SOCIAL M

EDIA: T

IPS A

ND

TRIC

KS

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

social media is online media – text, photos, videos, et cetera – that is ‘social’ i.e. it encourages conversation, connects people, travels on its own.

it turns communication into interactive dialogue.

popular social media sites include facebook, twitter, youtube, flickr, and others.

WHAT CAN IT BE USED FOR?

• engaging current supporters (partners, funders, sponsors, volunteers)

• finding, connecting with new supporters

WHAT CAN IT BE USED FOR?

• keeping in touch with graduates and students

WHAT CAN IT BE USED FOR?

• staying on top of opportunities, resources, news

WHAT CAN IT BE USED FOR?

• promoting program

TWITTER

• best for making connections with other organizations, staying on top of what is happening right now

• other uses: connecting with media; asking questions; coordinating in real time

• other non-profits reported:

• RT = ‘retweet’• RT someone else’s tweet verbatim

• RT someone else’s tweet and add comment

• RT someone else’s tweet at someone else

• lists• sort your followers into ‘lists’ so you can stay on top of what you need to

more efficiently• i.e. ‘YouthBuild programs’; ‘corporate partners’; ‘environmental

organizations’time

• can use programs like tweetdeck or hootsuite to make use more efficient, organized• advantages: scheduling; statistics; streams

• twitter should be updated most frequently out of all social media platforms, and will be most useful if it is used almost daily

• best for keeping in touch with people – students, graduates, staff• program staff have reported that it is easier to stay in touch with

graduates through facebook than through email

• other uses: driving traffic to your website; attracting event attendees; getting people to take (online) action (for instance, signing petitions, voting in contests)

• can post longer updates, photo albums, videos

• there are facebook people and pages. organizations, in theory, should be pages – but this limits the activity you can do. the green initiative uses facebook as a person, so i can friend other people and write on walls.

• how to use facebook effectively? (increasing traffic and “likes” and friends)• reach out to current supporters, staff members, and their friends• post relevant and interesting updates• ask questions; answer questions• mention your facebook page in other communications (email,

newsletter, etc) and, when relevant, across other social media sites• “like” other organizations and friend other people• reach out to other people as “plants” to generate discussion and

activity

remember – a successful strategy doesn’t happen overnight; it may take months to build

BLOG

• a blog is like an online journal where you can post long updates with photos, videos, and text

• there are several easy and free blogging websites available – for example: wordpress, typepad, blogger, blogspot

• blogs are good for: telling stories about your day-to-day work; advocating for your cause; engaging audiences; generating your own content to promote instead of relying on other sources

WHAT SHOULD YOU USE?

• decide what you want to accomplish: • recruiting volunteers?• meeting visibility needs for grant? (i.e. posting pictures with

funder’s logo)

• who is your audience?

WHAT SHOULD YOU USE?

• how much time/capacity do you have available? 2-5 hours a week can suffice for a strategy, depending on how effectively you use them

  Twitter Facebook Blog Flickr YouTube

Update/monitor frequency

1-3x daily 1x daily 1x weekly 1x bi-weekly/monthly

1x monthly

Time 30min-1 hour 10-30 min 10min-1 hour 30min-1 hour Varies

Comments Twitter should be updated most often and used to post anything YB + green. It is also often useful to monitor the Twitter feed for relevant updates (this can be split among team members).

Facebook should be monitored, but not as frequently as Twitter. Noteworthy items should be posted 2-3x weekly. Also use FB to keep in touch with program and graduates, comment on other’s posts.

The blog should updated approximately 1x a week. If re-posting something that has already been written, could take as little as 10 minutes. If writing an original post, could take 1 hour.

Flickr does not need to be frequently monitored or updated. But 1-2x a month, pictures that have been collected should be added and sorted. Depending on the amount of pictures, this could take 30min-1 hour.

YouTube does not really need to be monitored. Whenever a relevant video is found, it should be added to the GI YouTube channel. These should periodically be sorted.

OTHER TIPS AND TRICKS

• google alerts and social mention can be used to stay on top of relevant news• when a news item is found, it can be posted across platforms – i.e.

on twitter, facebook, and compiled into a monthly newsletter

what have you found useful in your strategy?