Skier, artist and all-around bad ass girl Lynsey Dyer is definitely at the top of our list of inspirational women that we love. She skis, she designs and she encourages others to get outdoors and love the outdoors with her non-profit SheJumps. Here’s an excerpt from her interview over on Mountainfilm; go check out the whole thing and get inspired by the thought “If she can do it, so can I!”

How do you see media – be it film, photography, journalism, art, etc. – serving as a catalyst for positive change?

There are two ways to create change, through fear and through inspiration. My intention through everything I do, in skiing for films, creating or with the non-profit is to inspire people to play outside; “if she can do it so can I”(one of SheJumps’ mantras). If everyone could feel the raw connection to nature, through making a turn in powder snow, riding down the face of a wave, or climbing up a rock, then I believe they’d be inspired to not only save it, but be a part of it; “get amongst it,” we like to say in the bro-bra ski world.

As part of our ongoing profiles section, we’re taking a look at people making a difference in the world of new media and are harnessing the power of web 2.0 to make positive change.

Today we’re talking to Danielle Brigida, Social Media Outreach Coordinator for the National Wildlife Federation. In the new media sphere, NWF has had a significant presence, pushing the envelope in how the organization approaches members and generates awareness of its campaigns. Everywhere you turn on the web, NWF seems to be there, whether it’s with a new video, a photo contest or simply just updates on what we all can do to enjoy nature, and Brigida is certainly one of the organization’s new media driving forces. She’s well respected in the world of green new media and last year was named one of the top 75 Environmentalists to Follow by Mashable. She has also spoken at a variety of new media events including South by Southwest.

We caught up with her to learn more about the ins and outs of her job and how she thinks new media is changing the layout of nonprofits.

How long have you been working as the Social Media Outreach Coordinator for NWF? How did you land the gig?

I started out as a grassroots assistant, doing data entry and trying to think of ways to engage activists. One of my tasks was maintaining the National Wildlife Federation’s MySpace page, and I was given the freedom to experiment with engaging people on that site and any others I could find. Since I was the Ecology Club President at my college, I knew that Facebook was another great way to connect with people, so I started testing out profiles, groups and pages for NWF. I’ve never looked back.

I’m always looking for new ways to engage people with any social site I can find. The more I was able to prove the value of having NWF’s brand represented online in these diverse ways, the more I was able to incorporate my after-hours experimentation into my current job description. I created this role for myself, and it wasn’t easy. I also can’t say that I’m done molding it to be what I know it has the potential to be. I’m lucky because the National Wildlife Federation does a great job of helping its employees explore their interests. Mine just happened to be social media from the start, and for the past 3 1/2 years I’ve been learning all that I can.

NWF certainly has a big social media presence, what are some main components of your social media outreach program?

I live by the “social media is for everyone” motto. That’s not to say we’ll all use the same tools in the same ways, but I think learning from life experiences (and that includes online) is incredibly important. When one of my colleagues comes to me interested in trying out social media, I help them focus in on what they want to do with their program, what audience they want to engage, and what their capacity is—knowing these answers helps me determine what sites they should be on.

I may be the only person with “social media” in my job title, but I’ve been able to persuade a good number of my coworkers to open their browsers and find out how their subject area is talked about on social networks. It almost instantly sells them on the value of participating, because they see a new world at their fingertips: instant focus groups, new people to connect with, people who might help share our message, people interested in helping out in any way they can, etc.

By empowering our subject-matter experts to communicate to the niche audiences interested in their subject, NWF as a whole benefits, because we are able to connect with more gardeners, Ranger Rick readers, political wonks, educators, parents, college students, etc. than anything I could offer up from a single NWF account.

Some of our staff may just lurk, some people may comment here and there, and my star pupils see the benefit of providing as much value in return to their audiences as they can. I’m seeing that no matter how much you engage, there is always something to gain from being present online.

What have been some of your most successful new media campaigns?
I’m not sure I would consider my success in the typical sense. We’ve definitely had some successful experiments, but the biggest overall success is that we’ve changed the way many of us work. For example, with our campaign to get kids outside, we’ve met many passionate parents online. This has helped us create better content, make more meaningful relationships and reach people we normally would not have reached.

We have more than 30 mommy bloggers who are our friends and help us assess our campaigns. We have used crowd sourcing to gather knowledge and interest around gardening stories and we’ve really just been using social media to lower the ladder of engagement so we can include more people and get more people engaged.

