Manifesto: Social Media and Jewish Organizations

I "virtually attended" this year's JFNA General Assembly via Twitter, specially noting the tweets about the social media workshops and the night-time Tweetup: the sense of excitement was palpable, not just that people who already use Twitter showed up for drinks, but that there were many older people there, people who were less experienced with social media, but wanted to learn. 

There was a time in my life when I might have considered myself primarily a freelance writer. But as Jewish journalism struggles with its relationship to technology, it has also cut back on freelance budgets. Although I still primarily define my life's work as writing, this year I've done more paid work in blogging, social media and online marketing/PR consulting than I have Jewish journalism. My clients have been individuals and non-profit organizations, have hailed from both New York, Los Angeles and Canada, as well as Israel. (Some L.A. clients I still haven't met in person). Nearly all of my work is through personal referrals - people who trust my expertise and approach and refer me to other people they know and are inspired by. I felt comfortable moving to L.A. last October because I had "met" enough people online to build a community with offline, even starting over in a new city. This world - of social referrals and connections - is my professional and personal world, but increasingly, it's how we all live. 

It was for this reason that "You Can't Tweet Your Way Out of This Dilemma," Gail Hyman's post in eJewishPhilanthropy, caught my attention and inspired what has become a somewhat lengthy post about social media's culture and impact potential for individuals and Jewish organizations. 

Hyman writes (emphasis mine):

The good news is that lots of people who either wanted to ignore or minimize the importance of the rapid rise in social media, are now paying attention. The not-so-good news is that they are stressing over their own ignorance about how to effectively use the new tools, how to respond to pressures from some of their younger, hipper supporters to get proficient and get onboard, and most importantly worrying about where to find the talent to lead their newly important technology-driven marketing and communications efforts and make them look good.

Stress over ignorance

While this fear and stress is true for some organizations, I've found a steady demand from Jewish organizations who need decently-priced, accessible expertise to help them understand the culture of social media and suggest solutions to take them to the next level. (I know that some of my colleagues, including my friends at Darim Online, will agree.) These organizations are a delight to help, because they a) are forward-thinking enough to consider what their futures look like in the technology age, and b) acknowledge that they need someone to help who can respect organizational history and still offer solutions that will advance their mission. To invoke the old "how many psychologists does it take to change a lightbulb" joke, "the lightbulb has to want to change." The culture of change is very difficult to embrace, but if there's anything that Jews believe across denominational lines, is that ignorance is not a chronic condition, and learning is good. 

How to use the tools

Not every organization needs a blog or a  Twitter account. That's right, I said it. Although I personally believe in the transformative power of blogs, Facebook and Twitter, I don't get a toaster for every 100 people I convince to join. While these tools may not be right for everyone, I do believe that every communications department (at least) needs to understand what these tools are, how they work, what special vocabulary might be filtering into the vernacular (the OED just announced their "word of the year": "unfriend") and what these tools achieve for other organizations, before they rule them out. "I've investigated it and it doesn't look like the right fit for our constituents" is a valid excuse; "I can't be bothered to learn a new technology" isn't. However, if you do commit to using these tools, you have to maintain them in a way that enables them to be effective. If you're going to set up a Twitter account and never give your followers anything worthwhile, there's no point. 

How to respond to their younger, hipper supporters

It's not necessarily about youth, or "NextGen" recruitment. It's about a person's communication style. Communication isn't a top-down endeavor anymore - it's bi-directional, creating an unprecedented opportunity to grow a deeper relationship through feedback. Facebook's older audiences are growing - one website indicates 513% growth in the 55+ sector in the first six months of 2009, while noting a dropoff among younger users (likely because anywhere that their parents go regularly becomes a little less cool - which might be its own lesson for Jewish organizational life). And I know many people in their 20s and 30s who don't use Twitter, or who still won't visit my blog unless I sign them up for an email that goes straight to their inboxes. (There are even a select few who won't join Facebook. O the humanity.) 

Generally, people who don't use social media tools opt out not because they think they're worthless, but because they're afraid of the learning curve, the time commitment or privacy issues. These are valid concerns, which I've decided are risks worth taking to expand communications and platform, but which, for them, is not how they want to spend their time. But what is important is reaching your current (and if you're interested in expansion, your future) audience, listening to what they want and need, and giving them information that's of practical, educational, spiritual or emotional value consistent with your organizational mission. Social media makes all of this - listening, responding, and connecting on a deeper level - possible to a degree never before possible.

Where to find the talent

It's like Dorothy said, if you ever go looking for your heart's desire again, look close to home. (That's a paraphrase, but you know how wordy Dorothy gets.) Hyman wrote that "some of the most talented young tech-savvy talent have left the Jewish community because there were no career advancing opportunities, few champions for their ideas, and little in the way of compensation to keep them inside the tent." People disengage for many reasons, primarily after being mistreated, underestimated, underpaid or most infuriatingly, being ignored in conversations of "how can we get younger members." I stayed because interesting opportunities found me, mostly through my social media activity.

Organizations with younger employees should seek out their opinions and expertise. Not always do younger people have specific expertise with social media strategy, but growing up with computers can lend a more instinctive understanding of how technology can help. Plus beyond that, if you're looking for younger members, it makes sense to find out what they want. Yet, so many people resist using their in-house resources as a focus group, instead preferring to limit people to the jobs they were hired for. In many cases, this strategy is self-defeating.

Outside the internal networks are a number of organizations emerging that foster innovative youngish Jewish endeavors (many of which I've worked with) - ROI, PresenTense, Joshua Venture, Bikkurim, Jumpstart, UpStart Bay Area, and the late PLP are just a few of the ones I can rattle off without even doing an online search. Each boasts a large network of talented individuals with skills that could immeasurably enrich Jewish organizational life, if organizations were open-minded enough to seek out and accept the help.

