Friday, December 18th is the last day of our “holiday heifer” campaign for Heifer International. Your last chance to own a $5 share of our very social cow. This cow will go to a community in need and provide a gift that keeps on mooing for years to come. If you haven’t pitched in, please consider our request for help: just $5 toward our $500 goal. We even made a quick little moovie (get it?) to inspire you…

If it doesn’t appear above, you can view the video on YouTube: Holiday Heifer.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to our community cow thus far. This has been a wonderful opportunity to experience the generosity of friends — and strangers!

I’ll write a post-holiday heifer recap of the campaign as a mini-social fundraising case study. I learned a lot about social fundraising tactics and tools (and cows, for that matter) and have a lot of ideas about what I might have done differently which I hope will be of value to both individuals and nonprofits.

Heifer International: Passing on the Gift

Thanks again. And we wish you very happy holidays.

Why a Heifer?

Here’s information direct from Heifer International:

Heifer
Heifers Equal Hope

When a family has a cow, every morning there’s a glass of rich milk for the children to drink before heading off to school. Classes are paid with the income from the sale of milk, and there’s even enough to share with the neighbors.

A good dairy cow can produce four gallons of milk a day – enough for a family to drink and share with neighbors. Milk protein transforms sick, malnourished children into healthy boys and girls. The sale of surplus milk earns money for school fees, medicine, clothing and home improvements.

Better still, every gift multiplies, as the animal’s first offspring is passed on to another family-then they also agree to pass on an animal, and so on.

And because a healthy cow can produce a calf every year, every gift will be passed on and eventually help an entire community move from poverty to self reliance. Now that’s a gift worth giving!

Socialnomics, By Erik Qualman

I had social media ROI on the brain today and as good fortune would have it, up popped this little YouTube gem about socialnomics in my RSS feed reader. I follow Rax Lakhani via his very awesome RSS feed at raxraxrax.com and his post about Erik Qualman‘s new book, Socialnomics, was as timely as could be. (Being impatient, generally speaking, I just love it when this kind of serendipitous synchronicity happens so quickly.)

You can check out the Socialnomics blog or learn more about the book, of course, but this video should provide a nice little teaser. It certainly was the healthy dose of social business I was looking for today.

If the image does not appear above, click here to view Social Media ROI: Socialnomics on YouTube.

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IgniteBaltimore #4 provided yet another entertaining, energizing Ignite success. I’ve already shared how much I love the Ignite events, so I’ll cut right to the recap. And this time, I even created a little YouTube video to go with it… (Go, me).

Click here to view my Ignite Baltimore #4 video on YouTube.

To begin, the Walters Art Museum proved a great venue for this event. True, the high ceilings and marble surroundings made for a literal echo chamber in ironic contrast to the virtual one often cited on Twitter, but I think it added to the grandeur of the evening and the overall ebullience of the atmosphere. (Besides, “grandeur” can be hard to come by in Baltimore, so when you come across it, you embrace it.)

First up was Betsy Gordon, a rogue museum pro who turned a question about a skateboard graphic into an art show on a world tour. Then Braddock “The Haddock” Spear chatted with us about sustainable seafood. Not sure which fish has too much mercury or whether farm-raised beats wild? Mr. Spear provided a few resources to help out:

• The Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Guide
• The Blue Ocean Institute FishPhone (Text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish in question. They’ll text you back with their assessment and better alternatives, if needed.)
• The Sustainable Ocean Project blog

We learned about green mapmaking from Janet Felsten and were inspired to pick ourselves up and dust ourselves off by Jennifer Cohen. When Cheryl Taragin got to her slide showing the Baltimore Colts sneaking out of town in the middle of the night in her review of Baltimore’s historical moments, I heard a crowd hiss for the very first time. (I don’t get out much.)

Ryan Boddy gets an extra hat tip here because when he talked about the highly creative process of making beer — the mysterious and enchanting blend of art and science — I swear I saw a glimmer in his eye and a smile on his face that is the kind of glimmer and smile born only of a true, deep and abiding love. It may have been the spotlight in his eyes, but I’m telling you I’ve never seen a man express a deeper love for beer than this man. Don’t believe me? Go talk to Ryan for yourself. He’s over at BaltiBrew.org spreading the hops/love.

