ICT for Successful Organisations
Social Media
PRESENTER NAME
PRESENTER ORG
PRESENTER ROLE
DATE

Regional ICT Champions
• A champion for ICT in your region
• To see local infrastructure support organisations
• Operate more efficiently in its day to day work
• Be more effective in its reach and influence
• Voice, representation, advocacy
• Signposting sources of help
• Strategic support

Materials have been prepared by a number of the ICT
Champions

The Internet
FACTS
• We spent 119 billion minutes on the internet in Feb 09.
[Global Online Media Landscape”, Nielsen, April 2009]
• UK online shoppers spent £4.6 billion during Christmas
2008. [IMRG Cap Gemini e-Retail Sales Index]
Three BARRIERS to USE (from Freshminds – April 2009)
• No affordable ACCESS to the internet
• No INTEREST in the content on the internet
• No KNOWLEDGE of how to get on-line

The Internet
BUT
• 25% of adults have never used the internet [ONS 2008]
• 70% of people living in social housing aren’t online – which is
28% of everyone not online [Oxford Internet Survey 2007]
• 70% of people over 65 have never used the internet [ONS 08]
Our understanding and use of social media is important to
help organisations outreach to groups and communities
• Once connected 17% increase in communication with friends &
14% increase with family [Freshminds, April 09]
• 25% more confident in finding work [Freshminds, April 2009]

Photo: flickr.com/photos/briansolis/

Social Media / Networking – the major types
•What is it
•Why should you
care
•How it’s being
used - for our
organisations
•Impacts / risks
•How to get there

• 94% had HEARD of New Media or Social Media
Of these, 60% had used New Media of some form
•
• 70% had used Forums
• 60% had used Blogs
• 60% had used Media Storage
• 60% had used Google Apps
• 40% had used Wiki’s
• 20% had used Twitter
• 10% had used Social Bookmarking

Some descriptions ...
“In the world of the web the main principle is that you can freely
communicate with anyone you need to regardless of title or
hierarchy. Even if decisions are made in a hierarchical or
structured way, communication
“Online applications, is free and lateral: anyone can
platforms and media talk to anyone else. The web is
which aim to facilitate creating a culture of working with
interaction, people not for them. Work is
collaboration and the most satisfying and creative
when it’s work with people rather
sharing of content” than for them.”
www.universalmccann.com Charles Leadbetter, March 2009

Old media - Web 1.0 . . .
. . static
websites
with no
interaction,
text heavy
content.
Information
was just
fed TO
viewers
(Others – if you dare!)

New media - Web 2.0 . .
. . is
interactive
websites,
open
comments
allowed,
conversations
and social
networking
WITH viewers
encouraged

• Increases speed of communication – no faster way to
spread your message than through social
networking.
• Widens message to people/groups that would normally
be missed using more traditional methods – ‘viral’
campaigns hugely powerful creating awareness
extremely efficiently
• Deepens to build new and different networks –
communities of interest to bounce ideas off and
share experiences

• Generate on-line conversations and awareness about the
organisation or campaign, a consensus of
opinion or shared learning about ideas
• Joins together communities who are interested in the
similar things, have the same likes or are striving
for the same objectives.
• Commoncraft Video explaining Social Media

Why social media?
• Advocacy
• Awareness
• Fundraising
• Inspiring action
• Influencing change

 New Media solutions provide additional ways of
delivering/promoting your message.
 Old Media (phone, letter, e-mail, newsletters, press
releases etc) still have their place
 Think of New Media as additional tools in your tool kit.

Audio - Podcasting
• A news feed with a media sound file attached that can be
picked up by a feed reader.
• Can be downloaded to portable audio devices (such as
MP3 player or ipod) to be listened to on the move.
• Turns flat written statement into a vibrant personal story
• Captures background sounds / effects / laughter of the
project
• ‘Audacity’ – free software for recording and converting to
MP3 to load to the web http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
• Commoncraft Video explaining Podcasting

Audio – Podcast Directory for the Sector
Visit

On-line web logs or journals
• Used by 65% of active UK internet users, who have
created 17.8m blogs
• A diary detailing events in a periodical fashion. The name
is taken from ‘weBLOG’
• Keep staff up to date about what individuals are doing
• To provide a periodic record of what you have been doing
to feedback to funders
• To provide case studies of events and parts of your work
• Generates evolving conversations as other contribute to
the topics you raise
• Commoncraft Video explaining Blogs

Online journals - Blogging
Visit

Video Sharing
• Used by 84% of active UK Internet Users
• Upload and share videos that you can take on any digital
camera or mobile phone.
• Once uploaded these can be included on your own
website
• Videos tagged for easy searching by visitors
• Allows comments and conversations to build about the
video content or message
• Offers many ways to to promote your organisation and
its campaigns ... and all for free.

