Learn how your nonprofit organization can use social media technologies (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Digg, Del.icio.us, and many others) to advance its mission and drive social change.

1. Using Social Media to
Drive Social Change
Rosita Cortez
Social Media 4 Nonprofits
www.rositacortez.com
@rositacortez

2. Contents
 The case for social media
» What is in it for nonprofits?
 Formulating a successful social media strategy
» People
» Objectives
» Strategy
» Technology
 Four steps to start leveraging social media
» Listen first
» Check your tech
» Find an internal evangelist
» Establish a baseline social media presence
 Closing thoughts

3. The case for social media
 Your supporters are already using social media. They are
making connections, sharing photos, telling stories, giving
online and watching videos
» 500+ million Facebook® users
» 100+ million Twitter ® users
» YouTube videos exceeds 2 billion views a day
» 15 billion photos on Facebook® & Flickr®
» 150 million blogs
» 270 million cell-phone users (USA) alone
» In 2008, online donations exceeded $15.42 Billions

4. What is in it for nonprofits?
 Connect with supporters & build relationships
» Cultivate donors
» Recruit volunteers
 Increase brand awareness
 Manage your organization’s reputation
 Build your mailing list
 Raise funds online
 Distribute information (manuals, reports, news) easily
 Ready access to friends-of-friends via social networks
 Increases traffic to your website and higher SEO ranking
 Inexpensive

5. Social media strategy
 Your nonprofit needs an online presence
» But don’t just jump on Facebook, Twitter or any social networking site
without having a strategy in place
 Groundswell four step approach for a successful strategy:
» P People
Assess your target audience’s social activity
» O Objectives
Decide what you want to accomplish
» S Strategy
Plan how relationships with supporters will change
» T Technology
Decide which social technologies to use

6. Strategy: people
 Identify your target
audience
» who are you trying to
reach and why
 Assess your target
audience’s social
activity
» Are they creators,
critics, collectors,
joiners, spectators or
inactive users?
Creators
Critics
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactives
Publish a blog
Publish own Web site
Upload videos, music they created
Write articles or stories and post them
Post ratings/reviews of products/services
Comment on someone else’s blog
Contribute to online forums
Contribute to/edit articles in a wiki
Use RSS feeds
Add “tags” to Web pages or photos
“Vote” for Web sites online
Maintain profile on a social networking site
Visit social networking sites
Read blogs
Watch video from other users
Listen to podcasts
Read online forums
Read customer ratings/reviews
None of the above
Base: US online adults
Source: Forrester Research 2009
Social Technographics Survey

7. Strategy: people
 Know the age range of your target audience to predict their
use of technology and to determine what technologies to
deploy
Percent of each generation in each Social Technographics category

8. Strategy: objectives
 Clear objectives are the key to a successful social media
strategy
 What you are trying to accomplish using social media?
» Increase cause/brand awareness?
» Connect with new supporters?
» Cultivate relationships?
» Conduct fundraising campaigns?
» Build volunteer capacity?
 Objectives fall into 4 categories: listening, talking, energizing
and engaging

9. Strategy: plan
 Decide what you are trying to accomplish (objectives), then
focus on a plan
» Line up executive backing
» Identify resources available (technology, time, staff)
» Identify lacking resources and training/research needed
» Be prepared to deal with change in organizational culture
» Put passionate people in charge
» Build a performance measurement system
» Protect employees and organization by co-creating policies and
guidelines

10. Strategy: technology
 Technology is the enabler
 Based on your audience, objectives and resources, what is the
best way to have the most valuable and meaningful
interaction with people?
» Blog
» Facebook
» Twitter
» Podcast
» Video blog
» Mobile apps
» Email marketing

11. Leveraging social media
1. Listen first
» Listen and learn from watching other orgs. like yours
» Share best practices among your social media team
» Identify expert users to follow
» Match your target audience to the demographics of your connections
» Identify gaps in your networks
» Identify what you need to do to differentiate your organization

12. Leveraging social media
2. Check your tech
» Can your organization’s technology capabilities support the social
media strategy?
» Who will have access to the sites?
» Are there any firewalls that would prevent access?
» What are the policies about time spent and content posted on the
sites?

13. Leveraging social media
3. Find an internal evangelist
» Evangelists (influencers) are people who can see the possibilities of
integrating social media, but are not blinded by their enthusiasm
• Advocate
• Educator
• Face of the organization
• Marketer
» Someone that can help put into perspective fears & questions
• Loss of control over your organization's branding and marketing
messages
• Dealing with negative comments
• Addressing personality versus organizational voice
• Fear of failure
• Perception of wasting time and resources

14. Leveraging social media
4. Establish a baseline social media presence
» Create an organization Facebook® page
• Explore its features: targeted updates, custom applications and usage
metrics
• Send out an e-newsletter inviting all your subscribers to join on as early
fans (when they do, it will show up in their news feeds and help fuel
worth of mouth)
• Claim your “vanity URL.” Choose the name of your organization
• Post videos and pictures from events on the page and tag people in
them
• Be yourself and use your voice. Authenticity is essential to genuinely
engage with your community

15. Closing thoughts
 Social media technologies have revolutionized the way we
communicate and collaborate online
 Nonprofits, like any successful business, need to engage their
stakeholders in a medium they use
 Start by developing a strategy with your supporters’ needs in
mind
 Start small, think big. Small actions can create big change!

16. Social Media 4 Nonprofits
www.rositacortez.com
@rositacortez