In addition, there is a social gaming element being used.  Individuals are competing against each other to recruit the most supporters and for a chance to win a free Apple iPad.  When a supporter joins, they get 10 points plus additional points for each additional supporter they recruit.  But that’s the beginning.  Supporters also get a percentage of the points that their recruits bring in….and the game goes on and on:) It has been very interesting to see the use of social media as a medium for spreading awareness for this campaign (Twitter screenshot below).

Social games for social good!  They recruited about 3000 new supporters in the first day of the competition.  Not bad for a statewide social good campaign:)  We love seeing grassroots movements gain traction and look forward to seeing how many are recruited over the next month. You can follow the buzz on Twitter using hashtag #dreamteam2010

They have to allocate already-limited financial resources towards staffing, programming, technology, and many other areas. Because of this the nonprofit sector is always looking for ways to increase the benefit for each dollar they spend. In essence every dollar spent needs to have a larger impact than it would have had anywhere else. In an ideal world nonprofits would easily be able to identify their most passionate supporters, most dedicated volunteers and measure the impact each supporter has on their mission. If they were able to do this they could begin to recognize and utilize their largest supporters (financially, volunteer service hours, online advocacy, etc.)  Having the ability to easily easily identify top supporters will maximize the funds nonprofits spend on organizing supporters.

The social media age of sharing and social recruiting has made it easy to reach a larger audience of peers who believe in your cause.  At a time when everyone is experiencing information overload from email and voicemails, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter allow organizations to develop niche communities of supporters with like minded interests.  However, it can be very difficult to mobilize people into action and then measure the impact supporters have online.
Several months ago, Atlanta Union Mission (AUM) launched an initiative to increase their grassroots activism efforts and mobilize volunteers. The Atlanta Union Mission was established in 1938 as a refuge for homeless and hungry individuals displaced by the Great Depression. Over the years, the Mission has grown from a single shelter in downtown Atlanta to six facilities, which provide emergency food and shelter, residential recovery programs and transitional housing. To grow their supporter community and foster greater engagement, AUM implemented the Wildfire Platform by Mobilization Labs, an online action network that gives their followers several easy-to-use tools to get involved in the organization’s mission.

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“Partnering with Mobilization labs and specifically integrating the Wildfire Platform is a huge step for donor and supporter development. We feel that being able to integrate into social platforms such as Facebook, Youtube and Tweeter while providing a hub for our own content is making an amazing impact. We believe in making our story of Rescue, Recovery and Re-Entry and the pursuit to End Homelessness in Atlanta available to as many people as possible, the Wildfire Platform is the cornerstone. Additionally, Atlanta Union Mission is excited to be part of a new form of Non-Profit support. We feel that Mobilization labs partnership is the catalyst needed to create this new “Digital Donation” giving a Tweet, donating a Facebook status, Passing along a Media clip or Youtube video. This platform will take Non-profit exposure, engagement and interaction to a unseen level of awareness. We are excited about the current results and the future impact.”

-Josh Deyton, Director External Marketing at AUM

We’ve taken some screen shots from AUM’s supporter website and have shared them below.

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Growing the Supporter Base

Easy Sign-Up with Facebook Connect

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Growing the Supporter Platform Through Facebook Invites

To find untapped supporters, an organization needs to find ways to engage new people with their message.  The best way to grow your supporter base is through word of mouth advertising.  With social networks, this means motivating your existing supporters to invite their friends and family.  And you have to make it easy for them to do so.

Mobilizing the Supporter Base

Measuring Results Against Organizational Goals

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The data gathered in the Wildfire Platform is presented in a very easy to understand, graphical presentation.  By giving your supporters an action focused platform like Wildfire you will easily be able to measure the impact they have on your organization. AUM, politicians, entertainment groups use the platform to identify what supporters have the most points and to reward them. You may be surprised to find a supporter that lives for your organization’s cause.  It could be someone you never knew was out there.  You’ll find that supporters will really take charge of the point system by attempting to add more and more points to their profile.  Past clients used our platform to identify their biggest fans  and give tickets to walk the red carpet with them.  A former Governor campaign awarded his top supporters a dinner in the Governor’s mansion.  The prize you offer is limited by your imagination.

