How Do You Achieve Critical Mass in Social Media?

There is no question about it, when you first start a blog, a Facebook page, or a Twitter account, it is HARD to build up your account.  In no way does the 1980s “if you build it, they will come” philosophy work in social media.  You have to prove your worth on the social media site, and you have to put the work in to get out there and let people know you exist plus prove to them that you’re worth spending time with.

There isn’t just one thing that brings you to a critical mass.  It has to do with the quality of your posts, your ability to understand and cater to your target audience, the focus, authenticity, and consistency of your outreach efforts… and truth be told, a bit of luck.

Hitting critical mass is quick, unpredictable, and totally exciting!  And once critical mass happens, the momentum soars.  People will come to you.  It is a glorious time!

What Number Makes Critical Mass?

At LinkedIn, users get a special prize for having more than 500 connections.  Is 500 the magic critical mass number?  Do you only need 500 fans, 500 blog visitors per day, or 500 Twitter followers, before it takes on a life of its own?

I would say it depends on the quality of your posts as to whether your critical mass will be 500, 1,000 or 2,000.  High quality posts, such as those on our client TisBest’s Facebook page, quickly allowed the company to reach 500 loyal fans.  Once that happened, the Facebook fans took off on their own – telling their friends who in turn tell their friends – and quickly the TisBest fan base surpassed 1,000, and continues growing strong.  And they don’t have to try anymore – they can focus on continued quality and timely engagement.

However, we have other clients who take longer to learn how to effectively engage their audience and turn fans into advocates.  For them, it takes somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 fans before their accounts really take off unattended.  It depends quite a bit on post quality and well-timed regularity, as well as developing the skills to truly engage.

Metcalfe’s Law, Zipf’s Law, and The Long Tail

These three principles are often spoken or written about in discussions of critical mass.  In the blogging spirit of brevity, rather than fully dissecting them I’ll just give a brief summary and hope that in doing so I don’t grossly oversimplify the ideas so much that they are unrecognizable.

They are all 3 related:

• In Metcalfe’s Law, the value of a network is proportional to the square of the number of users who are connected within that network.  Fair enough: your network is only as powerful as its number of users*.  (Bob Metcalfe is attributed to inventing the Ethernet, by the way.)

• Zipf’s Law is a law of scale, where the quantity of (whatever it is you’re studying) is inversely proportional to its rank within a group of (whatever it is you’re studying).  So essentially the popularity of a word, website, or fan page follows a predictable distribution that is proportional to the popularity of all the words, websites, or fan pages.

Not terribly profound, but it does put things in perspective:  if you are a microfinance site, you can only be as popular as microfinance sites are – a microfinance blog’s fan size and growth is proportional to other microfinance blogs, and will not be proportional to a social media blog, or example.  Unless an unpredictable and large variable comes to play, social media blogs are just going to be more popular than microfinance blogs, so there is no reason to strive that high!

• The Long Tail is essentially a niche marketing strategy, coined by Clay Shirky and popularized by Chris Anderson in a 2004 Wired article and later a book by the same name.  A free market generally follows a distribution that favors the most popular 20% of retail items.
  

So think of movies:  the top 20% of movies are all that Blockbuster or Wallmart would ever care about and stock, because that’s all that works with their market model.  They can’t have a bunch of slow-selling items on their shelves for months at a time.  But then along comes Netflix, who is making a killing on the other 80% of the titles!  It costs next to nothing for Netflix to stock a whole lot of different titles due to their new kind of model.  The same is true for blogs, Facebook pages, or Twitter accounts.  So what if you aren’t in Technorati’s top 100 – you can still make a big impact.  Thanks to Netflix, there are a whole lot of documentaries that are actually getting seen – and changing people’s minds – because someone believed in the long tail.

Personally, I don’t think any one of these principles stands on its own as a guide for how we should think about critical mass in social media.  But together they do begin to paint a picture of the types of things that play a part in success.  And the greatest factor of all is still the creation and maintenance of an infrastructure of true engagement.

All three principles fall flat if they aren’t effectively set up and maintained.

