Listen Learn Adapt
Social Media and Nonprofits: Two-Day Intensive Workshop

We Are Media Project:
The Social Media Starter Kit for
Nonprofits
Visit the WeAreMedia wiki for additional
resources and to connect with other
nonprofit social media practitioners via
http://www.wearemedia.org
Funded by the Surdna Foundation

Objectives
• To provide a basic overview of how to apply listen,
learn, and adapt in your social media implementation

David Armano wrote this brilliant article
about why we need to think about return on
“insight” versus investment in a connected
age.
Go read it, I’ll wait.
That’s David

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnjoh/376275220/
How can Phil apply it?

Start with …
• What you will do with the tools
• Who you are trying to reach
• What you want them to do
know/do/learn/
• Results

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnjoh/376275220/
Check

Investigate before you leap
the first time
•Research excellent practices and advice
•Get to know the tool(s) you will use and
review examples of what other nonprofits are
doing
• Participate as an individual before
participating as an organization

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnjoh/376275220/
Check

Learn
Listen
Adapt
Return on Insight

Can I take these
off now?
Listening is
knowing what is
being said online
about your
organization and
your field.

Listening is the first step, but you do it …
Community
Building &
Social
Networking
Generate
Buzz
Share
Story
Participate
Listen
See WeAreMedia Wiki for more information http://www.wearemedia.org

Before
During
After

Hmm .. Need to
wear them all the
time.
See Beth’s Social Media Listening Personal
Learning Space
http://socialmedia-listening.wikispaces.com/

The Red Cross knows how to listen

• Keeping abreast of daily
conversation, knowing what needs
action
• Compile by line of service
• Distribute, consult with subject
matter experts

Leads to Engagement

“I took an American Red Cross class I thought was
less than satisfactory. […] Someone found my
blog post and told the local chapter director. He
called me to talk about it honestly. […] They care
about me and they’re willing to go the extra mile.
[…] This gives the American Red Cross HUGE
points. I am now significantly more likely to take
another class than I was before.” - Blogger

Influencer
Customer complaining …
Relationship
service
building
issue
Staff determines comments or tweets that need
response

Insight Harvesting

“Look for trends over time, what
people find compelling enough
about their intersection with the
Red Cross to spend time writing
about publicly.”

• Relationship building lays groundwork for future
campaigns to raise time, money, and blood
• Identifies influencers
• Documentation creates internal value
• Listening skills and tools upgraded
• What works used for future campaigns
Continuous Listening Offers Value

Learn
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/1408972724/

“If you don’t launch, you don’t
learn.” David Armano

Think like a scientist
Optional
Essential

Observe and sift through qualitative
data like a Primatologist

You’re saying that
donors are
primates?
Anthropologist * is a better metaphor
Armano describes it as “digital anthropologist”

A Process I’ve Used With All My Fundraising
Campaigns
• Document on the fly
• Test and tweak
• Pick the right hard data points
• Harvest your insights
• Look at what other nonprofits
are doing in the space
• Pause for reflection time before
next reiteration: How to improve
results?

Document on the fly

I like to visually
document too …

Test and Tweak

Synthesize along
the way – reflect in
action

Look at numbers .. You
still have to measure to
improve

Harvest Insights

A few points about social media metrics

Well not dead, but it’s not all about page views

Engagement
Create
Metrics
Critic Comment
5
Collect Click

Jake Brewer
“We don’t really care about views as much as we
care about comments. If we get 1,000 video views
that is good. The comments are a focus group with
our influencers. If they like it, they’ll spread it and
that helps get to our objectives.”

Social Media Metrics
• Objective, audience, strategy and link
to your metric
• Pick the right ones!
• Numbers alone are meaningless
• Combine with other measures and
qualitative data
• Harvest insights

Adapt
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lwr/1408972724/

This is the hard part because
you have to get past mistake
phobia

You have to be nimble

The Humane Society of the United States

They Thank
God!
adapted …
Did they stop doing photo contests as a result?

“Since this was our first run at a photo
petition, it was difficult to get across
exactly what we wanted people to do
without writing a book. So every person
who needed help was answered
personally. This gave us a good idea of
how to more clearly explain ourselves
next time. “
Carrie Lewis, HSUS

3,000 submissions

Did it evolve?

Wisdom of the Crowds Meets Person-to-Person Fundraising

It is easier to adapt
your social media
project
Harder to change
organizations

Summary
• Don’t take off your listening ears
• Think like a primatologist
• Evolution is a good thing

Small Group
Discussion the listen, learn, and
adapt discussion questions

All sources and additional material can be found on
the WeAreMedia Wiki
WeAreMedia: Listening
http://www.wearemedia.org/Tactical+Track+Module+1
WeAreMedia: Metrics
http://www.wearemedia.org/Strategy+Track+Module+6
WeAreMedia: Experiments
http://www.wearemedia.org/Tactical+Track+Module+6

If you remix this presentation,
please add your remixed version
to the wiki.
Thank you