An introduction to Social Media for Charities

Who’s using it ?

To give you a taster, here are a few charities using Twitter ActionAid UK Dog's Trust RNIB AsthmaUK Fairtrade UK RSPB Barnardos Family Holiday Association RSPCA Beatbullying Gambian Enterprise Shelter Cymru Bletchley Park Trust Greenpeace StandUp Campaign British Red Cross Hearing Dogs TimeBank Bullying UK Henry Moore Foundation UNICEF CAFOD Learn As One War Child Campaign to Protect Rural England Lesbian & Gay Foundation WaterAid Cancernursing Macmillan Cancer Support Weldmar Hospice Care Child's i Foundation MS Society WhizzKidz Citizenship Foundation National Autistic Society Women's Resource Centre Compassion in World Farming National Trust WWF Computer Aid Ovacome Yorkshire Cancer Research Contact a Family Oxfam (UK) YouthAct Diabetes UK Plan UK YouthNet

What is Social Media ?

It’s a fundamental shift from traditional marketing methods ...

... of ‘speaking at’ your audience ...

... to ‘speaking with’ them

It allows you to engage with your audience ...

... and allows them to engage with you ...

... which encourages participation

It’s about people having conversations, connecting and engaging online

How can it help charities ?

Raise Awareness

Monitor and Manage Reputation

Grow Communities

Spread News

Raise Funding

Publicise Events

Research Tool

The Tools

Social Widgets Networking Chat Rooms Blogging Micro Forums Social Media Platforms Blogging Podcasts RSS Photo Sharing Video Sharing

2/3 of the global internet population visit social networks 5,000,000,000 minutes spent on Facebook each day If Facebook were a country, it would be the 8th most populated place in the world, just ahead of Japan.

Perfect example of communication being about a dialogue, not a monologue Allows you to share news, opinion, advice with your community and allows them to engage RSS and email allows your community to receive updates as they happen

The monthly growth rate of Twitter users from January to February 2009 : 1382% The average number of tweets per day : 3,000,000 A powerful networking tool that allows you to interact with people in real time It has a global reach that breaks down the barriers of communication and allows networking in real time on a large scale

How do you ? get started

Don’t Dive In!!!

You can’t just create your pro les and rest on your laurels

Develop your strategy. What are your objectives? What do you want to achieve? Then think about how you will measure it.

Research where your audience is, and create pro les on those platforms

Decide who should be responsible and ensure they understand what’s expected

Listen and engage with your community. It’s a dialogue, not a monologue

Ensure all pro les are kept up-to-date and be responsive to comments or questions from your community

Encourage sharing ... this is what helps build your community and increase awareness

Be real and authentic ... people connect with people so let your brand personality shine through

An example

Beat - Beating Eating Disorders Beat has a presence on Facebook, Myspace, Bebo, Twitter and YouTube. Here’s what they told us ... “Social networking is a successful way of communicating information, support “It's important to us to services and campaigns” go to people rather than waiting for them to nd us, particularly with young people”

Beat - Beating Eating Disorders “Our presence on social networking sites makes us more accessible and friendly” “We have 3130 members on the sites. Over 5000 views of our videos on YouTube. We are continuing to look at ways that we can develop how we can use social networking”

Beat - Beating Eating Disorders Quote from a young Beat ambassador "By accessing something like beat via social networking, you can not only gain help and friendship from those in similar positions which helps to reduce the isolation, but it also allows you to access help in a more personal and very non threatening manner" http://www.b-eat.co.uk

To sum it all up then

Social media is a fundamental shift in how we communicate and it’s here to stay

Part, if not all, of your audience is using it and if you’re not engaging them, others will

You might want to get onboard

Credits and resources 5 essential tips for promoting your charity using social media 10 ways to support charity through social media What Are the Top 10 Charity Applications Within Facebook? Imagery from www.sxc.hu Facts, stats and info (with thanks) from: Marta Kaga, Time Magazine, Universal McCann Nielsen Global Faces & Networked Places, 2009 Mark Zuckerberg, January 7, 2009

Let’s connect … Blog : redcubemarketing-blog.com Twitter : twitter.com/gemmawent LinkedIn : linkedin.com/in/gemmawent Facebook : facebook.com/gemmawent Email : gemma@redcubemarketing.com Web : redcubemarketing.com

An introduction to Social Media for Charities

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