Carie Lewis is the Director of Emerging Media at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). She oversees HSUS's social media strategy and team. HSUS uses social media primarily on Facebook and Twitter to engage supporters, provide customer service, promote its advocacy work, and fundraise. HSUS has over 1.4 million Facebook fans and its social media growth and donations are fully funded through Facebook fundraising. HSUS measures its social media success through actions taken, new donors and names added to its file, customer service responses, growth rates, and content popularity rather than just numbers of followers.

1. [ Social Media at The Humane Society ]
Salisbury University Women in Business Week
Carie Lewis, Director of Emerging Media
@cariegrls

2. [ A Little About Me ]
• Graduated from SU in 2003
• Been at HSUS for 6 years
• Was hired to do PPC and jumped
on an opportunity
• My professional development
comes from attending and
speaking at over 100 events a
year
• Social media is not a 9-5 job
(work/life balance is a challenge)
• My field is dominated by women
in the nonprofit sector and men
in the corporate sector
• #1 challenge as a woman:
growth in an old-school org

3. [ Just a Fad? ]
“I just got a keychain and address labels in
the mail from you guys. Now that I see
you posting on Facebook and know you're
legit, I'll be sending a donation. Thanks
for the work you do.”
– Posted to our Facebook Page wall, January 2010

4. [ What We’ll Talk About ]
• HSUS’ social media architecture and
philosophy
• Social media goals and measurement
• The role of integration
• Our strategies and tactics for success

5. [ By The Numbers ]
• 1.4 million Facebook fans
• 150,000 Twitter followers
• 129% growth rate on Facebook from ’11-’12
• $500,000 raised on Facebook (lifetime at the end of 2011)
• Over 100,000 actions taken on Facebook so far in 2012
• All positions in social media have been paid for by
Facebook fundraising.
Integration and engagement are the keys to
our growth and success in social media.

6. [ How We’re Structured]
Carie Lewis
Director of Emerging Media
Ellen Pascale Sarah Butler Sarah Barnett Anne Hogan Lara Koch
Social Campaigner Online Advertising Social Communications Community Mobile Communications
Coordinator Manager Manager Manager
Online Volunteers
Emma Williams
Emerging Media Intern

7. [ How Social Media Works at HSUS ]
• The HSUS Twitter and Facebook pages are maintained by Comm
• Social media is a small part of everyone’s job, but we are the
gatekeeper
• Over 100 presences on Facebook in addition to our Fan Page
• Monthly Social Media Working Group for admins
• All Admins must sign an
admin contract
• No social media policy for
employees but hold quarterly
privacy trainings
• Read industry publications
and participate in networking
events to stay ahead

8. [ How We Use Them Differently ]
People talk about us here Where our constituents are
A customer service and For customer service and
relationship building tool relationship building but is
also our action oriented
community

9. [ How We Operate in Social Media ]
• Answer everyone who comes to us
with a legitimate question or concern
• Do not use tools to schedule or post
•Monitor every public mention of HSUS
• Facebook response time = under 2 hours,
Twitter = 30 minutes.
• Don’t delete comments unless they
violate our commenting policy
• Very selective about what we post
• Every post must provide fans some
kind of value or benefit.
• Never post more than once a day unless
there is breaking news.
• Social media is no longer an afterthought – its integrated

10. [ We are not afraid to fail or screw up! ]
We have, plenty of times.
Learn from your mistakes!
We have a crisis plan which
includes our guidelines on
deleting comments,
responding to angry fans,
etc – but to boil it down:
In a crisis we:
acknowledge,
rectify,
and move on.

11. [ Our Social Media “Philosophy” ]
By providing our fans what they want like:
• fun contests
• polls asking for their opinion
• listening to feedback on posts
• answering every question
• Show ways to make a difference
• other engagement opportunities
We believe they will feel enough of a
connection with the brand to do
what we ask such as:
• donating
• taking action
• filling out a form
• Answering a question
• RSVPing to an event

12. [ Integration Will Help People Find You ]
• Social media works in conjunction with
all of our online channels: email,
website, online advertising, and mobile.
• Every piece of content we put out is
shareable on Facebook, Twitter, and via
email.
• Our homepage has a live feed of
Facebook and Twitter
• Every page on our website has a link to our social
media presences
• We have a daily 9 minute Communications meeting
about what each channel is putting out that day.
• We maintain an editorial calendar for social media
• Website content links to related Facebook pages,
events, etc.

13. [ But Perhaps Most Importantly…]
We don’t measure success
by # of fans or followers.
“…that’s so myspace.” –C. Lewis

14. [ What Matters? ]
The Like or Follow is the beginning of the
relationship between you and a fan,
not the end.
Ask yourself:
• Do those people do what you want them to do? (tie to goals)
• How can you get them to do it? (think like a user)
• How are you making it a valuable community for both you and
your fans? (be selective and creative)
• How will you get them to come back? (engage)
You must be relevant, interesting, concise, responsive, and provide value to your fans.

15. [ Goals ]
Our goals in using social media are: advocacy, fundraising, providing
customer service, and increasing brand sentiment online by
promoting the good work of the organization.
Customer service
& engagement Interest & trust
More likely to
share our content Positive connection
to the brand
Better chance of
becoming a member
Everything we do online is tied to advocacy and fundraising – social media is no exception.

16. [ What We Measure ]
• # of actions taken
• # of donors
• Amount of donations*
• # of new names to file
• Customer service wins
• Sentiment %
• Growth rate
• Most popular content
• # mentions
*both from Facebook Causes and sourced from our website
• Notable mentions

17. [ Measuring and Showcasing the Intangibles ]
Our Weekly Social Media Mentions
Report showcases notable mentions
about our brand in social media.
Includes mentions from:
• Supporters/members/fans
• Other organizations
• Companies
• Celebrities
Sent to executives to showcase
intangible benefits from social media
as well as give them an insight of what’s
buzzing online that week related to our brand.

18. [ What’s Next? ]
We want to become a data driven organization.
Data is one of our biggest weaknesses!
• We want to use data to make decisions on how to work
smarter.
• We do a great job of providing individual customer service,
but how can we use data to take that a step further?
• We want to better use Facebook data to give us better
insight on what our fans want (LIKE.)
• We want to use data to give our fans a better experience
with our brand so that we can convert even more of them
to constituents.

19. [ Final Thought ]
“Social media is
free….
free like a
puppy.”
#SMWES // @cariegrls

20. [ What Questions Do You Have? ]
[ Thank you! ]
clewis@humanesociety.org
@cariegrls
linkedin.com/in/carielewis