social media strategies for non-profits

Social Networking Strategies:

What’s Best for Your

Nonprofit?

September 30, 2011

Juliann Grant

Telesian Technology

What we’ll cover today

• Current non-profit challenges/trends in social networking• Setting a Strategy

– Listening– Cause curation– Multi-channel efforts– Landing pages

• Social Networking Tools– Management of profiles– Donation management, events– Crowdsourcing Tools

• Social success stories

Non-profit challenges

Non-profit challenges

• A strategy• Resources• Budget

Source:Nonprofitsocialnetworkingsurvey.com

Social network usage

89

3347

57

19

4

TwitterFacebook

LinkedInYouTube

Flickr

FourSquare

• 9 of 10 NP’s have presence• Avg community size grew 161%

• 2400in 2010 to 6300 in 2010• NonProfit types:

• International (97%)• Environmental and Animal

Welfare (91%)• Arts & Culture (89%)• Education (88%)

•1 in 3 NP’s have presence •Growth down slightly in 2010, biggest growth was 38% in 2009•Avg follower base grew to 1822

• Presence remained stable•Community size grew 504% to 1196 members

Source:Nonprofitsocialnetworkingsurvey.com

• Avg community size grew 165% to 1196 members (up from 450 in 2010)•Most prevalent NP types:

• Professional Associations • Education

Source:Nonprofitsocialnetworkingsurvey.com

You are not alone…

Setting a Strategy

Social media building blocks

Listening Participate Share aStory

Engage/Generate

Buzz

CommunityBuilding

Major challenge: Lack of marketing integration

Social Media

StrategyAdv

PR

Direct

Mktg

Online

Mktg

Events

Off &

OnlineContent

Web

Site

Remember where social networking fits

• Organization Goals– Build brand awareness– Identify new fundraising opportunities– Put a human face on your brand– Deepen supporter relationships

• Organize a Strategy– Why, who, what, when, where, how

• Schedule programs and tactics– Identify programs and supporting content– Plan to get the message out

Social Networking

Developing a strategy

• Be listening• Be a good cause curator• Build engagement experiences• Find influencers • Other components• Landing page strategies• Hash tags and tags• Flow your campaigns

Be listening

• Listening means find who is talking about things that matter to you– Find your audience – where you need to be

• Start pulling RSS feeds on information you find valuable– Search.twitter.com,– Use descriptive keywords from a supporter/cause point of view

• Identify what is being talked about and how• Selectively add “friends/followers” to social network profiles

Be a good cause curator

Difference between being

a short order cook and an executive chef

Build engagement experiences

• New donors– Focus on educating on the cause

• Why this is important NOW• Build confidence in your organization• How their participation will help

• Existing donors– Share a vision as being part of your community

• Build exclusivity of being part of something• Find ways to deepen their involvement

Find influencers

BloggersTwitter’ersOther FB CharitiesPartner charities

Other components• Blog

– Human voice– Can be a team blog, adds more points of view– If not your own, find a blogger locally or that shares your

cause

• Integration points with marketing and web site– Web site media page for sharing blogs and social media

profiles– Targeted landing pages

• Donation thank you pages• Campaign pages• Event pages

Landing Page Strategies

• Customize each landing page • Good SEO will have unique page titles and

descriptions• Add a Thank You Video

– http://youtu.be/FdcATR7AxMU

• Add social sharing widgets – Facebook Page and Twitter streams, Like buttons

• Ask for mobile phone numbers• Tells a visitor what action you want them to take

Facebook welcome pages

Use tags and #hashtags

• Use on Twitter, Photo, Video Tags• Does not require registration but

check for usage – Search.twitter.com– Hashtag.org

• Create unique topics and use for tracking conversations– Events, Programs, Contests– Around a cause/issue– Geography– General terms ex. Poverty, youth– Create a body of knowledge #UnitedWay– Archive when necessary

Flow your campaigns

Remember… Engagement requires effort

• Consistent blogging (20 posts or more)• Pay attention to social network cultures

– What works on one network doesn’t work well to the next

• Tweak social network posts as needed– Facebook vs. Twitter vs. LinkedIn– Don’t auto-post everywhere all the time

• Comment on other blogs/Facebook Pages• Recognize others in your posts

Now ask yourself

• Where else can I share/distribute this content?• Am I making it easy to share this content?

