Tag Archive - groundswell

Texting the VP Announcement…Brilliant!

August 11, 2008 in Uncategorized with 5 Comments

Politics aside, someone in Barack Obama’s campaign clearly understands viral marketing, social media, and the “groundswell.” And his campaign has just figured out a way to reach an audience and communicate a message to that I think McCain clearly doesn’t understand or underestimates.

This is brilliant.

Obama Plans Novel VP Announcement TXT

Four years ago, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) announced his vice presidential nominee, then Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.), at a morning rally in Pittsburgh.

How times change.

Last night, in a cell phone text message that was quickly followed by an e-mail linking back to a new page on his Web site — my.barackobama.com/vp — aides to Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) campaign wrote: “Barack will announce his VP candidate choice through txt message between now & the Conv. Tell everyone to text VP to 62262 to be the first to know! Please forward.”

Note three things: the casual reference to the candidate (“Barack”); the call to “forward” the text (to friends, relatives, etc.); the perceived personal appeal of being “the first to know”; and the timing — the text was sent two weeks before the Democratic National Convention kicks off. That gives plenty of time for the text to be passed around.

It also gives the Obama campaign one more way to differentiate itself technologically from its Republican opponent; Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) doesn’t have a text messaging program.

POST: Re-Structuring and Moving Collective Muse

July 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 2 Comments

We define the four-step POST process for creating strategies–people, objectives, strategy, and technology–and reveal why starting with the technologies is a mistake.

That is the advice I wish I would have read 6 months ago as I was thinking about creating the college ministry network Collective Muse.

I came across it in the must read book Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.

In it they have developed the acronym POST which stands for the following:

P=People
O=Objectives
S=Strategy
T=Technology

When creating strategies for social media this is the process they recommend. Most of us think about the technology first, rather than thinking about the people who may use it. At least I do that. Hopefully not any more though.

But to create a community one was must think about the people first, and what objectives and strategies will help you accomplish your goal. Will your people create content, or do they prefer to respond? Do they respond, or do they just like to read? Lots of things to think about. I just thought about technology because I love college ministry and wanted to gather college leaders from around the country…not taking into consideration if it was/is the right tool for them, and whether or not there is something already available for them.

With that in mind I also realized through reading this book that fostering online community takes time, of which I don’t have tons of with two jobs, a family and lots of interests.

So I have decided to move Collective Muse to a Christian site that is built around gathering people around their passions…ROOV. What is ROOV? ROOV is:

Roov.com is an online community that connects like-minded individuals around shared experiences and passions within their church and cities.

You can now find Collective Muse on ROOV by going to ROOV and searching for Collective Muse, or clicking on this link when you are logged in.

I hope by moving Collective Muse to ROOV several things can be accomplished:

  1. I don’t have to be responsible for maintaining a whole network (coding, providing content, fixing bugs, etc.)


  2. The network doesn’t revolve around me, but is decentralized on an already existing site. I will still have to work part of this out though as I created Collective Muse on ROOV. But for now, I suggest people just add Collective Muse as a friend and we begin to gather around our passions related to college ministry.


  3. You will find lots of people interested in college ministry who never would have joined Collective Muse, and you will find other things you are passionate about.


  4. We are joining a new and exciting network (ROOV) which is devoted to gathering Christians around their passions, and moving them towards action. So it’s a good base to start with.


  5. By being a part of ROOV, hopefully it will be more than a group that people simply join because they are interested, but that our interests and passions drive us towards actions, and opportunities to gather.


Last, I know that there are many groups that you can join, and that by doing so takes time that you sometimes don’t have. So I apologize for moving Collective Muse off a Ning, a site which you spent time joining, but I appreciate your interest, and I know that in the long run that making this move is much smarter than staying on a site that is not very active.

Sometimes we so much want to create something new, but often there are already tools and sites that exist. And so sometimes it’s better to join those that are already doing a great work. ROOV is doing a great work and has a lot of potential. So those of us who love college ministry I hope we can gather around Collective Muse on ROOV as well as others who are passionate about this topic.

