50 Ways to Jumpstart Your Social Media Strategy
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This presentation was delivered at the 2010 Council on Foundations fall conference for community foundations. The session, "50 Ways to Jumpstart Your Social Media Strategy," was designed to leave attendees with easy-to-implement tips to improve their social media communications.
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50 Ways to Jumpstart Your Social Media Strategy
- 2. 50 Ways to Jumpstart Your Social Media Strategy Presented by: Tara Pringle Jefferson, public affairs associate Scott Tennant, public relations officer
- 3. But first…. You do have a social media strategy , don’t you? Are you blindly updating your organization’s Facebook page? Do you only send out tweets whenever you get inspiration? Are you avoiding social media altogether?
- 4. It’s 2010. The “shiny new object” syndrome is over. It’s time to think deeply about how your organization can use social media to create REAL change. Flickr photo provided by z6p6tist6
- 6. Where social media fundraising campaigns take off
- 8. General stuff to jumpstart your thinking
- 9. Plant supporters for your executive director 1
- 10. 2
- 11. 3
- 12. Breakfast = Morning post Mid-morning snack = check for replies, comments Lunch = 2 nd post of the day (if applicable) Mid-afternoon snack = check for replies, comments Dinner = Check for comments, post additional information right before you leave the office 4
- 13. 5
- 14. 6 “ The most generous members [organizations] of any social media company are the most credible and influential and as such, they can devastate their competition.” ~Shel Israel
- 16. 8
- 17. 1 Read Beth Kanter’s blog {www.bethkanter.org} 9
- 19. 11 Draft a social media policy
- 20. 12 Get your whole staff involved
- 21. Jumpstarting… Your Facebook Page
- 22. Make your Facebook posts “share-able” 13
- 23. 14 Dig into your stats
- 24. “ Tag” other organizations in your Facebook page updates 15
- 25. 1 Dip a toe into mobile technology 6
- 26. Jumpstarting… Your entry into the world of Twitter
- 27. 17 Understand the “ladder of engagement” for Twitter
- 28. 18 Be inquisitive – ask questions
- 29. 19 Use direct messages with a purpose
- 30. 20
- 31. 21 Capture your tweets for your archives
- 32. 22 Ask your followers to share your message
- 33. 23 Create lists to make Twitter more manageable
- 34. 24 Follow local reporters and engage them
- 35. 25 Create a hashtag unique to your organization
- 36. 26 Measure campaign impact on Twitter
- 37. Jumpstarting… Your blogging efforts
- 38. 27
- 39. 28
- 40. 29
- 43. Jumpstarting… Your move to more podcasts
- 44. 32
- 45. 33
- 46. 34
- 47. 35
- 48. 15 tips to build an engaged community
- 49. 36
- 50. 37 Find the sweet spot between posting too much and too little
- 51. 38 Respond to comments, wall posts, tweets, mentions, questions - EVERY time
- 52. 39
- 53. 40 Integrate social media into your newsletters
- 54. 41 Link to grantees whenever possible
- 55. 42
- 56. 43
- 57. 44 Schedule SOME posts in advance to alleviate burn-out
- 58. 45 Don’t be intimidated by videos
- 59. 46
- 60. 47 Aim for one new video each month
- 61. 48 Promote older – yet still relevant! – YouTube videos
- 62. 49 Upload multimedia content once – distribute it all over
Editor's Notes
- You have to work at it. It takes practice. Daily use of these tools is essential to understanding how it works for your organization. So how does this connect to fundraising and bringing dollars into your organization?
- This the pyramid of social media engagement. Most organizations have a pretty decent amount of followers. But once you bring people from followers (they’ve opted to listen to your message) to SUPPORTERS (they’ve opted to give money to support your cause), that’s where the power lies. Also, this pyramid can be read top to bottom or bottom to top. People who are at one point organizers can get new passions and then go back to being a follower. So don’t take the folks at the top for granted. Most of these tips today are about positioning your organization to take your followers and turn them into supporters, with the end goal of moving them up to being organizers and leaders.
- The layout of today’s presentation.
