Social Media 201

Implementation, Strategy, Tips & Techniques

Discovery Impact: Creating Change

November 9, 2011

    

Introductions

Gayle WeiswasserVice President, Social Media Communications@gweiswasser

Kristen VariolaSocial Media Specialist @kvariola

David TraSocial Media Specialist@dtra

Corporate: @DiscoveryComm and #ourimpact

Today’s Agenda

Nonprofits Online

How Nonprofits Are Using Social Media

How to Create a Social Media Plan

Social Media Tools

Social Media Tactics• Engagement on Facebook• Engagement on Twitter• Engagement on Tumblr• Relevant Blog Content• Involving Leadership • Involving Employees• Use of Social Media Tools

Evaluating Impact

Q&A

Source: 2011 Nonprofit Social Network Survey and Chronicle of

Philanthropy

How Nonprofits Are Using Social Media

Nine out of 10 nonprofits report having a presence on Facebook in 2011. Twitter has the second highest adoption rate at 57%.

Average nonprofit Facebook community size is up 161% in 2011 to 6,376members per page.

Online giving is growing: $808 million online in 2010 up from $523.1 million in 2009

How Nonprofits Are Using Social Media

Environmental/animal welfare groups recorded the highest average community size on Facebook.

Small nonprofits ($1 to $5MM annual budget) make up 30% of the organizations who raised $100,000 or more on Facebook over the last 12 months

Source: craigconnects

How Nonprofits Are Using Social Media

How to Create a Social Media Plan

Goals• What do you want to accomplish?

Audience(s)• One or many?• Open or closed?

Content• What information are people looking for?• What can you share?

Voice• Does your organization have a voice?• Who can translate that voice to social media?

Integration• What need does social media satisfy?• What existing communications can your social profiles supplement?

Resources• Do you have a dedicated person or persons to manage your social media

presence?• Can you invest in social media tools or applications?

How to Create a Social Media Plan

Define target audience(s).

Define goals and objectives.

Monitor conversation and topics of interest to look for entry points into discussions.• Set up Google alerts.

Assign and create content.• Consider creating an editorial calendar.• Consider introducing weekly traditions/post

schedules.• Schedule content.

Engage!

Social Media Tools

Engagement & Monitoring HootSuite, TweetDeck

TwitPic, TwitVid, etc.

Bit.ly

Vitrue, BuddyMedia, Involver

Google Alerts

Metrics & Analysis Facebook Insights

TwitterCounter

Radian6

Influencers & Trends Topsy

Google Realtime

Klout

Tumblr

Kred

Assemble & Mobilize Twitvite

Eventbrite

Meetup

Social Media Tactics: Facebook

“Everyone at the Do

Something office is

dressed up for

Halloween! Do you

recognize any of these

costumes?”

http://ow.ly/7lAFZ

Facebook can help you:

Share relevant content.

Share testimonials.

Recruit volunteers/energize advocates.

Broadcast milestones.

Demonstrate your expertise.

Gather feedback.

Social Media Tactics: Twitter

Twitter can act as a newsfeed.

Allows you to jump on the bandwagon with trends in your industry.

Connect with like-minded organizations through hashtags and tagging.

Great for crisis management and communication.

Engagement on Twitter

UNICEF (@UNICEF)

• UNICEF shares the latest news – from every medium.

• @UNICEF retweets followers who mention them.

• Hashtags optimize the impact of Tweets and organize conversations – ex. #eastafricacrisis

Social Media Tactics: Tumblr

Tumblr is a great place to share photos and short success stories of your work.

Images, like this one posted by Good Neighbors USA, give donors and members an inside look at where their money is going.

Also a great platform for information to go viral. Encourage your audience to share your success with their networks.

Social Media Tactics: Blog Content

Blogs: Position your organization as an expert

in the field. Share news and opinion. Link to content throughout your site. Highlight others’ successes (as well as

your own).

The Humane Society hosts a blog from President & CEO Wayne Pacelle.

Content is updated regularly and includes actionable items.

Blogroll and social media integration on the site and within posts makes content “spreadable.”

Involving leaders can help:

Strengthen your message through personality.

Provide a more genuine connection between your target

audience(s) and your organization.

Get leadership involved and excited about social media

activities.

Social Media Tactics: Involving Leadership

Involving Employees in Strategy

Involving employees can help you:

Empower employees and volunteers to be ambassadors of your organization.

Highlight multiple perspectives .

Increase your reach.

Identifying ourselves on our social profiles as company employees.

Blogging on our corporate blog.

Attending/speaking at events and providing real-time updates.

A team member provides social media counsel during Discovery Communications’ trip to

rebuild tornado ravaged homes in Alabama

Our social media team actively represents our company by:

Involving Employees in Strategy

Identify spokespeople (traditional and social media) .

Set a social media policy (independent or as part of a communications policy) for all other employees and volunteers. Remember that anyone’s posts can be reported on by media or bloggers.

Empower employees and volunteers to be ambassadors by encouraging them to follow you on social media and share posts that resonate with them, as well as their own posts.

Identify “super ambassadors” who can contribute content and/or help manage your social media profile.

Encourage your employees and volunteers to tag you or use designated hashtags when attending events for your nonprofit.

Use of Social Media Tools

The National Breast Cancer Foundation used Twibbon to allow supporters to decorate

their Twitter avatars with pink Twibbons to illustrate their support of the nonprofit.

It’s free to set up a Twibbon. When a supporter uses one, it sends a Tweet out to

all of his/her followers, to alert them of the affiliation.

Philanthroper is a daily deals site for social good.

It started as a site where users gave $1/day to a certain cause.

Due to overwhelming demand, they can now give up to $10 a day.

Oceana encourages action and richer experiences through a variety of Facebook

tabs – from holiday cards to adopting animals and signing petitions.

Evaluating Impact

Set realistic goals that drive your organization’s mission – target donations, volunteers,

signatures, members, clicks, photos, etc.

Look to peers for inspiration, but not necessarily for benchmarking.

Keep track of qualitative examples that demonstrate impact of social media, and trumpet

them.

Ask followers for feedback; seek ideas from the target audience.

Find learnings in successes and failures.

Questions?

blog.discoverycommunications.com | @DiscoveryComm