Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Social Media for Non-ProfitsGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Mesh conference workshopApril 2009

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Context

• Workshop format– feel free to jump anytime with ask questions/comment– Sharing my current thinking and looking to learn from you

• Who is this for– People working for/ volunteering in small non-profits– Trying to figure out how to [eat this social media elephant]

• Will publish this on Wild Apricot blog on Wed Apr 8 so that you can easily access links

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

About me• Chief Apricot @ Wild Apricot• Wild Apricot software

– Web-based software for small non-profits (15,000 and counting)

• Website hosting / CMS• Membership management• Events calendar/registrations• Donations

– For associations, charities, clubs…– (really small: most are all-volunteer-

based or 1 staff person) • Wild Apricot non-profit technology

blog – (#1 in Google Search as of April 6th)– Writer: Rebecca Leaman

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Wild Apricot Blog - top 10 posts of all time~250 posts in total in the last 2 years. Variety of topics - polling tools, fundraising widgets, online collaboration etc. etc.

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Social media for non-profits

– Tons of free advice available online – blog posts, presentations, videos

• (Blog post is in the works on Wild Apricot blog with a list of best presentations we found)

– Millions of people are on social media websites– Great success stories abound– Excellent examples to learn from– Tools are free

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Charity:Water Twestival

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

But…

• It’s easy to start • It is exciting and fun to tweet, friend people

on Facebook and post picture on Flickr• It’s easy to spend lots of time on social media

websites and have a warm fuzzy feeling inside– and get no results to show for it

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Charity: Water second look

• 202 cities, total raised ~$250,000– a bit over $1000/city raised– Worked because of many talented and passionate

volunteers contributed hundreds of hours of their time

• What if there are 25 charities next month trying to use a similar strategy?– I doubt each will raise $250,000– Or that they will be able to find people to rally their

communities to the same degree

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

2007: The Long, Long Tail of Facebook Causes

July 2007 research by James O’Malley and Justin Perkingsat frogloop.com

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Is it different now?

• Maybe• The pattern probably still holds• More people on social media websites• BUT many more non-profits are competing for

attention and donations

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Start with right expectations

• Setting up your profile on Facebook and starting to post messages on Twitter will NOT magically produce results

• If your website is ugly and outdated, it is unlikely that your social networking profile will be much different

• If you do not regularly update your website or blog, how will your ensure regular and consistent social media messaging?

• If you do not have a habit of listening to your community, it will not be easy to acquire

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

How much time does it take?

• Beth Kanter: How Much Time Does It Take To Do Social Media?

– 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 before you start seeing

tangible results

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Are you prepared to invest time and effort?

• What will you have to stop doing to find time for social media initiatives?

• Do you have the drive to keep you going?• Do you have the discipline?• Do you have the right people?

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Walk before you run

• Do you have a blog?• Do you regularly and consistently update it (at least twice a

week)?• Do you track readers/subscribers? (Google Feedburner • Do you read/answer to blog comments?• (incidentally, for many small non-profits, the answer is No to

most questions above)• No sense to start new online initiative in social media if your

current activities are inefficient

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Social media is not a strategy

• But a great tactic/ tool• Can be lots of fun• Will not help your non-profit if

– You have no clear goals– Your messaging is weak and me-centric– You do not have good organizers to lead the effort– You are not persistent

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

What are your goals?

• What do you want to happen by when?– Attract donors– Attract volunteers - identify super-activists– Generate visits to your website from Social media– Gain insights into what your audience needs, wants, or thinks about your

cause

• Good starting points:– Dosh Dosh blog: Social Media Marketing Campaigns: How to Set Goals and Def

ine Your Target Market  

– We are media: Module 6: Social Media ROI

• Superficial and vague answers are not enough. Use ‘5 Whys’ approach to dig deeper

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Unicef example

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Quantify!

• It is easy to stay at the level of generalities• Harder to come up with hard targets• Very hard to measure your actual results • What you need is to draw a line of sight from

your activities to intermediate results (Twitter followers and Facebook friends) to end goals like donations raised

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Non-profit Web 2.0 Facebook group

• Almost 2000 members

• Success?

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Not really

• Not much content or engagement• 6 videos• 18 photos• 143 wall posts

– Sometimes a week or two goes before any new content– High ratio of marketing/spam– Everybody is shouting, nobody seems to be listening

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

ROI calculator

• Frogloop online ROI calculator for Social network campaigns by Justin Perkins

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

What’s your message?• Recycling old marketing campaigns in social media does not work• Rethink and change your perspective:• Chris Houchens, Shotgun concepts: Marketing a non-profit organization  :• From static organization-centric press-releases– Us– Here's what we are doing– Send us money

• To audience-centric story-telling, creative and fun– Here are results, – Here's how it affects you, – Send us money, – Here are the results from your money etc.

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

You do not need to participate in every social media platform

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Start small

• Pick 1 or 2• Do your own research

– Best (free) Sources To Get Social Media Audience Usage Research

• As a shortcut – if you are just starting right now, go with Facebook and Twitter

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Start by listening (1)

• Search for your keywords on Twitter, subscribe to search results RSS feed, follow people

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Start by listening (2)

• Find and follow people/organizations– http://wefollow

.com/tag/nonprofit

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Start by listening (3)

• Conduct a Facebook research – what other nonprofits in your area of interest have a

presence ?– what kind of support they're receiving there --fans,

message wall– What is being discussed?

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Learn from others on Facebook

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Faceboook – Groups vs. Pages

• Source: Jason Falls Facebook Group and Brand Page Best Practices

• Gets even more complicated - also Facebook Causes

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Learn from others on Twitter

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

NWF on Twitter

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Establish daily routine

• (If you really want to have anything else done)• Allocating specific time slots is better than constant

distraction• Starting points:

– Chris Brogan: Define a Social Media System for Yourself– John jantsch: My Social Media System

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Weekly and monthly 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 change in our activities

and/or our targets?

Social Media for Non-Profits – Mesh workshop April 2009, TorontoGreat opportunity? Colossal waste of time? The answer is YES

Resources• Wild Apricot Blog • Beth Kanter blog  • FrogLoop Care2 non-profit online marketing blog• NTEN blog• TechSoup blog• NetSquared blog• We Are Media - The Social Media Starter Kit for

Nonprofits