A new documentary short from the folks at The Tennessean shows how social media helped the middle Tennessee region come to grips with the crisis, and ultimately rebound from it:

There are a couple of nice shout-outs to Morgan Levy and Christy Frink, co-editors of the Nashvillest blog, but it’s also important to remember Patten Fuqua’s “We Are Nashville” piece on a local hockey fan blog that landed on Huffington Post and Andrew Sullivan’s Daily Dish, and spawned a so-named disaster recovery non-profit.

So, what can the government learn from this? What has it learned? Share this post and leave us a comment below with your thoughts.

On the U.S. Politics on Facebook page, they have a post which tallied the number of Republicans, Democrats and Independents that have voted. I presume this information is coming from their members who have self-identified themselves politically and have clicked on their “I Voted” button.

This got me thinking… could a social media widget like Facebook’s help create a larger wave of voter intensity, given that most people friend those they know and share common interests and values with? And what is the impact of one politically savvy friend on Facebook?

However, not everyone is on Facebook, so could voting tallies of Facebook members be akin to a ‘Dewey Defeats Truman’ moment – or could it be more accurate then ever imagined?

I’m also curious to see how the number of likes on a politician’s Facebook page and the number of self-identified voters on Facebook who clicked on the “I Voted” button will translate in real turnout this election day.

There will be a lot of fun data to crunch and new social media campaign strategies that will come about as a result.

Well what do you know? Nestlé listened. Following a two month Greenpeace assault on palm oil purchasing practices of the food giant, Nestlé announced earlier this week that they will stop purchasing palm oil (used in many popular products like Kit Kats) from companies that own “high-risk” plantations and farms. These high-risk plantations are accused of driving the destruction of natural habitats for animals like the orangutan. The new “zero-deforestation” policy is in partnership with The Forest Trust that will work with Nestlé to amend its palm oil purchasing policies.

Nestlé’s decision comes after a tumultuous 8-weeks in which Greenpeace released a provocative video on YouTube to raise awareness of Nestlé’s questionable methods for acquiring palm oil. The video, which likens eating a Kit Kat to eating an orangutan, was subsequently removed by Nestlé; an action that spurred an even greater backlash from the Greenpeace community who bombarded Nestlé with calls, emails and Facebook page comments. Now enter social media “meltdown” as Nestlé representatives responded to Facebook comments with mild requests for users to stop using altered versions of the Nestlé logo as their Facebook profile picture or risk their comments being taken down. Needless to say, users were not happy with this restriction of their right to publicly protest on an open forum like a company’s Facebook page and the comment threads were shared on blogs and news articles across the Internet – directing even more negative attention toward Nestlé.

As a result of the targeted Greenpeace campaign and the added headache of a social media crisis, Nestlé was forced to pay attention and had to address the problems with the palm oil it buys. Hopefully, Nestlé’s new policies will help save some orangutans and make some of us feel better about eating Kit Kats.

If you watched Pam and Jim’s wedding, you will recall that the writers heavily borrowed the memorable wedding routine from the extraordinarily popular YouTube video JK Wedding Dance. It’s the one where the wedding party dances down the aisle to Chris Brown’s song, Forever.  The video became so popular (now over 44 million views on YouTube) that the entire group was invited to recreate the routine on The Today Show.

I suppose The Office writers borrowed heavily from this video for two reasons:  First, so many Americans were familiar with the YouTube video that viewers would get the joke. Second, the writers were likely trying to evoke the same kind of emotion that made the video wildly popular in the first place.

When I first watched the episode I was disappointed. It struck me that the writers should have come up with a wedding scene that was not only memorable but completely unique. But I guess in an age of YouTube, asking the writers to produce something original that tops JK Wedding Dance is asking the impossible. How can a small group of professional writers compete with the millions of talented everyday citizens that upload original content to YouTube daily?

And that is the lesson for every advocacy group. Why not include all supporters in coming up with great ideas and in creating content? Organizations that invite supporters in on every stage of an advocacy campaign have a better chance at generating powerful results than if all of the ideas are generated by a few people inside the organization.

Consider the Speak Now For Kids campaign run by the National Association of Children’s Hospitals (N.A.C.H.) to raise awareness about the needs of children in the health care system reform debate last year. Rather than come up with all the ideas internally, N.A.C.H. encouraged supporters to upload video testimonials in their own words. (Disclosure – my firm, Adfero Group, worked with N.A.C.H. last year on the Speak Now For Kids campaign.)

The team at N.A.C.H. thought if they got supporters involved in creating content it would be more effective than any internal messaging they could create on their own. They were right. Have a look at some of the videos: Amy L. from Olney, MD, Kerry E from Union, NJ , and Carolyn H from Clarksville, IN.

(Note: Speak Now For Kids is a finalist for a Webby Award. I hope you will take a moment before voting ends at the end of the day to vote for Speak Now in the association category)

Much can be learned by studying State’s Democracy Video Challenge user generated content campaign.  Launched last year, the Video Challenge invites citizens worldwide to submit videos completing the phrase “Democracy is…”  The campaign had more than 900 video submissions and was successful in engaging the public through social media.

The Democracy Video Challenge provides many good lessons for advocacy organizations trying to recruit and mobilize supporters both here and around the world.

But let’s think outside of the box here. Why limit this to news organizations? Could you image what a forward thinking non-profit or advocacy group could do with this kind of technology?

Members could upload their personal stories and testimonials in a YouTube story-bank. Constituents could post video messages to Congress. Donors could share why they are supporting a cause or explain to their friends why they are participating in a fundraising challenge. Perhaps in some cases citizen journalists could be recruited to gather video ‘research’ on an opposing group or in support of selected issue priorities. (If you have other ideas about how non-profit/advocacy groups can use this tool please add them as a comment to this post or tweet via @zablud).

