Using Social Media in Rotary

USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN ROTARYHOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO

• PROMOTE YOUR CLUB

• ENGAGE YOUR MEMBERS AND ATTRACT NEW MEMBERS

• INFORM THE PUBLIC AND SPONSORS OF YOUR CLUB’S PROJECTS AND ACTIVITIES

• SPREAD THE MESSAGE OF ROTARY

Prepared byGrayson J. Stedman jr.

Rotary Club of Dominica, District 7030

PRESENTER

Grayson J. Stedman jr.

Work Experience

• 19 years experience in the IT field• Network Administration, Telecoms, Internet Technologies• IT Manager for prominent regional group of companies• Experience Teaching

Community Service Experience

Rotary Club of Dominica• Member: 2008 - present• Secretary: 2010 – 2011• Club Administration Officer: 2013 -

2015• Rotaract Liaison Officer: 2008 - 2013• Club Webmaster / Social Media

coordinator

Rotaract Club of Roseau• Member: 2003 – 2008• President: 2005 - 2006• Vice President / Finance Director:

2006-2007• District Team Member: 2005-2007 • District Advisor: 2008-2009• District Webmaster: 2004 – 2008• District Web Advisor: 2008 – present

WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA?

Simply put, social media is having an online conversation with an individual, a Company, an Organisation or any mixture of all three.

Until recently, online communication primarily happened in a one-way direction with the user obtaining information from the website.

However, social media has now made it possible to “talk back” to the site by leaving comments, views, opinions, take part in surveys as well as sharing the information with other online users in your network.

An online user no longer needs to find news or items of interest to them; through social media it is now finding them directly.

TYPES OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Popular Social Media websites include:

• Facebook: Club Events and Project updates

• Twitter: Real-time updates of club activities

• LinkedIn: Professional Networking and Online Discussions

• YouTube: Videos of club projects and promotions

• SlideShare: Online Presentations

• Others: Instagram, Google+, Flickr, Vimeo, Pinterest, Picasa, Tumblr

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

Membership

Social Media is all about Interactive Public Relations (both internally and externally). Using Social Media allows you to engage the membership of your club in meaningful ways and keep them excited and interested in your club’s projects and activities. Both new generation Rotarians and some of the longer serving members can become engaged in the club and district through social media.

Young Professionals that grew up in the digital age will be attracted to your club through its social media efforts (if done right).

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA? (CONT.)

Advertising

Your club has an event/fund raiser coming up and you want to secure sponsorship from corporate donors, and ensure maximum participation from the target audience of your event. Traditional advertising efforts on radio, TV, and print are losing their market share to online mediums. Your club can capitalize on the growing trend of online advertising by using social media. You can promote your event online at no cost, or pay as little as US$1 a day to expand the reach of your event to thousands of potential patrons online.

You can also promote your sponsors online to encourage future partnerships.


Spread the Word of Rotary

With Social Media you can tell the story of what Rotary is and what it does. Many people know the name of Rotary but are clueless as to what Rotary accomplishes in the community. Use social media to share the success of your community projects to the public, other clubs and even your own members. Post pictures, videos, blogs, updates to get the public excited about Rotary. Once you get the public excited about what your club does locally, and what Rotary accomplishes globally it will be far easier to recruit new members, retain your existing members, foster partnerships with corporate sponsors and receive maximum participation and engagement from the public during your fund raising events.


Advantage

There are several advantages to using social media to promote your club and its activities:

• Established user base in social media (1.73 billion in 2013)

• Easier and cheaper to setup than a website (websites still serve a vital purpose)

• Two-way interaction with your audience, receive constant feedback

• Track your reach/penetration

WHO IS YOUR AUDIENCE?

• Existing members – Keep them engaged

• New generation members – Get them excited

• Service Project stakeholders and beneficiaries

• Corporate Sponsors and international partners (other clubs, grant providers)

• Patrons of fund raisers

• Local community, other NGOs, government agencies

• Youth Service Members (Rotaract, Interact, RYLA)

WHEN SHOULD SOCIAL MEDIA BE USED?

Ideally social media should be used to promote your club everyday. The nature of social media is that what is happening now and what is new is what is relevant. Unfortunately it is impractical to expect busy professionals to be posting about Rotary every single day especially when your club is not doing something new each day. Posting the same thing over and over again will saturate and disenfranchise your audience.

So how do you stay relevant, current and new when promoting Rotary in social media?

WHEN SHOULD SOCIAL MEDIA BE USED?How to stay relevant in social media:

• Appoint a Social Media Coordinator in your club

• Create a Social Media Committee (Coordinator, PR Committee, Secretary, Webmaster, Newsletter Editor)

• If necessary assign different members to update different social media sites

• Keep the message consistent

• Ensure something is posted at least once a week, and for every club project/activity (pictures, videos, etc.)

