social media for small ngos

Strategic Social Media for Small NGOs

Presented by Amy Coultermanhttp://linkd.in/amyc101

@AmyCSays

for ICAD-CISD, 20 Feb 2013

BUT, I HAVE TO DO IT!

Have you created social media accounts because you thought you had to? Everyone’s doing it!

It’s free! People will like us! Now you’re probably using 1 or 3 tools and it can seem

overwhelming because you’re a small NGO with already overextended staff. But did you think

about your strategy much before you created an account for the first time?

The aim of my presentation is to offer you some thoughts about strategy instead of offering a

how-to. The practical aspects of Twitter, Facebook and other platforms can be easily learned and

you can find a lot of tutorials online, but how best to use them for you is something that NGOs

often overlook. I also don’t want to throw around a lot of examples because I think they can raise

high expectations around what social media can do that don’t match your realities. That is why I

am going to get you to rethink your approach about why and how you use them and even if you

should use them.

Do you have a communications strategy?

First things first: do you have a communications strategy?

Social media is just a component of a larger communications strategy. Social media can NOT

take the place of a communications strategy. You need to get the communications basics in order

before you take on social media because it is one tool amongst many that supports your larger

plan and vision and your organization’s larger mandate and goals. When you do this, you’ll have

a better picture of your next steps.

Forrester Research’s “POST” method

• P = People

• O = Objectives

• S = Strategy

• T = Technology

A good first approach to organizing your thoughts about how to and why use social media is the

Forrester Research’s “POST” method, which is used by a great HIV social media team from

AIDS.gov in the US. I’m going to use this general outline to work through how you should think

about your relationship to social media in your NGO.

P = People

•Who is your target audience?

•What tools are they using?

•What are they most comfortable with?

O = Objectives

•Do you want to listen, talk, raise

awareness, increase website traffic,

improve your reputation or collaborate

with your audience?

S = Strategy

•What do you want to accomplish?

•What resources do you have?

T = Technology

•Once you've defined your audiences,

objectives and strategy, then you can

choose the most appropriate

technology.

Your social media audience

Lesson 1:

You cannot 'create' a community

I credit this insight to a fellow social media enthusiast, Hugh Stephens: you can’t ‘create’ a

community because you can only build on what is already there; go where your community is,

otherwise, it will be an uphill battle.

Social media platforms, in general, are ideal for connecting with those who already know you

and like you or are like-minded - so you should aim first to deepen your relationships with these

people. What will actually grow your community the most are still your traditional outreach

methods that draw people in and get them excited to be involved.# These opportunities are things

like fundraising walks, traditional media campaigns and protests. So, although many of you want

to increase your followers, you should be realistic about the numbers you can gain.

Go to your communications strategy and consider your target audiences and stakeholders. Think

of their characteristics and then figure out where you can most effectively target your

community.

The following information is a representative analysis, but it gives a good overview of the

demographics of social media users to provide an idea of where you can find your target

audiences.

Facebook obviously has the largest overall audience. On average, LinkedIn has a proportion of

more educated users.

Twitter numbers are probably lower than you thought. Pinterest is dominated by females.

Instagram and Tumblr are heavily used by younger users, but Instagram users actually come

from a high income bracket.

Your social media audience

Lesson 2:

Not everyone ‘uses’ social media

• 46% of users create photos & videos to share

• 41% of users share content that others make

Now the 2nd lesson: Not everyone uses social media or they don’t use social media in they way

you’d hope they do. Only 46% percent of internet users create photos and videos to share; 41%

of users share content that others make. This means that there are a lot of people out there who

don’t use social media and, if they do use it, don’t engage very much with it meaning many

people are passive listeners. You may need to realize that your audience isn’t in reality using the

tools you’ve set up in the first place in order to reach them.

This means, you may need to rethink your strategy about where you’re focusing your efforts. As

this age graph shows, if you are running a design contest targeted at youth, you may try to find

them on a site like deviantArt.

British Columbia Centre for

Excellence in HIV/AIDS

Here’s an example of ICAD member the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS

Facebook page. With a primarily academic, policy and medical audience, they are targeting their

supporters with an appropriate balance of content it knows interests them amongst its internal

news, external news that highlights its work and its staff and other organizations’ campaigns,

reports and presentations. They also have a well run Twitter account. But, in terms of lesson 1, I

also think that they could use LinkedIn or academic.edu effectively, too, because of the types of

professionals it works with - on there they could share their reports and create a network of

people researching their interests. If, after trying LinkedIn for a while, they found it was a better

way to connect with their target audience, they could drop their Facebook page so they don’t feel

overwhelmed. Also, while they have a news section on their website, they don’t have a blog and

I think a blog would be an ideal feature in terms of reaching out to the general population

because in a blog they could introduce their research in a way that would allow the public to

understand it better.

So, think again about where your audience is and what you want from them and focus on the

sites where you can reach them.

Objective Realism

Lesson 3:

Social media takes time

Posting guidelines

• 2-3 times/day on Facebook

• 4-5 times/day on Twitter

• 4-5 times/week on LinkedIn

• Blogging...it depends!

