The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change by Jennifer Aaker

The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways to Use Social Media to Drive Social Change Reviews

• 
  Maria Gebhardt

  This book is based on the highly acclaimed and sought after class, Power of Social Technology (PoST), at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
  
  The dragonfly symbolizes happiness, new beginnings, and change across cultures and each section of the book is appropriately broken into wings based on four elements: Focus, Grab Attention, Engage, and TakeAction or Focus + GET.
  
  The book begins by showing the power of what can be done with free online resources. Sameer Bhatia and Vinay Chakravarthy suffered from diseases and were in desperate need of bone marrow transplants. Their friends and family became driving forces to find registrants through social media tools.
  
  Consequently, focus is an incredibly important part of this concept. Instead of just having one goal, the idea is to have a long-range goal and numerous micro-goals. These micro-goals help to establish accomplishments and keep the focus on the concept without losing momentum. It is also important to set-up ways to test and measure the success as the idea progresses. The meaning of the concept is an essential factor to engage social media users. If a viewer does not see it as meaningful or in some way it does not reach them emotionally, the momentum will simply stop.
  
  The next wing discusses how to grab attention for your message including the following design principles: 1 – Get Personal; 2 – Deliver the Unexpected; 3 – Visualize Your Message; and 4 – Make a Visceral Connection. Two important points include how Apple visualized its message with white earbuds when black earbuds were really the standard. By using this distinctive color, Apple really stood out. Additionally, in making a visceral connection, think of the sounds you associate with brands. The Intel chimes, NBC’s three notes, McDonald’s, or 20th Century Fox. These sounds engage the customer and connect with the customer each time they are heard.
  
  Fluttering onto the next section is engaging. Perhaps this is the most difficult and most important wing. Engaging deals with getting people to really take your message to heart, to care, and to be passionate about it. The four principles of design include: 1 – Tell a Story (and don’t forget to understand how the story is constructed); 2 – Empathize; 3 – Be Authentic; and 4 – Match the Media.
  
  Finally, the last wing discusses how to take action. It points out that asking for time, instead of money can really help focus on the goal and spread the message quickly. It stresses that getting others to take action should be based on EFTO – Easy, Fun, Tailored, and Open.
  
  The Dragonfly Effect provides the framework to help any nonprofit propel its message just like the dragonfly can fly in any direction when its four wings are in unison. It is a very interesting book that has a powerful and timely message.
• 
  Rawabi Al-Nujaidi

  What I especially liked about the book was the sense that both authors are passionate about not only social media and its ability to effect change, but more importantly teaching the reader how to "know what they know" to orchestrate their own social media success story. They created a story-driven playbook to inspire people to see the possibilities open to them without getting lost chasing pointless metrics. The thing that made the book interesting for me is that it is not limited to social networks but also goes beyond that by talking about persuasion, viral marketing, stickiness, and framing messages. It is Detailed, practical advice that teaches readers how to translate anything (product, service, community concern) into a powerful story that invites participation. A fascinating, comprehensive guide for how to take your cause viral. Some of the stories have really changed the way I saw how social media could be effective. Moreover, the idea of husband and wife working together to write a book is motivating.
  
  Disagreement:
  
  The relevant case studies were very helpful to the reader to understand each wing; however, it was overwhelming. At some point, it made me feel uncomfortable, I felt the book is chaos, with too many cases and examples that made the reader confused. Before the idea sets in the reader’s mind, a distracting example is thrown that spoils the sequence of the ideas. It would have been better for the authors to focus on the most meaningful stories. Furthermore, many examples were repeated through the book, for instant, Barack Obama's campaign is the most central and repeatedly mentioned example of social media success.
  
  Because of the rapid rate of technological and digital advancement, I think that The Dragonfly Effect has lost its power considering the big changes that happened to the modern social networking platforms.
  
• 
  Sergei_kalinin

  Отличная книга! Прочитал по рекомендации Армена Петросяна. Теперь понятно, на основе каких идей строится сообщество "Жить интересно" ;).
  
  "4 крыла" - это классическая рекламная модель AIDA , но модифицированная под социальные сети. Много кейсов; чёткие алгоритмы и практические советы. Книга написана в основном на примере некоммерческих организаций и социальных инициатив, но м.б. полезна и для построения ориентированных на бизнес-цели онлайн-сообществ.
• 
  Jessie Young

  Read this one in a single day. Very short and easy to read. A good guide for anyone looking to actually *do* something with social media (as opposed to just using it because that is the cool thing to do these days).
• 
  Jennifer Louden

  Good ideas for social media in non profit world
• 
  Abdullah Melebari

  The book in general is excellent to start with social media communication. The dragonfly is the only insect that can move steadily in every direction which cannot be done unless with good coordination between the body and the four wings.
  The book starts with identifying the four wings to start the dragonfly effect. These four are: Focus, grab attention, engage and take action (Focus + GET).
  