- Allison Fine, co-author of The Networked Nonprofit, wrote a post about getting your CEO interested in social media: “ Without the support of senior leadership, organizations can test drive social media, but they won’t be successful in the long term. Senior leadership needs to try out the tools, engage, participate and understand the rhythms and power of social media in order to turn their organizations inside/out.” ~ Allison Fine, “One First Step for EDs” If your CEO/ED starts blogging, tweeting, organize a group of supporters (their friends, work colleagues, etc.) to respond and leave comments/retweet, etc. This will help them feel the time spent is worth it.
- Read the blogs of your favorite/most-used social networks: Twitter , Facebook , YouTube . You’ll be in the loop when new features are unveiled, and by reading the comments, you’ll get even more tips on how to make it work for your organization.
- Create and maintain an editorial calendar for your social media, blogs and podcasts. What will you post, who will you talk to. If you don’t know where to start, begin with major holidays and major organizational events: Annual meeting End of year fundraising push Board meetings Go back and add in expected launch dates of upcoming initiatives. Then work on a month-by-month basis to fill in gaps.
- Updates should ideally be posted when most people are checking their Facebook accounts. Research shows that posts are more effective during the week when people are typically checking Facebook (first thing in the morning, just before or after lunch and in the evening). Now, remember that it might vary for your audience. Test the “tweet like you eat” strategy and tweak it based on feedback from your audience.
- Keep a list of your VIPs. Notice the same few people ALWAYS comment on your posts or retweet your messages? Take note of them, and over time, ask them questions. Get them involved on a deeper level. Two ways to do this: Informally – keeping a mental record or pen and paper on who comments the most. Formally – mapping VIPs to find pockets of influence
- Practice the art of “ lethal generosity ” - the concept that the most generous members of any social media company are the most credible and influential and as such, they can devastate their competition in the marketplace. In short, the company whose representative posts the most tips, links, advice, case studies, best practices that followers find useful will always rises to the top, not just in influence but also in search results. The more outbound links you post, the more inbound links you are likely to receive.
- Still need to get upper management on board, as they are still fearful of social media? Sit them down and have them answer the question: “What is the worst possible thing that can happen if we use these tools?” Once they give an answer, brainstorm ways to fix it.
- Be a copycat. There is no rule in social media that you cannot do something that another organization is currently enjoying success in. If it works for them, try it out and see if it works for you.
- Read Beth Kanter’s blog {www.bethkanter.org}. And pick up a copy of her book, co-written with Allison Fine, The Networked Nonprofit. She is the queen of social media for nonprofits. If you do nothing else after this presentation, please add her to your daily reading. For examples of what Beth gives you…{ON THE NEXT SLIDE}
- Rethink your presentations – what do you do with them after you’ve given them? So many presentations are considered confidential information – but in the world of web 2.0, everything is more open and transparent. Check out Beth Kanter’s blog post on 9 Ways Nonprofits Can Use SlideShare, a presentation-sharing site. http://www.bethkanter.org/nine-ways-networked-nonprofits-use-slideshare
- Draft a social media policy, if you haven’t already. A site like Social Policy Generator can help you get started. http://socialpolicygenerator.com/ Elements to include: Be authentic and transparent. Use your real name and disclose your job title, if appropriate. Any ramifications for improper social media use (to be outlined in the social media policy) Who handles what your foundation
- Get the whole staff involved . One person in control of all your social media efforts is going to burn out quickly. At the staff meetings, brainstorm content together. Reach out to development – what do we want to say to donors?
- Make your Facebook posts “share-able” All-text posts may be the simplest way of reaching out to your audience. However, they lack the “pop” of multimedia content. Also, text posts lack the “share” function available with more dynamic posts, which prevents users from sharing your posts with their friends. Videos, links, photos (basically anything extra) will make a post “share-able.” There is nothing wrong all text posts – just try to mix it up to get the most mileage out of your work.
