After recuperating from Chase Community Giving Campaign, I am slowly entering back into the Twitter and Facebook world.  The months of November, December and January have been an incredible journey for DeafHope, and for me personally.  Before the Halloween weekend of October, I was afraid to join the Twitter world until the fateful workshop with Shane Feldman at NAD’s National Leadership Training Conference.  Two weeks after the leadership conference, DeafHope joined Chase Community Giving’s First round and won as one of the 100 top non-profit organizations in the ENTIRE nation!

When DeafHope made it past the first round, my brother, Tony Rems, who is a co-owner of Thought-Matrix company (www.thought-matrix.com), generously offered his services for DeafHope to create its own Facebook application page to support DeafHope’s “Big Idea” for Chase’s Second round of voting. Bless his heart!

My spouse, David Smario, who also works at Thought-Matrix was assigned to develop DeafHope’s application Facebook page.  Like me, David is also Deaf, so he understood what we wanted.   With hard work through the holidays involving volunteers such as Taya Levine, Ben Vess, David Smario, DeafHope Board of Directors and staff, we created the “Big idea” called Open the Door and Close the Gap.  Here is the link that we created within an amazing two-week timeframe: http://apps.facebook.com/deafhope/ . What a transformation it has been for both DeafHope and me in the world of “social media”.  I truly loved every minute of this process.

THE WEEK THE WORLD “SAW” and “HEARD” DEAF SURVIVORS

During January 15th-22nd, DeafHope’s campaign for Chase’ Second round of voting took on a life of its own!  The Facebook users who are Deaf survivors of domestic and sexual violence as well as well as our allies came forward with vlogs and blogs of their own stories and support.  I was just blown away by their powerful stories. It was the week the world saw and heard the Deaf survivors of domestic and sexual violence! It was also the week the Deaf survivors found the courage to share. Furthermore, it was the week the awareness of domestic violence was greatly increased in the Deaf world of social media.

Bottom line is…. the Deaf survivors OWNED this campaign.

THE POWER OF THE DEAF COMMUNITY NETWORK

Over 7200 votes were casted within ONE week and most of the voters were Deaf people and allies of the Deaf community.   The voters from our own community made this process so powerful and empowering.   All this happened because of social media!  Today’s social media is an incredible accessible way for the Deaf community to create  positive social changes. Sean Forbes from D-PAN sent to his Facebook and email group about voting for DeafHope as did Drago, Kelby Brick, Roz Rosen, Jasun Hicks, Sheri Farinha,  Marilyn Smith, Tayler Mayer, Ridor, Tom Willard,  Marlee Matlin, Mich Gerson, Michael Sidansky and many more amazing individuals. Even Captionfish posted the voting information on their website! SIGNews, DeafNation and DeafWeekly also helped out!  Our use of social media has been barely tapped within one week. Imagine what we can do in the long term!

Posted at the bottom of this blog are links to several vlogs and blogs created by Deaf supporters during the Chase 2nd round for you to enjoy!  One of the vlogs that moved me to tears is Terrylene’s poem - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SQPp7UTyIE&feature=related.  Her poem captured the very reason why I am committed to DeafHope’s mission.  I shall never forget this amazing milestone of Deaf domestic violence survivors’ movement.

VOTES TRIPLED

DeafHope gathered over 2300 votes in a one-MONTH period during Chase’s first round, while during the second round DeafHope gained 7284 votes in one WEEK!  That is three times the votes in 1/4th the time compared to the first round.  It reflects the growth of the Deaf community’s command with social media.  Once again, this is only scratching the surface.  Imagine how much more we can do when we expand our understanding and experiences with social media.  Just IMAGINE!  I just cannot emphasize this enough.

SURVIVORS’ STORIES ARE PRICELESS

When DeafHope made it as one of the top 100 non-profits in the first round, we won the $25,000 grant. The grant will go to direct advocacy services for 2010 fiscal year.  This was made possible by  our wonderful 2300+ voters during Chase’s first round. THANK YOU for choosing DeafHope!  As for the second round of voting and the Chase advisory board selection, DeafHope did not make it.   It does not mean DeafHope lost.  In our eyes, we won because of the PASSION created by all 7284 voters who believe in DeafHope’s cause.    All of us at DeafHope feel like a MILLION bucks with the gifts of the Deaf survivors’ stories posted on our Facebook walls.  We have come away from this experience much richer in our hearts.

