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David Leavitt's picture

David Leavitt

Director, Social Media
If you managed to pull David away from creating online content as an active blogger and social media expert, he’d tell you that he loves to write. He’d also brag about that one time when he was invited to give a speech at the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At Weber Shandwick, David uses his journalism background to create online strategies to target audiences using social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and Wikipedia. He served for seven years as an editor at the online news service Greenwire, and two years at the National Journal, where he edited the daily syndicated news feed for MSNBC.com and Fox News. Tucked away in a box in his basement is a diploma from the University of Rochester in New York, where David graduated cum laude, majoring in media studies and minoring in journalism and history.

History

Member for
46 weeks 3 days
May 11

Geo-tagging your nonprofit

David Leavitt


Location-based social network Foursquare recently counted its 40 millionth check-in, according to a tweet from one of their developers.

Facebook is rumored to be ready to jump into the location-based market with its own product. Nobody knows for certain if it will develop its own location check-in product or integrate with existing providers such as Foursqare, Brightkite or Gowalla.

Knowing where your network of friends are at any time can be a powerful tool in increasing your perceived connectivity to your network. With location-based services becoming a large part of the social media landscape, how can nonprofits begin to use geotagging to benefit our community?

I would love to hear your ideas, but here are some initial thoughts:

  • Mobile volunteering – People enjoy showing that they are part of nonprofit campaigns (adding badges, causes to their online profiles). Use this mentality to help people show their friends what nonprofit projects they’re involved in.  “Hey I’m volunteering at a food bank at X location, come join me!”
  • Twitter advocacy –Show a locally elected official a visual map of how many people are talking about a given issue on Twitter. Put together a real-time map for politicians of incoming tweets from his or her district.
  • Geo-location games – Foursqure became popular because of its game features.  Try using the check-in feature in conjunction with events you are holding to gain karma points.
  • Community mapping – This is a popular feature in developing countries, but there is no reason why Americans can’t get involved. Use your phone and location to identify problem areas in your community and force government to fix the problems.

What are some of your geotagging ideas?

Apr 26

Miss America and social media

David Leavitt

Social Impact attended the 140 Conference in New York. We'll be sharing some insights from the conference here on this blog.

Conference organizer Jeff Pulver surprised attendees when he decided to kick off the two-day event with an unusual speaker: Caressa Cameron, Miss America 2010.

Cameron was a good choice – not only is she an avid blogger and Twitter user, but she is tasked with promoting the nonprofit Miss America Organization, which is the world’s largest provider of scholarships for women. With the job of building communities and interacting with fans, it’s no wonder Cameron has embraced social media.

When it comes to promoting a nonprofit, there’s no doubt it can help to have a celebrity on your side, let alone one with (literally) award-winning looks. But it doesn’t end there. Miss America makes a point of retweeting her fans, making them excited and more engaged to her message of education.

Although she is a celebrity, her fans get a glimpse of the “real” person on her Twitter account.

In addition to a few personal tweets sprinkled in, Cameron uses Twitter to let people know about her scheduled appearances and to spread the message. For example, her Twitter followers learned this week about her Earth Day activities, which included introducing a Green Starts Here campaign at a rally in Times Square and promoting the PepsiCo Dream Machine project, which involves placing thousands of new recycling kiosks on city streets. (Note: PepsiCo is a Social Impact client.)

I asked her about her approach to social media. Much like MC Hammer, she believes personalities need to tweet for themselves. For those of you who need proof that Twitter isn’t just a forum for geeks, Miss America insists that all her friends on Twitter. Using social media, Cameron proves that promoting issues and making a difference is cool.

Below is our e-mail conversation:

How have social media helped you inspire young people? Social media is another outlet that I can use to spread the word about causes that are near and dear to my heart, as well as a venue where the American public can get a sneak peek into my everyday life and what the job of Miss America is all about.

How many of your friends are on Twitter? All of them!

How do you deal with negative comments that come to your blog or Twitter account? It is my belief that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I cannot bend and break because of every negative thing that someone has to say. I am very secure in who I am as an individual and I know that I do this job with passion everyday, my goal is to make a difference. At the end of the day, if I've made myself and God happy, that is all I can ask for.

Is it important for you to manage your Twitter account yourself? It's important to me to manage my account because I can do it minute by minute if I choose to. There are pictures that I can share instantly. I love being able to give live updates.

Apr 23

The half-life of a tweet

David Leavitt

Social Impact attended the 140 Conference in New York. We'll be sharing some insights from the conference here on this blog.

It’s no secret that the social media age has led to an increasing shorter news cycle. But it turns out that that it’s even shorter than I thought.

According to Betaworks CEO John Borthwick, the half-life of a tweet is four minutes. What that means is that half of the total clicks of a link within a tweet come in the first four minutes of when it is posted on Twitter. Yikes!

In this fast-moving space, here are two things to keep in mind:

  • Be the audience you want to attract. As a nonprofit, you place a special value on people who proactively reach out to people to spread your message. You need to do the same, which means staying active on social media channels rather than pushing out content and walking away.
  • Pay attention to timing. The best open rates for e-mail is midday on weekdays, but there’s evidence that weekends are the best time for Facebook traffic.

With attention spans getting shorter, these steps matter more than ever.

 

 

Apr 22

Welcoming technology, rather than banning it

David Leavitt

Social Impact attended the 140 Conference in New York. We'll be sharing some insights from the conference here on this blog.

At the 140 Conference in New York this week, Chris Lehmann of the Science Leadership Academy urged people to watch what kids do at the end of the school day. They make a mad dash for their cell phones, which are often banned during the day. 