Moving forward and making yourself look good

If you're looking to a social media tool alone as the cure to what ails your organization, you're probably going to be disappointed. But if you're looking to use social media's strengths as part of a larger context of relationship-building, then you should start by listening to the conversations. I propose three stages.

In Stage 1, you "lurk," or "eavesdrop," or check in with social media on a regular basis, to listen. You're Jane Goodall: you observe, you take notes, you learn. You develop what I like to call an "ambient awareness" of social media - minimized on your desktop while you do other things, or music you play in the background until you get used to it. 

In Stage 2, you begin to engage. When you don't understand something, ask the question into the ether and see what the universe provides. You look for ways to make the information more accessible to you, whether it's on your desktop or on your mobile device. You interact one on one with the people who impress you, or who make comments on things you care about, and you begin to build relationships with the people you follow, and certainly with those who follow you. 

In Stage 3, social media is part of your daily routine, but with the added excitement of never knowing exactly what you'll find. It could be becoming one of the first people to hear about a celebrity death or attending a distant conference by Twitter proxy. At this stage, you know that social media can deliver insider information about trends, refer you to professionals who come with a social stamp of approval, grant access to conversations by passionate people, and give the chance to build new and deepen already-existing relationships with people and organizations grappling with the issues and challenges facing in our community in the 21st century. Social media works best when we use it to express ourselves authentically, making ourselves - and each other - look good.

Your responses always welcome here in the comments section, or contact me via email (esther.kustanowitz on gmail), or on Facebook and Twitter.

Comments

[Lisa Colton]

Amen, sister. I hear you on all of the above. I am amazed at how this year the social media awareness has "tipped". Conferences are not only more fun with social media, but everyone recognizes it's central and "normal" and even "important", even if they aren't participating. I agree with seeking the younger staff to assist. But I urge leaders not to blindly delegate this task to younger staff and walk away. Sit your tush down next to them and learn. Looking forward to Boot Camp, Esther!

[EstherK]

Excellent point, Lisa - upper management must be involved...it was also an oft-repeated theme at the recent Digital Hollywood and 140 Characters conferences that I went to...

Looking forward to spending time with you at NJ Boot Camp...

[William Daroff]

Great Great post, Esther! I just posted this, in response to Gail Hyman's post (& the comments) on ejewishphilanthropy.com:

Thanks Gail for this post (and Dan too!) — I’m always happy to talk social networking!

Very briefly: I don’t think you need to stalk Miley Cyrus or Jonas Brothers concerts to find tech talent. Each and every one of us can become Twitter gurus, if we want to dedicate some time to figuring it out — and if we have something to say. For the most part, this is all so new that there aren’t any wrong answers — or at least not many. Open an account, check out the scene, and start messaging. It’s really not brain surgery. And, it’s very diffciult in 140 characters to cause much damage. As someone who has made a few headlines for tweeting some things that I hadn’t planned on making headlines with, let me assure you that I survived & lived to tweet another day. You can too.

I just read an excellent blogpost by my pal Esther Kustanowitz that I commend to everyone on this subject. She is right-on-the-mark: http://estherkustanowitz.typepad.com/myurbankvetch2005/2009/11/manifesto.html

[Susanne Goldstone Rosenhouse]

Loved this! Good points all around. Being one of those "younger employees" who have had the social media responsibilities luckily fall onto my lap, I'm proud to say that our "upper management" is fully engaged (sending tweet suggestions even!) and just as excited as I with the direction our social media branch has taken. The more Jewish orgs that can embrace SM to improve their successes, the better! Yasher Koach/Job Well Done for all your hard work helping them all, Esther!

Susanne Goldstone Rosenhouse
NJOP's Social Media Coordinator
@JewishTweets and Jewish Treats

[Noah David Simon]

it's a little late in the game to introduce an analysis on "Social Media". Dissection for the sake of dissection is the science of navel gazers afraid to say anything. "Jewish Social media" needs to come out of it's cave of self reference and say what they need to say before "Goldstone" says it for you. If you bring a close relationship around desert pastries and post modern "Art" you are foolish because of intimacy in this form of communication. Social media works for people who know what they are about. if you have guised your marketing along the lines of being a coffee bar hipster and realized who you were... then you are in trouble with your audience. people aren't afraid of social media. they are afraid of honesty and intimate ongoing relationships brings that out. marketing and PR would have very good reason to be skeptical of close relationships. the Chris Brogans of the world will market their little tech meet ups, but in the end they offer nothing but a vapid shell for vapid people without an identity. in the same slant the Loren Feldman's of the world frame a fraud argument of dissent that really is nothing but "Black Face" racism and stereotypical prejudices meant to provoke the inner demon. Neither angle on the social media landscape holds any water, but rather creates a broad audience where no real ideas are exchanged.

[Matt Bar]

Yoski. Perhaps not facsimilely, but wisps and moments of young and hip trickle from my whirl-pool in a tree; nevertheless, I didn't start messing with facebook but 2 years ago. Esther was my first intro to the thing. I'm still learning a lot but suddenly with 2,100 Bible fans we've been able to do a lot of minor 'co-creations' with our fans (Bible Raps nation). For example, for Yom Hashoa, we asked people to 'bring 6 million down to earth' by converting the number into an intelligible reference like '6 million years ago there wasn't even humans.' The responses we've gotten so far are amazing and it felt nice being able to begin a semblance of a 'virtual Beit Midrash,' which is something we hope to be a part of. Look for that song written by us and 'the nation,' soon. Thanks Esther. Great article.