To see examples of how advocacy organizations are already utilizing video content from supporters please visit two sites Adfero developed SpeakNowForKids or MyCommunityMyBank. While these sites were custom created before the YouTube DIRECT tool was available, both these and future sites could certainly be developed or enhanced using this new tool.

According to YouTube, the “key features of YouTube DIRECT include:

Jon’s post

Colin’s response to Jon

Here is my response:

At the risk of being inflammatory (no offense meant Jon)… come on folks… aren’t we past the days when we refer to a tool (or a communication channel) as a strategy? The internet is not a strategy. A blog is not a strategy. And neither is Twitter.

These are channels for communication and we develop strategies for using them.

I am a big fan of Twitter. And I am always developing strategies for using it. But that is fundamentally different from saying Twitter is a strategy. Twitter can be used to inform people about ideas, promote events, engage conversations, and mobilize actions. And for each of these you can adopt a variety of strategies and tactics (using hashtags to engage different groups, linking groups together, etc.).

I also believe, as McLuhan wrote, that technology is not ideologically neutral. Tools are not just tools that can be used for any purpose. Each communication tool has its own ideology. For example, socially dynamic tools like Twitter are inherently more democratic than broadcast tools like TV. Thus, strategies for Twitter that exploit the democratic nature of the channel will work better than command and control strategies. And vice versa for TV.

What makes Twitter inherently democratic? Well, 1) generally anyone can follow anyone else and 2) no one can restrict who uses a hashtag or how they use it. What makes TV inherently undemocratic? 1) only the producers of the content control the content, 2) access to the channel is restricted, and 3) no feedback loop.

OK… so the ideology of Twitter constrains what strategies work on it (or at least work better), but the bottom line is still: Twitter is not a strategy, but a channel that allows us to pursue a variety of strategies for how we use it.

Here at HSUS, our email file is largely skewed to older women. We’ve been in the social media space for 2+ years now, trying to broaden our audience. But we haven’t done much integration of our email file and website to our social media presence because of the fear that the demographic of the two don’t match.

So, when it was time for our annual Spay Day Online Pet Photo Contest, and there was the question of whether or not to invest money in an accompanying Facebook application, there were some skeptics.

Being the social media person at the organization, I was all for it. I knew that as long as the application took advantage of Facebook’s viral features, it would take off. In my mind, this meant:

1 – all functions had to stay within the Facebook platform (instead of taking you to the external site)

2 – the Facebook app had to be a mirror of the external site and not a separate entity

3 – there had to be some function to post a “box” to your profile to show off your pet

4 – there had to be some function to post a “story” to your newsfeed, both when you installed the app and when you entered your pet

Of course, that’s overly-simplified. It took a long time to get it to where it is now. But the time and money were both worth it, as it essentially paid for itself.

The Facebook app currently has a utilization rate of 65%. That means 65% of the people who have entered the contest have installed the Facebook app. And when you see that the largest amount of people who entered the contest came from the email we sent to our file, and our file is largely skewed older female, then I’m lead to believe that those older women actually are on Facebook! In fact, I just read an article in MediaPost that said women over 55 are the fastest growing US demographic group on Facebook in the past 3 months. (I believe it, since my mother has recently joined, and become addicted.)

We have almost tripled the amount raised from the photo contest last year, and there’s still almost a month left. I honestly believe it’s because we’ve made it easier to share the contest and entries this year, the Facebook app being just one way. And who wouldn’t want to show off their adorable, loving companion on their Facebook page?

If you haven’t already, check out the contest at  http://photocontest.humanesociety.org and the Facebook app at http://apps.facebook.com/spayday.

But long before the ink was ever set to paper, thousands of people across the country had already seen the ad, and were commenting on it and sharing it with friends online.

By making the ad available to bloggers before it ran in the papers, Cato was able to generate a media buzz long before our main product even existed. Most of all, we gave bloggers the opportunity to scoop old media giants like The New York Times.

Here’s how to do it:

1) Start with well-known allies: When running a campaign, make a list of the bloggers you know are not only going to post your product, but will actively help spread the word.

2) Make your product available in a number of different forms: Not everyone likes a PDF, and not everyone fancies an embed code. Give bloggers the option. Send them the PDF, JPG and the embed code of your product so they can choose how they want to share it.

3) Lead by example: Be sure to post the product on your blog first. How’s it going to look if you’re asking all these bloggers to post something, and you haven’t even posted it yourself?

4) Engage your Twitter community: Be sure only to ask for retweets when necessary. In Cato’s case, we want to make sure people know that if we ask for retweets, it’s something very important.

5) If bloggers help you spread your message, thank them: In the blogosphere, the hyperlink is the highest form of gratitude. At Cato, I try to keep bloggers engaged by linking to them on Cato@Liberty every few days.

6) Follow up: Even if your campaign is nearly over, be sure to take advantage of the opportunity by making personal contact with bloggers who helped you along the way. If they live in the area, treat them like you would a mainstream reporter and take them to lunch. After all, they helped fight for your cause.

7) Create two versions of the product for both old and new media: For example, Cato created a special online version of the ad that bloggers can put on their own site during the stimulus debate. Any blogger can simply copy and paste the code found here by clicking on “Spread the word.”

By taking a few extra steps to engage bloggers, you will keep your campaign alive long after last week’s newspapers are crumpled up and thrown into the recycling bin.

AARP’s new campaign is really about connecting with voters.  The very essence of this video campaign is to give the people a chance to insert themselves into the message, and then insert their friends.  Very personal touch, indeed.

While not the first to do something like this (Job Jab lets you put your face on an animated character), this light-hearted campaign really gets to the heart of electoral politics–YOU.

Want to send the ad to your friends with their name in it? Click here and have some fun.