Social Media for NGOsThe African Commons Project

andSangonet

Basic Course Overview

• Introduction to Blogging: Daniela and Matt• TEA• Introduction to Microblogging: Kerryn• LUNCH• Introduction to Social Networking Sites: Kerryn• Introduction to Wikis: Daniela• TEA• Introduction to Multimedia Sites: Daniela and Kerryn• Social Media Discussion and Summary

BloggingOutcomes

At the end of this section you will:

1. Know what a blog is

2. Understood the value of a blog for your organisation

3. Understood how to use a blog as part of your organisation’s

communication strategy

4. Have tips on how to go about getting buy-in from within your organisation

and how to attract a community of readers to your blog.

5. Know how to write a blog entry and have some ideas on what to write

about.

6. Have practiced posting on a blog, including how to link, formatting and

tagging.

Blogging

Blogging in Plain EnglishLee LeFever, Commoncraft.com

So what’s the big deal?

Read / Write

• Sir Tim Berners Lee invented the World Wide Web in 1990.

• The proposal was based on how to transfer information over the internet,

using a point-and-click system.

Read / Write

Tim Berners Lee’s Web

READ ONLY

READ-WRITEhttp://www.africancommons.org/wp-admin

READ-WRITE

Blog versus ‘Website’How to integrate for non-profits?

Blog versus ‘Website’A site WITH A BLOG

Blog versus ‘Website’A site WITH A BLOG

Blog versus ‘Website’Blog AS A WEBSITE

Why Blog?

Blogging facilitates conversations and creates relationships:

• Gives a personal, ‘insiders’ view to the happenings within the organisation

• Allows you to garner support and recruit volunteers.

• Information exchange between constituents, other non-profits, information specialists etc.

• Helps with accountability to donors

Best Practices for NGOs• Read blogs!

• “Before your organisation starts to blog, set up a newsreader”

• Have someone who likes blogging do the blogging

• Sustainability

• Quality above quantity

• Respond to comments

• Don’t just tell – show

• RSS feeds

• Promote your blog

Blogging Platforms

• Wordpress.com

• Yola.com

• Blogger.com

• Live Journal

• Type pad

• Serendipity

• Movable Type

• See the wiki for URLs!

Some blogging STYLE notes• Informal and personal tone

• Focus on unique content: Add a new voice to the internet

• Length: 250-300 words or maybe… not???

• Link, link, link: This provides supporting information to your post

• Appealing headlines (titles): Grab your reader

• Spelling and grammar check!

• Visuals: A picture (or video) tells a thousand words

Friday Fact Box

Blogging Exercise30 minutes

Log on to the NGO Pulse website

Write 2 paragraphs on one of the following topics: • About your organisation: vision, mission and projects;OR• A recent event/project that your organisation has hosted/launched.

Remember to include links!

MicrobloggingOutcomes

At the end of this section you will:

1. Have background context to microblogging and Twitter

2. The different uses of microblogs, and the different ways of using

microblogs

3. Know how to navigate your *homepage*

4. Understand how Twitter can be used in organisational strategy and

campaigns or programmes

5. Have set up a Twitter account either personal or organisational.

6. Know how to search for *followers* on Twitter.

Microblogging

What is micro blogging?

Twitter in Plain English by Lee lefever

• Microblogging is a hybrid, or mix, of two technologies:– mobile phone short message service (sms), and– IRC (internet relay chat protocol); which was the very first instant

messaging system sent via a phone line before the world wide web was developed.

• Microblogging developed from a creative sub culture that grew in IRC chat where people could give a short status next to their name when ‘logged in’

• Microblogging is based on this principle of providing an immediate status update: what am I doing now?

• Twitter is the name of the microblogging platform. There are similar platforms, but Twitter is the most popular.

The birth of microblogging

Example of IRC chat room - geeky, no aesthetic

… became instant chat eg ICQ, with updates: what am I doing?