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Wildfire Platform Helping Non Profit’s Organizational Goals

The Wildfire Platform offers value in helping grow your supporters, mobilize your supporters into action for your cause, and tracking every action and micro-target segments within your volunteer base.

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For a full list of benefits the Wildfire Platform provides nonprofits, go to http://www.wildfireplatform.com/customers/nonprofits/.  If you like our software please follow us on Twitter (@wildfireteam) and “like us” on Facebook.  We’ll be sure to keep you in the loop on where we’re heading.  We have good engineers constantly improving the Platform.  If you think our software could help your organization, schedule a live demo with us.  In the demo we’ll show you all of the bells and whistles of our platform.

Many people are familiar with Zappos.com. They are the largest online shoe store. While many people love their store and shopping experience, Zappos is somewhat of a poster child in the world of entrepreneurship and small businesses. In 1999 Zappos had little sales revenue. In 2009 they grossed over $1 Billion in sales and sold their company to Amazon. Their company culture is what business leaders and entrepreneurs admire more than sales growth.

Zappos placed a high value on their corporate culture. Annually they published a “Culture Book” of employee contributions describing what the company meant to them. One core value was to “Deliver WOW Through Service.” They say on their website that “At Zappos, Anything Worth Doing is Worth Doing With WOW.”  They believe you should WOW customers, co workers, vendors, partners, and investors (in the long term).  For a full list of their core values, go to their website.

At Mobilization Labs, all new employees are asked to read Raving Fans by Ken Blanchard. We do things differently. We’re encouraged to have fun, enjoy our work, and serve customers using our software. We’re at a point in our company history where we want to define our core values – what matters to us. Every engineer, marketing and sales employee, and executive member is reading Habitudes by Dr. Tim Elmore. Habitudes is a short book of illustrations with a few pages of thoughts. The idea is based on the notion that an image is worth a thousand words… images stick… images illustrate. Dr. Elmore uses illustrations to teach lessons about leadership. He has four Habitude books. The first book, the one we are reading at Mobilization Labs, is focused on the art of self-leadership. At Mobilization Labs, we believe we need to lead ourselves before we can lead others. The second book is The Art of Connecting with Others, third is The Art of Leading Others and fourth is the Art of Changing Culture.

Our first lesson/image was “The Iceberg.” The idea is that the iceberg can represent our individual leadership. The 10% of ice above the water is our skill level while the remaining 90% below the water is our character. The lesson struck good debate within the team on topics from self discipline, values, things influencing us inside and outside our lives, and the source of our own personal security.  It was good a launching board into the deep water of defining and identifying our culture.

Next week we will be reading "The Starving Baker" lesson.

We will continue to update our followers on our progress in defining our culture.  It is an exciting time at Mobilization Labs when the employees have a vested interest in defining who we are.  We believe if we can create a great culture we will be able to better serve our clients that are using the Wildfire Platform to mobilize their supporters.

Mobilization Labs is looking for great engineers to help us build the world’s most advanced social mobilization technology: Wildfire Platform. You’ll join a highly intelligent, hard-working team that lives on the cutting edge of Java development and will challenge you on a daily basis.

Think you’re up to the task?

As our ideal candidate, you know how to build a Java web application from end-to-end using a DI framework (like Spring) and a web MVC framework (like Spring MVC, JSF, or Struts 2). You know how to deploy and run it on Linux servers. You’re into agile methodology and you write unit/integration tests for your code.

You know SQL and have used MySQL or PostgreSQL extensively, as well as an ORM like Hibernate or JPA.

You’re comfortable doing front-end work, having used jQuery or another JavaScript library to do AJAX and DOM manipulation. And you’re a stickler for semantic markup and concise stylesheets.

