Social Communications Starter Kit

Going Zero to Social in 90 Days…

Young Non Profit Professional Network DC // Social Media SummitAugust 6, 2010

Tammy Gordon - @floridagirlindcSenior Advisor to AARP Chief Communications Officertgordon@aarp.org

www.AARP.org www.facebook.com/AARP www.twitter.com/AARP www.youtube.com/AARP

Make A Road Map

30 Days• Establish guidelines• Identify & train allies, stakeholders• Set business priorities and secure branded

platforms• Set goals, strategies

60 Days• Define targets you want to engage• Start sharing, testing• Promote your wins

90 Days• Present your progress to leadership• Identify next steps re: budget, organization,

tracking• Integrate with other communications platforms:

print, web, speeches, events

Social Guidelines

• Be a Legal Whisperer

• Keep it simple

• Be inclusive. Include stakeholders (legal, HR, communications, brand) in review.

• Don’t feel like you have to start from scratch.

AARP’s Social Guidelines

1. Be Transparent: Always identify your account as AARP-affiliated or clearly identify your communications as coming from an AARP representative.

2. Be Responsible: Do nothing to damage AARP’s standing as a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization or otherwise jeopardize AARP’s reputation.

3. Be Non-Partisan: You may not advocate on behalf of a political candidate or political party on any AARP-affiliated accounts.

4. Be Trained: All AARP employees or consultants communicating on behalf of AARP must complete at least one training through AARP Communications College.

5. Be Responsive: Social media is a two-way communications platform. Ensure that you are engaged in a dialogue, not a monologue.

Identify & Train Allies, StakeholdersAllies

• Co-workers who use social personally

• Co-workers who are interested in learning more

• Game Changers: “Social Media Lunch Bunch”, Yammer Social Group

Stakeholders

• Business units that need to be learning social to reach your organization audience and eventually help achieve goals.

• Informal discussions, teaching

Stake Your Ground

Research

• Where is your audience?

• What do you want to do?

Secure Your Branded Locations

• Establish branded accounts. If you’re name is taken by an imposter, start the process to get it back.

• Where possible, get short usernames.

• Stay on brand, established protocols as much as possible… but not to the detriment of your social presence.

Set Goals, Strategies

Goal

• Your organization’s or team’s overarching goal.

Strategies

• Broadcast – Tell your story through words, photos & video

• Engage – Talk to your community

• Share – It’s not just about you or your organization

• Call to Action – Ask them to help on issues of urgency (Follow the 80-20 Rule)

ID Targets to Engage

Follow/Friend Your Audience. Share. Talk.

• Allies, Staff

• Thought Leaders – Academics, Electeds, Other Non Profit Professionals, Media

• Members & Future Members

Take the PlungeStart Posting

• Message of the Day

• News, Editorial, Web Articles, Research

Engage

• Always ask opinion, questions. Getting people to respond drives engagement metrics.

Share

• Share or RT your targets.

• Look for ways to elevate your issue, even if it’s a “competitor”.

Success Story: Haiti• AARP’s biggest online fundraising effort. Ever. Over

$1.255 million to help older victims of the earthquake in Haiti.

• Overnight with no marketing support, viral Facebook & Twitter from employees brought in $175,000. Reaching over 100,000 people per 50 tweets.

• To date, we have raised over $721,000 online compared to $34,000 from snail mail.

• Over 12,000 people have donated including more than 4,400 NEW donors.

• Coverage in New York Times, CNN, USA Today, Huffington Post and more.

Be Your Own Evangelist

Present Progress, Milestones to Leadership

AARP

AARP Social TODAY• Integrated Communications

• Manage AARP presence on social platforms: Facebook, Twitter and YouTube

• Integrating social across IC platforms: Media, TV, Radio, AARP.org. etc.

• State Ops• 94% of field offices have social platforms in place to deliver

localized content and calls to action

• Membership• Member communications assigned and providing service

• People Strategy: • IC & OLP delivering regular training staff and volunteers in

social best practices and strategy• Designated staff to recruiting strategy

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AARP

AARP Social TODAY• Advocacy

• Maintain AARP Advocates presence on Twitter, Facebook, including key leadership

• Brand• Integrated social guidelines into brand guidelines.• Develop suite of social backgrounds, avatars to unify AARP

presence• Exploring advertising, sponsorship potential• Exploring technology brand ambassador

• Foundation• Secured social media team, regularly engaging• Huge social win on Haiti

• ASI• Seeking to assign a staff lead• Engaging with providers, partners on social platforms

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AARP

AARP Social Tomorrow• We aren’t just broadcasting to our members, we’re

engaging them• Staff, volunteers, 3rd party advocates all act as

brand ambassadors, spokespersons• Delivering local, personalized content to members

mobile/laptop/iPad• We let our members know about the hot new

technology and why it matters to them AND make them aware of scams, privacy issues

• Members don’t seek deals & discounts, they are delivered to them directly

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AARP

Questions• Have I assigned a staff lead to explore social

applications and how they can help achieve my goals?

• How can we be engaging our communities in a dialogue?

• How can we be delivering our content, deals, calls to action to member/potential member so that it is sharable with their networks?

• How can I say that in 140 characters or less?• Are there technologies that would make this

easier?

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Next Steps

Metrics

• Free Resources: Facebook Analytics, TweetReach, etc.

• Paid Resources

Budget

• Development

• Branding

• Campaigns

Organization

• Adding social to job responsibilities, teams officially

Integrate Social Across Communications PlatformsWeb

• Links to social platforms from your org website

Print Materials, Media

• Link to branded org platforms from newsletters, magazines, press releases

Events, Speeches

• Spokesperson Twitter handles, hashtags at events

Q&A

Twitter.com/AARPFacebook.com/AARPYouTube.com/AARP