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Twitter Thursday
Matt McClain
Surfrider Foundation
Join us online for group Y TWITTER THURSDAYS! Every Thursday, we will be interviewing key Action Sports industry figures–execs, professionals & athletes on Twitter
Interview with Matt McClain
Director of Marketing & Communications at Surfrider Foundation
on Twitter, July 9, 2009
@groupY How many members & chapters do Surfrider have?
@MattyMcClain … just over 50,000 members with 70 chapters in the US alone & 90 worldwide. Also five international affiliates: Brazil, Japan, Oceana, Europe, Argentina
@groupY What are the big initiatives for Surfrider this year?
@MattyMcClain Offshore drilling, Marine Life Protection Act, addressing plastics in marine environment, & campaigning to preserve the Gaviota Coastline
@groupY What personally drives you to work on these programs & issues?
@MattyMcClain Mostly the satisfaction in making a difference … it’s easy to sit around and complain about things but things won’t change unless you actually get up off the couch and do something about it.
@groupY What are your favorite sports?
@MattyMcClain Surfing, skating, snowboarding - pretty much anything board related. I’m also a super big cycling fan. Stoked about the Tour @tourfrance this year!
@groupY How did you get your job at Surfrider?
@MattyMcClain While I was still at Mammoth, I helped Surfrider w/ their Sea To Summit video. Hooked them up with Tara Dakides (@TaraDakides) and did location scouting. Then I moved to Telluride to work at the resort there. Was there for about a year when Surfrider called me & asked if I was interested in heading up their new Marketing Department, so I jumped at the opportunity, & have been here 7 years now.
@groupY How involved were you with the Save Trestles campaign @SaveTrestles?
@MattyMcClain I was pretty involved. The campaign had existed for a while before I arrived, but only on a local level. I saw that not only did the campaign need assistance from a National perspective but that the org needed a campaign that we could all rally around as well. So we here at our national office really got behind it and it took off from there. Was fortunate to have incredible staff on our end, incredible volunteers from the chapter end as well as huge support from both the surf industry and the local community
@groupY How important is social media to the cause of Surfrider?
@MattyMcClain Like everyone else, we are just beginning to understand to potential of social media. We were lucky to get into it early, and have found it an excellent way to keep our Surfrider supporters informed as well as a pretty effective activist tool. On a larger scale, I think social networks are one of the best opportunities for companies to communicate their brand
@groupY Social networking seem very effective with Save Trestles - in most cases that’s how people first found out about twitter to follow the hearings.
@MattyMcClain Yes we used it effectively at both the CCC & SOC hearings, as well as during the offshore oil drilling hearing in San Francisco earlier this year.
@groupY What is the size of the staff at Surfrider & their roles?
@MattyMcClain For a worldwide organization, we actually have a pretty small staff - just over 25 people here at HQ and another dozen in the field. Our roles vary, but one role that is consistent through all departments is to support our network of grassroots chapters, and volunteer activists. They are really the ones who are winning all these campaigns for us as such, our role is to support and guide them as much as possible.
@groupY So your twitter account @MattyMcClain is one of the funniest to read….what is the obsession with swine flu?
@MattyMcClain Everyone’s got their things that they obsess about. For me it either that or spiders. Swine flu just seems to scale better.
@groupY Surfrider’s CEO is on Twitter also, what does he normally use it for?
@MattyMcClain Our CEO, @JimMoriarty has an interesting perspective on things - half tech geek / half soul surfer
@groupY How do you see non-profits like Surfrider surviving in these economic times
@MattyMcClain Well as it is for everyone else, these are challenging times. Not a lot of disposable income out there. So as it is in for-profit business, NPO’s (Non-profit Organizations) need to manage expenses and maximize revenues. One thing that we did effectively is to diversify our revenue streams. Whereas we used to split our revenue between donations, membership and grant funding. Over the last several years we’ve been ramping up our cause-marketing efforts that has allowed us to “weatherproof” our business somewhat. That, combined with the fact that we are as effective as we are as an organization (giving our supporters a good ROI).
@groupY How much support do you get from Action Sports & Surfing industry?
@MattyMcClain From my perspective the surf industry has been extremely supportive of Surfrider through both financial support and contribution and providing us opportunities to extend our brand reach as well. If you look at other sports; bat & ball, auto, etc. no other sports segment is as proactively embracing sustainability as is actions sports. Makes me proud to be a part of our community. I look around and see companies making boardshorts and shoes out of recycled PET plastics, shirts out of organic cotton and bamboo, wetsuits out of non petroleum neoprene…its awsome!!
We now open the questions to @groupY twitter followers…..
@StaceyBroadwell Who are some of your biggest inspirations?
@MattyMcClain I sincerely get inspired by everyone. I know that sounds corny but its true. If you allow yourself to be inspired on a daily basis, then I think you will lead a happy productive life
@cgeorge110 What accomplishments Surfrider are you most proud of?
@MattyMcClain 3 things stick out: first, pushing the org to step up and own the Save Trestles campaign. Second, building out our cause marketing program and finally building a crack team around me. Everyone at Surfrider kicks ass, but my team especially. I’m sooo lucky to have them.
@cgeorge110 - “Do you think the growing popularity of action sports will help to further strengthen your cause and membership base?”
@MattyMcClain I hope so. Surfers, skaters, etc are still iconoclasts for the most part. I’d like to believe that some of that will bleed out to other values because we need to steal this planet back yo! Serious - there are some evil forces out there bent on fucking this planet up. So anytime we can make a wetsuit or surfboard or hopefully someday skate wheels without using oil, then we are one step closer to independence.
@ScottDeYager Does Surfrider get approached by other orgs (I.e. Greenpeace) to partner up on issues?”
@MattyMcClain Yes, we work in coalition with other environmental NPO’s quite a bit. Each of us have different strengths and weaknesses, so hopefully we can compliment each other. For example, Surfrider Foundation is not as strong on the policy side as say, NRDC (@NRDC). But as a grassroots org, we can turn out bodies. One area I would like to see us do more work in though is synergizing with health & welfare, social responsibility, educational, etc NPO’s e.g. UNICEF (@UNICEF) is working hard to provide clean drinking water to children in 3rd world nations, who are literally dying from a lack of water. Meanwhile, Surfrider is trying to educate people here that we wash our cars, water our lawns, etc with drinking water. All this water usage inevitably results in a decline of marine water quality somewhere. There is a nexus here - what is good for the environment, can also help save lives elsewhere. Gotta break down these bubbles we live in.
@groupY With this job, we assume you get to go surfing alot?
@MattyMcClain I usually get out a few times a week. Surfrider is really good about letting us poke out when its on. During the summer months, the @surfrider office knocks off a bit early and heads down to San O to surf and BBQ. We would be STOKED if more people joined us!!
@groupY Any last parting words to the Twitter-universe?
@MattyMcClain I just want to remind everyone that life is short…have more fun. Love each other more. Be nice to animals and the planet. And watch out for swine flu…haha
Thank you group Y for helping to connect the dots and keeping it real!!
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