I started the DADvocate project with two goals in mind. 1) I want to help change the way our culture views Fatherhood. 2) I need a platform to experiment with my social media theories.
I’ll address my second goal first and quickly. I had been reading and writing on social media concepts for quite some time and realized that I didn’t really have a platform from which to execute and test. The DADvocate project gave me the platform I needed to see how various approaches to social worked. This second goal developed after I started the project. I’m excited to more explicitly test and further develop my media experiments over the next year as we move the project to completion.
The first goal I mention above is about changing the way culture looks at fatherhood. I can tell you this cultural shift is already happening and I have very little to do with it. The forces on the internet and in the Blog-o-sphere are driving the change and I guess I’m just another source documenting it. That said I didn’t know this when I started the DADvocate Project. Here is an overview of the project from the DADvocate Project site:
“DADvocates – Today’s dads are a new generation of dads and while I don’t think we have a great definition, I believe we are finding ways to be more involved in family life. We are doing jobs that allow us to be home more and we are finding ways to be more present when participating in family activities. We help drive parenting decisions that were previously made by women and we are not the Peter Griffins that dads are portrayed as on TV.
Since I have no ability to prove this without research and evidence, I’ve undertaken a project to help define who we DADvocates are and I need your help to complete the project.
The DADvocate Project consists of three phases:
1. The Survey – this is an in-depth look at who you are and what you do. We discuss how much time you spend in the various areas of life including, family, finances, work, physical fitness and much more. We are publishing survey results as we go. You can read about the survey results in various posts on this blog.
2. Interviews – The interviews will be the second phase of the DADvocate project. Interviews will go in-depth with some of the participants of the DADvocate survey. We will talk about experiences growing up, College, and work. We will ask about the best moments you have had with your children and how you spend your time trying to be the best dad you can be.
3. Book – The final part of the DADvocate project will be a published book that tells the story of who we (dads) are and why we give all we give to being a parent, how that includes our work and our responsibilities to our wives and ourselves.”
In addition to the goals mentioned above The DADvocate Project has provided me the opportunity to build a brand and dive deeper into various aspects of marketing such as PR. The project has been a great experience so far and in the first year we have completed over 370 surveys and 20 interviews. The DADvocate Twitter following is nearing 800 and it has grown organically. I have spoken on the project at the first major Dad blogger conference and I appeared on CNN as a result of the project.
In the next year I expect to write an ebook about the first 20 interviews, gather all 1000 survey respondents and complete the remaining interviews. To read more about the project go to TheDADvocateProject.com or read from the feed below.