June 20, 2009
Social Media Use for Non-Profits By David Dombrosky
This workshop was the second workshop presented on 6/16/09 by David Dombrosky for non-profits. The topic of of this training focused on the use of social media. Here is a summary of the presentation.
- Create strategy with social media
- Social media is a tool, not a magic bullet
- You don’t have to use it all, but try a few before deciding what works best for you
- See how much you can do, and do well — the use of social media needs to be consistent
Web 2.0 was a shift in Internet theory. People now not only read, but are multi-directional in their communication and provide user generated content.
Many software moved from being hosted on your own machine to being through the Internet with the use of web apps.
Much more content sharing is available as well as publishing. (i.e., N.Y. Times can directly e-mail an article or share it with other people).
We can also share our own content such as audio, video, podcasting, etc.
Social Networking links content to people. Online directors, peer reviewing (i.e. Netflix), etc. to provide recommendations to other people.
Blogging – Blogger, WordPress, Live Journal, etc.
MicroBlogging – Twitter
Photo/Video Sharing – Flickr, YouTube, Vimeo, DivShare
Podcasting & Audio - iTunes, DivShare
LiveVideo Stream – Livestream, Ustream
Web 2.0 is not about marketing, it is about engaging people in conversation. It is a dialogue, not a monologue. It can lead to marketing results.
Need to have transparency about how things work. Need to share information and be engaging, not try to sell to people. That turns them off.
Some content management systems also inlcude a blog module.
Microblogging has a 140 charcater limit (Twitter) and this is based on text messages from cell phones.
To follow someone on Twitter means that when they make updates, you can see that in your Twitter feed.
A 140 character message = Tweet
When you forward a Tweet = (RT) ReTweeting
Sending a private message on Twitter = (DM) Direct Message
1992 – we did not do e-mail
1981 – we did not do voice mail
People will adopt to technology or be left behind.
Need to select the right tool for the right type of engagement.
Mr. Tweet looks at followers and finds critical mass. It finds other people who are similar to who you are already following.
Consistency is important. If you want to maintain awareness.
Consistency does not equal frequency. Restrain from sending out 30 messages a day. Your messages will feel less important when so many come through a day.
Non-profit organizations can have a YouTube channel. This allows you to have your own branding, logo, look and feel of the page. It customizes to your organization and hosts all of your videos.
Vimeo is first to use HD. Some are starting to use this instead of YouTube.
DivShare allows you to post up to 10gb a month. You can do photos, videos and audio. Will automatically create for you a player that you can put on your web site without having to create a podcast.
Podcasting on iTunes is available. Individuals can subscribe to it and they are generally free. It automatically updates when new information is available in the podcasts you are subscribed to. It is easy to put into an Ipod as well. Individuals are not tied to listening on a computer or through a website only. If not during regularly scheduled audios on a consistent basis you may not want to set it up as a podcast.
Live Video Streaming - this is free and only requires a camera. You can set up your own channels through a service such as LiveStream or UStream. It allows people to comment and ask questions. It is used for conferences, meetings, etc.
In building a strategy for the use of social media, it is referred to as the Pyramid of Engagement. There are levels of engagement moving up the pyramind.
Curators – moderate a forum for social media content; offers contents, etc.
Producers
Commenters
Sharers
Watchers – largest group
We should be targeting our social media efforts on the Watchers and Providers and provide information that the Watchers want to know.
Social Networking – connects people online to share personal or professional information.
74% of nonprofits have presence on Facebook. Facebook is based on friends concept and connecting people. Highest number of Facebook users are between the ages of 35-50.
Some of the kids are moving to things like Meebo and Penguin.
Not many non-profits are on Myspace.
Some associations are on Linkedin. This is more about colleagues and professionals and has a look and feel more like a resume concept.
Profiles are for People
Pages are for Institutions and Organizations (has fans as followers)
Groups are more membership controlled in who can participate and join and take part in discussionsm
If a non-profit wants a presence then they want a Page or a Group
When using Causes on Facebook, they are limited in their ability to communicate with people who are following them. Causes can create a badge and can show how much money the Cause has generated.
Some Causes will only get visability and some will get donations. For example, Keep the Arts in Schools has 1 million fans and they raised $17k. It identifies a specific purpose, and activity that people can donate towards.
To generate donation with Causes on Facebook you have to be very clear about what the funds will be funding … specifically what project.
Pages look and feel like Profiles. You can do some different things through Pages. Pages can automatically be updated when there is a new post made to your blog. It can connect directly to your blog so that you don’t have to replicate that process.
Pages provide areas for discussion. You can add applications that are relevant. You don’t have the ability to do that with Groups.
Anyone can be a fan with a Page and can engage in a Page.
To control who can post and participate use a Group.
If you want to talk to a specific group of people, then you can invite them to a Group. Access is limited to just those people and is limited in what it can do.
Pages have more capacity to do more things.
Events in Facebook – you can create an event and can invite people to attend and people can then RSVP. This does not always work for all people. Free events it tends to work really well. The higher cost the cost of the event the lower the return.
Facebook ads are becoming more relevant. Can target users by geography, age group, keywords in their profiles, etc. May use ads for major fundraising drive. The cost of their ads is approximately $.20 per click on the ad. No Grants are available for Facebook ads.
You can build your own social network in a program such as Ning, Groupsite or Socialgo. In these programs you can change the look and feel with your own branding and logo. However, you are not using an already established user base and it will take a lot of effort to build your user base. You can make better use of an already established user base.
You can add a Share This Widget to your website so that people can send by e-mail, text messaging or Facebook your articles and site information.
You can create your own widget for people to put on their sites that can then link back to your site.
You can build widgets in Google.
Be sure to share your own content across all of the social media platforms that you are using. Maximize you connections with people. Promote through all devices being used.
RSS – Really Simple Syndication – feeds are pulled together with readers (i.e. Google Reader). Can easily scan articles quickly.
Most media sources have feeds available. If you use Blogger, you can create a feed. Some use it as alerts so when someone uses my name or product or brand, I can manage what people are saying about our products or services.
You can generate an RSS feed for most anything including a calendar, blog, web site, etc.
Feedburner with Google will generate a feed for you.
Google Analytics is free to use. It tells you information about who is accessing your site and where the are, how long they stay and what sites are they coming from to your site. You can track your Facebook ad and it will chart its success for you.
If you have pages that no one uses or that readers routinely stop on, you will notice those patterns in the reports and you will see what is working and what is not working on your website.
By 2012 people will be accessing the Internet by mobile phones more than by the use of laptops and desktops. We must design for mobile web. Mobile web is more action/task oriented and not much reading based.
David was kind enough to offer his entire Powerpoint presentation for this session as well. You can access it by clicking here.
Beth Canter has a terrific blog for nonprofits on Social Media.
There are free monitoring tools to see what people are saying about your organization as well.
This was another excellent presentation and I am very glad that was able to attend.