… became a platform that looked like this …

• Original name was Twttr, inspired by the name Flickr and also based on the 5-digit sms code

• Rebranded to Twitter & launched publicly in 2007 • One of the most powerful tools in the SNS (social media

sites) arsenal • “The new scaffolding that gave power to new short

messages.”• Twitter is now the third largest social media platform with

4.5 million users at November 2008

Why 140 characters? • Started limitless but 160-character per tweet • Due to system overload this was reduced to 140, leaving

space for user name and colon“One could change the world with one hundred and forty characters”

The Twitter tale

Twitter Tree by Pandemia, Source: Flickr, cc-BY

The main uses are:

1. Daily chatter: – Sharing my daily routine, what am I doing … a stream of consciousness

2. Conversations: – Commenting on or replying publicly to other people’s posts, using the @ sign – private direct messaging to followers (called dm)

3. Sharing information/URLs: – 13% of all posts contain urls. Using a url shortening service like Tinyurl or bit.ly– Retweeting someone else’s tweet (NB for organisational/ brand building)

4. Reporting news: – latest news or comment about current events

The main uses

Information sourceIs a hub that has large number of followers. Might post regularly or infrequently, but due to the

value, followers remain large

3 types of users

Twitter Tree by Pandemia, Source: Flickr, cc-BY

FriendsMost relationships fall into this broad category

Posting regularly* Friends are not necessary ‘friends’ like facebook

Information seekerThis person might post rarely but follows other users

regularly

Following: – Updates in your personal timeline of those you’re following will be visible

on your homepage. Search:

– for people, profiles, topics of interest and followFollowers:

– receive your updates– When you post an update to your Twitter account, your followers will get it

on their home page – Mutual followers can send each other private messages - DM - – Can get notified by email when someone new follows you or sends you a

private messageExtend your network:

– Extend your network by following those who you’re following or are following your followers

So, what do you do with Twitter?follow & be followed … and search

(8)

User namefollowing/ follow stats & status updatesdirect messages and directed responsespeople following updates on homepagemost recent updatesearch (find people) and advanced search

The lingo of twitter retweets, ats & bit.lys …

Well, firstly what are TAGS in general?

• a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information - an internet bookmark, digital image, computer file

• this kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching.

• are chosen informally/ personally by the item's creator or by its viewer, depending on the system

Tagging helps organise and share our info online. By attaching one or more keywords to an object, like a Flickr photo, we group it together with others that

have the same tags. Hashtags on Twitter serve a similar purpose

Objectives • to bring order to Twitter users’ updates (tweets)• To make it easier to follow a topic of interest

How to• Create a hashtag by adding the hash symbol # to the front of an appropriate

keyword as you write your tweet• There are pre-existing hashtags that others have set up which can be followed• A well-known example is #nptech for tweets about the non-profit environment• Hashtag tweets are also available as individual RSS feeds

Hashtags in Twitter

Search (find people)

advanced search - http://www.search.twitter.com

Other handy hints1. Apps for desktop• “Twitter clients” - bring Twitter to your desktop: Tweetdeck, Twhirl• Can post to multiple platforms at same time• Can provide immediate shortened url app

2. Pics on Twitpic - http://www.twitpic.com• Upload pics to a Twitter photo-sharing platform• Upload via twitter client• Upload via cellphone with unique email address

3. Track retweets• Search for retweets using advanced twitter search or new tools such as

Retweetist or dailyRT

4. Find hashtags • Twitter advanced search using “this exact phrase”• Hashtags at www.hashtags.org

Meaningful business tool for building a community of constituents, clients or supporters, through

1. ability to talk directly to a group of people (no intermediary)

2. send people to a specific location (url) (call to action)

3. provide info to people (info source)

4. gain insight into what constituents are thinking and talking about (user intelligence)

5. gain insight into what other orgs are doing, discussing (market intelligence)

The rise of Twitter as a business app

How non-profits can use Twitter: case study• Reason for using Twitter:

– listening post and place for conversation

• Strategy: – employees tweet & develop like-minded followers. (see NWF Twitter

homepage) – Different campaigns on different channels – Twitter not in isolation: Put articles on other SNSs and point to them

through Twitter;– push people to their media hub page

• Benefits:– Can join in conversation with constituents (direct communication)– Can gain insight into how constituents feel toward the org (user intellig.)– Can even mend relationships and have made new contacts (r’ship mngmt)– Helped spread important messages (info source)– Increased their online activism

National Wildlife Federation,

United States

20 mins practical• Create your profile on twitter at twitter.com

– Basic: You will need to access an email address for profile confirmation– Advanced: Customise your homepage background