One campaign that did take us by surprise was our Endangered Species Day campaign. I wrote a blog post about how everyone knows of animals outside of the U.S. like the panda or the tiger, but very few could list endangered species in their own backyard. So we asked each person to pick a species and tweet all day about that species! It was more engaging then we EVER could have dreamed. We’re hoping to recreate the same experience and get people thinking locally when it comes to wildlife.

I truly believe as long as your learn something you haven’t failed.

What has social media allowed NWF to do that it couldn’t do before?

Social media allows us to truly connect with members. We are a big organization and we’re lucky to have so many supporters. I think our large size hasn’t always made it possible to connect with our base in the past. Thankfully, social media lets us talk to long time supporters from all over the world and engage with them daily–it’s very inspiring.

Not everyone has jumped on the new media bandwagon, how do you reach out to people that maybe aren’t used to getting news and information via new media channels like blogging?

Social media can be intimidating, and in some cases the only cure is actually trying it out. I found that once people play with it, they either love it or struggle with it and it may take a few more attempts to really get them to use it. Either way, I usually stress that some of the best users don’t have an “Aha moment” right away (you know, the moment you realize the value and want to explore it more). I love it when people come to me, to learn the tools because they generally listen more, and are more open to testing things out. I am passionate about connecting with people and I find that anyone who is interested in that will be interested in social media, for some though-it’s a series of baby steps. And that’s ok!

Why do you think new media is an effective tool for non-profits?

I think nonprofits represent passionate groups of people trying to make change. Social media allows for great organizing, information sharing and a perfect place to feed your passion (whatever it may be). With nonprofits, they may not always have the money for fancy tools, but with passion and content, social media can really be an asset to even the most understaffed nonprofit. I’m constantly impressed with the way nonprofits use social media. It’s invigorating!

How do you think new media is helping to create positive change?

There are so many benefits that we can garner from crowd sourcing and expanding our networks as well as learning and information sharing. I look at social media as a new way to do old business, and because of that I see positive change happening throughout the different communities. The neat thing about the tools is that they are simple enough to serve a number of different change initiatives at once. Look at Twitter, Twitter has successfully saved lives through its immediate response but it also serves as a collective knowledge pool. The way social media affects change is both instantly and over time. We’re learning, we’re growing and best of all, we’re communicating and I think that’s where social media can really create positive change.

Where do you get your news from?

Tons of RSS feeds and twitter of course. I read my RSS feeds like the paper every morning and track twitter throughout the day. Staying a top of our mentions and current events helps me be relevant to our members and social media friends.

What are 3 blogs that we should all be reading?

If you’re talking social media blogs, I think there are many!

My favorites are:
Beth.typepad.com
Kdpaine’s measurement blog
Kivi’s marketing blog and many more

You can check out the blogroll on
www.thenetnaturalist.wordpress.com for a few of my green pals too!

What are your main tips for people/organizations that want to be more effective in using social and new media?

Be brave and take the leap! Do social media for a few minutes a day or whatever you can spare. Interact with people, join conversations and add meaning, be yourself, ask questions, and push yourself to learn more every time you’re on the site. I have to say that “failing” isn’t going to happen unless you miss out on an opportunity to learn.

Thanks!

Photo Credit: Re Wikstrom

For this week’s profile, we want to bring attention to an amazing organization that is inspiring women to take a “jump” into the outdoors, not just here in the States, but all over the world. SheJumps is a non-profit that was conceived by pro-skier Lynsey Dyer, with the help of her friends Vanessa Pierce and Claire Smallwood. In just a few months, they’ve jumped on the new media bandwagon by utilizing a free online social network called NING. In a little over 3 months, the community has over 270 active members from all over the world including Bulgaria, France, Japan, Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom… and it’s growing every day.

We got a chance to catch up with SheJumps Executive Director, Claire Smallwood while she was driving back from yet another ski adventure. Here’s what she had to say:

What inspired you to create an organization that inspires women to get outdoors?

When I was growing up in Santa Fe, I was always the token girl on any adventure in the mountains. It got to the point when I started to take my skiing more seriously at 16 that I found myself searching through every ski magazine to see a picture of a girl to feel inspired. I got reassurance from seeing women pushing themselves and I said to myself “If she can do it, then so can I.” After meeting Lynsey Dyer at my first freeskiing comp we became friends quickly and I met Vanessa Pierce shortly after. They already had ideas for SheJumps in the works, but it didn’t exactly resemble what SheJumps is today. It has been a long road (and we continue to develop) to understand exactly what role SheJumps will end up with for women. Ultimately though, we all realized that getting more women outside would mean an easier road for all of us to accomplish our passions. It is easier to garner support from companies and snag attention from media if we can prove that it’s more than just one out of 100 ladies out there on the trails.

