Socially Yours

In the cyber-noise that is social media today, one can’t be blamed for wondering at the real value of trying to be heard out there in the midst of the world posting photographs of their school reunions, dinners, puppies, children, family get-togethers et al. 

However, recent numbers tell a compelling tale.

• Facebook is the most browsed social network on social media with a large base of 100 Million users, clearly it is not fading away anytime soon in India. More than 80% of those users access Facebook via their mobile phone.
• Total Twitter users in India are 33 Million and from this base 76% of users access it via their mobile phone.
•  LinkedIn has 26 Million India users, of the total 300+ Million users.
• Of the total chunk of 70 Million total users in Pinterest, 5.5 Million are from India.

(source: http://blog.digitalinsights.in/important-statistics-digital-and-social-media-users-in-india/05224987.html)

While the top brands on Facebook are dominated by the telecom industry, there is a very strong case for the social sector as well.

1. Monies: It is possible, without ANY expenditure, to run a hard hitting social campaign. Yes, even without resorting to buying digital media. This is important for cash-strapped social campaigns.
2. Honesty: Social media enables transparency and honesty like no other medium today.
3.  Immediacy: The response time on social media is very VERY fast. Almost instantaneous in the case of Twitter in particular.
4.  Reach: Time it right and post the right kind of localized matter and presto: you have a world-wide reach.
5.  Partners: With the right kind of content, you can reach out to partners who would be difficult to access outside of the virtual world. Tag them, follow them, play relevant content and watch the magic.   

These are only a handful of reasons why it makes sense to be on social media, in particular for anything social (forgive the pun) that you might be doing. I once ran a gender safety campaign single-handedly off social media and look at the kind of response it generated (without any media outreach or PR on my part).

Now that I have (hopefully) sold you on the “why”, let’s take a quick look at the “how”. This is fairly involved and like any other outreach, requires an understanding of basic principles of communication.

Just like any sustainable communication strategy, social media needs strong content. This does NOT mean inventing news when there is none, but feeding in interesting content in a strategic manner. The content life-cycle lies at the heart of any social media strategy worth its salt. The “offline” feeds into the online and back into the “offline” or real-world to create a self-sustaining cycle (see figure)

The key to social media success lies in engagement rather than just adding on likes and followers. And the key to that lies in how strong your content is and how well it is presented. Do you listen to your followers? Respond to them? Invite them to engage with you in a manner that is not lost in the sea of social media?

Think on it.

We’re always there if you want to take the discussion on social media further. Just join the doer’s lab on social media (22^nd January 2015). These labs are by and for practitioners and focus on practical tools and knowledge.

Creating a "culture of reflection"

Seven years ago, when I found myself actively involved with the social sector, I was deeply touched by the sheer number of interesting and passionate people I started meeting, all with a common goal of doing good. The reaction to the projects I worked on, the feedback from those who it touched made the whole shift from the corporate sector so totally worth it!

As I understood the sector better, and the process of running high impact social projects better, I realised that in so many cases, that the impact could have been so much more had it been captured well, gaps analysed and addressed to make the processes more efficient. In many cases, there is a strong "culture of doing" but an active "culture of reflection" is missing.

In one of the projects we at niiti were working on, where large scale rural livelihood initiatives have been deployed, we were amazed at the sheer scale of operations, the dedication of the staff and the commitment of the organisation for grassroots level change. Its admirable because bringing large scale change at the grassroots isn't the easiest thing. It takes a lot of hard work, unflinching commitment and selfless people to make it work.

But sometimes, "doing" can overwhelm and consume one so much that one forgets to pause to reflect. Given that almost all social sector projects are run rather frugally, determining from time to time whether processes can improved to make them more efficient may actually be more helpful in achieving the final mission.

Monitoring and evaluating (M&E) projects on a regular basis help bring in a "culture of reflection", and help identify gaps and inefficiencies in running operations, so that they can be improved or changed to achieve better results. This of course, is easier said than done. Often, to implement a good M&E design in an organisation requires change management strategies as a precursor. For, passionate grassroots workers may feel uncomfortable with the M&E team scrutinising their work, and may resist or rubbish the whole process in its entirety. These are legitimate concerns and absolutely need to be addressed. I recently chanced upon a wonderful site (http://www.unodc.org) where some examples of the right approach to bringing in this reflective culture through implementation of a good M&E process are.

Often, monitoring and evaluation as a task is thought of as an end tool to "measure" social impact. Yes, it definitely could have uses to measure social impact, but creating organisations that are open, adaptable and focussed on achieving  their social mission through processes that are most effective in a dynamic environment is a far greater output of having monitoring and evaluation programmes as an integral part of operations. 

Vayali - A social enterprise for conserving folklore

The frogs are croaking and filling in the silence of the night. The rain has just stopped, but one can still hear the occasional drops falling on the ground from high trees. I am sitting with a small group of musicians in a village in central Kerala. One of them manages to hook up a weak halogen lamp from a broken electric socket. A yellow pool of light creates an island in the darkness.

The musicians begin to open black canvas bags. They take out long bamboo sticks. Thick bamboo stems. A black leather case with steel clips clicks open. It reveals an array of neatly packed bamboo flutes in varying shapes and sizes. Slowly the band sets up their bamboo instruments.

The first instrument is a thick bamboo stem with a series of notches cut into it. A stick runs over the notches and a curious sound emerges. It mimics the frogs croaking. The other members join in with their instruments. The percussionists pick up the rhythm with their bamboo drums. A large hollow bamboo section has been filled with seeds. It's called the rain stick. The seeds fall from one end of the bamboo to the other and create the sound of falling rain. The flautists join in. Their eyes are closed and a tune, hauntingly beautiful manifests itself into the dark jungle that surrounds us.

Music. One of the 2 universal languages. A language that has the power to bridge cultures and bring people together. I have traveled to a small village named Arangottukara in Kerala. Someone had told me about the Vayali folklore group and their amazing bamboo band. So I have come to see whether we can create a small music video and take their music to a larger audience across the world. I do not speak their language, but we understand each other.

Most of the band members are daily wage earners. Carpenters, painters, odd jobs at construction etc. But those jobs are for the day. When the sun sets and night covers their village, they come back to their music. Back in their village, they are masters of the bamboo band and owners of a rich folk heritage.

The bamboo band's performance extends far into the night. There are many songs, many tunes and many stories. We end with a round of smiles. Black tea is served. I sit in silence and listen to the night. The frogs are still croaking, but the bamboo band's music continues to play in my head.

Vayali is a registered non-profit. It consists of a group of young people, engaged in preserving their folk roots. Please share their music far and wide and if possible invite the band for shows and performances. Know more about them by visiting their web-site: http://www.vayali.org