Since my daughter MaryMargaret and I discovered social media last year, we have set one goal and one goal only, and that is to expose Kids Are Heroes to as many people as we can. We were told to create a YouTube account (which we did) and a Facebook account (which we did). We were also told to create a Twitter account. I thought to myself, “Not Twitter – I’ve tried it before and it is STUPID!” Having remembered the Seinfeld episode where George does the opposite of what he would normally do and all of a sudden he succeeds at everything, I figured I could become George Costanza for a day. After all, what’s the worst thing that could happen?
So besides telling all the ladies I am unemployed and that I live with my parents, I joined Twitter. Just like in the Seinfeld episode it worked swimmingly. But what about YouTube and Facebook? MaryMargaret and I had lots of fun creating comical videos together that to this day still crack me up (The Case of the Generous Kids and the Kids Are Heroes Show are two examples) and I hesitantly posted on Facebook. For some reason I don’t like to friend people on Facebook as quickly as I do Twitter because I tend to let my guard down a bit around family and I’m not sure if the rest of the world is ready for that. And then I found out about the groups on Facebook. That’s perfect I thought. So I created a group. My nephew who has 5000 or so friends on FB put out a request for people to join. People were joining left and right. Life was good. Only one problem – I was the only one who was updating the page. It’s as if they joined but never came back. So for quite a while then I invested most if not all of my social media time in Twitter.
Then I found out about the fan pages on Facebook. One of my Twitter colleagues suggested we do a fan page instead of a group – she told me it would be much more interactive. So I did. Not knowing what I was doing, and not trusting it, I just put out one status and that was it. To noone’s surprise I got the same result as before. Then just a few days ago I put out a tweet asking for help with my fan page. All of a sudden I got an onrush of people writing on the wall with suggestions as to how I should manage it. It was then that I realized that the status updates from fan pages actually get distributed to all members’ walls (unless they choose to hide them). That’s it! I thought – that’s how it can be interactive.
So, it’s only a few days later and I am really excited about it. I would love an explosion of new “fans” but as I remember when I started with Twitter, patience is indeed a virtue. They will come.
I even added a post on the Discussion board asking for feedback but since no alert of those get posted on people’s walls I trust I will be waiting a long time. I was hoping then that for those of you that are “fans” of ours, please let us know how we are doing. Are we posting too much, not enough, or just the right amount? We have started to add photos and I will continue with that but do not want to bombard people’s walls with stuff. Most of our videos are in YouTube form, so we will add them sporadically to the wall. I do try not to mimic my tweets on the fan page. A lot of the content is similar but what’s the point of reading the same thing twice?
So, if you would kindly let us know what we can do to make the fan page better, we’d love to hear your feedback. What else would you like to see? I do plan to add more pictures of other heroes and their activities. Let us know what you think by dropping us a comment. I also understand that fan pages are getting a bad rap these days. Let us know what you think about that too.
Oops!! Almost forgot. If you would like to join our fan page, please do so here. Thanks!!
This week’s featured hero is Chloe Maxmin, a teenager who works tirelessly to improve the environment. She is also a bit of a social entrepreneur in her tactics which is another quality I admire. We are so proud to have her as part of the Kids Are Heroes family. So, without further ado let me introduce you to Chloe Maxmin in her own words:
The Climate Action Club is coming to the end of our second year of operations. We worked on many projects this year. Most importantly, we moved into the action phase of our reusable bag campaign. In the fall we began an outreach effort in our town to inform local citizens about our work. I believe that education is the key to motivate people to act. I created an 11-minute movie entitled “First Here, Then Everywhere”, which illustrates how plastic bags harm our environment. (You can see it on YouTube!) I also created two fact sheets with data about the negative impact of plastic bags. We used these tools to inform the merchants and community members. My analysis determined that, based on conservative estimates, we can eliminate at least 671,000 plastic bags annually, which equals 4.8 x 10^10 lbs of CO2 and 398,930,400 BTU’s. It means fewer bags in our landfills each year leaching toxic chemicals into our soil and harming local wildlife and marine life. Our local community cable channel agreed to air my video “First Here, Then Everywhere” several times a week. I also developed a relationship with our local newspaper for a standing headline and semimonthly column for the club. I have authored several of these, and have invited other club members to contribute. We also have guest writers.
