AFP Presentation 2010: Navigating the Waters in the Sea of Social Media

Navigating the Waters in the Sea of Social Media
April 11th, 2010
Ken Cho, CEO, Social Agency
Carie Lewis, Director for Emerging Media, HSUS
James Young, Product Strategy, Convio
Hashtag for this session #AFPmeetSMSea

Navigating the Waters in the Sea of Social Media
Everybody’s an expert right?

We’re not, but we’re here to help
Carie Lewis
Director of Emerging Media for The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
@cariegrls
Ken Cho
Co-Founder of the firm Social Agency
@chonuff
James Young
Product Strategy Manager at Convio
@iberyoung

What is social media?
Online, two-way communications that allows for heightened participation and engagement

It’s all about
Trust
Sharing
Listening
Flickr photos by niclindh, samshad473, notsogoodphotography

Solicitation Channel (From nonprofits with established relationship)
% say appropriate solicitation channel
(rank ordered by very important –blue)
Source: Next Generation of American Giving Study www.convio.com/nextgen

Online Habits by Generation
Gen Y
70%
49%
25%
16%
49% Mobile phone only
Boomers
29% (reg)
60%
17% Texters
47% eNewsletters
55% Bank online
Gen X
56%
30%
13%
11%
27% Facebook mobile app
Matures
17% (reg)
50%
5% Texters
48% eNewsletters
34% Shop online
Source: Next Generation of American Giving Study www.convio.com/nextgen

We’ll discuss how to formulate a social media strategy
We’ll see how to plan a set of social media activities
We’ll hear from a real live practitioner

Social Media Strategy
“All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved.” - Sun Tzu
Your social media strategy will help you identify where you want to go and how you’ll recognize when you arrive there
We’re going to cover 3 topics
Strategy Formation
Channel Strategy
Measuring Success

Strategy Formation
“ABC, easy as 123, simple as do re mi, ABC, 123, baby, you and me girl!” – Jackson 5
Except in our case, it’s 12345
Identify your objectives What do you want to achieve?
Evaluate your objectives Do you really want to do that?
Evaluate your organization Are you ready to do it and be successful?
Evaluate your audience Are your constituents ready?
Identify your timeline When are you going to start and finish?

Identify Your Objectives
What do you want to achieve?
Common Objectives
Gain a better understanding of what the perception of our organization and mission is amongst our supporters.
Build awareness for our organization through our most passionate supporters.
Be more responsive to our supporters, on a local or individual level.
Generate a collection of reusable content by empowering supporters to create.
Be more effective at driving current event driven response amongst our followers.
Establish the organization as a thought leader and primary source of information of a given topic.
Drive more traffic to your website.
Strategy Formation

Evaluate Your Objectives
Do you really want that?
Your social media objectives have to align with your organization objectives
Your social media objectives have to be something you can measure definitively
Or they won’t be perceived as valuable
Or you won’t know if you succeeded
Strategy Formation

Evaluate Your Organization
Are you ready to do it and be successful?
Capacity is the bottleneck
You need to have an idea of how much time you need to accomplish your objectives
Plan to do it alone at the beginning, and the help you receive will fell like a bonus
Plan to mess it up at the beginning and have to do it again
Culture is the bottle opener
Your organization must be ready to lose control of the message, because you already have
Your organization must be ready to make public mistakes and deal with them
Your organization must be ready to respond to feedback, both positive and negative
Strategy Formation

Evaluate Your Audience
Are your constituents ready?
What is the state of the audience with respect to…
Awareness of,
Interest in,
Activity with,
Advocacy for,
…your organization?
What are the activities your target audience likes to do online?
Create
Critique
Collect
Join
Watch
What are the tools your target audience uses already?
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
YouTube
Strategy Formation

15
Identify Your Timeline
When are you going to start and finish?
Take the long view, but have an end in mind
Plan to take stock along the way

The Social Media Landscape – Channel Strategy

Measuring Success
“The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took my measurement anew every time he saw me, while all the rest went on with their old measurements and expected them to fit me.” – George Bernard Shaw
We promote sensible behavior
Define your metrics Which measurements mean success?
Establish your baseline Where are you now?
Set your schedule When are the right moments to measure?
Don’t forget feedback What about qualitative data?
Grab your toolbox Where is my ruler?

Define Your Metrics
Which measurements mean success?
Content Freshness
Reach
Engagement
Activity
Measuring Success

Social Media Activities
“Strategy is buying a bottle of fine wine when you take a lady out for dinner. Tactics is getting her to drink it.” - Frank Muir
With a strategy in place, it is time to do the social media thing. Like real conversation, there is an art to it.
We’re going to cover 3 topics
Voice
Tactics
Integration

Voice
“We often refuse to accept an idea merely because the tone of voice in which it has been expressed is unsympathetic to us.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
Your voice is your most important tool in social media
Trust
Authenticity
Good Listening
+
=

Tactics: Listening
G.I. Joe says knowing is half the battle
Your listening breaks down into two parts
Hearing the Conversation
Set up Google Alerts
Monitor Twitter for your keywords
Scout the major social networks
Set up an RSS
Use Technorati
Use a commercial listening tool
Analyzing the Conversation
Make time to analyze
Communicate findings frequently
Watch frequent and extreme contributors
Monitor mood and tie to your organizations activities
Tactics & Tools

Tactics: Sharing
When you are an authority, your content is an asset and sharing it via social media makes you a valuable friend
Want to get viral?
Leverage your passionate supporters
Provide pre-configured messages for each channel that they can copy and paste
Incorporate easy sharing tools like Share This or Social Twist on your website
Use your listening skills to discover who is sharing and reach out to them with a thank you
Blogs
Video
Social
Podcasts
Photos
Articles
Tactics & Tools