HINDSIGHT IS 20/20

What could have been done differently?  I do strongly believe this… the way this whole process ended has been perfect in itself.  Perfect in how the Deaf community came together to give a platform for the Deaf survivors.   Perfect in how the Deaf people POSITIVELY supported one another and pushed each other upwards to a new level of leadership.   Perfect in how it has been a learning curve for all of us to evaluate and become a social media powerhouse.

LESSONS LEARNED FROM OTHER ORGANIZATIONS

With the perfect learning curve attained by all of us at DeafHope, now we know some of the social media secrets used by the savvy organizations—

1) Purchase email mailing lists

2) Hire a social media specialist

3) Hire a team of people to focus on the campaign

4) National sister organizations quickly and organically posted their support with links to the voting page of the Second round of Chase voting in spite of the short notice

5) Focus on the younger generation like teen groups and the 20-something group, which is wired, for social media

6) Create inspirational ways for our cause to be  ”embraced” by the majority outside of the Deaf community

There are more tips we learned, which I will share in my future blogs.  Someone told me that I should not share the secrets I learn.  I disagree.  We cannot keep secrets from each other in the Deaf Community. We must SHARE these strategies so that we can push each other to a new level in social media. It makes no difference whether it is NAD or NorCal Deaf Center or ADWAS.

HERE IS THE SHOCKER–WE NEED HEARING VOTERS

The only way we can succeed the future social media campaigns for funds is when all us  spontaneously and systematically support each other.  This includes the flexibility to organically brainstorm creative ways to shatter each glass ceiling along with our hearing allies.  For instance, one hearing ally of DeafHope’s, Belanie Dishong, invited me to be on her radio show called Women: Heart to Heart for an interview about DeafHope.  In a heartbeat, I took this interview opportunity with an interpreter. This helped to get votes from the hearing community for Chase Community Giving second round.  At the same time, Belanie’s listeners are now more aware of American Sign Language, Deaf culture, and domestic violence issues because of this radio interview!

As result of this interview, Judge Hatchett who has her own court reality show,http://www.judgehatchett.com/about/, learned about DeafHope posted about voting for us on her website!  It became viral in the hearing world starting with the radio show.

Belanie showed me how the hearing population responds to marketing.  It is a different strategy than what we use for our Deaf audience.  Our marketing to the hearing society needs to be expanded in creative ways to get more support for our Deaf causes without compromising our Deaf values.  We cannot forget we are outnumbered by the hearing people, so we need to help them to understand and embrace our causes if we want for our future social media campaigns to be successful.  I still have so much to learn.

WOMEN ISSUES ON BACK BURNER

I found one trend disturbing…  none of the nonprofits supporting women issues were selected.  Out of the 100 organizations competing for Chase grants, two organizations promote awareness of breast cancer and three organizations focus on building shelters and/or programs for abused women, including DeafHope.  None of the five women-oriented organizations had enough votes nor were chosen by Chase Community Advisory Board.  It greatly bothers me to see how social and health issues that are killing  our grandmothers, mothers, sisters and girlfriends are put on the back burner.   This is an unfortunate indication that we have work cut out for us.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS DOUBLE EDGED SWORD FOR DEAFHOPE

Chase campaign increased our community’s awareness about DeafHope’s services, so both our hotline calls and the number of people interested in volunteer work at DeafHope have tripled.  During past two weeks, DeafHope staff has been so busy responding to unprecedented number of emails, hotline calls, and videophone calls. This is the main reason why you did not hear much from me during past couple of weeks.

Because we are so busy with increased advocacy work due to the awareness we created via social media, we have less people-power to keep up with social media. Our short term solution to solve this problem is to expand our team of volunteers who are skilled with social media. As for long term solution, DeafHope Board of Directors, staff and volunteers are currently exploring new strategies on how we can continue to send a strong united message to eradicate domestic violence in this strange and exciting new world of social media.  This issue is definitely on our agenda for this year’s board retreat, because we recognize that social media is here to stay.