*Note:  there is some argument that users do not equal Metcalfe’s original description of “compatibly communicating devices”, but we’re interpreting loosely here anyway.

Speaking of the Long Tail….

Sometimes it Just Takes One Person

At One Green Generation, I have an advocate who has brought me far.  That advocate just happens to be one of the top respected people on reddit.com.  That means every time he or she posts a link from my site, it has the potential to go up the reddit ratings very quickly.  On January 4, 2009, when many people were just starting to enact their “go green”new year’s resolutions, qgyh2 posted a link of mine, and my blog stats rose from 500 a day to nearly 3,000 in one day.

While most of those 2,500 new people did not stay and become regular readers or subscribers, a few did.  And, because there were so many people coming to the site, one or two of those reddit users also had a StumbleUpon account, and happened to have a lot of clout there.  The next day, reddit and StumbleUpon users together brought almost 5,000 people to the site.  Then more people Stumbled the post over the coming weeks and months, and still today I have at least 150 readers each day coming to read that one post.  And over those two days, my site surpassed its critical mass.

Which brings me to….

Sometimes it Just Takes One Post

Now don’t get me wrong, you can’t have a site full of crappy posts with one good one.  Yes, people will come and read that good one, but they won’t stick around.  Overall quality needs to be paramount.  It is important to occasionally spend quite a bit longer to write a well-researched, well-laid out article that people will pass on to their friends.  These longer, deeper articles are ALWAYS the ones that end up Stumbled, reddited, and bringing in hits long after I’ve posted the article.

But note that these posts will generate high traffic only if they come at the right time, and when you’ve already hit critical mass.

Typical articles that work well in this category are How To or Top Ten articles.  They’re also articles that get to the heart of whatever field your blog plays within.  And finally, something I have never done, they are the posts that list a lot of other bloggers and essentially bolster their egos.  Magazine and newspaper blogs do this:  The Top 100 Bloggers of the Year, for example.

And one final note:  it’s rarely predictable when critical mass will happen, and when a post will go “viral.”  You can’t get disappointed if you spend 24 hours creating the best article you’ve ever written, and it doesn’t get any play at all.

Viral Happens More On Some Days Than Others

Watch your site stats.  Watch your comments.  When is there the most activity on your site?  What time of day do your readers most like to read your posts?  Answer these questions, and then make sure your most important articles are posted during the peak times.

If your site is virtually dead on a Sunday, don’t post the article on Sunday.  If it peaks on Wednesday afternoon (many sites do), post on Wednesday morning so it’s there and waiting.

Don’t Discount SEO

The intricacies of SEO are for another post, but I encourage you to not take SEO lightly.  Some of my most loyal readers came to my blog via a recipe they found on Google, or a solution for how to get rid of ants sustainably on Yahoo.  How do I know this?  They have told me so.

Follow Your Own Path

I want to conclude this article by recognizing the incredible human-ness of the internet and every social media site.  The internet is people, through and through.  People are not always predictable.  And people are not always good predictors.  So write good articles and posts that follow best practices, write them frequently, tell your friends and acquaintances about them, and have the infrastructure in place that allows for good strong engagement.  If you do all of those things well, and have a little patience, you’ll probably do just fine!

Have You Experienced Critical Mass?

Please share your tips with all of us, or ask questions if you have them!

In 2001, Washington experienced a 6.8 magnitude earthquake. Although some infrastructure and buildings required extensive repairs, not a single life was lost. When compared to the tens of thousands of lives lost in the 7.0 magnitude quake in Haiti, it is clear that poverty was a key factor.

Already one of the poorest countries in the world, our neighbors in Haiti need our help.  They have lost their government, their roads, their homes, and – I would imagine – their hope.  And we can do something for them.

Seattle Greendrinks, SeaMo, Re-Vision Labs, and Global Washington have joined together to co-host “Washington for Haiti” in recognition of the urgent need for support.

Some may ask why it is necessary to hold an event, rather than just encouraging direct donations. We agree that direct donations are critically important, but we feel compelled to provide an opportunity for the Seattle community to gather and learn from experts and witnesses, since the more we know about the tragedy, the more likely we are to commit to supporting the long term changes needed to ensure that a disaster of this magnitude never happens again.

