Shut It Off

Holidays and Shabbat

It feels like life's roller coaster has been traveling at speeds never clocked before, the highs and lows breaking all records.  And although I live in that world everyday, I believe this sense of chaos is driven by the times and the culture we have created.  Is this time any more challenging than Jewish life under the Pharaohs, the destruction of the Temple, the Holocaust? The difference is that those times were missing the great cultural benefits of CNN, FOX, Twitter, Facebook, and on and on.

So as we go into this scared time, as we have the opportunity to go into ourselves. SHUT IT ALL OFF.  The world will still be in the same shape after the High Holidays, and you will be in better shape to be more intentional about moving forward in it.

Shana Tovah. Have a good and sweet New Year.

Yoram Samets, Co-Founder of Jvillage Network, has over 30 years of experience in the marketing and communication industry. He is also a partner in Kelliher Samets Volk, a marketing group that employs more than 60 people at its offices in New York City, Boston, and Burlington, Vermont.

A Synagogue’s Ten New Year’s Resolutions

Holidays and Shabbat

1. The Rabbi will blog his or her sermon weekly.

2. All community events will get on our calendar with links to more information.

3. Our website homepage will have pictures of people on it, not buildings.

4. We will promote shopping through our website on a regular basis.

5. Our website news channel will feature more Israeli news.

6. We will organize a group to bring community vibrancy to our Facebook page.

7. Our communications will have no dead-ends.

8. The religious school will use the synagogue website to inform parents and grandparents.

9. Thursday will be twitter day, tweeting the upcoming Shabbat events.

10. We will develop an engagement plan for the upcoming year.

Shana Tovah, from our village to yours.

Yoram Samets, Co-Founder of Jvillage Network, has over 30 years of experience in the marketing and communication industry. He is also a partner in Kelliher Samets Volk, a marketing group that employs more than 60 people at its offices in New York City, Boston, and Burlington, Vermont.

High Holiday Connection Opportunity

   

Each year we are provided with a valuable opportunity to reach beyond our inner circles and make the High Holidays a time of reaching out to make new connections. Our Jewish community is a microcosm reflecting the diversity of our broader communities, including youth, single or newly married 20-and 30-somethings, LGBT and interfaith couples and families, baby boomers, retirees, and on and on. While the Jewish thread may run deep through each of these groups, every demographic, and especially every individual, will experience and participate in the High Holidays differently.

Yet all too often, our synagogues--often filled to the brim--offer a one-size-fits-all experience of the High Holidays. As a result, many Jews do not step foot inside a synagogue at all during this very special and important time of the Jewish year.

There is no quick fix for this situation.  What is needed is a long-term program that:

• engages more of the congregation that does show up for the High Holidays to become involved throughout the year; and
• meets the needs of the Jewish community that does not come to synagogue during this time, yet seeks ways to be connected nonetheless.

In our small Jewish community here in Burlington, Vermont, one of the local synagogues provides traditional High Holiday services in the sanctuary and a parallel service at the community boathouse located on the shores of Lake Champlain. Each draws its own participants. Another area synagogue holds a mountainside service, taking advantage of our powerful natural surroundings.  What can your community be doing to meet more Jews where they are most comfortable gathering, and where they are most likely to feel the holy sparks of connection and community?

In order to successfully meet the individual and communal spiritual needs of an increasingly diverse Jewish population during the High Holidays, every community, each organization, must have at its core a passionate and committed group holding a broader vision of the community. This core group must embody the connection between giving of themselves and welcoming those who might be less inclined to participate. After all, what we all have in common is the fundamental desire to belong.

This year, what will your core community do to increase a sense of inclusion and belonging among more and more of your members during the High Holidays?  

by Yoram Samets

Posted by judy@jvillagenetwork.com at 9/11/2012 3:01 PM 

Four Laws of Social Media

Law #1: Be Open 

The growth of social channels is phenomenal.  And these social channels have enabled more and different voices to be heard.  Being closed to social channels, being closed to these changes will only make you irrelevant.  Plato thought our intelligence would evaporate when we went from memorization to the written word. Let go of fear or resistance and embrace the opportunity to participate in the conversation and share your ideas.  

