Social media is essential for mission-minded organizations to share their work with their communities. But it’s also essential for them to be intentional about how they’re using it.

To help place-based nonprofits figure out how to best leverage social media platforms to engage with their audiences, check out the final installment of our tech tools bootcamp, Tech in the Commons.

It’s happening Tuesday, May 16, from 5 to 8 p.m. at Benjamin’s Desk, 601 Walnut St.

The agenda:

• 5 p.m. — Food and networking
• 5:30 p.m. — Speakers; check ’em out below
• 6:30 p.m. — Breakout sessions led by social comms experts
• 8 p.m. — Tech in the Commons wraps

Speakers:

Mobile Stü asks, “Is it possible to de-escalate gang violence through the power of song? To get police officers and inner city kids to produce a rap anthem together? To inspire America with a unifying movement that started on the back of a pickup truck?” The #BlackWithBlue movement started with a song that the unlikely collaborators produced together and soon went viral — organically, with no paid media — to reach over 50 million impressions and counting.

• Mike Boston is a rapper-entrepreneur-activist who has gained local and national attention as the founder of Mobile Stü, a mobile studio he takes into tough urban areas to give inner-city kids a voice. Boston has appeared on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and The Ellen Show, and he has a documentary series in the making.
• Tim Reeves is a principal in Allen & Gerritsen, one of the nation’s leading independent advertising agencies, and the marketing guru who helped make Boston’s incredible efforts national news.

Arden Theatre Company Director of Marketing and Communications Stephen Rapp, Director of Development Lauren Hughes and Marketing Manager Rebecca Cureton will speak about the Arden’s recently revamped social communications strategy.

• Hughes is an experienced community engagement and fundraising professional with 10 years in the nonprofit industry. She is particularly interested in the implementation of social media and new technologies in enhancing community engagement efforts and fundraising.
• Rapp is originally from Western New York, where he spent eight years with the Rochester Broadway Theatre League, in the marketing and group sales departments. He is most recently coming from Bucks County Playhouse as the director of marketing.
• Cureton is, in addition to being an arts marketing professional, is a theatre artist, freelance graphic designer and barre fitness instructor.

Clayton McNeil is the organizer of the Greater Philadelphia Virtual and Augmented Reality Group and the founder and chief technologist at Synthality, a virtual reality consulting company. He has spent his career solving problems at the cutting edge of technology and making the solutions accessible to others. He is currently striving to bring the benefits of VR/AR to our region and to make Philadelphia a dominant geographical player in this growing industry.

• In the future, personal communication through “social VR” will allow individuals and groups to express their thoughts and ideas in ways previously not possible and stands to totally revolutionize social media as we know it today. McNeil will discuss how this change is rapidly occurring and what nonprofit organizations and do today to start taking advantage of this futuristic tool for engagement.

P.S. Please save the date for our second annual jobs and engagement fair, INTER/VIEW. The event makes its return on Tuesday, May 23.