You think about scalability before it becomes a problem, but don’t over-engineer things. You’ve used or at least investigated caching technologies like EhCache and perhaps looked into some NoSQL databases.

While you certainly know your stuff when it comes to Java, you’re also interested in other languages. You’ve played with Groovy or Scala, maybe even Clojure. You might have  built an application with Grails or Lift, or done some work in Python, Ruby or PHP.

Want to know more about Mobilization Labs and social mobilization?

Since 2004, Mobilization Labs has been providing web software that pioneers an entirely new genre of technology called social mobilization. Social mobilization combines the viral power of social networking with real-world grassroots action to mobilize large teams of supporters into action on behalf of brands, causes, and political candidates. Our software has been used by presidential campaigns, Fortune 500 companies, international non-profits, major motion pictures, and multi-platinum artists to advance the passion of volunteers and fans worldwide.

We are looking for fast learners who want to help build a great product and have fun doing it. Sound like you? Email your resume, along with a cover letter, to Jeremy Haile (click name for email address).

Type: Part-time Temporary

Compensation: $9 per hour + performance based bonus*

Dates Needed: June 28, 2010 - July 9, 2010

Available Positions: 20-30

Hours a week:  Approximately 40

To apply:  Email your résumé to jobs@mobilizationlabs.com by 12PM on June 18, 2010 (But sooner is better…)

If you have any questions, you can direct them to Douglas McRae at dmcrae@mobilizationlabs.com.

Background information:

We are hiring part-time staff to register tickets received from Chick-fil-A’s Spicy Chicken Roll-out.  Chick-fil-A gave away over one-million Spicy Chicken sandwiches as part of this promotion.  Chick-fil-A partnered with Mobilization Labs for the promotional ticket reservation system.  All tickets must be uploaded into Wildfire Platform for analytical purposes.

You will be a part of a team working collaboratively in a fast-paced environment to meet a set deadline, and you will be a part of Chick-fil-A’s largest product rollout in history.

*Performance bonus: A bonus based on both volume and accuracy will be delivered to top employees at the end of the two-week engagement.

Responsibilities:

• Must be able to manually scan Reservation Tickets with a bar code scanner
• Must meet daily ticket quotas to ensure completion by the end of July 9, 2010

Required Skills:

• Must be able to stand for extended periods of time
• Must have a basic working knowledge of computers and the internet

Education Requirements:

• High school diploma required

About Mobilization Labs

Mobilization Labs is a technology company based in Atlanta, GA.  We are the makers of the Wildfire Platform, a hosted software service used by organizations to mobilize their supporters into action.  Originally designed for political campaigns, Wildfire Platform today powers Fortune 500 companies, multiplatinum recording artists, and both national and local nonprofits.

Mobilization Labs is in search of a marketing ninja.  Do you have the heart of a guerrilla resistance fighter?  Are you creative and want to use your marketing skillz to lead a grassroots movement? This isn’t your typical boring work environment. We work hard, play hard, and generally have a good time.  It’s really a big family….a whole clan of ninjas!  We are looking for someone to bring new ideas and lots of energy into our marketing group. Our internship program has a well known reputation for offering one of the most exciting and competitive startup opportunities in Atlanta, while providing the chance to work alongside industry experts and assist on national marketing campaigns.

Your responsibilities would be to:

• Produce and distribute content in various social networking communities.
• Maintain and grow relationships within social networks and prepare reporting documents.
• Become a brand ambassador in the social space.
• Blog about the latest trends in cause marketing, grassroots movements, and mobilizing online supporters.
• Create a professional online identity.
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the brand’s social media presence to develop strategy.
• Establish the brand’s social presence by building new social channels, optimizing existing social channels, and creating and distributing content.
• Leverage existing social media channels to connect with target audiences.
• Carefully monitor a brand’s social presence with regular reporting to track and react to changes.
• Organize and host monthly company webinars
• Develop a monthly newsletter sent out to prospects and partners

Ideal Candidate

• Is a new college graduate who loves being social online.
• Has an established presence/experience in several of the following social spaces: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress, MySpace, Flickr, Google Buzz, Foursquare.
• Is able to serve as a social coordinator, organizing events and communities online.
• Can produce branded video content for online distribution
• You can write good:)
• Has excellent search skills for keyword, content and communities.
• Demonstrates eagerness to understand the marketing industry.

