There are many applications of social media outreach, and this session will look at its application to non-profit objectives such as public relations, constituency building, citizen engagement, health behavioral change campaign, or fundraising. The workshop will comprise presentations with case studies, one paper-based exercise, and open question time. We wish to run a needs assessment before the workshop to ensure the workshop meets participants' expectations. The workshop will provide participants with a brief overview of communication models, social media trends, and a bigger picture view on how social media has changed the rules of online engagement. It will help participants better appreciate social media, assess its pros and cons, and evaluate if their organization should use or expand the scope of their social media activities. Topics will include background information on social media; how traditional (one-way) communication paradigms no longer work in interactive media; and how two-way communication models operate online. A key focus will be to help organization evaluate the pros and cons of social media, and then assess if social media offers any benefits to their organization. Participants will be asked to assess how social media can advance their organization's mandate, whether it is a viable channel for their constituents, its pros and cons for their situation, and then to review other relevant assessment criteria. Midway through the workshop, participants will be invited to complete a paper-based form to help them assess if social media offers enough benefits for their organization to adopt or expand the scope of their social media outreach. The remainder of the presentation will focus on practical guidance for organizations that wish to implement or expand the scope of their social media outreach. Topics covered will include reassessing organizational goals; researching constituents; starting an incremental approach to social media outreach; defining the scope of your social media activities; mainstreaming into institutions; daily operations; responding protocols; institutional policies; tools of the trade; and methods for prioritizing resource allocations.

1. Social Media for Public Relations and Citizen Engagement Brian Cugelman, PhD Consultant with AlterSpark Social Media Training Workshop at the Global Citizens Forum Ontario Council for International Cooperation Toronto, Canada 15 October 2010

2. 1. Workshop Overview 2

3. Workshop Objectives The workshop seek to help participants better appreciate social media, assess its pros and cons, and evaluate if their organization should use or expand the scope of their social media activities. 3

4. Agenda Workshop Overview Media Trends About Social Media Communication Theory: 1-way to 2-way Communications Communication Theory: Source Credibility Communication Theory: Influence Assessing the Value of Social Media Adopting Social Media in Your Organization 4

5. Tailoring the Agenda: Who I Am and Why I’m Here Introduces yourself Your background/organization Your experience with social media What you wish to learn and why Tailoring the Agenda Which parts seem more/less important? Is anything missing? 5

8. 2. Media Trends 7

12. Global ICT developments (1998-2009)

13. 3. About Social Media 12

14. Social Media Definition (Wikipedia, 2010) Social media are media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses web-based technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogues. 13

15. Examples 14

17. 5 Social mediaBased on Alexa ranking retrieved 12 Oct 2010

18. Social Media Trends: The Rise of Social Media 16 GoogleFacebookYouTube

19. Social Media Trends: The Rise and Fall of Social Media 17 MySpace FacebookYouTube

20. Social Media Demographics: Gender 18

21. Social Media Demographics: Age 19

22. Social Media Demographics: Education 20

23. Social Media Demographics: Income 21

24. 4. Communication Theory:1-way to 2-way Communications 22

25. One-Way: one-to-one, one-to-many CUGELMAN, B., THELWALL, M., & DAWES, P. (2009) Communication-based influence components model. Paper presented at the Persuasive 2009, Claremont.

26. Two-Way: one-with-one CUGELMAN, B., THELWALL, M., & DAWES, P. (2009) Communication-based influence components model. Paper presented at the Persuasive 2009, Claremont.

27. Mass/Interpersonal Divide CUGELMAN, B., THELWALL, M., & DAWES, P. (2009) Communication-based influence components model. Paper presented at the Persuasive 2009, Claremont.

28. Mass-Interpersonal Communication CUGELMAN, B., THELWALL, M., & DAWES, P. (2009) Communication-based influence components model. Paper presented at the Persuasive 2009, Claremont.

29. 5. Communication Theory: Source Credibility 27

30. Source Factors CUGELMAN, B., THELWALL, M., & DAWES, P. (2009) Communication-based influence components model. Paper presented at the Persuasive 2009, Claremont.

