How a One-Person Nonprofit Brings the Face and Voice of Homelessness to Mainstream

InvisiblePeople.tv is a one-person nonprofit organization with mission to bring the voice and face of homelessness, founded in 2008 by Mark Horvath, who is a former homeless himself.

So how can a one-person nonprofit outfit fight homelessness and make a dent?

In this post, you’ll discover the three ways this nonprofit work the social media to communicate its message.

#1. Leverage the use of social media tools

“Use social media because it’s free,” says Mark Horvath in one of the Invisible video clips. Since the launched of his organization, Mark Horvath and his Invisible People have leveraged the use of social media tools to bring stories of homelessness to the mainstream. The communication method works two-ways: with mainstream and with(in) the homeless community itself.

As a communication tool, social media is used to reach out multiple layers of stakeholders, including those who are homeless because they are also online. He says that if you are looking for a homeless person, Facebook is a good place to start.

A large portion of IP’s stories are video interviews with homeless individuals which then posted on its YouTube video-blog (vlog). In addition to YouTube, where videos originated (the hub), links from video clips are shared through their Facebook, Twitter, blog, and Google+ channels (spokes). If on YouTube channel you get to hear interviews, on its Flickr and Instagram accounts you get to see pictures of those interviewed.

So technically one (same) content can be seen multiple times via a variety of social networking sites because each site has different audience, followers, culture, and demographics.

Why The World’s Wildlife Conservation Network Use Blog to Connect with the World

Wildlife Direct is an Internet, Kenya-based US registered conservation charity, founded in 2005 by African conservationist, Dr. Richard Leakey.

It was founded with the goal to connect directly those who care about wildlife with those who work in the frontlines through ‘blogging’ portal, where conservationists can use their blogging platform (hosted on their site) to blog stories on wildlife conditions in remote areas of Asia, Africa, and South America.

Using blogs enable individual donors, supporters from around the world to participate and communicate directly with the bloggers working on conservation projects they are funding and build trust.

Wildlife Direct has grown from hosting a modest twenty blogs in 2006 – to becoming the largest online community of African wildlife conservationists.  I started doing research for the original piece of this post in early 2012, then it hosted approximately 80 blogs on its platform. Today, WD hosts over 100 blogs (although some are currently non-active) written by conservationists working remotely from Africa – East, Central and West Africa – and as far away as Asia and South America. Furthermore, on site blogs are interlinked to a point where readers can click to search other blogs of interest based on region or species.

Even though, Wildlife Direct has integrated the use of blogging with social media tools – Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube – blogging is still the area where they shine. It is still the preferred story-telling tool use by the majority of conservationists working from the frontlines.

The blogging platform allows bloggers to customize content that tell stories about endangered species projects they are preserving using a combination of text, video clips and pictures. Their stories give donors the assurance for transparency, accountability, and work progress – so that they can continue funding those conservation missions, programs, etc.

This Is Your Life

Is this how things work? Wanted to do something but ended up doing something else. Like watching this video. It wasn’t on my list at all. I was looking for a music video that I downloaded in my computer, when I saw this. It’s been a while, forgot about this – at all. 

You know how signs can come from everywhere. Maybe, this is a sign, a reminder – for the recipient to stay on track.

So if you need a pick-up, have a look on this. (only 2 mins long). It’ll inspire you.

THIS IS YOUR LIFE…

        Live Your Passion

        Live Your Purpose

        Live Your Dreams

Enjoy.

Why Upskilling is Key to Staying Employable

What is it about the world that makes it more challenging to find work? I know at least a couple of friends who are educated and still looking for jobs.

Technology has lowered the barriers for people to learn. For example, ever since English become one of the official languages use on the Internet, teenagers in Indonesia these days speak better English than when I was their age!

So now because of technology and access to Internet, competition for the same kind of jobs can come from anywhere in the world.

A robot can even replace you, the worker. This is already happening (as we speak). Diapers.com, uses robots (not people!) to move things around. How about that?

It’s either another person or robot or machine. Whatever. You’ve got competition! This competition leave us with few choices: either reinvent, redefine – or toast.

How do you stay employable?

Well, I’ve got news for you. You can. Here is what you want to do: skillup and keep on learning – for as long as you able to work – for life! Because a college degree alone won’t be enough to keep you employable. You want to keep moving forward and continue to reinvent and redefine your career.

3 REASONS WHY YOU NEED TO SKILLS UP 

1. The future lies on your (continued) education

The  US Congress on Joint Economic Committee, recently did a study “Nowhere to Go” to see the impact of Free Trade to US workers. The study finds that older workers and those without a college education – are at risk (of losing jobs). That being said, jobs are hard to come by for those without college degree. “Since most of the jobs expected to be created are in sectors that require education beyond high school.”

According to Bureau of Labor Statistics, almost 11.9 million jobs between now and 2018 will be in professionals category, where 65% of employees have a four-year degree.

20 Sustainability Learning Resources

FOOD FOR YOUR BRAIN. These are some of the sites where you can learn and dig deeper on sustainability. Whether you’re an employee, business owner, professional, or even executive and career changer, the information available through these sites is priceless. The best part is, most of the resources it’s either available for free or for a small subscription fee.

