Robin Parker: blog master at the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross

by Alex Steed

Published November 30, 2008 @ 03:15PM PST

I met with Robin Parker, blog master / communications specialist at the Oregon Trail Chapter of the American Red Cross, in a beer hall in Portland. How does she present the Red Cross as a cool organization to an  emerging class of young people who show an increasing appreciation for transparency and initiatives-over-organization?

She, blogs, tweets, posts photos, solicits art from users, interviews weather fronts, etc.

Robin's doing the following right:

1. There's a lot of talk online -  terabytes of bull. She explains that her best content comes from listening - she reads what's up via Twitter, blogs, etc. and she posts the cream of the crop. Parker's efforts to sift through and rehash great content speak for themselves. The blog is attractive - nicely designed and minimal. She keeps people in tune with the organization's posts by way of Twitter, but does not overwhelm with a storm of updates. Her posts are short, meaty, readable and clever (again - there is a post in which she interviews PortlandRain, the Twitter persona of one of the most common weather fronts of the Northwest).
2. She is in touch. She meets up with other of the socially-concerned / tech-minded at various relevant meetups (Portland is rich in them). She is connected with a posse of seemingly effective early adopters for social good so she's got her finger on the pulse of who within the local community cares for what issues, who is well-versed in what, and is familiar with them in a face-to-face manner so as to be able to ask for their help / collaboration when necessary.

The young activists/do-gooders I met along the way who claimed to be comfortable with the progress they were making typically had found some comfort in the aforementioned - they produced good, meaningful, directive content/had something to say and they had some network of people that they were in touch with both online and in person. I point out the latter because as often as this generation is one that is highlighted for its ability to network, there still exists a tendency of some young activists to rely too heavily on online methods, which can be resultant in losing the sense of trust, camaraderie, and engaged willingness of community members that comes with occasionally meeting with a team face-to-face.