31. 6. Communication Theory: Influence 29

32. One-Way Communication 1 2 3 Media Channel 4 5

33. Two-Step Communication Flow 1 2 3 Media Channel 4 5 Opinion Leader Kats and Lazerfeld (1955)

34. Multi-Step Communication Flow 1 2 3 Media Channel 4 5 Opinion Leader

35. Going Viral

36. Diffusion of Innovations: Spreading Ideas Opinion Leaders ROGERS, E. (2003) Diffusion of innovations. (5 ed.). New York: Free Press.

37. 1

38. 2

39. 3

40. 4

41. 5

42. 6

43. 7

44. 8

45. 9

46. 10

48. Build relationships and potentially deepen trust with constituents

49. Possibility of "going viral" and achieving massive reach

50. Deeper insight into your constituents

51. Constant feedback to help improve your organization, its products and services

52. Can recruit social media savvy staff across an organization

53. Detect potentially harmful discussions, and rapidly respond45

55. Can place high demands on talented staff

56. Unless you have viral success, you may reach limits quickly

57. SROI/ROI may be difficult to measure, requiring faith in long-term returns

58. Issues to address: security, ethics, disclosure, data retention, workflows

59. Can be straining on organizations with strict communication hierarchies

60. May require social media policy to aid transition to new communication practices46

61. 7. Assessing the Value of Social Media 47

62. What’s The Value of Social Media? Despite the hype, it is difficult to answer this question: “How does social media engagement compare with other communication approaches?” The answer will depend on your objectives, audience, work, capacity, & evaluation criteria. 48

63. Handout: Assessing the use of social media in your organization 49

64. Assessing the use of social media in your organization Organizational objectives Communication goals Audiences and stakeholders Content and messaging Overall communication strategy and practice Selecting social media Institutional readiness Social media policy Human capacity Considering external help Implementation considerations Monitoring, evaluation, and learning 50

65. Assessing the use of social media in your organization Assess the contribution to your organization's mandate or goals Assess the pros and cons Assess the costs and benefits Final decision 51

66. 8. Adopting Social Media in Your Organization 52

67. Organizational & Communication Objectives Any investment should help achieve your organization’s mandate or goals? Does social media do this better than other means? 53

68. Audiences and Stakeholders Run a user survey or focus group Ethnographic methods (go out and look) Identify social media website where your constituents spend time Assess the key social media for your audience 54

69. Defining the Scope of Your Social Media Activities Prioritize and assess Audiences Potential social media websites Staff expertise and availability What you know (monitoring and evaluation) Upcoming opportunities to start or expand Tools and processes What’s realistic now 55

70. defining the Scope of Your Social Media Activities 56

71. A Incremental Approach to Social Media 57

72. Social media policy: Benefits Reduces risks and ambiguity through clear definitions and procedures Creates a safe space for staff to conduct social media outreach Helps decentralize communications, and harness capacity across an institution Contrast personal and professional uses 58

74. Accessibility

75. Ethics

76. Legal issues

77. Data management

78. Security

79. Politics

80. Responding to criticisms

81. Personal/private uses59

82. 5. Monitor Progress 1. Goals and Keywords 2. Listen 3. Analyse 4. Engage Daily Operations

83. Daily Operations:Flowchart 61

84. Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning 62

86. You’ll have to patch together different services

88. May want to assess commercial tools after becoming comfortable with free tools63

91. Technorati: http://technorati.com

92. Social mention: http://www.socialmention.com

94. Tweet Deck: http://www.tweetdeck.com64

95. Venturing Out Start small, and expand incrementally Learn to listen, assess the 3Ps, and engage The rules are still being invented, so experiment and learn from your successes and failures You can’t improve if you can’t measure 65

96. Thank You Brian Cugelman, PhD Consultant with AlterSpark Looking for consultants? AlterSpark is a consulting collective. We help organizations design online campaigns and strategies, use social media, implement web projects, and measure their impact. If you wish to discuss how AlterSpark can help you, get in touch. www.AlterSpark.com brian@alterspark.com +1 (416) 921-2055 Toronto, Canada @AlterSpark alterspark alterspark alterspark 66