• Search – Basic search: Find 3 people that you either know or would like to follow, and follow

them – Advanced search: Find organisations that are active in the non-profit, ICT

environment and follow them– Advanced search: Find the hashtag bb4za and find out who posted and what this

event was about

• Post:– Basic post: Post your first tweet to your profile– Advanced post: Send a direct message to kerrynmckay or someone you are

following– Advanced post: Post about this workshop using #smngo and then search for this

hashtag to see who has contributed– Or retweet something interesting

Social Networking sitesOutcomes

At the end of this section you will:

1. Have an understanding of how Facebook can be used as a tool for building

or supporting constituencies

2. Understand how campaigns can be implemented on Facebook

3. Know the difference between Groups and Pages and how these could

complement your organisational strategy/ objectives

4. Have some knowledge of additional apps and tools that can be used in

Facebook for business purposes

5. Be aware of how to manage your organisation and staff on Facebook

6. Have an awareness of legal issues around Facebook content

Social networking sites

Towards a definition:

Social networking sites allow users to articulate and make visible their social networks … (they are about) … communicating with people already part of your social network

- danah m. boyd, Social Networks Sites: Definition, History and Scholarship

“

”

Facebook in context

Timeline of development2004

Harvard-onlyTo find friends, hook ups on campusNeed harvard email address to access

2005 Other universities and some corporate networksNeed varsity or corporate email to access

2006EveryoneAny email address to access

Why does Facebook work? …175 million users can’t be wrong!• Barriers to entry are low

– It’s free– Easy to do– It’s a relatively safe space based on friendship and referral

• Based on community– Built around groups– Made up of networks– Successfully mirrors fabric and structure of real-life communities

• Immediate gratification– Updates are real time– Connect in real time with chat application

• Customisable– Add different applications to their profile– Customise your homepage

Non profits and Facebook

• Enables non profits to easily access (potentially) huge numbers of constituents and potential constituents at very little or no cost.

• Platform for amplifying and broadcasting your message via personal relationships to a massive audience.

• Is an ‘opt in’ scenario!

• Your facebook strategy – should not be so much about the organisation as about the cause. – Develop and discuss a deliberate strategy– Remember: strategy requires maintenance!Eg: Facebook allows your org to be hub of info; or clearing house for

important/ relevant info; time sensitive info distrib.

Keys to success• Create personal relationships with other facebook

members interested in similar causes or issues.

• Encourage constituents to post comments, submit photos and videos

• Participate Participate Participate!– Frequent updates– Encourage your org’s employees to have online

conversations around your org’s work

• Monitor and keep in touch

Remember: Relationship first - organisation promotion second!

Tools for your org - groups and pages

Groups are best for special interests, causes, a place to build up a tribe of people interested in your subject

Groups can be set up by anyone, about anything - not necessarily formal representation

Example: there are 133 Save Zimbabwe groups

People who join your group are called members

Groups can

• show news & info,

• create & invite people to events,

• set up discussion threads and

• add multimedia

Members can

• contribute to the wall with comments, multimedia (photos/ video)

• add, & contribute to discussion threads

• RSVP to events via their inbox

About groups

Group example

Contact members directly;

message appears

in their facebook inbox

• build database of constituents; email max 5,000 bulk mail• Create events; send invitations to members through event system; RSVP functionality• Members can add a comment to the wall, can add photos and video• Members can contribute or initiate discussion & debate

Group pros and cons

The pros• Facebook users are familiar with groups• you can send messages to group members• are marginally easier to set up and manage than pages

The cons• are only visible to Facebook members• no extra applications added to them• You generally have to visit a group regularly and use the messaging feature to keep discussions flowing.

Pages are best when you want to specifically represent your business ; pages get indexed by Google to allow global access in search.

Pages cannot be created to represent a real public figure, artist, band or org, and may only be created by an official representative of that entity.