Please Join Us

When: Thursday, 28 January 2010, 6pm-9pm

Where: Pike Brewery, 1415 First Ave Seattle WA

What: A Benefit to support the work of one of Haiti’s most well-established economic development organizations, as they play a key role in emergency relief and long term reconstruction efforts.

Who: Hear from speakers representing Fonkoze and other organizations working on the ground in Haiti, as well as live music from Sunday Evening Whiskey Club.

Cost: $20 suggested donation at the door, with all proceeds going directly to Fonkoze.

Read more of this >>

Last week, on a dreary, rainy Seattle night, 500-600 people walked through a door in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle.

Inside, they mingled. The room was filled with conversation about sustainability, about ambitious goals, and about fundamental world change.

Terry Provance and Re-Vision Labs gave everyone something new to think about: how our money can change the world. And not with donations, with real investments in people.

Join The Movement

The economics of the past clearly haven’t worked, as we have seen over the past several years, but particularly in the last year. The economic norms don’t have humanity in mind, they are not for the good of the people, they are for the good of the few. The rich few.

Money is one of the things that makes the world go round, there’s no denying it – when the economy goes south, we all feel it.  However, I firmly believe individual actions make a difference. I believe each of our actions together can change the world.

So let’s redefine finance, change how money works or doesn’t in our world. Let’s put our money where our passion is and truly, completely, invest in our future.

How Does This Movement Work?

Instead of investing your money in a money market fund, or keeping it in a savings account, you put it into a microfinance fund like Oikocredit. That fund is used to provide loans and business services to people in the developing world who cannot obtain a bank loan for their business plan (because they are poor and have no collateral or previous credit history). These loans have a 95-99% success rate – much higher than typical small business loans. And in 35 years, Oikocredit has repaid every single lender with their money plus interest.

It is a strategy for bringing people out of poverty by helping them become self-sufficient. And it is a strategy for changing the world by changing what we do with our investments: why give our savings to a big bank who cares nothing about you, your money, or the greater good of the world? You can do more with your money.

How Is That A Movement?

Because we can only change the world if we all do it together.  So that requires each of us to take a few moments and literally join the movement – not just invest, but spread our excitement and encourage our friends and families to invest in people.

Who Does It Help?

Here is a bit I wrote on the Oikocredit website about a woman named Flora:

Flora lives in a region of Kenya where 90% of people in the area live below the poverty line on less than $2 a day. When Flora’s husband was killed and their cattle stolen in 2001, she cried, feeling helpless and hopeless. But with four young children to support, she desperately needed to rebuild her life. With a series of loans – and a lot of hard work – she was able to re-establish her herd and eventually open a small grocery store. Little by little Flora started thinking big again and taking control of her life.

Flora has never forgotten her own struggle and is devoted to helping others in her community. She offers fair credit in her shop to customers who need it. In addition to a home for her family, she has also built rooms to rent out. This housing means others can live affordably and benefit like she has from the town’s growth. Today, she not only feeds and clothes her family; she pays school fees for her two brothers and plans to send her own children to college. Her future dreams include opening another business. Not only does Flora have improved her own life, but she has also become the inspiration for other single women in her community. Photography: Samburu Teachers Sacco

But quite honestly, it doesn’t just help Flora.  It helps you, and me, and our friends, our families, our neighborhoods, and our world. I firmly believe that part of living in a sustainable world is helping our neighbors, helping spread the wealth and happiness to other communities, and being there when others need us most.  Sometimes the best thing we can do for the planet – and for ourselves – is to help others.

Why am I so excited about creating a movement with our partners at Oikocredit?

The founders of Re-Vision Labs set out to change the world as a business, and we don’t choose our clients lightly.  Oikocredit has been around for 35 years, with an amazing mission and truly selfless people working together. They also take huge strides to make sure their work is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable.  They want to improve the world just as much as we do, and they believe, as I do, that we can change the world by changing what we do with our money.  Learn more at the new interactive website we’ve created with Oikocredit.