  The first wing: Focus on a single goal to achieve it and followed by 5 design principles: Humanistic, actionable, testable, clarity and happiness
  
  The second wing: GRAB ATTENTION
  The following are the four design principles to grab attention: Get personal, deliver the unexpected
  , visualize your message and make a visceral connection
  
  The third wing: ENGAGE your audience with the cause
  The following are the four design principles to engage: Tell a story, empathize, be authentic and match the media
  
  The fourth wing is: Take Action and under it 4 design principles as well: Make it easy, make it fun, tailor and be open.
  
  In summary, the book has good examples of stories and methods that can be followed in order to perform well and have a good effect in the social media. The book is enriched with several examples for election campaigns and charity organization.
  
  
• 
  Stan Skrabut

  
  The Dragonfly Effect: Quick, Effective, and Powerful Ways To Use Social Media to Drive Social Change by Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith has been sitting on my reading shelf for over nine years. I don’t have a good reason why I did not read it before now. But I am glad that I did. I would also have to say that the lessons in the book are as relevant now as when the book first came out. The purpose of the book is to explain how one can use social media for social good. While business owners can benefit from this book, I believe those in the non-profit sector will gain the most value.
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• 
  Njood

  I enjoyed reading the dragonfly effect, the framework that was provided was clear and effective for social media and can be applicable to other settings. I found the most valuable lesson from the book is that it showed the power of words and how impactful a tailored well thought of message can do, the example they provided about the email sent to over 500 of Sameer’s friends and family asking for donors compelled people to participate and they achieved the statistically impossible.
  The dragonfly model can be used in any settings and not limited to the use in social media to drive social change. As the model is very generic, I used the 4 wings in writing emails or in giving presentation, even though I didn’t intend to make major social change but I wanted my message to be heard, to be impactful.
• 
  Liz

  I read this book along with 3 others for my nonprofit marketing course, and this was by far my favorite and the most useful. It was a quick, engaging read and provided many tools and templates I felt I could use right away for the nonprofits I work with.
  
  Even if you're looking for general marketing strategies and engagement strategies for your organization, the resources this book details can be applied in many different realms. I also thought that it was telling how well thought out the strategies were given it's 10 years old and all of the ideas can still be applied to modern social networking platforms and tools.
• 
  Katerina

  This book helps the reader think through how social media can be used to further a cause. There are helpful ideas in this book. The first sections about focus and get attention offer sound advice. Unfortunately the tone of the next two sections, engage and take action, seems manipulative since the authors include for-profit companies in their examples. Still, by being a bit more selective in implementing the ideas from these chapters, one can still benefit from the authors' ideas and research.
• 
  Việt Trung Nguyễn

  This book emphasizes the power of social networks and explains detailed steps on how to take the technology development for granted using metaphor of a dragonfly's wings which create great stability and high load-bearing capacity during flapping flight.
  
  4 main points are mentioned in this book:
  1. Focus
  2. Grab the attention
  3. Engage
  4. Take action
• 
  Melisa

  The book ties in very well with the 'design thinking' taught at Stanford and practiced by IDEO. There is a good collection of organizations and groups who've used social media to make changes in the world. Easy, interesting read. Well researched.
• 
  Lesley

  If feel as though this might have been best to read a few years ago, now it’s just old hat.
• 
  Cassandra

  This book had a lot of useful information. I feel like I left it knowing more, which is the goal I have for every book I read.
• 
  Kendra

  A few weeks ago the director at my library sent out an email to managers gauging what the interest would be in participating in the Florida Library Association’s One Book, One State book discussion for 2013. The response was positive, so I placed a hold for the library’s digital copy and was able to read The Dragonfly Effect this past week.
  
  Storytelling is the “in” thing right now in the nonprofit world– and libraries are no different. The Dragonfly Effect takes this a bit further and describes a system that people can follow to take a story, pair it with a call to action, and create social good. It is a how-to book for creating processes to make change happen. That doesn’t exactly mean that the book is a guarantee of success, however, for all people wanting to launch campaigns of action all across the world. The hard part of this whole niche is missing from this book–which is the talent of being able to recognize a compelling case, frame it in a dynamic way, and structure a call to action that is helpful and manageable. Those pieces are the meat of what will make any idea take off, and unfortunately that is the piece that has to be figured out by every individual or organization wishing to make the ideas in this book a reality. That caveat aside–I still really enjoyed the book. There are times in library-land where pieces of what we do are so impactful that if we pause a second to structure how to take that beginning and launch it into a larger campaign for action instead of moving onto the next great idea–who knows what could happen? Some have done this, but it isn’t something you see happening a lot in the library industry. This book has at least caused me to look at some of what I am doing in a different way.
  
  Who knows where that will lead?
  
  
• 
  George Rodriguez

  Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith are clear that their goal in writing The Dragonfly Effect was to help the reader harness social technology to meet their goals. While the use of animal-themed literary devices to make business points could be worn out after penguins, mice, beavers and hedgehogs; that is not the case with this well-written and useful social media guide.
  