Video Sharing - YouTube
Visit

Micro-journals
• Built on the SMS mobile phone technology
• Mobile phones are most accessible form of mobile media
• Allows users to send and read other users' updates which
are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.
• Updates displayed on user's profile page and delivered to
other users who have signed up to receive them.
• Can be used to alert masses of people, quickly, efficiently
and cheaply – about an event, report or campaign
• Powerful to ‘ask the (worldwide) audience’ a questions
and collate responses – much easier than by email
• Commoncraft Video explaining Twitter

Micro-journals - Twitter
Visit

Twitter : Reports events AS they happen not
AFTER they have happened

Twitter : Extra eyes and Ears for your cause

Key Social Media Facts: Twitter
• A great way to reach a wide, yet targeted audience
• 10 million people visited Twitter in February 2009
(worldwide); traffic to Twitter in the UK increased by 974%
in last year. [ComScore and HitWise]
• Nearly one-in-five (19%) online adults ages 18 to 24 have
used Twitter/similar services, as have 20% of online adults
ages 25 to 34.
• Median age of a Twitter user is 31. Median age of a
MySpace user is 27, Facebook user is 26 and LinkedIn user
is 40. [Pew Research Center]
• People are motivated by learning new things and getting
information real-time as it’s developing. [Ann Handley,
MarketingProfs, Mashable]

10 Ways to use Twitter
1. Networking: find key influencers in your field to follow [http://tweepsearch.com]
2. Knowledge: listen to keep up with latest events in your field [#SocEnt]
3. Research: ask questions to gain insights, ideas, prioritize [@odemagazine]
4. Educating: highlight research, trends, and advances [@casefoundation]
5. Increasing Awareness: share accomplishments, beneficiary stories
6. Filtering: select the best information to ‘retweet’ and save people time
[@NetSquared]
7. Events/conferences: increase reach and global participation [#swf09,
@socialedge]
8. Fundraising: raise small gifts, create “Epic Change” [ Tweetsgiving, Charity:Water/
Twestival]
9. Announcements: post winners of contests, deadlines, milestones, etc.
[@changemakers]
10. Friendraising: build loyalty, make personal connections [@lend4health]

Listening to the web - Inbound
• What are other websites saying about your organisation?
• What are organisations you support saying?
• What are the relevant stakeholder reports and funding
opportunities that are being published
• RSS enabled feeds automatically can be picked up to be
read at your leisure in a feed reader (such as Bloglines or
Google Reader) without you having to re-visit each website
• Content aggregated into a single easily readable interface
• RSS feeds can be converted for email delivery
• RSS feeds from others can be embedded in your website

Listening to the web - Outbound
• Tell others what you are doing
• Easier for supporters (individual and peers) to keep up with
your events and news
• RSS enabled feeds automatically can be picked up to be
read at their leisure in a feed reader (such as Bloglines or
Google Reader) without them having to re-visit your site
• RSS feeds can be converted for email delivery
• Your RSS feed can be embedded into other organisations
websites
• Commoncraft Video explaining RSS

Listening to the web – RSS readers

Image Sharing
• Used by 49% of active UK internet users
• Many contributors to these sites allow you to use their
photos free of charge, they usually only ask to be credited.
• Can be difficult to source good quality photos for websites
and publicity, especially without significant cost
• Build on-line journal of images relating to your project with
tags to enable easy searching and commenting by others
• More striking than a report or case study on paper when
presented to funders, trustees and stakeholders
• Access to photos anywhere so freeing up server space
• Commoncraft Video explaining Image Sharing

Image Sharing - Flickr
Visit

Social Bookmarking
• Organize your collection of personal web-links
• Share useful web-links within your team or your peers
• Publish organized lists of resources for outside partners
and clients
• Keep up with the latest news, online resources and
information in your sector
• Discover websites, online resources, organisations and
individuals in your area of interest
• Bookmarks are shared using common tags
• Commoncraft Video explaining Social Bookmarking
[Thanks to Tim Davies - http://www.practicalparticipation.co.uk/]

Social Bookmarking

Social Networking
• Used by 60% of active UK internet users
• Community websites that link people who share interests
and activities or who are interested in exploring the
interests and activities of others.
• They provide various ways for users to interact, such as
chat, messaging, email, video, voice chat, file sharing,
blogging, discussion groups and more.
• Commoncraft Video explaining Social Networking