Merchants began to sign our pledge cards, committing themselves to the goals of our campaign. We stood outside local shops to hand out our fact sheet along with free canvas bags to shoppers. Together these efforts created community-wide awareness and support for our campaign.
Early this winter, the CAC organized a merchants’ meeting. We invited all local merchants to attend a meeting to discuss the campaign and reassess the best possible course of action. CAC members ran the meeting. We showed the film, “First Here, Then Everywhere”. Former Maine representative Ted Koffman, who pioneered legislation for reusable bags, and Suzette Bergeron, an expert in reusable bags, were our guest speakers.
The meeting was a success. There continues to be enormous support for a town-wide reusable bag. We discussed the economics of the campaign and what type of bag we should use. We decided that a sturdy but non-expensive bag would be optimum.
During this time the economic crisis was growing and hitting the local merchants quite hard. I understood that this made it difficult for many of them to invest as much as they would have liked in our bag campaign. In response to this situation, we decided to slightly alter our strategy.
In March I learned that I had won the Prudential Spirit of Community Award, a $1000 prize given to one high school student volunteer in each state. I decided to use that money as a challenge grant for the reusable bag campaign. We opened up the sponsorship process to individual citizens and other community organizations, as well as the merchants. The challenge grant was announced at a school assembly, in our newspaper column, and also covered in a news article.
I spoke to many local groups during the late winter and early spring. By early May we had raised $3500 in response to the challenge grant. We have purchased our first installment of ~2000 large polypropylene bags made of 20% recycled materials, which we will sell for $2.00 in local shops, the library, at school, and elsewhere. The bags will have a town logo on one side, and logos or names of sponsors on the other side. All the proceeds will be reinvested to buy more bags. This will establish a permanent fundraising effort to continuously recruit more sponsors, so we will have a growing revenue stream to invest in more bags. Finally, I am continuing to apply for grants in order to raise more money for this effort. With 2000 bags to sell, we can afford to give some away at Senior Homes, or sell them at a discount price at local events.
I have established a relationship with a company that recycles #5 plastics, including our polypropylene bags, and turns them into durable, recyclable, kitchenware. This means we can offer a way to collect and recycle our bags when they begin to degrade.
Through our column and other means (emails, handouts, local television, radio, and elected officials) we will educate people as to why they should reject plastic bags. This is a concrete behavioral change that reminds people on a daily basis of what is at stake for our planet. As tiny Damariscotta joins San Francisco, London, and China in this effort, we will make the case that every individual and small town has a giant role to play in the fight against global warming.
I have seen a rash of discussions about customer service on Twitter lately. Last week I happened to read an article by Jennnifer Van Grove about 5 more Twitter related trends to watch out for right now. The trend that caught my eye was #5, which was a discussion of an argument being played out online by Best Buy and a seemingly disgruntled customer. Since it got picked up by Twitter heavyweight Chris Brogan, it gained a lot of attention. I think Twitter, along with other social media platforms, offer a great venue for companies to mend fences as well as for people to get the word out about them, whether that word be bad or good. I do think it is crucial that people are fair and honest about things due to the viral nature of social media.
This past weekend I had two experiences that are germane to this discussion. My wife, daughter and I took our yearly over night trip to Hershey Park, PA. When we checked into our hotel, my wife noticed a sign that the pool was being repaired and thus closed indefinitely. I told the clerk that was one of the reasons we selected this hotel. After all, what 10-year-old doesn’t like to swim in a hotel pool? If this woman had said something to the effect of “I’m sorry, there’s nothing else I can do” I would have begrudgingly accepted our fate as it was after 6PM and we had secured the room with a credit card. Instead she came back with, “I can cancel this reservation and see what is available at a hotel nearby that has an indoor pool.” She did just that – she called the hotel and got us a room. As it turned out the room was $50.00 cheaper and just as nice. Now I was discussing this with my wife this morning. The room we had originally checked into was a Holiday Inn. I won’t mention the other because it would give away the location of the original hotel, but it was not an affiliate of the Holiday Inn. My wife said, “I bet she would be fired if her boss knew what she did.” She could be right if her boss was only considering the bottom line. I thought the exact opposite however. This woman put the customer’s needs in front of her company’s, and this to me is the best customer service anyone can provide. I hope she learned this behavior from the culture of the company, as that is the way a company should treat a customer. Regardless, my opinion of Holiday Inn is even brighter that it was before.
