After months of hard work by the International Youth Council and theFriendship Ambassadors Foundation, the 7th Annual Youth Assembly at the United Nations went really well.
I lead an amazing Communications team that worked tirelessly to prepare promotional materials, spread the word and generally provide a strong online and offline presence leading up to and during the event.
We promoted two successful fundraising parties (that we assisted in organizing and running), created a website and newsletter. We established ourselves as a organized force that could handle most situations.
During the Youth Assembly, I held workshops on the Millennium Development Goals, Youth and Social Media at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Effectively using Social Media to promote an NGO is a new area of expertise for me. I attended a workshop given by Big Duck on How NGOs Can use Social Media. It surprised me, primarily because I understood all that was being discussed and also because I knew tricks that were not mentioned or even touched upon.
The event was marketed as a skill builder where civil society organizations can learn how to use to Social Media as a tool to "communicate with their audience, market their services, connect with their networks or improve the way they work and promote their social development agenda". Ms. Farra Trompeter, Vice President of Big Duck, delivered on those promises. But she impressed me because she recognized the work that her intern had contributed to her presentation (such as the research), used some great stats to illustrate her points and give a global viewpoint.
She stressed that the key features of social media are participation and interaction, connecting people and providing the tools necessary to have a conversation - all important components of NGOs’ day-to-day work. She highlighted how strategic use of social media is actually helping civil society organizations to measurably reach new people by propelling nonprofit goals to build a movement around a core advocacy issue, improve customer service or programmes, reach new donors, or raise awareness of a nonprofit brand around the world. As a computer savvy 24 year old who checks facebook first thing in the morning and last thing at night...I was unsurprised by the statistics. I didn't need the lessons on how to use Facebook or Twitter and I had numerous suggestions on ways to streamline her suggestions to cut down on the time involved. However, I did learn to listen for what people are saying about me by using google alerts.
Currently, I am the administrator for two google groups (one with over 8,000+ members and one that is just beginning to hit the 2000 mark). Therefore, I would have been interested in lessons on how to increase membership and how to attract members. The training was great but it was aimed at an audience with little or no computer / social media knowledge. Therefore, I didn't learn as much as I would have liked. But it gave me the confidence to recognize my strength in this area. Therefore, when I was invited to facilitate a workshop on Empowering Youth to Use Social Media to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals...I was confident that I could deliver a workshop / think tank that would be interesting and beneficial to participants.
When I heard that Erica Grigg and Sean Flax would be moderating it with me...I was thrilled. They are both Youth Leaders with strong Communications skills.
My contribution to the Social Media think tank was allowing participants to see the latest statistics and demographics and then to challenge them to think of how to create / tailor a social media strategy for their work. The participants were all youth leaders from around the world. Therefore, they had some amazing contributions. The Chinese delegates in particular gave me some insights into the use of QQ and challenged me to think from their cultural perspective about the MDGs. I had fun...but it did not prepare me for the workshop that I would be leading on the Friday on the 7th MDG....Ensuring Environmental Sustainability.
Esperanza Garcia and I moderated the discussion of Youth Participation in MDG 7. I started by introducing my work in the area; discussing the Youth Caucus's involvement with the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (Major Working Group of Children and Youth). Then I proceeded to mention how they could get involved with drafting the policy paper for 2011 and Rio +20. After this, I focused on some case studies from around the world before introducing Esperanza Garcia. She gave a motivational talk on how youth can change things. How we are the present (not the future). We are the now. She talked about her involvement in the Philippe Senate and Copenhagen. Then we encouraged participants to break out into groups (after introducing themselves) with people that they would be interested in making partnerships with. As a result, the group was highly interactive and resulted in concrete decisions that will be implemented when delegates go back home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9woDiYiXmzs&feature=player_embedded
I lead an amazing Communications team that worked tirelessly to prepare promotional materials, spread the word and generally provide a strong online and offline presence leading up to and during the event.We promoted two successful fundraising parties (that we assisted in organizing and running), created a website and newsletter. We established ourselves as a organized force that could handle most situations.
During the Youth Assembly, I held workshops on the Millennium Development Goals, Youth and Social Media at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.
Effectively using Social Media to promote an NGO is a new area of expertise for me. I attended a workshop given by Big Duck on How NGOs Can use Social Media. It surprised me, primarily because I understood all that was being discussed and also because I knew tricks that were not mentioned or even touched upon.
The event was marketed as a skill builder where civil society organizations can learn how to use to Social Media as a tool to "communicate with their audience, market their services, connect with their networks or improve the way they work and promote their social development agenda". Ms. Farra Trompeter, Vice President of Big Duck, delivered on those promises. But she impressed me because she recognized the work that her intern had contributed to her presentation (such as the research), used some great stats to illustrate her points and give a global viewpoint.
Currently, I am the administrator for two google groups (one with over 8,000+ members and one that is just beginning to hit the 2000 mark). Therefore, I would have been interested in lessons on how to increase membership and how to attract members. The training was great but it was aimed at an audience with little or no computer / social media knowledge. Therefore, I didn't learn as much as I would have liked. But it gave me the confidence to recognize my strength in this area. Therefore, when I was invited to facilitate a workshop on Empowering Youth to Use Social Media to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals...I was confident that I could deliver a workshop / think tank that would be interesting and beneficial to participants.
My contribution to the Social Media think tank was allowing participants to see the latest statistics and demographics and then to challenge them to think of how to create / tailor a social media strategy for their work. The participants were all youth leaders from around the world. Therefore, they had some amazing contributions. The Chinese delegates in particular gave me some insights into the use of QQ and challenged me to think from their cultural perspective about the MDGs. I had fun...but it did not prepare me for the workshop that I would be leading on the Friday on the 7th MDG....Ensuring Environmental Sustainability.
Esperanza Garcia and I moderated the discussion of Youth Participation in MDG 7. I started by introducing my work in the area; discussing the Youth Caucus's involvement with the UN Commission on Sustainable Development (Major Working Group of Children and Youth). Then I proceeded to mention how they could get involved with drafting the policy paper for 2011 and Rio +20. After this, I focused on some case studies from around the world before introducing Esperanza Garcia. She gave a motivational talk on how youth can change things. How we are the present (not the future). We are the now. She talked about her involvement in the Philippe Senate and Copenhagen. Then we encouraged participants to break out into groups (after introducing themselves) with people that they would be interested in making partnerships with. As a result, the group was highly interactive and resulted in concrete decisions that will be implemented when delegates go back home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9woDiYiXmzs&feature=player_embedded
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