THANK YOU TWITTER, V/BLOG AND FACEBOOK FRIENDS

Okay…yes I admit it!  I did go through a severe withdrawal period when the Chase voting ended.  I was also exhausted from the Facebook weeklong interaction.   Throughout this whole Chase voting process, I  made many new friends and got reacquainted with old friends. Many people touched me by coming forward as allies to help us get votes.   It was a natural high for me.

One voter who really stood out is Kelly Ford Powell. She made full use of Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis. The Board of Directors, staff and volunteers also noticed her. Kelly is our social media warrior!  There were many people who also jumped in to help us recruit votes.  You all know who you are…THANK YOU!    It has been an organic and inspiring process!!  I miss the interaction so much and hope to have this opportunity again.  Like Bob Hope used to say– Thank you for the memories!

POWER OF FRIENDRAISING VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

As I close this blog, here is something really COOL I want to share — three Deaf women vloggers who came to DeafHope’s Alice in Wonderland Tea party in 2007 also vlogged and blogged their support during the Chase campaign–Aidan Mack, Amy Cohen-Efron, and Barb Digi.  I loved their support. ( XOXO!) During the Tea Party we did the fun DEAFY BUNCH scenario together filmed by Aidan, which you can enjoy at this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-sQ5oFdLaI This social experience fills my heart!

With deep gratitude,

Julie Rems-Smario

Most of you who are Facebook users recently experience the color phenomenon posted by women, both Deaf and hearing!  It started as a very simple idea below:

“Just write the color of your bra in your status, just the color, nothing else, and send this on to only girls, no men… It will be neat to see if this will spread the wings of cancer awareness. It will be fun to see how long it takes before the men will wonder why all the girls have a color in their status! haha!! Someone sent this to me figured I’d give it a try! Can’t hurt! If you don’t wear one, just think of a pretty color that you would like to wear and enter that in the status.Please forward to as many people as you can. Thanks!!”

In a hearbeat, I joined the color game!  It spread like wildfire in our facebook accounts. This colorful effort for breast cancer awareness went VIRAL! Even the men became curious.I suspect that they did not want be left out!  It was fun to watch their responses.

Because the men’s enormous curiousity, they had to beg their girlfriends, wives, sisters, partners, mothers, aunts, etc. to spill the beans.  This is a brilliant way bring up conversations about the reality of breast cancer.

One man who figured out the color game early, posted a hilarious Seinfeld episode , the one when Kramer shows Mr. Costanza his newest invention, The Bro. Mrs. Costanza and George are shocked to see Mr. Costanza wearing the Manzier:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=236288305899

NOTE:  It is a little known fact that men do get breast cancer.  It is very rare, but it happens.  So men should do the breast-exams as well.  It is better to be safe than sorry.

After 24 hours of colorful postings, several of the men started to post colors too!  One man posted on his wall that he found this viral campaign, “Arousing and Disturbing”. Our breasts which makes us women beautiful can also take our lives away.  It is a disturbing thought.

As result of this color campaign, The Cancer Awareness campaign  gained many supporters, both men and women.

Thank you to the incredible woman, whoever you are, for coming up with this powerful social media campaign idea.  Posting the colors on our Facebook served as a strong reminder for us women to take care of ourselves with self-exams and mammograms. It is a BRILLIANT way to promote Breast Cancer Awareness.

More importantly, the bra color campaign is a beautiful, fun, colorful way to celebrate both the survivors of breast cancer, and the women who departed from this earth because of breast cancer. Goddess Bless our Bras!

Once again, what started as such a simple idea, became a powerful, viral message to create social positive social changes. Hey women, let’s support and remind each other to do regular breast-exams and mammograms.  We all are WORTH it!

(Update–this article was forwarded to me today http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/6954696/Facebook-bra-colour-status-update-craze-raising-breast-cancer-awareness.html)

CHEERS TO SOCIAL MEDIA!!

PURPLE POWER,

Julie Rems-Smario

Today we will complete DeafHope’s Facebook page!  It goes online tomorrow. It is an incredible experience.  I will tell you why…

A company called Thought-Matrix, which is owned by two men, Tony and Trevor, donated their staff to develop DeafHope’s FB page for Chase Community Giving! Check their company’s website, www.thought-matrix.com.

