social media best practices for veteran nonprofits
TRANSCRIPT
Social Media Best Practices
swords-to-plowshares.org INSTITUTE FOR
VETERAN POLICY
California and Texas Veteran Employment Collaborative Workshop
12/1/16
Social Media Best Practices
KEVIN MILLER
Media Relations Specialist at Swords to Plowshares
VICTOR INZUNZA
Policy Analyst, Institute for Veteran Policy at Swords to Plowshares
BEST PRACTICES IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Integrating Social Media with your Strategic Goals and Target Audiences
Content Strategies
Holiday and Other Campaigns
Tracking your Results
What am I Going to Learn?
Branding
A nonprofit brand is most powerful when the organization’s internal identity and external image are aligned with each other and with its values and mission.
A strong brand is increasingly seen as critical in helping to build operational capacity, galvanizing support, and maintaining focus on the social mission.
Strong brands in all sectors help organizations acquire financial, human, and social resources, and build key partnerships.
Photo: Lou Hammon Group
BrandingCOMMUNICATION TOOL: STYLE GUIDE
FontsPrefer
red Choic
es
Layouts
Color Guide
Establishing RelationshipsCommunication amongst our different organizations is key, and our partners can be great resources that can help spread the word of your work and events.
Establishing RelationshipsUse the same guidelines in sharing your organization’s content when sharing any partners’ content.
Best Practices for Outreach Email any photos from your
outreach event to your communications team, with the subject line: “Content for Social Media.”
Promote your outreach event on social media and have your communications team design and share your event on your online platforms.
Best Practices for Outreach
DEVELOP AND PRACTICE YOUR ELEVATOR PITCH
Develop talking points based on facts from your organization. Talking points serve as a guide for you in conversations with veterans, supporters, the media, and potential partners in the community.
Convert your contacts to followers:
Always direct the person to your website and get them to sign up for your email newsletter.
Distribute or exchange cards when possible. Then add any contacts to your email distribution list.
Communicating Your Events
To ensure people are aware of your events and activities; timeliness, consistency, and repetition are key.
Make sure to email a complete description of the “who, what, where, when, and why” and that the event is added to the Outreach and Events calendar.
Communicating Your Events For large events: we recommend starting promotion 6-8
weeks prior. For medium-sized events: we recommend starting
promotion 4-6 weeks prior. For smaller events: we recommend any time prior to the
day of the event.
Communicating Your Events
Events that need to record attendance can have an Eventbrite page set up to track registration, or a Google form may be set up.
Events can be hosted on your website and your Facebook events calendar.
Events may be promoted across all of your social media platforms, and included in your monthly email newsletter.
Encourage your colleagues to share your events with their social networks.
Capturing Content for Your Stories Email your photos from to communications
coordinator/team with the subject line: “Content for Social Media.”
What?Who?
Where?
Answer the following questions in the body of your email:
Photos
TECHNICAL TIPS TO CREATE COMPELLING PHOTOS If you’re using your smartphone, hold it
horizontally to capture photos. High-res photos are always better for social sharing. Try to make sure the photo you take is as clear as possible.
Look carefully to ensure the camera is focused. Good lighting makes a difference. Photographer should have their
back facing the windows or other bright light. Make sure subject of the photo is not standing with their back to a light source.
Try to capture your logo or any branding in the photo when possible.
Social Media Guidelines and Tips
Individuals and departments should not be permitted to create social media profiles in the name of the organization without proper consent.
Encourage individual staff members to identify themselves as staff in their Facebook “about” section, Twitter bio, or LinkedIn profile when sharing any work- related content.
Sharing work-related content should not be mandatory but outreach on social media serves as a great way to spread the word about the work you are doing and the overall efforts of your organization.
Cultivating Your Social Media Presence
Re-share your content or content from partner organizations.
Engage in social conversations; comment on posts, participate in Facebook, Twitter, or other online chats and forums.
If creating original posts, you want to use the appropriate size per social media platform, use this Social Media Cheat Sheet to reference specific image sizing.
Don’t forget to tag yourself, other people or organizations in any posts. *you must like or follow whoever you are tagging*
Cultivating Your Social Media Presence
Hashtags should integrated into a post when possible.
Try not to use more than three hashtags per post.
Common hashtags we use: #SupportVets #vetshelpingvets #veterans.
Custom hashtags are typically used for events only.
Facebook Like our Facebook Page at
https://www.facebook.com/vetshelpingvets.
Invite your Facebook Friends to like partner org pages (Invites can be sent by visiting their pages).
Like and re-share Facebook posts from partner organizations.
Tag on Facebook (use @SwordsToPlowshares @vetshelpingvets for our tags).
Tag yourself in any photos organizations post; this can be done if you already have liked the page.
We typically post 1-2 messages per work day.
Twitter Follow us on Twitter:
@vetshelpingvets (Swords Main Channel) @JobsForVets (Employment & Training) @SwordsProBono (Legal Services) @SwordsWomenVets (Women Veterans)
Retweet and like partner organization posts. Tag any of their Twitter handles for any work-
related tweets. We typically tweet 2-4 messages per work day
unless we are hosting an event or participating in a Twitter chat then it’s multiple “live” tweet.
LinkedIn Follow us on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/swords-to-plowshares (Main)
https://www.linkedin.com/company/swords-to-plowshares-employment-and-training (E&T)
Re-share and like partner organization posts.
Tag partner organizations (i.e. @SwordsToPlowshares) for any work-related posts.
We typically post one message per work day on each LinkedIn Channel.
Instagram Follow us on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/vetshelpingvets/.
Like or re-post partner organization images.
Tag partner organizations on Instagram for any work-related posts with @vetshelpingvets.
Use up to 40 hashtags in a post (when typing in a hashtag Instagram lets you know how frequently it’s used in posting. Use hashtags that have high numbers).
We typically post 1 image per work day on Instagram.
YouTube Subscribe to our YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/vetshelpingvets.
We host news clips about Swords to Plowshares, organizational videos, and training videos from various community education curricula.
Watch and like partner organization videos; share with your networks on any other social media platform.
Crowdfunding/Holiday Campaigns
Set a theme and financial goal for your campaign (Be realistic; you can always raise your goal later).
Campaigns usually run from 4-8 weeks (we typically average about 6 weeks).
We suggest 2-4 weeks to prep an online campaign.
Try and obtain a donor for match (i.e. Google is matching dollar for dollar on first $15,000).
Crowdfunding/Holiday Campaigns
SpecificMeasurableAttainableRealisticTimely
Sharing your Campaign Share within inner network first (staff and
board members).
Ask them to share with 5 friends.
After a donation make sure to thank your donor and ask them to share your campaign with five friends.
Email your distribution list.
Post to social media (you’ll probably post more frequently than normal guidelines but don’t forget to post non-holiday/crowdfunding campaign messages, your fans still want to know what’s going on with your organization).
Update your followers on progress.
Analyzing Social Media Impact
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Questions
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Thank You for Your Attendance
Copyright ©2016 by Swords to PlowsharesAll rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Swords to PlowsharesInstitute for Veteran Policy1060 Howard StreetSan Francisco, CA 94103
Kevin MillerMedia Relations [email protected]
Victor InzunzaPolicy [email protected]