On March 11, Susie Bowie presented a 75 minute session on the elements of good social media planning for nonprofits at the Nonprofits First Conference in West Palm Beach, FL.
2. “ I hear YouTube, Twitter and Facebook are merging to form a super-social media site: YouTwitFace.” − Conan O'Brien, The Tonight Show www.CFSarasota.org
3. Question: What’s the common denominator in steady media coverage, committed donors , loyal volunteers , good board relations and engagement with community partners? www.CFSarasota.org
5. Is social media the right communications tool for every relationship? For every audience? For every need? Is it another tool? No. No. No. Yes, and it’s an important one. www.CFSarasota.org
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7. What is social media? 4 core principles. www.CFSarasota.org
10. Social media is not a billboard for your nonprofit’s announcements. We’re officially begging you to donate & come to our events we invite you to on Facebook. Now be quiet.
11. 2. Social media—like other forms of communication—insists that you ask: “ Where does my audience live & what do they like?” www.CFSarasota.org
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13. 3. Like dating, social media involves TIME and TRUST. www.CFSarasota.org
14. If you’re using social media, you have to water it or it will die. Value = Water www.CFSarasota.org
15. 4. It’s not if you’re going to play but when you’re going to play. www.CFSarasota.org
22. Dirt Travels Fast. And the delete key doesn’t work once it’s out there. “ Viral. It’s so…viral.” www.CFSarasota.org
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25. At this difficult time, @ Shamu will not be active. For Twitter updates follow @ SeaWorld_Parks . http://bit.ly/b0oU3l SeaWorld: What Happened www.CFSarasota.org Source: Orlando Sentinel
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29. Straight from the horse’s mouth. “ I want something that touches me in some way. …Then, after I click - don't inundate me with crap.” www.CFSarasota.org
30. Straight from the horse’s mouth. “ Some organizations are SO serious all the time Facebook is a de-stressor, social activity.” www.CFSarasota.org
32. Straight from the horse’s mouth. “ It bothers me when an excellent nonprofit asks for feedback and does not respond. Makes me nuts, and it tells me that at the end of the day they are really just trying to fill the page." www.CFSarasota.org
56. Is it actually interesting to people outside of your organization? Interview with your CEO? Or interview with a client who has been helped by your agency? Clip of a speech given at a special event? Or several donors saying why they care? www.CFSarasota.org
62. Cause Announcement from ASPCA - the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals “ Hooray! Thanks to everyone who recruited and to all those who donated! Every $ and bit of awareness helps!!! We finally broke our $3,000 donations goal! Let's see how long it takes us to reach $4,000!” Over 35,000 members in this cause. www.CFSarasota.org
68. “ Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” − Seth Godin www.CFSarasota.org
69. We connect people who care with causes that matter.
70. Let’s Connect Susie Bowie, Communications Manager [email_address] 941.556.7104 On Twitter: @NonprofitSRQ On Facebook: Community Foundation of Sarasota County www.CFSarasota.org
Notes de l'éditeur
Social media can be a bit overwhelming, and though it’s something I’ve grown to really enjoy, it’s hard to constantly keep up with the new craze. I’ll admit that I didn’t really want to take the plunge until I got a friend request from Judi on Facebook just before she started working at the Foundation. Since she would be my new boss, I figured I better do it.
But as time moved on, I rapidly saw social media as an opportunity, and if there’s one thing I want to leave with you today, it’s this: Social media offers an opportunity for nonprofits, an opportunity to connect. So let’s talk about this question, which seems to summarize most of what’s important to us as nonprofits-even small businesses and sometimes government.
Now, I want to be perfectly clear about social media. Some folks turn their back to all of the social media buzz because the know that the good ole tried and true methods of relationship building and of marketing still retain their validity today. I do not argue with that. Am I saying that…? No. But what I am saying is that this is another tool for connecting, and it’s growing in importance. So whether you’re talking about Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or whatever the next new thing is, what’s changing is the expectation of how we process information.
I think we can boil down social media into four main principles.
I think we can boil down social media into four main principles.
It sounds silly, but social media is called social media for a reason—it’s social. In thinking about this, I want you to consider the elements of a conversation that you might have in person with someone. What are these elements? What happens in a bad conversation? And so these are precisely the things you want to avoid in the social media world.
It isn’t just courtesy, but it’s a HUGE opportunity. The potential for researching your fans—what they like, what motivates them to leave a comment, how they answer the questions you might pose to them on Facebook—they all provide excellent insight into how you can really reach them in regard to your mission. What are their hot buttons? Don’t miss out on that opportunity.
In this respect, it’s not that different from what you might do with a prospective donor on a first luncheon. You don’t sit right down and ask them for money. You get to know them, you ask them a few questions, find out what interests them, maybe invite them to get further involved, learn more about them, etc. Many nonprofits make the mistake of slapping up event announcements on their Facebook page or on Twitter and then don’t know why they aren’t receiving a response.
This is true with every aspect of marketing/ communications. And one of the most common things we hear when we ask who you needs to hear your message. The response is “everyone.” Your audience is never everyone. And using social media, your audience certainly isn’t everyone, it’s a subset of the larger audience you market your programs to. For example, many of the Community Foundation’s donors have either passed away or are in their mid-80’s. Now I don’t want to generalize about age groups, because social media is anything but a teenager’s place. But we aren’t focusing on this group using social media because there just aren’t enough of them using tools like Facebook and Twitter to justify it. Our audience is largely younger generation prospective donors; staff/ board members of nonprofits; and scholarship students.
