According to OurCompassion (OC), the community, which was launched in June 2009,  is “a place for all of us to come together and get organized on behalf of children living in poverty.”

This is an amazing organization that serves more than 800,000 supporters who are sponsoring more than one million children worldwide. The OC community serves as a place for supporters to share, organize and speak up on behalf of children living in poverty.

During our discussion, Katie shared how the OC community was instrumental during the Haiti Earthquakes as it played an important role in facilitating communication with supporters around the world. Through this tragedy, the community went from being a new, young endeavor into a key player in the grand scheme of Compassion’s social media strategy as it became an integral part of their disaster response approach.  With the community, they were and continue to direct Compassion sponsors to the community for further support and information.

What they also found was that through this, the community naturally displayed new levels of “social maturity” (commonly looked for on social networking environments) as members showed deeper levels of friendship and honesty as they all worked through this tragedy together.  

My video interview with Katy is below. Please take a moment to hear what she has to say about OurCompassion.org and please check out their community for more information on how you can get involved.

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Serial Networking By Christine Major @cmajor

More than 85% of our operating budget comes from the community-individuals & businesses like YOU. We can’t do it without you so please pledge your support today!

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This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here KUT SXSW 2010

I met White at the Social Media Clubhouse, where I stayed at SXSW. Moonfruit sponsored one of the summit events at the house.  (Note: As I disclosed in the Inc. piece, I received no specific compensation from Wendy or MoonFruit, and SMC is a filed-for non-profit.)

Her story is really inspiring, as she had to take steps as radical as firing family members to keep the company solvent. I hope you enjoy the story.

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Howard Greenstein’s Website

UT: You don’t know the code to the gate!

CO: There’s no sentrys. No barbed wire. Luckily you can shoot in the defense of property in Texas.

NY: Can you really?

CO: ‘Fraid so. If someone’s in your driveway, stealing your car stereo? Plug ‘em before they even turn around. Not saying that you SHOULD, It’s just nice to know that you CAN.

NY: How do you know these things man?

CO: Business law. Which is funny, because guns aren’t really business, but…

UT: Anything that require shooting someone is my business.

CO: Utah is kinda gun happy, no?

UT: Yep, cause there’s so many.. Salt Lake is really the only major city, after that your talking country bumpkins… So gun laws are…

CO: Country bumpkins? Yeah, like, not getting eaten by bears is Sooo pedestrian.

UT: Um, mountain lions, thanks.

Yep… East meets West… Well, Rocky Mountains anyway…

Hilary York-Bio

In a way, we have David Bowie to thank for Hilary York’s delightful sophomore album In the Dark, to be released Aug. 27, 2009, on Hey…Miau! Records. York came from a musical family; her parents had owned a record store before she joined them. She’s always been talented, singing for her family, taking piano lessons, writing poems from a very young age. As a young girl, she lived in America, Germany, Bolivia, and Australia, so there wasn’t much opportunity to see live music, just the occasional artist on live television and many music videos. But when Bowie appeared on local television, performing an oldie, his first hit “Space Oddity,” the young girl was hooked. She knew then and there that she wanted to write and sing, and her ambition to be the next Richard Pryor got tabled.

York spent time in Europe and practiced her songwriting, graduated college, and eventually settled in Austin, Texas, where her musical career took root. After years of songwriting, her debut album The Moon was released in 2006, and garnered her a lot of local attention, along with showcases at SXSW and regular weekly club residencies.

With the release of In The Dark, Hilary York’s songwriting and singing have reached new heights. The record was produced by York with her musical foil Kullen Fuchs, a classically trained multi-instrumentalist. Featured on the record are an all-star group of local musicians. Among them are: Scrappy Jud Newcomb, one of the best guitarists in a town full of guitar players; Ian Moore, a former Austinite, and an outstanding guitarist and singer; Gene Kurtz, bassist with Dale Watson’s first-rate country band; Joey Shuffield, drummer of Austin hitmakers Fastball; and Julie Lowery, York’s long-time singing partner.

But it’s her songwriting and singing which have taken a significant leap. Listen to the warm confessional sound of album opener “Jaded,” which turns into a horn-driven rocker. “I Look For You” is an instant grabber, a catchy heartfelt country shuffle. “Carnival” is a jazzy blues, perfectly suited for a smokey late-night club. “Cover Me Up” is a seductive, radio-ready hook-filled hit to be. York also includes her first-ever recorded cover, Randy Newman’s “Baltimore,” which she first heard and fell in love with on a 1987 Nina Simone album (a big influence, not to mention which York’s father has lived in the city for a long time, so there’s personal relevance too). Intimate, confessional, warm, sexy and sassy, that’s Hilary York’s In The Dark. We hope it’s going to be a new favorite of yours, too, like it has for us.

Website * Myspace

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This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here KUT SXSW 2010

One of the benefits of having a stellar photographer in the house with us is watching him produce a great summary of our two week adventure, also known as The Social Media Clubhouse: Austin 2010.

Thank you Kris. I absolutely love how you were able to catch so many moments of our trip. The party bus. The summits. Hanging out. Musical performances. CoWorking. Bonding. ::awesome::

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“…places like the Social Media Clubhouse will become increasingly valuable for maintaining an environment for deeper conversation, co-working, networking and the like.”

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I am thrilled so many people were able to come by the Clubhouse during SxSW and this is absolutely something Chris and I will continue to do. The houses may not all be as decadent as this one was in Austin (there were days I felt like wrapping the $12k couch in plastic to protect it), but the core idea of bringing smart people together to live and work under the same roof while creating interesting content and sharing their experiences with one another is something we wholly believe in (and ties perfectly into our work with Social Media Club).

Stay tuned folks…we are just getting warmed up.

What does Maximizing Engagement mean? Industry experts, David Meerman Scott, Eric Qualman, David Carter, Chris Heuer, Paul Gillin, Mike Lewis, Brian Solis and Peter Fasano gathered Sunday afternoon to share their insights and share examples of brands using the Social Media tools to engage with their customers.

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I think they could have talked for hours on this topic, so for now, get a little taste with this 58 minute clip. The internet conveniently died about 10 minutes before the end of the Summit, but we have the balance on hard tape we are currently having edited and will post once available.

A couple key takeaways:

• Paul Gillin: Early findings in a research report he is working on with Awareness finds companies are getting comfortable with the tools and expanding their reach, however, there does not seem to be a standard for determining ROI across any of them.
• Peter Fasano: Produce content authentically. Do not be who you think you need to be, be who you are.
• David Carter: Don’t try to use all the tools at once. Start slow and add to your ‘portfolio’ as you can manage. Looks bad if you have an account somewhere, but no one is there monitoring and maintaining it.
• Chris Heuer: It is not about your time commitment, but about your commitment over time.

I think my favorite moment of the day was when David Meerman Scott asked that we stop using Dell, Zappos and Comcast as the case studies de jour. We totally agree more examples need to be shared and I am glad he threw the gauntlet down so we all benefit from new stories and experiences. So here we go…throwing the baton back to this fine group of men and will ask them each to share ONE company they feel is doing a great job using the tools to engage with their customers. David, Eric, David, Chris, Paul, Mike, Brian and Peter – please provide this in the comments below. ::all eyes on you now::

Our heartfelt thanks to Christine Major and the folks at Awareness, Inc. who sponsored the summit and assisted us in bringing this great group of industry leaders to the Clubhouse. This is a meaty topic for sure and we will work on putting together the Maximum Engagement Summit, Part II (this time will be with all women just to balance it out).

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Kolemusic’s Blog

This article has been republished from the original source which can be found here Vancouver Photographer, Web Strategist & Creative Director