Social media training beginner track 2010

Social Networking:

A How-To Guide for Nonprofits

Jennifer Leigh

Communications Director, The Poverty Institute

[email protected]

401-456-2752

mailto:[email protected]

Overview of this session

2

What is Social Networking and why is it important?: aka “I barely have time to do what I‟m already doing and you want me to do more?”

Strategic communications planning: does social networking even fit?

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

How to make it work in your organization

What is Social Networking?

3

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?

4

Change in the media landscape: by the numbers

300: number of newspapers that folded in 2009

8: number of magazines with a circulation of one million

or more that ceased publication

500+: number of editorial positions that were eliminated

in print media

10,000: number of jobs lost in radio

100+: number of TV stations affected by Chapter 11

filings of parent companies

5

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?

Isn‟t it just a bunch of kids that use it?

6

NO!!! Here‟s who is online that you could/should reach:

Colleagues

Members

Constituents

Policy-makers

Media

Donors

Board members

etc. etc. etc.

How does it help my organization?

7

FREE! (at least to set up)

Create real connections with real people

Greater and more frequent engagement

New avenue to raise awareness

How does it help my organization?

8

Convenient & quick to set up

Popular

Two-way communication

Another tool for yourcommunications toolbox

Communicating Strategically –

Plan it Out!

Communications planning looks at how you communicate with your various audiences

Reflects your organization‟s mission, goals and objectives, and is integrated into daily operations.

Can be both short-term and long-term goals

Informs everything from the content of your website to the frequency of your contacts with local newspapers.

Communicating Strategically –

Plan it Out!

Typical elements of a communications plan include:

Strategic direction: defining goals and objectives

Audiences: who are you talking to and what do they believe, think, know about your organization?

Content: clear messages and talking points tailored specifically to your target audiences

Tactics: effective delivery mediums for your messages, such as personal presentations, email newsletter, blogging.

Evaluation: Is our message working? Are we using the right tactics?

First step: Goals

11

“What” your organization or program wants to achieve

Example: Improve the visibility and positive perception of the Institute with its key publics while changing public attitudes toward low and modest-income Rhode Islanders

Second step: Audiences

12

The “Who”

Think about who you need to

communicate with to meet

your goal

Example: Businesses and Chambers of Commerce

Third step: Messages

13

The “what you want to tell” your audience

Consider what you want to tell your audience in order to achieve your goal

Consider “what action you want your audience to take”

Test your message!

Messages Example

14

The Poverty Institute and businesses have the same

goals: a stable fiscal environment, a strong, vibrant

economy and healthy communities. (though we may have

different methods of achieving these goals)

The issues that we fight for ultimately help your

employees and you (more highly skilled workforce, child

support for your workers, etc.)

Fourth step: Tactics

15

The “tools” you use to get your message to your desired

audience

Tactics can be direct

Tactics can be mass media

Tactics

16

Direct Mail (postcards, fliers)

Phone calls

Email

Website

Printed Materials (brochures,

fact sheets)

Presentations

• Print Advertising

• Transit advertising

• Outdoor advertising

• Public Relations

• 1-1 meetings

Only list the tactics you have the resources to do!

Tactics examples

17

1-1 meetings with key players, introducing/reintroducing

them to the Poverty Institute and explaining what we do

Pitch presentation opportunities to the Chambers of

Commerce

Email professional organizations as a gateway/middle man

to employers

Fifth step: Evaluation

18

The “how you know if you have been successful in

reaching your desired audience” with your desired

message

Measure of effectiveness of tactic and message

Evaluation example

19

Increased number of presentations at Chamber of Commerce

Increased submissions into Providence Business News

Increased meetings with key business leaders

Joint submission of legislation with key business leaders

Is social networking for you?

20

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? (it‟s ok to say no!)

So many sites...

21

The major sites…

22

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

23

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

24

ME ME ME! Great way to promote yourself and your

organization

Interactive multi-media...post photos, videos, links

Interactive web of friends

Reconnect with long-lost friends

25

Facebook: Anatomy of the NEWSFEED

26


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

27


YOUR

DASHBOARD

28


REQUESTS:

sent from friends

29


FACEBOOK

ADS

FRIEND

SUGGESTIONS:

generated by

Facebook

EVENTS

CHAT

30


NEWSFEED

Shows your friend’s

photos, who they are

friends with, interactions

between your friends,

and who “like” and

comments on their

status updates

NEWSFEED

VIEWS

STATUS UPDATE

31


NEWSFEED

NEWSFEED

VIEWS

STATUS UPDATE

NEWSFEED

Also shows posts from

the organizations you

“like” as well as re-posts

from friends.

