Within Our Reach

The World from the Outside by blentley (creative commons)

Nearly Wordless Wednesday again (here's last week) and I found this wonderful creative commons image that puts a different perspective on the world of prevention. It reminds me ... 

"Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach." Clarissa Pinkola-Estes

What does it make you think about? 

Director of Planetary Prevention

Its Nearly Wordless Wednesday, a new commitment for me reserving this day of the week for the rest of the year to share an image and a few words to provide context. What better way to begin than this new and amazing view of the earth from space, released by NASA.

Pretend you have been promoted to Director of Planetary Prevention ...

What shape and meaning does the work of prevention take on from this perspective?

Three Words for 2012

This post is a bit more personal than most but I could use your help.  Its a brand new year and I'm once again choosing three words as my guide for the new year.  I don't usually share my choices but it feels like a good thing to do to hold myself accountable and I'd like to hear some of your ways of working on these things?  Here goes. My three words for 2012:

• Focus
• Reflection
• Care

Focus.  You'd think working in my own private home office at I'd have fewer distractions. Yeah, I thought so too.  I hadn't figured in the immediacy of being available through technology or the distraction that social media can be if I let it. So I've spent some time observing and researching the kinds of things I can do that will help with being and staying focused.  One biggie for me - is focus (or lack thereof).  Do you have days when at 5:00 you ask yourself, "what the heck did I accomplish today?" Me too. I read Brain Rules some time ago and one thing really jarred me.  He says there's no such thing as multi-tasking. What we're actually doing (at least in our brains) is very quickly switching from one task to another to another.  Multi-tasking is really just partial-attention, semi-focused, which means a part of me isn't showing up. And you know, 90% of the game is just showing up!

So, here's what I'm doing, I've turned off all audible notifications (email, twitter, etc) so I don't get interrupted so much.  So sorry if I don't immediately respond to your message - just know that I will as soon as I take a break.  Second, I learned about a neat method (from Beth Kanter) called the Pomodoro Technique for managing time. I've be using it for awhile and now adapting it more to my schedule and style.  Lastly, I remembered something I learned from Priority Management training - but stopped practicing, sigh.  The rule is to keep your desk clear of everything except the thing you're working on.  They mean everything - phone, business card holder, sticky notes, everything!  I'm returning to the practice because I know it works. What things do you do to help you focus and be attentive?

Reflection is something I do regularly but I'd like to be more intentional about it this year in a bit of a different way.  I generally spend about 15-30 minutes at the end of each day, to reflect, replay and document the progress on my projects.  But more than documentation is this notion of reflecting on the ways and means of doing the work and whether these ways are working.  This is the part of our work in prevention that it seems we too seldom talk together about - our actual practices.  I don't mean scientific best practices but the kinds of day-to-day how-to methods that help us be healthy in our work - thinking about our thinking and trying new ways to do and be our best selves? I don't have a strategy for this one yet so, what kinds of reflective practices have you discovered that might help me out?

Care is the last on the list but by far the most important of the three for me. My question was at first, how do I take care of everyone and everything and still have time for me?  Then I heard a little voice say, "put the oxygen mask on yourself first, then help the person next to you."  Okay, I finally get it.  If I don't take care and take charge of my own health and wellness, then I won't be much help to anyone else.  So, my strategies for self-care are to take more walks, continue my qi qong practice (thank you Dr. Bennett) and get more sleep.  How do you take care of yourself so you can care better for others?

How about you? 
What three words will be your guide through 2012? 
What have you discovered that might help me with my three words?

Building Trust and Capacity

Some years ago colleagues at the Central CAPT introduced me to NTEN, the Nonprofit Technology Network which is where I discovered Amy Sample Ward. She posted an interesting article awhile back in the Stanford Social Innovations Review (and on her blog) focused on ways non-profits can build trust including ways to do this using social media.  While provider networks and coalitions may or may not be nonprofits -- they are close cousins.  

As I read her post it became clear these same six topics translate well to coalitions and provider networks so I've attempted to do a bit of bridging here. I'm sure there are other things that help nurture trust so please add based on your experiences. Here goes.

