Social Media
for change
Rachel Beer
Bringing chari-es and
supporters closer together

Helping chari-es
engage with supporters,
stakeholders & influencers
– Fundraising
– Campaigning
– Volunteering
– Marke-ng
– Communica-ons

?

What are social media?
Why use social media?
Who uses them?
What should we use social media for?
What results can we expect?
Where should we start?

Do I really need to know?

What do they do?
• Photo sharing Vimeo, YouTube, Flickr
• Social networks Facebook, Bebo, MySpace
• Professional networks LinkedIn, Naymes, Plaxo
• Aggregators FriendFeed, Socialthing!
• Bookmarking StumbledUpon, Digg
• Microblogs TwiPer, Plurk, Jaiku
• Blogs Typepad, Wordpress
• Charity Just Giving, Ammado
• Nings / white label communi-es
• Wikis Wikipedia, PBwiki
• Other sharing Amazon, Trip Advisor

• Variety of choice
• Ultra‐personalisa7on
• Consumer empowerment
• Micro‐niche targe7ng
• “If I don’t get what I
want here, I’ll go
somewhere else”
The age of the individual

.uk
Me@work.co
Me@ho me.com
ok.com/me
www.facebo
am.com/me
www.lifestre
com/me
www.photos.
.com
www.MyBlog
Mobile: 079 70 543321

Some compelling figures...
• 60% use Internet in the UK
– Half that number use social media
• 7 of the 10 top sites in the world are social
– Facebook has 101 million users
– YouTube, 258 million users
Users Since '07
258MM +94%
101MM +305%
Sources: Forrester Research, CommScore global, YouTube & Facebook

The point is...
• Social media are important – culturally
• They have changed the landscape forever
• It’s going to keep changing
• You can be part of that change, instead of
running along behind, trying to catch up

It all adds up to Change...
Connect Collec-ve wisdom
Communicate Categorise
Create Community/
Co‐create Crowd‐source
Collaborate Conversa-on
Collect Customise

How can these tools contribute?
• Raising awareness and spreading the word
• Adding weight to your organisa-on’s voice
• Providing peer support and mo-va-on
• Involving those affected by the issue/s in
crea-ng the solu-on
• Helping people to take ac-on
• Raising funds

Benefits for your organisa-on...
• Stories & • Provision of services
tes-monials to many – e.g. forums,
• Proof of ‘need’ – informa-on,
e.g. for services resources, peer
and funding support
• Weight of opinion • Communicate with
• Find out what exis-ng and new
stakeholders and contacts, cost‐
supporters want effec-vely

BIG

CLEVER

FREE

• 2,310 fans
• Widget launched July 2007
• Downloaded 100,000+ 7mes
• Can be placed on a website or
social networking site
• Promotes causes through
individual’s fundraising
efforts
• Viewers can see progress of
the fundraising and leave
comments

Referrals to Just Giving
sers
ve u
acti tion
lion plica
mil ap
100 d an
ver ade
as o nlo
ok h dow
ebo ave
Fac % h
95

• Social site
launched in
March 2008
• For people with
cancer, friends &
family
• 2,214 members
• Growing by 20%
every month
• Blogs, videos, chat
rooms and photos
• Chat rooms are
popular
• Around 100
regular bloggers
• People share their
experiences and
concerns

• A na7onal
reserve in
Kenya
• Relied on
tourism to
fund
conserva7on
work
• Violence
aZer poli7cal
elec7ons had
detrimental
effect on
tourism

• Work and issues
brought to life
on blog
• 450 unique visitors
each day
• Used to
encourage
donations
• $40k raised in
March 2008

• Used to
post videos
of the
wildlife and
the work
• 23
subscribers
• Over 4,000
video views

• 599 contacts
• Content added
regularly

• 1,843 people
follow them
• Used for updates
on the latest
news as well as
talking to users
directly and
encouraging
dona7ons
• Short, quick,
dynamic
messages
perfect for
driving traffic to
other URLs

• Facebook Cause page
has raised $1,395
• 1,772 members
• 38 wall items have
been posted
• Hall of fame shows
the biggest donors
and fundraisers as
well as the biggest
recruiters of new
supporters

• An aggregator
• View content
from a variety of
placorms in one
place
• Shows all ac7vity
from Flickr,
Facebook, Vimeo,
Twieer and blogs
• Convenient way
for supporters to
keep up‐to‐date

• Use of many social media tools
• Encourages sharing – and makes it easy
• Compelling content
• Story telling
• Authen7c voices
• Emo7onal
• Opportunis7c
• Proac7ve
• Different
• Sa7sfying
• Donors feel their money is going directly where it is needed
and can see the effect of their dona7ons

Stop broadcas-ng...
... start engaging

New rules of engagement
• No ‘us and them’ – now shared ownership
• No more broadcast – now conversa-on
• No more spin – only transparency
• No more push – now pull
• Give to get – you need to add value
• Honest, open dialogue builds rela-onships
• Don’t put up walls – people will move away

Where do we start?
• Experiment
• Need to use to understand
• You don’t have to be ‘perfect’ – just human
• No need for fully thought‐through
communica-ons plans at this point

3 things you can do tomorrow
• Google your charity and find out where
people are talking about you
• Google your ‘compe-tors’ and find out where
they have presence
• Set up a page on Wikipedia –
or bring the exis-ng one
up‐to‐date

3 things you can do by Friday
• ‘Park’ your profiles on the main plaoorms
• Find out whether there is a social media
strategy in your organisa-on
• Get a date in the diary to brainstorm with
colleagues

Think strategically
• Start with your objec-ves
• How can social media contribute?
• What resources do you need?
• Or what can you do with the resources
you have?
• How will you integrate messages with the rest
of your (more tradi-onal) communica-ons

Remember
• You don’t have to be big to succeed
• You are not in control – don’t try to be
• Con-nuity – keep the conversa-on going
• Expect the unexpected

Connect with me...
hPp://twiPer.com/rachelbeer
www.thecharityplace.co.uk
www.thecharityplace.org
racheljbeer@googlemail.com
Images © Rachel Beer/ iStockphoto