Avi Kaplan, Director of Online Strategy, RadCampaign Twitter Handles: @MeshugAvi
Everyone wants their message to be the next viral sensation, but it’s harder than ever for nonprofits to break through. Don’t you need puppies and rainbows to have an impact on social media? What if your mission’s not that sexy? This session will focus on creative ways to make your cause relevant for a broader audience and a few smart strategies and tools to help you make an impact.
9. • Get creative: Think outside the box, take risks
• Stand out: What makes you unique and different?
• Be remarkable: Create share-worthy content that
people want to share with their friends
• Bring on the:
– Cute
– Beauty
– Emotion
– Funny
– Weird
Be Awesome
12. dsdf
Connect to the right people
Receptive
Just not that into you
Die-hard
Supporters
13. • Be current and relevant
• Hijack the news
• Tie-in to what’s happening
• Don’t miss your moment
• Plan ahead
Connect in the Right Context
Pick the right time
14. photo by scottrothevents Flickr
• Help people understand
events
• Share insights about how
your issue is relevant
• Give people something to
do!
• Explain your plan or
process
Examples:
• Real world crisis
• Financial crisis
• Political crisis/opportunity
Connect in the Right Context
When Disaster Strikes
15. • Where are the people you want to reach?
• Be realistic about your strengths and capacity
Connect in the Right Context
Use the right channels
16. • Why does my open-rate suck?
• The great Facebook Reach scandal
Connect in the Right Context
Use a multi-channel approach
19. • Blog Post and Press Release
• Executive Director Interviewed in
Buzzfeed
• Twitter Chat during live episode
• Connect with a new audience and share
their passion
• Show how your issue and mission are
relevant
• Add value
Preeclampsia Foundation
Downton Abbey
23. New York Public Library
#LiteraryMarchMadness
Today's #literarymarchmadness match-up
is Jack Kerouac v. Allen Ginsberg. Which
author will advance to represent the Beat
Generation? Will Kerouac be “On the
Road” with a win? Will Ginsberg “Howl”
with a victory? You decide! Place your
vote in the comments below, and the
winner will move on to the next round.
29. British Museum
World Cup
Ming: 50 years that changed
China
18 September 2014 – 5 January 2015
This major exhibition will explore a golden
age in China’s history.
Between AD 1400 and 1450, China was a
global superpower run by one family –
the Ming dynasty – who established
Beijing as the capital and built the
Forbidden City.
32. • Steal (OPC)
• Learn from what’s working and not working
Tips to Be Awesome
33. • Steal (OPC)
• Learn from what’s working and not working
Tips to Be Awesome
34. • Steal (OPC)
• Learn from what’s working and not working
• Experiment
• Take risks and learn from failure
Tips to Be Awesome
35. • Get more from your database
– Facebook Custom Audiences
– Look Alike Audiences
• Prioritize
• Think about ROI. Is it worth trying to reach this
audience?
Tips to Connect with the Right
People
36. • Get more from your database
– Facebook Custom Audiences
– Look Alike Audiences
• Prioritize
• Think about ROI. Is it worth trying to reach this
audience?
Tips to Connect with the Right
People
37. dsdf
Tips to Connect with the Right
People
Receptive
Just not that into you
Die-hard
Supporters
38. • Don’t miss your opening!
– Perfect is the enemy of done
– Find allies and resources in advance
– It’s ok to be low production value
– Who needs to approve things?
Tips to Connect in the Right Context
39. • Don’t miss your opening!
• Find the right allies
Tips to Connect in the Right Context
40. • Don’t miss your opening!
• Find the right allies
• Listen to be relevant
– Email newsletters
– RSS with Feedly or Newsblur
– Flipboard and other mobile apps on the go
– Read later with Pocket
– Trends on Twitter and Facebook
Tips to Connect in the Right Context
41. • Don’t miss your opening!
• Find the right allies
• Listen to be relevant
Tips to Connect in the Right Context
42. • Don’t miss your opening!