Tactics: Conversing
Be human, be polite, and be present
Tips for being a good conversationalist
You have to be present to win.
Take some time to learn the etiquette of the community you want to enter.
Give a little first before asking for anything.
Be responsive to people who react to you.
Forward along content you find interesting, providing ample credit to the creator.
No shy robots
Tactics & Tools

Integration
“If you're attacking your market from multiple positions and your competition isn't, you have all the advantage and it will show up in your increased success and income.” – Jay Abraham
Social media engagement shouldn’t be an island

Steps to Running a Social Media Initiative
Executing a coherent strategy, building a base of customers, measuring effectiveness, and adjusting the campaign accordingly yields results that ultimately establish and strengthen new and existing relationships in a feedback loop.
Define objectives
Set goals
Benchmarks
Revise content strategy: Add, edit, delete scheduled messages according to historical performance
Keyword searches
RSS feeds
Tweet plans
Content templates
Schedule content
Collaborate with social media team & subject matter experts
Measure the effectiveness of each message
Gather metrics by channel, voice, account and campaign
Engage in the conversation
Identify and follow key influencers
Capture user info (Social CRM)
Use of multiple voices depending on demographic/psychographic targets

Who am I?
Carie Lewis
Director of Emerging Media
The Humane Society of the United States
Been with the org for 4 years
Role became more social-media focused over time
Email: clewis@humanesociety.org
Twitter: @cariegrls
I love animals and I love social media!

How I did it: Got executive buy-in
We started with one person
Went under the radar to see what works
Built a supporter base by participating on other pages and discussion boards
Proved its worth by speaking their language
Compared the ROI to a paid banner campaign
Gathered web-savvy staff to help train
Got them on the networks themselves

How I did it: Got executive buy-in
Get them using the tools if they are the least bit interested
Don’t just show them your fan page – get them one
Be sensitive to all comfort levels
If they’re not interested, try a more passive approach
Then, when you want to experiment or need more resources, it will be an easier sell!

How I did it:Built a listening program
Set up Google Alerts and Tweetbeep notifications
Found where our constituents were and where others were talking about us
Started profiles in those arenas
Started talking and participating
Built a following

How I did it:Built a listening program
Got more advanced with our strategy
More than one Twitter account
Dual monitors with Tweetdeck columns
Experiment with management software like CoTweet and Hootsuite

Other tidbits:
No one can afford to ignore what’s being said about them
Brand monitoring is not a 9-5 job, so have a plan in place
Be proactive in building your fan base and establish trust so they’ll come to your defense if needed
Respond to everything, retweet and reply often
Participate in and start fun conversations, memes,
Follow people who talk about you without you knowing
Turn these people into brand ambassadors, interns, employees!
Track your mentions on Twitter and blogs

What else can we tell you?
Slides are available at http://www.slideshare.net/conviojames/navigating-the-seas-of-social-media
You can reach us at:
@cariegrls or clewis@hsus.org
@chonuff or ken@socialagency.com
@iberyoung or jyoung@convio.com
Any questions or feedback?

Backup

Social Media offers
A fundamental shift in communication
A true feedback loop
A real conversation
Free focus groups for all!
The chance to reach and find new supporters
Ability to illustrate a core understanding of the issues, trends and needs of supporters
A chance for influencers and advocates to evangelize for your cause
Monologue Dialogue

Why should I care?
Source: universal McCann Power to the People Wave 4 report

OK, people use it. So what?

What does Social Media do for me?
Facilitate Connections
For Support
For News
For Sharing
Attract New Constituents
Personal Stories
Personal Causes
Personal Requests
Facilitate Education
Organization to Constituent
Constituent to Constituent
Constituent to Organization
Develop Supporters
Nurture constituents into supporters
Provide tools to spread the word
Infiltrate other social networks

General Social Networks
They have presences in the major “general” social networks
Profiles
Pages
Groups
Networks
Applications

Applications within Social Networks
Creating support opportunities within these applications
Spreading the opportunity across the networks of friends
Providing support to individuals who initiate their own support

Specialty Social Networks
They have presences in the “specialty” social networks
Profiles
Actions
Networks
Campaigns

Build Your Own Social Networks
They are building their own social networks
Destination networks
User profiles
Forums
Groups
Media Sharing

Content Sharing Sites
They are sharing their content and letting others contribute as well
Videos
Photos
News
Comments
Ratings

Portable Content Widgets
They are building widgets to spread their content
Individuals pick them up and place them in their internet spaces
Visitors can view and interact with the content
Visitors can get their own widgets

Blogs, Micro-Blogging & Forums
They are engaging in conversation
Blogs
Forums
Comments
Content Ratings

Syndicated Content
They are making their content portable via RSS
RSS Feeds
Feed Management Services

Maps
They are tying their content to maps
Events
Campaigns
People

Mobile
They are reaching constituents on their phones
Text to Give
Text to Call
Text to Learn

Live Media
They are broadcasting live
Video Streaming
Live Blogging

Tactics & Tools
“If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.”– Abraham Maslow
Match your objectives to tactics, and tactics to tools
Common Tactics
Listening
Sharing Content
Participating in Conversation
Generating Buzz
Creating Community

Parting Words of Wisdom
“Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” – Sun Tzu

Agenda
Social Media Strategy & Execution
Define your goals and business objectives
Define the target audience
Identify your resources & constraints
Design a high-quality & creative content strategy
Select your social media channels
Define the metrics, benchmarks & measurement tools
“Seed” the campaign’s message
Analyze the results. Iterate

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AFP Presentation 2010: Navigating the Waters in the Sea of Social Media

by Convio on Apr 15, 2010

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AFP Presentation 2010: Navigating the Waters in the Sea of Social Media — Presentation Transcript