Jeremy Pepper has requested that consultants prove that social media works - that it can be used for good. Calling out a dozen of some of the most well-known and influential in our flock, he points out what these folks (all men, as an aside) haven’t done and/or should be doing by way of affecting change for a particular cause.

Now, I’ve also called pros to task on using social media for good, too. But it’s unfair to assume that social media at large and the people Jeremy listed aren’t doing good things. Consultants don’t live and die by their social media activity. People DO do things that aren’t broadcast across Twitter and Technorati, from donating to volunteering.

“Charity” takes so many different forms. Sometimes it’s a monetary gift. Sometimes it’s taking 10 extra minutes to listen to a problem. Other times its NOT lambasting someone (in private or public) who really should get their ass handed to them.

We can’t assume that people who don’t talk about doing good through social media aren’t doing good at all.

And, for the record, a lot of people are doing a lot of good via that wild & woolly Web of ours. A lot of this action is driven by nonprofits/NGOs, which over the centuries have had to deal with more obstacles than merely those presented by social media just to get people to donate a buck.

Civic engagement and open sourced, social media are people-driven - a match made in heaven for advocacy. Social media presents countless opportunities, but an equal number of challenges to match. Progress is being made but it takes time. For years, nonprofit leaders, marketers and consultants have put out rallying cries to dig into this space, and every week this community is learning from each other and refining the process. “The ask” requires trust, and to get in the trust tree, you need relationships, relevance and tact.

Sure, we all have room to do more - and I put myself at the top of the list of people who should do more. But people should be allowed to choose their causes and not blamed if they don’t support yours (with all due respect to Jeremy’s friend Lisa).

Those of us who are so concerned that others take action should lead by example. It’s not just about one cause - it’s about getting society to adapt a cause-focused mindset. A tall order that cannot be fulfilled by “social media consultants” alone. Find your own way to help, tell others about it, and invite/encourage them to join you. They might already be a champion for something else, in their own way, and that’s okay.

[Image credits: "Time Out!" by threecees & "Urban Optimism" by hoveringdog]

Social media how-to’s and primers have a shelf life of a millisecond, roughly. These blogging tips and social network tricks, while thorough, are usually manufactured by the hands of one or two people.* Quickly outdated, this single-lens content is easily trumped by evergreen collaboration. The latter of which is the calling card of We Are Media.

“Curated” by NTEN (the Nonprofit Technology Network) and Beth Kanter, We Are Media (formerly known as Be The Media) is a wiki-housed, group effort to develop a social media curriculum for nonprofits. It’s a work in progress: the community is tackling one module per week.

According to the site, We Are Media aims to “build this wiki and community into the “go-to place” for vetted resources about social media strategies and tools for nonprofits and/or individuals who work for or with nonprofits and need practical advice about getting started or to quickly access best practices, examples, or experience from other practitioners working in nonprofits.”

The team spirit approach has the potential to torch a time-honored tradition: stale silos of self-education across nonprofit learning. It’s also going to set the bar a little higher for corporate and government brethren, too.

This initiative matters.

• It’s a “community of practice.” Learn as you teach; teach as you learn. There is no better way to learn how to move someone up the participation ladder than to dive face first into the environment yourself. Beth is compiling a series of posts on “working wikily,” a job not for the fly-by-night practitioner.
• The focus is on smarter – not universal – use of Web 2.0. In other words, if the social media shoe doesn’t fit, don’t wear it. (Or it if does fit, what type, brand and supportive padding is worth it for your feet?)
• Tagged content, the living, breathing, searchable beauty of it all.
• Back up from a person committed to calling out patterns in discussion and content and figuring out where to throw more spaghetti. In the words of Michele Martin at The Bamboo Project, “As communities develop ever-evolving resources through tagging, blogging, adding to wikis, etc. there’s still a need for someone to comb through all that information and help make sense of it, particularly in terms of instructional design.” If only more online community managers possessed Beth’s innate ability to do so, we’d see less failures.

Major kudos are due to Beth, Holly Ross (Executive Director of NTEN), and the dozens of We Are Media participants. The contributions made today will help ensure our nation’s hands and feet - the social sector - aren’t swept away with the tidal wave of Web 2.0.

Rather, they’ll have the appropriate gear (from swimmies to wet suits to surf boards) to manuver.

[ Image credit: Surf's up? By 356bunnies ]

*Updated: The How-to’s are great, too, so keep reading them! While yes, the ways of the digital world change overnight, you’ll find valuable insight to strategic and tactical plays in such resources. Learning comes from all sides.