How has SheJumps used new media to capture the attention of women who want to get involved?

Our website has long since been the backbone of our organization. Given that importance, the addition of new social media has expanded our ability to maintain great SheJumps content but with the guarantee that our content can reach new people without sitting around with our fingers crossed that people will check up on our blog. I think that UnderSolen coming forward to work with us on avenues like Facebook and Twitter has been a huge blessing to streamline the essence of our programs. It’s been great to let people get a quick glimpse about SheJumps (the tip of the iceburg) and then let them take the next step to get involved with our community through the creation of our NING site. It is that specific website alone that has helped us to gain more tangible support in the form of a network between women who are interested in the outdoors from all over the world.

Do you feel that the NING site is an effective strategy for connecting women to their passions?

NING is a great way to get all the communicative benefits that Facebook offers, but without any distractions. The desire for someone to join our NING site automatically helps them to understand what SheJumps by deciding what to share. We have already seen the organic beginnings of this network on the NING site through the creation of discussion topics, area-specific groups, and blog posts. It effectively connects women to their passions through the direct communication that it offers between members. Have a question for a pro skier? Want to know if anyone else is fed up with women’s specific gear? How about trail running? The possibilities are endless. We currently have a NING community member who is training for a triathlon and blogs her success to keep herself (and now, apparently, others as well) motivated and inspired.

SheJumps is a lot about telling stories to inspire others to take “A Jump”. What is your favorite story of someone taking a jump?

I think it changes all the time. If I had to choose one of my all-time favorites, I think it would have to be the video of Zoya Lynch’s mother. She quit her corporate job in eastern Canada to move to Whistler and ski everyday at the age of 54. There is something about the simple dialog, “Mom, what is your favorite thing to do?” and the footage brings tears to my eyes. Check it out here.

OK, I have to do a runner up–9 year old Sophie Howell. She wrote to us last year telling us she wanted to ski Tuckerman’s Ravine, but her dad said she could only do it if she could hike it. So this summer she hoofed it up there, passing grown men left and right, and is ready to ski it this spring. I had the pleasure of skiing with Sophie at Alta in January. It was really great to make the connection to a little girl who I could relate with in terms of tenacity and goals. She was such a great skier and looks up to SheJumps so much (stickers all over her helmet). It felt really good to feel like I was a part of her story.

What are some plans/programs for the organization that you’ve got going on in 2010? What are you excited about most?

Wow! Where to start? We are going to continue our (S)heJumps into the Canyon program where we take local teens from the Boys & Girls club skiing at Alta with professional skiers. It takes place over the course of 4 Sundays in March. This year we are also going to organize the Backcountry Tour for the Cure. It is a very fun event open to intermediate and advanced female backcountry skiers. Participants try to raise money for breast cancer research and then complete an overnight ski tour/winter camping trip in solidarity of women with breast cancer. We try to put ourselves in a challenging environment and still have fun the whole time!

This summer will bring a lot of action to local community groups. SheJumps is currently focusing on trying to provide as much infrastructure as possible to organize and document efforts in different areas to accomplish our mission. This means that anyone can write to us and organize a SheJumps event, such as a day hike, mountain bike ride, backpacking trip, etc. that will help solidify the outdoor community in that region. Additional options include creating goals for the event. Some examples of that would include setting a goal for vertical feet hiked, trying to accomplish as many peaks in your area, wildflower identification, hula-hooping at the end of each objective, picking up trash, or maybe just trying to make it a consistent activity! The possibilities are endless. For more information, check out shejumps.org/jumpin.

What else would you like our readers to know about SheJumps and/or SheJumps social media strategies?

There is so much information on the web today, it can be easy to feel inundated with too much information. While our mission is fairly complex, the gist of it–to inspire and increase participation of women in outdoor activities–remains pure. We welcome support from anyone and everyone who needs a little inspiration in their lives (or wants to share it!). We look forward to continue working with UnderSolen and the many different avenues of social media today in order to help more people become inspired to reach their potential.

Learn more about SheJumps at: www.shejumps.org

Join the growing online community at: http://shejumps.ning.com

Keep up on Claire’s adventures as a pro-skier and non-profit Executive Director at: www.clairesmallwood.com

Photo Credit: Re Wikstrom

Want to see some more? Check this awesome video that Claire stars in! Produced and filmed by our friend Brandon Gust:

As part of our ongoing profiles section, we’re taking a look at people making a difference in the world of new media and are harnessing the power of web 2.0 to make positive change.