The resources below provide you with the knowledge, the kind of information that includes things that would affect the sustainability of your business, i.e. climate change, energy efficiency, nature conservation, biodiversity, water efficiency, and more.  It is by no means they are the only twenty sources out there. There are literally more than hundreds (probably thousands) sources globally! However, for the purpose of learning, we’re going to start one chunk at a time. It’s good enough to spin your head.

The Social Business and Customer Service

Businesses got to love change. Not just change, but sustained change. That’s the message from Frank Eliason. If that hasn’t sunk in your business culture yet, listen to this interview on social business and customer service. Brian Solis interviewed Frank, who Brian says is “one of the fathers of modern customer service.” At Comcast he started using Twitter to interact and communicate directly with their customers. He was the guy behind @ComcastCares. Speaking about career development, Frank Eliason is now the Senior VP of Social Media at Citibank.

The money quote:

“One day, customer service will be marketing.”

Management Creed Every Business Should Read

The opening in a book on a subject of success stories on niche marketing penned by Dr. Soichiro Nagashima, an APO (Asian Productivity Organization) expert, published by the same organization, is something that we don’t put too much emphasis over here. The author has been trekking clean productivity arena for 40-some years. Originally was written as a manual for seminars on niche marketing strategies in Japan. 

Coming by way of Asia’s productivity, here is the creed, via APO.

Management is the art of adapting to the business environment

Management is the art of adapting to the business environment, and the business environment is subject to a range of political, economic, technical and social influences. The art of adapting to the changing environment may sound easy, but change is not visible to the insensitive eye. People content to lead an inactive, idle life resting on previous successes cannot grasp the dramatic socioeconomic changes occurring all around them. For those who have achieved success in business and maintain an ongoing passionate commitment to further progress, however, contentment can be a form of poison. For individuals, stagnation means death; for a company, maintaining the status quo is equivalent to giving up and closing down.

—

Moving in a different directions than others can open up opportunities. A company should recognize that the sun is already setting upon a market when everybody is in a rush to move in the same direction. In other words, a niche strategy which exploits “blind spots” in a market, paves the way for a company with a unique product or service, superior intellectual resources, and extraordinary creativity. [emphasis added]

This is truly a different attitude (and mindset) towards change. We tend to run the other way when facing with change. When in fact, change is good for business. 

LEARN from the master. So no matter what size and stage of your business, learn from the master to help you carve out your ‘niche’ market. Japan is the master when it comes to manufacturing technologies and some other breakthrough technologies. Circumstances like scarcity of natural resources, 80% dependent on imports for its food supply, etc., forced them to find the way out. And it has made Japan as one of the economic powerhouses in the world!

For more inspirations, you can check out the rest of the book “NICHE MARKETING 60 Success Stories,” here. [pdf]

How Coca Cola is Deep into Sustainability and yet Manage to Stay Profitable

You would think that by now, major corporations would be in drove into sustainability because of climate change and other environmental risks that could have an impact on companies sustainability. But, that’s not the case. However, Coca Cola, walk-to-walk on sustainability. They go deep into sustainability. Sustainability is at the core of their business strategy. 

“The strengths and sustainability of our brands are directly related to our social license to operate, which we must earn daily by keeping our promises to our customers, consumers, associates, investors, communities and partners.” – from 2008/2009 Sustainability Review

Company snapshot

Vision: “a world where all people have access to safe water, where packaging has a life beyond it’s original use, and where communities are healthy and prosperous.”

Established in 1886. Operates in more than 200 countries and markets. A $56 billion brand company. In 2009 joined the rank of Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. 

Brand portfolio: 500 brands and more than 3,300 beverage products. They have four of the world’s top five nonalcoholic sparkling beverage brands: Coca Cola, Diet Coke, Sprite, and Fanta. Simply trademark became the company’s 12th brand, in addition to Coca Cola, to have annual retail sales of $1 billion.

Number of employees worldwide: 92,800. 

Market capitalization: $135.36 billion. 

In the company wide system, which comprises the Company and more than 300 bottling partners around the world. The bottling partners are local-based. They manufacture, package, merchandise and distribute the finished beverages to customers and vending partners, who then sell the products to consumers. That’s how Coca Cola becomes a global business that act locally. 

Sustainability at its core

This is why to get the full benefit for a business, sustainability needs to be integrated into business strategy. Coca Cola and their bottling partners are committed to keep innovating to keep their products affordable and make their business more environmentally and economically beneficial to the communities they serve. They do believe “that investing in the economic, environmental and social development of communities will help our business grow.” Need not say more. And that is sustainability at its core.

Based on the information provided on their corporate sustainability and annual reports, this is how I see their success formula of sustainability:

SUSTAINABILITY = RISK MANAGEMENT >  “that leads to” > INNOVATIONS

For them not embracing sustainability, exposed them to their biggest risk that they have no control over the supply, unless they do something about it to preserve and conserve.

Think about this for a moment. Water, as a resource, is ‘very’ vital to their business. They are in the business of selling water-based products. Water is also used in their manufacturing process. 70% of the world’s water is used for agriculture and yet only 3% of the earth’s fresh water is fit for human consumption via lakes, rivers and streams. The rest is locked in glaciers, snow and ice.

Business with a Purpose Business Models

I stumbled into Business Model Alchemist via Holy Kaw. If you’re into social entrepreneurship – looking into business models that has something to do with social and environmental impact, like I am – take a look at this presentation below for inspirations.

Business Models Beyond Profit – Social Entrepreneurship Lecture

View more presentations from Alexander Osterwalder