Our National Park Service has a birthday today, and it’s a BIG ONE.

NPS: You Make 100 Look Good!

Our National Park Service has a birthday today, and it’s a BIG ONE. 

Condensed

Vengeance. Money. Love. These are all words we’re saying so you read this blog about economics.

A couple years ago I read my first enjoyable non-fiction book.

A couple years ago I read my first enjoyable non-fiction book. I know there’s a lot of enjoyable non-fiction out there, but REALLY… the magic of Hogwarts has resulted in an entire theme park, whereas the history of Hispanics in the Mormon Zion* has resulted in, well, my falling asleep on a hot pink highlighter.

Pounding the tarmac through the seasons, a band of runners are brazenly challenged with intimate questions as they pace their routes. Liberated from responsibilities, their guards drop dramatically, releasing funny and brutally frank confessions, and weaving a powerful narrative behind the anonymous masses.

A film by Matan Rochlitz & Ivo Gormley.

#therunners

**OFFICIAL SELECTION - SHEFFIELD DOC/FEST 2013**
** HONOURABLE MENTION - LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2014**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION - OPEN CITY DOCS, LONDON 2013**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION - NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL 2013**
**OFFICIAL SELECTION - KAOHSIUNG FILM FESTIVAL, TAIWAN 2013**

The Runners on The Guardian: 
theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/the-running-blog/2013/nov/15/the-runners-film-interviewing-people-jogging

The Runners

At Black Sheep, we love ideas: New ideas. Bold ideas. Crazy ideas. Audacious ideas.

Why Are You Running Today?

Why LinkedIn Is The Best Tool You’re Not Using

It’s time to move LinkedIn from being an afterthought to being a first thought.

It’s time to move LinkedIn from being an afterthought to being a first thought. If you’re using the platform the same way you were three or four years ago, it’s time to do some serious catching up. There’s a professional content revolution underway and those involved are on LinkedIn roughly 8 hours a week reading, publishing, sharing and liking just about everything.

Learn from locals #storyhopper

Over the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time in airports.

Spend The Night With The Locals

Over the last few years, I’ve spent a lot of time in airports. There’s something I love about airports—maybe it’s the promise of adventure, or the $15 coffee, or the fact that security always, always, always pulls me out of line to search me and I end up having to frantically rush to make it to the gate in time.

I’ll Snap To That: International Beer Day

Tomorrow is a day for merrymaking; a day to carouse, celebrate and conquer.

Tomorrow is a day for merrymaking; a day to carouse, celebrate and conquer. Tomorrow is International Beer Day. In honor of this crucial and clearly cherished holiday, we’re throwing a little something together for our friends.

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”

Rise of the Pop Up Brands

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.”
—Henry Ford, 1909

Around 2008, I was going through the clearance section of Half Price Books in Austin and came across a chunky little thing with the clickbait-y title of 283 Useful Ideas from Japan.

My Friend Leonard

Around 2008, I was going through the clearance section of Half Price Books in Austin and came across a chunky little thing with the clickbait-y title of 283 Useful Ideas from Japan. The subheading of the book is “For Entrepreneurs and Everyone Else” and while the typeface on the front looked bad, I decided to not judge a book by its cover.

#ChaChaCha and #52Causes Wrap Up: No Champagne (or Hashtags) Left Behind

Did you know Houston has over 18,000 nonprofits?

Did you know Houston has over 18,000 nonprofits? That’s a lot of causes, missions and visions, with each organization working tirelessly to instill change and make Houston the best city it can be. But yet, there are still so many people in Houston who do not know all of the good work that goes on behind the scenes.

“Brainstorm with me for a second.” — said every person in #agencylife ever.

Thinking Caps + Lightbulb Moments

We’ve turned to each other for inspiration for seven years.

#SHEEPSPO

We’ve turned to each other for inspiration for seven years. Now, we’d like to share that inspiration with you, to give you a snapshot of what greases our gears and fuels our creativity every Monday morning.

Better Make Room July PSA

It’s been nine months—NINE—since the launch of our Better Make Room campaign at the White House.

Beating The Odds. ALL OF THE ODDS.

