social media for nonprofits: what is it and how do we do it?

Intro

• Guy at Sasquatch Music Festival• Evolution of Dance• Free Hugs Campaign• Dramatic Look

Social Media for Nonprofits

What Does It Mean and How Do We Do It?

This work utilizes framework from The Secret Sauce to Social Media Strategy Success! By Beth Kanter and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unsupported License. Please notify Erin McMahon before using or adapting any part of this work.

Outline• Introduction/Terms• Before You Begin

– Objective– Audience– Strategy– Capacity– Culture– Tools

• Jumping In: Basics• Tools/Platforms• Best Practices• ROI and Metrics

Knowing the Language(Generally, “We like to share stuff and interact with

each other.”)

• Wikipedia: “Social media are primarily internet- and mobile- based tools for sharing and discussing information among human beings.”

Photo by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Also check out CommonCraft: Social Media in Plain English

So what?

Facts and Figures• Over 100,000,000 bloggers in blogosphere

(Technorati) & blog reading has risen 66% globally in a year (Universal McCann)

• Over 200,000,000 active users on Facebook with more than 6 million users becoming fans of Pages each day (Facebook stats) + Facebook is the 5th most trafficked site in the US (via Allyson Kapin)

• Number of text messages has been steadily increasing; for many demographics, texting is more than calls

• Twitter has grown from about 600,000 users to 3.5 million in 2008 (comScore)

Before You Begin

Think.

Flickr photo: baboonTM

United Way of America Interactive Strategy

• Focus areas for long-term success:– Advancing the common good through the

continued evolution to impact and our commitment to success in the areas of education, income and health, on a worldwide scale.

– Bring LIVE UNITED to life by reinforcing the core part of our business model to ensure we are a mobilizing force for social change.

– Updating, on a broad scale, our business processes and structure; We cannot succeed with antiquated systems that are not aligned both in the US and worldwide.From United Way of America, Interactive Strategy PowerPoint, Iavor Ivanov

The Internet - why are we talking about this space?

• It’s where we are already.• It’s where our individual supporters are.• It’s where the conversation is.• It’s where we can be effective (for less).• It’s where we can work on our brand

challenges and objectives.• It’s a place where people can make a

great difference.

From United Way of America, Interactive Strategy PowerPoint, Iavor Ivanov

Objective

• What do you want to accomplish?• How will your social media strategy

support your online or overall communications strategy?

From United Way of America, Interactive Strategy PowerPoint, Iavor Ivanov

Objective:What the Tools Can Do

• The reality of fundraising via social media

• Social media as education tools• Social media as advocacy tools• Cultivate influencers • Training/education tool for staff

Audience: Who are you trying to reach?

Flickr photos by eric hayes & pingnews.com

From United Way of America, Interactive Strategy PowerPoint, Iavor Ivanov

From United Way of America, Interactive Strategy PowerPoint, Iavor Ivanov

Strategy

Slide 10 from “What’s Next in Media” by Neil Perkin.

Culture: Common Concerns

• Loss of Control• Negative Comments• Trusting Employees• Fear of Failure• Perception of Wasted Time and

Resources• Suffering from Information Overload

Capacity:It Takes Time to Build Relationships

Flickr photo: loungerie

How much time will it take?

• Not all platforms are equal• Will you Listen, Participate,

Generate Buzz, Share Content, or focus on Community Building & Social Networking?

• Blog entry from Beth Kanter’s blog

Tools

Platforms/Tools: keeping in mind the resources you have available for social media

and the goals you have set, choose the platforms that best match your needs.

• MySpace, Facebook (social networks, Community Building)

• Twitter, utterz, qik (micro-sharing, Listening, Participating, Share Story )

• Blogs & RSS (Share Story)• YouTube, DoGooderTV

(video sharing, Share Story)• Flickr, Picasa (photo

sharing, Share Story)

• del.ic.io.us, ma.gnolia (social bookmarking, Listening)

• Digg, StumbleUpon (social news, Generate Buzz)

• Friendfeed, Strands (lifestreaming, Generate Buzz)

• Ning (social network builder, Community Building)

From United Way of America, Interactive Strategy PowerPoint, Iavor Ivanov

Getting Started

Getting Started: Listening

• It’s half of the conversation.

• Push vs. pull vs. echo or reverberating marketing

• Tools: Google Alerts, Social Mention, twitter, yahoo pipes

Flickr photo: rick

Getting Started: Creating Content

•Take a deep breath and…

Flickr photo: Dey

Let Go

Flickr photo: adzla, some rights reserved

Getting Started

Keep your content fresh!

Flickr photo: .jonathan.gill.

People Want to Talk to

This:

Flickr photo: bukutgirl

Not This:

Best Practices

Best Practices

• Trying to define a “Facebook plan” is wrong-headed; the work is emergent.

• Do define your boundaries before beginning. What will your policies be?

• Participate! Contribute!• Interest must go both ways; you

cannot only self-promote. • Not everyone will like you. That’s

okay.

ROI and Metrics

• Blogs- most come with own tracking• Subscriptions• Social networks: Friends• Twitter: followers, Tweetreach.com,

Twitter Grader• YouTube: video views, channel views,

honors• Flickr has own metrics w/ paid account• Idea of social currency (authenticity)

Social Media Resources

• Beth’s Blog• Amy Sample Ward’s Version of NPTech• Wild Apricot Blog• WeAreMedia• Social Media Club Louisville• Nonprofit Marketing Zone• Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN)• TechSoup• Connection Café - by Convio

Erin McMahon

• twitter.com/firestar9s• linkedin.com/in/erinmmcmahon• erin.mcmahon@metrounitedway.org