The other experience occurred when I originally tweeted that I was going to Hershey Park. I playfully solicited orders for chocolate from all of my Twitter colleagues, and got back a few orders. I also got back a disturbing tweet from one colleague that read: ” Hersheys sources chocolate from Ivory Coast- plantations using child slave labor- there are fair trade choices.” I wanted to know more so I asked for more facts. I was given this link on the subject, basically explaining that Hershey imports cacao beans from Africa which uses child slave labor in the processing of the beans. For some reason other companies have since instigated tougher practices to prevent this, but not Hershey (at least according to this web site.) This to me seems out of character for the company as I have always held them in high regard. I looked for Hershey’s on Twitter and found a few people loosely affiliated with them. I also found @HersheyParkPA which appears to have started an account but hasn’t gotten very far as their last tweet was in April. Even though Hershey Park is not the Hershey company itself, there is a definite link between the two and I would think they would have a stake in this. One thing we do not know is what is the latest on this controversy and what is the Hershey Company’s side of it. Is it true what the web site says? If so are they working towards a resolution? Right now we do not know but if someone from the Hershey company monitored Twitter I bet the “fire” could be put out quickly, or at least we would see the path that they are taking.
So what do you think? Is it important for companies to pay attention to social media or is this just a flash in the pan for computer nerds? I think the folks at Zappos.com believe it’s important – they seem to be leading the way as to how companies can interact positively with their customers. I think we are seeing just the tip of the iceberg. The savvy companies will see the value, join in and it will do nothing but benefit them.
Kyle and Brady Baldwin started My Own Book, an organization that spreads the joy of reading nationally by having teen volunteers visit less fortunate K-3rd grade classrooms, read a story aloud, tell about the public library, and then let the children pick a brand new book of their very own. Bookplates with the child’s name are added to each book. The kids love having a book of their very own, and often it is their very first book. So far, over 17,000 books have been distributed.
A Call to Action!
Summer is here and we’d like to invite teens throughout the country to make a difference! At My Own Book we spread the joy of reading by visiting K-3rd grade classrooms, reading a story, and letting the children pick out a brand new book of their very own. We concentrate on visiting schools and libraries that draw children from homes where owning books is uncommon. For many of these children the books they choose will be the first book that have ever owned themselves. We’re rewarded with smiles and the children’s joy. It is wonderful. We’ve given out almost 20,000 books so far and we want to give out 5,000 books this summer. If you are a teen you can have a fun and rewarding summer. Visit our website at www.myownbook.net to see how to put on an event. Then, contact a school or library and set up an event. Next, contact us at kyleandbrady@myownbook.net to tell us about your plan and we will get you books and bookplates.
Make a plan to do something this summer that will impact your life, improve a child’s life, and change our community. Together, we can!
From left to right: John, Evan, Mercy, Mandy, MaryMargaret and Casey (or as MM affectionately calls her: "Mini-Me")
I just love it when we have opportunities to get the kids from the Kids Are Heroes web site together. Our latest opportunity was yesterday in Baker Park, a beautiful setting in downtown Frederick, MD. Mary Kate McKenna, of Mary Kate McKenna Photography was generous enough to lend us her talents and take pictures of several heroes who participated in this get-together. There were boys and girls of ages ranging from five to ten years old, but none of that mattered when they were allowed to play together. There was a baseball diamond adjacent to the photo shoot, and it wasn’t too long before they were laughing together while chasing each other around the bases.
And what a photo shoot it was. Mary Kate as you can see is a very talented photographer. She has also availed herself for Kids Are Heroes Day, which will be held at the Francis Scott Key Mall on October 24, 2009. I encourage you to take a look at her amazing work, which features the following children from our web site: Casey, Kyle, John, MaryMargaret, Mandy, Mercy and Evan. If you comment on the photos she will donate to one of the hero’s causes, so please feel free to tell her how great the pictures are!
By now most of you know that after more than a year of promoting the Kids Are Heroes brand, and on the heels of the Richard Branson PitchTV win, we are now forming a company. My last post holds a great discussion on how a company such as ours should be formed, and we learned much from all the spirited and educated comments. I could never imagine not having a non-profit side of Kids Are Heroes, but let me just say that this will not be your father’s non-profit organization.