Apply Today

This is a paid internship…..not human slavery.  Interns will receive a stipend of $1000/month. We are looking for an intern who will work hard in exchange for real world experience in a leading technology company, a letter of recommendation and reference from our VP of Marketing & Business Development pending good job performance, and great connections in the field. The internship will last four months, from June 1 – Oct. 1, 2010. Interns will be in our offices 4-5 days per week.  After this term, interns may transition into a part-time or full-time role depending on intern performance and the business needs of Mobilization Labs. If you’re good, we’d like to keep ya!
Please email your cover letter, resume, and references with subject line “New Media Internship” to jobs@mobilizationlabs.com. Resumes should be submitted by May 24, 2010. Position to be filled immediately.

Perks & Benefits

• Free coffee (we grind our own beans) & snacks
• $1000/month
• You’ll learn a lot
• Freedom to contribute your own ideas and impact a fast growing company
• No stupid people allowed to work here

Mobilization Labs is an Atlanta-based technology company delivering the first grassroots technology platform designed to mobilize supporters into action.  Mobilization Labs’ flagship product, the Wildfire Platform, has been used by Presidential campaigns, Fortune 500 companies, international non-profits, major motion pictures, and multi-platinum artists to harness the passion of volunteers and fans worldwide. We’ve worked with clients in Atlanta and nationwide, some of whom include the Jonas Brothers, National Urban League, Chick-fil-A, The United Way, and the Atlanta Union Mission.

To apply, email your cover letter, resume, and references to sales@mobilizationlabs.com. Resumes should be submitted by May 31st 2010. The internship will start immediately.

Looking to jump right in and start making a difference in a fast-growing internet startup? Why spend the summer slaving away for free? We value our interns and that’s why we pay them $1000/month. So what in particular are we looking for? Well, to name a few things:

1)Interested in honing your sales skills in a fast paced startup? Working with our team means you’ll be mentored in the art of rainmaking.

2)Learn how to build a sales pipeline, create compelling proposals, and create lasting customer relationships.

3)Fancy yourself a social media maven? Learn how to use Twitter and other social networks to engage new prospects and grow business.

4)Do you have ideas on how our team should be leveraging social/new media? You can instantly make an impact to the team!

More than anything, we are looking for people of character and strong values who are also fast learners. We are looking for hard workers who aren’t afraid to wear multiple hats.  We are looking for energetic people to bring new ideas and work as part of a team. Personal organization and discipline is a must!

Aside from gaining valuable experience and working with an amazing team, we have multiple full-time positions we’re looking to fill that will open up at the end of the internship period. Our interns get first dibs on these opportunities.

So what do we do? Basically, we help organizations move people into action…

Since 2004, we’ve been providing web software that pioneers an entirely new genre of technology called “social mobilization”.  Social mobilization combines the viral power of social networking with real-world grassroots action to mobilize large teams of supporters into action on behalf of brands, causes, or political candidates.  Our software has been used by Presidential campaigns, Fortune 500 companies, international non-profits, major motion pictures, and multi-platinum artists to advance the passion of volunteers and fans worldwide.

To apply, email your cover letter, resume, and references to sales@mobilizationlabs.com. Resumes should be submitted by May 31st 2010. The internship will start immediately.

