07/22/11 Anybody want to talk about WHY your organization should be using social media?
07/22/11 Lets talk about HOW to use social media.
07/22/11 If you are just getting started, first step is to watch what is going on around you. On FB, “like” other nonprofits so you can see what they are doing, what shows up in your stream from them, what you think is a good idea and what you think is not a good idea. On Twitter, “follow” other nonprofits.
07/22/11 Whether you are new to social media or seasoned, read Beth Kanter’s blog. Definitely the best place to get social media nonprofit ideas.
07/22/11 If you dive in without a plan, you’ll likely feel stressed. You will feel like you are wasting your time, which may be true.
07/22/11 Don’t use social media just to use social media. Decide why you are using it. Define a purpose.
07/22/11 One of our goals at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference was to use Twitter and the hallway monitors to deal with concerns, fix problems (or find the right person to fix problems) and spread updates. Received multiple tweets like this at the end of the conference. Success!
07/22/11 Your social media activity should not be independent of all your other outreach and marketing plans. Integrate them.
07/22/11 In traditional nonprofit communications, we want to include an action request - donate, spread the message, use services, get involved, etc. Same with social media. Know what you want to accomplish. Families USA wants people to contact legislators regarding health care. They made it easy with a web application. Enter your zip code to find Twitter usernames of elected officials and easily send them a tweet from the app.
07/22/11 Lets create a list of goals. What do you want to accomplish that may have a social media component?
07/22/11 You’re interacting with people. Your organization will develop a personality. Learn what your audience is expecting and what interests them.
07/22/11 Chester Jourdan is the Executive Director of MORPC. Note how many friends he has on FB. Why is this helpful? People want to be his “friend”. He spreads the MORPC message exceedingly well. When he goes into a meeting, at least one person comments about being his FB friend or refers to one of his posts. When MORPC wants to increase their FB Page activity, they look to Chester. All he has to do is ask his “friends’.
07/22/11 There are a lot of options that you can use. How do you determine which one? Define your goal. Which tools helps you best? Define who your audience is. Which tool is your audience already using?
07/22/11 ColumbusZoo group in Flickr has 267 members. 4,111 photos. Nothing on their website regarding Flickr. Lost opportunity. Dublin Irish Festival group in Flickr has 67 members and 584 photos. And a link from the festival website. . Goal – promotion of the festival. Time investment by the festival? Minutes. All they did was include a link to the Flickr group. The members and Flickr do the rest of the work. Why does this work? Because the content at the festival is PERFECT for photographers
07/22/11 Use the tools yourself. You cannot understand how the tool works until YOU use it. Would you trust a vegetarian chicken farmer? As you are using the tools, think about relationship building. Think about who you are and what you are comfortable sharing. Thinking your org should use Flickr? Then use it personally.
07/22/11 In most cases, only interacting with members, the public, funders, etc on a social network is inadequate. Need a location with more information, with details on the action step.
07/22/11 Charity:water does a great job of telling a story and giving people an opportunity not only to give but to get others involved in the giving process. All the details are on their website. http://www.charitywater.org/
07/22/11 Don’t create a place for interaction and assume it will be used. Jump start the interaction. First rule of organizing – know who’s coming to the meeting. Getting people to interact with your org online IS community organizing. Remember, not all communities are geographical.
07/22/11 We created a wiki for a broadband adoption conference. To increase the chances it would be used, we asked conference speakers to edit the session descriptions, we gave all attendees access (rather than waiting for them to request access), we found volunteers to be “Wiki Masters” during the conference, meaning they took notes and kept the wiki organized.
07/22/11 Your organization’s social media presence is not just you. Be ok with others talking about your organization.
07/22/11 The Ohio Farm Bureau hired a social media director. They are everywhere. And they created a social media guide for their members. They are helping training people with how to use social media which means they KNOW people will be talking about them AND their issues on social media. http://ofbf.org/.
07/22/11 Geo-Location games like Foursquare, SCVNGR and Gowalla allow people to check in and share tips. With SCVNGR you can create treks for people to experience. With both Foursquare and SCVNGR you can share tips about locations and also offer discounts. Gowalla – Chicago Taco Trek - http://www.scvngr.com/treks/11045 Treks with SCVNGR allow you to add locations for people to check in to or you can set up different challenges as well. Android or iOS are required to play. Goal is clear – With Chicago Taco Trek, people are GOING to the taco locations and talking about them. Goal - Increased business and increased promotion of the areas.
07/22/11 You will need to review what you have done to assess if it has worked. What was your outcome?
07/22/11 You can gather a lot of data regarding your social media activities. Retweets, link stats, followers, likes, etc. What really matters? Outcomes. Impacts. Use the social media measurements only if they really tell you something about your goal.
07/22/11 We trained the volunteers to use Facebook to fundraise. How do we know it worked? Individual examples of volunteers who received more event involvement (thus more donations) via use of Facebook. How do we know the wiki at the broadband adoption conference was a success? Almost 200 users and content posted by great variety of users (not the same 3 people.)
07/22/11 Options for getting your business into social media. Create a complete strategy (with goals). Define a specific project (with goals). Maybe figure out the goals after you begin watching and listening. Do lots of reading – or hire someone to help.