Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence Conference 5.2010 Social Media Trainingin
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Social Networking: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits Jennifer Leigh Nonprofit Communications Director and Consultant Providence, RI [email protected]401-595-9885
Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence Conference 5.2010 Social Media Trainingin
The Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence’s Fifth Annual Conference "The New Nonprofit Sector: Redefined, Retooled, and Resilient" featured the breakout session "Social Networking: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits" presented by Jennifer Leigh. Thanks to all who participated and made this a fun, interactive exploration of social media in the nonprofit world.
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Social Networking: A How-To Guide for Nonprofits Jennifer Leigh
Nonprofit Communications Director and Consultant Providence, RI
[email_address] 401-595-9885
Overview of this session
What is Social Networking and why is it important? (or...I
barely have time to do what Im already doing and you want me to do
more?)
The tools in the toolbox (what they look like, how to use them,
and who is using them well)
Thumbs up for Facebook
To tweet or not to tweet?
The million other sites to pay attention to
Being strategic with your social networking
How to make it work in your organization
What is Social Networking?
A web...all interconnected
Like-minded people sharing ideas and interests
Online community building
People yapping about their lives
Why is Social Networking a big deal?
Change in the media landscape
nearly 300 newspapers folded in 2009
eight magazines with a circulation of one million or more
ceased publication
hundreds of editorial positions were eliminated in print
media
10,000 jobs lost in radio
more than 100 TV stations affected by Chapter 11 filings of
parent companies
Lots and lots and lots of users
so many stats and reports that show that there are a heck of a
lot of people and organizations using social networking
Why is Social Networking a big deal?
Isnt it just a bunch of kids that use it?
NO !!! Heres who is online that you could/should reach:
Colleagues
Members
Constituents
Policy-makers
Media
Donors
Board members
etc. etc. etc.
Why people love social networking
Fosters individualism
Increases connections
Enhances community
Rejects commercialism
Offers multi-media platforms
How does it help my organization?
FREE!
create real connections with real people
greater and more frequent engagement
new avenue to raise awareness, advocacy and funds
convenient
popular
quick to set up
two-way communication
another tool for your communications toolbox
So many sites...
The major sites
Facebook: Friend builder
Twitter: Broadcast & Community Builder
YouTube: Broadcast content to the world
Flickr: Photographs to inspire
LinkedIn: Professional connections
MySpace: Talk to teens and musicians
Blogs: Your own online newspaper
Social Bookmarking: Sharing information
SOURCE: NTEN conference: Social Media Basics for
Nonfprofits
Facebook: What it is
Site that lets people share updates photos, videos, articles,
links and more with Friends who they have to approve to be in their
network
Business and organizations can create Fan Pages which other
Facebook users can like
By numbers alone, the most popular social networking site
today, with more than 400 million registered users
If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest behind
China, US and India
Facebook: Why people love it
ME ME ME! Great way to promote yourself and your
organization
Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED NEWSFEED FACEBOOK ADS FRIEND
SUGGESTIONS: YOUR DASHBOARD SEARCH BAR: EDIT PROFILE VIEW PROFILE,
ACCOUNT SETTINGS REQUESTS: EVENTS CHAT CHAT FRIEND REQUESTS,
MESSAGES, NOTIFICATIONS NEWSFEED VIEWS STATUS UPDATE
Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED YOUR DASHBOARD
Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED REQUESTS: sent from
friends
Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED FACEBOOK ADS FRIEND
SUGGESTIONS: generated by Facebook EVENTS CHAT
Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED NEWSFEED Shows your friends
photos, who they are friends with, interactions between your
friends, and who like and comments on their status updates NEWSFEED
VIEWS STATUS UPDATE
Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED NEWSFEED NEWSFEED VIEWS
STATUS UPDATE NEWSFEED Also shows posts from the organizations you
like as well as re-posts from friends.
Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE STATUS UPDATE NEWSFEED YOUR ORGS
PHOTO EDIT YOUR PAGE PEOPLE THAT LIKE YOUR ORG INSIGHTS INTO HOW
YOUR PAGE IS DOING TABS
Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE YOUR ORGS PROFILE PICTURE EDIT
YOUR PAGE SUGGEST TO FRIENDS
Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE PEOPLE THAT LIKE YOUR ORG
INSIGHTS INTO HOW YOUR PAGE IS DOING
Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE: The Wall
Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE
Facebook: Creating your page
Facebook: Creating your page
Must have your own individual page, first
Go onto another orgs page, click on Create a page for my
business
You are now the administrator, and can set other facebook users
as administrators, as well
Upload a picture that will appear as your Profile Picture
Edit all information (best to get approval on this, first)
Begin posting! (you must go onto your profiles page to have the
status update appear from your organization)
Easiest way to get to your profile page: go to the search
button on the top of your Newsfeed page, type in your orgs
name
Facebook: The LINGO
News Feed: your homepage that shows your posts and your friends
posts
Status Update: What you and your friends have to say
Like: a quick way to appreciate a friends post; puts a thumbs
up on their post
Comment : a response to a post that goes directly beneath the
post in the newsfeed and profile page
Facebook: The LINGO
Friend Requests: someone that asks to be your friend and
therefore have access to your wall posts, photos, etc. (can control
what they see via privacy settings)
Profile: a persons personal page that shows all of that persons
posts, friends posts to them, their photos, etc.
Wall: the section on your profile page that show your posts and
the posts from your friends
Facebook: Recent Changes
Fan to Like
No longer are a Fan of a page...you Like it (though you still
get the same updates and interaction as you would as a Fan)
To improve your experience and promote consistency across the
site, we've changed the language for Pages from "Fan" to "Like." We
believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way
to connect with people, things and topics in which you are
interested.
Facebook: Recent Changes
Community Pages
built around topics, causes or experiences.
intended to capture public-facing topics, concepts themes and
anything else that doesnt fit into an official page
wont generate stories in your News Feed
wont be maintained by a single author
Users can help improve the page, and add content (like a
wiki)
Examples: geographic locations, types of cuisine
Facebook: Recent Changes
Connections : asking users to link their profiles to pages that
currently exist
Will most likely boost the like counts of Pages
More interconnectivity, more interlinking
Hovercards : if you mouse over a linked item in a profile,
youll see a box pop up showing a little more information about the
item as well as the option to like
Increased privacy settings : so that people have more control
and options over their privacy settings
Facebook: Best in Class
Twitter: What it is
Social networking service that allows users to communicate with
their Followers
Its open to anyone, so you can follow or be followed by people
you know and people you dont
Communicate via short messages and updates called tweets that
have a maximum length of 140 characters
Twitter: Why people love it
Changing the definition of real time news
Top reasons why people love Twitter
Finding love
Finding fame (big with YouTube, too)
Staying up to date on current events
Making friends around the world
Stalking Celebrities
Connecting with like-minded people (Losties)
Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED Strategic Communications Jeffreys
and Ryan
Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED: Timeline HANDLE REPLY ORATING
SHORT URL RETWEETING
Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED
Twitter: Best in Class
Twitter: THE LINGO
Tweet: A post to Twitter - text only, 140 characters maximum
(including spaces)
Timeline: A series of tweets displayed on a Twitter page
Follow: When you follow someone on Twitter, that means you
elect to see in your timeline the tweets that they post
Your friends: are the people who you follow
Your followers: (a.k.a. tweeps, or tweeple) are the people who
have chosen to see your tweets
@ Replies: Supports back-and-forth conversation via tweet
replies
Twitter: THE LINGO
Direct (private) messages : sometimes abbreviated to DM. You
can send private messages on Twitter that are visible only to you
and the recipient
Short URLs: You can include links in your tweet simply by
posting the complete URL, including http://
Hashtags: When you insert a # in front of keywords, you make it
easy for Twitter users who dont already follow you to find your
public contributions to the coverage or discussion on that
topic.
Trending: hashtags categorized by popularity, which depends on
a vast number of people tweeting on the topic at the same time
Other great tools
MySpace
One of the original social networking sites
Similar to Facebook, but profile is more customizable
Still very big with teens and bands/musicians (which was its
original intent)
Other great tools
YouTube
Online community where users can create, upload and share their
videos
Thorough, searchable database of videos
YouTube is 2nd largest search engine next to Google. Every
minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube.
How your can use it
Organization Channel
Upload news clips, trainings, webinars,
Create a short promo video for your organization
Other great tools
LinkedIn
The more professional social network of the Big Three. It lets
users create an online resume and network with their peers,
colleagues, business associates, etc.
Businesses and orgs can also set up profiles on the site
6-degrees nature of the site allows you to reach out to people
through already existing connections
How you can use it
Recruit and check references of new hires, volunteers
Other great tools
Blogs:
a type of website, usually maintained by an individual with
regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other
material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed
in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb,
meaning to maintain or add content to a blog .