There are other great microfinance organizations as well.  If you want to look around at other microfinance organizations to pick which one works best for you, just make sure you investigate them as we did with Oikocredit.  Make sure they are offering loans at reasonable rates to people in the developing world, and that they offer services beyond loans – support services like courses in creating a business plan, accounting, marketing, etc – these things are what make the biggest difference.

Thank You For Joining Us

Last week we gathered 144 names of people interested in becoming a part of the movement in microfinance.  We gathered $1,000 in donations to the Seattle Greendrinks Oikocredit investment fund.  We gathered a lot of excitement and interest in a new way of investing.

And this is just the beginning.  This is just Phase 1, the pilot project. We will be expanding this movement around the country, and eventually around the world. So if you know anyone who may be interested in helping us champion this cause, PLEASE let us know! Leave a comment, send us an email, give us a ring. Thank you for helping us truly make a difference in the world.

We thank our community so much for joining us, and for having open ears and warm hearts. Together we can change the world.

Let’s back up a bit and answer the basic question of what is a story?  And what do we mean when we talk about “storytelling” for businesses and organizations?*

As I wrote those lines, I panicked.  I don’t know – it can mean so many things!  But let’s break it down…

The Purpose of Telling Stories

I believe that if you tell authentic stories effectively, you can change the world.  Stories can be very powerful!  And with that in mind, the purpose of telling stories is to affect change by increasing awareness and ultimately provoking action.

Marketing, Sales, Branding, Public Relations, Communications, and Human Resources are just a few of the many departments that tell stories within mission-driven organizations.  And within each of these departments, the tactics, tools, and target audiences will be different.  But no matter what department is telling the story, before you set out to create a story, you must first have a goal:  Why are you telling a story?  What do you hope to accomplish with the story?

Story Construction

We’ve known since we were small that stories have a beginning, middle, and end – yet we often forget this when it comes to telling them in our adult business lives.  But alas, it is still true!  Every good story in Western society, no matter what medium, has a beginning, middle, and end.  For example:

1. An organizational story has Mission, Values, and Vision.  The Mission tells what you’re doing now, the Values tell why/how you’re doing it and will continue to do it, and the vision tells what you want the future to look like once it’s done.
2. An executive’s bio tells where she went to school, what she did after school, and what she’s doing now.
3. An advertisement shows where the target demographic is now, how the product or idea will change that target demographic, and what that will look like.
4. A documentary film shows the world before something happened, how the world was changed, and where the world is headed after that change.
5. A business plan shows where you are, where you want to be, what plans you have to get to where you want to be.

Or some variation thereof – every good story has a beginning, middle and end.  Occasionally story construction is played with – for instance in the movie Memento, the end comes at the beginning, and the beginning comes at the end – but the three parts nearly always go together to form a story.

What does it really mean to have a beginning, middle and end?  Change.  In every good story there is change:  I went, I saw, I changed.  Without going too deep into story construction here, each character and each chain of events has an arc of change:  life is going on normally, something happens, the person has to deal with that, and as a result they change.  When you feel a story is going on and on without focus and you just want it to end, generally it is because there is no significant or interesting change happening.

If it helps, think of the most timeless of our children’s stories: Jack and The Beanstalk (Jack changes), Little Red Riding Hood (the wolf changes), or Pinocchio (Pinocchio changes).  Any good story that you remember well will work.

Connective Storytelling

Stories Create Awareness; Communities Create Action

Stories themselves can create awareness and provoke action, but in order for action to take place, stories must be accompanied by the means to create action.  In other words, getting people jazzed up about an idea is only half the battle – once they’re jazzed, you have to give them the tools they need to actually go do it!  Additionally, if your desire is continued action, you must continuously support and motivate people.  You can do this with online or offline community organizing, though in today’s world it is almost a necessity to combine the two.