- Dig into your stats. Facebook gives Page administrators robust statistics on page usage with their “Insights” feature. You will see active users, how many people viewed your page, the gender and age breakdown of all fans over time, etc. http://www.facebook.com/help/?search=insights
- Tag other organizations (especially those with larger numbers of fans) in your status updates. That way, users who are connected to one page have the opportunity to see the other pages and connect with it as well. Now what does it mean to “tag” another organization? In Facebook, when you’re writing a status update for your organization’s page, type in the “@” symbol and then the name of the organization you want to link to. (NOTE: Make sure you are a fan of that organization first, or it won’t work) It lets the other organization know you are giving them kudos, making it much more like they will return the favor to their followers.
- Dip a toe into mobile technology. Right now, it’s still cost-prohibitive to a lot of organizations. But you can take baby steps. For example, people can become a fan (or “like”) your Facebook page by texting “fan [your page name]” to 32665. Example: If I text “fan Cleveland Foundation” to 32665, I will became a fan of the foundation.
- “ While fewer people may reach the very highest levels of engagement because of the time commitment, personal connection, or interest, those with lower engagement are important to ecosystem because they spread awareness. Recognize and appreciate people where they’re at, and work to get more people engaged as you strive to gently nudge them further up the rungs of your ladder. “ Beth Kanter , May 2010
- Ask questions (+ post a photo or link to enable sharing)! Questions should be open-ended, surrounding a hot topic in your community, or otherwise engaging.
- Two ways to contact people via twitter. A public mention of their profile (which they and everyone following you can see) and a private message, usually used to get more information about a person, like an e-mail address, to have a more substantial conversation (more than 140 characters). In my opinion, the DM is both underutilized and abused. Try this tip: If you have a list of your VIPs (see tip #5), you will know who are your biggest supporters, who are interested in the work you do. Send them a message from time to time (nothing too aggressive) saying that you appreciate their retweets or messages about your organization. Get rid of Auto-DMs on Twitter. Just don’t do it. You might think it’s polite to say “Thank you for following” to every new follower, but everyone else just thinks its spammy.
- Use Hootsuite (my personal favorite) for updating multiple social media accounts. Hootsuite now allows you to update and monitor Twitter, Facebook (both your personal and Fan page), LinkedIn, Foursquare, and MySpace. There are other social media dashboards. Check out Tweetdeck, Seesmic, and….? It has a built-in URL shortener, as well as the ability to schedule posts (more on that later). It has stats built in, PLUS it has a new partnership with Google Analytics, so you can see how your social media efforts align with website traffic.
- Capture your tweets for your archives. Easiest way to do this is through an RSS feed. Set up an RSS feed for your Twitter posts. Twitter only archives them as far back as three months and you want to hang on to what you publish, just as you archive your newsletters or annual reports.
- Sometimes it’s okay to ask people to retweet or share your messages . Keep them short and snappy and add a quick “Please RT” to the end. If you are fundraising or talking about an urgent problem, people see a RT as a quick way to help.
- Create Twitter lists – local media, local nonprofits, community foundations, etc. Instead of trying to follow the tweets of 300, 400, or even thousands of users, break it down into lists. Put all the local nonprofits in one list. Put all the community foundations in another. Local media could be yet another list. Donors could be another (if you happen to be blessed with tech-savvy supporters!) This way, you keep up with the most important tweets and prioritize how you spend your social media time.
- You might already have relationships with local reporters. You know their names – find them on Twitter. Read their tweets and engage in conversation if they mention something in your realm of experience or interest.
- First of all – what’s a hashtag? A hashtag is created by adding the pound sign to the beginning of a word on Twitter, turning it into a clickable link. Once you click you’ll be able to see all tweets associated with that word. At the foundation, we began an #advicefromgrantees hashtag. We wanted to let our grantees know that we read their grant reports thoroughly and we wanted to share what nonprofits learned in a way that would still be confidential. We are still working on how to capture that information permanently and have it available for other nonprofits to search and draw upon.
- Announced some big news on Twitter? Use TweetReach.com to search for your username, hashtag, URL or keyword and see how many people retweeted it and how many people it reached.
- For a list of nonprofit blogs: http://bethkanter.wikispaces.com/listofnonprofitblogs
- If you’re going to blog, have a take. The blog posts that tend to attract the highest number of readers and the greatest number of comments are those that express opinions. Whatever your position is on a particular issue, there will be those who agree with you and those who don’t – and many of them will want a chance to say so.
