Today I have been reflecting on the words of the late South African President Nelson Mandela (see above) and President Barack Obama (see below).
“You can choose a future where more Americans have the chance to gain the skills they need to compete, no matter how old they are or how much money they have. Education was the gateway to opportunity for me. It was the gateway for Michelle. And now more than ever, it is the gateway to a middle-class life.”
Their wise words remind me how grateful I am to my parents and my ancestors for blessing me with the opportunity to receive as much education as I desired. The education I received as a student at Kenmoor Elementary School, Kenmoor Junior High School, Elizabeth Seton High School, Morgan State University, Howard University School of Law, and Georgetown University Law Center became my gateway for pursuing a diverse career path as a lawyer, investment banker, knowledge manager, business consultant, artist, author, nonprofit senior program officer, yoga teacher, Reiki practitioner, and digital communications professional. My education was a gateway to #FierceLiving … being too bold for boundaries.
Photo Credit: WhiteHouse.gov
I was truly blessed to receive financial support from my parents for my primary, high school, college, and law school education. I used a student loan to pay for my graduate law degree at Georgetown and spent several years paying off the debt. Those were lean years for me. Nowadays students are faced with enormous debt. College affordability is a huge challenge. These two factors create barriers for people to obtain a higher education.
Education, college affordability, and reducing student loan debt are three areas I am passionate about supporting online and offline. My passion is rooted in who I am as a daughter of two educators and an aunt to a niece in college with student loan debt and nephews in elementary school who will most likely face student loan debt. They are the reasons I applied to participate in the White House (#WHSocial) Tumblr Social on June 10 where President Obama will engage with Tumblr followers in his first-ever Tumblr Question and Answer session on education, college affordability, and reducing student loan debt. Tumblr CEO David Karp will moderate the session.
Guess what happened this afternoon?
The White House selected me to participate as social media leader in the #WHSocial. So be sure to follow me on my Tumblr blog and as @anandaleeke on Instagram and Twitter next Tuesday starting at 3:30 p.m.
Today I am celebrating the creativity of natural hair entrepreneur Evette Chambers, my loctician for the past 10 years. Evette is the founder of City Kinks, a Washington, DC-based natural hair salon.
Photo Credit: Evette Chambers
Her skills, style, and spirit are OUTSTANDING. She is a positive inspiration and a natural-born connector who believes in sharing the wealth. She supports her clients in many different ways such as facilitating health and political awareness sessions, encouraging people to follow their passion, sharing information, promoting client businesses and events, and hosting client gatherings. Her generosity of spirit and commitment to community building make her a true blessing!
Did you know that she was featured in Essence Magazine and its special hair issue?
What more can I say about her?
She rocks!
Photo Credit: Evette Chambers
Check out my before and after photos from my session with Evette on Wednesday. My hair is healthy and beautiful because of her great work and teachings. For the past several months, I have been having a deep love affair with her creative expression of an elegant French braid. It is easy to care for and makes me feel “femme chic.” Also, I have received so many compliments on this style. It is definitely one in a million!
Here is a photo of Evette’s creative interpretation of a classic bun that was taken in 2013. As you can tell from my facial expression in the photo, visiting City Kinks is always a fun-filled experience. She infuses her “joie de vivre” into everything she does!
Today’s blog is all about social media and nonprofit digital storytelling.
What is social media?
Social media is a means of communication that builds and enhances relationships online and offline. Social media relies on content. Content includes ideas and information. Social media tools help communicate ideas and share information. Social media allows you to have a conversation with others about ideas and information. The conversations you have through social media create connections. When you cultivate the connections you have established through social media, you build community. The connections you make and communities you build through social media lay the foundation for your audience in digital storytelling.
Did you know there are seven social media secrets of nonprofit digital storytelling?
I recently gave a workshop presentation for my client, Serve DC that introduced the seven social media secrets of nonprofit digital storytelling to AmeriCorps agencies in Washington, DC. See my presentation below or click here to view it on SlideShare.