Storytelling Continuum of Engagement:

Level 1. Targeted Broadcast (creates an Informed Audience)
Level 2. Conversational Engagement (creates an Informed Community)
Level 3. Collaborative Engagement (creates an Engaged Community)

We are entering an era where brands, products, operations, and ideas will never be the same.  Customers, investors, partners, and constituents are no longer satisfied with passively receiving information – they expect to participate and engage as creators, collaborators, and vital members of active communities.  And this changes the rules of storytelling a bit.

Storytelling Rules of  Engagement:

1. Authenticity
2. Transparency
3. Emotional Investment
4. Personally-Aligned Values
5. Community Ownership

Emotional investment between community members is paramount:  You must connect people to people.  We remember good stories, and happily tell them to our friends and families.  A good story appeals to emotions.  Emotions are what make people passionate about ideas, it makes them move from watching, looking, and seeing to doing.

Thoughts?

I hope I haven’t talked “at” you too much here – I would love to know your thoughts!  Since technology is changing so rapidly, to a certain degree we are all making this up as we go along.  Input along the way is certainly welcome!

—–
*Note that when I talk about “story” and “storytelling” I’m talking about good ones, ones that work, ones that do the job they set out to do.  There are bad stories out there that don’t follow these rules, but those are not the ones we’re looking to emulate.

My Storytelling Background

I haven’t formally introduced myself. I’m Melinda one of the Founding Partners at Re-Vision Labs. I spend the majority of my time working on Communications and Storytelling, both internally and for our clients.  I have an extremely – and some may say overly – diverse background.

My Languages of Storytelling

I majored in Cultural Anthropology (at the UW in Seattle), and during my last quarter I took an art class. Turned out I was good at art, so I went to art school in Manhattan (at SVA), where I lived as an artist for a while.  But I wanted a larger audience than art could give, so I traversed the country again to work in the film industry as an Art Director.  While in LA, I eventually also got a master’s degree in Documentary film (at USC) – with additional classes in cause marketing.

After 10 years in the grind of the LA film industry, I needed to rethink my life plan. So I moved with my new husband to rural Northern California and lived on a vineyard, where we tried to live self-sufficiently – and I blogged about it. Turned out I was pretty good at blogging, but not so good at self-sufficiency (mostly, we found out that it was unsustainable). So I moved back to my hometown of Seattle (after 15 years gone), and hoped to find the life and work I was looking for:

Throughout this entire quest of 20 years, I sought a way to substantially make the world a better place, while leading a life of personal satisfaction and sustainablity.

Have I found this here in Seattle? Resoundingly, YES!! A few months after moving back here, I met the amazing partners I now work with every day – a few months after meeting, we formed Re-Vision Labs. Living in Seattle, I’m able to live more sustainably (which, it turns out, is not the same as self-sufficiently), and I truly enjoy my urban lifestyle here. Better yet, I work on worldchanging projects, and I use every one of those skills I picked up over the last several years:

• Cultural Anthropology (the study of how communities work – very useful)
• Fine Art (graphic design and photography are some of the many things I do here)
• Art Direction/Production Design (all about creating spaces and places where people live and work – and how they evoke a personality in themselves)
• Documentary Filmmaking (we’re working on our own RVL video series, and have already done several documentary shorts for clients)
• Cause Marketing (clearly something we spend a lot of time doing here)
• Blogging (who knew how much I’d need that experience!)
• Oh, and of course the Desire to Change the World, which runs through everything I do and every decision I’ve made.

Well, hopefully my over-education and 20-year exploration into how storytelling can change the world will give me a bit of credibility when writing this series. Storytelling mediums are much like languages: if you know several different languages, it becomes easier and easier to learn new ones. Once one learns photography, painting, filmmaking, and cause marketing, one can easily pick up graphic and web design, social media, blogging, advertising, and so on. The languages get easier and easier to learn.

Onward, then….

BEST PRACTICES IN STORYTELLING #1:

Know Yourself and Cultivate Your Own Personality

Ah, you thought your job was about your business, didn’t you? Well that’s true to a certain extent, but a business is still made up of people. Often Marketers spend way too much time and effort and money trying to create a brand that transcends people. The result? It feels cold, impersonal, and like the product does not apply to “me” on a personal level. That is death for a brand!