1. Share your data
With the push these past several years to data-driven, data-informed decision-making in prevention it seems we now have (and continue) to gather lots of data. But how do we serve up that data in our communities?  Step back a minute. How many times do you get a link to a database or report that turns out to be 50-75-150 or more pages long? Do you read it? Print it?  Or do you hope for (and hunt for) the executive summary? Amy triggered some ideas to move beyond the usual pdf report.  I'm thinking I'll start serving up the content in smaller, more visual bites like maybe an infographic or  a short slideshow or maybe even a brief video series.  This could make it more interesting, conversational and visual.  I figure we'll still produce the full report (for other purposes) but from it we can provide some little data appetizers. 

2. Connect your virtual Presence 
More and more coalitions, organizations and agencies are moving into the online space and as we do it is important to remember how the online environment works.  How's that?  Non-linear.  Because of search people may come to any one of the places you have established not just your organization or coalitions home page. Amy makes the point that all locations e.g., facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, etc should lead to your website or better, a specific Welcome page on your website.  If you don't already have one, create an actual landing page on your blog or website, like Amy's example, and use it ... everywhere. (I'm working on this one too.)

3. Enable feedback loops. 
If you don't take any other of these six actions to heart, let it be this one. Even if you have a small group or run a small organization, your staff  or coalition members play an important role in engaging the community. Make it easy to connect to them by posting ample information about the people, programs, and activities your provide and promote. You likely have pages for your projects but do you have a page for each staff member? Remember, social media is about people and engaging each other to develop relationships. 

I happen to like the way CADCA's staff pages list everyone and then you can click to a bio with a photos of the staff member. This helps community member/partners to easily connect to the right people for their blog posts and news projects AND they can put links on their own pages back to yours. Mutually beneficial. Besides, it is always nice to put a face to a name.

4. Empower community advisory members
Coalitions and prevention organizations have boards and advisory groups similar to non-profits.  Amy suggests hosting a luncheon where you offer ideas, potential new programs, campaigns or initiatives and listen to feedback from the advisory members. Its easier to talk about these things before you dive into writing and planning a specific grant.  Engaging these advisers  regularly can help you determine interest for new grants or projects you may be considering and empower your advisory members to speak to your programs, projects or mission.  Every conversation is an opportunity to listen, build trust and develop capacity.

5. Host open discussions. 
This one seems like such an easy one to do but I wonder how often and how well we do this in our local communities or regions?  Amy suggests hosting conference call conversations to provide program updates or open opportunities for community members to ask questions and offer ideas.  She says it really doesn't matter so much how many show up since you can record the call and put it up online so others can tune in anytime, then use social media to share the call recording (and a cliff notes summary of the call) with everyone. The most important point Amy makes about this is how these calls demonstrate transparency and build trust.

6. Increasing Connections with the Community
Program staff and board members are out-about in the community with opportunities to speak to the work you are doing.  What about people at the edges of these conversations, programs and projects? What if you could draw and engage at least some of these people in a meaningful way? Remember,  whatever sparks your curiosity will likely nudge curiosity in others. Develop a blog post or maybe a brief podcast update and share it through every social media communications tool you use. Be ready to respond (engage). Every connection in the community counts and the more we link people and groups together and offer up the exciting work you're doing, the more completely you weave a web of trust with each other.

What other actions build trust? Offline? Online?
What do you do or have you seen done that makes a difference?

If you aren't familiar with the Standford Social Innovation Review, sign up for their weekly newsletter and click over and follow Amy (she's everywhere :-). Their work is our work.

Are You a Social Media Pusher?

Remember the teacher's voice from Charlie Brown? 


Blah, blah, blah, blah blah.

All too often that's the sound of social media PUSH.  You've seen it. Me too. You may be guilty of it too, I am. It is easier to get focused on developing and sharing your own prevention messages than it is to publicly engage people around those messages.  Why is that?

Two primary reasons from my perspective.

Push is what most of us are accustomed to doing.  Social marketing was introduced in prevention (a long time ago) and we've honed those skills.  While social marketing is important, the landscape in which marketing happens has shifted.  Mari Smith, in her latest book, The New Relationship Marketing, describes it beautifully when she says "new media is about engaging and building relationships". This moves us from marketing in the sense we've had in the past to a new way of thinking about relationships first and what that means for deciding "how" to engage people first . The book is written more for business but the relationship focus is the same for coalitions and nonprofits. Mari also has an excellent website, she's on Facebook and Twitter too.

