“The Dragonfly Effect” by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith with Carlye Adler is a book on “quick, effective, and powerful ways to use social media to drive social change”. It fuses ‘social’ back into social media, and empowers those who desire to make a substantial impact for the benefit of social and meaningful change. As the book states, small actions create big change. You just need a goal, passion and heart, and a willingness to put one foot in front of the other. It is in “The Dragonfly Effect” where we learn that when our four wings (key actions) are moving in concert, we can move in any direction and produce colossal results despite our income or social status. As a blogger, a communicator, and a dreamer, I find this incredibly inspiring both for myself and for my client, AWC Metro Phoenix Chapter. I hope you will, too.
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This book is divided into four wings, or key actions, listed as Focus, Grab Attention, Engage, and Take Action. However, it is the meaning behind these key actions that must be established. Something an individual or organization truly believes will make them happy in both a “profound and long-lasting way”.
In the Focus wing, it was found that winning peoples time would result in winning their time, money and votes, as opposed to just focusing on votes and donations (in regards to the Obama campaign). For the Metro Phoenix Chapter, this translates as members. The book states that if your have a solid but narrow-focused goal and you stay focused on that goal, it can have ripple potential that could reach more women than imagined. Those women will reach even more women, and bring powerful social change and success to the Metro Phoenix chapter.
In the Focus wing, it was found that winning peoples time would result in winning their time, money and votes, as opposed to just focusing on votes and donations (in regards to the Obama campaign). For the Metro Phoenix Chapter, this translates as members. The book states that if your have a solid but narrow-focused goal and you stay focused on that goal, it can have ripple potential that could reach more women than imagined. Those women will reach even more women, and bring powerful social change and success to the Metro Phoenix chapter.
However, it is the second wing, Grab Attention, which must be done correctly to be effective and have lasting results. It has to have the ‘stickiness’ factor. The chapter must work to break through the noise that threatens to steal their members’ attention. This includes family, social media, traditional media, the Internet, and pressures of everyday life. People have built up immunity to marketing and rightfully so. As the book points out, and I fully agree with, there is too much information in our everyday lives to process.
In order to speak to your audience, you must “understand their plight and create a message that speaks to them”. How? Get personal. This could include finding unique ways to incorporate tagging photos with #awcphoenix that can spread through various social media platforms such as Facebook, a powerful platform for building and maintaining relationships with target audiences. Other effective strategies are to elicit emotion in messages in order to create connections, use attention grabbing facts in statements, begin presentations with open-ended and intriguing messages, and employ perfectly placed humor in order to keep a light and approachable tone.
The third wing, Engage, is to compel your audience to care deeply about your cause/organization. As the book states, “engagement has little to do with logic or reason”. If you engage your audience emotionally, you will gain their interest and attention. Get to know them. Who are they, what are they going through, and what do they need? Build online communities through your organization, and be a wealth of knowledge for your chapter to turn to with questions. Through social media you can let your members and potential members know you are there, and that you are there for them. If the Metro Phoenix Chapter is transparent, committed to the success of the organization and the women involved, trust will build between the founding member and members. For any organization, trust is essential for growth.
In order to speak to your audience, you must “understand their plight and create a message that speaks to them”. How? Get personal. This could include finding unique ways to incorporate tagging photos with #awcphoenix that can spread through various social media platforms such as Facebook, a powerful platform for building and maintaining relationships with target audiences. Other effective strategies are to elicit emotion in messages in order to create connections, use attention grabbing facts in statements, begin presentations with open-ended and intriguing messages, and employ perfectly placed humor in order to keep a light and approachable tone.
The third wing, Engage, is to compel your audience to care deeply about your cause/organization. As the book states, “engagement has little to do with logic or reason”. If you engage your audience emotionally, you will gain their interest and attention. Get to know them. Who are they, what are they going through, and what do they need? Build online communities through your organization, and be a wealth of knowledge for your chapter to turn to with questions. Through social media you can let your members and potential members know you are there, and that you are there for them. If the Metro Phoenix Chapter is transparent, committed to the success of the organization and the women involved, trust will build between the founding member and members. For any organization, trust is essential for growth.
The fourth, and last, wing, Take Action, is meant to empower and enable the members of the organization by providing the tools to get them to do something. The call to action is a great place to start. “When organizations combine the power of the call to action with innovative social media tools, they can achieve extraordinary results.” Whatever you ask your members to do, it is imperative that what you ask of them is “highly focused, absolutely specific, and oriented to actions, so as to avoid overwhelming your audience”. Take small, easy, and fun steps, as “small asks lead to better results”, and make sure your members don’t have to ask to take action. When members have to ask, it is to to reevaluate.
Yes, the book says it can work, and I agree. Especially if the organization has focused on a single goal, found a way to grab the attention of their audience, how to engage with them, and identified strategies that enable and empower them to take action. With realistic expectations, the organizations goals can be accomplished and highly successful. As The Dragonfly Effect points out, in a world where a wedding video can reach millions of views, we have an enormous opportunity to make a great impact. It is my belief that the AWC Metro Phoenix Chapter can make it a good one.
Yes, the book says it can work, and I agree. Especially if the organization has focused on a single goal, found a way to grab the attention of their audience, how to engage with them, and identified strategies that enable and empower them to take action. With realistic expectations, the organizations goals can be accomplished and highly successful. As The Dragonfly Effect points out, in a world where a wedding video can reach millions of views, we have an enormous opportunity to make a great impact. It is my belief that the AWC Metro Phoenix Chapter can make it a good one.
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