Now, your objectives. Think realistically about the time involved in ‘doing’ social media and the

frequency with which you have to offer content: ideally posting 2-3 times/day on Facebook, 4-5

times/day on Twitter, 4-5 times/week on LinkedIn and, depending on your content and needs,

you may blog a few times a week or a few times a month, but what matters with blogs is the

quality of content and the consistency with which you post.

http://gigaom.com/2010/12/01/how-much-time-does-social-media-marketing-take/

The amount of time you can offer will determine the level at which you can realistically engage.

If your objectives are high, then you have to budget for the time needed. If you can’t or don’t

want to put in the time to use a platform properly then lower your expectations about what you

can get out of it or don’t use it because it’s better not to have something than to use it poorly.

Nothing’s worse than seeing a Twitter account that only has a few tweets a month - that means it

doesn’t add value to what you are already doing and is a waste of time.

Also, think about what kind of resources you can provide. Will you use the time of a volunteer,

one or two employees, a consultant or everyone in the office? What kind of training or support

do these people need? Assess your assets because how much time, resources and energy these

people can commit will also determine what you will use and how you will use it.

Objective Realism

Lesson 4:

You need to 'own' it

Most importantly, think of the long term implications and investment. Don’t depend only on

short term solutions like interns and volunteers. You need to make sure that social media usage is

an investment by the whole organization - everyone in your NGO needs to ‘own’ it, which means

that everyone should at least understand the importance of social media to your public presence

and give you the space to do what you want and need to do. Your employees understand the

‘voice’ of your organization and you should trust them to represent it online.

Josette Sheeran, WEF

It’s clear that an organization is dedicated to social media when their leader is heavily involved

in it as well. Josette Sheeran, present vice-chair of the World Economic Forum and previously

very active as the head of the WFP, is a great example of this. In her tweets she highlights her

cause, speaks to other Twitter users and gives something of her personality.

I’m not saying that everyone should do this because a personal account is not for every NGO but,

in addition to an official account, if you have or you want a strong personality-led organization

or if you don’t think you can properly keep up an official NGO account because of time or you

don’t have much to post about, an employee spokesperson account can be an alternative.

Using your technology

Lesson 5:

Take time to research and listen

Many of you are looking to pick up the pace of interest in your organization online. You have the

accounts set up and you want to increase numbers and really use the tools in the best ways. So,

here are some pointers.

First, take the time to RESEARCH and LISTEN to the conversations out there. Read blogs,

explore what news people are talking about and note what other organizations like yours are

doing within their means. This will help you to figure out how best to use the tools.

For example, you can follow certain hashtags related to your cause and see what people are

sharing and talking about like under #hivcan, Canada’s HIV hashtag. And lurk or start sharing in

weekly Twitter chats like the non-profit #commschat which happens once a week at a specific

date and time.

Lesson 6:

Share, collaborate, converse - ENGAGE

Using your technology

• 80% of posts should be entertaining,

helpful, informative

• 20% of posts can be self-promotional

• Respond and say thank you!

Now, sharing your news and sharing others’ news can offer interesting content to your followers,

but in the long term you really need to focus on the key aim of social media: engagement.

Collaborating and conversing is how you help your supporters be ‘more awesome’, so remember

to respond to people, engage in debate and say thank you. So get out and ask for conversations -

this deepens your relationship with the people who like you. And you can easily get into

conversations with the more active users, other organizations, politicians, journalists and those

who in fundraising speak are your ‘key influencers’.

And make sure your content follows good social media guidelines: 80% of posts should be

entertaining, helpful or informative and 20% can be self-promotional.

International Planned Parenthood

Federation

The International Planned Parenthood Federation Twitter account is an excellent example of

good practices. First, they employ humour and they have a ‘personality’. Most importantly, they

offer support, retweet like-minded organizations and actually engage in conversations - in the

past even I’ve even had a couple of chats with them about news items they posted!

• Make sure you have metrics and

measure!

http://socialmediamarketinguniversity.com/google-analytics-news-metrics-blog/

You will need to create metrics that you will monitor and evaluate for whichever tools you use

and goals you have. Social media measurement is actually done very infrequently by many

NGOs, but you need to realize it can be very valuable for your strategizing and reporting.

Based on your objectives, what would success look like to you? Donations of money or

volunteer time; increased website hits, reach or awareness, improved relationships, engagement

with stakeholders, changes in behaviour of the target audience, etc. You can measure these things

with tools like Google Analytics. Then your reports and results can help you adapt your approach

in the long-run - it takes time to figure out what works best for you and for your audience, so

give it a few months.

• Have a wider communications strategy

• Write out your POST (People, Objectives,

Strategy, Technology)

• Pick your tools based on: your intended

audience(s); where the communities are; the

time and human resources you have; how

much time each tool needs to be used in the

way you want

• Create a culture of ownership

• Learn about how best to use your tools

(listening and engagement)

• Create and follow metrics based on objectives

• Keep trying!

Key takeaways

• Do only what’s possible to do well

within your means

• It’s okay NOT to do it all!

A few great non-profit resources:

Techsoup Canada http://www.techsoupcanada.ca/

NTEN http://www.nten.org/

Idealware http://www.idealware.org/

AIDS.gov http://aids.gov/using-new-media/

Beth Kanter http://www.bethkanter.org/

Health hashtags http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-

hashtags/

Non-profit hashtags

http://www.nten.org/blog/2011/11/08/30-super-

useful-nonprofit-hashtags-%E2%80%93-twitter-chats-

too

Twitter/Facebook Guides

http://mashable.com/guidebook/