Storytelling has changed over the years. Because of social media in particular, the line between personal lives and professional lives is becoming more and more blurred. I have a home life, a blog life, and a business life. And there is no way I can separate them anymore – they are totally intertwined. The way I have found to navigate them is… gasp!… TO BE MYSELF. Yes, that’s the secret!

Marketing is becoming personal.

Marketing is becoming transparent.

Marketing is becoming much more truthful.

Particularly during the current recession, the brands who are surviving best are those who are honest and open and personable with their stakeholders: meaning customers, constituents, donors, and investors.

I am a Storyteller. I have spent years looking for the best, most impactful way to tell a story – that makes me, through and through, a Storyteller. Not just any Storyteller, though, I’m a Storyteller who lives Sustainably and who is working hard to Make the World A Better Place.

I used to hide that, I used to think people didn’t want to hear my motivations, and that I needed to live within the business system where personal goals were separate from work. But alas, with the advent of social media and the internet, where everyone can see all the many things you do whether you want them to or not, I realized it was silly to try to hide who I was.

And you know what?  Once I wore my personality on my sleeve, my blog readership grew from 1,000 a month, to 1,000 a day in a matter of a couple of months! My Twitter readership has grown to 500 in a few months, without my even trying. My work has become much more enriching, and my business has become much more enriched, because I am able to utilize all of my skills and all of my ideas to solve business problems.  And because, lo and behold, my experience in storytelling and my motivation to save the world has become a selling point for our business!

This Is Counter-Intuitive (To Some Of Us)

Becoming a transparent person and cultivating your own personality doesn’t happen overnight, unfortunately. It takes a while to break down your own barriers, and let yourself hang out there. This is especially so if you are over 30, and weren’t born with the internet exposing your life to the world from the beginning. Those of us over 30 have a tougher time letting go, and it’s scary.

Start by letting yourself seep through what you do, what you write, and how you market your business.  It will become easier over time.

I guarantee that once you know yourself and let your true self be a part of your business, your business will be better for it.

Today is the third annual Blog Action Day, and the topic is climate change.  While climate change is an extremely important issue at Re-Vision Labs, there are going to be thousands of posts to read about climate change today, so I thought I’d focus on Blog Action Day itself.

What’s The Point?

Initially, the idea sounds an awful lot like Earth Hour, which started the same year (coincidentally, just after Inconvenient Truth created widespread awareness about climate change).  Essentially, the goal is to get everyone to do something on the same day.  Great, but to me it falls short for this simple reason:  one hour is not enough, one day is not enough.

What good does it do for people to do something for an hour?  Does it really change anything?  To rally the troops to do something on one day and then loose all that momentum the very next day… it seems inefficient, it seems ludicrously simple-minded when we have a great, looming problem we need to take seriously.  Turning off your lights for an hour on Earth Hour, or writing a blog post about climate change for one day, is not going to help us change our lifestyles, change our way of thinking about consumption.

A Little Follow-Through Please!

The Blog Action Day website states, “Blog Action Day 2009 will be one of the largest-ever social change events on the web.”  Social change – really?  “Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.”

Are we really still at the point of awareness?  Three-quarters of Americans think climate change is an important issue (Pew Research Center).  Are we trying to reach the other 25%?  Can we even do that via blogs?  In other words, has anyone studied who those people are, and how to reach them – are they even reading blogs?

“Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action.”  From awareness naturally flows action.  Hmmm.  I think that is presumptive.

The old-school traditional advertising tactic is to create awareness and leave it at that, presuming that awareness will lead to action.  But many years ago – after people studied human behavior and found that awareness didn’t automatically lead to action – advertising and cause marketers realized that awareness was not enough.  The barriers to action can often be substantial.   So once we reach awareness (and I think we can stop at 75% awareness for now!), you have to get people to Do Something.

What’s The Next Step?

Many studies over the years have shown that the way to create lifestyle change is to get peers to exert influence upon one another.  How do you do that?  By forming a community that supports and encourages action, that makes people feel good about change.