• Use Rotary themes to talk about a different aspect of Rotary each month

HOW DO YOU USE SOCIAL MEDIA?

Create a presence in the major social media sites:

• Create a Facebook Page (not a profile)

• Create a Facebook Group if you wish to have a private forum for members

• Create a Twitter account (can also be linked with the Facebook page)

• Create a YouTube channel to post videos

• Create a LinkedIn group if you wish your members to link professionally amoung themselves and with others, and have online discussions about Rotary

• Create a presence on other platforms if you see the need


Facebook PagesStrengths• Solidify the image of your club• Doesn’t require all members to be on

Facebook

Weakness• Duplicates website in some ways• Just another Rotary Club on Facebook

Opportunities• Connect to wider community• Find new members• Promote your page – focus on local

community

Threats• If not updated will be bad promotion of

club• Unfavourable comments• Trolls


Facebook GroupsStrengths• Internal communication• Privacy

Weakness• Requires all members to be on

Facebook and accessing it regularly

Opportunities• Share files• Regular updates• Create/find content for Facebook page• Remote access

Threats• Duplication of other internal

communication mediums• Too invasive, tiring• Should be a private group


TwitterStrengths• Can link with Facebook

Weakness• Works better for a persona or

organization with a large following

Opportunities• Follow and re-tweet others

Threats• Very Time consuming• Tedious


LinkedInStrengths• Aligns with the professional nature of

Rotary

Weakness• Works best if club members are also on

LinkedIn

Opportunities• Start online discussions, Q&A• Promote organization on LinkedIn

Threats• Group needs to be moderated


Do I need to sign up to all of them?

The straight answer is no. Each Rotarian, Club and District needs to consider what sites they feel are appropriate for them.

However in order to save multiple sign-ups and save time, with a little experience on some of the sites a Facebook and/or Twitter account can be linked to each other – therefore if a post is placed on Facebook it is automatically posted to Twitter etc.


So, which ones should we use?

That will entirely depend on the outcome that the individual Rotarian, Club or District is looking to achieve.

For example, if the outcome is to promote what a Club is doing; share videos; create a forum for discussion in addition to the Club website, then perhaps Facebook is the application to be chosen.

But if on the other hand an individual wants to engage with other Rotarians across the world they may wish to sign up to LinkedIn.

Whereas if a Club is looking to send out regular updates on a silent auction, they may wish to choose Twitter.


To create Facebook Page:

1. Go to http://facebook.com/pages/create

2. Click a Page category

3. Select a more specific category from the dropdown menu and fill out the required information

4. Click to check the box next to I agree to Facebook Pages Terms

5. Click Get Started

Note: If you want to create a Page to represent an organization, business, celebrity or brand, you must be an official representative.

http://facebook.com/pages/create

HOW ARE PAGES DIFFERENT FROM PERSONAL TIMELINES?Each person who signs up for Facebook has one account with login information. Each account can have a personal Timeline and manage multiple Pages.

• Personal Timelines (profiles), which we sometimes refer to as profiles, are for individual, non-commercial use. They represent individual people and must be held under an individual name. You can follow Timelines to see public updates of people you’re interested in but aren’t friends with.

• Facebook Pages look similar to personal Timelines, but they offer unique tools for connecting people to a topic they care about, like a business, brand, organization or celebrity. Pages are managed by people who have personal Timelines. Pages are not separate Facebook accounts and do not have separate login information from your Timeline. You can like a Page to see updates in News Feed.


To create Twitter account:

1. Go to https://twitter.com/signup

2. Fill-in a name, email address (club address), password and username

3. Click Create Account

https://twitter.com/signup

https://twitter.com/signup

ROTARY IN SOCIAL MEDIA

Rotary International

• https://www.rotary.org/myrotary/en/social-media

• https://www.facebook.com/rotary

• https://twitter.com/rotary

• http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=858557

• http://www.youtube.com/rotaryinternational

• http://www.slideshare.net/Rotary_International


Rotary District 7030

• https://www.facebook.com/RotaryDistrict7030

• https://www.facebook.com/Rotaract7030

• https://twitter.com/RotaractD7030

• http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=5143519&trk=anet_ug_hm

• https://www.youtube.com/user/Rotary7030


Other Rotary Social Media Sites

• Rotarians on Social Networks Fellowship www.facebook.com/rosnf

www.rosnf.net/

• Rotary International in Great Britain & Ireland www.facebook.com/RotaryRIBI

REFERENCES

Material from the following sources was used in this presentation

• http://www.slideshare.net/danifogarty/how-rotary-clubs-can-use-social-media

• http://www.slideshare.net/graysonstedman/using-it-in-community-service-17164741

• http://www.ribi.org/committees/marketing-pr-and-communications/social-media-guidance

• http://socialmediatoday.com/irfan-ahmad/1993606/global-overview-internet-mobile-and-social-media-engagement-and-usage-infographi

QUESTIONS?

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