Just in case you need more information about the seven social media secrets, I have included my talking points, a how to guide on creating a social media strategy plan that I use with my clients, and several nonprofit resources.
Ananda Leeke at Serve DC Workshop, May 21, 2014
If you would like me to facilitate a workshop or give a talk for your agency, business, community, group, or organization, please contact me on 202.607.3509.
7 Social Media Secrets of Nonprofit Digital Storytelling
Secret #1: Define your social media goals (why does your organization want to use social media to tell stories?)
Secret #2: Know your audience (clients, donors, staff, Board members, funders, interns, volunteers, community and corporate partners, local citizens and organizations with shared interests, businesses, and other local stakeholders).
Secret #3: Know where your audience lives online.
Secret #4: Become your audience’s digital neighbor (maintain an active digital presence on the same social media sties that your audience belongs to).
Secret #5: Know what types of digital stories appeal to your audience.
Secret #6: Develop a plan to tell your digital stories (that includes an editorial calendar, time management tools like HootSuite to help you schedule your social media efforts in advance, any special campaigns/events/advocacy efforts, technology tools needed to create digital stories and use social media, budget and funding for technology tools, identifying staff duties for managing social media and digital storytelling efforts, social media/digital storytelling training for staff, and/or recruitment for interns and volunteers with digital communications and public relations experience).
Secret #7: Evaluate your digital storytelling efforts weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annually (document lessons learned and best practices and study what other nonprofit organizations are doing and learn from their efforts).
Creating A Social Media Strategy Plan
When I help an organization create a social media strategy plan, I use a series of questions to guide its development and execution. They are organized into six categories: goals, target audience, content, social media budget and team, social media and technology tools, and evaluating social media efforts. See below.
GOALS
What are your organization’s quarterly and annual goals?
How will social media support the goals (examples: create/curate/distribute content, engagement, network building, and promotion)?
What calls to action, campaigns, events, program initiatives, and services will be used to accomplish the goals?
What is your timeline for accomplishing the goals with social media support?
TARGET AUDIENCE
Who is your target audience for each call to action, campaign, event, product, program initiative, and/or service?
Where does your target audience reside online?
CONTENT
What type of content (articles, blogs, photos, podcasts, social media messaging, surveys, webinars, and videos) appeals to your target audience?
What are the sources of content?
Who will develop the content?
What are the content requirements for your editorial calendar on a daily, weekly, quarterly, and/or annual basis?
SOCIAL MEDIA BUDGET AND TEAM
What is your social media budget?
Who will manage, execute, and support your social media efforts (primary lead person, team members, interns, online community members, and brand/blogger ambassadors)?
What are your social media team’s skills?
What type of resources and training does your social media team need to stay updated on current and emerging social media best practices, tools, and trends?
How much time does your social media team have to commit on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and/or annual basis to the management and execution of social media efforts?
SOCIAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY TOOLS
What are the best social media tools to communicate with your target audience?
What type of technology tools (digital/web cameras, laptops, microphones, printers, smartphones, software, tablets, and time management tools) do you have and/or need to manage and execute your social media efforts?
EVALUATING SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS
Who will review your social media efforts (executive officers, social media staff, communications staff, media/public relations staff, development staff, membership staff, information technology staff, and/or online community members)?
What tools will you use to analyze your social media efforts?
How often will you analyze, modify, and review your social media efforts?
Curated Storytelling: Paper.li (electronic paper – http://paper.li) and Storify (http://storify.org – great for documenting live and online events and campaigns that use photos and videos with hashtags)
Podcasts and Audio Platforms: BlogTalkRadio (www.blogtalkradio.com – Internet radio show), SoundCloud (http://soundcloud.com – audio platform available as mobile app with limited free space), Talkshoe.com (www.talkshoe.com – Internet radio show), and VoiceBo (http://voicebo.com – free mobile app that allows you to record up to five minutes)
On May 28, I successfully completed my Prevention Magazine 28-Day Challenge. During the #28fitdays Challenge, I used social media on a daily basis to share photos of my healthy living journey.