Ross Borden is a perfect example. A founding member of the travel network, Matador, Borden turned a love for travel and a desire to help connect travelers into a dynamic and interactive new media powerhouse. Matador is comprised of 11 interconnected sites, and most recently they’ve even devoted one to travel videos as well as launched a travel writing school. Founded in 2006, Borden and his community have accomplished a lot, and we’re excited to see what’s next.

What inspired you to launch Matador?

Matador began in Peru. Long before the business plan was written, Ben and I were in S. America climbing mountains with 3 other friends. On about $30/day we were having one of the most incredible adventures of our lives. Traveling by bus, camping as frequently as we stayed in hostels and savoring meals consisting of tuna on crackers with chopped onions.

High on Vulcan Misty, an 18,000 ft volcano near Arequipa, Peru, we began talking about the need for a global community of travelers where people could share stories like the one that was unfolding on that mountain and connect with locals and travelers over whatever they were passionate about. We didn’t know what this community would look like, but we were sure it didn’t exist yet.

Almost a year later we found ourselves back in California, desperately wanting only to rewind our incredible adventure in Latin America. I was grinding through cold calls everyday, working in a sales program at a major database software company, and scanning the Web for this community that still didn’t exist. It was in that cubicle, long after everyone else had left, that the first visions for the Matador Community were put on paper.

How is new media helping create positive change?

New media and social media are all about individuals getting together and harnessing the power of the Web and the connections it makes possible. Now like never before, people who are passionate about the same things can organize and take action.

On Matador, we’ve harnessed new media to bring together high-quality travel content and social networking so that every article becomes an interactive experience.

When we come across an issue that deserves our audience’s attention, whether it’s the human rights and environmental atrocities of Chevron in the Amazon or mobilizing people to help Haiti, we use our social media prowess to get that message in front of as many people as we can.

Not everyone has jumped on the new media bandwagon, how do you reach out to people that maybe aren’t used to getting news and information via new media channels like blogging?

I usually allow people to sell themselves on the power of new media. Social media is getting more powerful by the day and it’s definitely here to stay. I think at some point everyone will realize this is not a fad and that it’s the most effective way of creating deep engagement with others on the Web, regardless of what your message is.

You work with the travel community, and with the help of new media, you’ve been able to connect a lot of interesting people that want to experience the world? What are some of the positive outcomes of that?

It really all boils down to the personal connections between strangers. When I get an email about someone who has connected with a person through Matador and actually met up with them during their trip and the incredible friendship that has blossomed as the result, that’s the ultimate payoff for me. I think the Matador community is the coolest, most interesting group of people on the Web, so when people take these connections offline, amazing things happen.

There are many benefits to new media, but a complaint is often that we are inundated with too much information that our brain isn’t really capable of handling. What are your thoughts on that?

I actually agree with this point of view. There’s no question that we are inundating our brains with info-overload, and this is not necessarily healthy. That said, I don’t think it’s healthy to watch more than an hour of TV everyday either. Bottom line, all the time we are super connected should be balanced out with at least a little time everyday where we get outside and get completely offline for a while.

Where do you get your news from?

NYTimes.com, Reddit.com, The Economist and The News Hour With Jim Lehrer (the only smart news on TV).

7. What are 3 blogs that we should all be reading?

1. http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/ (Great bite-sized marketing tips from a master of the industry)
2. ted.com (“ideas worth spreading” from some of the brightest people in the world on a wide range of subjects)
3. matadornetwork.com! (the best travel content + community out there!)

Thanks so much!

So many people around the web are doing great things when it comes to new and social media. Because we believe that these kinds of media have the power to make positive change, we decided to start interviewing some of the people and groups that are using new media in creative ways to make their communities, both local and global, a better place. And there’s no better person to kick off our series of interviews than Adam Shake, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Simple Earth Media.

Back in November, Shake and Sean Daily founded the environmental media network that now includes 7 top environmental blogs: Green Living Ideas, Blue Living Ideas, Eco Child’s Play, Twilight Earth, GreenTalk Radio, EcoTech Daily and Natural Papa. The result is a comprehensive conglomerate that’s committed to helping to protect the environment and promote healthy, sustainable lifestyles. And with a tagline of “New Media Making a Difference,” we couldn’t help but ask Shake for an interview.

