Wendy Meadley's @SocialWendy Blog

 Active Citizenship is the Key to Community Building & Civic Contribution in America

Active Citizenship may be a new term to you, but the concept is in the DNA of my colleagues who linked arms with their time, talents and resources to build the Wired for 2020 Mentor Engagement Campaign and Event for the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota.

As a practitioning social marketer, specializing in translating the latest social marketing strategy into cause events, I am continually at the hub of working with organizations who see the bigger picture.  You could also say they “get it” or that they see the broader picture of how a community works. 

Last fall and this winter I was brought in to develop a campaign and event for the Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota. Specifically a themed mentor engagement campaign that would support getting youth and their caring adults having meaningful conversations and interactions that prepare them for this unknown future. 

Our title sponsor contact at GE, Kristi Rollag Wangstad, initiated this concept and we thought is was right on point to broaden the conversation and potentially lead to more caring adults becoming mentors in Minnesota- as that is the ongoing goal of the campaign.  Kristi has long been a proponent of the preparedness of youth as she herself took a unique career path into public policy and government affair- not one that is typically in the high school counselor’s top list.  Throughout her career she has seen that when organizations incoporate sustainability practices into their operations- they truly deliver more value to their communities and stakeholders simultaneously.

 Video Clip about What the Wired for 2020 Campaign is about

While at SXSW (South By Southwest) I was able to chat with my colleague Matt Hester, a Microsoft Tech Net Blogger (and more of course) and we captured video about the nature of the Wired for 2020 Campaign and Event. What you will see in the video clip is an overview of Social Media/Marketing with the Wired for 2020 mentioned in context. 

Here is a featured project profile about the Wired for 2020 Campaign that I created to recap all the contributions that came together to launch this campaign and event.  As you can see it does take a village to “raise the barn” and when you get experts in each of their areas to make their civic or community contribution to a cause or program, you bring it to life which you can see with the program llinks below.  Once the program is alive, we hand it off to the organization’s team and they take it from there.

Key Social Marketing Planning Tips

• All Social Tactics begin with a business goal which is translated into a marketing strategy and then made into tactics to support program deliverables
• What you do should be quantifiable, meaning, you don’t just use a social media channel without a reason or it supporting your deliverables- why would you spend time and money on something you don’t need?
• Lead with the project end in mind not the tool- you wouldn’t pick up a hammer and walk aournd your house looking for things to “hammer”
• Don’t use all the social media channels unless you can define what & why you are using them as part of an integrated strategy- we all have limited time and resources- think Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3 on your projects & campaigns
• Write it down and continue to develop it- social marketing is never done, it requires constant review and updating throughout the campaign
• Time and talent will be your biggest investments in a grassroots civic initiative- so bring in experts wherever you can to minimize missteps & expense  and to maximize your social impact

Here is the Overview- I will spotlight the various contributions in additional blog posts so you can see the kinds of talents that may be helpful to you as you utilize social marketing as part of your ongoing marketing strategy.

Taken from my corporate site @SocialWendy

Social Marketing Incubator(tm)
SocialWendy Featured Project- Wired for 2020
Engagement Campaign

WMC’s Social Marketing arm, @SocialWendy is the leading the overall development of the 2009 Wired for 2020 Engagement Campaign.  The campaign is focused on getting youth and their mentors ready for the workforce in the year 2020.  Today’s millenials will face a different, more virtual workplace.  They will need a portable toolkit of skills and abilities to navigate the 14+ jobs they are likely to have during their career.  The Wired for 2020 Campaign will use the most popular social marketing, interactive, mobile and web tools to peak their interest and promote the exploration of their future possibilities. 

Collaborating Industry Experts

aka Civic Contributors

Social Wendy has brought together an industry leading team of experts to virtually collaborate and build the Wired for 2020 Campaign.  They include: Andrew Banas-Ech03, Chris Potenza, Derek Olsen- 2008 Minnesota Teacher of the Year, Diana Glasgow, Eric Raarup- Inetium, Mark Hines-Ratchet, Mark Kedrowski- Blue Earth Interactive, Mark Kurtz- Gage Marketing, Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association, Laura Goodrich & Greg Stiever- On Impact Productions, Camille Benoit & team- Peggy Lauritsen Design Group; Chris Black, Mark Malmberg, Tom O’Neill, Matt Tonak & team at Sierra Bravo-The Nerdery; George Johnson of Telavision.tv, and Paul Hempe & Chad Campbell- Zer0w reDesign,Steve Schuster- Schuster Company Tim Brunelle- Hello Viking, Romeo Azar & Christopher Pollach- Whoop Design (in alpha order).

Check out the Wiredfor2020 Social Marketing Campaign Links:

(as with every social marketing campaign- this is a work in progress and will continue to be built by the organization throughout 2009)

Web Site at www.wiredfor2020.com
Blog Site at www.wiredfor2020.wordpress.com
You Tube Channel at www.youtube.com/wiredfor2020
Flickr Page at www.flickr.com/photos/wiredfor2020
Linked In Mentor Group at www.linkedin.com 
Special thanks to the Gustavus Adolphus Intern Team including Lynn Hillen, Andy Boersma, Marie Burr, Justin Niederman, Obu Okoh, and Mike Wubbena who helped build out the initial phase of the Wired for 2020 Social Strategy.