Law #2: Be Aware of Left Field

On the one hand, the organized Jewish world feels like it is in crisis.  Israel, Jewish education for our children, intermarriage, etc. are all issues that come out of left field for the organized Jewish world.  Social media has taken these issues out of left field--and planted them firmly in our center.  Social media has enabled the field to get bigger.  

Law #3: Crisis

Never before have there been tools that have the opportunity to engage and inform so many so fast.  Social media is the communication tool for your immediate community during a crisis.  Be on it.  Have it ready.

Law #4: Trust

Everything we read and see today has an intentional point of view.  Find the social channels that you can trust.  Be a social channel of trust.

Yoram Samets, Co-Founder of Jvillage Network, has over 30 years of experience in the marketing and communication industry. He is also a partner in Kelliher Samets Volk, a marketing group that employs more than 60 people at its offices in New York City, Boston, and Burlington, Vermont. 

Last Edited by judy@jvillagenetwork.com at 9/10/2012 1:49 PM Comments (0)

Three: The Magic Number

 

It seems that every day there is a new something or other invented or produced that has impact on how your organization should be engaging with your community.  And if it is not something new that has been created, then it is a member of your organization requesting that you communicate through such-and-such an online channel.

 Enough already! 

 Remember when there were only three networks on TV?  Now there are hundreds of networks—and still very little to watch.  Well, the same is true for your online communication needs.  While there may be many options for you to consider, from your own apps, to Twitter, to LinkedIn, just to name a few, my recommendation is to stick to three online channels of communication/engagement and do them well.

Your synagogue or non-profit organization is not Tide or GM; unlike huge companies that must pursue every avenue to reach and communicate with very segmented groups, you likely have a passionate core group that wants to help enrich your organization through engagement with existing members and recruiting new interested members.  Your communication with them should make it easier for them to be in the know and help you with your outreach efforts.

Your Website 

Your website is the nexus for all of your communication.  Everything you send to your community should lead people to your website, ideally to do something, take some next step towards becoming more involved.  Avoid dead-ends by including your website address on every page of your weekly/monthly newsletter, as well as in all of your personal mailings to members.  For example, an article in your newsletter might lead to more information on your website, or folks can register and pay for upcoming events they first heard or read about in print form.

Facebook and Blogging 

Use Facebook to build connections, get conversations going, and always link back to your website.  Blogging is a great way to get the Rabbi’s message out there to your full community or your Executive Director’s appeal for volunteering, or your Educational Director’s pov on the upcoming holiday.  And just like Facebook, your blog should always lead the reader back to your website.  If you are just getting started with Facebook, here is ahelpful place to begin.   

The Bottom Line 

Keep your online life simple.  Use the content that you are already producing and give it the broadest distribution through the basics:  your website, Facebook and blogging efforts.

Last Edited by judy@jvillagenetwork.com at 9/6/2012 1:13 PM Comments (0)

Enhance Your "Movement"

As an organized religion we all know about the movements -- Reform, Reconstructionist, Renewal, conservative, Orthodox, etc.  As citizens of the United States we know about movements -- Tea Party, Occupy Wall Street, environmental, etc.  And as an organized Jewish community, YOU have the opportunity for your own movement.

If Facebook and Twitter were all it took to start the Arab Spring, just think about what you could do in your own community. All it takes is a committed few; YOU could position your organization as an important movement in your community.

All it takes is vision.

A vision is exactly what it says it is.  A dream that is out of reach.  The barely discernible light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

Dreamers want to put a dent in the universe. What is your dream for your Jewish organization?

Now more than ever you have the tools to enhance your movement.  You have the tools to think bigger than just reaching out to members, tools that enable you to share your point of view and your beliefs with the wider community, tools with which to make a difference: the online tools.