The ways we "be" online have changed. There was a time in our recent past (and for some it persists) websites were mostly a tool for promoting and marketing our wares e.g., products, projects, messages, campaigns, ideas. That's changed.  Good websites are now more dynamic (content is always changing) and interactive (share, comment, rate, review, poll, etc).  While this is a good thing, its also challenging given the 70-20-10 rule.  That is 70% will view only (spectator), 30% will comment from time to time and 10% will do most of the content creation.  An encouraging shift from the old 90-9-1 rule (2006). The way we "be" and what we do online is definitely changing.

Three things you can do to help make the shift:

1. Listen. Use Google Alerts, RSS feeds, Twitter search and other tools to be aware of the conversations, where they are happening and what's being said around the issues you care about. I've written about these recently.
2. Join the conversation. Just choose a tool and start using it.  Check it regularly and nudge yourself to respond even if only a like or thumbs up or a retweet (RT).  These small gestures make a big difference. They are indicators of the conversation and its importance. They help you become part of the conversation and develop your Presence.
3. Participate. Click like, thumbs up/down or better yet comment thoughtfully to what others say.  If you aren't sure what to say, consider these tips from Beth Kanter on how to respond well in social media.

You don't have to host a blog or a website to participate in the conversation.  It happens in social networks like Facebook or private label online communities like Connected Communities or on Twitter, everyday.  Lots of other people and groups are hosting spaces where you can participate without the responsibility of being a host.

Think of social media as a river.  Step in, participate then step out and carry on with your work activities.  As your day transpires, notice things worthy of sharing/spreading online and then step back in and share them.  Notice what others post. Give them a "like" or a comment.

Participate as much as or little as you want but by all means participate -- don't exclusively push your own content out onto the web. Participation is the best and least expensive way to get prevention thinking and actions a part of the larger conversations online. It is a particularly good way to celebrate the good work of others, share stories, video campaigns and anything else that you find interesting and worthy of spreading for good.

Let's talk.
What's your favorite way to participate in social media so far?
What have you seen that has captured your attention? Share it here.

Ten Tips for Engaging People in Social Media

Not long ago I did a blog post on designing for interaction.  As I've thought more about it seems there's even more to learn about engaging people in social media.  They say the teacher teaches what she should learn so this is really good for me. I hope you find it helpful too and will add your learnings as well. Here goes.

1.   Share information or host a discussion to fit your purpose/intention. If you're on Facebook remember that it wasn't really initially designed for organizations but has adjusted over time.  Once you've built your presence there, it makes a good place for discussions and sharing information. (1)  If you like Twitter, consider a TweetChat like the weekly #lrnchat, you can learn more about it on the lrnchat blog.
   
2. Post a question. Questions are a good way to engage people. (2) Use your status update or the questions feature on Facebook, or if you're on Twitter, just ask.  Make your question one that can be answered relatively quickly rather than one people need to noodle on it for awhile. If you're looking for some inspiration, try Richard Millington's post 20 questions.
   
3. Celebrate your followers. Have you hosted or participated in a recent event, meeting or some other action involving peers, coalition members or influential stakeholders? Take a photo and add it to your social media locations. Remember: ask permission and/or get releases (doc) when snapping a photo or follow up afterwards for permission before posting. Be sure to put community supporters in their best light.  On Facebook you can "tag" people. Tags can also be removed or blocked depending on privacy settings.
4. When you update, post a link of value to your followers e.g., to blog posts, websites or other content your followers are likely to find valuable.  You know your followers best and if you're uncertain what they want from you - ask (maybe use the question feature on facebook). How will you know what you've offered has value?  Check your analytics.  Facebook provides good analytics already and, according to Mashable, Twitter is working on a set of analytics, opening to the rest of us soon.  In the meantime if you are using Twitter to share links, consider using Bit.ly so you can get easy measures on the links you include. These analytics will help you determine which tweets get the intended response.
   