News
Politics
Organizations
Community
Other great tools
Blogs: How you can work with bloggers
Build relationship with bloggers
Comment on blogs
Send info/help blogger write a blog
Write a blog
Promote a blog
Cross posting
Live blog
Other great tools
Blogs: Creating your own
blogger, wordpress, typepad
establish a strategy
define an editorial policy
find a voice
create compelling content
use keywords
post on a regular schedule
link from homepage
engage with readers
spread your content
Communicating Strategically
Whether it is short-term or long-term planning, its crucial to
figure out:
What are our goals
Who is our audience
What is our message
What are our tactics
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3 key questions to ask yourself before embarking in social
media:
Do you have engaging content that provides indisputable
value?
Can you maintain a consistent flow of content that can draw
attention and inspire others to share and advocate
Where will the content come from? Internal resources?
Volunteers? Board?
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Is social networking for you?
Start small...build big
Set goals...what are you trying to accomplish with your
communications?
increase engagement?
acquire new supporters of your work?
raise money?
increase membership?
Define your audience...is social media a good tool to reach
them? (its ok to say no!)
Making Social Networking Work in your Organization
If you decide that social media is a tool you want to
use....
Meet with your team to discuss objectives
Put someone in charge of social networking (though many can be
involved in generating content)
Define your tone, clarify your standards
Set a schedule
Create a posting calendar
Set standards and institute policy
Create a submission form
Create Social Media Policy form
Monitor how your sites are doing
How to use social media well
LEVEL 1 Involvement: Listen Mode
Create your profile
Follow/Friend those you feel are relevant (media, legislators,
other orgs, your competition) so you can listen to what they say
and stay up-to-date on what is going on/being discussed
Facebook: Do a search for keywords, pages or people relevant to
your issues
Twitter: follow dialogues and research key issues using Twitter
Search and hashtags (#). Create Twitter lists to keep track of
these people
YouTube: watch videos on relevant topics or from similar
organizations
Blogs: keep a list of important blogs on your issues, and
monitor them on a regular basis
How to use social media well
LEVEL 2 Involvement: Reactive Mode
Post timely information from your organization
news articles you are mentioned in
upcoming events you are hosting
new reports, materials, etc. from your organization
encourage people to sign-up to your e-news or donate
Reply to those that comment on your page/feed
How to use social media well
LEVEL 3 Involvement: Proactive mode
Come up with new content for your page/feed
contest
polls
exclusive content for your social media users
Comment, interact and encourage conversation on other
pages/feeds
use @tagging
Retweet/repost information
comment on relevant blogs and encourage bloggers to post on a
certain issue
Host online events via social media sites
Twitter parties / Twinterviews
Event Invitations via Facebook
How to promote your page and get followers
Twitter: follow people
Facebook: Suggest to friends (and have others suggest to
friends!)
Promote in all aspects of your marketing
E-news
website
e-signatures
at events
donor materials
Be a resource, and they will seek you out
Cardinal Rules of Creating Content
Key word in social marketing: SOCIAL. Be social! Share photos,
tell stories, and offer great content that your followers will want
to share with their fans
Write in a personal tone
Use we
Write as if it is a 1-1 experience
Cardinal Rules of Nonprofit Social Networking
Be human: establish a familiar and appropriate tone
Expect the unexpected: Plan, experiment, adapt
Be relevant: acknowledge and build upon the existing community
and what members are already talking about
Be patient: building a following takes time; be in it for the
long-term
Listen: follow what others are saying, dont just be a
volume-out experience
Be transparent: communicate as if it was a face to face
experience
Stay active and involved
Promote sharing and seek dialogue
Remember...
People often stress the importance of reaching certain numbers
of followers/fans on Twitter, Facebook, etc., but the essence of
social media lies in relationship building in an effort to build a
community.
Its not about using the latest toolsbut the tools that work for
you.
Its not about listening to experts, its about person-to-person,
genuine interaction that you will have with people. You will find
the most value in your own experiences with social media.
Conclusion...what we learned
Social networking is one big web
The ins-and-outs of Facebook and Twitter pages
Other important social networking sites to consider
How to tell if social networking is a tool you should use
Integrate into your organization properly
Start small, build big...3 levels of involvement
Be genuine and real
Social networking is just one tool in the tool box of
communications tactics