I really feel that we are growing up on Twitter. Before we started tweeting we had a fair amount of local support in both the media and the community. But I must say the awareness and encouragement has skyrocketed due to our Twitter involvement. We never would have found out about the PitchTV contest, let alone have won it outright had we not had so many Twitter supporters. So once again, for that we thank you all.
We have now opened a “store” on our web site. It has nothing to sell, but we are hoping that you will help us by telling us the products you want to see. @BTalisman has suggested we sell several products that are green in makeup. I think this is a must for us, because as we represent the kids on our web site I am sure they would not have it any other way. We are so appreciative of all the savvy advice and generous support we have been given by our Twitter colleagues. The connections we have made will serve to help our company grow and we hope to be able to make this effort be as beneficial as possible to everyone that works with us.
So a special thanks goes out to @johnhaydon, @mickeygomez, @joewaters and our new friends at @rhythmseed for giving us great insight, as well as all the others that commented on our last post. We also thank all of you who have supported us to date. I see a very bright future for Kids Are Heroes and please remember that we will always be focused on our main objective, which is to inspire (and help) more kids to get involved and to take on philanthropy as a normal way of life at a young age.
On February 12, 2008 I happened to be watching an interview with Sir Richard Branson conducted by Charlie Rose. I was fascinated by it as this was the first time I had heard the term “social entrepreneurship”. This concept basically means that individuals and/or companies use their technology, skills and hard work to solve issues instead of just throwing money at a problem. I became totally enthralled by this idea. As a matter of fact, it was (and still is) one of the main influences behind the creation of Kids Are Heroes. But what happens when the word “profit” is brought up?
For over a year now, Kids Are Heroes has been an effort that my 10-year-old daughter and I hold exclusively. There is no company, no income, just a web site that inspires children all over the world to include philanthropy as part of their everyday life. If you know me personally then you know how passionate I am about this site and the kids that are featured on it. In the first year we have grown substantially, keeping expenses to a minimum but still paying the bills. We know we can do much more once we are funded, so that is why we submitted our two minute video “pitch” to Richard Branson for his new PitchTV show. Thanks to all the support we have on Twitter, we won the contest and are featured on his web site. One of the comments on our pitch suggested we take out ads on our site to help fund our efforts. Another person countered this idea saying “please do not [do this] …this will make people suspicious that your intentions are commercial at heart.” She goes on to say, “…I don’t think you need to. This idea is a winner!”
Hmmmm.. I am wondering what the second part of that comment meant: “I don’t think you need to.” How do we get funded? Where will this funding come from? Is someone with deep pockets going to give us money? What happens when that runs out? Wouldn’t it be better if we worked for the money instead of asking for a handout? Interestingly enough, the second PitchTV show featured an effort called Project Rhythm Seed (which I voted for by the way). They align themselves with Paul Newman in that they plan to create a “Newmanesque” type company that once funded it will no longer need donations. They will sell products and with the proceeds they will fund other non-profits. This is a wonderful idea. Will they have expenses? Will people get paid? I would imagine so unless they are independently wealthy. Richard Branson was asked in the interview in 2008, “Would you be in favor of a huge taxation on those who have benefitted the most from the system and redistribute it through the state?” His reply was interesting: “I’m not sure it would work…It sounds right and it sounds fair, but the state is not that good at redistributing money. So I think it does mean that those of us who have got money must make sure that we really use it properly and put it to good use.” As I watched this program I was a bit jealous that I didn’t have the resources he did to make such a positive effect on the planet. But I do have a small talent that can be leveraged which is that I can build a web site. Interestingly enough, at that very time my daughter asked me to build her a web site that helped animals. That is indeed how Kids Are Heroes was born. If I had Mr. Branson’s money there would be no question. I would fund it and make it my life’s work. But would it be better to do that or to build a company that creates jobs and still funds the non-profit end of it?
