Social Media for the Homeless: Part 2

There has been a tremendous response to my blog post, “Social Media for the Homeless”. Many people have asked me how we can turn what is essentially a concept into a reality. Reality is such a strong word these days, and thrown around far too lightly. What is a reality? How do we know what is real and what isn’t? Is a dream real? Is social marketing for the homeless a dream? Can it be a reality? And we’ve come full circle.

SM4H. Closing the gap in connectivity

To answer this final and burning question there needs to be an action plan, steps of implementation that operationalize the concept from a bright-eyed man’s fantasy to something tangible and real. Below are the six steps that I believe will revolutionize the notion of homeless living.

Step1

The introduction of an office phone recycling depository: smartphone2homeless, where old smart phones can be donated for use by the homeless. Most professionals are reaching the end of the second cycle of smart phone use (can you believe it has been over four years since Alec and I lined up at the front of the Mac store on Michigan Ave in Chicago to become the world’s first iPhone owners?), and thus there are a huge amount of smart phones left unused in homes and offices.  Only one tenth of all office workers would have to donate a smart phone to supply the entire homeless population in Australia. And, thus, it is projected that within a year of the smartphone2homeless donation scheme, all homeless people would have the potential to access social media from their smartphone.

As the plan gains momentum, phone companies may offer a trade-in service whereby on signing up for a new phone, the socially-responsible professional trades in their phone on the spot – enabling reducing distribution times  and costs within the program.

Step 2

Of course, there is the question of how the homeless, with their new phones, would get connected to a data plan. The answer: Vodafone. Recently the victim of substantial negative publicity and customer exodus, Vodafone has been desperately trying to repair its battered reputation amongst Australia’s fickle phone-buyer market.  What better way to do so than to offer the homeless access to a data plan for social media usage?

The extra homeless phone users would not clog up Vodafone’s underutilized new network, as it is possible for Vodafone to limit data usage to social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc). The cost to Vodafone? Almost nothing. It is anticipated that any network and administrative costs will be offset by the tremendous gains in goodwill and positive publicity

Step 3

But how can we educate the homeless on how to use their new smart phones to “connect” with others using social media?

Using the patented Anthony Schumann SM4H guidebook™ (2012, forthcoming), volunteers will be skilled on how to run a class with the homeless, in addition to being able to communicate the fundamentals of social media use (including guides to Facebook and Twitter).

Step 4

Running parallel to step 3, a SM4H headquarters will be established, where a call centre and a group of IT specialists will organise and promote events for the provision of food, clothing and shelter for our country’s homeless.

Looking to the future, social media’s limitless mobility means outsourcing is a real possibility and will reduce costs. Either way, the centralization of homeless event organization will significantly reduce administrative costs, thus providing more funds and labour committed to increasing the standard of food shelter and clothes provision.

Step 5

There is no step 5 or 6. Why say six steps? Because alliteration sells, and you guys read this far didn’t you.

Step 6

By reading this you have just justified my point directly above. Alliteration sells. Sex sells? Exactly- alliteration, it sells.

By following these six steps, and listing largely existing infrastructure and currently unused smartphones – a social media network will be in place, connecting and empowering the homeless.  This will go some small way to reducing the vicious cyclical nature of homelessness, by connecting, educating and providing opportunities a group of people which often fall through the cracks in our society.

-Ted Anthony with Alec Schumann

*you would have seen in the prior blog there was the potential to make savings of hundreds of millions of dollars. A larger, soulless firm would have looked to make a profit from the selling and implementing the above action plan. But not Anthony Schumann, whose commitment to using its expertise for the greater good has always been pro bono.

Social Media for the Homeless (SM4H)

 

But where was social media?

I have received a lot of feedback concerning social media for the homeless, a topic I touched on briefly in my last post. SM4H, as it is abbreviated, is a booming market that has yet to be fully exploited. We at Anthony Schumann have identified it in our top five hot emerging niche markets, and is more than just on the peripheral. Twitter, facebook, MySpace- vital social media that we reading this all use. But what about those on the streets? Our research has shown that a massive 72% of all homeless people have yet to open a facebook account. This represents the largest majority of non-users in any part of our society. As of today, promotion for soup kitchen and other homeless gatherings have consisted of posters and leaflets, handed out by a considerable volunteer workforce. INEFFICIENCY! How much more efficient would it be if the homeless person could just check “events” in facebook, or subscribe to his/her favourite charitable organisation on his/her iPhone. It only takes one look at how effective the London rioters were to see the power of social media. If we could harness this power, we would save greatly on paper and unnecessary volunteer workforce. Exact figures haven’t been calculated, but one of our employee’s informed estimation was in the hundred of millions.

Our statistics show 72% of homeless people are not using social media

Okay, so I hear you asking “Ted, that’s all good and dandy, but how on earth are we going to promote social media to the homeless if they don’t have social media?”. The answer is an integrated and concentrated attack on the senses. Electronic billboards, artistic televised and streamed advertising, on-street direct selling. This is the ONLY way to sell to the homeless. It is no good getting a full page advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald because homeless people can’t read! It is simple logic, but most marketers in Australia are just not getting it. That is why we here at Anthony Schumann are in a prime position to capitalise on SM4H’s multi million dollar industry- simply because we are giving it the respect it deserves.

– Ted Anthony

Follow @AnthonySchumann