• Find the right allies
• Listen to be relevant
• Plan ahead
– Context calendar
– Holidays
– “Months”
– Important dates, birthdays, anniversaries of death,
#onthisday
– Recurring culturual events
Tips to Connect in the Right Context
43. • Don’t miss your opening!
• Find the right allies
• Listen to be relevant
• Plan ahead
• Optimize your timing
Tips to Connect in the Right Context
44. • Don’t miss your opening!
• Find the right allies
• Listen to be relevant
• Plan ahead
• Optimize your timing
Tips to Connect in the Right Context
Information overload
We are all email bankrupt
Does your inbox look like this?
Examples of what does break through the noise (3-4 examples on their own slides)
TV, Movies, pop cultures
Cat, Grumpy Cats,
Memes
Sports
Lists - funny stuff, nostalgia
How can the nonprofit world do this with cause related content rather than stupid fluff, or is it hopeless? Is this stooping too low?
Examples of what does break through the noise (3-4 examples on their own slides)
TV, Movies, pop cultures
Cat, Grumpy Cats,
Memes
Sports
Lists - funny stuff, nostalgia
How can the nonprofit world do this with cause related content rather than stupid fluff, or is it hopeless? Is this stooping too low?
Examples of what does break through the noise (3-4 examples on their own slides)
TV, Movies, pop cultures
Cat, Grumpy Cats,
Memes
Sports
Lists - funny stuff, nostalgia
How can the nonprofit world do this with cause related content rather than stupid fluff, or is it hopeless? Is this stooping too low?
Examples of what does break through the noise (3-4 examples on their own slides)
TV, Movies, pop cultures
Cat, Grumpy Cats,
Memes
Sports
Lists - funny stuff, nostalgia
How can the nonprofit world do this with cause related content rather than stupid fluff, or is it hopeless? Is this stooping too low?
Examples of what does break through the noise (3-4 examples on their own slides)
TV, Movies, pop cultures
Cat, Grumpy Cats,
Memes
Sports
Lists - funny stuff, nostalgia
How can the nonprofit world do this with cause related content rather than stupid fluff, or is it hopeless? Is this stooping too low?
How can the nonprofit world do this with cause related content rather than stupid fluff, or is it hopeless? Is this stooping too low?
You need to get people’s attention before you can get them to take action.
You have to be awesome to get someone’s attention
Be different, remarkable, creative, innovative, unique, share-worthy
Bring the cuteness, the beauty, the emotion, the fun and funny, the weird, the cool
Create a unique experience
But what if our cause isn’t any of these things? What do we do then?
Focus on the right people
Concentric circles (die-hardsupporters, receptive, “just not that into you”)
You’re sexy and awesome to someone.
These are your people. Who live and breathe your mission and have a personal connection. Your tribe.
Of course these people already support you.
Make it easy for them to share their passion with their friends by sharing awesome content they can share in other contexts.
These people know you are sexy already, but you still need to inspire them and keep them engaged.
Going one leve out. Thinking about broader audiences that are receptive to your cause.
They may not know about your brand or much about your mission,
but they are receptive In the right context with the right story
You just need to get their attention
Need to help them see what makes you sexy and different.
Some people are just not that into you.
Let them go.
You’ll never form a conenction with everyone.
Their values might not match with yours.
The further out you go the more time, effort, and money it takes to get people’s attention.
There’s a big distance between die-hard supporters and people who will never care – that’s your opportunity and where you should focus to grow your community.
Transition to next section: once you know the groups you are trying to reach, you have to find the right story and context to reach them—it’s not enough to be awesome, you need to find the right context to hook them (talking point)
The context you connect with people in can really help you to stand out and reach that next level of receptive people.
You need to find the right context to hook people and start a relationship.
In the right context, with the right story, any cause can be sexy.
What’s the right story and context to help you connect with a receptive audience?
Be current and relevant
Hijack the news
Tie-in to what’s happening
Don’t miss your moment
Plan ahead for what you can
When things happen in the community, in the news, and your mission and issue are relevant the community expects to hear from you.