What inspired you to launch Simple Earth Media?

After doing an interview for Sean’s Green Talk Radio, we both realized that our environmental visions aligned in a way that got us thinking about working together. We realized that the environmental and sustainable online media genres are really broad based and within those fields, there are a lot of complainants. We both owned a number of environmentally focused websites so it made perfect sense for us to join forces and create Simple Earth Media.

How is new media helping reshape the environmental/green movement?

Blogging has come a long way in just the last five years. A typical blog used to be almost strictly about the person who was writing the blog, their daily lives, what they ate for dinner or how their cat was feeling that day. Since then, blogs have become a staple news source with media companies like CNN, Reuters and The New York Times running stories based on information coming from Blogs.

One of the things that new media has going for it that old media “print” does not, is that new media is updated 24 hours a day. A breaking story can hit a blog within minutes where a traditional newspaper or even television or radio show may take hours. People are using new media to get the information they want, right now.

Not everyone has jumped on the new media bandwagon, how do you reach out to people that maybe aren’t used to getting news and information via new media channels like blogging?

The power of new media to reach out to people across a wide spectrum, is amazing. As an example, Twilight Earth has 25,000 followers on Twitter alone, but as a group of websites under Simple Earth Media, we have almost 70,000 people from all over the world following our sites. Combined with 7 Facebook fan pages and utilizing social media tools such as Digg and Stumble Upon, our combined readership is over half a million a month.

At Simple Earth Media, we are also very active in our communities. We attend environmental functions, conferences, fundraisers and we belong to environmental clubs and groups. We participate in trash cleanups, peaceful protests and a number of other related activities. I think the easiest way to reach out to people, is to live the life that you are writing about, share your information with as many people as you can and lead by example.

There are many benefits to new media, but a complaint is often that we are inundated with too much information that our brain isn’t really capable of handling. What are your thoughts on that?

You’re right, there is a lot of information out there and much of it seems to be the same. As I write this, world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen for the Cop15 Climate Talks. It seems as if the Internet is inundated with this news and we’ve actually written close to a dozen articles about what Cop15 is, what it means to the world, and how the talks are progressing. We’ve also got 3 Journalists on the ground over there, who are reporting back to us and sending us video.

There is a lot of information, but a lot of it is important too. Until recently, most of the environmental blogosphere was about “How to Go Green.” In fact, I think that if I see one more article titled “10 Ways to Go Green”, I’m going to get sick. And everyone else is getting sick of it too. Everyone knows how to do it. What people want to know now, is “Why” they should do it. Things like Carbon Sequestration, Cap and Trade, Clean Coal, and the science behind Climate Change are things that your average person are either to busy to learn about on their own or not interested in. These terms have become buzz words that have lost their meaning. If we are going to make lasting change, than people need to know why they should change, how it will benefit them and their future generations.

I always say that Environmentalism isn’t about the environment, its about the people. Here are 3 examples of why that is true and also why people should care about the environment.

1. 120,000 people die every year in the United States alone, from breathing fine particulate matter from coal burning power plants.
2. Bass from over 200 streams and rivers were tested in the United States and 100% of them contained mercury from coal burning power plants.
3. Infants exposed to coal residue have a lower IQ than average.

Where do you get your news from?

We get a lot of our news from the government, the EPA, the IPCC, interviews that we do with leading experts, first hand journalism and trusted sources of major media news.

What are 3 blogs that we should all be reading?

Other than any one of our seven, my current three favorite sites are Mother Nature Network, Huffington Post Green and the environmental leader, TreeHugger.

Simple Earth Media is definitely about using new media for positive change. How would you encourage people that want to take part in the movement to do the same?

If you are passionate about creating a healthy world through planet care, then there are three ways you can use social media to share your news and views. Most large websites are always looking for good writers and most good writers start out as Guest Bloggers on those sites. This is a great way to get started because it gives the writer more exposure to a wider audience than that writer may be able to get on their own, just starting out. Starting a site of your own, familiarizing yourself with social media tools and gaining a core audience through your website, Twitter and Facebook are things that take time, but if you are passionate about what you are doing, and you are doing it for the right reasons, it will show in your work and people will be interested in what you have to say.

The most important thing though, and one thing that a lot of people don’t do, is promote other peoples work, network and create real life relationships. Email, Phone, Tweet and Skype with people who are doing the same things that you are doing. Help them and promote their work. (If it’s great material) In the end, it’s about getting the word out. It’s not about the author, its about humanity.

Thanks so much!