Non-profit blogs as well as provide some strategy tips.   Very interesting reading for those blogging for your job/company.

Why Doesn’t Anyone Comment on Your Blog? -  In this article of ASAE, Maddie Grant and Lindy Dreyer suggest some ways to get ways associations can get more comments on their blogs.  I think the advice can also be true to individual blogger.  Simple suggestions but they work.

What is a non-profit blog?  – In this post, Britt Bravo – officially one of my new favorite bloggers – shares a list of blogs authored by non-profits/NGO orgs.  Some are worth adding to your reading list.

 Mass Instant Message That Link With The Tell-A-Friend Widget – TechCrunch shares what will possibly become the most annoying widget to date.  I might add it to my blog tho.  Thoughts?

If you like these, you can find more on my Google Reader shared page.  I’m also going over my feeds and removing the blogs that I don’t read anymore.  If you’re reading some good blogs and think I might find them interesting, please share them.   I’m pretty much  interested in everything — from politics to fashion.

Technorati Tags: Good Reads

***** UPDATE 9/22/2008 *****

Amy, from Idealist, pointed out that I missed a few posts.

• ServiceNation the Finale
• Kennedy – Hatch Serve America Act

I prepared this for work today.  I figured it would be a good idea to share.  It will be will be cross-posted at www.changewireblog.org.   It was privilege to meet and work with these folks.    Let me know if I missed any.  It certainly was not my intentions.

Follow tonight’s ServiceNation Forum online and on twitter.

On television we expect the Forum to be broadcast live, starting at 8 pm EDT, on CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, C-Span, and selected PBS stations around the country (check your local PBS listings).

In addition, MTV will also stream the Forum live. To watch the MTV stream go to http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/live. Below the MTV stream, you can subscribe to the ServiceNation Kyte player for organic content captured by our mobile producers on the floor! They will be recording behind-the-scenes, exclusive footage throughout the two-day summit. You can also watch the stream on MTV’s website at http://think.mtv.com/groups/servicenation.

Enjoy the broadcast, and stay tuned for further details on how you can watch Day 2 of the Summit. We will be sending another e-mail, and details will be posted on www.servicenation.org. You can review the full program here: http://www.bethechangeinc.org/servicenation/summit/schedule.

ServiceNation is also the talk of the town on twitter.

More at http://twemes.com/sn08

I saw this while reading a TechCrunch Article this morning, so I thought I’d share for with the rest of people not reading techcrunch. Also check out the Fundrace on Huffington Post.  Every time politics meets technology to make the process more transparent and easy for the people, I get giddy inside.

Over the last year and half, I’ve looked for various YouTube videos on Obama.  Of course some where in complete utter distaste and should prolly be take down, but the vast majority were inspirational and depict the American genius and  creativity.  Below are my favorite YouTube videos about Obama with a few honorable mentions.

Barack Obama/Bobby Kennedy – Hope

Work to Do Remix

Yes We Can – Barack Obama Music Video

Barack Obama: Reflections of Bobby Kennedy

Barack Obama: We Shall Overcome

The Obama Dream

The “Obama Movement”

BARACK OBAMA YES WE CAN RAP SONG

Honorable Mention

Baby Got Barack

Sing for Obama Grassroots Music Video

Barack Obama: Poetic Politics

For Obama: “Si Se Puede Cambiar” by Andres Useche

What are your favorites?

Over the years the number of blogs I read on a regular basis has increased. However, the quality of the posts and the quality of the writing has remained stagnant.  Why is that?  I don’t  have the answer.  If I did, I’d write a book and try to get deal for it.  Maybe it’s just me but I think that if you’re going to call yourself a professional blogger your writing and your research should be at the level of a professional.  Over the last two days, I’ve watched an interview on a profession tech blog where the interviewer was irritating. I’m not going to link to it because it’s a new venture and I’ve the pleasure to meet the gentleman who is behind it.  Nice guy.  His niceness aside, his interviews are terrible.  On the ones that I’ve watched the questions were similar to that of five-year old interviewing his/her parents for a school project.  What made the recent interview even more unbearable to watch was the fact that interviewer kept interrupting the interviewee and made “huh-uh” noise after every sentence.  Now to be fair to him, he is not the only guilty of crappy interviewing of the web.  There are many more out there.   I wouldn’t have such a problem with this if these people would refer to themselves as amateur bloggers as opposed to professional bloggers. To all who claim to be professional bloggers; please take a writing class, an interview class and a research class.  Calling yourself a professional requires more than the ability to copy and paste from a site larger than yours (with or without two lines of your own) or post low qualities videos and call them interviews.  To put out such crappy work, undermines your blog and insults your readership.  Then again it’s  very possible that I have a twisted definition of  the word “professional.”