And hopefully, the more I do this, the better I get at it, and the less mistakes I make.

The “groundswell” is about relationships, not just technology

June 24, 2008 in Technology-Social Media with 0 Comments

I just posted this at Leadership Network’s book blog, so please take a look.

Li
So as you may or may not have noticed I have been on a reading spree with books that discuss new web 2.0 technologies and how they are influencing leadership, especially in the church (sidenote, this is the first book that I have read with my new Amazon Kindle; talk about new technologies are changing things).  The most recent book is Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies.  The book is co-authored by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff of Forrester Research.  Charlene has a very popular blog and is considered one of the leading experts in social media and technologies, so I was very interested in reading what all the buzz has been about.

This is book is focused around the idea of the "groundswell":

Simply put, the groundswell is a social trend in which people use
technologies to get the things they need from each other instead of
from companies. If you’re in a company, this is a challenge.

This is not only an interesting challenge if you are a company, but an interesting challenge if you are a church, since people within the church no longer need to go through the leadership or hierarchy of the community to get things done. With new technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, wikis, blogs, etc, more and more people within churches are taking action and doing things on their own or with a group of people.  The days where the flow of information, content and decision making travel through the pastor and the leadership are coming to an end if they haven’t already.  With this in mind, Charlene and Josh use this book to teach companies three important things:

  • Part One: Understanding the Groundswell
  • Part Two: Tapping the Groundswell
  • Part Three: The Groundswell Transforms

As a leader in the church I think this book is a must read.  And even though they are talking more about companies, churches can easily be inserted.

There is a lot of great research and application in this book such as the categories that make up the people online which is important to know when you are determining what type of technological tool you are going to use to reach your audience.

  • Creators
  • Critics
  • Collectors
  • Joiners
  • Spectators
  • Inactives

Throughout this whole book one thing kept sticking in my mind and it was this statement by them throughout the book:

It’s important to understand these technologies, but the technologies are the detail, and it’s tempting to get sucked into the detail.  So many words have been written about blogs and blogging, social networks, and user-generated content that you might think that understanding those technologies will equip you for the new world.

Wrong.

First, the technologies change rapidly. And second, the technologies are not the point. The forces at work are.  Like the jujitsu master, you must understand how bodies move, not just learn a single block or throw.  You must develop a feel for the groundswell.

With that in mind, here’s the principle for mastering the groundswell: concentrate on relationships, not the technologies.

In the groundswell, relationships are everything.  The way people connect with each other–the community that is created–determines how the power shifts.

That last quote is brilliant.  Technology is great, but it’s not about the technology, but about the relationships.  How leadership is carried out in the church is embedded in relationships, and now with the use of new technologies many relationships are changing.  So do your church a favor and read up on how you can best capitalize on the shifting relationships and technologies that those around us are using.

Why the “Groundswell” Within The General Assembly 218 is Going to Unsettle the PC(USA)…Hopefully!

June 22, 2008 in Ministry-Theology, Technology-Social Media with 2 Comments

Irony: streaming shot of hundreds of laptops at #GA218…all unconnected to the world. Metaphor for the PCUSA?

That’s the quote I came across by Neal Locke on Twitter last night. He was commenting on PC(USA)-218th General Assembly, and I thought it was a brilliant observation. One can’t help watch the 218th General Assembly, or have been involved in some PC(USA) church and politics without having thought the same…the ordination process alone demonstrates how unconnected to the world the PC(USA) can be at times. There are always some exceptions, but those sometimes seem far and few between.

That’s why I was excited last night that Bruce Reyes-Chow was elected Moderator. Bruce is someone who is connected to the Church and the World. This was an important decision for the PC(USA), and since I was on staff of Bel Air Presbyterian Church for 7 years, and I will be on staff of another PC(USA) Church in Dallas, it’s important to me that as a denomination we are headed in the right direction.

