The Dragonfly Effect
Posted by Allison Fine on October 15, 2010
A new Social Good podcast has been posted. I interviewed Jennifer Aaker, the co-author with her husband, Andy Smith, of The Dragonfly Effect.
It’s a wonderful book for corporations and nonprofits. Rather than me tell you about it, I’ll let Jennifer and Andy do it:
I was really struck during my conversation with Jennifer on the focus she put on organizations tell one, great, simple, sticky story about what they do. An example she gave was Alex’s Lemonade Stand. Here is all you have to know about Alex’s Lemonade Stand:
Full Name- Alexandra Flynn Scott
Birthday- January 18, 1996
I’m Alex, I’m 8 years old. I have Neuroblastoma and I raise money for pediatric cancer research with the help of other kids and grown ups through my lemonade stand. I give the money I raise to research to find cures for pediatric cancers.
Who do I live with?
My parents, my brother Patrick, my brother Eddie, my brother Joey, my dog Shammy, and my cute kitten Herbert.
Where do I live?
I live in Pennsylvania, right down the street from Philadelphia.
Favorite Colors – Blue and Purple
Favorite Animal – Penguin
School – 2nd Grade
Favorite part of school – Everything
Favorite Food - French Fries
Favorite Book - Junie B. Jones Series and The Little House on The Prairie Books
Favorite Movie - Scooby Doo
Favorite TV Show - Pokemon and American Idol
What I want to be when I grow up – Fashion Designer
Favorite Activity - Making stuff and designing clothes
Place I most want to visit – France
Favorite Sport - Soccer
Social media channels are amazing and powerful vehicles for personal story telling. One of the best examples that you probably have heard about recently is the Youtube channel, It Gets Better, started by Dan Savage. The channel encourages anyone, particularly gay adults, to share their personal stories and struggles from teens to gay adulthood to support gay teens that are being bullied. Here is Dan and his partner, Terry Miller’s story:
Another new project that enables people to tell their own, unfiltered stories is Mark Horvath’s, HardlyNormal on Twitter, has a new site called We Are Visible. It is a toolset to enable homeless people to connect, share resources, and make their voices heard.
Jennifer Aaker made a great point in saying that social media is important not just for the storytelling, but to enable others to retell and share the stories. For people and organizations that are afraid to let others tell their stories, who fear the loss of control over their message, she said that a truly strong story will keep its essence through the retelling, and actually be strengthened by it. Good stuff!
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This entry was posted on October 15, 2010 at 7:55 am and is filed under Social Media. Tagged: Dan Savage, Dragonfly Effect, Mark Horvath, Social Good, Terry Miller. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
2 Responses to “The Dragonfly Effect”
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Rachel said
We covered the “It Gets Better/Make It Better” project on Tribal Truth if people want to read more about the response to it. Groups have put together resources for students to fight back against homophobia and bullying in their schools. Read more about it at http://tribaltruth.org/2010/10/the-make-it-better-project/
Allison Fine said
This is great, thanks. Dan Savage will be my guest on my Social Good podcast this month.