Whether it’s an online or offline community doesn’t matter terribly much at first.  But in the long term, it’s a lot easier to make lifestyle changes if your neighbors and friends in your offline life are making changes with you.  Those of us in the sustainability living blogosphere have definitely found the incredible disconnect one can feel by having a supportive network online but a total lack of support offline.

How Close To Community Building Are We Here?

I’ve participated in Blog Action Day since the beginning:  the first year was environment, the second was poverty, and the third was climate change.  Why was the third so similar to the first?  Because this year they decided to ask their community what was important to them.  Wow!  So about a month ago I received an email asking me to participate in a poll to choose this year’s topic.  I voted for climate change.  I won.

That is step one in community building: engage your community.  Cool.

There is a “Take Action” button on the Blog Action Day website.  According to an email I received from the Blog Action Day people, it was put up two days ago because people asked what else we could do.  Great idea!

That is step two in community building: listen to your community.  Cool.

So what action do you take?  Well, you sign a petition that encourages Obama to “lead on climate change” in Copenhagen.  Ugh.  I think he’s going to do the best he can already – he knows that 75% of Americans care about climate change.  He cares about climate change, and he cares about our votes.

If you scroll down that “Take Action” page, you find “More Ways To Get Involved.” As you might guess, almost all of them are all pretty much ways to learn more and put your name on more petitions.  Sorry, but I think we can do better!

Next Steps

Encourage real action.  And make it easy to take real action.  For example, call legislators to make them vote for all the various climate action legislation up for vote locally and nationally, change the way you eat and drive and do things, talk to your friends about climate change and make some lifestyle changes together…. there are so many ways to act!

Blog Action Day is a great first step.  But now we actually have to DO something in order to make a difference.  So let’s do it!

Julia Klöckner

Whoops!  We all know those social media addicts, who tweet just a bit too frequently, who have a few too many Facebook updates.

Well, it looks like a couple of German parliament officials got a little Twitter-happy Saturday, when they went against tradition to reveal that Horst Köhler had been re-elected as president – a whole 15 minutes before it was officially announced.

From yesterday’s Financial Times:

Julia Klöckner, of chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU, told her Twitter “followers” on that afternoon: “People, you can watch the football in peace. The vote was a success.”

She later apologised for the “somewhat premature timing” of a message.

Ulrich Kelber, of the SPD, was even more specific, prematurely uploading the result of the vote-count to his micro-blog: “The count is confirmed: 613 votes. Köhler is elected.”

The Social Democrats, whose candidate for the presidency failed, were initially incensed by the Twitter leaks. Yet both SPD and CDU have since played down the matter.

Although the winner came as no surprise, the breach of protocol has upset seasoned members of parliament.

Parliamentary elders, the ultimate guardians of proper legislative conduct, are due to meet over Twittergate today.

Critics insist that only the Bundestag president has the constitutional right to declare a new head of state. He customarily uses more than the 140 characters permitted in a tweet.

“I have absolutely no sympathy for things like this, because it will end up undermining the dignity of parliament,” said Peter Ramsauer, head of the CSU parliamentary party.

But here’s the rub:

Susanne Kastner, vice-president of the house and a Social Democrat, deplored the incident. “But unfortunately, you cannot ban twitting in parliament,” she said.

You can’t ban Twitter.  But you can censure those who use it, apparently.  Julia Klöckner has “stepped down from her party role in Germany’s parliament,” according to today’s Financial Times article.

Even in the US:

Judges in some US states have allowed reporters to Twitter from the courtroom, but a Twittering juror at a $12.6m civil action in Arkansas was cited in a request from the defendant to rule a mistrial.

Where Twitter meets tradition face to face, tradition often wins, with ghastly consequences.  But will tradition win – and can tradition win – for long?

Is it time for government to come to terms with a new reality, one that moves faster and is truly more transparent?  And one that may just give more power to the people, and a little less power to the chancellors?

I’d say it’s time for them to come to terms with the new reality, and learn how to embrace it quickly.  What do you think?

Oh, and if you want to follow Julia on Twitter, here she is.  She tweets from her phone as she sits for hours on the assembly floor.  Wouldn’t you?