Social Networking - Facebook
Busts
For
Justice
Dog’s
Trust
Causes

Social Networking - Ning
Niche
networks
that you
can
create
yourself.
Youth Work
Online

Collaborative working
• Software that allows a disperse groups of people to work
collaboratively towards shared aims.
• Create, edit, and link pages together in a variety of
document formats
• Create collaborative websites - perhaps the most popular
example is Wikipedia
• Share in discussions and meetings on-line
• Commoncraft Video explaining Wikis
• Commoncraft Video explaining Google Docs

Collaborative working - ooVoo
Visit

Collaborative working - Doodle
Visit

Collaborative working - GoogleDocs
Visit

 Barack Obama 44th & Current President of the United
States of America used New Media solutions to great
effect during his election campaign.
 Facebook
 Twitter
 YouTube
The first president to be allowed to have a Blackberry
whilst in office.

• Access to a GLOBAL audience enabling many voices
• F R E E!!! (in most cases)
• Your ideas and messages can be shared & spread very quickly
• Can take on a creative life of its own
• Very high profile – the latest ‘buzz’
• Portrays the human voice of your organization
• You want share ideas in progress and let others join in and help
• It may be messy – so be prepared to deal with this
• You are already clear in your aims, but open to contributions

• Tracking sites can be time consuming – so have a clear plan
• Needs fast internet connection (ADSL / Fibre) – rural issues
• Can be intimidating if not used to using the internet / technology
• Fickle – constantly changing ‘current fashionable product’
• Impossible to control – groups may take your message and
spin it, so it is important to listen to the social networks
• Be prepared for your organisation to change how it works
• Looser control on organisation message and authorization -
won’t work if your message is written in stone, not electricity
• Invest time in staff learning new skills and the time to make it an
organizational habit

Which One is Right for your organisation?
 Blog - informal project progress?
 Forum - for supporters to discuss?
 Social Network - build cause awareness?
 Twitter - short project updates?
 Video / Photo sharing - our annual report?
 RSS - what are others saying?
 A combination of all of these and more!
 Select those that are right for the organisation

A combination ?
Visit
Colalife

Social media - reflections
• What ideas do you have for your use?
• How do you think organisations need to make more of
social media?
• How could the groups you support be more effective in
their campaigns by using social media?
• What gaps are there in supporting them?
• What was the best idea which came from the session?

From Boulders to Pebbles
• “All the new media and cultural organisations, created from
now on, will be ‘pebble’ businesses.
• Google and other more intelligent search engines offer to help
us find just the pebble we are looking for. Google will
increasingly offer to organize more and more of the unruly
beach.
• Wikipedia is a vast collection of factual pebbles.
• YouTube is a collection of video pebbles
• Flickr of photographic pebbles
• Social networking sites such as Facebook allow us to connect
with pebbles who are friends.
• Twitter … allows people to create collections of lots of really
tiny little pebbles.”
• Charles Leadbetter

How social media can help groups you support
• The Social Media Game
• Ways to make the organisations you support more …
Effective in communication of their message
Efficient through use of free online resources
• Wordpress or Blogger websites
• Wiki – collaborative development
• Flickr and Youtube – photo and video capture of events
and beneficiaries
• Conversations with those you help and those who want to
support you through blogging and Twitter

Finding your way
• Objectives - what
• Audience - who
• Strategy - pick a path that fits
• Implement - match the tool
• Sustain - measure, adjust

Photo:
Finding your Way! flickr.com/photos/worldwidewandering

Useful Links & Contacts
• NAVCA www.navca.org.uk
Local Infrastructure Organisations providing general support
services may also provide ICT services
• ICT Champions
for ICT answers in a box www.ictchampions.org.uk
• RuralnetUK www.net-gain.org.uk
• Capacitybuilders www.improvingsupport.org.uk/ict
• Knowledgebase www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk

Useful Links & Contacts
• AbilityNet www.abilitynet.org.uk
• IT4Communities www.it4communities.org.uk
• CTX www.ctxchange.org.uk
• NCVO ICT www.icthub.org.uk
• Open Source www.osalt.com
• Commoncraft http://www.commoncraft.com/

Round Up
• Review of session – key messages
• Any Questions?

Round Up and Thanks
For More Details About This Workshop
Visit:
Regional ICT Champions website
www.ictchampions.org.uk
Or
Contact NAVCA
paul.webster@navca.org.uk

Thank You
www.swict.org.uk
julie@cosmic.org.uk
01404 813226