Because you already have members, you have a head-start in creating a bigger and more engaged movement. Some of those members are very passionate about what your organization stands for. They comprise the core group that can help you spread the online word about what you believe in, what you think about, and most importantly what you are doing and how others can both participate in and reap meaning from your values and actions.

The online world enables you to decide your own future.  You can use your online tools to supplement what is happening in your organization. You can also use them to enhance and grow your organization by reaching out and engaging in the issues that are most important to your larger community.

Why shouldn't your organization be a leader in the environmental issues in your community, or the health-care issues, or the educational issues that impact the larger community you live in?  Show up in your community and engage more people by creating a vision that is bigger than you are, and then take those first, small steps in the long climb towards that vision.

Create that new movement. Start now. Then keep going. 

Your Social Networking Garden

by Guest Blogger Miriam Brosseau

Trying to get your community or organization engaged in networking through social media, but running into roadblocks with colleagues who aren’t quite there yet?  Instead of getting frustrated over what’s not working, what’s not growing, let’s refocus.

What’s already happening online?  Where are seeds just taking root?  Where are the fertile areas you can cultivate, and spread from there? Taking time to tend your social networking garden can be hugely rewarding for everyone, and will help spread the message of the power of online social networking to even the most skeptical colleagues when they see what fruit it can bear!

Social Networking Gardening Tips:

Step 1: Seek out the gardeners. Find out who among the people you work with is blogging, tweeting, active on Facebook or LinkedIn, etc., by doing basic searches in those networks and asking around.  See which friends you have in common – you may be surprised and delighted at the connections you find! 

  Step 2: Watch their seeds and shoots. Subscribe to posts and friend these folks in whatever way you feel most comfortable (adjust your privacy settings).  Put them in lists you can easily come back to (Twitter/Facebook), subscribe to blog posts via RSS, and bookmark whatever other sites might be relevant. 

 Step 3: Add sunshine, water, and fertilizer regularly. Schedule a regular time to focus just on networking with these groups.  Try taking ten minutes, two days a week, to go through the friend lists and RSS feeds you created and comment, reply, and retweet.  Share resources you think might add value to that person’s work and suggest people they may gain from being in touch with.  For some cases, it may be best to send a personal email or make a phone call to deepen the connection. 

 Step 4: Bonus step! Find the other gardens where your seeds have taken root. Uncover the conversations where your colleagues and their work are being talked about that they might not even know of!  Set up a Google Reader or Google Alerts.  Go to Google Blog Search.  Type in the names of the people and/or institutions you work with and see what comes up.  If there are a few meaningful, relevant results in the search, subscribe to that search by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking the RSS link.  Check in on that RSS feed every now and again and share with those people the (good) news you found about them. 

Some additional tips: 

•   Be sure to subscribe to comment feeds on the blog posts you reply to so you can see where the conversation goes and easily follow up.  
•   Use a consistent username across platforms so that folks will begin to recognize your presence and personality.  This will also make you more searchable in the future.
• Put a pause between your fingertips and the keyboard – think about your voice, tone, and the value you’re adding to the conversation.  Be consistent.  If your organization has one, make sure to adhere to the guidelines of the social media policy, and develop that document as needed based on your interactions.  
• Don’t neglect IRL (in real life) and other media. Networks need to flow within and among different platforms to be truly effective.  Mentioning a Facebook post in a phone call, or a blog comment in a coffee date, then tying those conversations back to their original host platform can be a great way to weave people and ideas.  
• Serendipity happens! Being active in social media means you open up all kinds of potential for new connections – whether you plan on it or not.  Have an open mind and welcome the unexpected!  

How have you found and cultivated the fertile areas in your organization?  What resulted from these interactions?

Miriam Brosseau is the Special Projects Coordinator at Darim Online, and the Social Media Coalitions Manager at The Jewish Education Project.  She performs 'biblegum pop' with the band Stereo Sinai.  You can follow her at @miriamjayne on Twitter.

This post was originally published on Darim Online's blog, JewPoint0.