The document details a social media fellowship experience within the emerging practitioners in philanthropy, highlighting effective strategies for social media engagement and community management. Key lessons include the importance of thanking followers, inviting members to join groups, and utilizing innovative tactics such as Twitter chats to foster interaction. Ultimately, the fellowship enabled personal growth in understanding social media's role in enhancing community relationships and engagement.

1. Introduction
With my social media fellowship with
Emerging Practitioners in Philanthropy, I
gained the opportunity to research, learn and
put into practice effective social media
techniques and online community
management.
Social tools used
•Twitter
•Facebook
•LinkedIn Groups
•EPIP.org site
Tools developed
Social media guide - I developed shareable
Twitter content and sample Facebook posts
for our organization’s partners.
Acknowledgments
Presentation template by: Colin Purrington
http://colinpurrington.com/tips/academic/poste
rdesign.
Lessons Learned
1.Thanking those who follow or share content on your organization’s Twitter account can encourage them to
continue. By thanking those who retweeted content or followed the national EPIP Twitter account on a regular basis
seemed to encourage further interaction with the account. Those that followed and retweeted not only continued to
share content but often marked the thank you tweet they were mentioned in as a favorite.
2. Don’t assume that your organization’s members will automatically choose to join your LinkedIn Group or like
your Facebook page. In order to meet set goals for member growth in the LinkedIn Group, I decided to send an
invite to a portion of EPIP members. This tactic seemed to increase the weekly average of those who decided to join
the group.
3. Share posted site content on your organization’s Facebook page. By providing links to content, you can meet your
members where they already are and encourage them to visit your organization’s page. In addition, share content in
the discussion area of your organization’s LinkedIn Group. This can increase readership because members can
choose to receive a daily or weekly digest email that alerts them to content availability.
4. Utilize innovative methods like Twitter chats to engage your audience. I had the opportunity to represent EPIP
during the Council on Foundations Boys and Men of Color Twitter chat. Collaborating with the Council on
Foundations and other COF affinity groups, the organizations developed questions to ignite a conversation around
programs and funding focused on boys and men of color. Not only did this highlight an important topic but it also
increased followers and retweets for the national EPIP Twitter account.
5. Social media management and online community management are different. While social media often is used for
one-way communication to draw attention to opportunities or content the organization wants members to be aware of
community management looks to develop and grow the relationship in order to make the member experience more
valuable.
Conclusion
The experience allowed me to work with a
team passionate about helping the next
generation of philanthropic professionals. The
experience also allowed me to challenge my
own assumptions about the effective use of
social media and develop new techniques to
better engage members of the Emerging
Practitioners in Philanthropy online
community.
By: Sophia Guevara
Wayne State University - Master of Public Administration
Further information
•EPIP Twitter account: @EPIPNational
•COF #BMOC chat Storify summary:
https://storify.com/cof_/bmocchat-1-29-15