You’re probably familiar with CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) solutions like Salesforce.com, Blackbaud Sphere, and even Convio.  These systems are great at storing contact info and great at managing a process like sales, but we’ve found they don’t really give nonprofit organizations the tools they need to:

1)Mobilize Supporters into Action
2)Manage their progress
3)Measure results in real time

The first problem we decided to tackle was the supporter database.  From our experience working with political campaigns and nonprofits, we realized that most organizations don’t need all of the features that bog down the leading CRM technologies and make them hard to use.  Another problem results from the chaos of supporter data across multiple lists and databases.  Add to that all of the new ways supporters expect to interact with your organization… like Facebook, Twitter, etc. and you’ve got a real problem with supporter lists becoming fragmented and difficult to manage.

So we set out to build what we call SRM (Supporter Relationship Management), which redefines how a nonprofit can manage large groups of volunteers and supporters as they’re peforming actions both online and offline.  We’ve built a technology called Wildfire Platform that aggregates and connects all of these databases and social sources into a single platform that you can access from anywhere.

With other solutions, they’ve added integration with social network as an afterthought.  The social web is fundamentally changing the way nonprofit organizations interact with supporters.  The Wildfire Platform was built from the ground up to harness the power of the social web.

As a result, we’re seeing a new breed of political campaign emerge.  These campaigns want to connect the ability to recruit via social media to the power of grassroots technology platforms in order to drive voters to the polls.

For example, the most visited campaign website in 2010 belongs to John Dennis for U.S. Congress.  A Republican running against Nancy Pelosi in a Democratic district like San Francisco can’t afford to run a traditional political campaign.  His campaign (http://www.johndennis2010.com) is using the web to gather supporters from across the entire United States.  By integrating voter data into a hosted grassroots platform, Republican supporters living across the country (ie Texas or Maine) can now make phone calls on behalf of the Dennis campaign just as easily as any volunteer living in San Francisco.  As volunteers make calls, they can read from call scripts or conduct surveys that feed back into the campaign’s central database so that staff can track the grassroots progress in real time.  Supporters are awarded Personal Impact points for each action completed for the campaign.  These actions can include phone banking, door to door, updating a Facebook status, watching a YouTube video, or sending a tweet.  With this kind of analytical data about supporter activity, you can easily identify and reward top supporters based on their level of involvement.

In the end, GOTV (get out the vote) is the name of the game.  If you can give your supporters the tools they need to help you win the campaign, then your only responsibility is to accurately identify eager supporters themselves.  The more supporters you can identify, the more momentum your political campaign will carry as November 2^nd approaches.

For more information about grassroots technology and Wildfire Platform, check out our How It Works page or request a live demo.

(Imagine that voice from the Droid commercials, but instead of the monotone “droid”…the robot whispers “Mobilize.”)

If you’re a non-profit, political campaign, or other cause-based organization then you know full well that your continued operation hinges on the efforts of your volunteers. Volunteers are vital to achieving your mission; they are the lifeblood of your cause. But just having lots of volunteers isn’t enough; you need your volunteers to act on your behalf. No matter what system you are using to manage volunteer or donor information, volunteers are nothing more than names on a list if you can’t get them to act.

You don’t need a Rolodex. You need campaigners. You need lobbyists. You need people to make phone calls, to spread your message, to help raise donations, to go door-to-door. Your success is directly tied to the outcomes of their actions. No matter what action you need volunteers to do, at some point you simply have to ask for help. There is too much work to be done and you don’t have the luxury of hiring more staff. You have to make the ask.

That’s where we come in.

We’ve constructed the Wildfire Platform to help you make the most effective and compelling ask possible, and we call these mobilizations — hence Mobilization Labs. In order for your message to be both compelling and effective, we have found that your request must be personal, scalable, and trackable.

Through the Wildfire Platform, every mobilization has the appearance of being cordial, one-on-one, personal communication, yet it’s just as easy to mobilize two supporters as it is two million. You can then track who has done what and when, and who you need to ask again. If your goal was to make 500 phone calls or to raise $50,000, you can track the progress of supporters in real-time as they help you pursue that goal.

That’s what we do here at Mobilization Labs. If you’re interested in how we do that exactly, feel free to visit our How It Works page for more information or request a live online demonstration to see for yourself.