5. Aim for the News Feed.  Did you know that on Facebook most followers don't return to your Page regularly after they've "liked" you. Interaction mostly occurs via the News Feed after the initial "like"? This means you want whatever you post to make it to your followers News Feed.  How do you do that?  At this writing, if you include links, photos or video in your wall post, it is more likely to wind up in your followers News Feed and if it lands in the News Feed is more likely to get noticed and liked, commented on or shared further. 
6. Shorter is better.  Twitter constrains you to 140 characters but Facebook just increased their limit to 63,206 characters!  While you could write long posts, shorter is better. People are more likely to read and respond to short posts than long ones.
   
7. Be more playful less serious.  I think most of us in prevention are w-a-a-a-a-y too serious and need to lighten up (I know I am-sigh).  Share fun or funny content from time to time, like a quotes or a cartoon.  Laughter is good medicine so spread some around. 
8. Give people something to talk about.  I've said it before but remember, if you post mundane things like what you had for breakfast you'll get little or no response from your followers. Post content that touches the emotions. That doesn't mean always posting content that is heartbreaking or tearful. We have a lot of other emotions so bring those into the conversation too. 
9. Unlearn the traditional marketing and public relations/promotions language for the most part -- it really doesn't do well in social media.  It can be a hard shift to make.  Social media is all about people and relationships so we have some learning to do to shift from our usual forms of media communications. One of the best sources I've found and learn from continually is Mari Smith.  If you aren't following her on either Facebook, Twitter, do it.
   
10. Reflection. About once a month or so go back and scan through your postings to catch the sentiment. Are you mostly posting "the sky is falling" kinds of information or are you pretty upbeat and hope-filled? What is your intention? Look at your analytics too and see what is getting liked, commented on and shared. 

Stop. When you get ready to hit the update/send key, take a moment and ask yourself, "how many ways are people likely to respond to what I'm about to post?" Or maybe,  how many ways could I say this so that followers can hear it, feel the fit for what they do, and garner their interest and action?

Enough from me. What do you think? 

CyberShoutout - Applying Social Media Technology in Prevention

Today I'm joining in with teens, parents, teachers, scientists and prevention providers all across America to learn and get updated on The Facts and at the same time applying social media technology in prevention. I hope you'll join too.  Every opportunity to have a positive interaction around this topic is one we want to take advantage of and thanks to social media there are myriad ways we can participate. Even better, NIDA has made participation easy.  

National Drug Fact Week is an opportunity to learn. It is not mandated by our organizations or a part of any certification.  It is a choice we make.  Besides learning about drug facts, this is also an opportunity to engage in a social media campaign -- to build our skills and capacity.  A both/and.

What you can do as a prevention provider or coalition leader both online and offline?

• Like the NIDA's Drug Facts page on Facebook
• Post to facebook or twitter, and ask your friends/followers to repost or retweet your update to their circles so we experience the ripple effect
• Repost (share) and retweet the postings of others including NIDA - it only takes a click.
• Post a blog update about this special event. Not sure what to say? NIDA has prepared some drafts to get you started. 
• Share the Drug Facts Quiz link via twitter, facebook, your website or blog. (English AND Spanish)
• Visit the Sara Bellum Blog and share the link with your circles, especially youth for whom the blog is designed. 
• If you have a digital newsletter, do an e-newsblast to alert your circles of influence and community partners.
• Having a staff meeting? Host a conversation about drug facts week. Encourage staff to take the Drug Facts Challenge.
• If you're having a coalition meeting, host a conversation among members and provide the link to the NIDA website so they too can join in.

 
Are you new to social media and uncertain about what to say? Visit NIDA's CyberShoutOut page. They've helped by providing drafts to help get you started.  There's blog drafts, suggested tweets and facebook updates and logos/images.  Use or edit them to fit your networks.

Is social media really not your thing? That's okay. You can follow tweet postings here (you do NOT need a twitter account to follow the conversation.

Most of all talk with the people around you about these facts, they may not know what you know as a prevention professional or coalition leader, talk about it -- learn together. Spread the knowledge. Invite inquiry.

What'd I miss?
What other ideas do you have for encouraging learning and amplifying the facts about drugs using social media?