1. SPECIAL OLYMPICS Project UNIFY®
Social Media Training
October 19 &20, 2011

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TODAY’S CATEGORIES
• General Social Media Overview
• Developing a Social Media Plan
• Measuring Success
• Activation in Action
• Tips for Developing Content
• Q&A

3. 3|
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?
• SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT… • SOCIAL MEDIA IS …
• Free • Pretty low cost
• A silver bullet for fundraising • Growing by leaps and bounds
• An opportunity to control • An opportunity for
your message conversation
• An opportunity to tell • A great way to reach certain
everyone what you think audiences
• Inherently appealing and cool • A complement to the
to millenials messages you’re sharing
• An alternative to clear through other channels
messaging/mission

4. 4|
THE SOCIAL MEDIA REVOLUTION
The biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution
Based on Digital Buzz Data from 2010

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WHAT ARE PEOPLE DOING ONLINE?

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WHY DOES IT MATTER?

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WHERE DO WE START?

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LET’S START WITH A PLAN
Developing a Social Media Marketing Plan
• Listen to yourself
• Listen to others
• Determine target audience
• Define your assets
• Set goals
• Select your channels
• Implement, listen & re-invent
Adapted from Developing a Social Media Plan from ifPEOPLE

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LISTEN: TO YOURSELF AND TO OTHERS
• What channels do you currently use?
• Who is your target audience?
• What’s missing?
• What are people saying about you?
• Who are the people that are talking about you?
• Are there negative comments or
misconceptions?
Listening tools:

10. 10 |
AUDIENCE AND ASSETS
• Define the audience you hope to reach with
your social media efforts and create a profile
for this group
• What are their offline/online habits?
• General likes/dislikes
• Personality traits and attitudes
• Etc.
• Determine the assets that will affect your
social media plan:
• How much time can you dedicate?
• Staff members?
• Technical expertise of staff?
Social media tools aren’t really free. They cost time.

11. 11 |
SET GOALS AND SELECT CHANNELS
• What do you hope to achieve with your Project UNIFY social media efforts?
Align your social media goals with the overall communications and
marketing objects for your state and PU program.
• Youth recruitment?
• Better awareness?
• Increased website traffic?
• Inspire people to action?
• Increased donations?
• Keep track of goals and set benchmarks to track progress
• Which tool best suits my audience? My goals? My message?
Words to live by: Plan for the marriage, not the wedding

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IMPLEMENT YOUR PLAN
…but don’t forget to constantly re-evaluate!

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SOCIAL MEDIA ROI
Measuring Success
“If you come to me with a request for budget
and resources for social media, to make it a
priority for our business, you will lose every
time…If you tie social media to our business
priorities and objectives and demonstrate
how engagement will enable progress, you
will win every time. Social media must be an
enabler to our business, just show me how.”
- CEO

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SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS
Facebook Engagement Twitter Engagement
New page likes New followers
Posted link clicks Posted link clicks
Site Visits Site visits
Comments Mentions
Content likes Retweets
Photo/video views Direct messages
Track metrics/benchmarks that determine if you’re reaching your goals

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SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYTICS
The Tools
… and thousands more free and fee services.

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WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?

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ACTIVATION IN ACTION
Lessons from The Humane Society

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ACTIVATION IN ACTION
Lessons from The Humane Society

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ACTIVATION IN ACTION
Lessons from the United Nations World Food Programme
• ORGANIZATION: United Nations World Food Programme
• OBJECTIVES: Increase donations
• STRATEGY: Provide ways which social media users can use games and
social networking to provide more meals for hungry people around the
world
• TOOLS: Social gaming
• RESULT: Since 2007, the Free Rice World Game has fed 4.2M+ for a day in
countries like Bangladesh, Uganda and Cambodia

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ACTIVATION IN ACTION
Lessons from the United Nations World Food Programme
Social activation and integration at all levels. Players can:
• Log in via Facebook connect or Twitter Profile
• Easily share actions with networks on Facebook and Twitter
• Create groups and compete with friends in an online community-type
atmosphere

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BACK TO WHAT’S REALLY IMPORTANT
Create good content and people will care!

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TIPS FOR FACEBOOK
Pictures Rule!
WHY?
22% more engagement
than video posts
54% more engagement
than text posts
(BizReport)
***Statistics are helpful, but don’t forget the audience you’re targeting!

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TIPS FOR TWITTER
Longer tweets produce more clicks, but don’t surpass
130 characters. The reason: people only click on what
they feel is valuable. You need to give them enough
information so they know the click is worthwhile, but if
you go over 130 characters, you make it harder for your
followers to retweet your message. (HubSpot Blog)

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SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PROJECT UNIFY
Creating new vs. using existing social media profile accounts

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TIMELINES AND EXPECTATIONS
The greatest misperception among most organizations is that engaging in
social media is free. This couldn’t be more WRONG! An organization that
works with under this assumption WILL NOT succeed in the social media
space and will probably damage their own brand and lose supporters by
having a misguided approach.
So what is free? Tools. Facebook, You Tube, Twitter, etc.
What is not free? The time for staff to implement the strategy.
A generic starting timeline may resemble something like this:
•5 hours/week to start listening
• 10 hours/week to participate
• 10-15 hours/week to generate buzz
• 20+ hours/week to build community
• (At least) 3-6 months until you see results

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FINAL WORDS OF ADVICE
• Think about what you can offer • Always be listening.
supporters, and how you can • The more responsive you can
facilitate, not how you can “push be, the better.
out messages”. • Building relationships is a long-
• Speak as humans, not as a term commitment, not just a
company. “campaign.”
• There are natural storytellers. • Learn by doing. It’s really the only
Find them, and the best stories way.
your program can tell. • Experiment and don’t be afraid of
• Find someone really passionate “failure”. If something doesn’t
about talking with supporters. work, adjust and keep trying or try
• Create ways for your supporters to something else.
actively participate in content
creation.

27. QUESTIONS OR
COMMENTS?
REBECCA RALSTON
Web Communications Specialist
Project UNIFY
(202) 824-0212
rralston@specialolympics.org