It’s been nine months—NINE—since the launch of our Better Make Room campaign at the White House. How is that possible, you ask? It’s crazy. We know.

In those nine months we’ve been working on rolling out the campaign as a part of the First Lady’s Reach Higher Initiative, created with the purpose of connecting Gen-Z with the resources and guidance they need to continue their education after high school. This campaign is all about shining the spotlight on students—WHERE IT BELONGS.

Houston—home of NASA, a crazy amount of bayous and, oh, like 20,000 nonprofits.

#ChaChaCha, No we aren’t dancing.

Houston—home of NASA, a crazy amount of bayous and, oh, like 20,000 nonprofits. Twenty. Thousand. Have you ever thought why? Because Houston is a giving city, people. We literally put our money where our mouths are and collectively help all kinds of organizations get what they need to thrive. But money is not the only way to support a worthy cause. Around the Black Sheep office, we’re always looking for ways to give back—whether that’s joining a nonprofit board, volunteering or learning about new causes.

GET IN THE CAR. WE ARE GOING ON A MAGIKARPET RIDE.

We know it’s highly likely that you—yes, you who is reading this—is already on Pokémon GO (shout out to Red Team).

We know it’s highly likely that you—yes, you who is reading this—is already on Pokémon GO (shout out to Red Team). If not, you’ve been aware of it. How could you not be? Everyone on your Facebook timeline and Twitter feed is losing their damn minds about it. So, what’s all the fuss about? THIS: Pokémon Go is making people get outside and find things using augmented reality, which makes your boring neighborhood a magical, fantastical realm. In short, it’s hot shit.

SO. MUCH. HAPPENING. VidCon started, so we’ve got hordes of screaming adolescent girls obsessing over top Viners in California.

FINALLY. The Bacon Has Arrived.

SO. MUCH. HAPPENING.VidConstarted, so we’ve got hordes of screaming adolescent girls obsessing over top Viners in California. Sorry Mom—we can’t imagine what it’s like to chaperone a party that goes on for three days. YouTube Red launched their original seriesEscape The Night, which has the incredibly original “death at a dinner party” theme going on. We’re still trying to figure out how that will fit into our already-strenuous Netflix regime.

June 17-23 Is The Official National Week of Making. #ThanksObama.

“Makers and builders and doers—of all ages and backgrounds—have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need.

“Makers and builders and doers—of all ages and backgrounds—have pushed our country forward, developing creative solutions to important challenges and proving that ordinary Americans are capable of achieving the extraordinary when they have access to the resources they need. During National Week of Making, we celebrate the tinkerers and dreamers whose talent and drive have brought new ideas to life, and we recommit to cultivating the next generation of problem solvers.” -President Obama

Panning way out, Facebook just graced 1.5 billion people with 360 Video.

A Literal Facebook Ollie

The 2016 Internet Trends Report Dropped and It’s Hotter than Beyonce’s Lemonade

For digital data nerds, the day Mary Meeker’s Internet Trend Report comes out is the equivalent of Christmas Day.

For digital data nerds, the dayMary Meeker’s Internet Trend Reportcomes out is the equivalent of Christmas Day. The report is packed with data driven factoids that– trust us–you will need to know if you want to stay relevant.

When Hashtags Lose Steam

It’s been two years. TWO. YEARS. Think about how many experiences you’ve had. How many people you’ve met. How many things you’ve accomplished in the two years years since the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls erupted across the world, spurring on the attention of celebrities with millions of followers and social media newbies alike. The world was engulfed in a social media wildfire and people were tweeting that shit out with a vengeance.

Google I/O: Daydreaming of Androids and Artificial Intelligence

If you didn’t keep up with every giant tech company announcement this week, don’t worry, that’s all we did (after client meetings and brainstorming sessions, duh).

If you didn’t keep up with every giant tech company announcement this week, don’t worry, that’s all we did (after client meetings and brainstorming sessions, duh). Google is currently in the midst of Google I/O, a three-day annual developer conference and once again, they totally brought it and are throwing down on the innovation game.

For years, the advice to every nonprofit was some version of "be more like a brand." Post more. Sound more polished. Chase the same tricks beverage and mattress companies use to win attention. But that advice is going out of date fast. 