  The Dragonfly in this case has a body (to keep it and your social media goals airborne) and four wings: wing 1 is focus, wing 2 is grab attention, wing 3 is engage and wing 4 is take action. Each wing (idea) gets its own chapter and includes very useful Design Principles that offer actionable material throughout the book.
  
  What I especially liked about the book was the relevant case studies, a clear, engaging writing style and the sense that both authors are passionate about not only social media and its ability to effect change, but more importantly teaching the reader how to "know what they know" to orchestrate their own social media success story.
  
  If you are looking to harness social media to accomplish a specific goal this is a great place to start.
• 
  JD Burkholder

  Within the Introduction, the following statement stood out like a flashing red light when I read it: "To be successful, you must translate your passion into a powerful story and tell it in a way that generates "contagious energy," so that your audience reflects on your tweet, blog post, or email, long after they leave their computers." This, right here, is where many SMBs struggle.
  
  What follows is excellent commentary as to the effect of this cause. "By doing this, you generate participation, networking, growth, and ripple effects - forces that combine to form a movement that people feel they are a part of. Your personal goal then becomes collective."
  
  Research in hand, the book is then based on the four wings of the dragonfly - Focus, Grab Attention, Engage and Take Action. Points such as "Harnessing the Power of Blogging," and flowcharts from goal to outcome provide a solid foundation for energizing your social media plan of action.
• 
  Alonzo

  I found The Dragonfly Effect both moving and challenging. I saw immediately the potential one has when it comes to using social media to foster and promote change. I also saw the enormity of such a task as implementing a serious campaign for radical change. The authors do an amazing (and I don't use that adjective lightly) job of breaking the whole thing down so you can begin where you are and quickly get to where you want to be.
  
  The four wings must be connected to the body. Disembodied dragonfly wings are not practical, though they may be pretty. One needs all the parts if the dragonfly is going to maneuver to its full potential.
  
  The authors guide the reader through the use of each facet of this wonderful metaphor and show how to make the most of the social networking tools available to us all.
  
  Read this book and go make some changes in your world.
• 
  Kristen

  I just finished and it was a great read. Refreshing to read about about marketing for social change. The authors, Aaker and Smith, break down popular campaigns that used social media well and explain the hows and whys. The book is very easy to read. The premise is that there are 4 facets of a successful campaign or promotion: Focus, Grab Attention, Engage, Take Action. They liken this to the four wings of a dragonfly that, when using all four of its wings, can fly in any direction, not just forward. The authors present many case studies on how social media can trigger change. Though it's directed at nonprofit organizations, anyone interested in social media would benefit from this book.
• 
  Jennifer

  The Dragonfly Effect is a quick, entertaining read packed full of examples on how to do just exactly what it says: use social media to drive social change. Frankly, I suspect that puts it in something of a niche market. I read it more for pointers on social media marketing in general, which can certainly be mined from the text but aren't always sitting conveniently on the surface since that wasn't really the authors' main objective (and the examples don't necessarily always translate well from the nonprofit-y "social change" side to the profit-y side). Still, I imagine this would be quite helpful if you're trying to start some sort of movement. Viva la libélula revolución!
• 
  Alexa

  Our thesis adviser urged us to read this, and in our meeting last Monday, he said that he would not meet with us unless our group finished this book; hence, my cramming it tonight. It was such an enlightening, empowering, inspiring read though! I loved the stories and the flowcharts that made the strategies easier to understand. I am actually currently typing up ideas for our crowd sourcing strategy based on what I learned from this book, which was frankly quite a lot. Data collection doesn't seem as daunting anymore now that I at least have a clear idea already on where to start and how to go about from there :)
• 
  Rebecca

  Maybe a bit too "techie" or business-y for me. I am just not at that level at this time in my life. Otherwise, an easy read for those who might have a use for using the techniques mentioned in this book. Sometimes I like books like these, if they are chatty enough, but if they expect you to know most of this stuff, this book just shows you how to use the tools you are already using in everyday life. Which is a level I am not at yet in anything.
• 
  Rowan

  Lays out principles of design and examines campaigns that have successfully used social media. Clearly explains how Facebook and Twitter can be used to mobilize folks to do real things offline. I appreciated the infusion of psychology within this book--examining why people may act the way they do, and what can drive them to make change.
• 
  Kathleen

  an interesting take on how social media trends get started and are maintained. Thinking of how these tactics can be used for much more than advertising - spreading/promoting projects that impact others in more positive, lasting ways. (Also a little dry at times, but I read these books often. I must have been a marketer in a past life....)
• 
  Leah

  Easy read but extremely helpful and interesting. The examples really helped clarify the guidelines and suggestions.
  
  I would highly suggest this to anyone who has to write a big proposal for work or school and also for anyone who wants to start a charity or other organization. Anyone who wants to make a difference.
  
  Great read!