One of the most frustrating things about the way the PC(USA) has operated is the way that many within the system choose to exclude via lack of communication with those who aren’t technically part of the system. It’s a classic system of the “have and have nots”, based often around who is ordained and who is not, or who has power and who does not.  Communication is very important, and when we choose to exclude others from the discussions, decision making, etc., then I think we are headed in the wrong direction.

I started thinking about a lot of this last night for several reasons:

  • Bruce Reyes-Chow is a phenomenal blogger and he understands the importance of communication, and not keeping everything behind closed doors to only executive staffs and personnel committees, but he truly knows how to speak to the people and empower them.


  • Last night I followed The General Assembly on a GA218 Twitter Meme. I was getting live updates from within the assembly which was great. I think the PCUSA tries to keep stuff in-house a lot of times and when they do make it public it is very controlled. Last night people were sharing their personnel commentary on the assembly, the PC(USA) and those running for Moderator.  It was a classic example of people using social tools to bypass the institution. It’s one thing to show it live, it’s another thing when people can comment on it both constructively and critically.


  • If that wasn’t enough I was following the General Assembly as well on the GA218 Scribble Live site, as people could contribute an ongoing dialogue to what was happening, etc.


  • Then there were many live bloggers, but I was mainly glued to Adam Walker Cleaveland and Neal Locke.  Because of people like Bruce, Adam and Neal, I have hope for the PC(USA).
  • I know that some in the PC(USA) are thinking about this, as evidenced by the Pres-Outlook devoting an issue to web 2.0 stuff.  I wrote an article on ministry in the online world of social networking.


I just started reading Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff. It’s actually the first book that I downloaded to my Amazon Kindle, which seems appropriate since the book is focused on how new social tools are re-writing the rules of how we communicate and how organizations operate. So I want to leave you with a quote from the book that I think ties into what we are talking about here. The world is changing very rapidly, and with new and improved social tools everyday, people (the masses), not only want to have a voice, but are surely and quickly finding it. In the process they are challenging organizations, businesses, corporations and churches in the way that they have always operated.

No longer can these institutions afford to cloister themselves off and run and maintain the system with only a few voices that don’t discuss and communicate with the rest of the people.

Churches, and especially the PC(USA) needs to embrace these new technologies, and embrace the leaders who are ushering in these changes like Bruce, Neal and Adam.

From where we sit, Rick Clancy is a symbol. He and thousands of corporate executives just like him are now dealing with a trend we call the groundswell, a spontaneous movement of people using online tools to connect, take charge of their own experience, and get what they need–information, support, ideas, products, and bargaining power–from each other. The groundswell is broad, ever shifting, and ever growing. It encompasses blogs and wikis; podcasts and YouTube; and consumers who rate products, buy and sell from each other, write their own news, and find their own deals. It’s global. It’s unstoppable. It affects every industry–those that sell to consumers and those that sell to business–in media, retail, financial services, technology, and health care. And it’s utterly foreign to the powerful companies and institutions–and their leaderships–that run things now.

Simply put, the groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other instead of from companies. If you’re in a company, this is a challenge.

The groundswell phenomenon is not a flash in the pan. The technologies that make it work are evolving at an ever-increasing pace, but the phenomenon itself is based on people acting on their eternal desire to connect. It has created a permanent, long-lasting shift in the way the world works.

Combination: “Revolutionary, Plus the Exective Backing”…

June 10, 2008 in Ministry-Theology with 0 Comments

This short 7 minute video with Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, authors of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies is insightful.

I tend to filter social technologies through the lens of church and ministry, and I think they say some key things.  Paraphrasing them:

  • There needs to be a revolutionary and an executive backing within a company for social technology to be implemented and supported.
  • There is a danger for companies who don’t adopt, or adapt to social technology, especially if the constituents, customers, congregation, etc. are using it.  There is a missed opportunity as well.

Check out the video: