I have realized that every week I get the opportunity to interact with some amazing people, and learn a lot of really valuable lessons- In this weekly mash-up, I would like to share with you some of the most valuable insights!
I would love to hear the most valuable thing you learnt this week! This blog is all about community and your insights and stories are why I write! :)
Event or Campaign… Document Everything!!
I heard this message from two great perspectives this week, both whom have achieved great online and offline campaigns…
Documenting a Good Cause Event: Five Hole for Foods
Last year, Richard Loat created a charity organization called “Five Hole For Food”. Their purpose: drive across Canada hosting city street hockey games to raise food for FoodBanks across the country. #FHFF is quickly gaining momentum and is almost entirely marketed and promoted via social media. From corporate sponsors, getting the right people on board, and generating the momentum in every city, Five Hole has developed a powerful brand through leveraging connections made in online channels.
Richard gave a great presentation last night at the Fraser Valley Social Media Meetup where he stressed the importance of documenting everything on their trip, and sharing these expeirences through multiple channels. With the Five Hole campaign this has been a great way to sustain momentum across the whole country. Between tweeting, blogging, facebooking, TV interviewing, video blogging, and pictures– Richard and his team are able to keep the whole country engaged and excited about what is going on, even if they are on the other side of the country.
Using a diverse set of channels is also very important for two reasons:
- It gives the campaign/event the ability to reach different people in different spaces, some may be connected across platforms, but others will only be following your campaign via one channel.
- Everyone engages differently, therefore the story you tell via your blog will resonate with some and not others, those other people may be more connected to your tweets or YouTube video. Let people connect with your brand and your movement through their preferred style of engagement!
Richard discussing Five Hole with Teri (@TLCHome), leader of FVSM!
Documenting and the Power of a Movement
At the Vancouver Social Media Club I had the opportunity to listen to Ajay Masala Puri share about what it takes to build a successful movement! Ajay has been responsible for many great movements that began online and were executive with great success offline. Again, Ajay shared the value of documenting the movement. There is so much momentum that can be generated online leading up to a big campaign or movement. The event is the culmination of all of this momentum coming together, and as mentioned above there are multiple opportunities to document this energy. Documenting and sharing the campaign is a great way to extend the momentum and bring the energy back online. A great way to document this “post-event buzz” is building a hashtag into the movement and using it throughout the whole process (pre/during/post).
General Thoughts and Insights
Some other great tips from Ajay on movement building:
- Take a complex idea and a big picture and simplify it into something that people can understand and identify with. You can then take this idea online and generate momentum with a larger audience, when it is time to execute, you bring the idea back offline for the final event. Documention allows you to continue the momentum back online afterwards!
- Use analytics to tailor your storytelling and idea to every channel
Thoughts from Nimisha Mukerji, co-director of 65 Red Roses (at the #SMCYVR):
Kemp Edmonds: Gave great advice on being creative about crowd source funding. Be unique and get people interested and excited in your cause, find creative ways to engage and movitave people to give to a good cause! Take the time to develop a catchy and effective crowd sourcing campaign!
Personal Inspiration 140 Characters at a Time!
- The relationships you invest in and build are what make life so exciting
- If you understand social media, you have an opportunity to have a one on one engagement with anyone in the space.
- In the social media world, that extra minute that you take to learn something unique about someone and begin a real dialogue, sets you apart from the crowd!
- Instinct and intuition are so important and powerful- better knowing who you are will make these tools more useful.
- Listen for the opportunities your clients give you to surpass expectations… “I’m not sure you can do this… Our last business could not do this… This would be ideal…” and surpass them every time!
The final word!
This was definitely the quote that resonated with the most people over the past week, so it is where i will leave this weekly leadership and social media Mash Up! Thank you!
Personal growth comes from surrounding yourself with people who will push and challenge your limits
