College | Caffeinated

Ah Seinfeld. A show about nothing and everything at the same time. It’s a timeless classic, as social awkwardness will never go out of fashion.

Now we have The Office, Community, Parks and Recreation, and soon, Parenthood. When you think about it, these are modern-day Seinfeld’s. These shows are about absolutely nothing, but in various, broad social contexts. The thing is, everyone loves them (well, we don’t know about Parenthood, but it looks pretty funny).

Know what I’m excited for? University. I just made it up, but I think it would be hilarious. I’m sick of the college shows and movies with fratty keggers and seemingly no classes. Sure, college has those moments, but the best parts are in the everyday life. The random, the silly, the ridiculous, the embarrassing (oh the embarrassing), the awkward, and so much more.

What’s your Seinfeld? What would your TV show be called, who would be in it, would it really be about nothing, or everything?

photo via flickr user nesster

Quick note: This is something I’ve thought about for awhile. I know some Community Managers, they’re my friends and I look up to them. They’re intelligent people. Hell, I’d be a Community Manager. To be cliché, I’m not trying to hate the player. I’m hating the game.

It annoys me that more and more brands are adding a Community Manager to their payroll. They shouldn’t need one. Instead, they should be investing in new product development, improved customer service, or *gasp* a better marketing scheme that encourages a community to manage itself. Yes, that means giving up control. You’re foolish if you think you have that much control in the new media landscape, anyways.

Products and services don’t need to hire Community Managers. They already have them. Use your brand evangelists- the unpaid fans of yours that like you for you (I use “you” in the sense of product/service/brand). They are the best people to lead your community. They already are leading your community. For free.

Agencies and firms don’t need to hire Community Managers. They already have them. Actually, they usually have tons of them. Look at Fast Horse. Nobody is their ‘Community Manager’, but Mike Keliher, George Fiddler, and others have done an excellent job at managing their community. Same goes for the people over at Brains on Fire. People that love working in a strong community will take it upon themselves to manage that community. You’re already paying them. They’re already a part of your community.

Take away the Community Manager. The community will still exist. The community will take care of itself, because that’s what a community does.

Focus on building a community strong enough to manage itself. Don’t focus on hiring a community hitman – an outsider. That dilutes the word “community”.

You don’t need a community manager. You need a strong community. A strong community is it’s own community manager.

Shameless plug: at the end of every post this month, I’m putting a call to action to vote for Pepsi Refresh projects. Specifically mine, obviously. You can vote for an idea once every day and have 10 votes each day. That means you can vote for my idea, or others, but preferably mine, up to 28 times.

photo credit Flickr user eva101

If you’re too lazy to read, just vote here. That has the technical details. This post is the ‘why’- why do I want to do this? Why do I think this is important.

My Dream

I have a lot of passions in life. Some more passionate passions than other passions, but all are passions nonetheless (passions!). Three of which are teaching, the power of social media, and helping others. Let’s remove the commas for a moment- teaching the power of social media and helping others. Oh, I also love good friends, meeting awesome people, and epic road trips.

Let’s do an epic road trip with good friends where we teach the power of social media to awesome people who are helping others.

I want to apply my ongoing education of social media marketing/PR strategy to local non-profit organizations (ones lacking a supporting national body). Social media holds a lot of power for social change, especially on the local level. I want to teach these organizations how to harness that power to improve participation, raise more funds, and increase awareness. Additionally, my friends and I will promote these organizations through our personal networks, shoot and produce a promotional video for them to use, and maintain contact with them should they ever need more assistance. This isn’t a one-time thing. It’s a commitment to change.

This was a no brainer for me. I started mulling this idea sometime around last October. Something about candy corn, I guess. It was simmering on my mind, wondering how it would get out, when I read about the Pepsi Refresh Project (summary- they’re giving money to good people who want to make good things happen). My dream met an escape, and the rest is, and hopefully will be, history.