- Blog with consistency. If you’re going to undertake a blog, make sure the blogger (whether it’s you or a staff member) is committed to regular updates – at least once a week. You build readership with a consistent stream of content. The alternative – a blog in which the newest post is four months old – does little to achieve your communications goals and can be an embarrassment to your organization.
- Set the blogging ground rules early. If, for example, your CEO wants to maintain a blog, sit down with him or her before the first post to ensure everyone knows the process: Who will do the writing? Will the blogger post items online directly? Or will it go through another staff person to edit and post? Are there any topics or subjects that are out of bounds? What about comments? Should they be moderated or unmoderated?
- Step 1. Identify bloggers that might write about your organization or your initiatives. You can determine this by visiting their blog and reading back at least 20 or so posts. They will usually have categorize their posts, so at a glance you can see what they typically cover, whether its arts, city life, pop culture. Step 2. Comment. We can’t stress enough how much bloggers like comments. They especially love the first comment on a post. (Once a post gets one comment, the floodgates open.) Leave a casual comment, not overly formal, but do put your name and job title, so they can connect you with your organization. Step 3. Comment again. Most blogs have an option to subscribe to follow-up comments so you can get an e-mail if the blogger (or someone else) responds to you. Step 4. Send an e-mail. Not a pitch, but a simple e-mail. Saying they have a great blog, you loved the post on XYZ. Step 5. Now you can send a “pitch.” Not overly formal, but direct and to the point. When you send invites to the media, include bloggers on your list. Invite them to annual events (annual meeting, donor tours, etc.)
- Incorporate multimedia and links into your blog posts. Avoid text-only posts whenever you can. That can mean posting a photo or sound clip that relates to your subject. Also try to provide the reader with as many informational links as possible (being careful not to fill their screen with blue underlined link text…strike a balance.) Mashable article: http://mashable.com/2010/07/28/add-multimedia-to-blog/ Advanced energy blog – Links to give people more background on advanced energy issues Arts and culture – Photos of our Creative Fusion artists Coastal Community Foundation’s blog - http://www.ccfblog.org/ Community Foundation of Central Georgia - http://www.cfcga.org/Page.aspx?pid=333
- Don’t forget about podcasting. It’s a great opportunity to position staff members as experts in their fields, highlight grantees, and capture donor stories in a compelling way. And once you get over the initial technological hump, it’s a relatively simple process to record and post your own podcasts.
- Consider investing in a podcast starter kit. They can be had for less than $300 and include everything you’ll need to record and edit effective podcasts. Video podcast starter kits are available for under $600.
- Keep podcasts relatively short. People WILL click on podcasts, but they’re only willing to commit so much time to listening. Ten minutes is probably a good maximum, and less is even better.
- Make sure there’s a point to your podcasts. Before you record, identify the 2-3 messages you want to convey in your podcast. Then make sure the podcast is structured in such a way that those points get made and reiterated.
- You want people to listen to your podcasts, but you can’t just wait for them to get interested in what you have to say. Post it on the homepage of your website. Link to podcasts on Facebook, Twitter, etc. Put it in your newsletters (print and electronic)
- Meet one-on-one with the heavy social media users in your area, or well-connected bloggers. (Don’t scoff at entertaining bloggers. If you add up the “circulation” of a few bloggers near you, you might find that it rivals (or even surpasses!) your local newspaper. Plus, bloggers like nothing more than recognition from established organizations. ) Ask them questions about what you are doing right, and if what you’re producing would make them interested in your organization. Take notes. Center the conversation around what your organization wants to learn from them. One-on-one face time is key to building lasting relationships. Organize a meet-up (like you see pictured here) to introduce local nonprofits to each other so they can learn from each other. They will thank you for it!
- Find the sweet spot between posting too much and too little. You’ll know it when you see it. On Facebook, once a day is plenty, but on Twitter, multiple times per day works for that audience. Too infrequent and you don’t stay top of mind Too often and you irritate people. You can track unsubscribes on both Facebook and Twitter and look for any jumps that might indicate something about your posting frequency.
