Social Media:
Overview and Strategies for NGOs
Gregory Heller
Partner & Strategist
CivicActions
twitter @gregoryheller

Agenda

What is “Social Media”

Why it is important to NGOs

How to develop a Strategy

Measuring Success

What Is It?
Social Networks and Social Media are not the same!
photo credit: flickr :: muffet flickr :: Andrew Mason

Social Networks
Social Networks are the connections people make with one
another. Technology empowers this through websites like
Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and countless others.
photo credit: flickr :: kentbye

Social Media
Social media is online content created by
people and shared over social networks.
photo credit: Library of Congress

The Big Picture

Social media is fundamentally changing the way
humans connect and share information and ideas.

It is also YAPS (Yet Another Paradigm Shift) in
communications. From a one-to-many mode of
communication to a many-to-many mode.

This is unique and unprecedented.

Social Media Is...
Connection,
Conversation and
Contribution through:
 Sharing
 Participation
 Authenticity
 Adding Value
“"The Conversation Prism" Brian Solis & Jess3”

Why Is It Important

This is the direction internet communication is headed

Your networks are there:
 other organizations, donors, board members, etc...

People are talking behind your back!
 the conversation is happening with or without you

Increasingly people are searching there

Modes of Social Media
Microblogging
Social Bookmarking
Media Sharing

Microblogging

Frequent Status Updates

Links
 sites
 news
 videos

Breaking News

Rapid

Contemporaneous

Conversation

Microblogging

Short: Constrained length (Twitter 140 characters)

People “follow” you, you “follow” people

Public conversation with other users

Social Bookmarking

People share their bookmarks

Easy to see what's interesting to people

See how other people “Tag” the same pages
 (we'll talk about Keyword Research in a minute!)
delicious
bookmarks
& notes (reader)

Social Bookmarking
Inside Delicious

One way it happens...

Share This/Service Links on websites

Photo Sharing

Flickr – share photos with friends and strangers

tag photos to be easily findable

add them to “groups”

Post comments, and discussions

license them under Creative Commons

2.5~3 million new photos each day, over 3 billion in total

Facebook – increasingly used for photo sharing

post to “wall” or albums

Tag and Comment

More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news
stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on
Facebook daily.

Video Sharing

YouTube – Videos, Video responses, comments,
rating, favorites
 YouTube is the #2 Search engine in the World
 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute

Others: Vimeo, Revver, blip.tv

uStream.tv for live streaming

Examples of NGO's
Using Social Media

Social Media Strategy example:
Photo Petition

Social Media Strategy example:
Photo “Contest”

Social Media Strategy example:
Using Video to Connect
Oxfam used a
YouTube video first to
introduce their
campaign against
Starbucks and then to
present a “Thank You”
from the people Oxfam
Supporters helped.

Social Media Strategy example:
YouTube Video Campaign

Using Twitter
Promotion
Invitation,
Engagement,
Audience Building
Petition

Use Multiple Channels

Facebook Fan Page

Facebook Causes

Developing A Strategy Of
Your Own.

Look Around

Conduct Preliminary Research

What are other orgs like yours using/doing

Where is your audience
 Nielsen Media Metrics
 Pew Internet Surveys and Reports
 Survey them yourselves

Who are the important/connected people

What are the keywords

Develop A Plan
P.O.S.T. Framework (Groundswell, Forrester Research)

People: Identify your audience

Objectives: Identify your objectives

Strategy: Develop a strategy

Technology: Identify the right tools/sites

Ready?
photo credit: flickr :: Jon Marshall

Listening
Developing a Listening Strategy is essential

Where to listen
 Google News and Blog search, Technorati, Twitter

How to listen
 feed readers (Google reader, Bloglines)
 Schedule time to listen

When & how to respond
 Comment, Blog post, Tweet, letter to the editor, op-ed

Keywords...
And why they're important:
 Search. What your audience searches
 Keywords determine relevancy
 Relevancy determines findability

Keywords...
And how to find them:

Look at “competitors”

Brainstorm with your staff, members, audience

Google Trends (http://www.google.com/trends)

Ask for help/feedback from others
 On Twitter, or Facebook for example

Delicious

Finding Keywords
Use Delicious to see tags used by others

Listening Tools:
Twitter Search
Search for Keywords, Look at Trending Topics

Search & Hash Tags

Listening Tools:
Google Reader

Google Reader
Leverage your listening, use Google Reader to share

Get Connected

Go where your audience is
 Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, WiserEarth, Ning
 Twitter
 YouTube

Participate, Engage, Contribute
 Build and use social capital. You can't save it.

Growing Your Network

Make a commitment to “be there”

On Facebook: create a “page” not a group.

Start with everyone in your organization
 Grow from there, use blog, website, Twitter

Don't attempt “action” until you have Critical Mass

Take the Long View

Join the conversation

You know who is talking

You know what they are talking about

You know where they are talking

Assign staff resources

Make time in the schedule

Check in to make sure it is happening

Microblogging

Find interesting people/companies and follow them

Post regularly: “What has your attention?”
 Links to your blog, but be sure to provide context
 Links to other interesting articles, sites, etc...
 “re-tweet” interesting/useful posts
 reply to the people you follow
 don't post many times in a row
 Provide value to the people who follow you

Find People To Follow
WeFollow.com
allows Twitter
users to “tag”
themselves for
others to find.
MrTweet.com makes
recommendations

Adding Value

Know your audience, understand what they will
find interesting and useful. Give it to them.

Provide unique insight

Share “privileged” information

Measuring Success

Measuring Success

Followers, friends, subscribers

Links, retweets, mentions

Facebook “Insights”

Views, Favorites, Ratings
Numbers are useful, but don't tell the whole story

Tools For Measurement

Google Analytics

twitter.grader.com, twinfluence.com, twitalyzer.com

Facebook Insights

YouTube Insight

Google Analytics
Specifically Look at
your “Referring Sites”
report.
Look for specific
Social Media sites.
Measure their
increase correlated
with your use of tools.

Twitter Metrics

Twitter Metrics

Twitter Metrics

YouTube Insight
Insight shows stats on all of YOUR videos.

YouTube Video Stats

Notes and Resources
Visit Our Website:
http://CivicActions.com/social-media