So why are some companies questioned by others as to their true motives when they give away part of their proceeds to non-profits? A friend on Twitter, Zephora Haddon, owns a company called “Amber Alert Registry” which offers the service of a secure database with key data and photos to assist law enforcement if a child were to go missing. AAR had decided from the get-go that, not only did they want to help protect children in a vital way, but equally work to aid nonprofits and the education system in their own deepest issue: raising funds for their own purposes. At the same time, they donate significant sign ups so that their secure database reflects all economic fronts and that their service is available in a balanced way to everyone. Says Zephora: “I think it’s interesting that people may think to judge us for making money from the potentially life-saving service we provide. As a parent myself I would think a few dollars a month (less than $2) for this important peace of mind is priceless. Additionally, we raise funds in a tough economy where 501c3’s are struggling – and we do it by providing a great service. And we give it away to those who can’t afford it. Shouldn’t this integration of business and giving just be the way business is now performed?”
Another great effort you might have seen is Tom’s Shoes. They have a simple tag line that I quote from their web site: “For every pair you purchase, TOMS will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need.” Is this person making money? To be honest I certainly hope so because I feel he deserves it. I just wish more companies lived by these rules. Wouldn’t it be great if more jobs were created that in some way worked for the greater good? This, I hope is the dawning of more “philanthropreneurial” companies, those that are socially aware and conscious, and actually have a culture where everyone is working to help benefit the planet in some way.
So I am really curious as to what you think about this subject. Your candor is both welcomed and appreciated.
Update (7/9/09): Was sent this article by @tmdesigninc that is directly related to this subject. A very good read.
Lexxi Saal is a Kids Are Heroes member and she recently wrote and recorded a beautiful song in tribute to our men and women in the Armed Forces. She is also on Twitter.
Inspirational 12 year old Lexxi recently wrote and recorded an original song “Thank You”. Lexxi has dedicated it to all of the men and women in the Armed Forces.
Lexxi said, “Memorial Day is much more than a day off at the beach…the soldiers don’t get a day off. They are making endless sacrifices everyday to keep us all safe. I want to inspire everyone to take a moment and really give the thanks the deserve.”
Quite an inspirational and compassionate young lady Lexxi also founded www.LexxiLoves.org a foundation that gives support to the children in foster care.
You might have heard that Twitter recently changed the way that direct replies are handled. It used to be that you as a subscriber had a choice to see the conversations going on between two people, regardless if you followed both of them or not. Now, that “feature” has been removed. So what that means is that if you @reply to someone, and the “@someone” is the first item in the tweet, the only people who will see this tweet are those that follow both you and @someone. Why are some people against this? It is because that is the way many of us learn about new people by learning how they interact with others. I also believe that if someone pays you a compliment or does something nice they deserve to be thanked in front of the largest audience possible.
There is an easy workaround to this and you may have seen others use it. If you preface the @reply with a period or exclamation point, everyone in your follower stream will see the tweet. So then “@KidsAreHeroes Thanks!” becomes .@KidsAreHeroes Thanks! Another way to do it is like this – instead of:
2 Comments to Read 
Since my daughter MaryMargaret and I discovered social media last year, we have set one goal and one goal only, and that is to expose Kids Are Heroes to as many people as we can. We were told to create a YouTube account (which we did) and a Facebook account (which we did). We were also told to create a Twitter account. I thought to myself, “Not Twitter – I’ve tried it before and it is STUPID!” Having remembered the Seinfeld episode where George does the opposite of what he would normally do and all of a sudden he succeeds at everything, I figured I could become George Costanza for a day. After all, what’s the worst thing that could happen?
This week’s featured hero is Chloe Maxmin, a teenager who works tirelessly to improve the environment. She is also a bit of a social entrepreneur in her tactics which is another quality I admire. We are so proud to have her as part of the Kids Are Heroes family. So, without further ado let me introduce you to Chloe Maxmin in her own words:
I have seen a rash of discussions about customer service on Twitter lately. Last week I happened to read an article by Jennnifer Van Grove about 
By now most of you know that after more than a year of promoting the Kids Are Heroes brand, and on the heels of the Richard Branson PitchTV win, we are now forming a company. My 
On February 12, 2008 I happened to be watching 
You might have heard that Twitter recently changed the way that direct replies are handled. It used to be that you as a subscriber had a choice to see the conversations going on between two people, regardless if you followed both of them or not. Now, that “feature” has been removed. So what that means is that if you @reply to someone, and the “@someone” is the first item in the tweet, the only people who will see this tweet are those that follow both you and @someone. Why are some people against this? It is because that is the way many of us learn about new people by learning how they interact with others. I also believe that if someone pays you a compliment or does something nice they deserve to be thanked in front of the largest audience possible.