People want to understand important events quickly and your insights can make your organization relevant and earn you the respect of new supporters if you can respond quickly.
Examples:
Real world crisis - Hurricane Sandy, water crisis in West Virginia
Financial crisis - Bernie Madoff
Political crisis/opportunity - you lose the vote, your opponent shares outrageously offensive comments about your issue by a politician on the other side
Go where the fish are.
Invest your time wisely, focus on fewer channels.
Be selective
A less noisy channel can help you get people’s attention, but only if the right people are there for you to connect with.
If you don’t have great visuals, you may get further on Twitter than on Pinterest. The cover of your whitepaper is not an interesting image for people to Pin.
A policy organization will probably get further on Twitter than on Pinterest.
Go where the fish are.
Invest your time wisely, focus on fewer channels.
Be selective
A less noisy channel can help you get people’s attention, but only if the right people are there for you to connect with.
If you don’t have great visuals, you may get further on Twitter than on Pinterest. The cover of your whitepaper is not an interesting image for people to Pin.
A policy organization will probably get further on Twitter than on Pinterest.
a. Examples of what does break through the noise (3-4 examples on their own slides)
b. How can the nonprofit world do this with cause related content rather than stupid fluff, or is it hopeless? Is this stooping too low?
News-Jacking
News-Jacking
http://blog.ucsusa.org/climate-change-game-of-thrones-559
Making Wonky Science accessible
Climate change
Snowball Earth
Ice Ages
Volcanic and impact winters
OPC - other people’s content
Crowdtangle
Learn from what’s working and not working
Metrics!
What is your community responding to?
Look for topics, styles, tone.
Learn from what’s working and not working
Metrics!
What is your community responding to?
Experiment It takes 30 mediocre campaigns and one embarrassing dud before you get a breakout success.
The stakes are lower than you think. – Be mindful, but you aren’t going to break anything!
Get permission to experiment
People
Get more from your database
Facebook Cut
ii. Prioritize which audiences are worth investing in reaching and which are not
1. The further out you go, the more time and money it takes to reach them
2. Calculate the ROI—is it worth trying to reach them?
3. Sometimes it’s a trial balloon—you don’t necessarily know what will appeal to who
People
Get more from your database
Facebook Cut
ii. Prioritize which audiences are worth investing in reaching and which are not
1. The further out you go, the more time and money it takes to reach them
2. Calculate the ROI—is it worth trying to reach them?
3. Sometimes it’s a trial balloon—you don’t necessarily know what will appeal to who
More time, effort, and money to connect the further you go from your core.
Don’t miss your opening. Get it out there!
Sometimes the right moment is right now!
If you wait too long, your idea won’t be relevant to what’s going on any more.
1) Perfect is the enemy of good
2) It’s ok to be low production value
If you need to do it yourself, use what you know.
Look at visual tools we’re going over this afternoon.
3) Find allies and production help in advance
Make friends with the designers and tech people on your staff
Start a retainer with a designer on call if you have budget for it
Give your staff notice for what you want to create. Run ideas by them and get budgets and time estimates early when you can
Kep approval requirements small if you can
Find allies and production help in advance
Make friends with the designers and tech people on your staff
Start a retainer with a designer on call if you have budget for it
Give your staff notice for what you want to create. Run ideas by them and get budgets and time estimates early when you can
Email newsletters
RSS with Feedly or Newsblur
Flipboard and other mobile apps on the go
Read later with Pocket
What’s trending?
What memes are hot?
Email newsletters
RSS with Feedly or Newsblur
Flipboard and other mobile apps on the go
Read later with Pocket
What’s trending?
What memes are hot?
Thanksgiving, Veterans Day, July 4th
Black History Month
The anniversary of an artists death if you are a museum
The anniversary of the invention of the polio vaccine
Olympics, world cup
Grammy, Tonys, Oscars
NBA Championships, March Madness
Happen every year.
Can you hear me now?
Relevance is also about timing your message
Talking to an empty room doesn’t do any good.
Be awesome for the right people in the right context