Social media is my job. I manage this blog. I send out the tweets for @compassion. I create the photo sets in Flickr, upload videos to YouTube, update our Facebook status, etc.

I have a good job. I like it a lot. I don’t want to do anything else. My fellow webbies are great peeps. Lots of fun. And I love seeing and being a part of the conversations you have with one another. But amid all that I can still be a bit jaded at times.

Since this blog is a place of honesty and transparency, I have to admit that I have been known to say “Who cares?” to a tweet or two. Not any I send, of course.

I also admit to not putting much effort into managing “my personal brand” in those spaces, and that includes our newly launched OurCompassion.

However, on Wednesday, I learned what OurCompassion is really about. (more…)

Here’s something very easy you can do to help children in poverty.

• Use Search Kindly as your search engine during May. (It’s powered by Google.)
• Buy Kindly! Make your Amazon.com, eBay, iTunes, Target and Wal-Mart purchases through the Search Kindly homepage. There are many other popular retailers available too.

Thanks to your votes, Compassion will receive 100 percent of Search Kindly’s ad revenue for the month of May. Their goal is $1,000, but we’re hoping for more than that. How’s that for transparency? And how about $2,500 as a goal?

There’s a thermometer on their homepage where they show how much money has been generated so far. Right now, we’re at $84.

Here’s how it works:

More eyeballs = more money = more children helped.

More advertising revenue is generated from unique visits than from frequent visits. What that means is the “Money Thermometer” goes up more quickly for each new pair of eyes that view the site than it does for repeat visits, but the keywords there are “more quickly”. Repeat visits definitely help!

For those of you who get a bit overwhelmed at the technical side of all this web stuff, like some of us on the Web Team here’s your To Do list.

1. Use Search Kindly as your search engine.
2. Buy Kindly! Make your Amazon.com, eBay, iTunes, Target and Wal-Mart purchases through the Search Kindly homepage. This generates LOTS of revenue because sales are even better than eyeballs.
3. Tell your friends and family about this, and ask them to to tell their friends and family.
4. Make searchkindly.org your homepage. That’s worth about $3 a month because of your repeat visits.
5. Add the Search Kindly banner to your blog or personal web page (see below). Helps with the eyeballs thing.

If you’re going to search, why not Search Kindly?

</p> <div style="background:#fff;border:1px solid #039;font-family:Verdana, sans-serif;font-size:11px;padding:5px;width:300px"> <div align="center"><a href="http://www.searchkindly.org/"><br /> <img src="http://www.searchkindly.org/images/banner_250x60_2.gif" alt="Search Kindly" border="0"></a></div> <p></p> <div align="center"> <form action=http://www.searchkindly.org method=GET> <input type=text name=q size=37 maxlength=255> <input type=submit value="Search Kindly"> <h4>If you’re going to search, why not Search Kindly?</h4> </form> </div> </div> <p>

I don’t think it’s possible to be authentic without being transparent.

By consciously withholding something or avoiding a subject because I fear a reaction – anger, rejection, judgment, etc., I’m not being authentic. I’m being manipulative.

Choosing what to share and what not to share is lying by omission, and it’s not being transparent or authentic.

What does this have to do with children in poverty and Compassion International?

• You’re reading Compassion’s blog about child poverty.
• A blog is media — social media.
• Media is manipulative.
• We want to get more children sponsored. More! More! More!
• The blog helps us do that.
• We’re afraid to say anything that will muck that up.

I’ve had conversations with employees who have said that “the blog is just a big commercial for Compassion.” And “the blog is too rah-rah, like it’s written by a bunch of cheerleaders.” Or GASP! Marketers.

I agree that our first two months have been filled with lots of feel good posts, and I know we can’t be everything to everyone, and I don’t think we have a problem yet; however, if you perceive the blog to be a one-dimensional commercial about how great Compassion is, as opposed to an authentic and sincere communication with you and for you, rather than at you and for us, then I’m wrong and we have a PROBLEM.

Am I wrong?

And what’s your perspective, meaning how involved with Compassion are you? Are you drinking the same Kool-Aid as us employees? Are you Super Advocate or Super Sponsor … or are you just passing through?

How do we share anything positive with you without sounding like a bunch of cheerleaders?

Am I over-thinking this stuff?

If you’ve never commented before, please consider doing so now. You non-commenters have opinions too. I know you do.