A sneak peek at The Networked Nonprofit: Beth Kanter and Allison Fine’s new book
- Fri, April 09 2010
- Filed under: Social networking and web 2.0
Here at the NTC, Beth and Allison are providing a sneak preview of their new book out this June, the Networked Nonprofit. After a funny overview of their writing process, they are sharing some highlights of the book in their session, which I’m blogging in real time.
The key points:
-We’re looking at the largest ever living generation - the Millennials. They are growing up in front of screens, and they are making social change through social media.
-This is important because it enables us to scale social change efforts inexpensively and exponentially.
So….
We need to understand networks and work with crowds.
We need to create social culture and make learning loops.
We need to listen, engage and build relationships and move from friending to funding.
We need to create trust through transparency and govern through networks.
And we need to do it with simplicity.
What does this look like in practice?
Beth told Wendy Harman’s story. She was hired post-Katrina at the American Red Cross to “make bloggers go away.” Wendy instead became really good at listening and echoing to staff what people were sharing. Staff started to see the value of social media. And it transformed the organization’s attitude toward social media. She recently led an effort across the organization to engage in social media, including with affiliates. EMTs in Haiti were tweeting updates after the earthquake: a real change.
Beth cited this as an example of a social culture, which is what we should all be aiming for. That includes transparency, as Allison pointed out. To do that, we have to face our fears of loss of control and embrace failure. When you misstep, hold a “joyful funeral,” which turns failure into learning and brings great insights for the next time.
And have a policy. Beth gave us a social media policy in one tweet-length gem: “Be professional, kind, discreet, authentic, and represent us well.”
Beth and Allison, can’t wait to see your book in print!
Comments
Hi guys,
This sounds like it’s going to be a very good book.
Kind regards,
Sam
X
What a great topic! I think this book will help a lot of people understand how to really connect with this generation and use social media effectively. It’s something I think about a lot with libraries: it’s one thing to friend the users, but what kind of connection are you really making? I think this book will help bring meaning to our web 2.0 adventures. Thanks!
I could not be more excited to read this book; I’m an avid fan of Beth’s blog and I think they will be leading the pack on a topic that will be written about a hundred times over in the next ten years. I think a big shift will occur in how people view the online world and all it’s crazy connective tissue: we have look at our jobs as non-profit bloggers, workers, supporters and engagers as community-building, rather than a network of individually humming cells. The social culture and media inundation can be a positive thing if we all handle it the right way.
I wrote about Beth’s blog here:
http://donationpay.org/blog/2010/01/why-we-love-beths-blog/
Can’t wait to read the book and keep up the great posts!
Great article. I attended an event and have video of Allison Fine and Beth Kanter book release of Networked Nonprofit in NYC last June: http://bit.ly/a2LLsg