Here's the good news buried in the shift: being human, being rooted in a real community, telling the truth about the work you do - these used to just be things nonprofits talked about. Now they're becoming part of how the algorithm decides who gets seen.

Let’s be real, the social media feed you're posting into isn't the feed you learned on. There are three changes to pay attention to here:

You are no longer broadcasting to your followers. You're being matched to people by interest, whether they follow you or not. According to Meta, only 17% of time on Facebook and 7% on Instagram goes to content from friends and family. The rest is strangers' content, served by an algorithm reading for interest, not relationship. This means that follower count matters less than it used to; what your organization is actually about matters way more.

For a decade, the game was capturing eyeballs at any cost, but that game is almost out of runway. This new reality rewards the meaning people seek out, instead of the noise people scroll past. A nonprofit was never going to out-shout a beverage brand for attention, and it doesn't have to start now.

Bots now account for more than half of all web traffic, the first time automated activity has outpaced human activity online. Add the flood of low-effort AI content built to trigger a reaction, and feeds get louder, faker, and angrier by the month. Outrage travels, so platforms keep rewarding it, regardless of whether it's true.

Platforms are starting to notice the same AI slop we are, and they're building against it. As feeds fill with machine-made content, audiences and the platforms chasing those audiences are turning toward visible effort, texture and even imperfection. 

Authenticity is starting to get measured less as a brand value and more as "proof of process": can people actually see the work behind the thing? Instagram has begun actively suppressing reposted and aggregated content for exactly this reason. Original, human, made-for-the-platform work is now structurally advantaged, not just ethically preferable.

The appetite for this is showing up in surprising places too. Myspace's owners are reportedly plotting a relaunch, betting that algorithm fatigue is real enough that people will pay attention to a platform explicitly selling itself as an escape from optimized feeds.

Brands without a real story are feeling the squeeze from the other direction. Even insurance companies and mattress brands, categories built on being interchangeable, are now scrambling to act like media companies just to stay visible, hiring writers and building personalities where there used to be none. But your nonprofit isn't scrambling for any of that. The real stories, real people and real process you already have aren't a compliance requirement anymore. They're the raw material every faceless brand is spending real money trying to fake.

You're the expert. Make sure AI knows it.

The same shift is happening in search. More than half of Google queries now return an AI-generated answer before a person ever clicks a website. Being the credible, well-documented source those answers get built from is starting to matter as much as being the thing someone finds by scrolling. Same principle, different doorway: substance and legitimacy are becoming the input, not just the output.

No one knows your mission, your people, and your work better than you do. When someone asks an AI assistant how to get involved in your cause, that answer should be built from what you've actually published, not a stranger's guess or a five-year-old blog post. Making sure your own documentation is the source AI pulls from isn't just a search tactic. It's how you keep your story accurate and keep your work moving forward, instead of watching it get flattened into someone else's summary.

What this actually means for your nonprofit online

Here's the part that should feel like relief: none of this asks you to get louder, weirder or more "on brand." It asks you to do less pretending and more proving. Show the work. Show the people. Let the algorithm find you doing the thing you're actually good at, instead of trying to out-shout accounts that were never your competition to begin with or hoping to be stumbled upon via hashtag soup.

The real question is whether what you post could hold up to a stranger asking, "how do I know this is real?" That's a content question, a design question and a strategy question all at once, and it's the kind of work that's easy to know you need and hard to carve out time for.

That's the work we do at Black Sheep Agency. We help mission-driven organizations turn what's already true about them- the real stories, the real people, the real process- into content and strategy built for a moment when that's exactly what gets rewarded.

Why Nonprofits Might Finally Win the Algorithm

The algorithm now rewards real stories and community over polish and AI content. See why nonprofits are positioned to win the shift and what to do next.

The algorithm stopped rewarding polish and started rewarding (human) proof

The algorithm now rewards real stories and community over polish and AI content. See why nonprofits are positioned to win the shift, and what to do next.

The Black Sheep blog is turning up the volume on community engagement, social media strategy, Houston happenings and what it means to lead a purpose-driven life.

The Black Sheep Agency | Social impact and nonprofit blog

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We're not shy.