– Do you have social media share buttons everywhere?

• How can I incent my supporters to share this content?

• Have I asked them to share this content?• Is this content/info noticeable on our web site?• Is it clear what we are asking people to do?

Social Networking Tools

Listening tools

• Search for keywords

• Search by #hashtag

• Monitor trends/sentiment

• Create feeds in a Reader or in an tool like Hootsuite

• Consider automated tools

http://search.twitter.com

Other Listening Tools

Profile Management: Hootsuite

-Multiple Twitter profiles-Facebook (personal and Pages)-LinkedIn-WordPress-FourSquare-Teams-Analytics

Attract Supporters

Tweetchat schedule: http://bit.ly/9NlzoE

• Great for finding like-minded people to follow• NPTalk: 2-3pm CT Wed• www.nptalk.co• Fundchat: Wed 12 pm EST

Live tweeting an event: Participate in a TweetChat:

Survey tools for Crowdsourcing

Tips for Crowdsourcing• Include a short personal message about a

survey/poll/event within the tweet.• Include an incentive such as “win a gift

card” etc. • Use popular hashtags related to your

survey/poll/event. • Try to send the tweet at peak Twitter

times for maximum exposure.• Don’t be afraid to Tweet more than once. • Use a link shortening service such at bit.ly

to shorten your survey/ poll link and track the clicks.

• Ask for a Retweet from your followers.• Send a final reminder tweet such as, “poll

ends today, results to follow”.

http://socialmediatoday.com/jasonmillerca/285521/how-use-twitter-crowdsourcing-and-simple-market-research

Track What People Like

Video Platforms: Needed or not?

You Tube Vimeo BrightCove

Free Basic free package limited – 1 upload a week $9.99/mo/$60/yar

Not free – starts at $99/mo - $499

Part of Google 500 MB/week 40 G/50 videos

Analytics Analytics Analytics

Commercials Basic player customization YouTube Sync

Accessibility challenges Some development tools Basic player customization

Somewhat branded Faster viewing uploads

Online fundraising trends

Source:Nonprofitsocialnetworkingsurvey.com

Online fundraising tools

http://mashable.com/2011/03/14/social-good-fundraising-tools/

Online fundraising tools

Online fundraising tools

Other resources

Events

• Run an media alert on the event (at least 30 days in advance)

• Add events on LinkedIn, other sites

Social Success Stories

Day of Caring: United Way of Nashua NH

Goals: Build visibility for the volunteersGrow Facebook Fan BaseEngagement through comments and photo sharing

The Humane Society

• 700,000 Facebook fans and 55,000 Twitter followers

• Keys to success:– Keep people on Facebook when possible– Replicate ask programs from web site on FB page– Using compelling photographs, video and other forms

of mediums on Facebook pages– Share short, digestible stories – Invite stories from fans– Engage before asking for anything– Cross pollinate programs for best results

The power of a tweet:Pittsburgh Tote Bag Project

• Started from a single tweet:– “Why don’t we provide tote bags to food pantries?”

• Pittsburgh Foundation saw it, contacted the person to find out how to send tote bags

• Made contacts at the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank

• Program has collected hundreds of tote bags

• http://tote4pgh.blogspot.com/2011/04/why-tote-bags-for-food-pantries.html

Charity:Water

Takeaways

• Don’t be afraid to make a mistake!• Social fundraising has yet to mature• Stay educated, learn from others• Stay committed!• Remember it’s about relationships, not donors

Resources

• Beth Kanter: http://www.bethkanter.org• Non-Profit Technology Network: http://www.nten.org/• Non-Profit Tech 2.0: http://www.nten.org/• FirstGiving Blog: http://blog.firstgiving.com/• Network for Good: http://www.fundraising123.org/• Non-Profit Brand Institute: http://npbrandit.com/• Mashable: http://www.mashable.com

Q&A

Thank you for your time

Contact Me: Juliann Grant julianng@telesian.com

Blog: http://blog.telesian.com

Twitter: www.twitter.com/julianng

LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/julianngrant

Facebook: www.facebook.com/julianngrant