Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Killer Brownie Bites and Social Media: You Can't Just Eat One

Last week, I mentioned that I was being asked to do a social media presentation for the Dayton Children's Foundation Board and was given five minutes on the agenda. I decided to give the board just a delectable taste of what Dayton Children's is doing with social media, or as I liked to call it, the "Killer Brownie Bite" presentation.

Killer Brownie Bites are just about what they sound like -- a delicious, addicting nugget of a Dorothy Lane Market Killer Brownie.  These melt in your mouth leaving you wanting more.  It's impossible (really, I have tried) to eat just one Killer Brownie Bite.  The are sinfully rich, but you can't help yourself to at least having two of them.

Without trying to sound too cocky, my presentation had a similar effect.  I left the board wanting more. They were so intrigued by what we are doing that they asked exceptionally good questions. Our only problem was running out of time. Just like it's impossible to eat just one Killer Brownie Bite, it's impossible to do a five minute presentation without the audience wanting more.  And that's a very good thing (and way less fattening).

The feedback was very positive. The board, while not at all familiar with social media, is excited to see the exposure our efforts are bringing to the hospital.  They were particularly impressed that Dayton Children's had received national attention from our Twitter posts - @daytonchildren. Both our marketing  manager and I have been invited to do presentations, speak on panels, conduct webinars and consult with other nonprofits and hospitals about using social media. Dayton Children's has been featured on national blogs, most noticeably a blog article by Beth Kanter and compared to the Mayo Clinic in outstanding use of social media.
The big hit of the meeting was using Eric Qualman's  "Is Social Media a Fad" YouTube video to bring attention to how social media is revolutionizing how we communicate, branding and marketing efforts, fundraising, advocacy, and inter-connectedness. 

Following the meeting, the owner of the local Buffalo Wild Wings franchises, John Slaughenhaupt, came up to thank me for the presentation. He said our efforts inspired his own company's efforts to using social media. The Dayton Children's vice president of marketing and external relations, Vicki Giambrone, invited our social media team (Betsy Woods, Jessica Saunders and me) to do a similar presentation to the senior management and management team for the hospital. She felt is was important for the leaders of Dayton Children's to know how social media will play a role in our ongoing customer service efforts.  She also, very kindly, sent me a nice note commending me on the presentation and cc'd my direct supervisor...a very first classs thing to do.

The vice chairman of the board asked if I do personal tutorials on how to use social media. She said, "I'm petrified of learning it but definitely want to get over that fear."  This from a woman who teaches ski lessons all winter long in Colorado. Now, that is scary. This is not. I assured her that I would get her up and running and that she'd be hooked in no time.

This presentation was merely a snippet of what we do with social media but it served its purpose. It gave our Foundation board a taste for how we use social media and left them curious for wanting to learn more. Stay tuned when I serve up the full Killer Brownies!


As a very cool side note: when you shop at Dorothy Lane Market in Dayton and make a donation for the Haiti relief fund, they will match all donations for Oxfam International.

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