social media and your organization

Social Media and Your Organization

Dahna Goldstein, Jocelyn Harmon and Evan Parker

Agenda

• Introductions• What is social media?• So what and who cares• Tools U can use• Is it right for your organization?• Case study: The Nature Conservancy• Getting started with social media• Questions

A story

What is social media?

Social media are:

Internet-based tools to share information, learn and connect with others.

Examples include, blogs, Facebook, Linkedin & MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and podcasts.

Different from mass media

Social media• Ubiquitous• FREE• Easy to cut and paste and

share

• Social

Mass media

• Inaccessible to most• Expensive• Short shelf life unless

re-purposed via social media

• 1-way

So what and who cares?

Social media is mainstream!According to Forrester, 75 percent of Internet users participate in some form of social media, up from 56 percent in 2007.

Women 75% Men 73%18 – 29 year olds 87% 50 – 64 year olds 72% HI = $75,000 + 94%HI = $30,000 or less 57%

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

Top 9 sites on the Internet

1. Google2. Yahoo3. YouTube4. Live5. Facebook6. Msn.com7. Wikipedia8. Blogger9. MySpace

Source: Alexa.com

Most important

It’s where people are

Getting news - 70%Watching video - 56%Looking for info on Wikipedia - 47%Reading blogs - 32% (57 million people)Rating products, services or people – 32%

Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project

A caveat…

Don’t forget about Search and email

These are the 2 activities that folks to most online.

• Read email 91% • Use a search engine 89%

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project

Tools U can use

BlogsCommunicate quickly

Put a real face on your organization.

Get found in Search

Build, organize and share content – educate.

Social Networking Sites

Build an audience, i.e. find new stakeholders

Increase brand awareness - educate

Ask your supporters to support you

Video

Show vs. tell your story – educate.

Break up the monotony.

Remember: YouTube is the 3rd most trafficked site on the Net

Twitter

See what people are talking about right now

Drive traffic to other sites.

Educate.

Reach people you can’t reach anywhere else.

OK, but what can social media do for my organization?

Social media can:

• Be a powerful way to engage your constituents

• Help you find/engage new constituents• Provide new ways for constituents to engage

with you and spread the word about your cause• Enable low cost, high touch communication with

your donors, members and advocates

Is it right for my organization?

Before jumping in, assess

• Your constituents • Your organization • Your goals

Your constituents

• Who are they?• How are you engaging them?• How often do they come to your website,

donate, act?• What social media are they using?• What do you want them to do?– Act– Donate– Share/spread news, actions, etc.

Your organization

• Do you have a newsletter?• Do you have an email newsletter?– How often do you sent it out?– Is a different group of people receiving the email

version?• Is the content the same?

• Do you have a website?

Your organization, continued

• How often do you update your website?– Who does it?

• Is communicating with constituents in someone’s job description?– Whose?

• Do you have a marketing/communications plan and strategy?

Your goals

• Are they aligned with your mission?

• Is social media the best way to get you where you want to go?

Some hard truths about social media

• If you build it, they won’t necessarily come.

• It takes time and dedicated resources to build a social program.

• You won’t raise a lot of money in this space.

Some hard truths about social media

• Doing it well requires:– Strategy– Plan– Measurement– Willingness to learn from

mistakes– Clear goals– Alignment across the

organization

Some hard truths about social media

• Social is a means to an end not an end in itself

• It’s a balancing act – you have to do it but at the right price

Case Study

The Nature Conservancy

Getting Started

• Set up Google Alerts and start listening to what people are already saying about you.

• Do a Google blog search on key terms.• Search Technorati and Alltop to find the

influential bloggers in your industry.• Follow other nonprofits on Twitter to see

what they are talking about.• Set up a personal page on Facebook and

start connecting with friends/family.

Getting Started

• Set up a personal page on Linkedin and start connecting with colleagues

• Get FREE training through the Case Foundation. Visit Gear Up for Giving at http://www.casefoundation.org/social-media-tutorials

• Do a social networking data append to determine where your constituents “live” online.

Questions?

• Dahna Goldsteindahna@philantech.com

• Evan Parkereparker@TNC.org

• Jocelyn HarmonJocelyn.harmon@emailfori

mpact.com