Pages have more functionality than Groups and can add media-rich content; focus on the stream of content posted by page administrators

You can promote your pages with your own Facebook ads

Pages have

• customisable tabs: enhanced wall for updates/ photos/ video/ events/ reviews/ discussions

• measuring engagement and interaction tools

Fans can

• interact on wall, in discussion groups

• dependent on customisation they can write reviews, upload photos and video

About pages

Page example

Pages pros and cons

The pros•visible on the wider internet to non-Facebook members (although only Facebook members can interact with them)• can add applications from a wide range of off-the-shelf apps• provides visitor statistics to let you know how many visitors you pages are getting• user RSVPs added to their calendar & friends will see event in newsfeed

The cons• ‘Updates’ sent to those who decide to be a ‘fan’ of your page are lower key than messages to group ‘members’ - appear on side of homepage when log in; not inbox• Facebook users are less familiar with pages than they are with groups• Visitors still need to be a member of Facebook if they want to join in discussions on your page message board.• More difficult to set up than groups; might need tech assistance to add other apps

Privacy & IP issues on Facebook• On Facebook you can adjust your privacy settings; ensure these

meet your level of comfort

• If encouraging your org’s employees to post, remember that their updates are visible by everyone in the network. Request discretion.

• Be aware of the Facebook terms of use & privacy policy and understand what impact this could have for your organisation

• The controversy - Facebook terms of use clause change … and change back again!:– Stated that the perpetual licence that they had granted themselves

to the content of users’ profiles would no longer expire when those users shut down their accounts.

– Translation: We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever

WikisOutcomes

At the end of this section you will:

1. Have found out what a wiki is and how it can be used

2. Understand what the key features of a wiki are

3.Understood the value of a wiki for your organisation

4. Understood the types of information that can be shared on a wiki

5. Have tips on how to get buy-in from within your organisation and how to

encourage positive participation in the organisation’s wiki.

6. Have practiced adding information to a wiki, including how to add new

pages, linking and formatting.

Wikis

Wikis in Plain English

Lee LeFever, Commoncraft.com

History function

Discussion feature

Wikis gather communities

Practical implementations for non-profits1. Collaborative Documents

2. Conference programmes, documentation and planning

3. Project Management

TACP uses Socialtext to coordinate the organisations’ work – meeting notes, to do lists, shared information. (Private wiki)

Where to find a wiki

• Free and EASY, but with advertising• Wikispaces • PB Wiki

• Free but you’ll need a developer• MediaWiki: database-driven, for large wikis

• EASY but not FREE• Wikispaces (no advertising and customisable)• PB Wiki• Socialtext

Wiki Best Practises

• Think about it first: Launch a wiki with a clear purpose• Adoption strategy: Set up a staff meeting and demonstrate how the wiki will be used and how easy it is to contribute. • Pre-populate: At least on the front page. This encourages others to participate. • Appoint a wiki gardener and/or a wiki champion• Make the wiki a part of daily work habits

Wiki Best Practises

• Wikipatterns.com: A great wiki resource!

• People patters/anti-patterns

• Adoption patterns/anti-patterns

Wiki Exercise40 minutes

Using your cheat sheet…Log on to the Social Media for NGOs Wiki(http://socialmedia.ngopulse.org/)Find your name in the participants list. Create a new page for your nameAdd (copy and paste) the blog entry that you wrote on NGO Pulse to your page. Insert the following somewhere in your text: Bold, italic, bullets, heading, an external link. Save the page. Once you are done, add a link on your page to the page of the person sitting to your right.

Multimedia sitesOutcomes

At the end of this section you will:

1. Understand the benefit of using photo and video-sharing sites for your

organisation

2. Understand tagging and how it can be used to gather media from your

constituents

3. Be able to find and share photos and video.

4. Be aware of free or open-licences such as Creative Commons, which allow

you to legally share and use multimedia from *external* sources

5. Know how to add multimedia to your blog, including resizing and

embedding.

6. Have practice searching for freely-licensed multimedia.

Multimedia sites

Photo sharing sites in Plain English

By Lee LeFever, Commoncraft.com

Flickr• Essentially an SNS - one of the world’s best online photo management

and sharing apps1. Help people make their content available to people who matter to them -

this includes alternative licensing options 2. Enable new ways of organising video and photo

• Free account to upload photographs and use the site to store, share and explore photos (up to 100 MB per month)

• Members can 1. Upload and download photos2. join and create groups 3. participate in discussions 4. connect to people and can help widen your org’s online connections

through photo-sharing

Tagging and Search on FlickrTags• An online non hierarchical ‘filing’ system to categorise photos

and video, ie: a keyword or category label. • Tags help you find photos and videos which have something in

common. • On Flickr - up to 75 tags to each photo or video• Geo-tagging and search using the map on Flickr• Creative Commons search on Flickr

Promote your tag to your community

Geo-tagging search

Flickr and your Org

1. TALK. Tell your story through Flickr• “A picture is worth a thousand words”

• post pictures about your cause and spread your story

• connect with your supporters and start a Flickr group. – Groups can be private or public – organized around an event, subject, theme

• Encourage everyone to comment and give their feedback on the photos.