As you probably have it figured out by now, Tony is my baby brother.  My spouse, David Smario, also works with the company.  Tony approved for several of Thought-Matrix staff, including David,  to donate their expertise and work time to DeafHope’s FB page!  Bless their hearts!

Also several individuals in our community became passionately involved by contributing to the development of DeafHope’s FB page such as Taya Levine, Ben Vess, Ken Arcia, Trina Licht, and Fred Licht. You won’t believe how many hours they put into this project.    It is such a JOY work with them.

Their amazing demonstration of dedication is what commmunity involvement is all about.   Community involvement is a proactive way to create positive social changes.

At DeafHope, we have two main goals for social changes–Open the Door to a Safe Deaf Space (shelter/transitional housing)  for abused Deaf women and their children AND Close the Gaps in the system. We do not want to see any more Deaf survivors of domestic violence fall through the cracks, or get murdered, because of lack of shelter and lack of system access.  It is still happening too often.  In 2009, three Deaf women (plus two hearing boys-kodas) were murdered by their partners who are supposed to love them.

Five 2009 deaths in our Deaf community is TRAGIC and UNACCEPTABLE. There is only one transitional housing for Deaf women in the entire nation, and world, in Seattle, Washington, called ADWAS (www.ADWAS.org). It was established due to the incredible leadership of a Deaf woman named Marilyn Smith.   There should be at least one transitional housing for abused Deaf women and their children in each state.  All of us at DeafHope are passionately determined to create transitional housing in northern California, which will be the second of its kind.

I have received several responses that currently it is not possible to create shelters/transitional housing across the nation because of the economic downturn.  That is far from the truth.

The MAIN  thing I have learned during past several years working with Deafhope–is that money is just a form.  Many potential non-profits did not become a reality because of the deeply instilled myth that organizations cannot exist without money.

Take a look at some of the most incredible non-profits such as Make-A-Wish(http://www.wish.org) and Locks of Love (http://www.locksoflove.org).  Their special ingredient is the passion of people involved.   Genuine passion coming from the heart is a natural donor attraction.  Once  you truly believe in your cause,  the cause becomes infectious, drawing in others who share the same passion.

Social media works long term  for only for the non-profits demonstrating genuine passion for their causes.. Without passion,  the cause is DEAD. With passion, the cause becomes VIRAL.

I am  a blessed executive director to be working with many amazing individuals who share the same passion at DeafHope.  They make DeafHope’s cause viral!

Our day’s work at DeafHope cannot be accomplished without passionate involvement from our Board of Directors, staff, and  community.  We have work cut out for us, and more importantly,  we know we can do it because we are fueled by our passion.

Thank you all for your gift of passion for DeafHope…

With deep gratitude,

Julie Rems-Smario

2010 is the year of social media for nonprofit agencies, including Deaf organizations.

In general, social media is a whole new world for nonprofits to navigate. I, as DeafHope’s executive director, got my feet wet by joining the Twitter world, thanks to Shane Feldman’s social media workshop at NAD’s NLTC and CraigsList Boot Camp.

When Chase Community Giving voting, a Facebook activity, was launched on November 15th, I decided to get my feet wet again by experimenting with social media. It was at that point when I realized how well Feldman and CraigsList taught me!

DeafHope started 2010 as one of the top 100 agencies with the most votes by Chase Community Giving Voters. THANK YOU all voters and supporters!

Through this experience, I went from getting my feet wet to deep diving!!! I loved meeting old and new friends through twitter and Facebook. It is all about friend-raising!

During past several days, we at DeafHope have been preparing for Chase’s second round of voting on January 15th, competing with 99 other winning nonprofits for one million dollars. Additionally, there will be 5 runner-ups for $100,000.

Also, Chase Community Giving Board of Directors will choose their favorite charity for another one million dollars!

Be on the lookout for the launching of DeafHope’s facebook page and profile on January 8th.

Because I am on a large learning curve, I have decided to start blogging, sharing with you all about the adventures of social media as a nonprofit manager…. hopefully some of you will benefit from my learning curve. I am biting my nails!

More importantly, I believe in sharing resources like Shane and CraigsList did for me. DeafHope would not have gotten this far with Chase if it weren’t for their generosity of resource-sharing.

2010 has already been an interesting and adventurous year… ’till the next blog!

Twittering,

Julie Rems-Smario