Social Media Best Practices for Non-Profit & Public Sector Organizations

Jay Moonah

jay@wildapricot.com

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A bit about Wild Apricot

• Member management & website software– Focused primarily on small & medium nonprofits

– Try it for FREE at wildapricot.com

• Nonprofit technology blog– blog.wildapricot.com

• Association Jam social news sharing site– associationjam.org

• Questions?– Please contact me: jay@wildapricot.com or 416-410-4059 x. 302

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Top 10 Wild Apricot blog posts

• Five of our 10 most popular blog posts were on Twitter or Facebook– Including the top three

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In this session we’ll cover

1. Goals for your social media efforts

2. Identifying the right opportunities

3. Building your presence

Please feel free to ask for clarification or make comments any time

But, before any of that stuff...

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• Social media is NOT a magic bullet

• It will NOT help if you…– … have no clear goals– … have weak, “me-centric” messaging– … have no staff or volunteers to lead the effort– … are not consistent and persistent

• (And even if you do, it STILL may not help!)

Start with right expectations

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It’s still hard to see results

http://www.clickz.com/3634883

“Like brand marketers, advocacy and nonprofit groups are struggling to measure how their social media numbers translate to real action and real donations.”

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For example, Facebook Causes…

Source: Justin Perkins, Care2

• Only 0.2% of Causes account for 40% of money raised

• Only 513 of 180,000 have more than 20,000 supporters

• Median donation is just $.01 per member

• ROI on time invested estimated at 300:1 loss

• Most raise 58% of donations from top 5 donors

– 20% from the top donor

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It takes time

• Beth Kanter, nonprofit social media guru

– 5 hours/week to start listening– 10 hours/week to participate– 10-15 hours/week to generate buzz– 20+ hours/week to build community– (At least) 3-6 months until you see results

http://beth.typepad.com/beths_blog/2008/10/how-much-time-d.html

So, why bother?

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Social Media a Natural Fit for Causes

People want to see themselves reflected in the kinds of causes nonprofits represent.

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Social Media creates Real Connections

Case study at http://tr.im/childfundcase

“We want to empower our supporters to tell us what they want and share information with us.

Social media gives them an avenue to communicate with us, ask questions and give feedback.

They can share their stories, photos, information with us or point us to other things they think we should be aware of.”

David Hylton from ChildFund International

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Volunteers

Social media provides new ways for people to contribute to causes they care about.

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It’s Hip to be Good!

• Advertising Age launched GoodWorks section in April– Follows “corporate social responsibility and cause marketing”

http://adage.com/goodworks/

Your Goals

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• You’re doing well in other online channels

• You have people dedicated to care & feeding

• You’re willing to give up some control

When to try social networking…

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Goals!

• Grow membership• Increase event participation• Raise money

Social media CAN help with these

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Growing Membership:North Mason Chamber of Commerce

http://frankkennysblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-we-grew-our-membership-by-85-in-18.html

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Growing Membership:North Mason Chamber of Commerce

• "How we grew our membership by 85% in 18 months"– Started with blogging– Created a private Ning group to connect members

• Started adding content regularly• Once established, members "post dozens of times to your one time,

keeping the site active"

– Promoted through Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, YouTube, and email

"You must nurture the sites by seeding them, reinviting members to join, engaging them, friending them, coaxing them along until they have a habit of contributing.“ - Frank Kenny, North Mason Chamber of Commerce

http://frankkennysblog.blogspot.com/2009/09/how-we-grew-our-membership-by-85-in-18.html

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Event Participation:Blog Action Day 2008

http://www.visionaryblogging.com/services/case-studies/event-marketing/

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Event Participation:Blog Action Day 2008

• Goal: enlist bloggers in Blog Action Day 2008 to discuss global poverty• Activities:

– Wrote regularly for event blog

– Used Twitter to update supporters

– Tracked event site traffic and social media activity

• Activated volunteers & partners– Recruited more than 80 organizations as partners to assist with promotion

– Recruited volunteers who translated website into more than 20 languages

• Results?– 12,800 blogs signed up to discuss poverty on October 15, 2008

– 17 of the 100 most popular blogs in the world participated

– 13.5 million people worldwide followed or participated in the event

http://www.visionaryblogging.com/services/case-studies/event-marketing/

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Raising Funds:Critical Exposure

http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2009/9/7/how-a-small-nonprofit-used-social-media-crowd-sourcing-to-wi.html

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Raising Funds:Critical Exposure

• Goal: earn a permanent spot on GlobalGiving “marketplace” website– Three weeks to raise $4000 from 50 donors, opportunity for bonus money

• Message Saturation – Updated supporters via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, website & more

– Initial concern about over-messaging, but supporter asked for MORE

• Empowered Supporters = Emotionally Invested Supporters– Asked supporters to be fundraisers, provided sample messages to post

• Regularly updated supporters on the fruits of THEIR labour– Supporters “wore out the refresh buttons on their browser keeping tabs”

• Result?– Raised over $15,000 from more than 600 individuals, $5000 in bonuses

http://www.frogloop.com/care2blog/2009/9/7/how-a-small-nonprofit-used-social-media-crowd-sourcing-to-wi.html

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What do these cases have in common?

• Clear, specific goals• Strategy and tactics for achieving those goals• Staff/volunteers dedicated to the program• Desire/need to create community evangelists• Willingness to adjust and learn on the fly• Measurable outcomes

Your Opportunities

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Start by listening (1)

• Search for your keywords on Twitter• Subscribe to search results RSS feed• Follow people who tweet about you or your cause

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Start by listening (2)

• Find and follow people/organizations– http://wefollow.com/tag/nonprofit

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Start by listening (3)

• Search Facebook– What other nonprofits like you have a presence?

– What kind of support are they seeing? -- fans, wall posts, etc.

– What is being discussed?

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Start by listening (4)

• Ask your supporters and volunteers– Where are they active online?– What would they like to see you do?

Building Your Presence

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You do not need to participate in every social media platform

Pick places where……your supporters are

…where you are comfortable

…features match your goals

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Start smallWhere should you start? Do your homework!

Best (Free) Sources of Social Media Audience Usage Researchhttp://www.netsquared.org/blog/kanter/nptech-summary-best-free-sources-get-

social-media-audience-usage-research

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Don’t Just Broadcast

• WWF tweets:– Their own links– Links to other– Retweets– Replies

• Lists local accounts

http://twitter.com/wwf

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Encourage Sharing

• Create “talkability”• Ask for help (retweets, etc.)

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Establish daily routine

Starting points:– http://www.chrisbrogan.com/define-a-social-media-system-for-yourself/ – http://www.ducttapemarketing.com/blog/2009/01/22/my-social-media-system/

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Establish regular reviews

• What have we learned?

• What has worked well?

• What did not seem to have effect (so far)?

• What should we change?

• Are we moving toward our targets?

• What should we adjust activities or targets?

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By Justin Perkins from Care2http://www.frogloop.com/social-network-calculator

Social Networks Fundraising & Advocacy ROI Calculator

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Resources

• Wild Apricot Blog– http://blog.wildapricot.com/

• Association Jam– http://associationjam.org/

• Beth Kanter blog– http://beth.typepad.com/

• FrogLoop Care2 blog– http://www.frogloop.com/

• NTEN blog– http://www.nten.org/blog

• TechSoup blog– http://blog.techsoup.org/

• NetSquared blog– http://www.netsquared.org/blog

• We Are Media SM Starter Kit for Nonprofits– http://www.wearemedia.org/

Thanks!

Questions?

jay@wildapricot.com

wildapricot.com

Twitter/Facebook/Flickr/YouTube/LinkedIn:

jmoonah