Another way to segment your audience-- are you talking to clients? To donors? To would-be members? To volunteers? In some cases these groups are certainly in need of the same message. But think about this. These will all provide valuable insights about how to connect with people to benefit your organization. Modern family- Peerenting, act like a parent, talk like a peer
Yes, there is time involved in social media and we’ll talk about that in a minute. The trust factor is big. A lot of the greatness in social media is the 3 rd party credibility factor—when things go viral and when others say good things about you instead of you saying good things about you. Ask yourself how you can gently encourage your fans and followers to talk about your programs, events and services on their own Social Media pages/ profiles
So how to you establish trust? By offering value. You must offer some value other than “come visit our site,” “please donate,” “come volunteer,” if you want people to join you on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Think of it as water.
You may be at the point now that you just want to learn more about how social media works, but eventually, it’s going to be every bit as imperative as having a website. Speaking of websites, it’s not an absolute, but in general, it’s very smart to have a well functioning and frequently updated website and a regular e-mail campaign in place before concentrating on social media presence. When people Google an organization, many times, their Facebook page will come up first. And that may be because it’s more frequently updated (hopefully) and content that’s more frequently updated generates better search engine rankings. What does that tell you?
Sometimes we can learn a lot by tell a lot about the future of things in our nonprofit world by looking at the big boys—the big corporate brands. Did you all hear that Pepsi cancelled its advertising for the SuperBowl and announced a multi-million dollar social media initiative called Pepsi Refresh? The company is giving away $1.3 million each month to ideas that can change the world for the better. Users vote on the best ideas.
The top 2 anxieties we hear about social media are 1. we don’t have the time…this takes a lot of time, and 2. people can say bad stuff about you. I can’t tell you these aren’t true. You can spend lots of time on social media, but with a good plan you can minimize distraction and you can also use the time you do spend on it well. Regarding people saying things about you—we’re going to talk about this to try and calm your fears about it. But one thing to consider is this: whether or not your nonprofit is actively using social media, people can and will still say bad things about you. It’s actually completely independent of whether you’re participating. The third “evil side,” which is true of anything, if you don’t plan your social media campaign, it probably won’t serve you well.
I ‘m just going to be honest about this. The time management gripes about social media drive me nuts. In the end, you’ll just have to decide if social media is worth some of your time or not. And if it is, there are a few things you can be mindful of that will really help…
Think about how you can be pro-active in managing reputation.
These are your “ground rules.” Written social media guidelines that are incorporated into your nonprofit’s employee handbook will help protect you, give your staff and volunteers an idea of what’s okay to mention in this sort of forum. If you did get an inappropriate post, they’ll also provide a framework for reporting that person so they aren’t able to post or comment any longer.
We all know this to be true.
can be a great way to correct problems or perceptions of problems Be responsive, But sometimes the best strategy is not to engage
Mention SeaWorld. Shut down comments on Facebook page after the incident last week with Tilly the Whale. Now they are allowing comments—many very bad, many very good. It’s sort of self-policing because fans of Seaworld are doing the talking and protecting of the brand. They’ve said that they are only sensoring comments that include profanity or that are insensitive to the trainer’s family. They did however make the decision to shut their entire Twitter following of 10,000 down. They set up their account as if Shamu was speaking. A cute idea at the time, but obviously difficult to carry out now.
Very cool new features: safety mode, Youtube will ad captions to your videos (auto-captioning tool) to provide a text-based approach for increased accessibility, Annotations let you add on-screen text to your YouTube videos – like live links to your blog, donations page, membership pages, etc.
Examples of content and how it supports your goals… you want to plan specific campaigns very well, but do not “plan” specific content “6 months out. You want to be responsive, not stale. Authentic, not planned. Again, do you plan your conversations 6 months out?
Again, show that you’re interested by asking questions. Change FB needs to make…you can’t currently comment on another fan page or a personal profile as your fan page.
Who is the audience here? Mothers with kids? What’s the extra value they’re providing?
Deborah Millman at local Humane Society of Sarasota County has been able to adopt animals from posts on Facebook. But they’re always lighthearted. When things are getting too serious, I’ve seen her post a YouTube video of an animal. Gets people commenting and engaged again.
Again, consider your tone. Have you talked to someone in a social situation who speaks like a college professor. Might not be too engaging, or even perceived as arrogant. The fine balance between overkill and disappearing is one you’ll have to experiment with. It depends on what you’re posting and on your fans/followers. You can see if you’re losing followers or fans. Monitor this.
We have 660 fans on Facebook and almost 2,000 followers on Twitter.
That’s a lot of competition
Fastest growing social media channel among Fortune 500 companies
Discuss different parts of the page
Very cool new features: safety mode, Youtube will ad captions to your videos (auto-captioning tool) to provide a text-based approach for increased accessibility, Annotations let you add on-screen text to your YouTube videos – like live links to your blog, donations page, membership pages, etc.
Very cool new features: safety mode, Youtube will ad captions to your videos (auto-captioning tool) to provide a text-based approach for increased accessibility, Annotations let you add on-screen text to your YouTube videos – like live links to your blog, donations page, membership pages, etc.
Very cool new features: safety mode, Youtube will ad captions to your videos (auto-captioning tool) to provide a text-based approach for increased accessibility, Annotations let you add on-screen text to your YouTube videos – like live links to your blog, donations page, membership pages, etc.