Our Opportunity

Through a $50,000 grant from the Refresh Project, I can make my dream a reality. However, I can’t do this alone. I need your help. I need your friends’ help. I need your mother’s sixth cousin’s mailcarrier’s help. I’m not an organization with a following. I’m a kid with a pipe dream. A pipe dream to improve one of America’s most valuable resources- local non-profit organizations.

How can you help? VOTE EVERY DAY. Tell your friends to VOTE EVERY DAY.

Every day you get 10 votes. You can vote for 10 different ideas (no voting for one idea 10 times). Obviously, I’m writing this post to encourage, neigh, plead you to vote for my idea. Even if you think this idea sucks, vote for something. I’m not the only one with a dream. If mine doesn’t come true, someone else’s will. You can be a part of that.

But seriously, vote for my idea, please. If you have any questions or hesitations about it, post them in the comments. I am working on a page for this idea where I will lay out the specifics, and answer the questions you ask. If you have an idea on how to improve this idea, let me know. Interested in helping somehow? Let me know.

Helping Communities

The reality is, it’s a shitty time to be a localized, non-profit organization. Volunteers are lacking. Donations are down. Technology is moving so fast that it’s impossible for an ill-equipped organization to keep up.

This isn’t a plan that could be accomplished by simply sending the organizations Macbooks and video cameras. That’s like giving a landscaper the tools to build a house and expecting a nice little summer home. I want to be hands on with this project. We will spend time with the people of each organization and develop a social media strategy that’s specific to their needs.

The three key goals of every plan will be as follows: 1) improve community participation, 2) raise more funds, and 3) increase awareness. Some organizations will need help in other areas, some might be fine with participation but lack funding. Whatever each organization needs, we will tailor a strategy around that.

The Ultimate Goal

Change the way that communities interact with their local non-profit organizations. Set the standard, and an example, of change for local non-profits. Help great people to continue doing great things.

If you haven’t already, VOTE HERE. If you voted today, bookmark that and come back to it everyday. Like I said, I’m working on a special page to put up in the navigation bar, so please comment with any suggestions, criticisms, ideas, hesitations. If you are interested in helping, in any capacity, let me know in the comments.

Thank you.

News broke the other day that Bristol Palin, 19-year-old mother of one and daughter of political figure Sarah Palin, has set up her own PR firm.

Light the torches! Storm the mansion! We won’t stand for this! She’s inexperienced! Her mother is famous! She’s giving communications a bad name! Rawr! Rawr! Rawr!

This is the reaction I saw from many in the communications community. The tweets, comments, and digs at Bristol as a person made me sick. People were ready to burn her and her hours-old PR firm to the ground. It’s petty and short-sighted.

Yes, she is inexperienced. But as long as she shows a willingness to learn through mistakes, is that really a major issue? Yes, she probably has the opportunity to do this because of who her mother is. You’re willing to blame her for stepping through a door of opportunity that is open to her? And is she really giving communications and PR a bad name? Or, perhaps, the community is giving itself a bad name by lashing out at the news. People were so concentrated on shoving Bristol so far away from the communications community. I saw communications veterans, people I respect greatly, separate themselves from Bristol, instead of making an effort to reach out to Bristol, welcome her in to the communications profession, point her towards a few great resources, and so on.

Rachel Kay posted a great piece yesterday about Bristol’s first PR challenge: crisis communications for her own firm. We will learn a lot about Bristol’s intentions and motivation through how she handles this. But the irony, oh the irony, of a young communications professional having to execute crisis communications, for her own PR firm, targeted heavily at the communications community.

It would have reflected much better on us, the communications community, had we welcomed her and guided her in the right direction. We could have shown strength in our community, on a national stage, by embracing this as an opportunity- an opportunity to showcase to others the support and helpfulness that I know is within our community.

Writer’s note: this is not a ‘holier than thou’ post. I’m not denying that I had similar initial thoughts. This is also not a political piece.

Photo via Flickr user Dan Taylor