32

Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE

32

33


STATUS UPDATE

NEWSFEED

YOUR ORGS

PHOTO

EDIT YOUR PAGE

PEOPLE THAT

“LIKE” YOUR ORG

INSIGHTS INTO

HOW YOUR

PAGE IS DOING

TABS

34


YOUR ORGS

PROFILE PICTURE

EDIT YOUR PAGE

SUGGEST TO FRIENDS

35


PEOPLE THAT

“LIKE” YOUR ORG

INSIGHTS INTO

HOW YOUR

PAGE IS DOING

36

Facebook: Anatomy of the PAGE: The Wall

37


37

38


39

Facebook: Creating your page

Facebook: The LINGO

40

•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 friend‟s 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

41

•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 person‟s personal page that shows all of that person‟s

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

42

•“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.”


43

•Community Pages

•built around topics, causes or experiences.

• intended to capture public-facing topics, concepts themes

and anything else that doesn‟t fit into an “official” page

•won‟t generate stories in your News Feed

•won‟t be maintained by a single author

•Users can help improve the page, and add content (like a

wiki)

•Examples: geographic locations, types of cuisine


44

•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, you‟ll

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


45

•Must have your own individual page, first

•Go onto another org‟s page, click on “Create a page for my

business”

•You are now the administrator, and can set other facebook

users as administrators, as well


46

•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 profile‟s 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 Best Practices

Don‟t just post during the workday…post at night and on

weekends

Follow other pages/people to listen to what they have to

say

Make your posts and your interactive: add links, photos,

etc.

Keep your posts to 3 lines or less

Stay active, but don‟t overpost

47

48

Facebook: Best in Class

Twitter: What it is

49

Social networking service that allows users to

communicate with their “Followers”

It’s open to anyone, so you can follow or be followed by

people you know and people you don’t

Microblogging: communicate via short messages and

updates called “tweets” that have a maximum length of 140

characters

Twitter: Why people love it

50

Changing the definition of “real time” news

Staying up to date on current events

Making friends around the world

Connecting with like-minded people (“Lost”ies)

Following celebrities

51

Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED

51Strategic Communications © Jeffreys and Ryan

52


53

Twitter: Anatomy of the FEED: Timeline

HANDLE

REPLY OR“AT”ING

SHORT URL

RETWEETING

54


55


56


57

Twitter: Best in Class

Twitter: THE LINGO

58

•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

59

•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 don‟t 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

Twitter: Setting up the account

60

•Go to twitter.com and click the “sign up” button in top right

corner

•Pick what name and handle you want to display

•Follow instructions on the email that is sent to you to activate

your account

•Your account is created!

•Search for people and organizations that you want to follow

•Begin tweeting by simply typing in a message in the white box

under „what‟s happening‟

Twitter Best Practices

Listen first tweet later

Search keywords related to your organization or issue

Create lists to organize and monitor different

stakeholders

Promote your allies before you promote yourself

12 to 1 rule

Engage other organizations and users

Use @ messages

Use url shorteners for ALL external links

Bit.ly

Stay active

61

Other great tools

62

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)

63

Other great tools

64

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

65

Other great tools

66

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

67

Other great tools

68

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

69

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

70

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

71

Other great tools

72

E-newsletters

Just like a printed newsletter: a way to highlight 3-4

pieces of news to send out to various audiences

Online e-news sites make it quick and affordable to

have a tailored newsletter that you manage

A good engagement tool to keep various audiences

updated on important issues from your organization

73

3 key questions to ask yourself before embarking

in social media:

1) Do you have engaging content that provides indisputable

value?

2) Can you maintain a consistent flow of content that can

draw attention and inspire others to share and advocate

3) Where will the content come from? Internal resources?

Volunteers? Board?

Making Social Networking Work in your Organization

75

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

Discuss privacy

Making Social Networking Work in your Organization

76

If you decide that social media is a tool you want to use....

Set a schedule

Create a posting calendar

Set standards and institute policy

Create a submission form

Create Social Media Policy form

Use tools to help manage your social networking (i.e.

Tweetdeck)

Monitor how your sites are doing

How to use social media well

77

•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


78

•LEVEL 1 Involvement: “Listen” Mode

•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


79

•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


80

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

81

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

82

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

83

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

Cardinal Rules of Nonprofit Social Networking

84

Listen: follow what others are saying, don‟t 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...

85

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.

It‟s not about using the latest tools…but the tools that work for

you.

It‟s not about listening to experts, it‟s 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

86

Social networking is one big web

Plan your communications, and figure out which

audiences you need to reach, and if social networking is

a tool to reach them

There are many different sites you can be using

Start small, build big...listen, be reactive and/or be

proactive

Be genuine and real

Social networking is just one tool in the tool box of

communications tactics

THANK YOU AND QUESTIONS!

87

Technology

Social media training beginner track 2010