Sharing my journey via social media strengthened my healthy living commitment, created community with other women who participated in the Challenge, provided a cheerleading choir made up of my social media friends and followers, and offered greater accountability especially on days when I felt like skipping my fitness routine. The end result is a deeper healthy living practice on my road to #FierceLiving at 50.
So what’s next for me?
I’m starting a 21-day fitness challenge called Body Reboot on June 1 to sculpt my core and increase my weekly running. I’m also planning to attend Mint Condition Day sponsored by my gym on June 7 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Marie Reed Elementary Soccer Field, 2200 Champlain Street, NW, Washington, DC. If you are in DC, click here to register for the free event. See you there!
Today I woke up hungry for the words and wisdom of Dr. Maya Angelou. So I reached for a book of her poems that kept me company during the second semester of my freshman year at Morgan State University in 1983. Her spirit guided me to her poem, “Thank You, Lord.”
Dr. Maya Angelou (1928-2014) – RIP Dr. Angelou.
Her words reminded me to say a thank you prayer for waking up another day and being inspired and influenced by her creative spirit. Her poetry and memoirs gave me permission to write and publish my own books.
Last week, I facilitated a nonprofit digital storytelling workshop for my client, Serve DC’s National Service Program Director Institute. During the workshop, I shared several key points.
Stories connect people through feelings and emotions they can relate to.
Stories cause people to reflect on their own experiences, change their behavior, treat others with greater compassion, speak out about injustice, and become involved in civic and political life.
Nonprofit digital stories use visual images, (photos, videos, infographics, maps, and other images including text printed on colorful badges) and sound recordings (music, podcasts, or audio recordings) to do four things: 1) INFORM people about an organization’s mission, work (programs and services), community outreach, news, awards, events, clients, staff, volunteers, interns, community partners, advocacy efforts, fundraising efforts, and in-kind donation campaigns; 2) INSPIRE people because they create a human connection and emotional resonance; 3) INVITE people to get involved and take action (advocate, donate, or volunteer); and 4) INFLUENCE conversations and public dialogue about issues that are important to an organization and engage people as active participants.
A nonprofit organization’s best source of digital stories is its staff, clients, interns, volunteers, Board of Directors, Advisory Committee members, donors, community partners, and other local stakeholders.
What’s your definition of digital storytelling?
Check out the photos from my workshop below. What stories do they tell?
Today, I discovered a new yoga memoir to add to my summer reading list. It’s called Yin, Yang, Yogini by Kathryn E. Livingston, an author, blogger, and yoga practitioner. Livingston’s memoir discusses how yoga transformed her life and taught her how to surrender and release the past and fear while living and trusting the present moment. I eager to read her book to learn more about her journey and how she faced the death of her parents, anxiety, breast cancer, and her children growing up and moving out of her home with yoga. Click here to learn more about Livingston and her Liv Write! blog.
Are you reading any yoga-inspired books this summer?
My #FierceLiving Fashion starts with bright colors. I love wearing bright colors when I facilitate workshops, moderate panel discussions, give talks about my books, and attend conferences. Ann Taylor Loft, Dress Barn, Forever 21, H&M, Lettie Gooch Boutique, Macy’s, Marshall’s, Target, and Violet Boutique are some of my favorite places to shop for these events.
This week, I facilitated a nonprofit digital storytelling workshop for my client, Serve DC’s National Service Program Director Institute. I wore bright colors: purple Ann Taylor Loft pants and white t-shirt, blue Dress Barn blazer, H&M gold necklace, Forever 21 gold bangles and ring, and Anne Klein black peek-a-boo wedge shoes. My vegan black bowling bag from Violet Boutique kept me company.
For the next six months, I have decided to write and publish a series of e-books. Today, I found a great article about publishing e-books on my digital sister and fellow author/blogger, Shonell Bacon’s LinkedIn page. It gave me some great tips for publishing my e-books. Click here to read it.
Do you have any plans to write an e-book? If yes, what resources are you using to write it?
What creative projects are you working on this spring and summer?
Ananda Leeke 