• Don't worry if you are a small nonprofit and don't have a lot of pictures to post. Even a few will help demonstrate to supporters your work towards your mission.

Flickr and non profits2. PROMOTE. Share your event

• Upload event photos

• Encourage your attendees to do the same.

• Exposes to a wider audience than if you just posted them on your web site.

3. LAUNCH. A campaign; a fundraiser

A great example of a fundraising campaign on Flickr is The Children at Risk Foundation (Carf)

Asking supporters to donate $10 per person to support their street kids programs and to contribute their own photos to their Flickr group.

Photos & conversations they generate show how a small amount of money $10 can make a huge difference.

There are many advantages to launching campaigns on Flickr .

• They can be easily done on a low budget; increase your visibility, provide an interactive community for supporters and engage new audiences.

4. ENGAGE. Be known to your volunteers

• Encouraging volunteers to share photos, ideas and stories allows your org to take advantage of the creativity of as many people as possible

http://www.flickr.com/photos/camera_rwanda/sets/

Video to support your causeEducation

• A great way to find resources on issues related to your work. • Example: Common Craft videos shown here today – all sourced from Youtube. • Videos are a great way to effectively explain complex

issues in a succinct and entertaining way. You can share explanations about your cause and why it is important. • Which is also linked to…

Video to support your causeMarketing and Fundraising

• Video memesWhat is a meme?Any idea or scrap of content that spreads voluntarily from person to person across the Web.• Example: The Girl Effect

• Documentation of your work and events• Resource• Donors and stakeholders accountability • Archival purposes• Example: The iCommons Summit in Sapporo ‘08

Video site showcaseWhere do I share?

• Youtube channelsHuge international audiences, limit of 20 minute uploads, 10 million uploads a day. • Zoopy

Local option, local audiences, local speeds (faster). Audio, video and photos. Mobile site. • Dotsub

Plugging in to a community of translators

Creative Commons in the digital economy• Creative Commons defines the spectrum of possibilities between full

copyright and the public domain.

• The licences help you keep your copyright while allowing certain uses of your work — a “some rights reserved” copyright.

• Creative Commons licenses are not an alternative to copyright.

• They work alongside copyright, so you can modify your copyright terms to best suit your needs.

All rights reserved No rights reservedSome rights reserved

You can choose!• The types of uses you want people to automatically have with

your work without having to gain permission from you as creator

• No contract signed. Creative Commons licences are designed to be applied to your work and to be binding upon people who use your work based on their notice of the Creative Commons “Some Rights Reserved”

• The licences have been ‘ported’ into South African law so that they are compatible with and upholdable within SA Law courts

• Licences available in human-readable, lawyer-readable and computer-readable code (The metadata describes the key licence elements that apply to a piece of content to enable discovery through CC-enabled search engines)

Video and photoUpload/download, resize and embed

DEMO ON WORDPRESS SITE

1.SEARCH

2.PUBLISHa) EMBED (video)Copy the embed codeChoose HTML viewPaste the embed codeResizeb) DOWNLOAD/UPLOAD (photo)Click download and save to desktop. Go to story and click on upload photoFollow instructions

3.SAVE

Multimedia Practical15 minutes

1. SearchUse one of the featured video sites or flickr.com to find either a video or picture to compliment or add to the story you wrote at the beginning of the day.

2. Add this media to your story on the NGOpulse site.

3. Publish your final story.

Final Social Media Practical45 mins

30 mins – Analytical exercise

– Using the social media tools that you have been introduced to, write a 5 step social media implementation plan for your organization.

– You may use one, some or all of the tools.

– Log back into the social wiki and record your five-step implementation plan, using the cheat sheet to familiarize yourself with the formatting.

– http://socialmedia.ngopulse.org/index.php/Main_Page

15 mins - Report back– Report back the ideas used in your implementation plan to the

group.