While I am lucky to come home this summer with enough energy to pour a bowl of Cheerios for dinner since starting my new position coordinating a new and expanding corporate cause platform, Groupon’s G-Team, I am always impressed with head of Twitter’s social innovation, Claire Diaz-Ortiz, and her energy towards her work.
I first came across Claire when I was exploring the corporate cause world this winter during my job search. Claire’s story was empowering because she shares with me a nonprofit background and an eloquence for leveraging her experience into a vision of cause campaigns in social media and corporate cause-driven innovation.
Her founding of Hope Runs, an East Africa organization operating in AIDS orphanages, and her following MBA from Oxford’s business school as Skoll Foundation Scholar for Social Entrepreneurship, culminates today in the release of Claire’s second book, Twitter for Good: Change the World One Tweet At A Time.
And for today only (starting at midnight on Tuesday, September 6th), an electronic download of Twitter for Good is available for FREE (yes I said this four letter word – FREE) on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
Claire shares with me some insights about how social media like Twitter is changing the landscape of cause campaigns. She offers some context for a new strategy for tweeting for good that she calls T.W.E.E.T. in Twitter For Good; this acronym stands for target, write, engage, explore, and track, which you can read more about in her new book.
Here is my interview with Claire:
How do you see social media most impacting how nonprofits are raising funds and gaining awareness for their mission-driven work?
Social media and new media mean that the reach potential of a given organization is far greater than it ever was before. Organizations who respond well to this (and maximize these opportunities while still remembering that social media is about relationships) have the best shot at success.
What do you see as the biggest challenge in integrating social media like Twitter in existing fundraising & nonprofit marketing strategies?
I think that many people new to social media don’t understand that the same rules which apply to regular face-to-face relationships apply in social media. Would you sit down with someone at a dinner party and immediately ask them for a donation? Probably not (unless it was a fundraising dinner!). And yet on social media people seem to do that all the time. i.e. “Here I am! I’m on Twitter! Give me money STAT!” Even when it’s slightly less subtle, it’s still a problem.
What is the most exciting aspect of the world of social media for social good?
I think that the most exciting aspect is surely the chance for new innovation. Social media and new media by definition are nascent fields, and that gives us an incredible opportunity to innovate in how we support social good efforts. I, for one, am excited to see what’s coming next!
Online companies can (and should, I believe) be engaged in CSR efforts in the same way that a traditional brick and mortar company does. Honestly, strictly “traditional” brick and mortar companies are more or less falling by the wayside these days, and the vast majority of successful companies have a new media presence. Thinking of your abilities to do good online as well as offline only increases the potential for impact.
I’m positive that after I read Twitter for Good, I will have more drive to make dinner besides a bowl of Cheerios. Maybe I’ll make a casserole, homemade lentil soup, or perfect a new dish that requires something beyond milk and a bowl. Will you tell me what you are able to do after you read Twitter for Good?
Did you miss the free offer?
Don’t fear! Enter to win a copy here.
