The Down Side of Listening

Berkeley BreathedIf you know me, you know I love to talk. I find silence uncomfortable. Nonetheless, I often write on this blog about the power of social media for listening.

When I hear folks talk about pushing their message out through social media channels, I cringe. To me, social media isn't a channel, it's a cocktail party, where different kinds of conversations require that you LISTEN.

Of course, as any party host knows, when the party gets big enough, you have a problem: you simply can't listen to everyone. 2009 NTC keynoter Clay Shirky talks about this in Here Comes Everybody:

What's in a Conversation?

Flickr Photo: b_d_solisImagine you're at a cocktail party. Your friend introduces you to her colleague before heading off in search of drinks. You exchange names and occupations. What should you say next?

A) "Wow, that's an intersting line of work! How did you get into that field?"

B) "Yeesh! That line for drinks sure must be long. I'll go help my friend."

C) "Yeah, so the nonprofit I was telling you I work for? We're in the middle of our annual campaign. How about donating $25?"

Transparency, Stupid!

Flickr Photo: Duane StoreyJames Carville helped keep the Clinton campaign on message in 1992 by hanging a sign on Bill Clinton's door that read, in part, "The economy, stupid." That now-famous catchphrase is widely credited with giving the Clinton campaign its win. Although we don't know if it was ever taped up on any doors, I think the winning strategy for the Obama campaign was "Transparency, stupid!"

In this election, Obama rode a tidal wave of youth vote to the presidency, with 66% of voters under 30 casting their ballot for the Democrat. What the campaign realized, early and often, is that the under-thirty crowd communicates differently from the rest of us. As Allison Fine writes in Momentum, this group is "... likely to engage in two-way conversation with staff, volunteers, and clients, rather than in one-way broadcasts, the style of communication most often used by organizations now."

This meant two things for the campaign.

We Are Media Toolbox: Video Sharing

Let's close out this week of We Are Media goodness with a really fun one: video sharing!

I have to confess I have no idea how I lived my life before this:

It's About the Future, Not the Past

Flickr Photo: paurianMuseums get a bad rap as purveyors of the past. I'd guess most of us, when we think about museums at all, think about dusty old things. But the very best museums tie all that old stuff to the world we live in today, and the future we're creating.

It's a lot like our roles as non-museum nonprofits: we sift through all the information and data out there to find what matters for our communities -- and make it relevant.

Part of that is the selection process, choosing what we'll showcase. The other part is how we design our display, or communicate what we're showcasing.

Another way of saying this: How people get your message is as important as what you're saying.