Social entrepreneurs are people who use certain principles to bring about social change.
Barack Obama is considered the king of social networking, a social entrepreneur and a person who instigates social change. He reached people, communities and his networking reached millions on Twitter and Facebook and is one of the first candidates to have a profile on sites such as BlackPlanet, Glee and MiGente.Obama used the Internet and social networking to reach millions through his media campaign and there is a new term The Obama Generation which looks at how social sites and social media can instigate change.The use of blogs, the Internet and text messages as well as live streaming from Obama's website allowed Obama and his team to reach an Internet savvy audience. Social entrepreneurs find a way to make and create social change. Obama did so via his authenticity as well as using social networking and media to connect to other people and by doing so, listening to others and finding out what people want and need.It's not enough to have a blog and profiles all over the Internet. It also means being a voice, being authentic, listening to others and inspiring a social change. What can you do to inspire change, to make a difference, to help someone else? Can you put some of the changes into your business? Perhaps buy Fairtrade coffee, turn off lights, save water, give a percentage to charity?At We Are What We Do, there are things you can easily do which might help you be the change you wish to see in the world (Thanks Ghandi)You can start with your business, your community, your country and then the world! One step at a time.
Thanks to blogger Lemon Myrtle, here is a lesson for life:
*Code of Dinotopia ( Dinotopia is a fictitious world where humans and dinosaurs live together)
Survival of all or none.
One raindrop raises the sea.
Weapons are enemies, even to their owners.
Give more, take less.
Others first, self last.
Observe, listen and learn.
Do one thing at a time.
Sing every day.
Exercise imagination.
Eat to live, don't live to eat.
Don't put out the light.
If you're looking for a lesson which really makes you think, this is one that always works for me.
* Share everything.
* Play fair.
* Don't hit people.
* Put things back where you found them.
* Clean up your own mess.
* Don't take things that aren't yours.
* Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.
* Wash your hands before you eat.
* Flush.
* Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.
* Live a balanced life - learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work every day some.
* Take a nap every afternoon.
* When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands and stick together.
* Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: the roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.
* Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die. So do we.
* And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned - the biggest word of all - LOOK.
by Robert Fulghum. See his web site at http://www.robertfulghum.com/
These simple lessons will make you a person worth talking to and doing business with.
Someone who is genuine and authentic or someone who you are not too sure about and is very evasive about a brand or product?Someone who is positive and sees a solution, is innovative enough to take a risk and who is proactive or someone who is laissez faire, lethargic or someone who couldn't care less one way or another? I 'd go for the first choice in both the above.
It seems now that people want authenticity. They want someone who can do, who is more than happy to do with a smile on their face.In a time of networking and thousands of innovative ways of social and online networking, people are leaning towards positivity and happiness. People tend to go to inspiring talks and meetings and buy brands or are loyal to brands who they feel are genuine. People are interested in working and having a work/life balance. And people are finding authenticity in their work really helps promote their work, work can make people happy.Now that we are networking and making contacts all over the world, our ability to be innovative, to generate ideas and to be proactive is taking social networking and social media to laptops and computers everywhere.Like Converse which supports RED and designers have made hundreds of Converse RED shoes to sell internationally. They're funky and innovative designs and they support an important charity.Or a news site which gives people happy news, written by journalists and they cover all news genres, showing that there are great things in the world, medical research, massive foundations giving to charities and even a page link to heroes.
"Live the life you love, love the life you live."
Bob Marley
One of the best ways to support local business people is to shop locally and find shops and people who are treasures.When we shop, we love going somewhere where we can spend our time looking and can chat with the owners.
So I am finding local shops, cafe and business people in Sydney who make us want to network with them. Dragonfly Floral Design is one of those places. The shop is sheer perfection, everything feels as if it has been selected by hand and everything is carefully priced with a special tag. They have flowers in the back and a wide range of lanterns, baskets, candles, toys and unique products which all would make beautiful gifts.
While I shopped for some gifts, I chatted to the owner who loves what she does. She has a passion for the service she offers and everything in the shop comes carefully tagged and wrapped with their logo.
They also cater for events, weddings, corporate events and even offer people flowers at home - so if you're in need of flowers, gifts or someone to cater your next event, everything in this shop is perfectly wrapped and beautiful to look at.
Your profile allows people to identify with you.It gives people an idea of who you are, what you read, what music you listen to and where you live without you going into the nitty gritty and the really personal intricate stuff that really only your significant other and close friends should be privy to.Think of your profile a bit like the generic getting to know you small talk before an interview commences or small talk at a social business function.If you have a blog, a website, an online business there should be an about me section and you can tell readers about your award winning food, favourite TV programmes, best book you've ever read and what you love doing on your day off without mentioning a really intimate personal detail.A profile gives people an indication of who you are. A little bit of a stater which you can relate to your brand an business. Here is where you write about your achievements, your signature pastry, your designer shoes ... it's a little about you.I can help you put together a profile which captures some of you but not all of you. I'll add a glimpse of you to the generic profile. I'll present you in the best light and we'll detail interesting things about your brand, your business and yourself.It will give readers of your website or blog an idea of who you are, the person you are and the company/brand/blog.
Social media, social networks, marketing, networking which all generally mean the same thing ... finding and using tools to expose your brand or business.It is amazing what any form of marketing can do for business. It also depends on your budget and how much time you are willing to give.Advertising campaigns and marketing strategies are a great start but social media and networking are about following up and making necessary contacts and learning how to make your brand or business or yourself accessible.I am looking at Save Your Sensible as an excellent and fun way of branding something really ordinary in the most unusual way. Then making it accessible to the public via their site and Facebook.It's also extremely memorable.