- Focus on interaction - it is the only thing that matters. Once people comment, they WILL check it later to see if you responded. When you do, it builds goodwill. Respond to comments and wall posts, even if you have little else to say but, “Thanks for commenting! I agree.”
- We can’t stress how much regular posting increase your numbers and drive traffic. You must have an engaged fan base before any type of fundraising can take place.
- Integrate your social media in your newsletters – but be original. You want to build links to leverage the audience you already have (captured e-mail addresses) to build the audience you want Don’t just say, “Follow us on Facebook” or “Check out our YouTube channel” – tell them why. They’ll want to watch your videos because they’ll get to hear how your scholarship funds help area students. Make sure your profiles are recently updated when your newsletter goes out. You’ll likely see a spike in views that day and the next day. Make sure the articles in your newsletters (both print and electronic) are interesting. Get twice the mileage. Post the articles on your website and push people to them through social media.
- Add local nonprofits to your “Favorite Pages” section on your Fan page. They appreciate the exposure.
- Look at their audience growth each quarter – are you in line with how much similar sized organizations are growing? If you see they are increasing by 15% each quarter, and you’re lucky to get 5% growth – what can you do differently? What are they doing to engage and grow their audience?
- On Twitter, follow your followers. If they have an interest in your organization, make sure they know you have an interest in what they’re saying.
- Schedule posts in advance if you have information you want to go out more than once. Hootsuite is a good tool for this. However, you can NOT automate social media. You must be there to respond to comments/questions/requests.
- Audiences are increasingly drawn to rough, amateur style filming. Grab a FlipCam, push record and get cracking. Producing videos for your website? Keep ‘em short . 53% of visitors stop watching after 2 minutes. In its fourth year, the DoGooder Nonprofit Video Awards looked for the best nonprofit videos of 2009. With this contest, we get to highlight important nonprofit stories and help organizations engage with the YouTube audience,” said Michael Hoffman, CEO of See3 Communications. “In addition, we are grateful to have such wonderful partners who have been trailblazing how nonprofits use technology, video, and social media.”
- Social media doesn’t stop on Saturday and Sunday. Social media users share more stories on the weekend. Schedule a few posts to go out on early Saturday morning (9 a.m.) and Sunday afternoon. Be sure to check at least once during the weekend to see if you have any retweets, replies or mentions.
- Aim for one new video a month to post to your social media networks to vary your content. At the end of the year, you’ll have at least 12 or so videos to work with an build on for the next year. Ideas: Donor events Grantee events Update from the CEO (or Donor team or program team)
- And while you’re posting new videos once a month – don’t be scared to promote older – yet still relevant! – YouTube videos. Half of YouTube’s billion-plus daily views come from videos that have been on the site for six months or longer. Don’t be afraid to push them on the front page of your website or promote them in a tweet.
- Want to save time? Check out a service like Pixelpipe: “Upload photos, video, and audio files once through the Pixelpipe Media Gateway and distribute your content across over 100+ social networks, photo/video sites, blogs, and other online services.” This will help you populate more sites with fresh content in less time.
- Mashable.com “ Founded in 2005, Mashable is the top source for news in social and digital media, technology and web culture. With more than 30 million monthly pageviews, Mashable is the most prolific news site reporting breaking web news, providing analysis of trends, reviewing new Web sites and services, and offering social media resources and guides.” It gives you insight on community building. Best social media resource on the web.
- So what’s next? What can we look forward to in 2011? More emphasis on location. Most social media sites started out as a way to say, “ What are you doing?” Now they’re also asking, “ Where are you going?” Keep an eye out for Facebook Places and what implications that might have for your organization’s Facebook page. More emphasis on apps . WIRED magazine recently had a cover story on how the future internet will be more about getting what you want versus searching for it. Think apps that you purchase and keep on your mobile device or iPad, versus Google. What does this mean for foundations and nonprofits? We shall see… http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/all/1 The power of the advocate . All about getting your supporters to spread your cause. Identifying who the influencers are, and bringing them on board, either through in-person meetings, online discussions or both.
- Trust Agents – Chris Brogan Get Found using Google, blogs, social media The Twitter Book