“Technology should be like oxygen,” Lehmann says. “Ubiquitous, necessary and invisible.” Rather than have math class and history class, followed by a period spent at the computer lab, why not integrate computers into all classes?

Outside of a school setting, the lesson here is about integration.

Rather than treat social media activities as separate from the rest of a nonprofit’s conventional communication strategy, they should be integrated seamlessly.

The other lesson is that I wish Lehmann had been my school principal.

MC Hammer
Apr 21

Hammertime means social media time

David Leavitt

Social Impact is attending the 140 Conference in New York. We'll be sharing some insights from this conference here on this blog. 

When it comes to social media advice, there’s no one better to seek for advice than MC Hammer.

Wait a minute. MC Hammer?

Yes, the rapper behind “U Can’t Touch This” gave solid advice to the 140 Conference attendees in New York this week. “Authenticity is important,” he told the crowd. “You need to be the person behind your own social media channels.”

Does that mean that a nonprofit’s executive director needs to personally write every tweet and Facebook update? Not necessarily. However, if the executive director doesn’t have the time to spend participating in the online conversation, it might be a better idea for other people to draft  the social media content and publish it in their own voice and with their own names attached.

Hammer said participating in social media means listening. As if to prove it, he pulled up a chair in the audience and became a conference attendee for the rest of the panel discussions that day.

 

 

Apr 20

Technology and social change

David Leavitt

Social Impact is attending the 140 Conference in New York. We'll be sharing some insights from this conference here on this blog.

The advance of online technology is often credited for helping bring about social change.

But political consultant Joe Trippi reminds us that no matter how much closer together social media has brought us, it’s still people who make things happen. “Nothing is going to change unless we change it,” he told the 140 Conference in New York this week.

On this site last month, Colin Moffett wondered aloud whether the mere fact that we’re connected to people through technology make us care more about the collective good. Based on what Trippi said, I think technology makes it easier for people to join together to make a difference. But it can’t generate a movement if there isn’t already one brewing.

Mar 16

In defense of social media

David Leavitt

Today’s Wall Street Journal questions the value of social media, quoting critics who say it’s “overrated” and that the “hype right now exceeds the reality.”

The article cites a puzzling survey finding that just 22 percent of small business made a profit last year from promoting their firms on social media. Nineteen percent claim to have lost money from their social media initiatives.

The reasoning? Businesses found that it took more time than they anticipated. Well, yes. It’s not a good idea to invite people to join an online conversation if you don’t have the time yourself to take part.

Nonprofits and businesses should participate in the social media space only if:

  • They’ve determined that’s where their audience spends its online time
  • They have the time/resources to regularly interact with fans and followers

Measuring whether it is a profitable tool can be tricky (and we could certainly put other communication tools — such as e-mail or the telephone — under the same microscope). But new data released this week shows that consumers who become a Facebook fan or Twitter follower of a brand are more likely to buy/recommend that brand.

Social media channels allow for conversation, but they don’t dictate what the conversation is. That part is up to you.

Mar 10

Who handles your social media content?

David Leavitt

Last week, CNN put these words on the screen: “HAPPENING NOW: DEPT. OF JIHAD?”

The network posed this alarming question while discussing the U.S. Department of Justice hiring attorneys who had previously represented accused terrorists. CNN host Wolf Blitzer later apologized for the on-screen graphic. It happened because on-screen banners are written by young production assistants — the people on staff with the least experience.

Yet when people turn on CNN, they often give more attention to those on-screen words than what the hosts and guests are saying. As a result, the role of writing those captions ought to fall on someone with experience and sound judgment rather than the newest employee.

It’s the same thing with social media. Social media channels can offer far more visibility for a nonprofit than their own websites, and your audience may treat a Twitter or Facebook update with your organization’s logo with the same credibility as if it appeared in a brochure or e-mail from your executive director.

It’s an important reminder to organizations about the importance of investing in seasoned staff to manage social media channels.

Feb 4

Your voice on social media

David Leavitt

Social Impact is attending Social Media Week in New York. We'll be sharing some insights from this conference here on this blog.

When an organization engages in conversation on social media sites, it is important to let the voice come from the individuals within the organization. That was the lesson today at Social Media Week.

As an example, Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg called out Best Buy’s @Twelpforce team, in which tweeting Best Buy employees help customers and offer technology advice. (We work with Best Buy, although not on this project.) Rather than speak as “Best Buy The Electronics Retail Giant,” each tweet comes from an individual within the company.

We all respond better to other people than to faceless voices. The lesson is that personal attention is what fosters more engagement in the social media space. 

 

Feb 4

Tapping into your social graph

David Leavitt

Social Impact is attending Social Media Week in New York. We'll be sharing some insights from this conference here on this blog.

For much of the last decade, foundations and nonprofits (like the rest of the online community) spent a lot of time thinking about search engine optimization – and for good reason. After all, a significant share of traffic to their sites comes from Google organic searches.

Now it’s time to think about social graph optimization as well. A social graph is the online representation of our relationships and behaviors on the social Web. The idea here is to take stock of the fans of your social media channels and use the information about their common interests to increase your visibility in that space. 

As you know, friends of your supporters/donors are more likely than the rest of the general public to become supporters/donors themselves. In order to motivate your fans to tell their own friends about the great work you’re doing, it’s important to get to know them. As for the data itself, there’s plenty of it. In fact, according to several Social Media Week panelists today, there was more recorded data in 2009 than in the entire history of humankind.

Conference attendees heard today from Mark Ghuneim, founder of Trendrr, which is one of the services collecting social graph data – but in fact there are many other options depending on your needs. As always, let us know if we can help you in this area.

 

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