Jason Slanga, a Latin teacher in Baltimore County, killed with his lessons on how not to be a zombie. And then Shodekeh and friends Kate Porter and Ian Hesford brought down the house…er, museum…with some very cool “conversations without words” set against slides of various pieces of art.  You can give a listen to his unique hip-hop, beatbox stylings over on his MySpace page.

Adam Borden begged us to “unshackle the grapes” as he explained Maryland’s convoluted laws which prevent Marylanders from purchasing wines online or by phone from any vineyard outside of Maryland. While Maryland wines are getting better every year, Maryland houses only 38 out of the 6,500 wineries in the U.S. Just think of what our palates are missing or, better yet, take action at Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws.

Mary Spiro enlightened us on nanobiotechnology and Randy Sovich of RM Sovich Architecture looked back to 1984 to recap his look ahead to 2010. Helen Glazer, who’s looking at clouds from both sides now (borrowed that joke), shared her artist’s viewpoint of the clouds, which may further enhance our perspectives on what we see when we look up.

Kale in hand, Steven Mandzik walked us through a few simple steps for living a cleaner life and healthier eating:

• Eat quality food
• Eat 1/3 less
• Eat “real” food (the more packaging there is, the less “real” it is)
• Eat seasonal foods

Adam Meister stepped up in his tuxedo to warn us against hyper-consumerism. Consensus is he issued the quote of the night:

You don’t have to be cool. This is Baltimore.

No truer words…

To bring it all home, Tracy Gosson, @SagesseInc on Twitter, reminded us all that the fear of fear can — and should — be overcome. She asked, “What would you attempt if you knew you could not fail?” And she reminded us all how vital facing our fears is to learning, growing and experiencing all that life has to offer.

It was a great night and I look forward to Ignite Baltimore #5, to be held on March 4, 2010. Want to read more about number 4? Click here to see what was said about #IB4 on Twitter.

Also might want to keep your eyes on:

• Ignite DC
• Ignite Annapolis
• Ignite Wilmington
• Ignite Philly

Or look for the Ignite event near you!

Naturally, I don’t think Social Media is a fad anymore than the telephone, the fax machine or email. The communication tools and platforms (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc.) we use may evolve and change but the concept of social connectivity that is “social media” is here to stay.

Rise Up Right-Brain Thinkers!

The fact is, we are still in the very early stages of a period of virtually unfettered creativity in how we communicate — whether it’s with friends and/or business prospects. Opportunity is everywhere and accessibility is only increasing via the Internet. I’ve been reading a book that, astride the following video (below), make for a compelling look at the future for creative, right-brain thinkers…A Whole New Mind, by Daniel Pink (Audible.com link, Amazon.com link). And while I know there are many people struggling right now with unemployment rates so high, I also know many people who are seizing this very moment in their lives to reinvent themselves by way of reinventing their career identities by engaging their right-brain thinking.

The Right-Brain Revolution Is On!

It is with that spirit of optimism and opportunity that I post today’s FileShare, “Social Media Revolution.”

If you are unable to view the image above, you can watch the video on YouTube. Here’s a link to the original Socialnomics blog post which provides sources for the stats in the video. Shout out to Kyle Lacy who featured the stats from this video in his recent blog post. If you’re not a subscriber of Kyle’s blog, I highly recommend it for high-quality content if you’re interested in social media for business.

Are you a left-brain thinker or a right-brain thinker?

Here’s a fun little test to see which hemisphere of your brain is more dominant (source: The Herald Sun).

The Right Brain vs Left Brain Test

Do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise?

If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa. Most of us would see the dancer turning anti-clockwise though you can try to focus and change the direction; see if you can do it.

LEFT BRAIN FUNCTIONS	RIGHT BRAIN FUNCTIONS
uses logic detail oriented facts rule words and language present and past math and science can comprehend knowing acknowledges order/pattern perception knows object name reality based forms strategies practical safe	uses feeling “big picture” oriented imagination rules symbols and images present and future philosophy & religion can “get it” (i.e. meaning) believes appreciates spatial perception knows object function fantasy based presents possibilities impetuous risk taking